Below are the research assistantships currently available in our department.
Please check back soon as new opportunities are listed on a continuing basis.
You can also apply to labs across a variety of Psychology, Neuroscience, and other STEM fields on the PROPEL website.
If you are a PBS member and would like to post on this page, please complete our Undergraduate Recruitment Form.
Research Assistantships
Duties:
- Assist in creating an Arabic Kinship Intensity Dictionary
- Annotate a range of Arabic books from a digital corpus
- Perform statistical analyses on digital corpus
- Help develop online lab experiments
Prerequisites: Must speak Arabic
Times Student Must be Available: Weekly check-ins TBD
Hours Per Week: 9
Credits: 3
Sponsoring Faculty Member: Dr. Mohammad Atari
How to Apply: Email @email with resume
The FAM Lab is looking to accept a research assistant who will focus their work on an ongoing project titled “A Biobehavioral Pilot Study of the Latinx Parent-Youth Experiences of Discrimination and Stress and Western Massachusetts”. The study aims to analyze how discrimination and stress can impact the health of Latinx parents and their adolescents, and participation involves a structured interview, surveys, health measurements, and saliva samples.
The research assistant will be expected to become familiar with the study’s recruitment, data collection, data maintenance, and data analysis processes. Once training is complete, the research assistant will help in continuing recruitment and data collection. Opportunities to analyze data and conduct literature reviews will be available. Students interested in working with families, adolescents, and the Latinx community are encouraged to apply.
Duties:
- Recruit participants which includes flyering in the community, at events, and through
online forums.
- Contact potential participants and schedule data collection sessions.
- Conduct data collection sessions on weekdays and weekends at participant’s homes,
UMass Springfield Center, or UMass Amherst Campus.
- Assist in training new research assistants on study protocol.
- Prepare data collection materials and upkeep data maintenance
- Attend lab outreach events.
Prerequisites: Students who are fluent in Spanish are strongly encouraged to apply.
Time commitments:
- Weekly check in meetings with study team
- Biweekly general lab meetings
- Commitment to keeping two weekends per month available, many outreach events and
data collections take place on weekends.
Hours per week: 9
Credits: 3
Sponsoring Faculty Member: Dr. Evelyn Mercado
How to apply: Fill out the application at this link: https://forms.gle/vPP6gnwpabgjvyxc8
The FAM Lab is looking to accept research assistants who can serve as mentors at a local youth mentoring program that serves 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students. Mentors will engage with students through activities like basketball, volleyball, weight training, homework help, or simply chatting. Mentors are expected to form meaningful connections with students throughout the semester and promote positive and safe behaviors. Patience, empathy, and respect are all necessary qualities to be a successful mentor. Additionally, RAs/mentors may support data collection efforts within the program, which aim to capture the program’s positive impacts on its students and areas of improvement.
Duties:
- Commit to attending the youth mentoring program at least twice a week (the program
runs Monday-Thursday; 7:00am-8:45am; participation requires being present the entire
time). Transportation will be provided.
- Attend general lab meetings
- Support data collection efforts
- Attend lab outreach events (if lab hours need to be fulfilled)
Prerequisites: Students with mentorship experience and/or experience working with youth are
encouraged to apply.
Time commitments:
- Attending youth mentoring program at least twice a week (7:00am-8:45am)
- Biweekly general lab meetings
- Biweekly check in meetings with mentorship team
- Some outreach events will take place on weekends
Hours per week: 6-9
Credits: 2/3
Sponsoring Faculty Member: Dr. Evelyn Mercado
How to apply: Fill out the application at this link: https://forms.gle/vPP6gnwpabgjvyxc8