Research - your experience

[Galia]

I started to work in research lab and I find experience … weird. Can those who volunteered in labs share their experience, since I have nothing to compare with. Any info is appreciated, but if you prefer to answer specific questions, they are below.

-What are usually responsibilities / tasks of research assistant?
-Are hours flexible?
-Is it structured in any way, i.e. you are told what to do, or is it ‘free floating environment’ (i.e. you are expected to come with idea and make some type of proposal)?
-Is it customary to have access to data to be able to run own analysis or is it a big deal?
-How many hours a week is considered decent?
-What is the value for having reseach lab experience on one’s resume – is it the fact that one have ‘paid one’s dues’ or you are expected to have experience that has relevance to professional abilities?
-Is doing research in the hospital lab considered any different from doing it in pure academic environment?

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[clinpsychgirl]

I started to work in research lab and I find experience … weird. Can those who volunteered in labs share their experience, since I have nothing to compare with. Any info is appreciated, but if you prefer to answer specific questions, they are below.

-What are usually responsibilities / tasks of research assistant?
-Are hours flexible?
-Is it structured in any way, i.e. you are told what to do, or is it ‘free floating environment’ (i.e. you are expected to come with idea and make some type of proposal)?
-Is it customary to have access to data to be able to run own analysis or is it a big deal?
-How many hours a week is considered decent?
-What is the value for having reseach lab experience on one’s resume – is it the fact that one have ‘paid one’s dues’ or you are expected to have experience that has relevance to professional abilities?
-Is doing research in the hospital lab considered any different from doing it in pure academic environment?

Here are the answers based solely on my personal experiences:

As a volunteer, my tasks generally consisted of run of the mill photocopying/filing, lit searches, data entry, observation, phone screening...etc. As a volunteer, I've found the hours to be flexible. As a paid RA, I've found them to be prototypically 9-5ish.

I've found that there is a lot of structure because you are at the bottom of the totem poll so there's the grunt work that you are expected to do. With that said, I don't have a boss who micromanages so I basically get tasks to do and then I do them at my leisure.

Based on experience, I would say that it is typically not customary to run personal analyses as an undergraduate and even in some cases as a paid RA. If you have an idea, I'd speak to your boss to gauge their willingness. If pursuing individual research interests is important to you, then I'd suggest that you be upfront at interviews about this interest to see if it will be accomodated.

If you want a research oriented PhD in clinical psychology, then research experience is invaluable. If you are more interested in a clinically oriented Phd or a PsyD, then I'd say research experience is still important. In sum, get as much relevant experience as you can before you apply.

Best of luck to you!

 

[RainbowTVP]

My experience is similar to clinpsychgirl's.

I am working (paid, not as a student- graduated in Dec this is at a diff univ than I attended) in a psych lab as a Research Associate. I do structured interviews, scheduling, data entry. Hours are somewhat felxible- there are office hours and they schedule you, but it is based on your availability and you can work as many or as few hours as you want within reason. There are also some limited opportunities to take work home. You have definite tasks that are assigned and must be completed, but you can manage your time during the day- no one is watching over your shoulder.

This is a large, funded program that has been running for a few years, so my role is to support their research, not conduct my own or follow my ideas. I don't even have access to the PI or the data.

Now, I worked as a research assistant for a professor who knew me and my work ethics and abilities, etc very well, and there I had complete freedom with what I would do and when & how I would do it. I had the opportunity to come up with hypotheses and use her data (data collection was complete) and run analyses and present the work. We are now working on getting it published and I will be second author.

I also worked with that prof on an independet research project where I did everything from design the study to training observers, seeking IRB approval, etc to writing and presenting.

Other students I have known to work with that prof and in other labs/other univ have mostly done the grunt work type stuff described in my first paragraph.

It is my understanding that grad schools expect the undergrad to have the less flexible, come in and help out type of experience. But- the more experience and the more in depth the better! Esp if you can get a publication out of it!

If you want the latter type of experience (and you are no longer in college), I would suggest contacting some psych profs at local colleges and enroll in some of their classes and work with them for a semester or two.

Some of what I have learned- it is okay if the research is somewhat outside of your interests. IOW- if the only prof available to you is doing gerontology and you are into sensory/perception that's okay. It would be best to stick with psych/academic environment rather than a hospital environment, but anything is better than nothing.

They want to see that you know what a lab is like.

Now data access is tricky- technically, any lab should share data with any researcher who wants to analyze it... but many researchers are protective of their work- esp while still colllecting, writing. They don't want someone else to write up their hypotheses and get credit for all their hard work! They might be especially leery of someone without credentials. I have known undergrads who got data sets from large labs (not affiliated with their university) though and published the work.

And... if you don't have research experience or a mentor... would you know what to do with the data if you could get it?

It wouldn't hurt to ask your supervisors about these things after you have gotten to know them. There may be a grad student working out a hypothesis that would like your help and would be willing to list you as a co-author and give you more indepth experience.

Keep your eyes open and try to get an idea of who is who and what is what... Once you know someone well, explain your desire to go to grad school and ask if they have any suggestions on how to get published in your situation.

Tara P

 

[Galia]

Thank you both, this is very elaborate and extremely helpful!!! I have a few additional questions....

I understand that even doing pure ‘clerical-administrative’ work in research is considered OK. My only concern is that this type of work does not provide basis to recommendations that reflects one’s professional abilities (what can they write – she was nice and always put files in the right place?).

‘To see that you know what a lab is like’ – can you elaborate on that, may be? What specifically is important to know about the lab – the data side or how research subjects/patients are observed and interviewed? I am starting to think I might be getting wrong experience, since I got in the project where all observations are completed… and this is the side I am missing on my resume the most.

Tara, I can really appreciate your advice and if you can tell me more about the process where you are co-authoring. I come from different field … and I found myself asking awkward questions (that I am trying to avoid), not because of bad intentions, just because I am used to doing things differently.

Do you come up with hypothesis first, from reading literature and not seeing any data? I am very used to touch data (plus readings) to come up with ideas, although I can try developing them from pure reading too, if this is a big deal. I asked Research Supervisor about data availability, she said that playing with data is considered fishing, which is bad, and at best I can ask for some specific variables. In my field it is considered data mining, I am used to spend weeks of fruitless data exploration to come up with any idea and make any sense of the data. Also, there is not a problem to either get access to the data nor do whatever you please - as long as your analyses make sense and can be replicated with similar results. The simplest example would be to check distributions of the variables, because if they are skewed or flat – that makes a difference on what research question can be asked.

So now I am thinking – should I go spend time reading and come with proposal or it is OK to ask PI for the data?

I am volunteering for a professor I took a class with last semester (graduate level). I have some data experience from my work (I am running a team in consumer behavior research, mainly quantitative). Originally we spoke about may be co-authoring, but that specific subject fell through because they are almost finished there. I have reasons to believe there is no issue with trust, I have access to other confidential info in that person’s work and signed agreement. It is just a matter of doing things the right way, with minimal quidance from PI, since I said I can learn on my own.

There are very few peole left in that project, so few opportunities to ask around. Also no students, whether as RAs or working on their hypothesis, so hard to tag along. It is very close to data freese, run out of funds project and it feels there are many sensitive issues, and I am trying not to step on anybody's toes by accident.

Thanks a lot!!!

 

[RainbowTVP]

Your best bet, IMO, would be to do a lit search on the variables you have available, come up with a hypothesis or two, and present them to the PI. For instance... In the lab I was working in- the prof was looking at prenatal factors contributing to infant reactivity. I had the lists of measures- Stress Indexes, physiological data, etc. and then did a lit search. I developed Hypotheses from there (one was: perceived stress during preg will result in higher reactivity) and then chose which of the variables I would use to support this Hy.... I didn't ever look at the data before that process was completed.

The data supported some of my hypotheses, but not all. I presented posters at some conventions and wrote up my results in a paper. I have not submitted it for publication, my prof is integrating it into the work she had already completed. She also had me do some additional writing (further lit search) and is now editing/polishing and hopefully submitting any day now! I will be second author.

For my independent project, I did a lit search based on questions which were based on life experience, then developed a hypo and then collected data, then analyzed results. Now- I did find some interesting things that I was not looking for and mentioned them in the presentation.

It would be considered working backwards to collect data and analyze it, only then forming hypotheses based on your results.

However... projects generally gather data on many more variables than the needed for the hypotheses- for example, my independent project was looking at effect of teacher characteristics on preschool skills. I was looking specifically at teaching style, education level, and years of exerpience, but I also recorded things like income, benefits, age, job satisfaction, etc. and can later develop hypotheses based on these factors.

It *is* considered bad form to run analyses and find correlations, etc then say "Hey, look!" I know it is a subtle difference. And really, depending on how you write it up, who would know the difference?

I think a lot of it is about 1) funding- you have to have a good reason to be doing the research and 2) sound research design- you want to know what you are looking for and why.

Does that help?

I am really interested to hear what other's experience has been with this!

Tara P

 

[Galia]

That helps a lot!!!
Thanks a ton!!

I was kind of lost, but now it all starting to make sense. I guess I am going to spend some good time in the library. I have access to ALL variable definitions and tests they run, just not the actual data. So I guess I have more than enough.

 

[psycholytic]

Hi

I work in a research lab 10 hours a week. I do clinical interviewing, data input, data analysis and write up a research paper for a WPA presentation. I have worked in this lab for 1.5 years during my Bachelors studies.

 

[Galia]

Thanks , psycholytic!