ERC Funded DPhil in Experimental Psychology with Professor Elaine Fox

• The deadline for applications is Friday 9^th January 2015 by 12 Noon (Midday) UK Time. 
• Please state Funding Reference Code: ERC2015EF when completing the on-line Graduate Application. Please see the following link: Applying to Oxford
  

The Project: The formation of cognitive habits in relation to emotional vulnerability and mental well-being

The project is funded by European Research Council and aims in broad terms:

1)     To develop implicit, behavioural measures of cognitive biases and habits associated with psychological vulnerability as well as optimal mental well-being.

2)     To establish the neural correlates of emotional vulnerability and well-being.

3)     To establish the relations between the behavioural and neural measures in both laboratory and real-life situations with high ecological validity.

4)     To assist in the running of a large longitudinal study and to collect and analyze data relevant to the studentship in this developmental context.

Job description

Overview of the role

The position is available for 36 months from 01/10/2015. The student will have a key role in participant recruitment, data collection, statistical analyses, and dissemination of results as a DPhil thesis and peer-reviewed papers. A significant proportion of the role will involve the management of a longitudinal study, which will include the recruitment of schools to participate in the project and to recruit and collect data from students (aged 12 – 17) in those schools. The project is associated with a 5-year ERC-funded Advanced Investigator Award led by Professor Elaine Fox that examines the cognitive and genetic mechanisms underlying emotional vulnerability and resilience. Methods will include behavioural tasks to measure and modify cognitive processing. There may also be opportunities to incorporate genetic methods as well as neuroscientific methods (EEG, fMRI) in the study.

In the longitudinal project we are following children from age 12/13 to 16/17 years. The aim is to assess how self-reported mood and impulsivity relate to information processing mechanisms (as assessed in computer tasks) of negative and positive emotions, risk-taking and food.  Specifically, we are interested in how these relations develop over time and to what extent behaviour in the early years is predictive of behaviour in later years.  Within the questions of this bigger project, the DPhil involves following up on how risk-taking and food information biases transfer into habits by setting up several small-scale studies. It may possible to incorporate neuroimaging measures (e.g. fMRI) to target these questions within the DPhil.

Responsibilities/duties

Experimental design and programming

School recruitment for longitudinal study

Participant recruitment

Data collection

Statistical analyses

Dissemination

Communication

• Maintaining confidentiality regarding research data when interacting with other researchers.
• Participating in and contributing to didactic activities in the lab (journal clubs and discussion groups).
• Preparing posters/oral presentations of research, and manuscripts for dissemination to local and broad scientific community

Education and training

• Attending appropriate scientific seminars and meetings locally, nationally and internationally

 Other General Responsibilities

• Being accountable for professional conduct within the project.
• Ensuring that work in the laboratory is conducted safely and, in particular, that they undertake work using appropriate safety procedures and in the dedicated areas.
• Conducting themselves with due regard to the University Equal Opportunities and Data Protection policies.