Research Associate / PostDoc Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

The University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus and the Medical Faculty together form the Dresden University Medicine. It is committed to excellence in high-performance medicine, medical research and teaching, as well as healthcare services for patients of the entire region. Together for the top medicine of tomorrow – become part of the Dresden University Medicine. Research Associate (m/f/d) / PostDoc (m/f/d) in the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. The position is to be filled from 01.12.2026 on a part-time basis at 60% of full weekly working hours, initially limited to 12 months. However, we look forward to a longer-term collaboration in the sense of further developing your individual professional interests. Remuneration is based on the classification regulations of the Collective Agreement for the Public Service (TV-L) and, provided personal requirements are met, classification into salary group E13 is possible. The medical field of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy deals with the diagnostics, therapy and prevention of mental and psychosomatic illnesses in children, adolescents and young adults. The patients are the focus and are treated specifically by a qualified, interdisciplinary team. The clinic has, according to its clinical focuses, a closed acute admission ward, an open psychotherapy ward, a special ward for eating disorders, a special ward for tic and obsessive-compulsive disorders, a day clinic for adolescents, a family day clinic for children up to 11 years and a family day clinic for eating-disordered children and adolescents with a total of 40 inpatient and 20 day-clinic places as well as an outpatient clinic. In the project "Social Interaction in Autism Spectrum Disorders in School Age: Gender Differences in Dyadic Peer Interaction (Synchrony, Gaze Behavior and Proxemics) in Cooperative and Competitive Contexts", the aim is to systematically investigate reciprocal interaction processes in dyadic peer interaction in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The focus is on synchrony (inter- and intra-personal), gaze behavior and proxemics (distance and orientation behavior in space) as objective, standardized indicators of social interaction. These indicators are examined depending on diagnosis (ASD vs. neurotypical control group) and gender and analyzed regarding their context dependency in interaction. For this purpose, dyadic interactions in cooperative versus competitive context conditions are compared to test whether interaction patterns change systematically depending on context. The interaction processes are recorded using the Kinect motion tracking system. The project is funded by the Hans and Ria Messer Foundation.

You are responsible for the independent conduct of the above-mentioned study, including participant recruitment, planning and execution of participant testing. Additionally, you are responsible for the analysis and evaluation of video-based recordings of interaction sequences according to the described investigation approaches, data quality management and the writing of corresponding publications.

• Successfully completed university degree in Psychology (Master or Diploma)
• Doctorate with meaningful publication record
• Research experience with clinical populations (especially Autism Spectrum Disorder)
• Experience in conducting psychological or neurophysiological test procedures
• Experience with or willingness to learn Matlab, Python, OpenPose, OpenFace
• Very good German and English skills, both written and spoken
• Above-average communication and organizational skills