SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES – DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
VOLUNTARY RESEARCH ASSISTANT SCHEME
The Voluntary Research Assistant Scheme (VRAs) is an experience offered to all UG and PG students enrolled in a Psychology programme at Heriot Watt University.
Aims
- Increase your employability profile by including the scheme in your CV
- Develop further your transferable skills in terms of data handling and reports preparation
- Get greater knowledge of a research environment, including team work, and of the research environment in general
- Get hands-on research experience on a specific topic of Psychology of your interest
How?
By taking part in a research project led by a staff member.
Minimum duration: 2 months; Maximum duration: 12 months
Minimum hours/week: 2 hours; Maximum hours/week: 4 hours
The number of hours undertaken will depend on the time of year and your commitments in relation to your studies and should be discussed and agreed with your supervisor.
Is there a selection process?
The VRA experience is agreed with the supervisor. If the supervisor accepts the application and there are places available, then no further selection is needed. If there are more applications than places available, then there is a selection process.
The selection is based on:
- CV (qualifications acquired up until the application and extracurricular relevant activities)
- Personal statement highlighting the reason for pursuing this opportunity ( e.g. experience useful for pursuing Masters programme or PhD position; experience useful for developing particular skills; experience useful for deciding between clinical and research career)
- Match between abilities-project (e.g. if project requires use of SPSS independently, unlikely to benefit year 2 student).
Here is what previous students have said about their experiences…
Video 1
Video 2
If you are interested in becoming a VRA for any of the projects below, please email the relevant staff contact copying in VRA Coordinator: Dr Kelly Wolfe k.wolfe@hw.ac.uk
INTERNSHIPS – PLEASE SEE INFORMATION AT BOTTOM OF PAGE
CURRENT VRA OPPORTUNITIES
| Campus: | Edinburgh |
| Project: | SMILE: Supporting Mental Health in Young People: Integrated Methodology for cLinical dEcisions and evidence-based interventions |
| Description: | SMILE is an EU-funded project to design and evaluate a digital mental health tool, designed based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy principles. We are working to create a game for young people aged 10-24 that can help address everyday difficulties and symptoms of low mood/anxiety, with the aim of improving young people’s well-being. The research utilises a mixed-methods approach, combining observation, qualitative feedback, and experimental components. Please note, we may collect photographs of events. You do not have to consent to having your photograph taken to apply for the role. |
| VRA Role: | We are looking for 4-5 VRAs to help us reach a wide range of participants for workshops and game testing. A VRA would be expected to provide feedback on elements of game design, share their thoughts and opinions to help shape the project, and be actively involved in creating a digital mental health tool. |
| Start Date: | January 2025 (flexible) |
| Duration: | 1 year, 2 hours per week (flexible) |
| Benefits to VRA: | Gain experience in mental health research as well as qualitative and quantitative methodologies, whilst working on a cutting-edge mental health initiative. In the project’s publications, we will acknowledge the contributions of citizen science and the research undertaken through the VRA role. There will also be the opportunity to be named in the project’s acknowledgements, if you provide informed consent to do so. This recognition highlights the valuable impact of VRA participation in advancing the project’s objectives, collaboration, and creative design. The research team will also be happy to provide a reference for any future roles. |
| Staff Contact: | Dr Mel McKendrick and Helen Stocks |
| Email: | h.stocks@hw.ac.uk |
| Campus: | Edinburgh |
| Project: | University students’ perceptions of class attendance |
| Description: | Universities observe low levels of student attendance, particularly as the semester progresses. This is despite studies showing that students believe attendance is important to their academic success. We’re interested in students’ perceptions of class attendance and the factors which determine whether they will attend classes or not. Pilot data suggests influences of a wide range of factors, including academic reasons, practical reasons, personal reasons, and the influence of peers and family. We’re looking to explore this in more depth through a series of focus groups. We’re going to be collecting data in Edinburgh and Dubai, so will also be able to consider similarities and differences across the campuses. |
| VRA Role: | I’m primarily looking for a VRA to help with the data collection, transcription, and initial analysis in Edinburgh. Working with the wider team, the VRA would also contribute to our review of the relevant literature. This would suit an Edinburgh-based student with an interest in qualitative data collection and analysis. Note that you will not be expected to lead the focus groups yourself. Interest in the topic of student attendance would be helpful but not essential. |
| Start Date: | 12 November 2024 (flexible) |
| Duration: | Estimated 3 months (but not continuously and with some flexibility) |
| Benefits to VRA: | You’ll gain experience in qualitative research methods, including reviewing relevant literature, running a focus group, transcribing data/checking automatically transcribed data, and carrying out a Thematic Analysis. You’ll also gain experience of working with a wider research team. |
| Staff Contact: | Dr Mark Atkinson |
| Email: | m.atkinson@hw.ac.uk |
| Campus: | Edinburgh |
| Project: | Pro-Environmental Behaviours in the Workplace |
| Description: | Employees play a crucial role in advancing environmental sustainability within organisations, as their daily behaviours and decisions significantly influence the institution’s overall sustainability performance. This research project seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the individual, managerial, organisational, and cultural factors that drive Pro-environmental Behaviours (PEBs), or Employee Green Behaviour (EGB), at Heriot-Watt University, across both the Edinburgh and Dubai campuses. Through a mixed-methods approach, including an ongoing survey and planned qualitative focus groups, the study aims to generate valuable insights that will not only contribute to academic literature through journal publications but also directly inform and shape university policies and practices. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the institution’s sustainability performance by encouraging and enabling employees to adopt more sustainable behaviours in their day-to-day activities. |
| VRA Role: | The VRA could assist with any of the following activities: – Literature searching – Literature synthesising and writing – Creating literature frameworks on excel – Analysing quantitative data – Transcription and analysis of qualitative – Report writing |
| Start Date: | ASAP – From October 2024 |
| Duration: | Completely optional for student commitment – ranging from 2-5 months. |
| Benefits to VRA: | As a VRA on this project, you will have the opportunity to: – Develop essential research skills, including data collection, analysis, and reporting. – Gain practical experience in sustainability research within a university setting. – Work closely with an interdisciplinary research team. – Enhance your understanding of pro-environmental behaviours and organisational sustainability. – Contribute to research that will directly inform university policy and practices. – Strengthen your CV with valuable research experience. – Build professional networks within academia and the sustainability field. – Potentially co-author future publications in academic journals. |
| Staff Contact: | Dr Mioara Cristea |
| Email: | M.Cristea@hw.ac.uk |
| Campus: | Edinburgh |
| Project: | I’m still learning: Collaborative learning in person and remotely in aging |
| Description: | We’re interested in understanding how learning new skills or information changes as we age, and how we can support learning when we’re older. Specifically, we’re hoping to identify whether there are differences in people’s learning (including long-term benefits) depending on who they learned with (i.e., with their partner, a stranger, or alone). For this study, older adults (aged 65+ years) had to bring someone with them, such as a friend or their husband/wife, to take part together. They would play a learning game together, and then also played the game with a stranger and by themselves. Participants also completed several cognitive tests to assess their working memory, processing speed, and Theory of Mind. We also asked people a week later to recall the figures that were in their learning task, to see whether there were any differences in long-term memory. |
| VRA Role: | We are looking for students who can help analyse the video recordings of people interacting with each other during the learning task. From these videos, we want to see how many turns people took in their conversations, how many words they spoke, and so on. The VRA(s) on the project would be given the transcripts of these recordings to use to calculate these values with. |
| Start Date: | Ongoing |
| Duration: | Likely 3-6 months (though the VRA can participate for less) |
| Benefits to VRA: | You will gain knowledge on how process qualitative data for analysis and transforming qualitative data into quantitative data. You will also gain experience of working in a research team and what designs and types of data are common in cognitive research, specifically in assessing learning. |
| Staff Contact: | Dr Kelly Wolfe |
| Email: | k.wolfe@hw.ac.uk |
| Campus: | Edinburgh |
| Project: | Collaborative Learning with Social Robots in Ageing |
| Description: | We’re interested in understanding how learning new skills or information changes as we age, and how we can support learning when we’re older. Specifically, we’re hoping to identify whether there are differences in people’s learning (including long-term benefits) depending on who they learned with. In this study, we compared whether people learned better with a research assistant (human), a digital assistant (voice in the room), or a robot. For this study, older adults (aged 65+ years) would be assigned to one of the three conditions (human, digital assistant, robot) and would play a learning game. Participants also completed several cognitive tests to assess their working memory, processing speed, and Theory of Mind. We also asked people a week later to recall the figures that were in their learning task, to see whether there were any differences in long-term memory. |
| VRA Role: | We’re looking for students who can help us score the in-person cognitive test data, such as the Stroop Task, Logical Memory (working memory test), Reading the Mind in the Eyes (Theory of Mind) and a few others. You will be given training on how to score the tests and enter them into Excel to prepare them for analysis. As this test data is on paper and not online, this role can only be offered to Edinburgh-based students. |
| Start Date: | Ongoing |
| Duration: | Likely 3 months |
| Benefits to VRA: | You’ll gain experience on the administration, scoring and analysis of cognitive test data, learn more about how to research cognitive ageing, as well as gain experience working within a research team. |
| Staff Contact: | Dr Kelly Wolfe |
| Email: | k.wolfe@hw.ac.uk |
| Campus: | Edinburgh, Dubai, Malaysia |
| Project: | Validation of a potential training paradigm for student presentation skills |
| Description: | The aim of the current study is to trial a combination of exposure and cognitive restructuring in a training paradigm with live social performance situations in order to provide the basis for research development in a virtual training application programme |
| VRA Role: | We are looking for students who can help running the study and act as audience members where participants engage in presentation practice. You will help with administering feedback exercises and in analysing behaviours. |
| Start Date: | Ongoing |
| Duration: | The study will involve coding, helping to recruit and conduct the study and analysis. |
| Benefits to VRA: | You will gain experience of working with groups of participants in an online video study and learn about social anxiety in relation to speech content, gestures and attention. You will also gain knowledge of analysis and statistics depending on your role. |
| Staff Contact: | Dr Mel McKendrick |
| Email: | M.McKendrick@hw.ac.uk |
INTERNSHIPS
Supervisors and students may also be interested in applying for an externally funded internship.
The BPS and EPS schemes are designed to provide a stipend to 3rd year students to assist the supervisor on a research project driven by them.
https://www.bps.org.uk/about-us/awards-and-grants/society-grants/undergraduate-research-assistantship-scheme (Early March)
https://eps.ac.uk/undergraduate-research-bursary/ (Early March) Must be supervised by an EPS Ordinary Member – only one per department.
The Carnegie scheme is designed to give 3rd year students the direct opportunity to propose their own research project.
https://www.carnegie-trust.org/award-schemes/vacation-scholarships/ (Early February)
The Medical Research Scotland scheme is designed to provide promising undergraduate students with hands-on experience of research relevant to human health or disease. Supervisors and students should develop the project and application together. https://medicalresearchscotland.org.uk/undergraduate-vacation-scholarship/ (Early February)