Profile

Biography

• University of Zurich
  PhD (1996)

Marcel Zentner studied psychology, psychopathology and philosophy at the University of Zurich completing his PhD in 1996. He was then a post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard University with Jerome Kagan, before joining the Geneva Emotion Research Group in 1996. In 2000, he was appointed as a Research Professor at the University of Geneva. After an intermission as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, he obtained his Habilitation from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 2004. He moved to England in 2008 where he joined the faculty at University of York’s psychology department.  He is the recipient of several research grants, author of two books and over 40 articles in professional journals and serves as an associate editor of Frontiers in Personality Science and Individual Differences 

Career

• Harvard University
  • Postdoctoral Fellow
• Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Career Development Award 2001
• University of Geneva
  • Associate Professor (2001-2007)
• University of California Berkeley
  • Visiting Scholar
    
• University of York
  • Senior Lecturer (2008-present)
  
  
  
  
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Research

Overview

• Personality
• Socioemotional Development
• Emotion

Current projects

My research examines basic personality predispositions, increasingly referred to as temperament^1,2 and musical predispositions in children.^3,4 This work extends to the social psychological domain, and includes a model of satisfaction in close relationships based on ideal mate personality concepts⁵ as well as a model for explaining the intergenerational transmission of ideal standards for personality characteristics.⁶ More recently, I have started to investigate links between personality, emotion, and music. One component of this work relates to music-evoked emotions and their neural correlates,^7,8  while another focuses on “music-mindedness” – a term I have coined to describe individual differences in music appreciation and competence.

 

In addition to this work, a strong commitment to developing innovative and sound measures for the study of psychological processes and individual differences characterizes my current research. The result of my research relating to assessment and test development include an inventory to assess temperament in children,^9,10 a scale to measure emotions induced by music , ⁷ a computerized tool for the person-centered assessment of personality via Q-sorts, and a test to assess individual differences in musical aptitudes objectively (the latter two are in preparation).

 

¹ Zentner, M., & Bates, J.E. (2008). Child temperament: An integrative review of concepts, research programs, and measures. European Journal of Developmental Science, 2, 7-37.

² Zentner, M. & Shiner, R. (Eds., in press). The Handbook of Temperament. New York: Guilford Press.

³ Zentner, M., & Eerola, T. (2010). Rythmic engagement with music in infancy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 5568-5573.

⁴ Zentner, M. & Kagan, J. (1996). Perception of music by infants. Nature, 383, 29.

⁵ Zentner, M. (2005). Ideal mate personality concepts and compatibility in close relationships: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 242-256.

⁶ Zentner, M., & Renaud, O. (2007). Origins of adolescents' ideal self: An intergenerational perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 357-375.

⁷ Zentner, M., Grandjean, D., & Scherer, K. (2008). Emotions evoked by the sound of music: Characterization, classification, and measurement. Emotion, 8, 494-521.

⁸ Trost, J., Ethofer, T., Zentner, M. & Vuilleumier, P. (2012, in press). Mapping aesthetic musical emotions in the brain. Cerebral Cortex.

⁹ Zentner, M. (2010). Inventar zur integrativen Erfassung des Kind-Temperaments – IKT. Manual Bern, Gottingen: Huber & Hogrefe

¹⁰ Zentner, M. (in press). Inventory for the Integrative Assessment of Child Temperament – ICTI. Manual. Oxford: Hogrefe Publishers, UK (English Adaptation of the IKT).

 

 

Please go to my lab-website for additional information on publications, current research projects, and psychological tests.  

Research group(s)

• Personality and Social Psychology

Collaborators

• Professor Jerome Kagan
  Department of Psychology, Harvard University
• Professor Tuomas Eerola
  Music Cognition Group, University of Jyväskylä (Finland)
• Professor Klaus Scherer
  Centre for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva
• Professor Patrik Vuilleumier
  Department of Neurology, University of Geneva

Available PhD research projects

Keen to hear from potential graduate students who share my interests in personality, social development, emotion or music perception.

Supervision

PhD Students

Lily Law, MS

Doctoral Thesis: Musical Intelligence and How to Measure It

Alessio Pruneddu, BS

Doctoral: Thesis: Beliefs in Personality Change and Actual Personality Change

Publications

Selected publications

• Trost, J., Ethofer, T., Zentner, M., & Vuilleumier, P. (2012, in press). Mapping aesthetic musical emotions in the brain. Cerebral Cortex.
  
• Zentner, M., & Eerola, T. (2010). Rythmic engagement with music in infancy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 5568-5573.
• Zentner, M., Grandjean, D., & Scherer, K. (2008). Emotions evoked by the sound of music: Characterization, classification, and measurement. Emotion, 8, 494-521.
• Zentner, M., & Bates, J.E. (2008). Child temperament: An integrative review of concepts, research programs, and measures. European Journal of Developmental Science, 2, 7-37.
• Zentner, M., & Renaud, O. (2007). Origins of adolescents' ideal self: An intergenerational perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 357-375.
• Zentner, M. (2005). Ideal mate personality concepts and compatibility in close relationships: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 242-256.
• Zentner, M. & Kagan, J. (1996). Perception of music by infants. Nature, 383, 29.

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Teaching

Undergraduate

• Personality
• Psychometrics
• Social Psychology

External activities

Editorial duties

• Frontiers in Personality Science and Individual Differences
  • Associate Editor
• European Journal of Developmental Psychology
  • Editorial Board