Adaptive Capacity

Subject: Adaptive Capacity in Adulthood

Professor: Prof. Bernhard Leipold / Barbara Loidl

Project dates: 2019 – 2024

Funding: In-house project


The Adaptive Capacity in Adulthood project examines how people face new life challenges and (learn to) deal with them. From a perspective of developmental psychology, for example, many young adults experience their start at university as a transitional phase that comes with numerous challenges (e.g. study assignments, moving out of the family home, new social environment). This longitudinal study looks at the changes in coping resources (coping flexibility) in students and how persistently holding onto or flexibly adjusting personal goals impacts positive development criteria.