Research PD Dr. Katja Schlegel

Emotional Competence in Analog and Digital Environments (ECADE) Lab

The ECADE lab investigates how individuals perceive, understand, and manage emotional information in both face-to-face and digital contexts, examining the impact of emotional competence on well-being, social interactions, and technology use. Our current research projects focus on the following topics:

(1) the relation between emotion recognition ability and well-being

(2) the role of emotion recognition ability and other emotional competencies in social interactions (e.g., in conflict situations)

(3) the measurement of personality and well-being through smartphone sensing

(4) smartphone and app usage as predictors of well-being

(5) the role of emotional intelligence in shaping the transition to parenthood (SENTI-P study; click here for further information)

(6) the performance of Large Language Models in solving and generating emotional intelligence test items

(7) assessment of procrastination styles and their relation to well-being in an academic setting

Recent publications from ECADE lab members

Hall, J. A., Murphy, N. A., Schlegel, K., & Back, M. D. (2025). Explicit Beliefs About Nonverbal Behavior and the Big Five Traits. Journal of Personality, 70030. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.70030

Völker, J., Schlegel, K., & Mortillaro, M. (2025). Personality traits and cognitive abilities in conflict management: Preliminary insights from a situational judgment test of emotional intelligence. Journal of Intelligence, 13(11), 143.

Sommer, N., & Schlegel, K. (2025). Navigating social waters: Exploring the impacts of trait cognitive emotion regulation and emotion recognition ability in naturalistic social situations. Journal of Social Psychology, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2025.2545942

Murphy, N. A., Ruben, M. A., Stosic, M., Renier, L. A., Schlegel, K., Hall, J. A., Schmid Mast, M., & Marroquín, B. (2025). How Long? How Many? How Much? Evidence of Convergent Validity Among Thin-Slice Behavioral Coding Metrics. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-025-00489-w

Schlegel, K., Sommer, N. R., & Mortillaro, M. (2025). Large language models are proficient in solving and creating emotional intelligence tests. Communications Psychology, 3(1), 80.

Gignac, G. E., & Schlegel, K. (2025). Age and ability-based emotional intelligence: Evidence from the Geneva Emotional Competence Test. Intelligence, 111, 101934.

Sommer, N. R., Carrard, V., Bourquin, C., Berney, A., & Schlegel, K. (2025). Social support and avoidance mediate positive and negative effects of emotion recognition ability on mental health in medical students. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 16910.

Carrard, V., Bourquin, C., Berney, S., Ranjbar, S., Schlegel, K., Gaume, J., Bart, P.-A., Schmid Mast, M., Preisig, M., & Berney, A. (2025). Trajectories of medical students’ empathy nowadays: A longitudinal study using a comprehensive framework of empathy. BMC Medical Education, 25(1), 534. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-07051-8

Gubler, D. A., Janelt, T., Roth, M., Schlegel, K., Guggisberg, J., & Troche, S. J. (2025). The DOES Scale: Measuring Sensory Processing Sensitivity as a Trait Constellation. Journal of Personality Assessment, 107(2), 205–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2024.2405536

Hall, J. A., Gunnery, S. D., & Schlegel, K. (2025). Gender and Accuracy in Decoding Affect Cues: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Intelligence, 13(3), 38.

Preis, M. A., Schlegel, K., Rehbein, S., Lorenz, K., & Brockmeyer, T. (2025). Training emotion recognition in depression—An experimental study. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, .12540. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12540

Bralee, E., Mostazir, M., Warren, F. C., Newbold, A., Hulme, C., Cranston, T., Aas, B., Bear, H., Botella, C., Burkhardt, F., Ehring, T., Fazel, M., Fontaine, J. R. J., Frost, M., Garcia-Palacios, A., Greimel, E., Hößle, C., Hovasapian, A., Huyghe, V. E. I., Schlegel, K., … Watkins, E. R. (2025). Brief use of behavioral activation features predicts benefits of self-help app on depression symptoms: Secondary analysis of a selective prevention trial in young people. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 93(4), 293–306. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000917.

Schlegel, K., de Jong, M., & Boros, S. (2025). Conflict management 101: How emotional intelligence can make or break a manager. International Journal of Conflict Management, 36(1), 145–165.

Watkins, E. R., Warren, F. C., Newbold, A., Hulme, C., Cranston, T., Aas, B., Bear, H., Botella, C., Burkhardt, F., Ehring, T., Fazel, M., Fontaine, J. R. J., Frost, M., Garcia-Palacios, A., Greimel, E., Hößle, C., Hovasapian, A., Huyghe, V. E. I., Karpouzis, K., Schlegel, K., … Taylor, R. S. (2024). Emotional competence self-help app versus cognitive behavioural self-help app versus self-monitoring app to prevent depression in young adults with elevated risk (ECoWeB PREVENT): An international, multicentre, parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Digital Health, 6(12), e894–e903.

Watkins, E. R., Warren, F. C., Newbold, A., Hulme, C., Cranston, T., Aas, B., Bear, H., Botella, C., Burkhardt, F., Ehring, T., Fazel, M., Fontaine, J. R. J., Frost, M., Garcia-Palacios, A., Greimel, E., Hößle, C., Hovasapian, A., Huyghe, V. E. I., Karpouzis, K., Schlegel, K., … Taylor, R. S. (2024). Emotional competence self-help mobile phone app versus cognitive behavioural self-help app versus self-monitoring app to promote mental wellbeing in healthy young adults (ECoWeB PROMOTE): An international, multicentre, parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Digital Health, 6(12), e904–e913. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(24)00159-7

Carrard, V., Berney, S., Bourquin, C., Ranjbar, S., Castelao, E., Schlegel, K., Gaume, J., Bart, P.-A., Schmid Mast, M., & Preisig, M. (2024). Mental health and burnout during medical school: Longitudinal evolution and covariates. Plos One, 19(4), e0295100

Sommer, N. R., & Schlegel, K. (2024). Beyond mean levels and linear relationships: The complex association between emotion recognition ability and well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 109, 104467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2024.104467

Mortillaro, M., & Schlegel, K. (2023). Embracing the emotion in emotional intelligence measurement: Insights from emotion theory and research. Journal of Intelligence, 11(11), 210.

Sommer, N., & Schlegel, K. (2023). The use of generative artificial intelligence in the creation of emotional intelligence tests. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/JA3G5

Xenakis, D., Samikwa, E., Ajayi, J., Di Maio, A., Braun, T., & Schlegel, K. (2023). Towards Personality Detection and Prediction using Smartphone Sensor Data. 2023 21st Mediterranean Communication and Computer Networking Conference (MedComNet), 121–130. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10168869/