Research Assistants, Department of Psychology

University of Denver•Quinte West, ON

3d•$22 - $25•Onsite

About The Position

The Department of Psychology at the University of Denver is research-oriented, valuing a collaborative and integrative approach to psychological science that fosters intellectual curiosity and innovation and invests in people in a supportive and inclusive environment. Our mission is to advance psychological science by generating and sharing new knowledge through collaborative scholarship, educating and mentoring student scholars, and contributing to the public good. The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Psychology department are strongly committed to building an inclusive educational environment, which is in full accord with the value that DU places on its commitments to inclusion. Candidates must demonstrate ability to integrate content and issues relating to, and to work effectively with, various populations. The University of Denver endeavors to be a great university dedicated to the public good and to uphold the values of inclusion, and justice. The University recognizes that its success is dependent on how well it lives these values, including how we engage, support, and champion members both at DU and in the greater community. DU is situated in the Denver metro area, a vibrant urban center in the Rocky Mountain region, home to more than 3 million people. Our metropolitan location supports collaboration across local universities. DU is comprised of 6000+ undergraduates (700+ psychology majors), 7000+ graduate students (50+ Psychology graduate students), and 700+ full-time faculty. The University recently received recognition as an R1 by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. We are looking for two full-time Research Assistants. Each Research Assistant will assist with two grant-funded research project investigating the development and treatment of anxiety in youth. This research is timely given that there is increasing recognition about the importance of mental health in youth, and that anxiety is the most common mental health problem across development, and most typically onsets during the pediatric period. One clinical trial focuses on comparing two cognitive interventions – one computerized targeting interpretation bias in youth anxiety, and the other a group behavior therapy study for youth with anxiety and co-occurring learning difficulties. Specific duties include recruiting and scheduling participants, making phone calls, assisting with research study visits, collection of cognitive, psychophysiological, and mental health data, managing graduate and undergraduate student teams, participating as a co-facilitator of group therapy sessions, project management, data management, IRB and clinical trials documentation and management, and community outreach to recruit participants and disseminate results. There may also be opportunities to train in semi-structured diagnostic interviewing and the conduct of cognitive therapy skills for youth, as well as to participate in manuscript writing and publication efforts. Research Assistants will work very closely with other project staff and participants and therefore must have excellent interpersonal and organizational skills. The projects are conducted in the Brave Lab (https://liberalarts.du.edu/psychology/brave) at the University of Denver. Given the number of projects and participants involved, Research Assistants must have excellent organizational and management skills. In addition, the research assistant will have the opportunity to substantially contribute to these research projects, including over time developing research questions to answer; the depth and breadth of this involvement will be in accordance with the employee’s long-term career goals and skills. This is a full-time, in-person position (i.e., 40 hours per week) that comes with DU’s full benefits package, and the funding for this position is contingent on grant funding. The schedule requires daytime hours, including some late afternoon and early evening availability to accommodate participant visits after school, as well as occasional weekend availability to accommodate participant study visits.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Psychology or related field
Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills including strong note-taking skills during meetings to successfully complete tasks
Detailed-approach to tasks and ability to follow very specific research protocols
Strong organization and detail-oriented administrative skills to include scheduling, data/file management, word processing (MS Word), spreadsheets (Excel), copying, phone skills and data entry, following protocols
Critical thinking skills along with the ability to identify, discuss, and solve problems and issues that may arise
English proficiency

Nice To Haves

Experience coordinating research projects
Experience in research with youth
Strong interpersonal skills for in-person and telephone interactions with staff and prospective participants/parents
Prior experience in research or clinical settings with youth with neurodevelopmental and/or mental health symptoms
Prior or current participation in a research lab where duties involved active engagement in the research process with human subjects (e.g., running experiments with participants, recruiting participants for a study, and/or managing a dataset)
Master’s degree in Counseling, Education, Psychology or related field
Interest in staying with the project for two years. While a two year commitment is not required, this position requires a significant amount of training and a two year commitment (grant funding dependent) is preferred.

Responsibilities

Project management of two research projects: one clinical trial comparing two cognitive interventions with anxious youth, and another that will test a new group intervention for children with anxiety and learning disabilities.
Coordinating data collection including identifying eligible participants, developing workflows to communicate with eligible participants and tracking participation over time, longitudinal follow-up of participants, prioritizing and managing multiple tasks across the two projects, and management of IRB protocols and clinical trials protocols.
Working with human subjects that include youth and consenting caregivers: data collection of cognitive, psychophysiological, and mental health data (tasks and questionnaires) from children and caregivers both in-person and remotely; recruitment, screening, scheduling of participant appointments via phone, email, text communications as preferred by the family; behavioral management and support during research visits; interacting with families to support research goals and successful research visits.
Training as a co-facilitator of the group-based intervention for youth with anxiety and learning disorders, and potentially learning to conduct semi-structured diagnostic interviews and/or serve as a cognitive therapy facilitator in the cognitive intervention trial.
Engage collaboratively with and coordinate a team of graduate and undergraduate students working on the research project including communicating and coordinating study visits, establishing workflows beginning with recruitment and ending with completion of study visits; participation as a member of the research team; various meetings with study team members and investigators; assisting with interviewing of new team members.
Preparation of subject data, assisting with data entry, data back-up, photocopies, filing, etc.
Literature searches, helping data preparation for NIH reports and manuscript submissions, attending recruitment or other community events with the PI, etc.