Prof. Gebauer Is Awarded a Prize for his Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Self-Concept Research

Professor Jochen E. Gebauer holds the Heisenberg Professorship of Cross-Cultural Social and Personality Psychology at the University of Mannheim, where he was previously also manager of the Emmy Noether junior research group. In his research program, he deals with the self-concept, i.e. in simple terms, with what people think and feel about themselves. Together with his team, he researches all three phenomena of self-concept: The semantics of self (e.g. “I am competent”, “I am warmhearted”), the valency of self (e.g. “I like myself”, “I can't stand myself”) and cognitive distortions of self (especially overestimation of self: “I am more helpful than the average”, even if this is not true).

Gebauer has established an innovative research program based on empirical findings of the highest methodological standards for these three phenomena of self-concept. In his research, he revises common doctrines of personality and social psychology and combines these two disciplines in a convincing way. The jury and the Executive Committee of the DGPs emphasize the brilliance and influential power of Gebauer's research program, which unfolds both within the disciplinary boundaries of his two disciplines and – thanks to the innovative conflation of personality and social psychology – also transcends the boundaries of the respective disciplines. Gebauer is awarded the Charlotte and Karl Bühler Prize.

The prize was awarded on 16 September 2020 during a virtual meeting of the German Psychological Society.

Charlotte and Karl Bühler Prize
The Charlotte and Karl Bühler Prize is awarded to promising early-stage researchers whose scientific work has reached the rank of a research program that has already influenced a field of research in psychology and possibly also shown effects on neighboring fields. The award is given to a program still in development. The prize, which is awarded once every two years, aims to honor present achievements and to provide an incentive for further outstanding work. It is endowed with 1,000 euros.

Link to the website of the German Psychological Society: https://www.dgps.de/