How would RA work in a brain imaging lab look to clinical psych PhD programs?

[psychealth]

Hi everyone,

I am up for an RA position at a brain imaging lab within a psychiatry department and the PI's focus/background is on psychosis and depression. My end goal is to apply to PhD programs in clinical psych that have labs focused on mental health disparities among ethnic minorities. At first glance, these two topics of research seem different; however, I understand that admissions committees are also looking at how I talk about my research experiences and how it fits into my grad school research interests.

My question is would this job look too off-topic to potential PIs I'd want to work with in grad school? This would be my first experience with the more neuroscience side of research and am wondering if this job would seem too unrelated to my grad school research interests. Should I keep looking for other jobs? I'm also worried about passing up an opportunity for an RA job due to the cyclic nature of these positions becoming available... But FYI the other labs I've worked at were personality/social psych so I would have not had any experience working specifically in a clinical psych lab if I do apply to PhD programs after a couple years at this potential job.

Thank you in advance for your comments/responses. Any insight or advice is appreciated!

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[CheetahGirl]

Hi everyone,

I am up for an RA position at a brain imaging lab within a psychiatry department and the PI's focus/background is on psychosis and depression. My end goal is to apply to PhD programs in clinical psych that have labs focused on mental health disparities among ethnic minorities. At first glance, these two topics of research seem different; however, I understand that admissions committees are also looking at how I talk about my research experiences and how it fits into my grad school research interests.

My question is would this job look too off-topic to potential PIs I'd want to work with in grad school? This would be my first experience with the more neuroscience side of research and am wondering if this job would seem too unrelated to my grad school research interests. Should I keep looking for other jobs? I'm also worried about passing up an opportunity for an RA job due to the cyclic nature of these positions becoming available... But FYI the other labs I've worked at were personality/social psych so I would have not had any experience working specifically in a clinical psych lab if I do apply to PhD programs after a couple years at this potential job.

Thank you in advance for your comments/responses. Any insight or advice is appreciated!

Not at all unrelated if you spin it, and do the work to connect the two areas (i.e., the focus of your potential job and your future interests).

Your RA position doesn't need to be off-topic.....Consider this: Within the areas of psychosis and depression, individuals who are treated will have both ethnic identities and health disparities, yes? You could ask the PI if there's potential to draw out a sample of patients/participants who are ethnic minorities and analyze them for any unique characteristics (after you've done the work to come up with a viable research questions of what you'd like to know, specifically).

I work with individuals who experience SMI (psychosis and treatment resistant depression, included), and these individuals certainly experience health disparities (anything from misdiagnoses over the course of the illness to being over-pathologized because of lack of cultural competence...so there's a lot there to unpack, especially if you live in an urban area flowing with diversity).

My main reason for replying is it's great & necessary to tackle this goal (clinical psych PhD/PsyD) with a research focus to set yourself apart from the crowd, but also don't be too wedded to a very specific idea now (you'll be selling your potential research experience short - my first published research experiences started with surgery, then genetic testing for breast cancer). Programs accept you with an edge (and research focus) but also want you malleable. Once you start your journey, you build upon it with unique experiences.

I'd jump on that RA job because of the exposure to chronically ill individuals, and once you view through your unique perspective, there's almost no limit to what you can add to the field.

Good luck!

 

[WisNeuro]

Not at all unrelated if you spin it, and do the work to connect the two areas (i.e., the focus of your potential job and your future interests).

Your RA position doesn't need to be off-topic.....Consider this: Within the areas of psychosis and depression, individuals who are treated will have both ethnic identities and health disparities, yes? You could ask the PI if there's potential to draw out a sample of patients/participants who are ethnic minorities and analyze them for any unique characteristics (after you've done the work to come up with a viable research questions of what you'd like to know, specifically).

I work with individuals who experience SMI (psychosis and treatment resistant depression, included), and these individuals certainly experience health disparities (anything from misdiagnoses over the course of the illness to being over-pathologized because of lack of cultural competence...so there's a lot there to unpack, especially if you live in an urban area flowing with diversity).

My main reason for replying is it's great & necessary to tackle this goal (clinical psych PhD/PsyD) with a research focus to set yourself apart from the crowd, but also don't be too wedded to a very specific idea now (you'll be selling your potential research experience short - my first published research experiences started with surgery, then genetic testing for breast cancer). Programs accept you with an edge (and research focus) but also want you malleable. Once you start your journey, you build upon it with unique experiences.

I'd jump on that RA job because of the exposure to chronically ill individuals, and once you view through your unique perspective, there's almost no limit to what you can add to the field.

Good luck!

Definitely a worthwhile endeavor. But, if this imaging lab is like most that I've been part of, those studies are going to have like 20-30 people tops in each group. Most of these studies are barely, if actually powered enough for the proposed analyses. Post-hoc analyses are usually very underpowered. It was hard enough for us to do gender analyses in most projects, any ethnicity based analyses were low single digit based cells. Now, this could be a VERY well funded project that is getting large sample sizes and it could be possible, but those kinds of labs are the exception.

Not to piss in anyone's corn flakes here, it's just the reality of the imaging based research world. But to answer the OP, I agree with Cheetah, just be thinking of ways to spin this to your ideal research. Also, understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of a disorder you wish to study can pretty easily spun no matter which angle you eventually go on to research.

 

[summerbabe]

At first glance, these two topics of research seem different; however, I understand that admissions committees are also looking at how I talk about my research experiences and how it fits into my grad school research interests.

One thing I'll add as a non-research person - I think many PIs are looking for students who have demonstrated background/exposure similar to their ongoing research programs to gauge fit. I think many PIs typically rely on the same types of research design/stats for many of their projects. And there's obviously a major difference between being an expect on regression-based studies and an expert on qualitative-based studies and this might play a large role in how a PI views fit during each application cycle.

The more aligned your experiences are with what prospective PIs are doing, the better your chances of admission. As @CheetahGirl spoke to, this RA position can play an important role in shaping your future independent research interests and having a really good RA experience will allow you to speak more robustly about your background. Good luck!

 

[ccool]

I agree with all that has been said.

Before going to grad school, I worked as a research assistant in a lab at a med school focused on smoking cessation treatment for low-income smokers. It was the only RA job I could get after 1.5 years of looking. Even though my interests were entirely different (interpersonal development) I was happy to take it as real-world research experience was the last piece I needed to be competitive for clinical programs. I worked there for a year before applying the next application cycle and am happy to report I am wrapping up my studies at the program of my choice. Additionally, I have continued to publish with that lab that through grad school.

All that said to say, I would absolutely say to take it. Research positions, especially paid, can be very hard to come by. And regardless of the area, there are many skills etc. to gain. I think PIs understand that... and if you work to create products and show yourself to be a competent investigator-in-training, I think you will excel. With a little bit of critical thinking, I’m sure you can think of how this experience and area of study connects to your own interests in some way. For example I’m interested in intervention development and dissemination and serving people from marginalized communities and can fit my work with that lab with my current interests and work. To the extent you’re able, in addition to being open to the tasks and projects you’re given, you can also intentionally pursue skills you’re interested in and shape your training in that way.

 

[Ollie123]

I'll just second what everyone has already said. No reason to be hesitant, it looks awesome. The technical skills you'll gain from doing imaging research will benefit you no matter what direction you go. There are also plenty of larger-scale imaging efforts being run now where looking at disparities is more feasible (e.g. the ABCD study has an N of ~12,000), extensive phenotyping, imaging every 2 years (I think?), etc. Data is freely available so if you want to bridge the two you absolutely could do so. HBCD is ramping up if you are interested in earlier neurodevelopment (e.g. disparities in early neurodevelopment due to opioid exposure).

ccool - Shoot me a PM if you see this. We might know each other.

 

[psychealth]

Not at all unrelated if you spin it, and do the work to connect the two areas (i.e., the focus of your potential job and your future interests).

Your RA position doesn't need to be off-topic.....Consider this: Within the areas of psychosis and depression, individuals who are treated will have both ethnic identities and health disparities, yes? You could ask the PI if there's potential to draw out a sample of patients/participants who are ethnic minorities and analyze them for any unique characteristics (after you've done the work to come up with a viable research questions of what you'd like to know, specifically).

I work with individuals who experience SMI (psychosis and treatment resistant depression, included), and these individuals certainly experience health disparities (anything from misdiagnoses over the course of the illness to being over-pathologized because of lack of cultural competence...so there's a lot there to unpack, especially if you live in an urban area flowing with diversity).

My main reason for replying is it's great & necessary to tackle this goal (clinical psych PhD/PsyD) with a research focus to set yourself apart from the crowd, but also don't be too wedded to a very specific idea now (you'll be selling your potential research experience short - my first published research experiences started with surgery, then genetic testing for breast cancer). Programs accept you with an edge (and research focus) but also want you malleable. Once you start your journey, you build upon it with unique experiences.

I'd jump on that RA job because of the exposure to chronically ill individuals, and once you view through your unique perspective, there's almost no limit to what you can add to the field.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. The population the current study is targeting is veterans and I guess that's where the issue of sample size that @WisNeuro highlighted could come into play. If I wish to narrow it down further and draw out a sample of participants who are ethnic minorities, I'm afraid that will be very difficult and I'm uncertain if the PI would be interested in going down that route. But you are right in that I shouldn't limit myself to a specific idea at this point in my journey. I will keep an open mind since my priority is gaining as much research experience as possible right now. Thank you!