Dr. Birte Thissen

Research Interests
- Flow-Research, Flow-experiences during reading or writing (conditions of emergence, associated personality traits, neurological background)
- immersion in reading
- dissociation
- clinical and general Media Psychology
Vita
Academic Education
05/2020 | PhD in Psychology, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, ("Flow beim Lesen") |
2013–2015 | Master of Science in Psychology, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany |
2013 | Semester abroad at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain |
2010–2013 | Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Westfälische Wilhems-University, Münster, Germany |
Professional Experience | |
Since 01/2021 | Researcher, Faculty of Psychology and Movement Science in the Department of Educational Psychology and Motivation at the University of Hamburg, Germany |
05/2020–12/2020 | Researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
2015–2020 | PhD student at the Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
2014–2015 | Tutor for communication-trainings in the paedriatic department of the University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany |
Publication
Thissen, B. A. K., Schlotz, W., Abel, C., Scharinger, M., Frieler, K., Merrill, J., Haider, T., & Menninghaus, W. (2021). At the Heart of Optimal Reading Experiences: Cardiovascular Activity and Flow Experiences in Fiction Reading. Reading Research Quarterly. 10.1002/rrq.448
Thissen, B. A. K., Menninghaus, W., & Schlotz, W. (2020). The pleasures of reading fiction explained by flow, presence, identification, suspense, and cognitive involvement. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/aca0000367
Thissen, B. A. K., Menninghaus, W., & Schlotz, W. (2018). Measuring Optimal Reading Experiences: The Reading Flow Short Scale. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 2542. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02542
Projects
- Flow in reading
Based on Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of „flow“ (1972), we conduct a series of studies on textual variables and readers’ characteristics, which, in their interaction, increase the likelihood of ...