PhD defences in the social sciences - 2025 | Sociale Wetenschappen

PhD defences in the social sciences - 2025

Mateo Seré - Essays on Well-Being Comparisons, Gender Dynamics, and Economic Resilience - 13/01/2025

On Monday 13 january 2025, Mateo Seré (Centre for Social Policy) cordially invites you to the public defence of his doctoral thesis:

Essays on Well-Being Comparisons, Gender Dynamics, and Economic Resilience.

This thesis employs big data and computational methods to investigate aspects of human behavior and well-being across four diverse studies.

Chapter 1 introduces a new measure of financial vulnerability using survey data to assess the resilience of households in seven EU countries during income shocks, such as those triggered by COVID-19. Using microsimulation techniques, it finds that employment protection benefits significantly reduced vulnerability, though disparities remain for certain groups, notably younger individuals, single parents, women, and non-EU-born individuals.

Chapter 2 leverages over 60 million online hotel reviews to explore cultural heterogeneity in self-reported assessments of well-being across nationalities. The study reveals that differences in scale usage for identical experiences correlate with broader life satisfaction scores, highlighting the complex influence of national characteristics on subjective well-being measures and challenging universal comparisons.

Chapter 3 narrows this focus to examine the impact of minor events, such as a football match, on well-being reports, showing that responses can shift significantly depending on outcome, thus questioning the stability of subjective assessments in cross-national analyses.

Chapter 4 utilizes machine learning and audio analysis to study peer interactions in academic seminars, particularly regarding gender dynamics. Results reveal a pattern where female speakers face more frequent, earlier, and often negatively toned interruptions. These findings contribute to the literature on gender biases in professional settings.

Together, these studies demonstrate how computational approaches and high-dimensional datasets can advance economic research, providing new insights into well-being, cultural reporting biases, and gender dynamics.

Practical information

Promovendus: Mateo Seré
Promotor: Prof. dr. Koen Decancq
Date and time: Monday 13 January 2025, 5 p.m.
Location: Stadscampus, F. de Tassiszaal (Hof Van Liere, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerpen)

If you plan to attend in person, please confirm your attendance by mail (mateo.sere@uantwerpen.be) before Wednesday 8 January 2025.

The defence is followed by a reception.

Seppe Hermans - BUILDING MINDS BY SOLVING PROBLEMS Exploring Computational Thinking and STEM Integration in Vocational Education - 6/2/2025

On Thursday 6 February 2025, Seppe Hermans (Department of Training and Education Sciences) cordially invites you to the public defence of his doctoral thesis:

BUILDING MINDS BY SOLVING PROBLEMS Exploring Computational Thinking and STEM Integration in Vocational Education

Computational Thinking (CT) and STEM education are vital for developing problem-solving skills in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape. As automation and emerging technologies reshape workforce demands, vocational education plays a key role by offering hands-on learning aligned with real-world applications. This dissertation examines the integration of CT and STEM in vocational education through six studies.

Study 1 establishes a theoretical framework that aligns computational thinking and STEM integration with vocational education and training’s practical, hands-on nature. By identifying synergies between computational thinking and STEM, the study positions computational thinking as a problem-solving approach, adaptable across vocational disciplines. Studies 2 and 3 develop and validate instruments to measure students’ motivation and computational thinking skills. Key findings reveal diverse motivational profiles, gender differences in engagement, and a disconnect between self-reported and demonstrated computational thinking abilities, emphasizing the need for robust assessment tools. Studies 4 and 5 explore teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices using a framework based on technological pedagogical content knowledge. These studies highlight the role of self-efficacy and perceived relevance in shaping teaching practices and underscore the need for tailored professional development to address varying confidence levels among educators. Study 6 applies the computational thinking and STEM framework in the 'Social Robot' project, a case study demonstrating how integrated computational practices engage vocational education and training students in problem-solving. Findings reveal the importance of adaptable instructional strategies to meet the diverse needs of technical and non-technical students.

Collectively, these studies contribute to a deeper understanding of how computational thinking and STEM integration can be implemented in vocational education settings.

Practical information

Promovendus: Seppe Hermans
Promotor: Prof. dr. Peter Van Petegem & prof. dr. Francis wyffels
Date and time: Thursday 6 February 2025, 5 p.m.
Location: Stadscampus, Promotiezaal van de Grauwzusters (Lange St-Annastraat 7, 2000 Antwerp)

The public defence will be followed by a reception. Kindly confirm your attendance by January 27, 2025: register online.

If you have any qustions, please don't hesitate to contact Seppe Hermans via e-mail (seppe.hermans@uantwerpen.be).

Bingrui Li - Visual Persuasion in Non-profit Advertising: Investigating the Roles of Emotional Arousal, Empathy and Credibility for Intentions to Donate - 20/02/2025

Visual Persuasion in Non-profit Advertising: Investigating the Roles of Emotional Arousal, Empathy and Credibility for Intentions to Donate

For non-profit advertisers choosing the most persuasive image is an essential strategic decision to attract attention and donors. The effectiveness of a donation advertisement depends on the persuasiveness of the visual or visual persuasion. This doctoral dissertation focuses on investigating visual persuasion and its effects on intention to donate or prosocial behavior in non-profit advertising.

Study 1 (re)introduces the concept of visual persuasion by providing an overview of past publications and proposing a concept explication for its use in the context of donor advertising. The central idea is that visual persuasion in donor advertising is conceptually divided into different levels: emotional arousal, empathy and credibility. This new concept explication is expected to enhance the understanding of visual persuasion in donor advertising by providing ways to approach and measure it, both by researchers and non-profit advertisers.

Study 2 reveals a robust negative linear relationship between valence and arousal in non-profit ad images at an aggregate level and individual level, which is different from commercial ad images. Furthermore, the findings shed light on the highly significant negative correlations between valence and intention to donate, and the highly significant positive correlations between arousal and intention to donate based on the valence classification of stimuli. Lastly, it has been found that arousal would play a mediating role in the relation between valence and intention to donate under three special conditions (targeting the female group at an aggregate level; selecting positively valenced images at an individual level; selecting negatively valenced images at an individual level).

Study 3 tests how the valence match of images and texts in donor advertising affects prosocial behavior through the mediating role of different levels of emotional empathy (positive or negative). The results confirm the mediating role of negative empathy: Through the higher level of negative empathy, the combination of a negative emotional victim image and a negative emotional text is more effective in increasing prosocial behavior. However, the mediating role of positive empathy is not confirmed. These findings provide advice to advertisers on how to develop effective donation advertising strategies.

Study 4 explores the underlying mechanisms of awareness of falsity’s effects on intention to donate by relating it to credibility as a mediator. An empirical study contrasts three non-profit ad campaigns respectively including real images, AI-generated images without tag indications, and AI-generated images with tag indications. The findings uncover that the non-profit ad campaign including real images motivates the highest levels of intention to donate than the non-profit ad campaign including AI-generated images, with or without tag indications, explained by the highest levels of credibility. Conversely, the non-profit ad campaign including AI-generated images with tags motivates the lowest levels of intention to donate than the ad campaign including real images and that including AI-generated images without tags, explained by the lowest levels of credibility.

In summary, these studies contribute to conceptually dividing visual persuasion into three measurable and touchable dimensions (emotional arousal, empathy and credibility), and explore the roles of these three dimensions of visual persuasion underlying the effects of visual images on intention to donate or prosocial behavior in non-profit advertising.

Practical Information:

Promovendus: Bingrui Li (Lebron)
Promotor: Prof. dr. Karolien Poels
Date and time: Thursday 20 February 2025, 5 p.m.
Place of the defence: Blackboard, Virtual FSW PhD Defence Room, Public Session

contact information: Bingrui Li (Lebron) Sint-Jacobstraat 2, 2000 Antwerpen

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Bingrui Li (Lebron) via e-mail (Bingrui.Li@uantwerpen.be).