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Research

BA in Behavioral Sciences

In addition to being excellent lecturers, the department’s faculty are accomplished researchers who publish books and articles in leading journals, participate in conferences around the world, and receive local and international research grants. Thanks to this activity, the level of teaching in this department is extremely high and conveys to students the latest knowledge and most sophisticated tools and applications. The students serve as research assistants and lab managers as well as young researchers in research seminars.

Research Labs and Topics

The department is conducting numerous scientific studies on a variety of topics through its labs and projects:

  • Personality and psychopathology research lab: Led by Prof. Ada Zohar, this lab researches topics such as behavioral genetics of personality, the relationship between personality and psychopathology, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders.
  • Judgement and decision-making lab: Led by Prof. Eyal Gamliel, this lab examines thinking processes, judgement, choice, and decision-making in uncertain conditions.
  • Language cognition lab: Led by Dr. Hamutal Kreiner, this lab studies cognitive processes involved in the interaction between language and thinking, such as bilingualism, reading processes and text processing, the contribution of language to decision-making processes and interpersonal processes, and more.
  • Suicide and mental pain lab: Led by Dr. Yossi Levi-Belz, this lab researches questions regarding risk factors in suicide, how to prevent suicide among youth, and ways to effectively treat suicidal individuals and survivors of suicide. The lab is part of the Suicide and Mental Pain Research Center being established at Ruppin in cooperation with the Path to Life organization and other bodies from Israel and abroad.
  • Behavioral health lab: Led by Prof. Efrat Neter, this lab looks at topics in the field of behavioral forecasting and intervention such as the use of a telephone while driving, use of the internet for health purposes, and more. For example, it explores what explains the fact that we send text messages while driving even though we know it is dangerous.
  • Neurofeedback research lab: Jointly led Dr. Lilach Lev-Ari and the staff of the Lev Hasharon Medical Center for Mental Health (Pardesiya), this lab conducts research related to understanding and treating dissociative situations among victims of sexual assault as well as treating and preventing obesity among healthy populations.
  • Project on the significance of borders in the current age: Led by Dr. Nir Gazit and Prof. Efrat Ben-Ze’ev, the project deals with longitudinal research regarding the Israeli-Egyptian border and examines the significance of a border through the stories of immigrants as well as how soldiers, Beduin residents, and Jewish residents relate to it. The research is a joint Israeli-German initiative and includes a comparative element that looks at other borders.