VRAProgramme

Volunteer Research Assistant Programme

Do you intend to do post-graduate work in Psychology or a related field? If so, you should consider acquiring research experience beyond that offered in your coursework. By gaining additional research experience, your applications for post-graduate positions and funding are more likely to stand out from the rest, as you will have demonstrated a particularly keen interest in and motivation with respect to psychological research, you will have expanded knowledge of psychological theories and methodologies, and you will have had the opportunity to work more closely with an established researcher who, depending on your performance as a research assistant, could write a positive letter of reference for you.

Several members of the research staff at the University of Edinburgh are looking for bright, highly motivated undergraduate students of Psychology to assist them with new or ongoing projects. VRA applicants should be in their 3rd or 4th^* year of study, though we will accept applications from 2nd-year students who have achieved an exceptional mark in Psychology 1 (i.e., 65 or higher). If you are selected as a volunteer (i.e., unpaid) research assistant (VRA), your duties might include (N.B. this list is not exhaustive):

Running Subjects (i.e., collecting data from participants)

Entering Data

Coding Data (e.g., identification of themes in participants’ open-ended responses)

Data Analysis (i.e., descriptive statistics and, depending on your level of knowledge, perhaps inferential statistics)

Library Work (e.g., searching databases for relevant articles/books/etc., retrieving articles/books/etc.)

The number of hours required of you will vary from project to project. In all cases, the established researcher will be sensitive to the demands of your coursework, as that is your first priority.

If you would like to be considered for such a position, please fill out the following form. Dr Graham MacKenzie, who is organising up the VRA programme, will then examine your suitability for such a position by looking at your performance both in and outside of Psychology and, perhaps, speaking with your DoS. If your record shows you to be generally suitable for such a post, Dr MacKenzie will then match you up with an established researcher who requires assistance with a project. Depending on the level of interest in these posts, a VRA might have the opportunity to work with more than one researcher consecutively (i.e., when one project ends, you might be given the opportunity to work on a different project).

Application Form

Application deadline for Semester 2 (2011/2012) VRA posts:
12:00pm Friday 27 January 2012

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Name:

Matriculation number:

Degree Programme:

Psychology (single honours)	Psychology & Business Studies
Philosophy & Psychology	Artificial Intelligence & Psychology
Sociology & Psychology	Psychology & Linguistics

Year in Programme: Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

Areas of Interest (check all that apply)^**:

Developmental Psychology

Differential Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology (Sociobiology)

Health Psychology

Human Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Psychology/Psycholinguistics

Social Psychology

Please write a short paragraph (no more than 150 words) describing why you are interested in becoming a VRA.

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^*If you are currently in your 4^th and final year, you may participate in the VRA programme up through the summer of the year in which you graduate (eg. if you graduate June 2008, you may hold a VRA post until the start of the 2008/2009 academic year).

^**If possible, we will try to match you with a researcher in your area(s) of interest. There is no guarantee that this will be the case, however, as there may not be opportunities available in certain research areas at any given time.