Research is the cornerstone of training in PSI. Below, we lay out the requirements, rationale and assessment of your participation in research.
A. Research Requirement
Students are expected to dedicate at least half of their time (20 hours per week) to their research training. Beginning the first semester of their first year, as part of this research training, students are expected to participate directly in the ongoing research of a PSI faculty member, typically their mentor (or another Applied Psychology faculty with written approval from the program director). This research training may involve a range of activities and responsibilities typical of the research project cycle, including research management and implementation. In addition, students are expected to begin developing their own independent research (e.g., program milestones, etc.) under the guidance of their mentors. The division of the 20 hours of research training time allocated to faculty-led projects (i.e., research in the team or lab) and independent student research should be discussed and agreed upon with the mentor at the start of each semester. This balance typically varies over the course of the doctoral training, with more involvement in the faculty-led research at the beginning of the program, and a gradual shift toward more focus on student-led research in later years.
Starting in Year 3, students should spend a minimum of 5 hours (of the 20 hours per week) working with another research mentor within or outside of the program, with written approval of their primary mentor. This ensures that students are exposed to a variety of theoretical perspectives, methodological techniques, and research strategies during their training. Students are also free to transition onto new research teams with advisement throughout their doctoral training.
Fourth and fifth year students are expected to spend most or all of their time actively engaged in research. Each student-mentor pair will determine the balance of activities across faculty-led and student-led research in these years depending on the students’ professional goals and project needs.
B. Rationale
a. The intricacies of research require consistent involvement for the development of mastery.
b. In order to develop skills and experience in multiple phases of research (e.g., study design, measurement, data collection, data cleaning or coding, and data analyses), it is necessary to become an integral part of a research team. Adding a second research team provides exposure to different kinds of thinking in the areas listed above.
c. Students are engaged in learning full-time during the doctoral training, which is ensured, in part, by the twenty hours per week research expectation.
d. The expectation serves as a benchmark for faculty and students to assess the adequacy of students’ level of involvement in research.
C. Mentorship and Research Skill Development
Student-mentor pairs will meet each semester to discuss the student activities that reflect involvement in research, and maintain regular communication on which educational goals are being met through each research experience. We have created a guideline of best practices and mentorship and advisement that we encourage student-mentor pairs to use. You can find the student-mentor guideline here. An extended list of research skills that students will develop over the course of graduate study can be found under “Skills for Intervention Psychologists”.
D. Research Requirement for Doctoral Training versus Research Assistantships and Paid Work
The 20-hour-per-week research requirement is a core component of the PSI doctoral training and does not constitute paid work. Beyond this requirement, students may pursue additional paid research positions on other research projects.
In the early years of the program, students typically do not take on paid research roles during the academic year due to demanding schedules that include coursework, research training, and other program commitments. However, students across all years often take on paid research or teaching positions during the summer. In the later years in the program, particularly after completing coursework, some students hold paid research or teaching positions during the academic year to supplement their stipend.
Students are strongly encouraged to regularly discuss the balance of their responsibilities (e.g., coursework, research training, teaching, paid positions) with their mentor at the beginning of each academic year to ensure sustainable progress in their PhD training.