Rainer K. Silbereisen - Curriculum Vitae#

Long CV with List of publications(May 14, 2014)

Rainer K. Silbereisen is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Jena (Germany), Director of the Center for Applied Developmental Science, former Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University (USA). Prior to his current duties he held faculty positions as Professor at the Technical University of Berlin, the University of Giessen (Germany) and the Pennsylvania State University (USA). He was Chair of the Board of a large government-funded, non-profit company offering infrastructural services for the social sciences in Germany (Gesis). He is member of the Board of Governors of the University of Haifa (Israel).

His main research interests concern human development across the life-span, particularly adolescence and adulthood. The theoretical framework focuses on dynamic interactionism, stressing the combined role of biological, psychological, and socio-cultural determinants of human development. For many years, longitudinal studies have been conducted on substantive topics such as problem behaviors in adolescence, effects of early adversities on the timing of psychosocial transitions, the impact of social change on development, acculturation among immigrants, psychological aspects of entrepreneurship, and biobehavioral aspects of adolescent development. Many of these studies were designed in an explicit cross-national and cross-cultural format, and consequently he has been enjoying many international collaborations. The application for prevention of maladjustment and promotion of positive development is part of the research program, including its relevance for social policies.

The recent research program has been dominated by large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal studies on the comparison of adolescent and adult development before and after political unification in Germany and similar political transformations in other countries. The impact of social change is conceptualized through the new demands individuals and their contexts are confronted with, and the outcomes are seen as a product of attempts to regulate the hampered balance between available resources and age-typic goals individuals want to pursue. A large range of psychosocial consequences are research targets, from changes in life-course transitions to mental health and civic engagement.

This research has been funded continuously by numerous national and international foundations (e. g., German National Science Foundation, W. T. Grant Foundation, Jacobs Foundation), many state and federal governmental agencies, and private companies. He is a member of a large-scale research consortia (funded by the German National Science Foundation) on the social and political transformations in Germany, and also chairs a large international research network on acculturation of immigrants, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, with research sites in Germany and Israel.

His publication list entails more than 20 edited books and about 270 scholarly papers.

He is currently Editor of the European Psychologists and Associate Editor of the American Psychologist, and was Editor of the International Journal of Behavioral Development and Co-Editor of Developmental Psychopathology. He was for many years Co-Chair of the review board for psychology of the German National Science Foundation and has been involved in regular review and consulting activities for numerous scientific journals, foundations, and government bodies worldwide.

He is Past-President of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD) and was Member of the Executive Council of the European Federation of Psychologists Associations (EFPA). He was President of the German Psychological Society and the Federation of German Psychological Associations. In addition, he held officer and committee positions at various international learned societies (eg, Society for Research on Adolescence, Society for Research in Child Development). Currently he is President of the International Union of Pychological Science (IUPsyS), the umbrella organization of over 70 national psychological associations.

His scientific work was honored by membership of the European Academy of Sciences (Academia Europaea, London), and of the Akademie gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften, Erfurt (Germany). For sustained outstanding contribution to the science of psychology, he was elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the American Psychological Association (APA).

The strong commitment to the promotion of young scientists is manifested in various activities. With the support of the Jacobs Foundation, for more than a decade he was active in providing research grants to young scholars in Third World and Eastern European countries. He is also Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate School on Human Behaviour in Social and Economic Change (GSBC), and of the International Post-doctoral Fellowship Program on Productive Youth Developmen (PATHWAYS).