Clemens M Lechner
Biographic Data
| ID | 162103 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Clemens M Lechner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Clemens M |
| FAMILY NAME | Lechner |
| SIGNATURE | LECHNER C M |
| AFFILIATIONS | GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
AI Psychometrics: Assessing the Psychological Profiles of Large Language Models Through Psychometric Inventories
We illustrate how standard psychometric inventories originally designed for assessing noncognitive human traits can be repurposed as diagnostic tools to evaluate analogous traits in large language models (LLMs). We start from the assumption that LLMs, inadvertently yet inevitably, acquire psychological traits (metaphorically speaking) from the vast text corpora on which they are trained. Such corpora contain sediments of the personalities, values…
Fixed is not the opposite of growth: Item keying matters for measuring mindsets
Research on growth mindset, the belief that one’s cognitive abilities are malleable and can be developed through dedication and practice, has received considerable media attention and influenced educational policy and practice. However, mindset theory and measurement have also drawn criticism. In the present paper, we add a cautionary note pertaining to the conceptualization and measurement of growth mindset. Through a critical reanalysis of a la…
Personality Change Through Arts Education: A Review and Call for Further Research
Education involving active engagement in the arts, herein called arts education, is often believed to foster the development of desirable personality traits and skills in children and adolescents. Yet the impact of arts education on personality development has rarely been systematically investigated. In the current article, we reviewed the literature on personality change through arts education. We identified 36 suitable experimental and quasi-ex…
Are Girls More Ambitious Than Boys? Vocational Interests Partly Explain Gender Differences in Occupational Aspirations
Previous research suggests that girls have higher occupational aspirations than boys before entering the labor market. We investigate whether this gender gap in occupational aspirations generalizes to secondary school students in Germany and illuminate the possible mechanisms behind these purported gender differences. For this purpose, we used a large and representative sample of ninth graders ( N = 10,743) from the German National Educational Pa…
Proficiency level descriptors for low reading proficiency: An integrative process model
Low literacy among adolescents and adults worldwide remains a serious problem, even in economically developed countries. The consequences of low reading proficiency levels can be harmful in many ways for both the individuals concerned and their communities in terms of health, political, social and economic outcomes. While large-scale international assessments do assess reading proficiency, the data they provide for the bottom end of the scale are…
Changes in Young Europeans’ Values During the Global Financial Crisis
We investigate the impact of the global financial crisis (GFC) on the personal values of youth and young adults (age 16–35 years) from 16 European countries. Using time series cross-sectional data from seven waves (2002–2014) of the European Social Survey, we examined (1) whether the GFC led to value shifts between cohorts of young people and (2) whether welfare state provision moderate the expected value shifts. Multilevel analyses showed that, …
A cross-national perspective on the associations of grit with career success
This paper presents one of the first cross-nationally comparative studies on the economic and social returns to grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals). Specifically, we investigated whether grit incrementally predicted objective (income) and subjective (job satisfaction) career success over and above cognitive skills and educational attainment; whether grit’s association with career success was moderated by individual characteristics…
Social Comparison in Coping With Occupational Uncertainty: Self‐Improvement, Self‐Enhancement, and the Regional Context
OBJECTIVE: Taking into account the regional context, we investigated whether social comparison in coping with occupational uncertainty served self-improvement (i.e., adaptive coping) or self-enhancement (i.e., subjective well-being). METHOD: Respondents were 620 German adults aged 16 to 43, 59% female, who participated in three yearly follow-ups of a larger survey. The number of observations was 1,309 for contemporaneous and 1,079 for longitudina…
Unpacking the link between family socioeconomic status and civic engagement during the transition to adulthood: Do work values play a role
We investigated whether the link between family-of-origin socioeconomic status (SES) and civic engagement in young adulthood is mediated by youth’s work values, that is, the desired characteristics of their current or future jobs. We used data from a Finnish study: 2004 (age 16–18, NT1 = 1,301); 2011 (age 23–25, NT2 = 1,096); and 2014 (age 25–27, NT3 = 1,138). A higher family SES in 2004 predicted youth’s higher civic engagement in 2014. A higher…
Who Reaps the Benefits of Social Change? Exploration and Its Socioecological Boundaries
We investigated the interplay between the personality trait exploration and objective socioecological conditions in shaping individual differences in the experience of two individual‐level benefits of current social change: new lifestyle options, which arise from the societal trend toward individualization, and new learning opportunities, which accrue from the societal trend toward lifelong learning. We hypothesized that people with higher trait …
Do Immigrants Suffer More From Job Loss? Unemployment and Subjective Well-being in Germany
This study asks whether immigrants suffer more from unemployment than German natives. Differences between these groups in pre-unemployment characteristics, the type of the transition into unemployment, and the consequences of this transition suggest that factors intensifying the negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being are more concentrated in immigrants than in natives. Based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Pa…
Religious Attendance Buffers the Impact of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: Longitudinal Evidence from Germany
This research used longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine whether religious attendance buffers the impact of unemployment on life satisfaction. Fixed effects models following 5,446 individuals up to three years after the transition to unemployment yielded two central findings. First, higher frequency of religious attendance was associated with smaller drops in life satisfaction. Second, only those who atten…
Parents' Death and Adult Well-being: Gender, Age, and Adaptation to Filial Bereavement
The authors investigated how filial bereavement affects the subjective well-being of adult children. They used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study to examine temporal profiles of life satisfaction in 2,760 adult children ages 17-70 who moved through the stages of anticipation of, reaction to, and adaptation to a parent's death. Fixed effects models covering up to 11 yearly measurements per respondent revealed that the negative effects…
Exploring the stress-buffering effects of religiousness in relation to social and economic change: Evidence from Poland
Religiousness has been found to act as a protective factor against the adverse effects of stressors originating from a variety of sources.Despite ample precedent in sociological theories of religion, however, the potential stress-buffering role of religiousness in relation to stressors arising from macro-level societal trends has not received empirical scrutiny.Recent psychological conceptualizations of social and economic change suggest that suc…
Religiosity Reduces Family-Related Uncertainties but Exacerbates Their Association with Distress
The present study investigated the role of religiosity in dealing with family-related uncertainties (e.g., uncertainty concerning fertility decisions or the stability of family relationships) that arise from current social change in industrialized nations. We hypothesized that religiosity, because it is a central source of family values and norms, reduces individuals' perceived load of family-related uncertainties. At the same time, because perce…
Parents' Death and Adult Well-being: Gender, Age, and Adaptation to Filial Bereavement
The authors investigated how filial bereavement affects the subjective well-being of adult children. They used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study to examine temporal profiles of life satisfaction in 2,760 adult children ages 17-70 who moved through the stages of anticipation of, reaction to, and adaptation to a parent's death. Fixed effects models covering up to 11 yearly measurements per respondent revealed that the negative effects…
Religious Attendance Buffers the Impact of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: Longitudinal Evidence from Germany
This research used longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine whether religious attendance buffers the impact of unemployment on life satisfaction. Fixed effects models following 5,446 individuals up to three years after the transition to unemployment yielded two central findings. First, higher frequency of religious attendance was associated with smaller drops in life satisfaction. Second, only those who atten…
Do Immigrants Suffer More From Job Loss? Unemployment and Subjective Well-being in Germany
This study asks whether immigrants suffer more from unemployment than German natives. Differences between these groups in pre-unemployment characteristics, the type of the transition into unemployment, and the consequences of this transition suggest that factors intensifying the negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being are more concentrated in immigrants than in natives. Based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Pa…
A cross-national perspective on the associations of grit with career success
This paper presents one of the first cross-nationally comparative studies on the economic and social returns to grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals). Specifically, we investigated whether grit incrementally predicted objective (income) and subjective (job satisfaction) career success over and above cognitive skills and educational attainment; whether grit’s association with career success was moderated by individual characteristics…
Religiosity Reduces Family-Related Uncertainties but Exacerbates Their Association with Distress
The present study investigated the role of religiosity in dealing with family-related uncertainties (e.g., uncertainty concerning fertility decisions or the stability of family relationships) that arise from current social change in industrialized nations. We hypothesized that religiosity, because it is a central source of family values and norms, reduces individuals' perceived load of family-related uncertainties. At the same time, because perce…
Exploring the stress-buffering effects of religiousness in relation to social and economic change: Evidence from Poland
Religiousness has been found to act as a protective factor against the adverse effects of stressors originating from a variety of sources.Despite ample precedent in sociological theories of religion, however, the potential stress-buffering role of religiousness in relation to stressors arising from macro-level societal trends has not received empirical scrutiny.Recent psychological conceptualizations of social and economic change suggest that suc…
Religiosity Reduces Family-Related Uncertainties but Exacerbates Their Association with Distress
The present study investigated the role of religiosity in dealing with family-related uncertainties (e.g., uncertainty concerning fertility decisions or the stability of family relationships) that arise from current social change in industrialized nations. We hypothesized that religiosity, because it is a central source of family values and norms, reduces individuals' perceived load of family-related uncertainties. At the same time, because perce…
Religious Attendance Buffers the Impact of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: Longitudinal Evidence from Germany
This research used longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine whether religious attendance buffers the impact of unemployment on life satisfaction. Fixed effects models following 5,446 individuals up to three years after the transition to unemployment yielded two central findings. First, higher frequency of religious attendance was associated with smaller drops in life satisfaction. Second, only those who atten…
Parents' Death and Adult Well-being: Gender, Age, and Adaptation to Filial Bereavement
The authors investigated how filial bereavement affects the subjective well-being of adult children. They used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study to examine temporal profiles of life satisfaction in 2,760 adult children ages 17-70 who moved through the stages of anticipation of, reaction to, and adaptation to a parent's death. Fixed effects models covering up to 11 yearly measurements per respondent revealed that the negative effects…
Who Reaps the Benefits of Social Change? Exploration and Its Socioecological Boundaries
We investigated the interplay between the personality trait exploration and objective socioecological conditions in shaping individual differences in the experience of two individual‐level benefits of current social change: new lifestyle options, which arise from the societal trend toward individualization, and new learning opportunities, which accrue from the societal trend toward lifelong learning. We hypothesized that people with higher trait …
Do Immigrants Suffer More From Job Loss? Unemployment and Subjective Well-being in Germany
This study asks whether immigrants suffer more from unemployment than German natives. Differences between these groups in pre-unemployment characteristics, the type of the transition into unemployment, and the consequences of this transition suggest that factors intensifying the negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being are more concentrated in immigrants than in natives. Based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Pa…
Social Comparison in Coping With Occupational Uncertainty: Self‐Improvement, Self‐Enhancement, and the Regional Context
OBJECTIVE: Taking into account the regional context, we investigated whether social comparison in coping with occupational uncertainty served self-improvement (i.e., adaptive coping) or self-enhancement (i.e., subjective well-being). METHOD: Respondents were 620 German adults aged 16 to 43, 59% female, who participated in three yearly follow-ups of a larger survey. The number of observations was 1,309 for contemporaneous and 1,079 for longitudina…
Unpacking the link between family socioeconomic status and civic engagement during the transition to adulthood: Do work values play a role
We investigated whether the link between family-of-origin socioeconomic status (SES) and civic engagement in young adulthood is mediated by youth’s work values, that is, the desired characteristics of their current or future jobs. We used data from a Finnish study: 2004 (age 16–18, NT1 = 1,301); 2011 (age 23–25, NT2 = 1,096); and 2014 (age 25–27, NT3 = 1,138). A higher family SES in 2004 predicted youth’s higher civic engagement in 2014. A higher…
Changes in Young Europeans’ Values During the Global Financial Crisis
We investigate the impact of the global financial crisis (GFC) on the personal values of youth and young adults (age 16–35 years) from 16 European countries. Using time series cross-sectional data from seven waves (2002–2014) of the European Social Survey, we examined (1) whether the GFC led to value shifts between cohorts of young people and (2) whether welfare state provision moderate the expected value shifts. Multilevel analyses showed that, …
A cross-national perspective on the associations of grit with career success
This paper presents one of the first cross-nationally comparative studies on the economic and social returns to grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals). Specifically, we investigated whether grit incrementally predicted objective (income) and subjective (job satisfaction) career success over and above cognitive skills and educational attainment; whether grit’s association with career success was moderated by individual characteristics…
Proficiency level descriptors for low reading proficiency: An integrative process model
Low literacy among adolescents and adults worldwide remains a serious problem, even in economically developed countries. The consequences of low reading proficiency levels can be harmful in many ways for both the individuals concerned and their communities in terms of health, political, social and economic outcomes. While large-scale international assessments do assess reading proficiency, the data they provide for the bottom end of the scale are…
Personality Change Through Arts Education: A Review and Call for Further Research
Education involving active engagement in the arts, herein called arts education, is often believed to foster the development of desirable personality traits and skills in children and adolescents. Yet the impact of arts education on personality development has rarely been systematically investigated. In the current article, we reviewed the literature on personality change through arts education. We identified 36 suitable experimental and quasi-ex…
Are Girls More Ambitious Than Boys? Vocational Interests Partly Explain Gender Differences in Occupational Aspirations
Previous research suggests that girls have higher occupational aspirations than boys before entering the labor market. We investigate whether this gender gap in occupational aspirations generalizes to secondary school students in Germany and illuminate the possible mechanisms behind these purported gender differences. For this purpose, we used a large and representative sample of ninth graders ( N = 10,743) from the German National Educational Pa…
Fixed is not the opposite of growth: Item keying matters for measuring mindsets
Research on growth mindset, the belief that one’s cognitive abilities are malleable and can be developed through dedication and practice, has received considerable media attention and influenced educational policy and practice. However, mindset theory and measurement have also drawn criticism. In the present paper, we add a cautionary note pertaining to the conceptualization and measurement of growth mindset. Through a critical reanalysis of a la…
AI Psychometrics: Assessing the Psychological Profiles of Large Language Models Through Psychometric Inventories
We illustrate how standard psychometric inventories originally designed for assessing noncognitive human traits can be repurposed as diagnostic tools to evaluate analogous traits in large language models (LLMs). We start from the assumption that LLMs, inadvertently yet inevitably, acquire psychological traits (metaphorically speaking) from the vast text corpora on which they are trained. Such corpora contain sediments of the personalities, values…
Psychology (15 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Demographic economics (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Demography (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Unemployment (4 works)