The Leibniz Institute for Psychology celebrates its 50th anniversary

For the first time in almost two and a half years of experiencing a pandemic and working from home, the staff of the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) came together again as a team last Friday at the Viehmarktthermen in Trier. In the words of the Director, Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert: "The most important guests of the day are the employees who have continuously developed the institute with their products over the past 50 years." In fact, she has been personally associated with the institute for nearly 50 years. "This evening is a family reunion for all of us, a reunion of friends." Together with friends and cooperation partners of the Leibniz Gemeinschaft, guests enjoyed an evening of lively exchange.

"ZPID does not exist without the University of Trier, it is a part of the University of Trier," Claudia Dalbert emphasized. Over the past 50 years, the project for psychological information and documentation, launched in 1972 with only five employees at the University of Trier, has developed into an international infrastructure institute. 

Minister President Malu Dreyer praised the successful development of the ZPID and emphasized the special importance of the institute in the German research landscape and for Trier as a leading academic and science center. "ZPID provides Rhineland-Palatinate with an outstanding infrastructure for researchers and practitioners in the field of psychology and related subjects. With its services, online applications, and databases, it not only supports the entire scientific work process, ZPID has also continuously increased the level of its own independent research. For their contribution to this success story, I would like to thank all staff members, as well as the friends of ZPID from the university, the advisory board, and the professional societies," she concluded.

General Manager Dr. Gabriel Schui, who has been a member of the institute for 22 years, recalled the history of ZPID. Precisely with regard to the applications for researchers in psychology, it became clear just how much the institute has been able to profit from the breakneck pace of technical development. The early years included  the dispatch of literature lists by mail from the USA but by the late 1980s an acoustic coupler made it possible to connect a PC to a  telephone to transmit data. Soon after, the Internet formed the basis of all ZPID products and services. 

Guest speaker Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Renner, 2nd Vice President of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie (DGPs; German Psychological Society), highlighted numerous projects and also opportunities for potential cooperation between the two institutions: "I was able to benefit from ZPID early on as a student and also later in my research and teaching. Everyone involved in psychology can be proud that we have the ZPID." 

Today, with a team of more than 60 employees, the institute provides an information and documentation infrastructure serving the field of psychology in the German-speaking countries. Guided by the principles of an ideal-typical research cycle, it supports the entire scientific work process from literature research and study planning to data collection and evaluation to the documentation, archiving, and publication of results. Fully committed to the idea of open science, the Leibniz Institute for Psychology envisions its mission as that of a public open science institute for psychology accessible to all.

Today, the origins of the institute are still visible in its original German acronym, ZPID - Zentralstelle für Psychologische Information und Dokumentation (Center for Psychological Information and Documentation) - adopted by the project more than 50 years ago.

Detailed information on the development of ZPID can be found at this link: https://leibniz-psychology.org/en/institute/development/