“Translational research in the behavioral and social sciences addresses how basic behavioral processes inform the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and delivery of services for mental illness, and, conversely, how knowledge of mental illness increases our understanding of basic behavioral processes.”

Family Translational Research Group

Supervised Research

Please read the following information carefully, before submitting your application.

Purpose of Research Assistant Program:

The Family Translational Research Group has several federally funded grants to conduct research on couples’ communication, partner violence, and parent-child violence. Each semester we accept a limited number of undergraduates into our research team to work with us on these studies. Research Assistants gain valuable research experience as well as preparation and advising for graduate school and careers in Psychology and related fields.

Lab Activities

• Phone interviewing

  The main task for Research Assistants is administering a structured interview about family dynamics to adults in Suffolk County, through random digit dialing procedures. This will be conducted through a computerized system, which Research Assistants are extensively trained to use.

• Data Management

  Research assistants may also spend some time on data management activities during the semester. This typically involves some computer work (SPSS and Excel) and can include a wide variety of projects and data sets.

• Optional Research Paper

  The purpose of this paper is to provide experience and feedback with formal writing and literature research. The paper is a 5 page literature review on a topic chosen by each Research Assistant, in the area of family violence. Meetings are scheduled with the project directors to discuss topics, and help with all phases of the writing process are available and strongly encouraged.

Additional Research Opportunities:

• Participant Visit Assistance:

  We are currently looking for mature, professional students to assist us with the supervision of 4-8 year old children recruited along with their parents to come in to the lab as participants in our current study of family conflict. Project assistants will be thoroughly trained in the relevant aspects of the study’s protocol and must demonstrate an exceptional sense of maturity, understanding of research etiquette, and scientific integrity.

• *Observational Coding:

  Coders will attend training meetings, practice coding, learn to evaluate reliability and enter coding data into computerized data files. RAs who wish to be trained as coders must make at least a two-semester commitment of at least 2 credits each semester. There are various different coding opportunities available:

  
  
  • RMICS:

    Learning and implementing the Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (RMICS) to systematically observe and code video-recorded interactions of couples.

  
  
  • PCI:

    The PCI, or Parent Child Interaction, is a 35 minute task in which the primary caregiver (PC) sits with the child and performs 5 activities. A PCI coder rates the PC’s responses to the child’s undesirable and noncompliant behavior; undesirable being actions that are socially inappropriate or annoying, and noncompliance being a failure to comply with a rule or command imposed by the PC. Ultimately, a coder determines if the response to these behaviors is effective or ineffective using a scale of 0 to 4.

  
  
  • BPI:

    The Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI) uses an interactive technique for interviewing children, blending structured and clinical interviewing techniques. During the actual BPI interview, two identical puppets make opposing statements about themselves (e.g., “I’m smart” “I’m not smart”) and then ask children to describe themselves (e.g., “How about you?”). The BPI allows children to respond in ways that are most natural and comfortable to them (e.g., verbally and or non-verbally). To capture the range of individual differences in young children’s responses, the BPI uses an extensive, rule-based coding system. Coders learn to decipher figures of speech, reasoning processes, and conditional responses that reflect children’s self-perceptions.

  
  

  *Coding positions are based on experience and require a separate interview which will be scheduled after the initial interview with Michele.

Interested?

• Apply online at: application.ftrgroup.org
• Please be aware that those wishing to participate in the summer will be required to register for both sessions I and II.

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