social psychology

What I've been studying

In my graduate curriculum at the University of Cologne (Germany's second largest Public University), I majored in Social Psychology. Prior to writing my thesis, I covered the following topics in this field:

• Behavioral finance and other psychological concepts as they relate to financial topics (debt, transition to the EURO currency, Prospect theory, investment decisions). My focus was on the role of emotions in decision-making; in particular on the paper Risk as Feelings, by Loewenstein et al..
• Evolutionary psychology. My focus was on altruism, cooperation, and the concept of biological markets.
• In a research experiment with 270 students, I investigated the roots of prosocial behavior. My focus was on moral identity traits, based on the paper The Self-Importance of Moral Identity, by Aquino and Reed II.
• Concepts involved in negotiating and strategic cooperation, such as rationality, justice sensitivity, altruistic punishment, Principal-agent theory, the fixed pie assumption, reciprocity, a game-theoretical view on trusting, and anchoring effects.
• General concepts, such as cognitive heuristics, motivation and emotions, psychology of decision making.

Methods

• Empirical research: Designed questionnaires, conducted interviews and two research experiments.
• Statistical analysis (regression analysis, cluster analysis). Used SPSS to compile and assess data.
• Wrote reports according to APA guide.