SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES - DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
VOLUNTARY RESEARCH ASSISTANT SCHEME
The Voluntary Research Assistant Scheme (VRAs) is an experience offered to UG students (year 2 to 4) enrolled in a Psychology programme at Heriot Watt University.
Aims
- Increase your employability profile by including the scheme in your CV
- Develop further your transferable skills in terms of data handling and reports preparation
- Get greater knowledge of a research environment, including team work, and of the research environment in general
- Get hands-on research experience on a specific topic of Psychology of your interest
How?
By taking part in a research project led by a staff member.
Minimum duration: 2 months; Maximum duration: 12 months
Minimum hours/week: 2 hours; Maximum hours/week: 8 hours
The number of hours undertaken will depend on the time of year and your commitments in relation to your studies and should be discussed and agreed with your supervisor.
Is there a selection process?
The VRA experience is agreed with the supervisor. If the supervisor accepts the application and there are places available, then no further selection is needed. If there are more applications than places available, then there is a selection process.
The selection is based on:
- CV (qualifications acquired up until the application and extracurricular relevant activities)
- Personal statement highlighting the reason for pursuing this opportunity ( e.g. experience useful for pursuing Masters programme or PhD position; experience useful for developing particular skills; experience useful for deciding between clinical and research career)
- Match between abilities-project (e.g. if project requires use of SPSS independently, unlikely to benefit year 2 student).
If you are interested in becoming a VRA for any of the projects below, please email the relevant staff contact copying in VRA Coordinator: Dr Mel McKendrick M.McKendrick@hw.ac.uk
| Project |
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| Description | This project aims to clarify associations between cannabis use and subsequent mental health outcomes. In particular, it aims to contribute to the understanding of the causal role of cannabis to mental health outcomes. Past studies have insufficiently accounted for potential confounders such as pre-cannabis use mental health, personality and SES. This study will use existing longitudinal datasets to investigate this area. |
| VRA Role | This project may be of interest to students who want to develop practical and policy relevant research areas. The role will include contributing to the development of research questions and methodological approaches, preparing datasets and analysing data and writing up findings |
| Start date | Negotiable |
| Duration |
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| Benefits to VRA |
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| Staff contact | Dr Dan Hale |
| d.hale@hw.ac.uk |
T
| Project |
Validation of a potential training paradigm for student presentation skills |
| Description | The aim of the current study is to trial a combination of exposure and cognitive restructuring in a training paradigm with live social performance situations (student presentations) in order to provide the basis for research development in a virtual training application programme |
| VRA Role |
We are looking for students who can help running the study which will involve groups sessions where students engage in presentation practice. You will help with administering feedback exercises and in analysing speech, motion and eye tracking data. |
| Start Date | March 2019 |
| Duration | The study will involve 15 two hour sessions and the analysis period will extend some weeks after this but your involvement will depend on your role. |
| Benefits to VRA | You will gain experience of working with groups of participants in a lab based study and learn about social anxiety in relation to speech content, gestures and attention. You will also gain knowledge of analysis and statistics depending on your role. |
| Staff Contact | Dr Mel McKendrick |
| M.McKendrick@hw.ac.uk |
| Project |
Playing for boosting reading |
| Description | Learning to read can be a hard and laborious task, especially when the child is underachieving and feeling the pressure of lagging behind. Having difficulty in learning to read can lead to demotivation and discouragement for engaging in reading activities |
| VRA Role |
We are looking for an enthusiast person, keen to work independently and to interact with children to pilot a set of on-line games aiming at boosting reading in children at the early stage of primary school. |
| Start Date | To be agreed with supervisor |
| Duration | We request that you be available 6 hours per week. |
| Benefits to VRA | To be discussed with supervisor |
| Staff Contact | Dr Maria Garraffa |
| m.garraffa@hw.ac.uk |
| Project |
Adaptation of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test in Malay and Italian |
| Description | Are you a student in Psychology native speaker of Malay or Italian? Are you interested in Neuropsychology and Language disorders? The LangLife Lab is interested in adapting the Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT; Porter, Howard and Swinborn, 2004) in Malay and Italian, as part of a bigger research project. |
| VRA Role |
We are looking for a student who would like to gain experience in testing language abilities in adults and to learn psychometric properties related to language.
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| Start Date | To be agreed with supervisor |
| Duration | We request that you be available 8 hours per week, but we are also interested in arranging placements during the summer break. Please note that some days will be spent working out of office. |
| Benefits to VRA | To be discussed with supervisor |
| Staff Contact | Dr Maria Garraffa |
| m.garraffa@hw.ac.uk |
| Project |
Media communication experience at LangLife Lab |
| Description |
At the LangLife Lab, we offer volunteer experience for students interested in media and communications and to use their knowledge on the Psychology of language as a strategic concept. |
| VRA Role |
The LangLife Lab is interested in promoting language acquisition in special circumstances and we would like this message to receive media coverage not only in the UK but internationally as well. Therefore we are looking for a student who would like to gain more experience in running advertising campaigns, maintaining public relations and writing press releases. |
| Start Date | To be agreed with supervisor |
| Duration | We request that you be available 8 hours per week, but we are also interested in arranging placements during the summer break. Please note that some days will be spent working out of office. |
| Benefits to VRA | To be discussed with supervisor |
| Staff Contact | Dr Maria Garraffa |
| m.garraffa@hw.ac.uk |
| Project |
Objective, automatic measures of depression – can data from a mobile phone be related to depression? |
| Description | Participants will be asked to complete some baseline measures assessing cognition, personality and mood. All participants will need to download an app for their phone. |
| VRA Role |
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| Start Date | The beginning of the semester will be the busiest as this is when the recruitment and setting of the study takes place. |
| Duration | The post is for approximately 4 weeks. |
| Benefits to VRA | The VRA will gain experience in measures of depression, emotion, personality and cognition. |
| Staff Contact | Dr Mary E. Stewart |
| M.E.Stewart@hw.ac.uk |
| Project |
Driver Distraction |
| Description | An existing dataset concerning self-report driver distraction behaviours requires analysis. |
| VRA Role | Investigation and data analysis. |
| Start Date | Beginning of the semester |
| Duration | 6 months |
| Benefits to VRA | Development of practical data collection and analysis skills. |
| Staff Contact | Dr Terry Lansdown |
| T.Lansdown@hw.ac.uk |