He completed his PhD at the University of Trier, was a postdoc at University of Bern and UC Davis, and was an assistant professor at University of Basel. His research focuses on self-esteem development across the lifespan, the link between low self-esteem and depression, and the consequences of self-esteem for important life domains such as relationships, work, and health. In 2013, he received the William Stern Award for Personality Psychology from the German Psychological Society.