Professor Wojciszke Awarded Beethoven 2 Research Grant

In the second edition of the Beethoven competition, the committee awarded the total of PLN 28.5 M to support 38 research projects conducted by Polish and German scientists. Understanding the Cognitive Representation of the “Big Two” Dimensions of Social Cognition is a collaboration of Professor Wojciszke and Professor Susanne Bruckmüller, psychologist from the University of Koblenz-Landau.

The researchers will examine how agency and communion, two fundamental dimensions of social cognition, are represented in the human mind. “This grant will allow for the continuation of the Polish-German collaboration, which I began with Professor Andrea Abele 10 years ago. Susanne Bruckmüller, a newly minted professor, is a former student of Professor Abele and she will be working with my former student Michał Parzuchowski, Ph.D.”, explained Professor Wojciszke.

Agency and communion are two main dimensions through which humans perceive themselves, other people and social groups. Agency pertains to attributes related to goal attainment, such as efficiency, intelligence and talents. Communion on the other hand relates to characteristics such as morality, kindness and helpfulness that are important for social relations in a community. Although extensive literature on these two dimensions exists, we still do not know how they are represented in the human mind. This research project aims to shine some light on the matter.

Additionally, the researchers will examine two main hypotheses: (1) communion is represented as a more homogeneous and conceptually denser construct than agency, therefore (2) perceptions related to communion are more bipolar or black and white in nature than perceptions related to agency. These hypotheses will be studied in Poland and in Germany to examine how true they are for different languages.

Bogdan Wojciszke received his M.A. degree in Psychology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. In 1978, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Gdańsk, where he subsequently worked as Director of the Institute of Psychology until 2000. He completed his post-doctoral studies (habilitacja) at the University of Warsaw in 1986 and was granted the title of Professor of Humanities, in 1993. From 2002 to 2008, he was Director of the Institute of Psychology at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). Currently, Professor Wojciszke is Deputy Dean for Research of the Sopot Faculty of Psychology at SWPS University.

Professor Wojciszke was a Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen, the Institute of Max Planck in Berlin and Nuffield College at University of Oxford. He was also a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan and the University of Halle, in Germany. He is a member-correspondent of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and member of the Executive Board of the European Association of Social Psychology.

He was Editor in Chief of Przegląd Psychologiczny [Review of Psychology], the official journal of the Polish Psychological Association. Additionally, he was Editorial Consultant and Associate Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology, Editorial Consultant for Social Psychology, a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and member of the Editorial Board of Studia Psychologiczne [Psychological Studies]. He is the most often cited Polish psychologist (over 4,000 times, h=30).

Author of psychology textbooks, such as Człowiek wśród ludzi: Zarys psychologii społecznej [Man Among People: Introduction to Social Psychology] and Psychologia społeczna [Social Psychology], used by psychology students at numerous Polish universities. Founder of the Sopot Social Cognition Lab, the major social cognition research center in Eastern Europe. In 2011, he was awarded Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Beethoven competition is organized jointly by the National Science Centre and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The competition is addressed to Polish and German scholars, working on collaborative research projects in various disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, arts and sciences.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is a self-governing organization for the promotion of science and research in Germany. It funds basic research in all branches of science and the humanities. The organization includes German research universities, non-university research institutions, scientific associations, and the Academies of Science and the Humanities.

Beethoven 2 committee received 155 applications. The team of jurors comprising representatives of the NCN and DFG selected 38 projects, comprising 15 projects in humanities, social sciences and arts and 23 projects in sciences and technical disciplines. The winning projects included applications from the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), the University of Warsaw, Jagiellonian University, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the University of Lodz, the University of Opole, and the University of Gdańsk.

The full list of the winning project is available at ncn.gov.pl.