Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Kals was awarded the “WinWin“ (as in a win win situation) prize for innovation, of the organization “Mediation DACH e.V.” (D = Germany, A = Austria, CH = Swiss), at the 23rd international mediation symposium in 2024. This award is granted to individuals or institutions which successfully advocate for conflict resolution in a constructive and social manner. Prof. Dr. Kals received this honour, for her research in conflict and mediation and specifically in how she was able to successfully bridge the gap between new evidence from conflict psychology to everyday conflict situations.
The team of the Chair of Social and Organizational Psychology at KU has been researching the topics of conflicts, justice, and emotions for many years. At the center of their work is the triad of "responsibility, justice, values." These concepts are applied to various questions and a wide range of fields of action. Professor Kals and her team investigate the motivational foundations of human actions and decisions in different contexts – including the analysis of motives for social volunteer work – as well as actions in organizations, various questions of justice and emotion psychology, and the analysis and resolution of social conflicts. Mediation based on psychological principles is a focal point of their research. The goal and motivation of her scientific work is to make psychological research usable for practice. Prof.Dr. Elisabeth Kals presented the findings of her work in a lecture titled "Psychological Research on the Way to Practice" at a symposium organized by Mediation DACH e.V. Mediation DACH is a network of practicing mediators and supporting members from various disciplines. Its goal is to further develop the quality of mediation and the work of mediators.