About me

How come some people engage in behavior that is detrimental to themselves? With a focus on the development through adolescence, I want to uncover the mechanisms behind such behavior. Of particular interest to me is the identification of dynamics where the person and their social environment mutually influence each other, building a potential vicious cycle. With this in mind, I set out to detect risk factors as well as protective factors as potential points of action to break such vicious cycles. As a researcher in Prof. Dr. Annekatrin Steinhoff's research group, I investigate the short- and long-term causes and consequences of self-harm, substance use, and risky behavior among adolescents. Next to analyzing existing data sets, we carry out a unique new data collection funded by a SNSF starting grant (the ‘ESCAPE’ study). This study combines half-yearly longitudinal in-lab assessments with follow-up ecological momentary assessments, providing temporally fine-grained data on the development and mechanisms behind behavior and psychopathology. Before, until January 2025, I investigated youth delinquency, victimization and risky peer contexts. All these factors presented as both consequences and contributors to short-term mindsets, or the tendency to focus on immediate (vs. future) action outcomes. This work constitutes my doctoral dissertation conducted at the Department of Criminology at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) and the Universiteit Leiden (the Netherlands).

Publications

List of Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (Sebastian L. Kübel, ORCID 0000-0001-7072-9508)

* indicates the authors were contributing to the work equally as first authors.

Flatten, C., Linares Gutiérrez, D., Kübel, S. L., Taylor, S., & Wittmann, M. (2024). Increased wakefulness as measured by the WAKE-16 is related to mindfulness and emotional self-regulation in experienced Buddhist meditators. In T. Dotan Ben-Soussan, J. Glicksohn, N. Srinivasan (Eds.), The Neurophysiology of Silence (C): Creativity, Aesthetic Experience and Time. Progress in Brain Research, 287, 287–307. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2024.04.005

Kübel, S. L., Deitzer, J. R., Frankenhuis, W. E., Ribeaud, D., Eisner, M., & van Gelder, J.-L. (2024). Beyond the situation: Hanging out with peers now is associated with short-term mindsets later. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 10, 51-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-024-00249-2

Kilrea, K.*, Taylor, S.*, Bilodeau, C., Wittmann, M., Linares Gutiérrez, D., & Kübel, S. L.* (2023). Measuring an Ongoing State of Wakefulness: The Development and Validation of the Inventory of Secular/Spiritual Wakefulness (WAKE). Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 00221678231185891. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678231185891

Kübel, S. L., Deitzer, J. R., Frankenhuis, W. E., Ribeaud, D., Eisner, M., & van Gelder, J.-L. (2023). The Shortsighted Victim: Short-term Mindsets Mediate the Link Between Victimization and Later Offending. Journal of Criminal Justice, 86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2023.102062

Werthmann, J., Tuschen-Caffier, B., Ströbele, L., Kübel, S. L., & Renner, F. (2023). Healthy Cravings? Impact of imagined healthy food consumption on craving for healthy foods and motivation to eat healthily - results of an initial experimental study. Appetite, 183, 106458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2023.106458

Rioux, P.-A., Chaumon, M., Demers, A., Fitzback-Fortin, H., Kübel, S. L., Lebrun, C., Mendoza-Duran, E., Micillo, L., Racine, C., Thibault, N., van Wassenhove, V., & Grondin, S. (2022). Psychological time during the lockdown caused by COVID-19: Canadian data. Timing & Time Perception, 10(4), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134468-bja10063

Micillo, L.*, Rioux, P.-A., Mendoza, E., Kübel, S. L.*, Cellini, N., van Wassenhove, V., Grondin, S., & Mioni, G. (2022). Time Perspective predicts levels of Anxiety and Depression during the COVID-19 outbreak: A cross-cultural study. PLoS ONE, 17(9): e0269396. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269396

Chaumon, M., Rioux, P.-A., Herbst, S. K., Spiousas, I., Kübel, S. L., […] & van Wassenhove, V. (2022). The Blursday Database: Individuals’ Temporalities in Covid Times. Nature Human Behavior, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01419-2

Kübel, S. L., Fiedler, H., & Wittmann, M. (2021). Red visual stimulation in the Ganzfeld leads to a relative             overestimation of duration compared to green. PsyCh Journal, 10, 5-19.              https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.395

Kübel. S. L. & Wittmann, M. (2020). A German Validation of Four Questionnaires Crucial to the Study of Time Perception: BPS, CFC-14, SAQ, MQT. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22), 8477. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228477

Linares Gutiérrez, D., Kübel., S., Giersch, A., Schmidt, S., Meissner, K., & Wittmann, M. (2019). Meditation-       induced states, vagal tone, and breathing activity are related to changes in auditory temporal     integration. Behavioral Sciences, 9(5), 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs9050051

Schmidt, S., Jo, H.-G., Wittmann, M., Ambach, W., & Kübel, S. (2018). Remote Meditation Support – A  Multimodal Distant Intention Experiment. EXPLORE. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2018.12.002