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dr hab. Artur Pokropek, prof. IFiS PAN ORCID, Google Scholar

Artur Pokropek - zdjęcie

Artur Pokropek is a Head of the Computational Social Science Division at the Polish Academy of Sciences and a member of the International Studies Group at the Institute of Educational Research (IBE) in Warsaw. His profile uniquely combines experience in social and medical research. His main areas of research are statistics, psychometry, and machine learning. He planned, designed, and conducted many research projects. He published more than 100 scientific papers and conducted dozens of research projects. He has experience in leading and managing national and international projects. 

He gained knowledge as a visiting scholar at the Educational Testing Service (Princeton, USA) from 2013 to 2014 and as an associate researcher at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy) from 2016 to 2018. In 2020 he was a visiting scholar at the National Board of Medical Examiners (Philadelphia, USA) and an affiliate academic at the Social Research Institute, University College London in 2021. Since 2019, he has worked continuously with the Żelazna gynaecological clinic (Warsaw, Poland) as a statistical advisor. In 2020, he was appointed by the Ministry of Science as an expert in the ‘Implementation PhD Program’, where he looks after more than a dozen PhDs in private companies proposing real applications of scientific research. He holds a habilitation degree in social sciences, a PhD in Educational Science, and two MA degrees in Educational Sciences and Sociology.

Projekty badawcze

  • 2021 – 2025 Research Lab for the Digital Social Sciences. About the use of digital footprints in studying social problems. The National Science Centre grant "Sonata Bis" (2020/38/E/HS6/00302).
  • 2020 – 2023 Understanding response styles in self-report data: consequences, remedies and sources. The National Science Centre grant "Opus" (Opus/17/HS6/00937).
  • 2015-2019 Scales comparability in large-scale cross‐country surveys. The National Science Centre grant "Sonata" (2014/15/D/HS6/04934).
  • 2011-2012 Evaluation of educational policy using twins. Research grant awarded by the Global Development Network (RRC11_063).
  • Meuleman, Bart, Żółtak, Tomasz, Pokropek, Artur, Davidov, Eldad, Muthen, Bengt, Oberski, Daniel, Billiet, Jaak, Schmidt, Peter. (2022). Why measurement invariance is important in comparative research. A response to Welzel et al.
    (2021). Sociological Methods and Research. doi: 10.1177/00491241221091755
  • Pokropek, Artur, Muszyński, Marek, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2022). The impact of growing participation in PISA on scaling outcomes. A Monte Carlo simulation study. OECD Education Working Papers No. 277. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • Muszyński, Marek, Pokropek, Artur, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2021). Structural Validity of Overclaiming Scores: analysing PISA 2012 data. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling 63(1), 119-145.
  • Pokropek A., Schmidt, P. & Davidov E. (2020). Choosing Priors in Bayesian Measurement Invariance Modeling: A Monte Carlo Simulation Study. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal 27(5). doi: 10.1080/10705511.2019.1703708
  • Pokropek, A., Lüdtke, O., & Robitzsch, A. (2020). An extension of the invariance alignment method for scale linking. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling 62(2), 305-334.
  • Khorramdel, L., Pokropek, A., Joo, S. H., Kirsch, I., & Halderman, L. (2020). Examining gender DIF and gender differences in the PISA 2018 reading literacy scale: A partial invariance approach. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling 62(2), 179-231.
  • Pokropek, A., & Borgonovi, F. (2020). Linking via Pseudo‐Equivalent Group Design: Methodological Considerations and an Application to the PISA and PIAAC Assessments. Journal of Educational Measurement 57(4), 527-546. doi: 10.1111/jedm.12261
  • Khorramdel, L., von Davier, M., & Pokropek, A. (2019). Combining mixture distribution and multidimensional IRTree models for the measurement of extreme response styles. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology 72(3), 538-559. doi: 10.1111/bmsp.12179
  • Pokropek, A., Davidov, E., & Schmidt, P. (2019). A Monte Carlo simulation study to assess the appropriateness of traditional and newer approaches to test for measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal 26(5), 724-744. doi: 10.1080/10705511.2018.1561293
  • Borgonovi, F., & Pokropek, A. (2019). Seeing is believing: Task-exposure specificity and the development of mathematics self-efficacy evaluations. Journal of Educational Psychology 111(2), 268. doi: 10.1037/edu0000280
  • Marks, G. N., & Pokropek, A. (2019). Family income effects on mathematics achievement: their relative magnitude and causal pathways. Oxford Review of Education 45(6), 769-785. doi: 10.1080/03054985.2019.1620717

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences

00-330 Warsaw, Poland
72 Nowy Świat Street

room 207

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Artur-Pokropek-Lab


dr Maria Flakus ORCID-logo ORCID, Google Scholar - logo Google Scholar

Maria Flakus

Maria Flakus works as a post-doc at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Moreover, she is a research assistant at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Silesia in Katowice. She obtained her master's degree and Ph.D. in psychology (University of Silesia in Katowice).

Her main research areas are focused on the psychology of individual differences (i.e., personality, intelligence) and methodological competence and academic achievement. In her Ph.D. thesis, she analyzed the determinants of methodological competencies, examining their determinants in the area of ​​individual differences (i.e., personality, cognitive preferences) and information processing (implicit vs. explicit).

She is the author of scientific papers that have been published in international, respectable journals, such as Body Image, Personality and Individual Differences, Psychological Reports.

Projekty badawcze

  • 2021 – today - a member of the research team -  Research Lab for the Digital Social Sciences. About the use of digital footprints in studying social problems. The National Science Centre grant "Sonata Bis" (2020/38/E/HS6/00302).
  • 2021 – today - a member of the research team - Life and shades of hypersensitive narcissism: Discovering the intra- and interpersonal consequences of hypersensitive narcissism through the prism of the model of hypersensitive isolation and hostility. The National Science Centre grant "Opus" (2020/39/B/HS6/00052)

Projects co-financed by a special-purpose subsidy for scientific research or development works and related tasks, for the development of young scientists, financed in internal grant procedure (University of Silesia in Katowice):

  • 2018 - 2020 - project leader - Methodological competencies of psychology students in the context of personality and cognitive factors

    2016 - 2018 - project leader - Cognitive preferences and the state of methodological awareness of psychology students

    2015 - 2017 - project leader - Relationships between the level of methodological awareness of psychology students and their attitudes towards scientific research

  • Przybyła-Basista, H., Buszman, K., & Flakus, M. (2022). An examination of the factor structure of the Goldfarb Fear of Fat Scale in clinical and non-clinical samples of Polish women. Body Image, 40, 58-66. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.11.003
  • Flakus, M. (2021). Osobowość i osiągnięcia w nauce. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.
  • Skorupa, A., Stefanek, F., Brol., & M., Flakus, M. (2021). Immersion and socio-emotional experiences during a movie – Polish adaptation of the Movie Consumption Questionnaires. Psychological Reports, online first. doi: 10.1177/00332941211048472
  • Flakus, M., Danieluk, B., Baran, L., Kwiatkowska, K., Rogoza, R., & Schermer, J. A. (2021). Are intelligent peers liked more? Assessing peer-reported liking through the network analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 177, 110844. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110844
  • Ślazyk-Sobol., M., Dobrowolska, M., & Flakus, M. (2021). Predictors of the feeling of stress in the aviation industry. Medycyna Pracy, 72, 1-11 - online first. doi: 10.13075/mp.5893.01084
  • Ślebarska, K. & Flakus, M. (2021). Career self-management of unemployed workers: the role of proactive coping in job-to-job transition. Baltic Journal of Management, 16(1), 135-153. doi: 10.1108/BJM-06-2020-0189
  • Trahair, C., Baran, L., Flakus, M., Kowalski, C. M., & Rogoza, R. (2020). The structure of the Dark Triad traits: A network analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 167, 110265. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110265
  • Dobrowolska, M., Flakus, M., Ślazyk-Sobol, M., & Wawoczny, A. (2020). Strengthening professional efficacy due to sustainable development of social and individual competences - empirical research study among polish and Slovak employees of the aviation sector. Sustainability, 12, 6843. doi: 10.3390/su1217684
  • Dobrowolska, M., Ślazyk-Sobol, M., Flakus, M., & Deja, A. (2020). Climate and ties in workplace versus sense of danger and stress, based on empirical research in the aviation industry. Sustainability, 12, 5302. doi: 10.3390/su12135302
  • Sołtysik, M., Flakus, M., & Pudlo, R. (2019). Personality characteristics of mountaineers - review of the literature. Psychiatria Polska, 53(6), 1397-1411. doi: 10.12740/PP/99144
  • Flakus, M. (2018). Wstępna charakterystyka psychometryczna polskiej adaptacji Skali Podatności na Nudę (BPS). Polskie Forum Psychologiczne, 23(4), 783–802. doi: 10.14656/PFP20180408
  • Sołtysik, M., Flakus, M., Lubecka, B., & Pudlo, R. (2018). Aktualny stan badań nad zaburzeniami psychicznymi u wspinaczy wysokogórskich. Psychiatria i Psychologia Kliniczna, 18(2), 200-207. doi: 10.15557/PiPK.2018.0024
  • Flakus, M. (2017). Znaczenie postaw wobec badań naukowych i statystyki w procesie kształcenia akademickiego psychologów. Przegląd literatury. Edukacja, 143(4), 76–89. doi: 10.24131/3724.170406

Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii, Polska Akademia Nauk, pokój 207
ul. Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Polska

e-mail: maria.flakus@ifispan.edu.pl


dr Marek Muszyński ORCID-logo ORCID, Google Scholar - logo Google Scholar

Marek Muszyński - zdjęcie

Currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. His main research investigations concentrate around response biases (response styles, careless responding, socially desirable responding) in self-report data with a special focus on web surveys. He is also interested in more general psychological and educational assessment research topics.

He holds a PhD degree in sociology and an MA diploma in cognitive psychology, both from Jagiellonian University (Kraków, Poland). He also graduated from a post-graduate programme in educational measurement held at Jagiellonian University and Educational Research Institute. His PhD thesis was focused on validity study of the overclaiming technique as a tool to account for positivity bias in self-assessment questions. Previously, he used to work as an educational consultant and researcher for various constituents, e.g. the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Evidence Institute (Warsaw, Poland), Educational Research Institute (IBE; Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych, Poland) or OECD.

Research Projects

  • 2016 New methods of identifying and correcting for socially desirable responding in self-evaluation of educational skills: comparison and validation. Grant for young researchers, Jagiellonian University.
  • 2014 Polish adaptation of the BIDR-6 questionnaire. Grant for young researchers, Jagiellonian University.
  • 2013-2016 English as a foreign language in Polish schools: process and effects of teaching. Research project in Educational Research Institute.
  • Pokropek, Artur, Muszyński, Marek, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2022). The impact of growing participation in PISA on scaling outcomes. A Monte Carlo simulation study. OECD Education Working Papers No. 277. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • Muszyński, Marek, Pokropek, Artur, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2021). Structural Validity of Overclaiming Scores: analysing PISA 2012 data. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling 63(1), 119-145.
  • Durlik, J., Szewczyk, J., Muszyński, M., & Wodniecka, Z. (2016). Interference and inhibition in bilingual language comprehension: Evidence from Polish- English interlingual homographs. PLOS ONE, 11(3), e0151430.
  • Muszyński, M., Kondratek, B., Gajewska-Dyszkiewicz, A., Paczuska, K. & Szpotowicz, M. (2016). Właściwości psychometryczne egzaminu maturalnego 2015- język angielski, poziom podstawowy. Analizy IBE 2/2016, 1-30. [in Polish: Psychometric properties of the final high-school exam 2015- English, basic level.]
  • Muszyński, M., Campfield, E. D. & Szpotowicz, M. (2015). Język angielski w szkole podstawowej – proces i efekty nauczania. Wyniki podłużnego badania efektywności nauczania języka angielskiego (2011-2014). Warszawa: IBE. [book in Polish: English in primary schools: process and the effects of teaching. Results of longitudinal study on the effective English teaching (2011-2014).]
  • Muszyński, M., & Jakubowski, M. (2015). Use of learning strategies and reading performance- PISA 2009 results for Poland. Edukacja/Education Quarterly, 3(134), 5-25.

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences

00-330 Warsaw, Poland
72 Nowy Świat Street

room 207

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Artur-Pokropek-Lab


dr Tomasz Żółtak ORCID-logo ORCID, Google Scholar - logo Google Scholar

Tomasz Żółtak - zdjęcie

Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. His research interests concentrate on applied statistics and research methodology mostly in the fields of educational research and political science. He’s also involved in development of data processing, analysis and reporting solutions for both other scientists and a more general audience.

He holds PhD degree in sociology from the University of Warsaw. For many years he worked at the Educational Research Institute in Warsaw on applied research projects regarding measuring school-effectiveness using examination scores and tracking further educational and professional careers of graduates. Apart from research he has experience in teaching (courses on data analysis for MA students and on causal inference for PhD students at the University of Warsaw) implementing advanced psychometric methods in business solutions (collaboration with Polish firms Diagmatic and Talent Bridge) and software development (author and contributor to several R packages).

Fundamental research

Research team member in projects:

  • 2020 – 2023 Understanding response styles in self-report data: consequences, remedies and sources. The National Science Centre grant "Opus" (Opus/17/HS6/00937).
  • 2014 – 2015 Disproportionality in Polish 2010 and 2014 municipal elections. The National Science Centre grant Preludium (2013/09/N/HS5/00276).
  • 2013 – 2015 From School to Work: Individual and Institutional Determinants of Educational and Occupational Career Trajectories of Young Poles. The National Science Centre grant Maestro (DEC-2012/06/A/HS6/00323).

Applied research

Research team member in projects:

  • 2019 – 2020 Development of intelligent tools for the psycho-social-educational diagnosis of children and adolescents. Project financed within Operational Programme Smart Growth of the European Union (POIR.01.01.01-00-0402/18-00).
  • 2019 – 2020 Tracking the educational and career paths of vocational education graduates - phase II. Project financed within Operational Programme Knowledge Education Development of the European Union (POWR.02.15.00-IP.02-00-002/19).
  • 2016 – 2019 Tracking the educational and career paths of graduates and young adults. Project financed within Operational Programme Knowledge Education Development of the European Union (POWR.02.15.00-IP.02-00-004/16).
  • 2014 – 2015 Development of educational value-added methodology to strengthen external examinations' evaluation function. Project financed within Operational Programme Human Capital of the European Union (UDA-POKL.03.02.00-00-001/13-00‎).
  • 2010 – 2013 Developement of  the educational value-added methodology. Project financed within Operational Programme Human Capital of the European Union (UDA-POKL.03.02.00-00-010/07-04).
  • Breznau, Nate, Rinke, Eike Mark, Wuttke, Alexander, …, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2022). Observing Many Researchers Using the Same Data and Hypothesis Reveals a Hidden Universe of Uncertainty. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119(44). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2203150119
  • Meuleman, Bart, Żółtak, Tomasz, Pokropek, Artur, Davidov, Eldad, Muthen, Bengt, Oberski, Daniel, Billiet, Jaak, Schmidt, Peter. (2022). Why measurement invariance is important in comparative research. A response to Welzel et al.
    (2021). Sociological Methods and Research, opublikowany na stronie internetowej czasopisma. doi: 10.1177/00491241221091755
  • Pokropek, Artur, Muszyński, Marek, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2022). The impact of growing participation in PISA on scaling outcomes. A Monte Carlo simulation study. OECD Education Working Papers No. 277. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • Hawrot, Anna, Jasińska, Aleksandra, Żółtak, Tomasz, Tomaszewska, Hanna, Marchlik, Paulinina. (2022). Various reasons, various trajectories? Interrupted schooling among Polish upper secondary school students. Research Papers in
    Education 37(3), 418-440. doi: 10.1080/02671522.2020.1849373
  • Muszyński, Marek, Pokropek, Artur, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2021). Structural Validity of Overclaiming Scores: analysing PISA 2012 data. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling 63(1), 119-145.
  • Leńko-Szymańska, Agnieszka, Lewkowicz, Jo, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2020). Assessment of B2 English exam writing subtest: A quantitative analysis of the results of a pro-quality study. W: Andrzej Dąbrowski, Radosław Kucharczyk, Agnieszka Leńko-Szymańska i Jolanta Sujecka-Zając (red.) Competences of the 21st Century: Certification of language proficiency. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
  • Hawrot, Anna, Jasińska, Aleksandra, Żółtak, Tomasz, Tomaszewska, Hanna, Marchlik, Paulinina. (2020). Various reasons, various trajectories? Interrupted schooling among Polish upper secondary school students. Research Papers in Education. doi: 10.1080/02671522.2020.1849373
  • Gendźwiłł, Adam, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2020). Do parties and voters counteract quota regulations? The impact of legislative gender quotas on ballot ranking and preference voting in Poland. Politics & Gender 16(1), 199-229. doi: 10.1017/S1743923X18000880
  • Rajchert, Joanna, Żółtak, Tomasz, Szulawski, Michał, Jasielska, Dorota. (2019). Effects of rejection by a friend for someone else on emotions and behavior. Frontiers in Psychology 10, 764. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00764
  • Gendźwiłł, Adam, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2017). How single-member districts are reinforcing local independents and strengthening mayors: on the electoral reform in Polish local government. Local Government Studies 43(1), 110‑131. doi: 10.1080/03003930.2016.1254624
  • Żółtak, Tomasz, Golonka, Grzegorz. (2015). Does guessing matter? Differences between ability estimates from 2PL and 3PL IRT models in case of guessing. Edukacja 134(3), 63-76.
  • Gendźwiłł, Adam, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2014). Why Do Nonpartisans Challenge Parties in Local Politics? The (extreme) case of Poland. Europe-Asia Studies 66(7), 1122‑1145. doi: 10.1080/09668136.2014.927644
  • Rajchert, Joanna, Smulczyk, Marek, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2014). Predicting reading literacy and its improvement in the Polish national extension of the PISA study: The role of intelligence, trait- and state-anxiety, socio-economic status and school-type. Learning and Individual Differences 33, 1‑11. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2014.11.020
  • Rajchert, Joanna, Smulczyk, Marek, Żółtak, Tomasz. (2013). Trait-anxiety’s moderating role in predicting academic performance improvement in PISA. Polish Journal of Applied Psychology 11(3), s. 73-92.

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences

00-330 Warsaw, Poland
72 Nowy Świat Street

room 207

mgr Piotr Koc ORCID-logo ORCID, Google Scholar - logo Google Scholar

Piotr Koc is a Ph.D. candidate in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. His research interests focus on comparative studies of political behavior and attitudes, as well as modeling of latent variables. He is a graduate of the University of Warsaw (Poland) and the University of Konstanz (Germany).

Research team member in:

2020-2021: Multidimensional Biographies and Social Structure: Poland 1988- 2018 (POLPAN). Funded by National Science Centre. IFiS PAN

Koc, P. & A. Pokropek (in press). Accounting for Cross-Country-Cross-Time Variations in Measurement Invariance Testing. A Case of Political Participation, Survey Research Methods.

Koc, P. (2021).  Measuring Non-electoral Political Participation: Bi-factor Model as a Tool to Extract Dimensions. SocialIndicators Research, 156, 271–287. doi: 10.1007/s11205-021-02637-3

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, room 207

00-330 Warsaw, Poland, 72 Nowy Świat Street

e-mail: piotr.koc(at)yahoo(dot)com


Hubert Plisiecki, MSc ORCID-logo ORCID

Hubert Plisiecki is a Ph.D. student in the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw, Poland) and a research assistant at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Warsaw, Poland). He obtained a Master of Science degree from the University of Sheffield in Psychological Scientific Methods with Data Science Elements. In addition, he is one of the coordinators of the "Neuropsyche" Club of the SWPS University and the Open Science Club at the same university. He is also a member of the Social AI Club at the University of Warsaw and the Polish Skeptics Club. His main scientific interests are Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, metapsychology, and research on emotions. He is actively involved in popularizing science. His popular scientific papers were published in "Focus" and "Newsweek Psychologia" journals.

2021 - today - a member of the research team - Institutionalization of political parties in the parliaments of Central Europe - data mining of parliamentary debates. (National Science Center - NCN number: 2019/33 / B / HS5 / 02648)

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, room 207

00-330 Warsaw, Poland, 72 Nowy Świat Street

e-mail: hplisiecki@gmail.com