IWD2025: An Interview with Dr. Tanja Gerlach

For our next interview in honour of International Women's Day 2025, we were excited to speak with Dr. Tanja Gerlach. She is Head of the Research Unit “Personality” in Department 1: Competencies, Personality, Learning Environments at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories and is an Honorary Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast.

She has published extensively in the area of personality and social relationships, particularly focusing on partner preferences. Her research programme cuts across the psychology of interpersonal relationships, personality psychology, and psychological assessment/psychometrics.

Her university webpage can be viewed here: https://www.lifbi.de/en-us/Start/Institute/People/Person/account/5996?name=Gerlach%2cTanja

Could you share a brief overview of your professional journey and your current role within your research organisation?

I’m originally from Germany, and that’s also where my professional journey began. I completed my PhD at Humboldt University Berlin as a fellow of the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (IMPRS LIFE)—an interdisciplinary, multi-site graduate program focused on human development. After that, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Biological Personality Psychology group at the University of Göttingen before moving to the UK to take up a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) position in Social and Personality Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast. Last year, I returned to Germany to become Head of the Personality Unit at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg, a beautiful university town in the south of the country. I’m still connected to QUB as an Honorary Lecturer, which allows me to maintain collaborations and friendships there.

Are there any researchers who are women who have influenced your work? What was it about their work that influenced you?

I've had the privilege of meeting many inspiring women throughout my professional journey, and they continue to influence me in various ways. However, reflecting on your question, I realized that the ideas I most frequently discuss with others stem from three developmental scientists whose work I first encountered during my PhD: Toni Antonucci, Laura Carstensen and Jutta Heckhausen. Toni Antonucci’s Convoy Model of Social Relations describes how social relationships develop, change, and influence well-being across life. It highlights that we are surrounded by a dynamic convoy of family, friends, colleagues, and other significant people who provide support and shape our experiences over time. Laura Carstensen’s Socioemotional Selectivity Theory explains how our perception of time influences our priorities. When the future feels open-ended, we focus on exploration and knowledge, but as time feels more limited, we prioritize emotionally meaningful relationships and experiences. Jutta Heckhausen’s Lifespan Theory of Control examines how individuals strive to exert control over their lives, adapting their strategies in response to changing opportunities and constraints at different life phases. Together, these theories fundamentally shaped my thinking early on—helping me appreciate how our desires, goals, and relationships change and are shaped by the developmental phases we move through. I continue to use them as a lens to understand a wide range of psychological phenomena.

What role does collaboration play in your work, and can you share an example of a successful collaboration experience?

Most of my work is highly collaborative, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Collaboration not only strengthens research but—when involving the right people—also makes the whole research process much more fun and rewarding. One series of projects I’m currently most excited about revolves around a large-scale, multinational data collection on romantic and life preferences, which my colleague Laura Botzet and I conducted in partnership with researchers from the female health app Clue. The first paper we published from this data explored an old but still intriguing question: What role does age play in what we want in a romantic partner? The project was both enjoyable and insightful, as we tried new things and had the chance to work with amazing co-authors who brought truly complementary expertise. Laura and I also had the opportunity to write a scientific blog post about it—something we’d never done before—which ended up attracting significant media attention. We have a couple more pieces from this collaboration in the pipeline, and I’m excited for them to come out soon.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in your field, especially young women aspiring to enter the research community?

If curiosity and doubt pull you in different directions, always follow your curiosity. Doubt is an inevitable part of being a researcher—whether it’s questioning your own ideas, facing setbacks, or navigating spaces where you may not always feel like you belong. That’s perfectly normal, and I think it’s important we talk more openly about those experiences. But always remember: Let curiosity be your compass! It will not only help you persevere but also guide you to ask the right questions and explore uncharted territory. Read widely—within and beyond your discipline—and surround yourself with people who nurture both you and your curiosity. Learn to embrace uncertainty—it’s often a sign that you’re stepping outside your comfort zone, and that’s exactly where real growth happens, both professionally and personally. Taking a leap of faith every so often is a powerful habit. Not only for what it can accomplish for you, but also for the confidence it gives you when you look back and remind yourself that you can do it again.

What are some articles or books that you are reading right now? Play or professional!

Interpersonal relationships and the self are an area that has always fascinated me, transcending my professional and personal interests. A paper that I found thought-provoking is a piece by Iris Wahring, Jeff Simpson, and Paul van Lange that only recently appeared in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Lay beliefs hold that romantic relationships matter more to women than men. Synthesizing a large body of research on mixed-gender relationships, Wahring and colleagues challenge this assumption. In their paper, they leverage insights on the availability of social networks and emotional support as well as gender role expectations to make the case that stable romantic partnerships may in fact hold greater significance for men. I loved this piece for how integrative it is, and I highly recommend checking it out.

---

You can learn more about International Women's Day here: https://internationalwomensday.com/

Or visit their X/Twitter: https://x.com/womensday