Samenvatting - Lectures in psychological science (LIPS) (P0R60a) - 2025/2026

LECTURES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL
SCIENCE ’25-‘26




Charlotte Dehing

,LESSON 1: LIVING WITH UNCERTAINTY: WHY THE UNKNOWN HURTS MORE THAN WE THINK ............................. 5
HOW DO WE DEFINE UNCERTAINTY? .................................................................................................................................. 5
Uncertainty as a psychological stressor ................................................................................................................ 5
INTOLERANCE OF UNCERTAINTY ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Cogni ve mechanisms .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Emo onal consequences ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Behavioural consequences ................................................................................................................................... 7
Physiological correlates ........................................................................................................................................ 8
COMMONLY USED DEFINITIONS AND TYPES UNCERTAINTY (DEPENDS ON FIELD) ........................................................................... 9
GAD AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS................................................................................................................................. 10
CHRONIC ILLNESS ......................................................................................................................................................... 11
WORKSPACE ............................................................................................................................................................... 12
LESSON 2: HAPPINESS COMES IN WAVES..............................................................................................................13
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 13
CONFLICT ................................................................................................................................................................... 13
CONFLICT BEHAVIOUR ................................................................................................................................................... 14
Interven on – check in… ..................................................................................................................................... 14
Conflict and stress .............................................................................................................................................. 14
Conflict sensi vity ............................................................................................................................................... 14
Personality, conflict and conflict-behaviour ........................................................................................................ 15
Conflict behaviour and anger ............................................................................................................................. 15
Culture ................................................................................................................................................................ 15
PEACEMAKING ............................................................................................................................................................ 16
LESSON 3: INVALID POST-SELECTION INFERENCE: WHY SHOULD WE CARE? .........................................................17
DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................................ 17
Example: predictors of concentra on impairment ............................................................................................. 17
LET’S INVESTIGATE THE CONSEQUENCES OF INVALID POST-SELECTION INFERENCE ...................................................................... 18
Issue 1: A data-driven variable selec on procedure tends to select sta s cally significant random variables.. 18
Issue 2: The distribu on of the OLS es mator a er post-selec on inference is a weighted summa on of
mul ple condi onal distribu ons ....................................................................................................................... 19
Issue 3: The distribu on of the OLS es mate a er post-selec on inference is not uniformly consistent ........... 19
Design ................................................................................................................................................................. 20
Scenario 1: Data analysis in the textbook........................................................................................................... 20
Scenario 2: Data analysis in prac ce .................................................................................................................. 20
INVALID POST-SELECTION INFERENCE: CONSEQUENCES......................................................................................................... 20
RECAP ....................................................................................................................................................................... 21
SOLUTIONS ................................................................................................................................................................. 21
Easy solu on: Data spli ng ............................................................................................................................... 21
Difficult solu on (different philosophical views): Simultaneous inference ......................................................... 21
Difficult solu on (different philosophical views): Selec ve inference ................................................................. 21
LESSON 4: PSYCHOLOGY AND ART: “CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF A STRANGE KIND, OR MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN?”.22
THREE DISTINCTIONS .................................................................................................................................................... 22
Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911).............................................................................................................................. 22
C.P. Snow “The Two Cultures” ............................................................................................................................. 22
Ideal scenario ..................................................................................................................................................... 23
TWO LARGE PROJECTS/RESEARCH PROGRAMS .................................................................................................................... 23
ERC .......................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Symmetry project ............................................................................................................................................... 24
CHARM project ................................................................................................................................................... 25
LAPIS dataset ...................................................................................................................................................... 26

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, Image Annota on............................................................................................................................................... 27
Eye-movements and composi on ....................................................................................................................... 27
Other online studies ............................................................................................................................................ 28
Other achievements............................................................................................................................................ 28
Challenges .......................................................................................................................................................... 28
PALETTES ................................................................................................................................................................. 28
A me and a place to perceive art ...................................................................................................................... 28
Immersion and aesthe cs in Ganzfeld experiences ............................................................................................ 30
Time for a change: variability, predictability, and their role in the aesthe c apprecia on of modern dance .... 32
SIDE NOTE: OTHER POSSIBLE CASE STUDY .......................................................................................................................... 34
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................................ 34
EPILOGUE ................................................................................................................................................................... 34
PSYCHOESTHETICS AS PSYCHOLOGY .................................................................................................................................. 34
LESSON 5: BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATION (WITH A FOCUS ON PAIN) ..........................................................................35
STENTOR .................................................................................................................................................................... 35
HABITUATION.............................................................................................................................................................. 35
WHAT CAN BE THE OPPOSITE OF HABITUATION? SENSITIZATION............................................................................................. 35
HISTORY..................................................................................................................................................................... 36
BEHAVIOURAL AND NEURAL SENSITIZATION: A MULTI-LEVEL ACCOUNT OF INCREASED RESPONSIVENESS ......................................... 38
Newly proposed defini on of sensi za on ......................................................................................................... 38
EXAMPLE OF TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH ON PAIN SENSITIZATION: 3 TYPES OF STUDIES ............................................................... 39
1: patch-clamp technique (in vitro) .................................................................................................................... 39
2: in vivo in animals ............................................................................................................................................ 40
3: humans ........................................................................................................................................................... 40
IS PAIN SENSITIZATION – LIKE HABITUATION – CONTEXT DEPENDENT?...................................................................................... 41
TAKE HOME MESSAGES ................................................................................................................................................. 41
LESSON 6: SENSORY (HYPER)SENSITIVITY: INSIGHTS FROM CLINICAL AND GENERAL POPULATIONS ....................42
SENSORY SENSITIVITY AFTER ACQUIRED BRAIN INJURY (HELLA THIELEN) .................................................................................. 42
Acquired brain injury .......................................................................................................................................... 42
What is sensory hypersensi vity a er acquired brain injury? ............................................................................ 42
Why does sensory hypersensi vity a er acquired brain injury occur? ............................................................... 42
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SENSORY HYPERSENSITIVITY IN THE GENERAL POPULATION (SOFIE WEYN) .......................................... 44
Sensory Processing sensi vity framework .......................................................................................................... 44
Sensory sensi vity and interocep ve awareness (Study 1) ................................................................................ 45
Sensory Processing sensi vity and overs mula on in daily life: an experience sampling method study (Study 2)
............................................................................................................................................................................ 46
Conclusions and take home messages................................................................................................................ 47
SENSORY AND MULTISENSORY HYPERSENSITIVITY (TORTA) .................................................................................................... 48
Defini on ............................................................................................................................................................ 48
Chronic pain ........................................................................................................................................................ 48
Explana ons to understand sensi vity ............................................................................................................... 51
Causal link between increased nocicep ve and non-nocicep ve responses?..................................................... 54
FWO: understand the mechanisms of mul sensory hypersensi vity in states of nocicep ve sensi za on ....... 56
LESSON 7: FROM THE FEARFUL RAT TO THE ANXIOUS PATIENT: ANIMAL MODELS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN
ACTION ................................................................................................................................................................59
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 59
MODELING ASPECTS OF DISORDERS: HOW? ....................................................................................................................... 59
Generalized anxiety disorder .............................................................................................................................. 59
Social anxiety disorder ........................................................................................................................................ 60
Classical condi oning ......................................................................................................................................... 60

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, Operant condi oning .......................................................................................................................................... 62
Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................................... 64
MODELING ASPECTS OF DISORDERS: WHY? ....................................................................................................................... 65
Understanding aspects/mechanisms of anxiety-related disorders..................................................................... 65
Improving treatment of disorders ...................................................................................................................... 67
LESSON 8: THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF DOMAIN-SPECIFIC SKILLS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION ...........................73
DOMAIN SPECIFIC SKILLS................................................................................................................................................ 73
Domain specific skills  number sense .............................................................................................................. 73
Domain-specific factors  number sense .......................................................................................................... 74
SYMBOLIC NUMERICAL MAGNITUDE PROCESSING................................................................................................................ 74
SYMP Test: a screening measure ........................................................................................................................ 74
Arithme c  symbolic magnitude processing ................................................................................................... 75
Domain-specific factors  more than quan ty ................................................................................................. 75
EARLY NUMERICAL SKILLS ............................................................................................................................................... 76
Math achievement ............................................................................................................................................. 77
SEX DIFFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................................... 77
Sex differences in early childhood? ..................................................................................................................... 78
HETEROGENEITY .......................................................................................................................................................... 78
EXCELLENCE ................................................................................................................................................................ 79
High math achievers ........................................................................................................................................... 79
OTHER SKILLS @ PRESCHOOL? ....................................................................................................................................... 80
THE IMPACT OF SCHOOLING ........................................................................................................................................... 80
Effect on math and reading in preschool  first grade...................................................................................... 80
Effect on math and reading in preschool  first grade in the brain .................................................................. 81
OPTIMAL WAYS TO SUPPORT DOMAIN-SPECIFIC SKILLS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION ............................................................. 82
Domain-specific early interven ons @ school .................................................................................................... 82
Domain-specific early interven ons @ home ..................................................................................................... 82
Domain-general interven ons – useful?............................................................................................................. 83
TAKE HOME ................................................................................................................................................................ 83
LECTURE 9: MINORITY INCLUSION IN DIVERSE SOCIETIES .....................................................................................84
MINORITY INCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................... 84
INTERGROUP CONTACT AND INTERGROUP HARMONY ........................................................................................................... 84
Intergroup contact “hypothesis” (Allport, 1954) ................................................................................................ 84
Minority experiences of intergroup contact: a social iden ty approach ............................................................ 85
Takeaways so far ................................................................................................................................................ 86
THE ROLE OF (SCHOOL) DIVERSITY APPROACHES AND CLIMATES ............................................................................................. 87
Trajectories of discrimina on of ethically minori zed adolescents in Flanders .................................................. 87
Diversity climates as a “protec ve factor”… ...................................................................................................... 87
SUPPORT FOR SOCIAL CHANGE ........................................................................................................................................ 88
A teaser of first findings… ................................................................................................................................... 88
How does posi ve and nega ve contact with majority group members jointly inform minority support for
social change towards equality? ........................................................................................................................ 89
Study: how posi ve and nega ve intergroup contact jointly inform minority support for social change: the role
of system-fairness beliefs.................................................................................................................................... 89
TAKE-AWAYS ............................................................................................................................................................... 91
CONCLUDING NOTE: ROLE OF THEIR WIDER INTERGROUP CONTEXT ........................................................................................ 91
LECTURE 10: BECOMING, BEING, AND REMAINING HOPEFUL: PEDAGOGY OF HOP IN/FOR THE 21 ST CENTURY ....92
CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSIONS ABOUT “PEDAGOGIES OF HOPE” ............................................................................................ 92
Cri cal pedagogies of hope ................................................................................................................................ 92
Some problema c features of the cri cal pedagogies of hope .......................................................................... 93

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,LEA DASBERG, THE 80’S AND HOPE AS OUR PEDAGOGICAL DUTY ........................................................................................... 94
Pedagogiek ......................................................................................................................................................... 94
Book: pedagogie in de schaduw van het jaar 2000 ............................................................................................ 94




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,Lesson 1: Living with uncertainty: Why the unknown hurts more than we think
Today’s roadmap
 How do we define uncertainty?
 Why uncertainty hurts?
 What it does to mind + body?
 How people cope?

How do we define uncertainty?
Illustration: you do medical test and get results in 10 days, what happens in your mind before results?
 Bad sleep, thinking about it, all possible scenarios through head, panic, stress, fear, anxiety
 We have a lot of di erent reactions, nobody has the exact same reaction

Ambiguous symptoms
 In many cases, symptoms itself are not alarming (can come and go)
 What makes it powerful, is the uncertainty around the symptom: “is this dangerous, normal, … ?”
 Uncertainty is not the absence of stress, but stressor itself
o When system can’t generate stable answer, then it stays on alert, searching for new cues or worst
case scenarios
o Cognitive, emotional, physiological perspective: uncertainty can function as stressor itself because
1) …it increases the monitoring of autonomic arousal
2) …it increases repetitive thinking: brain can’t settle on one prediction about what’s happening
 Some studies suggest that uncertainty triggers a stronger stress response than predictive aversive outcome
o Not knowing something will happen is more stressful than knowing something bad will happen
o Study: group who knew they would get electric shock vs. group who did not knew
 Greater stress when they didn’t know whether they would receive shock than when they
knew they would receive shock
 Generalize to everyday life: e.g. early stages of dating someone and being uncertain about outcome

How to define it?
 Uncertainty ≠ lack of information, but psychological state that rises when person cannot interpret/predict an
outcome, people may not be able to anticipate what will happen next
Uncertainty is a natural part of life that impacts how we make decisions and experience discomfort.
Uncertainty is the inability to determine the meaning of illness-related events, occurring when the decision maker is
unable to assign definite value to objects or events, or is unable to predict outcomes accurately ( Mishel, 1988).

Uncertainty as a psychological stressor
 Uncertainty increases salience, because it implies that more
than one outcome is possible
o When multiple outcomes are available, the brain
generates di erent competing predictions about what
might happen next  generate big conflict that
represents a challenge
 It prevents the system from selecting a unique
possible scenario, a stable response
 Brain can’t close loop, a lot of windows open
o Research shows: the default responses to uncertainty
are increased fear, vigilance, anxiety and stress, even
when there is no clear threat
o Uncertainty itself can activate our stress system
independently of specific objective danger

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,  The chronic exposure that can happen is clinically important
o Some individuals are more exposed to uncertainty than others because of…
 Their personality traits, temperament,… e.g. intolerance
 Their environment: exposed to something that is stressful and don’t know what is next
o When uncertainty becomes chronic: ↑ risk of mental health disturbances, e.g. mood disorders,
anxiety, stress related conditions (consider this in private practice!)

Intolerance of uncertainty
 Why do some individuals struggle more than others?  intolerance of uncertainty (IU)
o = degree to which a person interprets/reacts in a negative way to an uncertain situation
o = dispositional incapacity to endure the aversity of the response (Carleton)
 Dispositional di iculty tolerating “not knowing”
 Aversive emotional response to missing information
o Not simply that you don’t like uncertainty, but di iculty to cope with what uncertainty does to your
body and mind (arousal, thoughts, urge for control,…)
o = a lower order construct: negative a ectivity is associated with neuroticism
o ≠ same as the constructs that are related to it
 Intolerance of uncertainty ≠ anxiety sensitivity (sometimes related to it)
 Intolerance of uncertainty ≠ need for closure
 Intolerance of uncertainty ≠ ambiguity tolerance (more cognitive)
 = recognized as a transdiagnostic aspect: it contributes to worry, health anxiety, checking,…

Cognitive mechanisms
Not only something people can feel, but also something that the mind tries to manage: mind relies on specific set of
cognitive mechanisms to reduce the discomfort of not knowing = can be functional
Problem: ine ective in long-term (contribute to anxiety), but temporary it reduces the amount of stress we perceive
Illustration: COPD
 Experience of breathlessness all the time
 Can fluctuate from day to day and also within the day (~weather, infection, medication, emotion,…)
 When meaning of symptom is not clear, uncertainty becomes physiologically active (not only psychological)
Possible mechanisms from cognitive point of view:
 Worry (central in IU-model)
o = a strategy for managing uncertainty, but not that e ective
o Form of cognitive avoidance: instead of staying in contact with emotional discomfort of not knowing
something, worry keeps person in specific/analytic mood (planning, organisation, thinking,
preparing something)
o Breathless when walking to supermarket: instead of stopping and recognizing emotional reaction
(fear, vulnerability,…) and trying to understand what to do with it, their mind immediately starts to
worry (what if it gets worse? What if I end up in hospital?...) = What-if chain/worry-chain
 One question generates another question
 The chain changes often, is not neutral: drifts towards increasing negative possibilities
 Breathlessness: arousal not just psychologically because e ect on respiratory discomfort
 Related to worry: negative problem-orientation
 So: high IU reduces the confidence that you have in problem-solving ability
 Worry is framed as problem solving, but it’s more a combination of cognitive
avoidance, threat preparation and reduced confidence
 Catastrophizing
o Expecting worst case scenario when information is incomplete
o Very common because IU acts like a lens: instead of considering that there are a lot of di erent
possibilities, person only focusses on very negative possibility
 Neutral/positive possibilities are ignored and considered as impossible and unrealistic

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