At the chair of “Social and Organizational Psychology of Social Work” we deal with the overarching question of how people’s memberships in social groups and their social identities (based on, for instance, ethnicity or socioeconomic status) affect their experiences and behaviors. We are interested in negative phenomena (e.g., prejudice, exclusion) and approaches to reduce them as well as in positive phenomena (e.g., helping behavior across group boundaries) and approaches to promote them in different settings of social work (e.g., in the context of counselling) and beyond (e.g., in the context of school).

We conduct both basic research in the laboratory and applied research. Our research can be grouped around the following topics:

• Intergroup prosocial behavior: This research examines the determinants of giving and receiving or seeking help across group boundaries in professional settings (e.g. social services) and non-professional settings (e.g. everyday life, volunteering). The focus is, among other things, on the role of empathy (on the part of helpers) and trust (on the part of helpers and helpees).
   
• Approaches to reducing negative intergroup processes: This research examines the effectiveness of different intervention approaches to reduce negative intergroup processes. The focus is on approaches to reduce prejudice (especially entertainment education approaches) and to overcome psychological barriers between members of privileged and disadvantaged social groups.
   
• Social context and intergroup processes: This research examines the extent to which stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination are affected by the social context which individuals are embedded in. The focus here is, among other things, on the question of whether the ethnic composition of school classes has an impact on teachers’ discriminating behavior (see project "Kontext-basierte Diskriminierung im Schulkontext: Der Einfluss der ethnischen Zusammensetzung von Schulklassen auf die Verwendung von disziplinierenden Maßnahmen durch Lehrkräfte").