Bachelor Theses

Bachelor Thesis

In our department you can write an empirical bachelor thesis or a literary thesis.

Empirical bachelor theses

Empirical bachelor theses can be written on questions in the area of ​​our current research focus. You can find a selection of our current research focuses and questions on which empirical Bachelor theses are possible here:

• Loss aversion, arousal and affect in multi-armed bandit tasks (Ludwig Danwitz)
• Active and passive decisions for and against risk in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. (Ludwig Danwitz)
• Sustainability and decisions (Ann-Katrin Hosch)

• Effect of memory performance or attention processes on success in category learning (René Schlegelmilch)

• Impact of reward levels on success in category or reward learning (René Schlegelmilch)

• Age-related changes in decision-making behavior (Bettina von Helversen)

• Serial-position effect across long-term and short-term memory (Hsuan-Yu Lin)

• Impact of long-term memory on short-term memory tasks (Hsuan-Yu Lin)

• The effect of information accessibility on decision-making strategy (Hsuan-Yu Lin)

• Effect of category presentations on generalization (Ann-Katrin Hosch)

• Learning behavior and learning success in self-regulated category learning (Ann-Katrin Hosch)

• Time perception and temporal processing (Daniel Bratzke)

• Introspection in cognitively demanding tasks (e.g., multitasking) (Daniel Bratzke)

Topics of earlier empirical bachelor theses were for example:

• The influence of narrativity on cognitive and affective empathy
• Age differences in affect-rich and affect-poor risk decisions
• The effect of anthropomorphism and reliability on emotional and cognitive trust in virtual artificial intelligence
• Does a good mood make you healthy? A quantitative study of the influence of mood on food choices
• Age differences and susceptibility to interpersonal influences in consumer star ratings
• Age differences in the influence of social risk information on decision-making behaviour
• Introspective reaction times and passage-of-time judgements in a numerical comparison task
• Nudging Away Fake News? Evidence on the Effects of Social Norm- and Social Comparison-based Nudges in Combating Fake News
• The effect of framing the responsibility of climate change on attitudes towards climate activism
• Solidary intentions to act for gender equality in the labour market by allying men and women
• The influence of reward level on performance in category learning

Literature works

Literature work can be written on topics from the field of decision research. The exact topic can be chosen in consultation with the supervisor. Own topic suggestions within the area of ​​decision research are welcome.

Possible topics:

• The influence of Internet Gaming Disorder on changes in reward-related decision-making behaviour based on the decision situation -- a systematic literature review of experimental studies
• Decision behaviour in unipolar depressed people in the Iowa Gambing Task (IGT) compared to healthy individuals
• Do smokers perceive their risk? Unrealistic optimism in smokers and the influence of moderating factors. A review study

For example, topics from earlier works were:

•   Does wearing a bicycle helmet increase risky behavior in the sense of risk compensation theory? A systematic literature review of experimental studies

• The impact of critical life events on financial risk decisions

• Age differences in learning through a preference for positive and negative information after feedback learning

• Possible mechanisms of action of anecdotal and statistical evidence on intention and attitude

• The Role of Situation Awareness in Expert Decision Making

• Delay discounting in the treatment of substance addiction

• Age differences in unrealistic optimism when driving

• Anticipated remorse for risk decisions 

If you are interested in a bachelor's thesis in the General Psychology group, please contact Bettina von Helversen. Please indicate whether you would like to write an empirical Bachelor thesis or a literary thesis and which topics you are interested in.

General information on writing and registering a bachelor's thesis can be found here: Bachelor thesis guidelines