RESEARCH_FILE
Karsten I. Paul
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Known for:Meta-analyses quantifying the mental-health effects of unemployment and testing Jahoda's latent deprivation model
SEE THE PRACTICE
Turn a thought this research explains into one clear move.
THE THOUGHT
“If I had tried harder, I'd still have a job”
YOUR RECORDED RESPONSE
“My hours were never the ledger that decided this.”
ONE PRIVATE MOVE
Open your calendar from the two weeks before the layoff, count the real logged hours, and write that number in a private note next to what you'd assumed it was.
Key findings
- 2009
Across 237 cross-sectional and 87 longitudinal studies, 34% of unemployed people showed psychological problems versus 16% of employed people (average effect d = 0.51) — and the longitudinal data indicate unemployment itself contributes to distress, not only selection. Unemployment impairs mental health: Meta-analyses ↗
- 2010
In a representative German sample, access to Jahoda's latent functions of employment was measurably lower among unemployed people — supporting the model's core claim that job loss deprives people of psychologically important experiences beyond income. The need for work: Jahoda's latent functions of employment in a representative sample of the German population ↗
- 2023
Meta-analytic findings on the latent deprivation model show unemployed people report less access to the latent functions than employed people, and this deprivation is associated with poorer mental health — four decades after the model was proposed. Employment status, psychological needs, and mental health: Meta-analytic findings concerning the latent deprivation model ↗