Curriculum vitae

Professional appointments

Since 06/2024

Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Germany

Since 04/2021

Child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, University Hospital Münster, Germany

2016 - 2021

Child and adolescent psychotherapist at the outpatient practice Lange, Emsdetten, Germany

2019 - 2020

Research Associate in the Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Germany

2016 - 2019

Scholarship recipient from the Cusanuswerk

Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Germany

2014 - 2015

Psychotherapist for children and adolescents in training at the social psychiatric service Sant´ Unione, Wuppertal, Germany

2013 - 2014

Psychologist at Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Bergische Diakonie, Aprath, Germany

Academic Education

2022

Licensure Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy

2014 – 2022

Training in child and adolescent psychotherapy, Köln-Bonner Akademie für Psychotherapie (kbap), Germany

2013

Diploma in Psychology, University of Osnabrück, Germany

2007 – 2013

Psychology studies at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Research interest

• The influence of culture on infant development: 

Parental ethnotheories  

Early parent-infant interaction

Socialization of affect during infancy

Infant social expectations

• Research ethics in the context of cross-cultural research

Publications

Journal articles (peer-reviewed)

Wefers, H., Krüger, V.* Iza Simba, N. & Guandinango, Y.A. (under review). Ethical challenges of cross-cultural research – The example of a psychological research project in the Andean context. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics.                                             *shared first author

Giner Torréns, M., Wefers, H.* & Kärtner, J. (accepted). Der Einfluss von Kultur auf die Entwicklung in den ersten drei Lebensjahren [The influence of culture on early child development]. Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische Psychologie.                             *shared first author

Kärtner, J., Schwick, M.*, Wefers, H & Nomikou, I. (2022). Interactional preludes to infants’ affective climax. Infant Behavior and Development, 67, 101715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101715                                                                                                      * shared first author

Wefers, H., Schuhmacher, N., Hernández Chacón, L. & Kärtner, J. (2022). Universality without the uniformity – Infants’ reactions to unresponsive partners in urban Germany and rural Ecuador. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01318-x

Wefers, H., Schwarz, C. L., Hernández Chacón, L., & Kärtner, J. (2022). Maternal ethnotheories about infants’ ideal states in two cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 53(6), 603–625. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221221096785

Organized Symposia & Conferences

2019

Wefers, H. & Handerer, F. (2019, June 20th – 23rd). The Power of Psychology. Professional Association Psychology of the Cusanuswerk, Bonn, Germany.

2018

Wefers, H., & Kärtner, J. (2018, September 15th – 20th). Cultural differences in the socialization of emotion? Culture-specific norms and the dynamics of early mother-infant-interaction. In G. Grosse (main Chair), J. Silkenbeumer & H. Wefers, Children’s emotional competence. Part II: Developmental contexts and trajectories of emotion regulation [Symposium]. Fifty-first Congress of the German Society for Psychology, Frankfurt, Germany.

2017

Wefers, H., Schumacher, N., & Kärtner, J. (2017, September 11th - 14th). Apathetic or hyped up babies? Culture-specific norms and the dynamics of early mother-infant interaction. In N. Schumacher & H. Wefers (Chairs), Caretaker and baby in action - Dynamic systems approach to analyzing caretaker-infant interactions [Symposium]. Joint Conference of Developmental Psychology and Educational Psychology of the German Psychological Society, Münster, Germany.

Workshops & Conference Contributions

2021

Wefers, H., Giner Torréns, M., Krüger, V., & Jurkat, S. (2021, May 27th). Practical challenges for conducting a cross-cultural research project - Reflections based on two studies in Otavalo and Cotacachi, Ecuador [Digital Workshop]. Max Planck Spring School for the Study of Culture and Mind.

2019

Wefers, H., Wefers, Helen; Schwarz, C. L., Hernández Chacón, L., & Kärtner, J. (2019, September 9th – 12th). Exploring the role of implicit cultural models on socialization of emotion and activity during early infancy [Poster-Presentation]. Joint Conference of Developmental Psychology and Educational Psychology of the German Psychological Society, Leipzig, Germany.

2018

Schuhmacher, N., & Wefers, H. (2018, March 07th – 09th). Dynamic Systems [Workshop]. Workshop on methods of Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig, Germany.

2017

Wefers, H., & Kärtner, J. (2017, April 6th – 08th). Cultural models and the dynamics of early mother-infant interaction. In H. Fouts (Chair), Bicultural Approaches to Parenting Research [Symposium]. Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Austin, Texas, USA.

Teaching

Bachelor of Science in Psychology

Courses in 2020:

• Seminar: The first months of life: Foundation for a healthy and pathological socio-emotional development

Courses in 2019:

• Seminar: The first months of life: Foundation for a healthy and pathological socio-emotional development

Supervision of Bachlor and Master Theses:

• Co-regulation of affect during early infancy
• Ethnotheories about infant affect and activity
• Research ethics