Define and Conquer

In this much‑requested episode, we talk with Prof. Jennifer Inauen (University of Bern) about how culture shapes psychological constructs—and why translation and standard psychometrics are necessary but not sufficient when moving measures to new contexts. We start by asking whether key constructs are universal or context‑bound, considering theory boundary conditions and how this relates to differe...

For Episode 5, we invited Louise Poppe to introduce us to causal models, with a particular focus on Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). Together, we discuss why researchers in epidemiology — and, in fact, across many scientific disciplines — can benefit from integrating DAGs into their study workflow. We talk about how to get started with causal thinking, common pitfalls and challenges when building D...

In our fourth episode, we speak with Dr Paulina Schenk about formal ontologies and what they can offer for health psychology and behavioural science. We discuss, in simple terms, what ontologies are, how they differ from taxonomies, and why relating concepts to one another matters for research, evidence synthesis, and practice. The episode also explores how ontologies are developed, how they can a...

In our third episode, we have two guests on the show: Maya Braun and Yong Zhang. Both are experts in measuring constructs that change over time and the challenges that come with that. We cover ambulatory assessment approaches for such constructs, how to deal with missing data and how to make your intensive longitudinal studies more engaging for participants. If you want to better understand measur...

In our second episode, we continue our conversation on Constructs with Gjalt-Jorn, GJ, Peters. We then move on to the measurement of these constructs and the difficulties in assessing the validity of our measurements. GJ introduces us to the idea of Narrative Response Models as a tool to link constructs to measurement instruments and assess their validity. If you are unsatisfied with current ways...

In our first guest episode, we talk with Annick De Paepe about why vague construct definitions stall science and how to fix this. Topics include jingle–jangle pitfalls, pragmatic realism (and why multiple context-specific definitions can coexist), the Decentralised Construct Taxonomy, and a practical 4-step method for crafting definitions—illustrated with HAPA constructs (action planning, coping p...

Welcome to the first ever episode of the Define and Conquer Podcast. The podcast covers issues in theories, concepts, models and measurements that health psychologists face in their research. We are your hosts, Olga Perski and Christoph Bamberg. Here, we briefly go through the exciting topics we will cover in the coming episodes. We will get help from experts from the European Health Psychology Sp...