Thesis topics

Group decision-making in mountaineering

Mountaineering is a popular activity across all cultures, demographics, and expert levels. When people pursue mountaineering, they rarely do so alone, but in groups. To successfully navigate in the dynamic and hazardous environment inherent to mountains, these groups need to constantly engage in group decision-making processes. However, it is a common misconception that groups always make superior decisions compared to individuals. Instead, oftentimes groups are subject to phenomena like group think or group polarization resulting in worse group decision-making outcomes. Furthermore, group decision making is a social process and thus influenced by multiple nested levels including culture, organizations (e.g., Deutscher Alpenverein), dyads, and individuals. Unlike in other decision-making environments, wrongful decisions in mountaineering can have detrimental or even fatal outcomes. Unfortunately, so far, only little is known about the phenomenology, consequences and influences of group decision-making in mountaineering.

Research interests and guiding questions:

My main research interest is to establish the status quo of the existing knowledge on group decision making in mountaineering. Further, I aim to investigate the phenomenology, consequences and antecedents of group decision-making in mountaineering as well potential decision-making making variables at individual, dyad, group, leader, organizational and cultural levels while comparing different demographic groups and levels of expertise. 

 

Supervisor: M.Sc. Anna E. Bergauer  (anna.bergauer(at)tum.de)
Topic flexibility: Yes (with thematic relevance)
Language: English or German
Funded by Albrecht von Dewitz Stiftung 

Maltreatment in (elite) sports: communication

We all communicate on a daily basis and with everyone we meet. The way we communicate has a major influence on the way we interact with each other. This plays a particularly important role in close relationships. If these are also asymmetrical and/or hierarchical, the way we communicate can influence the entire climate of the relationship. One context to which this applies is competitive sport. I am therefore particularly interested in communication within sport systems, with a special focus on communication in the context of interpersonal violence. 

Building Habits and Coping with Stress

Coping with stress requires effective strategies that we can integrate into our daily lives (e.g., with digital apps) and become habitual over time. The following research projects center on coping with stress and building habits. Because effective coping that becomes more habitual over time has lasting effects on well-being and stress-related disease risk.

Motivation and Emotion in High-Risk-Sport

Why do some people engage in high risk sports like climbing, paragliding or surfing? Various studies have investigated the motives of athletes from different sports and have shown ambivalent results overall. However, there are only a few studies that have analyzed the incentives of high-risk sports and this project aims to close this gap. Moreover, emotion regulation, in particular dealing with anxiety, will be examined in further studies.