Nadja Heym

Nadja's main research interests are within the area of individual differences, psychopathology and antisocial behaviour. In particular, her research focuses on the role of reinforcement sensitivity and maladaptive traits in psychopathic tendencies and psychosocial maladjustment. For instance, she examines the associations of psychopathic traits (e.g., callous-unemotional traits, impulsivity) with affective and cognitive deficits or antisocial behaviour in the normal population to establish the extent to which they are similar to those seen in different variants of psychopathy. Her research aims to further our understanding of the neuropsychological mechanisms in approach and avoidance motivation as underlying mechanism in antisocial tendencies; such as teasing apart the specific roles of punishment and reward sensitivity, goal conflict processing and behavioural inhibition deficits in psychopathy and other psychopathologies (e.g., sub-clinical ADHD) or maladaptive outcomes.

Nadja investigates these processes in general populations across the life-span (thus in children, adolescents or adults) using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, as well as various experimental paradigms in combination with psychophysiological measures (such as heart rate variability and skin conductance response).

Aligned to her research interests, Nadja has also been involved in large scale projects exploring developmental trajectories of young people's mental health and wellbeing (e.g., Imagen project).