Research Focuses & Research Clusters – Psychology

Research at the Faculty of Psychology is organised into four research focus areas (FSP), within or across which research clusters (FC) have been established. Research clusters increase the competitiveness and profile of research by utilising synergies across the locations of implementation in Vienna, Berlin, Linz, Ljubljana and Milan. They can be run for a limited period of time; the degree of cooperation between the staff involved, the goal-orientation and the involvement of at least two locations of implementation and/or faculties are essential.

Research focus areas, on the other hand, are characterised by their long-term stability, bundle the research activities of the entire faculty and its locations of implementation and distinguish the Faculty of Psychology from other universities through unique selling points:

Psychology and History

In this specialisation area, studies on the history of psychology and cultures of remembrance are carried out in the following sub-focus areas:

• History of psychology in a social and political context
• Cultures of remembrance, especially in post-national socialist countries and in countries of the former Soviet Union

Psychology of social, cultural and organisational dynamics

In this FSP, the psychological conditions and consequences of social, cultural and organisational dynamics are examined in the following sub-focus areas:

• Psychology of resentment formation and conspiracy thinking (FC Ressentiment & Change Potential in Europe – RECHANGE)
• Psychology of gender, sexuality and diversity, and
• Psychology of companies and international aid organisations.

Psychology of clinically special populations

This FSP is institutionally anchored in the Psychological University Outpatient Clinic, the Child Psychology Centre (Vienna) and in cooperation with the psychotherapeutic training organisation Studi Cognitivi (Milan). Research on special populations is being pursued in the following sub-focal areas:

• Bio-psycho-social aspects of rare medical or clinical-psychological diseases
• Psychology of clinical-psychological or psychological-diagnostic special populations and special developmental phases.

Psychology of sustainable and responsible coexistence

This FSP researches the relationship between humans, animals, the overall ecological context and (new) technologies and media in the following sub-foci:

• Psychology of the human/animal relationship
• Psychology of sustainability and climate justice(sustainability research cluster)
• Psychology of new media and digital technologies.

Interfaculty research cluster Covid-19 research (PDF, in German)

Research and teaching

At the Faculty of Psychology, research and teaching are inextricably linked: Student teaching is committed to the principles of research-led teaching; teaching research projects introduce students to the research specialisms and principles represented at the Faculty. All students are invited to become involved in existing interdisciplinary and international cooperation projects and to write their academic theses under the expert supervision of project staff.