Dr. Alena Michel-Kröhler

Curriculum Vitae | Scholarships | Publications | Talks and Posters | Research Interests | Projects | Methods/Workshops | Memberships | Teaching


Curriculum Vitae

11/2018 Ph.D. in psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; Thesis: „Influence of dysfunctional thoughts on athletic performance in the context of competitive sports”
06/2018 Certified Mental Performance Consultant - Training as part of the ASP Curriculum "Sport Psychological training in competitive sports"
Since 02/2018 Research assistant at the Department for Clinical and Neuropsychology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
01/2013 - 11/2018 PhD student, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz in the area of sport psychology
2008 - 2012 Diploma program sport science at the Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz

 


Scholarships

Since 11/2017 Mentee in the Mentoring Program "Women in Science" (ProWeWin) at the University of Mainz
Since 08/2013 Member of "General Postgraduate Program", Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz

 


Publications

Michel-Kröhler, A., & Turner, M. J. (2022). Link Between Irrational Beliefs and Important Markers of Mental Health in a German Sample of Athletes: Differences Between Gender, Sport-Type, and Performance Level. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.918329

Michel-Kröhler, A., Krys, S., & Berti, S. (2021). Development and preliminary validation of the sports competition rumination scale (SCRS). Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 1–19. doi:10.1080/10413200.2021.1961921

Michel-Kröhler A., Kaurin A., Heil LF & Berti S. (2021). Self-Distancing as a Strategy to Regulate Affect and Aggressive Behavior in Athletes: An Experimental Approach to Explore Emotion Regulation in the Laboratory.
Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 572030. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.572030

Kröhler, A. (2019). The influence of dysfunctional thoughts on athletic performance in the context of competitive sports - A multi-sports overview. Verlag Dr. Kovač: Hamburg.

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2019). Taking action or thinking about it? State orientation and rumination are correlated in athletes. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 576. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00576

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2017). Rumination in the context of Individual goal achievement in performance-oriented swimmers. Zeitschrift für Sportpsychologie, 24(4), 161- 166. doi: 10.1026/1612-5010/a000200

Kröhler, A., & Berti, S. (2014). Application of sports and exercise-related self-concordance to competitive sports. Zeitschrift für Sportpsychologie, 21(3), 119-126. doi: 10.1026/1612-5010/a000122


Talks and Posters

Michel-Kröhler, A., Krys, S. & Berti, S. (2022) Ruminative Thoughts in Competitive Sports Context: An Initial Validation of the Sports Competition Rumination Scale (SCRS). Poster presented at the 16. European Congress of Sport & Exercise Psychology, Padova, Italy.

Michel-Kröhler, A. & Turner, M. (2022). Irrational beliefs in sport: development and validation of the German version of the Irrational Performance Beliefs Inventory. Presentation on 17th June 2022, 54th Congress of German Society for Sport Psychology, Münster, Germany.

Michel-Kröhler, A. (2021). Development and preliminary validation of the sports competition rumination scale (SCRS). Presentation on 13th Mai 2021, 53th Congress of German Society for Sport Psychology, Tübingen, Germany (online).

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2019). A qualitative content analysis of sports-related thoughts in competitive athletes. Poster presented at the 15th European Congress of Sport & Exercise Psychology, Münster, Germany. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12424505.v1

Kröhler, A. (2019). Taking action or thinking about it? The influence of dysfunctional thoughts on athletic performance. Presentation on 15th May 2019, Contemporary Research in Social Science - Lecture Series, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.

Kröhler, A. (2018). Influence of dysfunctional thoughts on athletic performance. Results of my dissertation and future directions. Presentation on 15th November 2018, Department of Performance Psychology, German Sport University Cologne.

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2018). Skala zur Erfassung der wettkampfspezifischen Rumination im Leistungssport. Poster presented at the 51th Congress of German Society for Psychology (DGPS), Frankfurt, Deutschland. doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.7182041

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2018). The relation between action orientation and rumination in competitive sports. Poster presented at the 23th ECSS Congress, Dublin, Ireland.

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2018). The relation between action orientation and rumination in competitive sport. Poster presented at the 50th Congress of German Society for Sport Psychology, Cologne, Germany.

Kröhler, A., & Berti, S. (2016). Differences between selected mental performance requirements for short and long distance swimmers. Poster presented at the 50th Congress of German Society for Psychology (DGPS), Leipzig, Germany.

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2016). Rumination as an indicator for individual goal achievement? Poster presented at the 48th Congress of German Society for Sport Psychology, Münster, Germany.

Kröhler, A. & Berti, S. (2015). The relation between rumination and athletic performance in competitive swimming. Poster presented at the 47th Congress of German Society for Sport Psychology, Freiburg, Germany.

 


Research Interests

My research focuses on the question whether and in what way different, mainly negative thoughts have an influence on performance. My focus is on repetitive negative thoughts such as rumination and their underlying mechanisms. My main research area is (competitive) sports. For this purpose, I develop sport-specific measurements and experimental designs to investigate the influence of different thoughts on athletic performance.

 


Projects

ongoing projects since 2019:

„Self-distancing as strategy to regulate anger and aggression in response to provocation on multiple components of the emotional response"

  • A behavioral and psychophysiology approach
  • (a.) Investigation of self-distancing versus self-immersion on experience, expression, and psychophysiology (event-related brain potentials) in order to assess the processing of anger and adaptation of aggressive behavior. (see: https://osf.io/h5wuj/?view_only=41051d01ebca4b2a97a36e013dc8c146)
  • (b.) Application of self-distancing strategy for regulation of emotion in competitive athletes with focus on affect, anger, and aggressive behaviory

„Development of sport-specific measurements to assess rumination and negative thoughts, especially in the context of competition“

Aim: Better understanding of how negative thoughts (and rumination) influence the athletic performance and what mechanisms underlie this relationship, especially in competitions.

    • Context-Specific Rumination in Competitive Sports (KSR-WK; data collection completed)
    • Questionnaire on dysfunctional thoughts in the context of sport (working title) (data collection completed)

 


Methods/Workshops

  • Development of psychological tests and questionnaires
  • Structual equation modelling
03/2019 Multilevel Analysis for longitudinal data
09/2016 Introduction in the Estimation of Item Response Models with "mirt"- R package, Workshop of the 50. Congress of DGPs
04/2016 Introduction in Panel-Data-Analysis– Implementation in R, Center for Research on Education and Higher Education (ZBH), Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
03/2015 Introduction of structual equation modelling, Center of Methods, University Koblenz-Landau

 


Memberships

  • Member of German Society for Sport Psychology e.V.

 


Teaching

  • Winter 2020/2021: Recent Research – Project Thesis (MSc)
  • Summer2020: Experimental Research Methods (BA)
  • Winter 19/20: Recent Research – Project Thesis (MSc)