Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "A Cultural Psychological Approach to Acculturation" "Jozefien De Leersnyder" "Social and Cultural Psychology" "In the current research program, I further develop and empirically test a cultural psychological approach to acculturation. This approach centers on the notion of ‘cultural fit’ – i.e., the extent to which an individual’s pattern of psychological functioning is similar to the typical pattern of others in the socio-cultural context. I start from the cultural psychological insights that people are socially ‘wired’ to fit their socio-cultural context and that cultural fit bears positive consequences in terms of both well-being and social thriving. I then bring these insights into traditional acculturation psychology to argue that when people migrate to another socio-cultural context, not only their explicitly endorsed cultural attitudes and identities may change – as has been the focus of traditional acculturation research – but also the ways feel, think and act may change, such that immigrant minorities may come to fit their new/other socio-cultural context.I spell out four research lines to empirically test this novel theory, thereby drawing on both my expertise and previously gathered preliminary evidence in the domain of emotion. Research line 1 makes use of cross-sectional studies to map the acculturation of a wider range of psychological processes (e.g., cognition, motivation, self-concept). Research line 2 employs two large scale studies that document the complex interplay between the acculturation of explicit domains (e.g., identity) and implicit domains (e.g., cognition) across time and different social contexts. Research line 3 consists of a series of longitudinal, interactive experimental studies that investigate the socialization processes that occur in intercultural interactions, and that may account for psychological acculturation and cultural fit. A final research line cuts across all other three to address the question how acculturation – in its complex, multi-faceted and context-dependent form – is associated with minorities’ well-being and educational outcomes." "Voodoo Economics" "Jo Swinnen" "LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, Research Centre of Development Economics, Leuven" "This dissertation collects three essays that aim to contribute to the field of cultural economics. There is growing recognition among economists and policy makers that culture matters for economic development, but in many cases this trend has not resulted in a thorough understanding of the role of culture, or a proper integration of existing knowledge in policy. This is particularly true for the area of food security. The second chapter addresses this issue by reviewing existing cross-disciplinary research on the impact of culture on food security, with the aim of getting a better handle on what we (do not) know, and assessing how existing knowledge can improve policy design and implementation. For the second and third essay we narrow our focus to a particular domain within cultural economics that studies the economics of magic and the supernatural – or ‘Voodoo economics’. A growing body of anthropological, psychological, and evolutionary literature suggests that magical and supernatural belief systems have real-world implications that reach beyond traditional rural village societies and will not necessarily disappear over time. The third essay therefore aims to contribute to a better understanding of the economic effects of magical belief systems by studying the contemporary effects of traditional fishery institutions embedded in the Voodoo religion in Benin. In particular, we analyze the impact of Voodoo-related traditional fishing rules on the use of unsustainable fishing gear, and compare this effect with the impact of a more recent secular institution (fishing committees). The fourth essay looks not at economic effects, but aims to improve our understanding of how magical beliefs arise over the long run. We focus on witchcraft beliefs in sub-Saharan Africa, and investigate whether historical exposure to a heavy disease burden explains witchcraft beliefs today. Several strands of literature offer psychological and economic arguments for why a heavy disease burden could promote the emergence and persistence of witchcraft beliefs, but to date there is no large-scale empirical evidence for this hypothesis. We therefore test it for the case of sub-Saharan Africa, where witchcraft beliefs continue to hold great power today." "Beliefs and practices of prospective history teachers on the relationship between past and present in history education." "Kaat Wils" "Cultural History since 1750, Leuven, Early Modern History (15th-18th Centuries), Leuven, Instructional Psychology and Technology" "Contemporary Western European societies hold differing and partially conflicting expectations towards history education. History education is considered as an autonomous introduction into culture, as a contribution to the formation of critical and democratic cosmopolitans and as an introduction into the scientific discipline of history. Behind these views there are not only differring expectations towards the education in general, but also different ideas about the relationship between past and present. In this project, the central question is how prospective teachers in Flanders deal with the conflicting expectations considering the position of past and present as formulated in the normative texts (curriculum and attainment targets). This research consists of the development, optimization and scientific valorisation of two assessment tools, a questionnaire and a set of performance tasks. Answers will be sought on questions like: what impact has the present on the ideas of prospective history teachers on good history education? Is there a coherence between their ideas and their (novice) practices? Are there differences between students in a professional education bachelor and students from an academic teacher training?" "Students, history teachers and the national past. Research into students' and history teachers' representation of and beliefs about the national past: an exploration regarding context, methodology and strategy." "Karel Van Nieuwenhuyse" "History Research Unit, Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Instructional Psychology and Technology, Cultural History since 1750, Leuven" "Shared knowledge of the past is considered to be important by Western governments since early 19th century. That shared knowledge is meant to serve citizenship and social cohesion (national unity through national identity). History education is thereby considered as an important vehicle. This research project has three main aims: 1) Content-related aim: what are the reference knowledge, basic narratives and beliefs on national history among students and history teachers? 2) Methodological aim: exploration of different approaches in data gathering (essay assignments, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews) and data processing (grounded theory approach with the help of QSR NVivo) 3) Strategic aim: gain know-how with a view to (participation in) international comparative research project applications. Participants in the study are ca 130 undergraduate students (first academic bachelors in history) and 20 history teachers." "End of term tests in history as an access to the study of teaching practices. A methodological survey and two case studies." "Kaat Wils" "Cultural History since 1750, Leuven, History Research Unit, Leuven, Instructional Psychology and Technology" "This research project pursues two objectives. It wants to collect written 11th and 12th grade end of term tests in history in a systematic way, and make these available for further educational research by the Specific Teacher Training in History K.U.Leuven in collaboration with other partners (e.g. Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology, K.U. Leuven). Up to now, written end of term tests are practically never used as a starting point for historical-didactic research into existing teaching practices.This project uses the data as a new approach to study the tension experienced by history teachers between the focus on the present and the focus on historical thinking. Ongoing research - through questionnaires and a set of behavioral tasks linked with in-depth interviews - probed for (epistemological and other) beliefs of student teachers in this matter. Now the other side of the spectrum is investigated. It is not beliefs that are probed, but the concrete teaching practice, through analysis of end of term tests, effectively used in Flemish history education. To what extent and in what way the present (whether in relation to the past, or autonomous, etc.) is covered in these end of term tests, forms the central theme of this research." "The development, maintenance, and change of attachment relationships in adolescence in Taiwan" "Guy Bosmans" "Clinical Psychology" "Adolescence in particular is a crucial time to repair old attachment styles with main caregivers and form new attachment relationships with peers (He et al, 2018; Kobak et al, 2014 ). Physiological maturity, development of conceptual abilities, hoping to be independent, and looking for peer groups mark adolescents’ transitions from passive receivers to initiating new relationships with others. From these relationships potential new attachment representations could be formed. Unlike infancy or childhood, adolescents own more control over their relationships with main caregivers as this is an important stage of their life to develop autonomy. Whether the same can be said for the parent–adolescent attachment style is an object of ongoing research and potentially a fertile area to explore. Attachment happens in relationships. Not only are adolescents able to initiate new attachment orientations, they are able to interact in their existing relationships in a new way. By bringing awareness to their existing relationships, the dyads have the possibility to learn to improve their relationship quality, re-gain trust, co-construct their emotion communication, and utilize effective interventions to foster change. Based on this background I propose three main research areas focusing on a little studied population, the Taiwanese population, which bears similarities to Western populations in being a democratic nation, but has important cultural and family-dynamic differences that may influence attachment styles and related characteristics." "Scientific support fund: Universal Compassion and Prosociality: An Interdisciplinary Project on the Variation and Cultivation of Universal Compassion and Its Relationship to Social Emotions, Prejudice and Prosocial Behavior in Youth (VOPPU95)" "Filip Van Droogenbroeck" "Business technology and Operations" "All human societies throughout history face the fundamental challenge to develop cooperative social relationships within groups and, especially in increasingly diverse societies, between groups. Scientific research on meditation- and mindfulness-based mental training interventions has grown and has shown positive effects on both well-being and prosocial behavior. However, little research exists that investigated (1) adolescents, (2) cultural differences, and (3) in- and -outgroup relations. Therefore, this project assesses the particularities, cultivation, and consequences of universal compassion among young people from diverse backgrounds. Adolescence is a phase in life that marks the transition between childhood and adulthood and is a crucial developmental stage for adolescents' identity and societal attitudes. This project seeks to answer three interrelated research questions. First, what is the social profile of people who hold compassionate attitudes for generic others? Second, does a Compassion Training adapted to the context of superdiverse secondary education schools have an impact (assessed with a pre/post/follow-up design) on compassion, social connectedness and competencies, anti-compassion (e.g., prejudice), and prosocial behavior? Third, which neurological and sociopsychological mechanisms underlie these effects?"