Overview | Research Enthusiasts Club | Psychology of Conflict, Risk & Safety

_{Disclaimer: This club is NOT (!) part of the formal UT education program. There are no ECs attached. This is purely for fun.}

An informal club of curious minds to raise scientific thinkers

The informal club was first founded by Maximilian A. Friehs towards the end of 2023. Since then, the club has met every couple of weeks either in person or online, worked on projects together and written papers. But mostly just discussed research. For a full list of student publications from PCRS students, please refer to this website. If you are a student interested in research and want to join our group then please reach out to Max and get invited to the Teams environment!***^{see at bottm of the page}***

We are open for all students from all programs; no prior knowledge or commitment required !

The Goal. A scientist is somebody with an academic mindset, that can evaluate what they are being presented and carry out systematic observations to find an answer to a question. Although usually students are not considered ‘academic staff’, in this club students are the main researchers. They are the ones asking the questions and looking for answer. Here a student can gain a guided insight into the world of academic publishing.

The Problem. In todays society in general and even in the universities people are bad at judging the soundness of academic literature and have difficulties understanding the publication process. To the outside observer all journals and all papers may seem alike, but what differentiates good and bad research? How does peer-review help self-regulate the scientific community and act as a quality control process? This also leads to an increase in scepticism in science and a devaluation of fundamental research. During their studies, many students feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the prospect of independent research.

A _{potential step towards a}Solution. The Research Enthusiasts Club can provide a supportive environment where students can gain confidence in their own abilities; either through publishing their work, participating in discussions or joining a conference. Workshops on research methodology, data analysis, and scientific communication empower students to tackle their projects with confidence. Additionally, participation in supervised peer review allows them to receive and provide constructive, high-level feedback, a valuable skill for any aspiring scientist.

The Benefit. Ultimately, this club empowers the next generation of scientific thinkers, but mainly it brings like-minded and curious people together to discuss research in a safe environment. This is as much a social club as it is a research focussed endevour.

ASSOCIATED STAFF MEMBERS

Maximilian A. Friehs (Psychology; founder)
Marcello Gómez Maureira (Human-Media Interaction)
Tom Nyhoff (Psychology)
Martin Schmettow (Psychology)
Cesco Willemse (Psychology)

FRIENDS OF THE CLUB

TESTIMONIALS

Alina Kaufmann - Experience (2026)
Hello fellow Research Enthusiasts!
I’m Alina Kaufmann, currently a second year Research Master of Social Psychology student at VU Amsterdam. After graduating from the Psychology Bachelor’s at the UT in 2024, Max and Steven (my thesis supervisors) continued working with me to revise my thesis in order to submit it to a journal for publication. Although the goal of this was of course to publish the thesis, I was not really confident that it was good enough to be published for a long time. Despite this, the article based on my thesis did in fact just get published in Learning and Motivation!! Considering I almost did not try to get it published since I did not think the thesis was that great, I wanted to reflect on some of my thoughts during the process in case this could help anyone in a similar position.
For context, my thesis was a 2x2 mixed design experiment on the effect of a growth mindset and perceived competence on intrinsic motivation. Although one of the secondary hypotheses (regarding the positive association between perceived competence and intrinsic motivation) was supported, we did not find any evidence in favor of the main hypothesis (that a growth mindset intervention would positively influence intrinsic motivation). Although insignificant results are of course also valuable, I was still convinced that this would make it super difficult to publish the results, since I think there is still somewhat of a publication bias for significant results. However, during the publication process, one of the reviewers of the article specifically pointed out that they valued the effort to publish insignificant results and the attention that we drew to them. This was just one of the things that I found super interesting during the publication process.
Apart from this, I also feel like I learned a lot throughout the process in general, and looking back I feel like I still managed to improve my thesis quite a lot as well. As someone interested in research, being able to go through the entire process that it takes to publish a paper from start to finish, including the journal review process which we usually don't get to see during our studies, was super cool to me. Overall, for anyone considering trying to publish their Bachelor or Master's thesis who is passionate about research, I would definitely recommend you to go for it! As long as you have a supervisor willing to support you with it, I would also not be too worried if you have doubts about whether the thesis is good enough to be published (although I know that's easier said than done). In the end, you'll never know unless you try it, and even if it doesn't get published or gets rejected at first, that also does not necessarily mean it's not 'good enough' either, and it might be more about journal fit or something else. Regardless of the outcome, it's still a super valuable learning experience in my opinion.
Of course, the publication would not have been possible without the incredible support of Max and Steven, so big shoutout to them at this point! If anyone has any questions about my experiences with the publication process or anything else, feel free to send me an email to a.kaufmann@student.vu.nl :) [note from the editor: this email won't work for a whole lot longer after 2026]
[2nd note from the editor: Read Alina's paper here ]

_{*** You can also join directly with a UT account via the Teams Code "bvshat1" or click}_here_{. If this does not work, contact}_Max_{. Also, join our Email List to get easier invites to some other events}_sign-up!

Wanna check out the meetings and events of previous years?

Feel free to browse below!