BIRGIT KOOPMANN-HOLM
Education
Ph.D. Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in progress German Diplom Psychology (Minor in Ethnology), University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, 2006 Fulbright Scholar Psychology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, 2002-2003
Current Projects
Cultural Variation in Affect Valuation and Affect Avoidance The affective states and emotions people would ideally like to feel and those they want to avoid feeling are examined among European Americans, East Asian Americans, and Germans. How do differences in these aspects of emotion relate to specific cultural values, temperament, and behavioral outcomes? The Effects of Health Improvement Programs on Mental and Physical Health Across Cultures European and Asian American students are randomly assigned to either a mindfulness meditation class, an improvisational theater class, or to a waiting list control group. Each class meets for two hours once a week over an eight week period. The effects of these classes on well-being, values, and different aspects of emotion are assessed.
Future Research Interests
Further Examination of the Relationships between Cultural Values and the Avoidance of Specific Negative Emotions Application of this Research to Ethnopolitical Conflict Resolution
Publications
Matsumoto, D., Nezlek, J. B., & Koopmann, B. (2007). Evidence for universality in phenomenological emotion response system coherence. Emotion, 7, 57-67. Amelang, M., Koopmann, B., & Schmidt-Rathjens, C. (2004). Gesundheitsbezogene Konstrukte [Health-related constructs]. In K. Pawlik (Ed.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Themenbereich C: Theorie und Forschung, Serie VIII: Differentielle Psychologie und Persönlichkeitsforschung (Vol. 5, pp. 619-684). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
Manuscripts in Preparation
Koopmann, B. & Matsumoto, D. Values and display rules.
Unpublished Papers
Koopmann, B. (2006). Neither arrogant nor rude: Values, emotional display rules, self-monitoring, and expressive behavior in the United States and Germany. Unpublished diploma thesis, University of Heidelberg, Germany. Yousfi, S., Koopmann, B., & Amelang, M. (2005). Correlates of item validity. On the eminent importance of global self-ratings. Unpublished manuscript.
Conference Presentations
Koopmann, B. & Tsai, J. (2008, February). Cultural differences in avoided affect. Poster presented at the 9th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Albuquerque, NM.   Koopmann, B. & Matsumoto, D. (2003, May). American-German differences in emotional display rules. Poster presented at the 83rd Annual Conference of the Western Psychological Association, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.