Professorship for Personality, Mental Health, and Culture

Prof. Dr. Amber Gayle Thalmayer

We find the internationalization of psychological science to be a scientific, a moral, and a professional imperative. Therefore, our projects take place around the world especially in contexts that have been underrepresented in the study of psychology. We combine emic methods, to understand local conditions with depth and build relevant models from the ground up, and etic methods, for example translating surveys, in order to make targeted comparisons. In this way, we seek to define and distinguish better between culturally-specific versus universal aspects of the human experience and human psychology.

Our primary focus at this time is the Africa Long Life Study.