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My Mentorship Style
I believe that graduate school is about mentor-mentee fit. You know better than I whether what I’m doing is going to be something that will continue to spark your interest and passion or if it’s just not ultimately your thing. I feel strongly that you should end up with a mentor who fits both in terms of personality/work style and content area. Otherwise, grad school can be a long and difficult process (more so than it already is!). 

I love mentoring - it is by far my favorite part of being a faculty member. I work with each student to develop a training plan that is aligned with their personal and professional interests. I believe it is my responsibility to ensure my students have the skills and experiences they need to pursue their chosen career path.

All that said, it is important to me that both my students and I have lives outside of academia and I strive to model work-life balance. We are more than just the work we do!

What I Look for in Prospective Students

I often am asked what I look for in graduate student applicants. I'm passionate about my research and am looking for students who share this interest. Competitive applicants have a strong research background (e.g., honors thesis, extensive undergraduate research assistant experience, post-bac research assistant position) and are truly interested in contributing to research within the DEPTH Lab.

I strongly recommend the professional development website of my own graduate mentor, Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D., at UNC Chapel Hill. This website is an excellent source of all types of information that help prospective applicants answer questions ranging from "Is a clinical PhD program right for me?" to "What kinds of careers are there in psychology?" to "How do I apply to grad school?"

Interoceptive Awareness and Weight-Related Behaviors. I am particularly interested in how continuous glucose monitors may be useful tools to identify at-risk periods for disordered eating behaviors and to facilitate accurate identification of and responses to hunger and satiety cues using glycemic variability data. I also am interested in the extent to which 1) objective measures of interoception map on to subjective reports of interoception and whether objective measures better predict cognitive and behavioral disordered eating outcomes and 2) measuring or targeting interoception across various biological systems is associated with cognitive and behavioral disordered eating outcomes.

Psychosocial Influences on Weight-Related Behaviors. Currently, we are interested in 1) how perceptions of social power may contribute to women's objectification of other women; 2) differences in body ideals and body dissatisfaction across diverse young adult men and women; and 3) how the gender of an appearance comparison target may lead to different outcomes among young adult men and women.

I also have a longstanding relationship with Saint Leo University where we measure their student-athletes' mental health and provide broad psychoeducation at the beginning of the academic year on an annual basis.

Food and Alcohol Disturbance. I am interested in improving our measurement of FAD, particularly refining the CEBRACS, investigating whether the consequences of FAD are lesser/worse/similar to those of problematic alcohol use, and identifying whether FAD preventive interventions would be most effective targeting disordered eating and its risk factors, alcohol use and its risk factors, or both broad categories.

Creating and fostering a cohesive, supportive, and inclusive lab environment is a priority. We strive to conduct ourselves in ways that are consistent with our values of supporting diversity of backgrounds, personal beliefs, experiences, skills, interests, and professional pathways. Students are encouraged to consider how issues of diversity and inclusion broadly may impact the scientific process and clinical work. We firmly believe in, welcome, and celebrate the opportunity to integrate new perspectives into our work.

**The DEPTH Lab does not currently have any paid or volunteer positions open for Fall 2023.**

Interested undergraduates are encouraged to completed this application and return it via email to Dr. Diana Rancourt (drancourt@usf.edu). Feel free to return the application even if we are not actively recruiting RAs - we do keep applications on file for when RA positions become available.