Dr. rer. nat. Max Wolff
Postdoctoral Researcher
Contact information
Faculty of Science, Department of Psychology
Institute of General Psychology, Biopsychology and Methods of Psychology
Technische Universität Dresden
Zellescher Weg 17, 01069 Dresden
Phone: +49 (0)351 463-33306
E-Mail:
Research Statement
I am interested in how individual differences in cognitive control relate to self-control failures in people’s everyday lives, and how this relationship is affected by other factors such as stress and addiction. My research includes clinical and non-clinical populations and involves various instruments, including latent-variable models of executive functioning and ecological momentary assessment (experience sampling) of real-life self-control.
Scientific Education
| 2017 | Dr. rer. nat. in Psychology (summa cum laude), TU Dresden. Thesis title: Real-Life Self-Control Failures: Examining the Role of Individual Differences in the Mobilization of Cognitive Control (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Thomas Goschke) |
| 2013 – 2015 | European Graduate School in Addiction Research (ESADD) |
| 2012 | Diploma in Psychology, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen |
Professional Experience
| since 2017 | Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden |
| 2013 – 2017 | Research assistant, Faculty of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden |
Selected Publications
Wolff, M., Enge, S., Kräplin, A., Krönke, K., Bühringer, G., Smolka, M. N., & Goschke, T. (2020). Chronic stress, executive functioning, and real‐life self‐control: An experience sampling study. Journal of Personality, 46(6), jopy.12587.
Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Mohr, H., Kräplin, A., Smolka, M. N., Bühringer, G., & Goschke, T. (2020). Predicting Real-Life Self-Control From Brain Activity Encoding the Value of Anticipated Future Outcomes. Psychological Science, 31(3), 268–279.
Krönke, K.-M., Wolff, M., Mohr, H., Kräplin, A., Smolka, M. N., Bühringer, G., & Goschke, T. (2018). Monitor yourself! Deficient error-related brain activity predicts real-life self-control failures. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 18(4), 622–637.
Wolff, M., Krönke, K. M., Venz, J., Kräplin, A., Bühringer, G., Smolka, M. N., & Goschke, T. (2016). Action versus state orientation moderates the impact of executive functioning on real-life self-control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(12), 1635-1653.
Wolff, M., Krönke, K. M., & Goschke, T. (2016). Trait self-control is predicted by how reward associations modulate Stroop interference. Psychological Research, 80(6), 944-951.