Research Assistants
Diversity and Inclusion: The Baby and Child Rebel Lab values the participation and inclusion of individuals from diverse backgrounds in our research process. We are committed to conducting multicultural research, and we welcome diverse students to work as research assistants.
Responsibilities
You will have a wide range of responsibilities: recruiting and scheduling participants; conducting studies; assessing reliability; entering data; maintaining the photo and participant database; and other miscellaneous tasks (e.g., coding video data, entering information into SPSS, or greeting and communicating with families). Social skills and an ability to work independently are a must. Being reliable and responsible (i.e., being in the lab on time and when scheduled) are also a must because absence not only affects the lab, but also impacts families who have appointments scheduled at the lab. Students in their second semester should let the lab managers know what they are interested in learning once they have mastered other lab tasks, so we can train you on data analyses, study design, or whatever skills you would like to acquire.
Time Commitment
We ask for a two-semester commitment for all new research assistants (for example: summer/fall, fall/spring, spring/summer, spring/fall). This is because it generally takes 5-6 weeks to get someone fully trained on general lab tasks and to start working on more advanced tasks. If you work during the summer, it entails being in the lab during sessions 2 and 3 to make the time commitment at least somewhat equivalent to the fall and spring semesters.
Hours
Students work in the lab for 9 hours a week for the Spring and Fall semesters and 13.5 hours a week in the Summer semesters. We generally do not have regular lab meetings, but occasionally we may have a shift in schedules to accommodate a meeting. The lab is open from 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday. Saturday hours are very important for our lab to maintain since we work with families that have young children who may only have time to participate on the weekends. Your 9 hours (or 13.5 summer hours) will consist of set times that you will be at the lab and will be assigned based on your time availability. It is important that you have chunks of time available to be at the lab, such as three 3-hour shifts or two 4.5-hour shifts. Anything less than a 2-hour shift is generally not ideal.
Course Requirements
If you are interested in taking the lab for credit you can do so by taking PSY 498 (Independent Research) or PSY 496 (Independent Study) for which you will receive 3 credit hours. Aside from your time at the lab which will count towards your grade, you will write a paper on the research we are conducting. Throughout the semester, you will write drafts of sections of the paper (Method, Intro, Results & Discussion) and we provide feedback to help you with your professional writing, all of which you should incorporate into the final paper.