On Friday, 20 January, 2026, 13:00–14:00, Luisa Solms, PhD, Erasmus University Rotterdam, will speak on the subject "From Work Pressure to Work Pleasure: Understanding and Improving Well-Being in Academia".
The seminar will take place in Seminar room Tranbär (Cranberry), House 4, 3rd floor, Albano.
On the same day Luisa Solms will hold a well-being workshop for our PhD students.
Abstract
While academia was once considered a relatively low-stress environment (Willie & Stecklein, 1982), growing evidence paints a different picture. Academics today report high levels of work pressure (Sneijder, 2024), and PhD students are particularly affected: they are up to six times more likely to experience mental health problems such as depression or anxiety than the general population (Evans et al., 2018). This so-called “mental health crisis” in academia has led to increasing concern about how to better support the well-being of academics (e.g., Barry et al., 2018; Levecque et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2019; Marais et al., 2018).
To address this issue, I conducted four empirical studies, including cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal intervention research, daily diary methods, and qualitative interviews to examine how resources, both internal and external, contribute to academics’ well-being.
In this seminar, I will discuss findings that shed light on (1) the role of personal resources for academics’ well-being, (2) the effectiveness of training programs aimed at developing such internal resources, (3) the value and hidden costs of proactive strategies, such as planning, and (4) the importance of external resources, particularly workplace recognition.
About the General seminars in psychology
This series of seminars is a collaboration between the six research divisions at the Department of Psychology. Local, national and international researchers are invited to speak of current research subjects.
The seminars are held on Wednesdays at 14:00–15:00 onsite in Albano and/or online in Zoom. Extra seminars can also be held on other weekdays or hours, among these the so called half-time seminars in the Doctoral Program in Psychology.
