This project has two main aims: I. Determine when novelty promotes fear extinction. II. Discover the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these effects.

Social evaluative fears during adolescence

Peer-mentored cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescents with mild intellectual disability and anxiety disorder

Wijayanto defended his thesis on 17 January 2019

In what ways and to what ends did Parisian buildings overwhelm the early modern public? This study is concerned with the experience of the sublime in architecture in seventeenth-century Paris.

Everyone benefits when cooperation runs smoothly However, people often act obstructively. Why do they do that? Professor of Social Psychology Carsten de Dreu researches this issue using a wide variety of methods, from brain scans to the role of religion. Inaugural lecture 7 October.

From the research Terrorist threat in the Netherlands, the risk perception and opportunities for risk communication (Leiden University) shows that the Dutch respond relatively sober to attacks in neighboring countries and the possible risks of a terrorist threat. Half of the respondents believe that…

To what extent are there differences between countries in and outside the European Union and the Schengen area in the level of crimmigration, the merger between migration control and crime control, and to what extent can these differences be explained by the way in which state and non-state actors in…

As a psychologist and pilot, Bert Busscher is interested in the phenomenon often termed as fear of flying. Busscher discovered that the heart rate of a person undergoing a therapeutic flight shows how much they still suffer from fear of flying. The post-flight heart rate can even predict whether the…

Prof. dr. Frank den Hollander, professor at the Mathematical Intitute, has expressed his concerns about the departure abroad of Dutch academic talents in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant.

We’re susceptible not only to viruses, but also to fear of viruses. What are the psychological principles at work here? Social and organisational psychologist Gert Jan Lelieveld on the Corona virus at the Dutch news website NRC. Read his 'behavior column' in English.

Fishermen in the United Kingdom recently protested about the adverse effects of Brexit on their trade. It would be naive to think that covert feelings of being under threat do not exist among the Dutch population. Citizens who feel threatened become defensive, a situation that could lead to a Nexit.

There is something strange about all the comments relating to the Jihadist-movies that flood across the social media.

Negative perceptions of ambiguous social cues, social performance and physical arousal in socially anxious youth

Terrorism only poses a small risk to people but tends to be a major source of public fear. Through fear, terrorism has far-reaching implications for public governance.

Terrorist attacks are not an end in themselves, but a means of creating unrest and fear. Terrorism policies and research should focus more on managing fear and social unrest.

What are the developmental pathways to social anxiety (disorder), the causal processes and maintaining factors? How do these factors interact in the development of social anxiety disorder? How can this knowledge be used to design and implement effective preventive intervention programs for youth?

Parents may pass anxiety onto their offspring by exposing them to anxious behaviors in novel situations. Just as the parents’ anxious signals lead to anxiety, parents’ confident signals can ward off anxiety in the offspring. This project is seeking a new way to break anxiety transmission in the family…

A cautious response to a crisis or terrorist act avoids the creation of a culture of fear. This is another way to reduce our vulnerability to terrorism.

One of the most crucial aspects of our behaviour is our motivation to explore novel environments and interact with new people. This became painfully clear during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when many people suffered from lack of new experiences and real-life social interactions. The relevance of novelty…

PhD Defence

In August 2006 a young American called Raed Jarrar discovered Arabic’s potency. Detained by four guards at New York’s Kennedy Airport for wearing a T-shirt with “We will not be silent” on it in Arabic, he was told that he may as well be entering a bank with a T-shirt announcing “I am a robber.”

Welcome to the Social Anxiety and Specific Phobia (SASP) Research Group!

Although exposure therapy is the gold-standard treatment of posttraumatic stress-disorder (PTSD), only half of the patients adequately benefit from it. Based on recent insights into the mechanisms of extinction, this project examines strategies and techniques to improve exposure treatment outcome in…

Is blended care a feasible and effective treatment method for social anxiety in adolescence?

To make the right clinical decisions or develop effective diagnostic tests and treatments, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms of a condition or behavior.

When and how does social anxiety develop? How can it go astray in some adolescents? How can we help troubled young people to attend school regularly and return to a normal developmental pathway?

This project analyzes to what extent hodegetical textbooks relied on each other in warning their readers against vicious habits, how much continuity their catalogs of vice displayed, and to what extent vices that persisted throughout the 18th and 19th centuries were associated with easy-to-remember…

Masterclass

Lecture, Contemporary History and International Relations Research Seminar

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

Promotores: Prof.dr. G.F.A Kersten, Prof dr. J.A. Bouwstra

From basic science to real-world interventions

La radicalisation est devenue un mot désignant notre monde en couleurs négatives. Ce livre cherche à comprendre ce que c'est que la radicalisation au Sahel et aux Pays-Bas?

Where did the new generation of antislavery activists get their inspiration to organize in large-scale pressure groups?

Can excessive worrying be reduced via stimulation of the vagus nerve?

The precise psychobiological mechanisms leading to chronic physiological stress responses have not been sufficiently explained, although stress is a major risk factor for disease and early death. A problem for conventional stress theory is that most of these responses seem to occur in situations without…

The more we learn about a (neuro-)psychological or physical disorder and the related behavioral factors, the better we can not only identify them, but also treat them. It is therefore important that recent insights about (neuro-)psychological problems and related behavioral factors are incorporated…

At the annual meeting of the postgraduate school for Experimental Psychopathology (April 6th), Andreas Burger was awarded the article prize for best academic paper of 2017.

Facts, Fears and the Future of Islamic Rules on Family Relation in the West

Toward optimal measurement and greater understanding of youth cognition in school refusal and cognitive behavioural therapy outcome

Circulating in Brazil's social media today are many vicious attacks against presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known simply as Lula. Widely and enthusiastically shared memes humiliate Lula by depicting him as a poor, uneducated drunkard who deserves to be in jail, thus criminalizing his…

Subjects Barbarian, Monstrous, and Wild responds to a contemporary political climate in which historically invested figures of otherness—barbarians, savages, monsters—have become common discursive currency.