Supervising Faculty: Jessie Northrup, Ph.D.
Contact: Jessie Northrup, northrupjb@upmc.edu
Area of Research: Developmental Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Emotional Development
Description of Research:
Student will work on a research project examining emotion regulation development in preschoolers with and without autism spectrum disorders. We are interested in understanding differences in how young children with autism experience and communicate their negative emotions and how that impacts the parent-child relationship. This research is part of the REAACT lab in the department of psychiatry. The REAACT Research Program (https://www.reaact.pitt.edu/) at the University of Pittsburgh is dedicated to research on emotion regulation and associated emotional and behavioral concerns in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The REAACT Lab, directed by Dr. Carla Mazefsky, involves investigations of mechanisms underlying emotion regulation in ASD and the development of new assessment and treatment approaches.
Duties of Students:
- Assisting with laboratory and home visits (e.g., video taping parent-child interactions, helping with sibling care during data collection)
- Observational coding of child and parent behavior (training in coding system, attending
- reliability meetings, coding independently)
- Assisting\ with data entry
- Attend lab meetings and journal clubs
- Prepare end of semester research presentation
Requirements:
- Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher
- 12 credits of Psychology (including current term)
- STAT 0200/1000/1100 Statistics
- PSY 0036 Research Methods Lecture
- PSY 0037 Research Methods Lab
- 10 hours/week (3 credit experience)
- Two semester commitment
- Willingness to designate set hours each week.
- Good communication skills, comfortable interacting with participants
- Dendability, excellent organizational skills, and attention to detail
- Willingness to learn new tasks
- Able to obtain Act 33 (PA Child Abuse), Act 34 (PA Criminal Record) and Act 73 (FBI Background) clearances
Recruitment Process:
Interested students should submit a resume or CV and a cover letter describing your goals for directed research and interest in working on this specific project (should not be a generic cover letter). These materials should be sent to Dr. Jessie Northrup (northrupjb@upmc.edu).
If applicable, please note in your cover letter any experience with the following:
- Working with preschool aged children
- Working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder
- Observational coding
_________
- I will confirm the time commitment requirements and will ask all students the same set of interview questions:
- Tell me a little about why you decided to apply for this directed research position? What are your goals for participating in directed research?
- This job will involve interacting with young children with autism and their parents. What experience, if any, do you have working with preschool aged children or with individuals with autism and what have you learned from those experiences?
- What do you do when you are faced with an obstacle or run into a problem when doing something? Please give an example.
- In your experienced with supervisors or bosses, what do you think makes for a good relationship? What kinds of things can cause problems?
I will then give students an opportunity to ask me any questions they have for me. Students will be accepted on a rolling basis until all spots are filled. In the case that more students simultaneously apply than spots are available, preference will be given to students who have comfort with children, experience with individuals with autism, and/or experience with the research methods and protocol we will be using. In addition, I place a strong value on diversity and am committed to rectifying longstanding inequities within research and academia, therefore preference will be given to students of color and members of other groups traditionally under-represented in academia.
Terms offered: Fall, Spring, Summer (student does not need to be staying for the summer to apply, but this would be a plus)
Number of Students:
Lab website: https://www.reaact.pitt.edu/