Doktorand*in oder Postdoc (75 bzw. 100% TV-L 13) Entwicklungspsychologie

The project:

We want to study psychological developmental milestones across cultural settings. This includes cognitive (e.g. “understanding the concept of counting”), social (e.g. “interacting with other children during play”), linguistic (e.g. “combining at least two words”) and physical (e.g. “crawling”) milestones. The candidate will work on the development of a new milestones checklist as well as novel instruments to assess caregivers’ foci and expectations, thus combining etic and emic approaches in the study of child development. Postdocs will be expected to independently lead the development of the instruments and analyze the data; PhD-level candidates will receive more supervision and guidance. These instruments will be jointly developed and validated in Germany and Namibia before applying them in diverse cultural settings all around the world. There is also the possibility to get involved in a similar project on developmental milestones in great apes.

The team:

This is a collaborative project between the Department of Developmental Psychology (Prof. Dr. Manuel Bohn) at Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Dr. Roman Stengelin). A close collaboration with partners from the University of Namibia is planned.

The position:

The position is flexible and can either be filled with a Postdoc or a PhD student. For PhD students, the salary will be 75%, for Postdocs 100% EG13 TV-L. The position is fixed term for 3 years. An extension is planned but depends on securing additional funds. The starting date is flexible but not (much) later than April 1st, 2026.

The position will be based at Leuphana and the candidate is expected to relocate to the area around Lüneburg (including e.g. Hamburg). Fully remote work is not possible. However, frequent visits to the MPI in Leipzig and field trips to Namibia are planned. The candidate is expected to contribute to writing a DFG grant application to secure additional funds for research and to extend the position beyond 3 years. The position comes with a teaching obligation of 3 SWS per semester (1 – 2 seminars per semester). Teaching can be done in English or German (or both).

Your tasks:

• Lead the development of milestones checklist and parental questionnaire
• Collaborate with international colleagues in Germany and Namibia
• Lead data collection with newly developed instruments in Germany and Namibia
• (Learn to) use Item-Response models to analyze data
• Contribute to writing DFG grant
• Teach 3 SWS (1-2 seminars) per semester (Postdoc: 4 SWS)

Your profile:

• Degree in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Linguistics or a similar subject
• Strong interest in developmental and cross-cultural psychology
• Interest in (or interest in learning about) task construction, psychometrics (e.g., Item Response Theory) and individual differences
• Strong background in data analysis using R and strong desire to continue learning and improving analysis skills
• Experience working with children
• Very good communication skills in English (German skills are desired but optional)
• Motivation and ability to teach yourself new methods
• Committed team player who shares and contributes to our passion for Open Science

For more information about how to apply , please see:

If you have any questions about the position, please reach out to Manuel Bohn ( ).

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