• since 2016 Assistant Professor of Personality and Developmental Psychology, University of Basel
• since 2016 Adjunct Lecturer of Developmental Psychology: Adulthood, University of Zurich
• since 2011 Faculty member of The Life Course: Evolutionary and Ontogenetic Dynamics (LIFE)

• 2014–2016 Senior teaching and research associate (Oberassistenz) of Developmental Psychology: Adulthood, University of Zurich
• 2014–2014 Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
• 2009–2014 Senior teaching and research associate (Oberassistenz), of Developmental Psychology: Adulthood, University of Zurich
• 2008–2009 Post-doctoral research fellow, Developmental Psychology: Adulthood, University of Zurich
• 2005–2008 Junior teaching and research associate, Developmental Psychology: Adulthood, University of Zurich
• 2004–2005 Research assistant, Applied Psychology, University of Zurich

• 2015 Habilitation in Psychology, University of Zurich
• 2008 Doctorate in Psychology, University of Zurich (summa cum laude)
• 2003 Master, University of Zurich, Major: Psychology, Minors: Psychopathology of Childhood and Adolescence, Criminology

• 2017 Council member of the European Association for Developmental Psychology
• 2014 Consulting Editor and Guest Action Editor of Psychology and Aging
• 2009 Annual Award of the Faculty of Arts, University of Zurich, for Best Dissertation of the Year (CHF 5,000)

• Nikitin, J. & Freund, A. M. (2019). Who cares? Effects of social approach and avoidance motivation on responsiveness to others.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45, 182-195. doi:10.1177/0146167218781335
• Nikitin, J., & Freund, A. M. (2018). Feeling loved and integrated or lonely and rejected in everyday life: The role of age and social motivation. Developmental Psychology, 54, 1186-1198. doi:10.1037/dev0000502
  
• Job, V., Sieber, V., Rothermund, K., & Nikitin, J. (2018). Age differences in implicit theories about willpower: Why older people endorse a nonlimited theory. Psychology and Aging, 33, 940-952. doi:10.1037/pag0000285
• Nikitin, J., Schoch, S., & Freund, A. M. (2014). The role of age and motivation for the experience of social acceptance and rejection. Developmental Psychology, 50, 1943-1950. doi:10.1037/a0036979
• Nikitin, J., & Freund, A. M. (2014). The indirect nature of social motives: The relation of social approach and avoidance motives with likeability via extraversion and agreeableness. Journal of Personality, 83, 97-105. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12086
• Nikitin, J., & Freund, A. M. (2011). Age and motivation predict gaze behavior for facial expressions. Psychology and Aging, 26, 695-700. doi:10.1037/a0023281

All publications

• 2017 Grant from the Volkswagen Foundation for the interdisciplinary project Ageing as Future (PIs subproject: Jana Nikitin and Sylvie Graf; project PIs: Frieder R. Lang, Stephan Lessenich, Klaus Rothermund)
• 2016 Grant from the Foundation for Scientific Research of the University of Zurich for the project Motivation-Based Experience of Social Interactions in Daily Life: An Intervention Study (PI: Jana Nikitin)
• 2015 Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the project Why is Social Motivation Detrimental for Young but Not Older Adults? (PI: Jana Nikitin)
• 2013 Grant from the Centro Stefano Franscini (CSF) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich for the conference Social-Motivational Development Across the Life Span (PI: Jana Nikitin)
• 2012 Grant from the Suzanne and Hans Biäsch Foundation for the Promotion of Applied Psychology for the project Changes in Adaptivity of Social Approach and Avoidance Behavior across Adulthood (PI: Jana Nikitin)
• 2009 Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the project Social Approach and Avoidance Motivation: The Role of Age (PIs: Jana Nikitin and Alexandra M. Freund)
• 2006 Grant from the Suzanne and Hans Biäsch Foundation for the Promotion of Applied Psychology for the project Motivational Determinants of Social Competence (PI: Jana Nikitin)

• 2019– Swiss Network for Well-Being and Aging
• 2018– Ageing as Future (supported by the Volkswagen Foundation)with Sylvie Graf (University of Bern); PIs Klaus Rothermund (University of Jena), Frieder R. Lang (University of Erlangen), and Stephan Lessenich (University of Munich)
• 2018– Understanding Communal Orientation in Men (UCOM)
• 2017– Age Differences in Implicit Theories About Willpower with Veronika Job (University of Dresden)
• 2017– Der Effekt von kulturellen Modellen auf den Umgang mit interkulturellen Konflikten, PI: Prof. Dr. Axinja Hachfeld (University of Konstanz)
• 2016– Why is Social Avoidance Motivation Detrimental for Young but Not Older Adults? with Alexandra M. Freund (University of Zurich)
• 2014– Stereotype Threat as a Predictor of Social Approach and Avoidance Goals with Sarah Martiny (University of Tromsø, Norway