Concluded Research Centers
Until July 2010, the Center for Educational Research (Director: Jürgen Baumert) examined learning and development from an institutional point of view. Educational settings such as schools offer a variety of developmental opportunities, but at the same time exclude others. The impact of such settings has been investigated from three perspectives: (1) the long-term consequences of schools' opportunity structures on individual development in terms of cognitive competencies as well as motivational and social resources, (2) international comparison of the outcomes of schooling in the fields of reading comprehension, mathematics and science literacy, and cross-curricular competencies, and (3) improvement of learning and instruction in terms of the cognitive activation of students, mainly in science and mathematics.
In the Center for Sociology and the Study of the Life Course (Director: Karl Ulrich Mayer; closed since 30 June 2005), empirical research was oriented toward the analysis of social structure and institutions in a multilevel, historical and comparative perspective. This research was organized around four major foci: (1) Education, Training, and Employment; (2) Life Courses in the Transformation of Former Socialist Countries, (3) Welfare State, Life Courses, and Social Inequalities, and (4) Life-Course Research and Analysis: Theory, Methods, and Synthesis. The research centers on the degree of interdependence among the processes of family formation, educational careers, and occupational trajectories in the life histories of members of various birth cohorts that differ in their historical situation as well as in their sociopolitical contexts (e.g., former East vs. West Germany). The methodology of sociostructural analysis and the analysis of dynamic processes provided additional foci of activity.
Concluded Research Groups
Until fall 2010, the Max Planck Research Group "Neurocognition of Decision Making" (Head: Hauke R. Heekeren) investigated mechanisms of decision-making in the human brain. A combination of psychophysical methods, functional and structural neuroimaging (MRI, MEG, EEG), modeling, and pharmacological intervention had been used to (1) explicitly link brain function and behavior during perceptual decision-making processes, (2) investigate the interaction of cognitive and emotional processes during social decision-making, and (3) examine the impact of individual differences, aging, and brain disorders on these functions.
Why are there less-edcuated youth and who are they? Which are the long-term consequences of the lack of training in young adulthood? The Research Group Lack of Training (Head: Heike Solga) investigated these questions until May, 2005. Beyond these research foci, the research results helped to specify the significance of education in society and on the labor market, and the exploration of the interrelations between the labor market and other domains of life.