Year: 2019
Center: Social Sciences
Supervisor: Herbert Bless
Melvin John holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Mannheim, as well as a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Bremen. During his undergraduate studies he worked as a research assistant at the Social Science Methods Centre of the University of Bremen, and at the Collaborative Research Center 884 “Political Economy of Reforms” within the team of the German Internet Panel.
In his research he aims to combine theoretical and methodological approaches from political science and psychology to research reciprocal relationships that exist between the macro and micro level of societies. For example, he is interested in how social inequalities affect individual well-being, or how inter-individual differences in behaviors and cognitions affect institutional processes.
In his master thesis he extended research on selective exposure to information from the USA, in order to analyze whether and how a selectively informed electorate affects the functioning of a democracy.