Marlene Försterling

My research addresses affective mechanisms underlying prosocial development in children. For my DPhil, I use body posture measurements as an indicator of valence of affect, and aim to validate a novel method for pose detection. With the help of this paradigm, I investigate both motivational effects of moral emotions such as elevation, as well as inter-personal aspects of prosocial behaviour and emotions.

The DPhil is supervised by Professor Robert Hepach, and Professor Brian Parkinson as second supervisor, and is funded by a Kellogg Progress Scholarship (Kellogg College, University of Oxford). Prior to my DPhil, I obtained a BSc in Psychology from LMU Munich, awarded with the LMU research price for excellent students, and worked at the TUM Neuroimaging Center as a research assistant. I obtained an MSc in Psychological Research at the University of Oxford, where I started to work on body posture and prosocial behaviour.