Dr. Bernadette von Dawans

Research Associate
Psychotherapist (CBT)
Head of our Outpatient Unit

Office Hours

By appointment

Research Interests

- Stress and stress protection (social support, skin-to-skin contact, sport, oxytocin)
- Stress management in children
- Effects of stress on health and social behavior in children and adults
- Psychobiology of social interaction
- Clinical psychology of social interaction (personality disorders, social phobia, burnout)
- Methods of stress induction and stress measuring

Publications

See Pubmed

Selected Publications

Berger, J., Heinrichs, M., von Dawans, B., Way, B. M., & Chen, F. S. (2016). Cortisol modulates men’s affiliative responses to acute social stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 63, 1–9.

Tomova, L., von Dawans, B., Heinrichs, M., Silani, G., & Lamm, C. (2014). Is stress affecting our ability to tune into others? Evidence for gender differences in the effects of stress on self-other distinction. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 43, 95–104.

Klaperski, S., von Dawans, B., Heinrichs, M., & Fuchs, R. (2014). Effects of a 12-week endurance training program on the physiological response to psychosocial stress in men: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 37, 1118–1133.

von Dawans, B., Fischbacher, U., Kirschbaum, C., Fehr, E., & Heinrichs, M. (2012). The social dimension of stress reactivity: acute stress increases prosocial behavior in humans. Psychological Science, 23, 651–660.

von Dawans, B., Kirschbaum, C., & Heinrichs, M. (2011). The Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G): A new research tool for controlled simultaneous social stress exposure in a group format. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 36, 514–522.

Chen, F. S., Kumsta, R., von Dawans, B., Monakhov, M., Ebstein, R. P., & Heinrichs, M. (2011). Common oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphism and social support interact to reduce stress in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 19937–19942.

Heinrichs, M., von Dawans, B., & Domes, G. (2009). Oxytocin, vasopressin, and human social behavior. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 30, 548–557.

Ditzen, B., Neumann, I. D., Bodenmann, G., von Dawans, B., Turner, R. A., Ehlert, U., & Heinrichs, M. (2007). Effects of different kinds of couple interaction on cortisol and heart rate responses to stress in women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 32, 565–574.