Social Roles Lab - Information

Dr. Amanda Diekman

Department of Psychology

Miami University

Requirements: Research assistants are expected to enroll for 3 credit hours and to work for a total of 9-10 hours per week of the semester. Excellent research assistant are energetic, detail-oriented, conscientious, able to work well alone and with others, and interested in the subject matter. You may be asked to write a short paper on a particular project, and you will be encouraged to present work from the research group at the Miami University Undergraduate Research Conference in April.

Research Experience:

We will be collecting, coding, and analyzing data dealing with several aspects of social roles, gender roles, and social change. For current projects, please see http://www.users.muohio.edu/diekmaa/research.htm.

Specific Duties:

• Data Collection
• Most participants will come from the PSY 110 subject pool (which means you should not be enrolled in PSY 110).
• You will be responsible for completing all the paperwork accurately (e.g., sign-up sheets, consent forms, awarding credits or penalties), and debriefing the subjects.
• Data will be collected in paper-and-pencil sessions, on computers, or surveying people in public locations.
• Data entry and checking
• Data coding
• We will be working on coding open-ended responses as well as coding some archival material this semester.
• Materials
• writing, word processing, checking, and copying questionnaire materials
• Library work
• literature searches, article summaries, etc.
• Manuscript preparation
• reading and providing comments on manuscripts based on data collected in the lab; reading background material to projects
• Idea generation
• thinking about interesting problems for future research, helping to design experiments throughout the semester, providing feedback on materials

Research Meetings

We will meet as a group weekly throughout the semester. At these meetings, we will discuss ideas for future studies, look at data analyses, and read relevant articles or manuscripts in preparation. Your feedback on questionnaires, data, and manuscripts is important.

Time Commitment

The expectation is that you will dedicate 9-10 hours per week to lab work; with fewer hours from each RA, it is difficult to accomplish our research goals. Each week, you should allot approximately 4-6 hours per week for data collection or lab work, 1 hour per week for the meeting, and 2 hours for readings or other lab tasks. Please think carefully about how you will structure your schedule to allow this commitment.

Social Roles Lab – Research Assistant Application

Name: ___________________________________________________________________________

Year: ____________________________________________________________________________

Cumulative GPA: _________________ PSY GPA: ____________________________

Please list any courses you have completed that have prepared you to be a research assistant:

Please list any personal qualities or qualifications you have that would help you perform well as a research assistant:

Why are you interested in being a research assistant?

What are your specific goals for the research experience? What do you hope to gain?

Does your schedule allow for the substantial time commitment required (9-10 hours per week)?

Please return to Dr. Amanda Diekman, Department of Psychology, 320 PSYC, or email to diekmaa@muohio.edu.