About
Dr. Max Berg is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology (Fachbereich 04), Philipps University of Marburg, Germany. He completed his PhD in Psychology in 2022 with a thesis on "Dopamin D2 Antagonists and Anhedonia" and holds a dual Master's in Translational Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology from Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg. Berg specializes in transdiagnostic psychopathology research, focusing on repetitive negative thinking, anhedonia, and social expectation dynamics using network analysis, meta-analysis, and formal computational modeling. His work bridges predictive processing with clinical phenomena like belief updating resistance and cognitive immunization in depression.
- Key Academic Background
- PhD in Psychology (2022), Philipps University of Marburg
- M.Sc. Translational Neuroscience (2016-2018), Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg
- M.Sc. Psychology (2015-2018), Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg
His research portfolio includes experimental studies on dopamine receptor antagonists (Amisulpride) and affective processing, alongside theoretical contributions to social expectation maintenance in depression. Berg is actively involved in the LOEWE DYNAMIC and PsyChange consortia, and has secured research funds for studies on "Party Drug Related Affectivity" (PRAY study). He coordinates clinical psychology projects while maintaining therapeutic practice at the Institut für Psychotherapieausbildung Marburg (IPAM) since 2018.
Current work investigates how depressive symptoms interact with social feedback processing through experimental paradigms like No1LikesU! His publications in Psychological Medicine, Nature Reviews Psychology, and PLoS ONE explore topics spanning interpersonal cognitive distortions, expectation-violation dynamics, and neurocomputational mechanisms in affective disorders. Collaborations with leading researchers such as Prof. Dr. Winfried Rief and Prof. Dr. Tania Lincoln demonstrate his network in clinical psychology research.