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Research Training

The Social Influences and Health Behaviors (SIHB) lab offers a unique research opportunity that provides graduate students with the skills necessary to be successful and productive scholars. Clayton Neighbors, Ph.D., Director of the SIHB lab, typically meets with the graduate students on a biweekly basis or more often when needed. Graduate students are encouraged to become involved in ongoing lab projects and usually have publication and conference presentation opportunities from existing data sets and ongoing projects. In addition to their thesis and dissertation requirements, students are also recommended to initiate independent studies under the supervision of Neighbors. They receive thorough training in grant writing and statistical methods. Students are also advised to apply for an NIH NRSA (F31) grant application at the end of their second year. The close mentorship and focus on the scientist-practitioner model prepares graduate students to become well-rounded psychologists in academic or applied research settings. If you would like more information, please contact Neighbors at cneighbo@central.uh.edu.

Undergraduate Research Assistant (RA) Opportunities

Undergraduate students are also offered educational opportunities as research assistants (RAs), either in a volunteer capacity or for course credit. Undergraduate RAs are involved in many ways on research projects, including but not limited to: assisting in grant-related preparations, literature searches, running participants through research protocols, data entry and management, recruitment, survey programming and manuscript/poster preparation. Additionally, undergraduate RAs will be required to attend bi-weekly lab meetings to discuss research articles relevant to projects currently being conducted in the lab and topics relevant to professional development. Before lab meetings, all RAs will be asked to read an assigned research article and write a 1-2 page reaction paper. Lab meeting dates vary by semester and can be found on the Undergraduate Research Assistant Application.

Requirements:

All applicants must have taken at least PSYC 2301 (Intro to Methodology) and PSYC 3301 (Intro to Statistics). Additionally, all applicants must have a Psychology GPA of at least 3.0. Undergraduate RAs may work in our lab either for course credit or as a volunteer. If volunteering, an RA must commit to at least 6 hours per week in our lab. If working for course credit, please see below for minimum hour requirements.

2 credit hours (Psyc 4298) = 90 hours per semester (6 hours X 15 weeks)
3 credit hours (Psyc 4398) = 135 hours per semester (9 hours X 15 weeks)
4 credit hours (Psyc 4498) = 180 hours per semester (12 hours X 15 weeks)

If you are an undergraduate interested in applying as an RA to our lab, please email Alyssa Rice, Lab and Research Coordinator at aarice2@uh.edu, and request an Undergraduate Research Assistant Application.