The many faces of GESIS
Vita
- MA in psychology (with a minor in sociology) at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany, and the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland (2005–2011)
- Ph.D. in developmental psychology (summa cum laude), Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (2011–2014)
- Postdoctoral fellow in the International Pathways to Adulthood Programme, funded by the Jacobs Foundation (2014–2016)
- Senior Researcher at GESIS, Department of Survey Design and Methodology (2016–2018)
- Leader of the Team Scale Development and Documentation (2018–present)
Service
I am the leader of the team, "Scale Development and Documentation." My team (currently six postdocs and four Ph.D. candidates) edits the Collection of Items and Scales (ZIS), an open-access online repository for measurement instruments. More than 270 measurement instruments are freely available for research purposes from ZIS. Most of these scales are in German, but we are publishing a growing number of scales in English. You are cordially invited to publish your measurement instruments in ZIS (it will receive a DOI) and in our new open-access journal Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences (MISS).My team and I also offer consulting services on various methodological topics related to scale development, psychometrics, and statistical modeling (e.g., measuring invariance testing). We bring our methodological expertise to international research projects such as the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).
Research
Publications
Journal article
Grüning, David, and Clemens Lechner. 2023. "Measuring six facets of curiosity in Germany and the UK: A German-language adaptation of the 5DCR and its comparability with the English-language source version." Journal of Personality Assessment 105 (2): 283-295. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2022.2057318.
Wicht, Alexandra, Ai Miyamoto, and Clemens Lechner. 2022. "Are girls more ambitious than boys? Gender differences in adolescents' occupational aspirations and their possible mechanisms." Journal of Career Development 49 (3): 551–568. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845321991665.
Posch, Lisa, Arnim Bleier, Clemens Lechner, Fabian Flöck, Katharina Kinder-Kurlanda, Dennis Helic, and Markus Strohmaier. 2022. "Characterizing the Global Crowd Workforce: A Cross-Country Comparison of Crowdworker Demographics." Human Computation 9 (1): 22-57. doi: https://doi.org/10.15346/hc.v9i1.106.
Brandt, Naemi, and Clemens Lechner. 2022. "Fluid intelligence and competence development in secondary schooling: No evidence for a moderating role of conscientiousness." Journal of Intelligence 10 (2): 27. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10020027.
Lechner, Clemens, Thomas Knopf, Christopher Napolitano, Beatrice Rammstedt, Brent Roberts, Christopher Soto, and Marion Spengler. 2022. "The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI): Psychometric properties of a German-language adaptation, temporal stabilities of the skills, and associations with personality and intelligence." Journal of Intelligence 10 (3): 63. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10030063.
Aichholzer, Julian, and Clemens Lechner. 2021. "Refining the short social dominance orientation scale (SSDO): A validation in seven European countries." Journal of Social and Political Psychology 9 (2). doi: https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6919.
Rammstedt, Beatrice, Clemens Lechner, and Daniel Danner. 2021. "Short forms do not fall short: A comparison of three (extra-)short forms of the big five." European Journal of Psychological Assessment 37 (1): 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000574.
Wicht, Alexandra, Stephen Reder, and Clemens Lechner. 2021. "Sources of individual differences in adults’ ICT skills: A large-scale empirical test of a new guiding framework." PLoS ONE 16 (4): e0249574. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.
Lechner, Clemens, Britta Gauly, Ai Miyamoto, and Alexandra Wicht. 2021. "Stability and change in adults’ literacy and numeracy skills: Evidence from two large-scale panel studies." Personality and Individual Differences 180 110990. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110990.
Grosz, Michael P., Shalom H. Schwartz, and Clemens Lechner. 2021. "The longitudinal interplay between personal values and subjective well-being: A registered report." European Journal of Personality 35 (6): 881-897. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070211012923.
Bhaktha, Nivedita, and Clemens Lechner. 2021. "To score or not to score? A simulation study on the performance of test scores, plausible values, and SEM in regression with socio-emotional skill or personality scales as predictors." Frontiers in Psychology 12 679481. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.679481.
Lechner, Clemens, Jens Bender, Naemi Brandt, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2021. "Two forms of social inequality in students’ socio-emotional skills: Do the levels of Big Five personality traits and their associations with academic achievement depend on parental socio-economic status?" Frontiers in Psychology 12 (21 July 2021): 679438. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.679438.
Lechner, Clemens, Nivedita Bhaktha, Katharina Groskurth, and Matthias Bluemke. 2021. "Why ability point estimates can be pointless: A primer on using skill measures from large-scale assessments in secondary analyses." Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences 3 (2). doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42409-020-00020-5.
Danner, Daniel, Clemens Lechner, and Marion Spengler. 2021. "Why we need socio-emotional skills: Editorial." Frontiers in Psychology 12 723470. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.723470.
Danner, Daniel, Clemens Lechner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2020. "A cross-national perspective on the associations of grit with career success." Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 50 (2): 185–201. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2019.1617110.
Danner, Daniel, Clemens Lechner, Christopher Soto, and Oliver P. John. 2020. "Modeling the incremental value of personality facets: The Domains-Facets-Acquiescence-Bifactor (DFAB) model." European Journal of Personality online first. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2268.
Schmidt, Fabian, Clemens Lechner, and Daniel Danner. 2020. "New wine in an old bottle? A facet-level perspective on the added value of Grit over BFI–2 Conscientiousness." PLoS ONE 15 (2): e0228969. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228969.
Brandt, Naemi, Clemens Lechner, Julia Tetzner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2020. "Personality, cognitive ability, and academic performance: Differential associations across school subjects and school tracks." Journal of Personality 88 (2): 249–265. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12482.
Miyamoto, Ai, Kou Murayama, and Clemens Lechner. 2020. "The developmental trajectory of intrinsic reading motivation: Measurement invariance, group variations, and implications for reading proficiency." Contemporary Educational Psychology 63 101921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101921.
Sortheix, Florencia M., Philip Parker, Clemens Lechner, and Shalom H. Schwartz. 2019. "Changes in young Europeans' values during the global financial crisis." Social Psychological and Personality Science 10 (1): 15-25. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617732610.
Danner, Daniel, Beatrice Rammstedt, Matthias Blümke, Clemens Lechner, Sabrina Berres, Thomas Knopf, Christopher Soto, and Oliver P. John. 2019. "Das Big-Five Inventar 2: Validierung eines Persönlichkeitsinventars zur Erfassung von 5 Persönlichkeitsdomänen und 15 Facetten." Diagnostica 65 (3): 121-132. doi: https://doi.org/10.1026/0012-1924/a000218.
Lechner, Clemens, Daniel Danner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2019. "Grit (effortful persistence) can be measured with a short scale, shows little variation across socio-demographic subgroups, and is associated with career success and career engagement." doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224814.
Lechner, Clemens, Melanie Partsch, Daniel Danner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2019. "Individual, Situational, and Cultural Correlates of Acquiescent Responding: Toward a Unified Conceptual Framework." British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology 72 (3): 426–446. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/bmsp.12164.
Sieben, Swen, and Clemens Lechner. 2019. "Measuring cultural capital through the number of books in the household." Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42409-018-0006-0.
Lechner, Clemens, Ai Miyamoto, and Thomas Knopf. 2019. "Should students be smart, curious, or both? Fluid intelligence, Openness, and interest co-shape the acquisition of reading and math competence." Intelligence 76 101378. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2019.101378.
Rammstedt, Beatrice, Clemens Lechner, and Daniel Danner. 2018. "Relationships between personality and cognitive ability: A facet-level analysis." Journal of Intelligence 6 (2): 1-13. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6020028. http://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/6/2/28.
Pavlova, Maria K., Clemens Lechner, and Rainer K. Silbereisen. 2018. "Social comparison in coping with occupational uncertainty: Self-improvement, self-enhancement, and the regional context." Journal of Personality 86 (2): 320-333. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12317.
Lechner, Clemens, Maria K. Pavlova, Florencia M. Sortheix, Rainer K. Silbereisen, and Kathariina Salmela-Aro. 2018. "Unpacking the link between family socioeconomic status and civic engagement during the transition to adulthood: Do work values play a role?" Applied Developmental Science 22 (4): 270-283. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2017.1291352.
Lechner, Clemens, Florencia M. Sortheix, Martin Obschonka, and Katariina Salmela-Aro. 2018. "What drives future business leaders? How work values and gender shape young adults’ entrepreneurial and leadership aspirations." Journal of Vocational Behavior. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.03.004.
Leopold, Liliya, Thomas Leopold, and Clemens Lechner. 2017. "Do immigrants suffer more from job loss? Unemployment and subjective well-being in Germany." Demography 54 (1): 231–257. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-016-0539-x.
Lechner, Clemens, Daniel Danner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2017. "How is personality related to intelligence and achievement? A replication and extension of Borghans et al. and Salkever." Personality and Individual Differences 111 86-91. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.040.
Bluemke, Matthias, Bernd Resch, Clemens Lechner, René Westerholt, and Jan-Philipp Kolb. 2017. "Integrating Geographic Information into Survey Research: Current Applications, Challenges, and Future Avenues." Survey Research Methods 11 (3): 307-327. doi: https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2017.v11i3.6733.
Rammstedt, Beatrice, Daniel Danner, and Clemens Lechner. 2017. "Personality, competencies, and life outcomes: results from the German PIAAC longitudinal study." Large-scale Assessments in Education 5 (2): 1-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-017-0035-9.
Lechner, Clemens, Sortheix F. M., Richard Göllner, and Katariina Salmela-Aro. 2017. "The development of work values during the transition to adulthood: A two-country study." Journal of Vocational Behavior 99 52-65. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.12.004.
Lechner, Clemens, Martin Obschonka, and Rainer K. Silbereisen. 2017. "Who reaps the benefits of social change? Exploration and its socioecological boundaries." Journal of Personality (85,2): 257–269. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12238.
Lechner, Clemens, Martin J. Tomasik, and Rainer K. Silbereisen. 2016. "Preparing for uncertain careers: How youth deal with growing occupational uncertainties before the education-to-work transition." Journal of Vocational Behavior 95-96 90–101. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.08.002.
Chapter in an edited book
Lechner, Clemens. 2023. "Patterns and predictors of literacy and numeracy development during adulthood: Insights from two longitudinal assessment surveys." 1. In Education, Competence Development and Career Trajectories: Analysing Data of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) , edited by Sabine Weinert, Gwendolyn Blossfeld, and Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Methodology of Educational Measurement and Assessment, 87–112. Cham: Springer. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27007-9_4.
Gauly, Britta, Clemens Lechner, and Stephen Reder. 2020. " Does job-related training benefit adult numeracy skills? Evidence from a German panel study." In Monetary and non-monetary effects of adult education and training, edited by Josef Schrader, Alexandra Ioannidou, and Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Edition ZfE 7, 261-289. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25513-8_10.
Levinsky, Michal, Howard Litwin, and Clemens Lechner. 2019. "Personality traits: The Ten-Item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10)." In SHARE Wave 7 Methodology: Panel innovations and life histories. , edited by Michael Bergmann, Annette Scherpenzeel, and Axel Börsch-Supan, Share Methodology Volumes, 29-34. München: MEA, Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy. http://www.share-project.org/fileadmin/pdf_documentation/MFRB_Wave7/SHARE_Methodenband_A4_WEB.pdf.
Wicht, Alexandra, Clemens Lechner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2018. "Wie steht es um die Digitalkompetenzen deutscher Erwachsener? eine empirische Analyse mit dem Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)." In Mensch und Gesellschaft im digitalen Wandel : Psychologie, Gesellschaft, Politik 2018, 15–25. Berlin: Deutscher Psychologen Verlag.
Lechner, Clemens, and Rainer K. Silbereisen. 2017. "Social change – uncertainty – religiosity: Psychological perspectives on the role of religiosity in changing societies." In Pathways to adulthood: Educational opportunities, motivation and attainment in times of social change, edited by Ingrid Schoon, and Rainer K. Silbereisen, 240–258. London: UCL IOE Press.
Editorship
Danner, Daniel, Clemens Lechner, and Marion Spengler, ed. 2021. Do we need socio-emotional skills? https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/8713/do-we-need-socio-emotional-skills#articles.
Working and discussion paper
Rammstedt, Beatrice, Clemens Lechner, and Daniel Danner. 2024. Beyond Literacy: The Incremental Value of Non-Cognitive Skills. OECD Education Working Papers 311.
Lechner, Clemens. 2021. Measuring six facets of curiosity in two cultures: A validation of the theory of multi-facetted curiosity in Germany and the UK. doi: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/r3ek7.
Presentation at a conference
Lechner, Clemens. 2019. "Socio-emotional skills and educational success: Going beyond simple effects." 15. Tagung der Fachgruppe Differentielle Psychologie, Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Psychologische Diagnostik (DPPD), 2019-09-16.
Lechner, Clemens, Naemi Brandt, Julia Tetzner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2018. "Differential Effects of Cognitive Ability and Personality Across School Subjects and Tracks." European Conference on Personality 2018 (ECP19), 2018-07-18.
Schmidt, Fabian, Clemens Lechner, and Daniel Danner. 2018. "Grit vs. Gewissenhaftigkeit: Verortung der Facetten und inkrementelle Validität." GEBF Tagung 2018, 2018-02-16.
Lechner, Clemens, Melanie Partsch, Daniel Danner, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2018. "Individual, Situational, and Contextual Determinants of Acquiescent Responding: Toward a Unified Conceptual Framework." European Conference on Personality 2018 (ECP19), 2018-07-18.
Lechner, Clemens, and Beatrice Rammstedt. 2018. "Stability and Change in Adults’ Literacy and Numeracy Skills: Recent Insights from Longitudinal Studies." 5th PIAAC International Conference, 2018-11-28.
Rammstedt, Beatrice, Daniel Danner, and Clemens Lechner. 2017. "Predicting life outcomes: The incremental value of personality facets." ESRA 2017: 7th conference of the European Survey Research Association, 2017-07-18.
Presentation not at a conference
Lechner, Clemens. 2020. "Was Hänschen nicht lernt, lernt Hans nimmermehr? Zur Entwicklung der Lesekompetenz im Erwachsenenalter ." Bildungspolitisches Forum 2020 , Virtuell, 2020-10-29.
Event
Lechner, Clemens. 2018. "Personality and Educational Success: Toward a More Nuanced and Contextualized Perspective." European Conference on Personality 2018 (ECP19), 2018-07-18.
Lechner, Clemens. 2017. "Die Relevanz von nicht-kognitiven Fähigkeiten innerhalb und außerhalb des Bildungssystems: Symposium C12." 5. Tagung der Gesellschaft für empirische Bildungsforschung (GEBF), Heidelberg.
Danner, Daniel, and Clemens Lechner. 2017. "What’s all the fuzz about facets? Do personality facets add value beyond global personality domains?" Biennial Association of Research in Personality Conference, 0017-06-09 - 0017-06-09.