Research Assistantships
The Personality, Emotion, and Social Cognition (PESC) Lab relies on motivated undergraduate students to help us conduct our research. They can participate in one of four ways: volunteering, for course credit (PSYC 4398), paid assistantships (currently unavailable), or university programs/fellowships (e.g., PURS or SURF).
Undergraduate research assistants in the PESC Lab are involved in all aspects of the research process, including brainstorming, study design, creating surveys and study materials, collecting and analyzing data, and even writing up data for publication. Advanced research assistants also have the opportunity to design and conduct their own research project under the guidance of Dr. Fetterman. Research assistants also participate in lab meetings where we discuss research projects, have workshops for things like data analysis, and discuss issues related to graduate school.
Research assistants in the PESC Lab are assigned a graduate mentor, who they primarily work with. However, research assistants can and do help on projects led by other graduate students and Dr. Fetterman, aside from those led by their primary graduate mentor.
Benefits of working as a research assistant include:
All research assistants must meet the following criteria:
To apply to be a research assistant, please CLICK HERE for the application.
Undergraduate research assistants in the PESC Lab are involved in all aspects of the research process, including brainstorming, study design, creating surveys and study materials, collecting and analyzing data, and even writing up data for publication. Advanced research assistants also have the opportunity to design and conduct their own research project under the guidance of Dr. Fetterman. Research assistants also participate in lab meetings where we discuss research projects, have workshops for things like data analysis, and discuss issues related to graduate school.
Research assistants in the PESC Lab are assigned a graduate mentor, who they primarily work with. However, research assistants can and do help on projects led by other graduate students and Dr. Fetterman, aside from those led by their primary graduate mentor.
Benefits of working as a research assistant include:
- learning about state of the art research in personality, social, and cognitive psychology
- learning how to engage psychological science
- learning about each component of the research process
- learning data analysis skills using R
- opportunities to conduct your own research project
- opportunities to work directly with Dr. Fetterman
- opportunities to gain authorship on a scientific publication
- opportunities to become more competitive for graduate school
- opportunities to collaborate with other faculty in the department
- a letter of recommendation for graduate programs from Dr. Fetterman for exceptional students
All research assistants must meet the following criteria:
- commit to working at least 2 semesters in the lab
- be enrolled at the University of Houston
- have completed and passed Introduction to Methods in Psychology (PSYC 2305) and Introduction to Psychology Statistics (PSYC 2317) or equivalent
- have a GPA greater than 3.0
- commit to running participants in the lab for 4, 1 hour sessions per week
- commit to attending weekly 1 hour lab meetings on Fridays at 11am (in person only)
- commit to attending weekly research meetings with their graduate mentor and Dr. Fetterman
- if enrolling for research credits (PSYC 4398), give a lab presentation and complete a lab report on a study run in the lab
To apply to be a research assistant, please CLICK HERE for the application.