Young children who are less empathetic than their peers are more likely to be aggressive when older. This is what Malou Noten concludes in her dissertation. PhD defence on 25 November.

Patients with incurable breast cancer remember more information about their treatment if their doctor is more empathetic during consultations. These are the results of research by psychologists from Leiden University in collaboration with Nivel research institute. Publication in Patient Education and…

It is good for a judge to have some empathy with victims and offenders. But too much empathy can be harmful to the practice of the law, as PhD candidate Claudia Bouteligier has found. Literature may offer a solution. PhD defence 18 September.

Over recent years Leiden University has taken some significant steps forward in innovation in teaching and learning and in diversity. But there is still a lot to be done. These were the comments by governors, lecturers and scholars during the farewell seminar for Vice-Rector Simone Buitendijk on 27…

Patients who feel understood will recover faster. But how can doctors become more empathetic? By reading literary works, suggests emeritus Leiden Professor of Medical Psychology, Ad Kaptein. He discusses this issue in his book ‘Helende woorden – romans over ziek-zijn’ (Healing words - novels about…

Man is nature's mind-reading champion: we are better able than any other living beings to empathise with others. This comes in part from our story-telling culture, according to Max van Duijn. PhD defence 20 April.

Empathic or anxious mistakes? A neurocognitive investigation of the development of social performance monitoring in youth growing up in stressful versus non-stressful environments

Hande Taner (on the left), graduated from Leiden University College (Liberal Arts and Sciences, World Politics) now pursuing a Master’s in European Affairs at SciencesPo Paris and London School of Economics. On Monday 22 October 2018 at the OSCE/ODIHR conference on combatting discrimination, she…

The aim of this thesis was to study the link between hearing loss, language skills, and social functioning in deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children. Sufficient language skills are an essential prerequisite to develop appropriate communication skills, in order to join in conversations with others.…

Predictors of work functioning in persons with multiple sclerosis

PhD Defence

Trust and reciprocity are two important social behaviors that help adolescents to navigate their social world successfully. In their empirical article in Journal of Research on Adolescence, van de Groep, Meuwese, Zanolie, Güroğlu, and Crone describe the development of trust and reciprocity in adolescents…

What is the role of stress and stress-related hormones in emotion regulation?

How do children learn to see the world through someone else’s perspective? Max van Duijn, assistant professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), receives 24,167 euros from the Elise Mathilde Foundation and the Leiden University Fund (LUF). With this grant he will set up a…

Why do children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties with acquiring emotion regulation skills; and how is this related to their social impairments and comorbid psychopathology?

Development and validation of instruments that can measure different aspects of emotional competence in children with normal and atypical development, and in different cultures

The Forensic Family and Youth Care Studies research group conducts innovative high-quality research aiming to gain knowledge about deviant developmental trajectories of vulnerable children, adolescents, and families, about how to prevent problematic development and how to intervene when necessary.

Mathematician Stéphanie van der Pas and psychologist Sandy Overgaauw have been nominated for the New Scientist science talent competition, a prize for the most talented scientist in the Netherlands and Flanders.

Contemporary Maya Calendars

The research master's specialisation Developmental Psychology consists of five main parts: the general courses, the specialisation-specific courses, the elective courses, a research internship and a thesis.

How does having limited access to the social world affect Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) children’s emotional development? And in turn, how do impairments in emotional functioning affect social development and the development of psychopathology?

Here I propose to study the relationship between autonomic pupil-synchronisation and trust, at the behavioural and neural level, and examine a targeted set of possible contextual moderators.

Read about the current reseach projects of the Centre for Learning and Literacy across Media.

Managing a remote team calls for a different leadership style.

Last week, Professor of Law and Society Maartje van der Woude (Van Vollenhoven Institute) gave a lecture at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.

Every person on earth can read another person’s mind. Not in the way psychics or witches do, but by putting themselves in the shoes of others and considering how they perceive the world. This kind of empathy greatly facilitates communication and interaction. Max van Duijn studies this phenomenon to…

Sandy Overgaauw has been awarded a 25,000 euro grant from the LUF for her research into PTSD in Syrian refugee children in the Netherlands. The research should lead to a screening method that can be used to determine which children are at higher risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD…

Together with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and creative partner Big Orange, Laura Bertens, Sara Polak, Yra van Dijk, and Thony Visser will investigate possible uses of the voice in cultural memory.

Leiden University neuropsychologists have shown that customised intervention pays off. A new fundamental research-based approach in children who are in danger of going off the rails has delivered spectacular results.

Leiden University social scientists have shown that customised intervention pays off. A new fundamental research-based approach in children who are in danger of going off the rails has delivered spectacular results.

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The center studies the many ways in which issues of law and justice are dealt with in art and literature with a focus on liminal issues and cases. These are issues and cases where law comes to the limits of what it is capable of dealing with and art and literature explore the implications of what is…

The VIPP-SD is a short-term (preventive) intervention for caretakers of children in the age of 1 to 6 years old. The program is carried out at the family’s home and consists of 7 visits (sessions) of approximately 2 hours each. Caregivers learn to see the world through the eyes of their child. They…

Webinar | Cleveringa Dallaire critical conversation series

Max van Duijn, Assistant Professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), has been awarded a Veni grant for his research into children's empathy. The ability to empathise can be studied by telling stories. This process, known as 'Theory of Mind' or ‘mindreading’, can provide important…

Primary-school teachers who aren’t Muslim themselves but do have Muslim children in their class sometimes face dilemmas and cultural or religious differences. The ‘Islam in the Classroom’ course at the Leiden Islam Academy can help them resolve these. A new round begins on 9 September.

Girls with autism have relatively good social skills, which means that their autism is often not recognised. Autism manifests itself in girls differently from in boys. Psychologist Carolien Rieffe and colleagues from the Autism Centre and INTER-PSY (Groningen) report their findings in the Dutch Scientific…

Should the media refer to a criminal’s ethnicity? Law students held an online afternoon symposium on discrimination in the criminal justice system – and, while they were at it, society at large.

Perspectives on Terrorism 2016

‘Teaching is not merely a profession; it’s a calling.’ These were the words of Ayo Adedokun on winning the LUS Teaching Prize at the opening of the academic year on 6 September. The prize is for the best lecturer of the year.

‘Islam in de klas’ is a new course targeting primary school teachers to go online on 18 March by the Leiden Islam Academy (LIA). The online course aims to help teachers get better equipped when dealing with Islam-related dilemmas in primary classrooms.

In his PhD research in the field of public administration, Mark Reijnders looked at why people do not receive the help they need. They lose their way in the labyrinthine support system or become bogged down in bureaucracy. In public administration this is known as non-take-up of social care. PhD defence…

Music from a compostable cello, photographs and scents of fungi and a weaved tapestry. With her upcoming multimedia project Super Organism, visual artist Suzette Bousema enables people to experience the below-ground fungal network with all their senses. Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia and…

If someone around you yawns, the chances are that you too will soon yawn. In orangutans it has now been found that scratching is very contagious. This is what cognitive psychologists from Leiden discovered at Apenheul Primate Park. Publication in American Journal of Primatology.

The TRI Leiden Second Chance Project aims to promote recovery and re-integration of entrepreneurs who have recently undergone bankruptcy. The Project Team, Jan Adriaanse, Mark Dechesne and Jennifer van Kesteren, have been accepted to speak at the Personal Insolvency Conference themed ‘A Fresh Look at…

Adolescents who were more popular among their classmates in junior school are often the ones who are more inclined to share things fairly with others. During this sharing process, 'social' areas of the brain are more strongly activated than in adolescents who are less popular. This is the finding of…