Dr. Pössel curriculum vita

Dr. Pössel received his doctoral degree with a specialization in Clinical Psychology from the Eberhard-Karls-Universität in Tübingen (Germany) in 1999 and is licensed as clinical psychologist in Germany. He received his Diploma in Psychology (equivalent to a M.A. in the USA) from the Justus-Liebig-Universität in Giessen, Germany. Following his Diploma degree completion, he worked as clinical psychologist in a private practice, while he completed his doctoral studies. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Louisville, Patrick worked as Assistant Professor at the University of Tübingen, and as Visiting Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He pursues two lines of research interests: First, Patrick is interested in prevention of depression, especially in adolescents, and how to integrate prevention into the everyday life of teenager. Second, he studies the relationship between cognitive risk factors of depression, depressive symptoms, and physical health.

In particular, he has focused on developing and evaluating the universal prevention program LARS&LISA to reduce the incidence of depression in high-school students. At the moment, he is especially interested in how to implement an evidence-based prevention program in the everyday life at schools. In an action research program he collaborates with School Counselors to adapt LARS&LISA to the conditions high-schools from Jefferson County School District. Following this phase, effects of the original and the adapted program on student's depression will be studied.

Another recently evolving part of Patrick's research concerning the integration of prevention in everyday life at schools is to identify teacher behaviors that prevent depression in students. Patrick is particularly interested in the influence of evaluative feedback and classroom management on the development of depression. The goal of this research is to design and integrate an effective training of these behaviors into teacher education.

Patrick's main focus concerning the relationship of cognitive risk factors of depression, depressive symptoms, and physical health is to study the influence of cognitive risk factors on physiological, endocrine, and immunological variables, predicting coronary heart disease and cancer. In particular, cognitive schemata, attribution style, and rumination are amongst those cognitive factors that are most influential for his research.

Patrick's work is financed by external grants and published in Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, Depression and Anxiety, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Journal of Counseling Psychology, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and other professional journals and book chapters. Patrick is committed to providing students with a stimulating and challenging learning environment, and encourages active engagement and participation of students in his research projects. The main goals of his mentoring are to help students (a) to develop their own research questions within the first year of their study, (b) to learn how to design and implement studies, and analyze data, and (c) to develop confidence in presenting their research on conferences and in journals.

Educational Background

• PD, Psychology, University of Tübingen, 2004
• Ph.D. Psychology, University of Tübingen, 1999
• Dipl.-Psych. University of Giessen, Germany 1995

Teaching Areas

• Intelligence & Intelligence Assessment
• Assessment Practicum
• Mental Health Practicum