Research areas
- Psychopathological consequences of terrorist attacks and their treatment: Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive disorders and anxiety disorders in victims of terrorism, their treatment by cognitive-behavioral therapy programs, and role of cognitive factors in the vulnerability to those disorders.
- Factorial models and structure of personality: Theoretical developments and assessment of the five-factor model or Big Five model in the study of personality structure.
- Psychopathy and personality: To identify the defining or core personality traits of psychopathy, to analyze the relationship of psychopathy to the Big Five model, to examine the prevalence of psychopathy in the general population, and to analyze the relationship of psychopathy to different factors such as, for example, gender or type of profession.
- Essential hypertension: Assessment of essential hypertension by blood pressure measures taken out of the clinic, treatment of essential hypertension with cognitive-behavioral interventions, and the role of stress, negative emotions and personality in the development, maintenance and control of essential hypertension with stress.
- Assessment of depression and anxiety: Assessment of depression and anxiety by questionnaires and experimental tasks based on the information processing paradigm. Analysis of the psychometric relationships between depression and anxiety. Screening and diagnosis of depressive and anxiety disorders by questionnaires.
- Personality assessment: Assessment by subjective instruments (e. g., Kelly's grid technique or "RepGrid"), questionnaires and experimental tasks based on the information processing paradigm. Prediction and assessment of personality by observers. Elaboration of psychological reports and the "Barnum" effect.
- Cognitive factors in depression: The role of cognitive schemas, propositions, operations and products in the vulnerability, onset, maintenance and exacerbation/reduction of depression.
- Personality and depression: The role of personality factors in the vulnerability for depression, and its relationship with cognitive factors.