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PY 398 Opportunities |
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Below you will
find information on opportunities for students seeking PY 398 credit.
Check back often, as we will be posting new opportunities as they are
submitted. Dr. Shelia R. Cotten: Contact phone: 934-8678 Contact email: cotten@uab.edu Description: The goal of this study is to assess the educational, career, and social impacts of disseminating the XO laptop to minority middle school students (4th and 5th grade students) in Birmingham City Schools. The project is the first of its kind to examine the XO laptop in a sample of US students. The specific aims of the project are to: (1) Determine technology usage levels and types, and education and career intentions prior to the laptop dissemination. (2) Determine the impacts of the laptop dissemination on technology usage levels and types at 6 months post the laptop dissemination. We can then examine trends in the levels and types of usage over time. (3) Determine if change in technology usage levels and types are related to education and career intentions. (4) Determine how technology usage affects well-being, social connections, belonging, personal expression, freedom, and accomplishment. The Birmingham City School Board has approved this study which is conducted by the Department of Sociology and the School of Education and is funded by the National Science Foundation. What would be learned? Students will gain important experience working as part of a research team that includes faculty, graduate students, and other undergraduates. Students will learn about data collection, coding, and data entry; ethics of research with human research participants; and survey development and administration. Depending on student motivation, interest, and ability, there are opportunities to learn about literature searches, analyzing data, presenting research at conferences, writing honors theses and reports, and publishing data in scientific journals. How many students are needed? 6-8 undergraduate students. When are they needed? Immediately – this study is in progress. Minimum commitment: 5-10 hours/week. Hours are flexible, although research assistants are expected to help with the administration of surveys during the week, which usually take 2-3 hours and are conducted during the morning or afternoons. Minimum terms needed: 1 semester.
Dr. Laura E. Dreer: Contact phone: 205-325-8681 Contact email: dreer@uab.edu Description: Project THINK is a single-site, clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of a psychoeducational based intervention (Problem Solving Therapy: PST) on patient and caregiver adjustment (i.e., emotional/functional/health outcomes) related to living with a vision impairment. Patients are currently being recruited through the UAB Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation. This is an ongoing 5-year study funded by the National Eye Institute and EyeSight Foundation of Alabama (ESFA). Students interested in becoming involved will be exposed to and participate in the following activities: clinical-research, administration of questionnaire/survey methods which are psychological, functional, and neuropsychological in nature; participate in recruitment activities with adults and older adults; gain experience in data coding/entry/analysis; implementation of a large-scale grant; assist in presentations at national conferences; and potentially participate in manuscript submissions. What Will Be Learned? Basic skills associated with clinical research (recruitment, data collection, data entry, basic data analysis); how to administer questionnaires and psychological measures to patients and their family members; development of basic clinical skills in working with an adult-older adult rehabilitation population; how to implement research activities as well as the daily aspects involved with conducting a clinical trial; experience with working in a multidisciplinary setting (optometrists, occupational therapists, clinical/research staff) How many students are needed? 5 When are they needed? Immediately Minimum commitment: 1/2 day per week (5 hrs) Qualifications: Interest in clinical research activities; motivation to learn clinical-research skills; completion of introduction to psychology This opportunity is ongoing.
Dr. Candace L. Floyd: Contact email: clfloyd@uab.edu Description: Research in the laboratory evaluates novel treatments that could be of benefit for use in traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. We conduct pre-clinical studies in rodent models of CNS injury. Students will participate in animal care, injury model induction, behavioral analysis, and histological analysis. Please see our lab website at www.floyd-lab.com or contact Dr. Candace Floyd for more information. What Will Be Learned? Students will obtain meaningful skills including: small animal surgery techniques, behavioral pharmacology techniques, immunohistochemistry methods, and unbiased stereology. Additionally, critical thinking, data analysis, and proper experimental design are also emphasized. How many students are needed? 2 When are they needed? Immediately. Minimum commitment: 10 hours per week over 1 term Qualifications: Good communication and organization skills; strong work ethic This opportunity is ongoing.
Kim Guion, M.A. Contact Phone: 205-934-3850 Contact E-mail: kguion@uab.edu
Description: Coping with Chronic
Illness is a 2-year longitudinal study examining the relationships
between parent and teen coping with chronic illnesses (i.e., cystic
fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, diabetes). Parents and teens who are
treated at the Children's Hospital complete packets that examine
their coping style, depression, anxiety and other outcomes, and use
of religious coping. Students interested in working on this study
will be helping with Wave 2 of the study, which will occur via mail
and telephone. Student responsibilities will include:
1. printing and compiling survey packets 2. calling participants for recruitment and address verification 3. speaking with participants about details of study and confidentiality 4. mailing survey packets and receiving survey packets when returned in the mail 5. data entry into SPSS
-- all tasks will be reviewed when student
begins, before completing tasks independently
What will be learned?
1. familiarity with SPSS statistical
package and data entry How many students are needed? 2 When are they needed? July 20 - August 31- flexible start date Minimum commitment: 2-5 hours/week; days and times are flexible based on student's schedule;
2 semesters, although fall only is a
possibility
Qualifications: Prefer a student in their junior year or above. However, other students may be considered. Necessary qualifications include ability to speak with medical patients professionally, timeliness and reliability, and ability to self-motivate as student RA's will complete tasks independently after an orientation.
Contact: Nina Reynolds at 205-410-5544
or
nreynold@uab.edu.
Matthew Hocking, M.A., University of Alabama Contact Phone: 205-939-6874 Contact E-mail: hocki001@bama.ua.edu Project Title: Predictors of coping success in children with functional abdominal pain Description: Responsible, motivated undergraduate needed to assist with data collection for a dissertation project while primary investigator away on predoctoral internship in psychology. Project is collaboration between pediatric psychology and pediatric gastroenterology teams. Study is investigating the types of coping strategies that predict better outcomes in children with unexplained abdominal pain and whether their ability to regulate their attention influences the success of their coping strategies. Student is needed for help with participant recruitment and data collection. Student will be trained in neuropsychological measures of attention used for data collection, will gain research experience with multidisciplinary teams within medical setting, and will be included on future presentations at national research meetings. Student will be supervised by Dr. Avi Madan-Swain, a licensed pediatric psychologist. Data collection will take place at Children’s Hospital. How many students are needed? 1 When are they needed? Applications accepted immediately. Minimum commitment:
9-12 month commitment to project preferred with
weekly time commitment ranging from 5-10 hours. Dr. Lei Liu: Contact phone: 205-996-6627 Contact email: liul7788r@uab.edu Description: Three research projects involving psychophysics and eye movement tracking are ongoing. One project concerns the human ability to attend to visual events at unpredictable times and locations while engaged in a vision-related operation. The other two projects involve using an eye tracking device to simulate different degrees of visual impairment, observing impacts of such artificial impairments on various visual tasks, and assessing the effect of practice. Students who are interested will participate in all phases of a psychophysical study, which include literature review, visual stimulus selection and generation, experiment setup and calibration, data collection, data management and analysis, presentation preparation, and manuscript preparation. Student initiated projects will be encouraged. Credit in conference presentations and publications will be bestowed according to contribution. What Will Be Learned? Basic skills to conduct independent research, which include how to conduct a literature search; how to design a psychophysical experiment; how to present visual stimuli (happy to share programming experience with interested students); how to ensure data integrity; how to analyze data (Excel, SPSS, Matlab); how to present data; how to prepare a presentation; how to prepare a manuscript; and finally, how to make a boring psychophysical experiment more exciting. How many students are needed? 2-3 When are they needed? Applications are accepted at any time. Earliest start October 1, 2008. Minimum commitment: 4 hours per week. Hours are flexible. Late afternoon/evening, or weekend will be fine. Qualifications: Interest in basic and clinical vision research; motivated; curiosity kills only cats; gets along well with computers; good vision; willing to work independently; any programming experiences a plus. This opportunity is ongoing.
Dr.
Jesse B. Milby:
Dr. Wynne E. Norton: Contact phone: 205-975-8055 Contact email: wenorton@uab.edu Description: I am looking for several students who are interested in learning more about designing, implementing, and evaluating behavior change interventions that are grounded in social/health psychological theory. Specifically, this research opportunity will allow students to help work on designing, implementing, and/or evaluating theory-based HIV prevention interventions among a variety of target populations (e.g., college students, HIV-positive patients, etc.). Students will also have the opportunity to work on developing, implementing, and/or evaluating theory-based interventions designed to increase HIV-positive patients’ adherence to antiretroviral medications (ARV) which is essential for achieving optimal health status and reducing the transmission of drug resistant strains of HIV to uninfected others. Students may also participate in other ongoing research projects related to these topics, such as advancing the state-of-the-science of dissemination and implementation of evidence-based intervention beyond randomized controlled trials and into everyday practical settings. What Will Be Learned? Students will develop a variety of critical psychological research skills, including (but not limited to) how to conduct literature searches and reviews; intervention design and implementation; ethical issues in human subjects research and CITI certification; participant confidentiality; data safety and management; participant consent process; psychological measures and assessments; data entry and analysis; qualitative analysis; reviewing/summarizing empirical studies; and assisting with APA-format manuscripts. How many students are needed? 1-3 When are they needed? Applications are currently being accepted for the spring 2010 semester. Minimum commitment: 3-6 hours per week. When and where students conduct their work can be negotiated to fit with the student’s schedule (i.e., from home or offsite; mornings, afternoons, or evenings). Students may have the opportunity to continue working on supervised research projects in subsequent semesters. Qualifications: Students must have completed Introductory Psychology and Statistics, Methods and Design, and Methods in Psychological Research to be eligible for this supervised research opportunity. Students who have experience with MS Excel and SPSS are preferred. Courses taken in Human Sexuality, Abnormal Psychology, Medical Psychology, and/or Psychology Honors students are considered a plus. Students must demonstrate a curiosity and interest in conducting psychological research; be responsible; punctual; and willing to work collaboratively with others. Given the sensitive nature of the topic (i.e., sexual health behavior and medication adherence), students must demonstrate a high level of maturity. If interested, please contact Dr. Norton at wenorton@uab.edu for more details on the application process.
Heather Prayor-Patterson, M.A. Contact Phone: 996-2832 Contact Email: hmp79@uab.edu Project Title: Communication Program to Active Cancer Survivors Description: The goal of this dissertation study is to evaluate the effectiveness an intervention to improve confidence in talking with doctors and getting needs met for lower income patients who have a cancer that has returned. Interested patients will participate in 3 telephone surveys and may be assigned to receive a 3-session intervention. A motivated student is needed to administer telephone surveys at 3 time points for 30-50 participants. It is estimated that surveys will take 20-30 minutes to administer. Student will have access to an office space to conduct surveys. How many students are needed? 2 When are they needed? Immediately Minimum commitment: Commitment until August 14, 2009 preferred, 4-hour maximum weekly time commitment
Contact phone: 934-8745 Contact email (preferred means of communication): schwebel@uab.edu Description: Several research projects are always ongoing, most of them
revolving around child safety and injury prevention. We usually work
with children ages 1-12, and their parents. Research examines processes
such as impulsivity, estimation of ability, and parenting that may lead
to children’s unintentional (accidental) injuries. Students in the UAB
Youth Safety Lab have the opportunity to work on a few different
research projects over the course of their tenure in the laboratory. Dana S. Smith, M.A. Contact phone: 205.566-1494 Contact email: schuller@uab.edu Description: This research project is being conducted to determine how young children learn their first words. You will be working with both children who are typical in their development and children who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The specific aims of the project are the following: (1) To determine whether children with ASDs learn words in a manner similar to how typically developing children learn words, and (2) To evaluate the learning conditions under which children with ASD are most successful at learning. Some of your duties as a research assistant will be creating fun and interesting toys to be used as experimental stimuli, contacting and consenting parents of participating children, organizing study materials and setting up the experiment, running subjects, attending group meetings, and coding videotapes. Additionally, you may conduct a literature review on children’s language development particularly if you plan to complete an undergraduate research project. What will be learned? Students will learn to work as part of a research team which includes faculty, graduate students, and other undergraduates. Students will learn about experimental setup, data collection, coding, and data entry. Depending on students’ particular motivations and interests, there will be opportunities to learn about analyzing data, presenting research at conferences, and writing honors theses and reports. How many students are needed? 6-8 undergraduate students When are they needed? The semesters of fall 2009 and spring 2010; email schuller@uab.edu to arrange a time to meet Minimum commitment: 4-8 hours/week; more if desired. Hours are flexible based on students’ schedules, though details should be worked out at least 2 weeks in advance. Minimum terms needed: 1 semester, but students who are able to commit through spring 2010 are ideal. Qualifications: Students in their sophomore year or above are preferred, though freshmen who have completed introductory psychology may be considered. Additional qualifications include ease in working with children, punctuality, reliable transportation, and good organizational skills. All participating students will be required to complete an ethics of human subjects course online, details of which I will provide.
Dr. Despina Stavrinos: Contact Phone: 205-934-7861 Contact Email: dstavrin@uab.edu Description: We are conducting a study to explore safety issues related to teen driving. The student will participate in data collection, data entry, and will have the opportunity to analyze results for presentation at scientific meetings. What Would Be Learned? The student will learn more about all aspects of conducting a research study. They will learn how to run a participant through an experimental protocol, will learn how to administer clinical measures, including an IQ test and a clinical interview with parents, will learn how to enter and clean data, will learn how to analyze data and will learn how to put together a scientific poster for presentation at a meeting. How Many Students Are Needed? 5 When are they needed? Applications
are accepted at any time. Minimum terms needed: 1 Dr. Gitendra Uswatte: Contact Phone: 975-5089 Contact E-mail: guswatte@uab.edu Description: There are two separate opportunities in my laboratory. The first project aims to study the role of interpersonal strengths, such as gratitude and kindness, in family caregiver and stroke survivor relationships and health. The goal of the second project is to develop an objective measure of how much stroke survivors use their stroke-affected arm to accomplish daily activities. Measuring physical function in daily life is important in rehabilitation and many other areas of healthcare research, however, most of the common tools rely on self-report, which is open several types of bias. What would be learned? By doing, you will learn about experimental planning, running subjects, entering and organizing the data collected, and interpreting data analyses. Depending on your commitment and contribution, there will be opportunities to participate in writing papers and making conference presentations. How Many Students are Needed? 2 When are they needed? Immediately Minimum commitment: 8 hours / week Minimum Terms Needed: 2 Qualifications: Enjoy working with people. Smart. Responsible. Some familiarity with Excel. Knowledge of a programming language such as C++ is a plus for the second project. Completion of research design, statistics, and/or developmental psychology courses would be of advantage but is not a prerequisite. This opportunity is ongoing.
Kristina Visscher, Ph.D. Contact Phone: 205.934.0267 Contact Email: kmv@uab.edu Description: The Visscher Human behavioral neuroscience lab is interested in characterizing what brain mechanisms underlie the human ability to flexibly process inputs from the environment. We often process the same information in different ways at different times. For example, sometimes we may hear a string of numbers (e.g. a phone number on a commercial from the radio) and try to remember it, while at another time, the same string of numbers may be irrelevant, and we may ignore it. The lab uses a variety of tools to better characterize how human brain activity before a stimulus is presented may impact the ways in which that stimulus is processed. Behavioral measurements (psychophysics and eye movements), measurement of electrical activity in the human brain using EEG, and measurement of neural activity through fMRI allow a window into patterns of brain activity. Students will participate in one of 3 projects that explores these themes, either using behavioral, fMRI, or EEG methods. What Would Be Learned? After this research experience, students will understand basic experimental design, will have experience running human subjects in either behavioral, EEG, or fMRI experiments, and will be proficient in data analysis using matlab. How many students are needed? 2 When are they needed? Immediately Minimum commitment: 10 hours/week Minimum terms needed: 1 Necessary qualifications: Intro psychology or Intro neuroscience; interest in and familiarity with computers, especially mac and linux environments, as well as Matlab. Preferred qualifications: Some computer science coursework (e.g. EGR 150 or equivalent) This opportunity is ongoing.
Rosalyn Weller, Ph.D. Contact phone: 934-8563
Contact email: reweller@uab.edu |