Ivo Ponocny
Short Bio
Ivo Ponocny is part of the Department for Sustainability, Governance, and Methods at MODUL University Vienna. He started his career at the Institute for Psychology of the University of Vienna where he developed goodness-of-fit tests for the Rasch model, for which he was awarded the Gustav A. Lienert prize of the German Psychological Society. He holds a PhD and an MSc in Psychology and an MSc in Mathematics and has a habilitation in Psychological Methodology. After an employment at Statistics Austria where he was head of the unit “Social Statistics and Education” and later “Science, Technology, and Education” he joined MODUL University Vienna in September 2007.
Research Interests
Ivo Ponocnys current main research focus lies on quality-of-life and its drivers and assessment, in particular the MODUL Study of Living Conditions, a mixed-methods pilot project about the link between life circumstances and subjective well-being. Further research interests are social and environmental psychology, statistics in general, especially non-parametric procedures, and the methodology of international educational studies such as PISA and PIAAC. Teaching activities include statistics and scientific methodology, decision theory, social sustainability and quality of life and its links to social psychology.
Awards
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1999 : Gustav A. Lienert-Award (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie)
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2014 : WU Best paper award (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien)
Projects
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A Digital Well-Being Index for Vienna
How can stakeholders get insights into perceived well-being in a timely manner and related to specific aspects of urban environments? Comprehensive national surveys are costly, require significant organizational effort and are a careful balance between knowledge to be gained and burden placed on respondents. To address these challenges, DWBI will use AI-based natural language processing in conjunction with evolving knowledge graphs to extract affective knowledge from user-generated digital content. Automatically mapped to existing indicators, this knowledge will complement and enrich survey-based approaches and traditional assessment methodologies, mitigating some of the associated problems.
Organisations: MODUL University Vienna, School of Sustainability, Governance, and Methods
Author: Arno Scharl, Ivo Ponocny, Sabine Sedlacek, Adrian Brasoveanu, Agnieszka Skwara
Date: 01.10.2021 - 30.09.2024
Managed By: MODUL University Vienna
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i-CONN: Interdisciplinary connectivity: Understanding and managing complex systems using connectivity
The goal of this ITN is to train a new cohort of researchers specialized in the developing field of connectivity science who will be capable of developing interdisciplinary approaches to connectivity across a range of disciplines and real-life applications in the next five to ten years. Our overarching aim is to overcome barriers to progress in using connectivity science to understand and manage complex systems by learning from transdisciplinary perspectives to produce new insights into the behavior of complex systems across diverse disciplines (Astrophysics, Computer Science, Ecology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Neuroscience, Systems Biology, and Social Science) and synthesize them into a common set of theories and approaches.
Organisations: MODUL University Vienna, School of Sustainability, Governance, and Methods
Author: Christian Kerschner, Ivo Ponocny, Sabine Sedlacek, Mario Diaz Munoz
Date: 01.10.2019 - 30.09.2023
Managed By: MODUL University Vienna
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EPOCH - Extracting and Predicting Events from Online Communication and Hybrid Datasets
EPOCH will measure the effects on statistical indicators of events being reported in the news and social media. Innovatively, it will use the measured effects of now past events to predict the future changes expected due to future events detected in the public dialogue. Through the EPOCH dashboard, organizations can identify and thus better prepare for these changes, adapting their communications, marketing and resources accordingly. This will be demonstrated in the domains of purchase price forecasting and public relations.
Organisations: MODUL University Vienna, Research Center of New Media Technology, School of Sustainability, Governance, and Methods
Author: Lyndon Nixon, Sabine Sedlacek, Ivo Ponocny, Adrian Brasoveanu, Jakob Steixner
Date: 01.01.2019 - 30.06.2022
Managed By: Modul Technology GmbH
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PUMA Quality of Life
Organisations: MODUL University Vienna, Department of Applied Statistics and Economics
Author: Ivo Ponocny
Date: 01.09.2017 - 30.09.2017
Managed By: MODUL University Vienna
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Peer review of the 4th EQLS report
Organisations: MODUL University Vienna, Department of Applied Statistics and Economics
Author: Ivo Ponocny
Date: 01.07.2017 - 30.09.2017
Managed By: MODUL University Vienna
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Preparatory work to revise the harmonized time use survey for the implementation in the round 2020
Organisations: MODUL University Vienna, Department of Applied Statistics and Economics
Author: Ivo Ponocny
Date: 01.06.2017 - 31.12.2017
Managed By: MODUL University Vienna
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Living conditions, quality of life, and subjective well-being in regions: A methodological pilot study with explorative interviewing and quantitative measurement
The economy is growing and growing. But is it growing in the right direction, too? Is the quantitative part the dominant goal or is there demand for a strengthened focus on a qualitative part of the overall development? The Easterlin Paradox suggests that material well-being does not automatically lead to increased happiness. Therefore it is very questionable whether it is possible to measure quality-of-life (QoL) just by taking indicators of material well-being into account. Obviously it is not, as latest research attempts tell us, that more and more effort is taken to fill this vacuum by indicators connected to the subjectively driven part of the story. But this other side of the coin has its handicaps too, as individual self-ratings of happiness are complex constructs influenced by momentary mood, uniqueness of the individual in perceiving life conditions, adaptation processes, and comparison processes based on varying anchor levels. Construct validation studies of subjective well-being (SWB) mainly have to deal with questions like ‘What kind of information can be derived from overall subjective self-ratings?’ This missing link is going to be clarified by cognitive interviewing. First of all, the principle aim is to investigate the respondent’s interpretation of the question itself and afterwards the interpretation of the responses to the questions at hand on the interviewer's side. In the end, responses should be based on improved item material on a lower abstract level that will ease the interpretation of the data collected by SWB questionnaires. After constructing a methodology mix of qualitative and quantitative research for evaluating regional living conditions, concrete concerns of inhabitants with various location-specific influences will be discovered, i.e. booming regions, areas with structural problems such as emigration of labor force or human capital, or geographic characteristics, as well as municipalities of special interest such as eco-villages, well-being regions, children-friendly communities or similar. One primary goal is to derive recommendations for local or national policy makers to most effectively increase the living conditions of citizens, and to help directing those interventions to address the concrete underlying problems or happiness drivers – such as immaterial patterns and green consumption behavior motivated by sustainability issues – of the local citizens. Finally, the optimization of the national average SWB may hopefully act as a major economic and political intention. MODUL University has launched an online questionnaire. The aim is to improve the assessment of how life is in our society and whether or to what extent people gain happiness and satisfaction. The questionnaire takes about 10 minutes contains questions about living conditions, quality of life and subjective well-being. It is about the quality of the local environment, about daily hassles and sorrows, and about many circumstances which may influence our daily mood. Material facts are considered as well as emotions, needs, experiences or basic attitudes towards life. Current international developments in official statistics (such as the “GDP and beyond movement” or the “Stiglitz report”) are the background of this study; the purpose is to provide better tools for assessing the well-being of people and in which way it could be improved. The questionnaire results derived from 1,460 respondents (914 paper-pencil, 546 online) are supported by 500 face-to-face interviews, more than 341 diaries and 20 group discussions at 10 different locations in Austria.
Organisations: MODUL University Vienna, Department of Applied Statistics and Economics, Department of Public Governance and Sustainable Development
Author: Ivo Ponocny, Christian Weismayer, Sabine Sedlacek
Date: 01.01.2011 - 30.11.2012
Managed By: MODUL University Vienna
Research Output
- 2021
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"The interactive nature of happiness at work - What People Say About Work When They Talk About Life "2021 Pages: 98-109
Author(s): Ivo Ponocny
Publication date: 2021
Publisher: Routledge
Pages: 98-109
Host publication editor(s): J. Marques
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"Antibody seroprevalence and rate of asymptomatic infections with SARS-CoV-2 in Austrian hospital personnel"2021 in: BMC Infectious Diseases. Volume: 21. Issue number: 1:915 Pages: 1-14
Background: The aims of this study are to determine (i) SARS‑CoV‑2 antibody positive employees in Austrian trauma hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, (ii) number of active virus carriers (symptomatic and asymptomatic) during the study, (iii) antibody decline in seropositive subjects over a period of around 6 months, (iv) the usefulness of rapid antibody tests for outpatient screening. Method: A total of 3301 employees in 11 Austrian trauma hospitals and rehabilitation facilities of the Austrian Social Insurance for Occupational Risks (AUVA) participated in this open uncontrolled prospective cohort study. Rapid lateral flow tests, detecting a combination of IgM and IgM against SARS‑CoV‑2), two different types of CLIA (Diasorin, Roche), RT‑PCR tests and serum neutralization tests (SNTs) were performed. The tests were conducted twice, with an interval of 42.4±7.7 (Min=30, Max=64) days. Positive participants were re‑tested with CLIA/SNT at a third time point after 188.0±12.8 days. Results: Only 27 out of 3301 participants (0.82%) had a positive antibody test at any time point during the study con‑ firmed via neutralization test. Among positively tested participants in either test, 50.4% did not report any symptoms consistent with common manifestations of COVID‑19 during the study period or within the preceding 6 weeks. In the group who tested positive during or prior to study inclusion the most common symptoms of an acute viral illness were rhinitis (21.9%), and loss of taste and olfactory sense (21.9%). Based on the neutralization test as the true condition, the rapid antibody test performed better on serum than whole blood as 84.6% instead of 65.4% could be detected correctly. Concerning both CLIA tests overall the Roche test detected 24 (sensitivity=88.9%) and the Diasorin test 22 positive participants (sensitivity=81.5%). In participants with a positive SNT result, a significant drop in neutralizing antibody titre from 31.8±22.9 (Md=32.0) at T1 to 26.1±17.6 (Md=21.3) at T2 to 21.4±13.4 (Md=16.0) at T3 (χ2=23.848, df=2, p < 0.001) was observed (χ2=23.848, df=2, p < 0.001)—with an average time of 42.4±7.7 days between T1 and T2 and 146.9±13.8 days between T2 and T3.
Author(s): Iris Leister, E. Ponocny-Seliger, Herwig Kollaritsch, Ivo Ponocny
Publication date: 2021
Volume: 21
Issue number: 1:915
Pages: 1-14
- 2020
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"On the importance of leisure travel for psychosocial wellbeing"2020 in: Annals of Tourism Research. Volume: 93.
As psychosocial wellbeing includes a variety of hedonic and eudaimonic aspects, findings on
the wellbeing impacts of tourism can vary from negligible to substantial, depending on the research approach. The present study demonstrates this complexity by analyzing 508 qualitative
interviews in Austria to identify the spontaneously mentioned travel-related wellbeing statements contained within. Our analysis shows that holiday trips serve a variety of purposes, including long-term effects of both hedonic and eudaimonic travel experience, and – less
prominent in the literature – the importance of meeting travel aspirations. Future scientific
or practical investigations into the wellbeing impacts of travel need to consider this variety
and, consequently, seek to mitigate conceptual framing effects.Author(s): Andreas Zins, Ivo Ponocny
Publication date: 3. 2020
Volume: 93
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"Group Sequential Designs Applied in Psychological Research"2020 in: Methodology. Volume: 16. Issue number: 1 Pages: 75-91
Psychological research is confronted with ever-increasing demands to save resources such as time and money while assuring high ethical standards. In medical and pharmaceutical research, group sequential designs have fundamentally changed traditional statistical testing approaches featuring only one analysis at the end of a single-stage study. They enable early stopping at an interim stage, after a group of observations, for efficacy or futility in case of an overwhelmingly large or small effect, respectively. Otherwise, the trial is continued to the next stage. On average over many studies time and money are saved and more ethical trials are facilitated by diminishing the risk of patients' exposure to inferior treatments. We provide an easy-to-use tutorial for psychological research replete with easily understandable figures highlighting the core idea of different group sequential designs, a workflow chart, an empirical real-world data set, and the annotated R code. Finally, we demonstrate the application of early stopping for efficacy.
Author(s): Klemens Weigl, Ivo Ponocny
Publication date: 2020
Volume: 16
Issue number: 1
Pages: 75-91
Electronic version(s), related files and links: http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5964/meth.2811
- 2019
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"Long-term effects of parental divorce on mental health – A meta-analysis"2019 in: Journal of Psychiatric Research. Pages: 107-115
The aim of this study was to estimate the long-term effects of parental divorce on their offspring's mental health as well as substance-based addiction. We performed a systematic literature search on PubMed, Medline, PsyINFO, PsyARTICLES and PsycNET for the time period from 1990 until March 2018 in English language. In total 54 studies were included in the meta-analysis resulting in 117 effect sizes as well as a total sample of 506,299 participants. A significant association between parental divorce and every aspect of mental health was found with the following pooled ORs (95% CIs): Depression 1.29 (1.23–1.35), anxiety 1.12 (1.04–1.12), suicide attempt 1.35 (1.26–1.44), suicidal ideation 1.48 (1.43–1.54), distress 1.48 (1.37–1.6), alcohol 1.43 (1.34–1.53), smoking 1.64 (1.57–1.72) and drugs 1.45 (1.44–1.46) could be estimated. There was significant association between the effect sizes and the publication date specifically for distress (r = −0.995, p = .005). The results of the meta-analysis show a consistent direction of influence regarding the long-term effect of parental divorce on their children. Individuals affected by parental divorce have a higher risk of developing a variety of mental health conditions, although the effect sizes decreased from 1990 to 2017. Further research should focus on developing programmes to promote the resilience of children affected by divorce.
Author(s): Auersperg Felicitas, Thomas Vlasak, Ivo Ponocny, Alfred Barth
Publication date: 12. 2019
Pages: 107-115
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