PREP - Module 4.3

This is a question that professors get asked often: “I am interested in research, but how do I start? How do I go about joining a lab?” Let’s walk through some common strategies to begin this process.

Find common research interests. One of the most common strategies to getting into a research lab, especially if you have a decent idea of your area of interest, is to find a professor on your campus who is conducting research in this area. When we talk about research interests, it could be as broad as a class. For example, you might be interested in social psychology or cognitive psychology. Or, it could be more specific, such as facial recognition, or health disparities, or romantic relationships. A good way of thinking about research interests is to think about a textbook for a class, then a specific chapter within that textbook, and a specific section of that chapter. As you advance in your career, you’ll likely find that your interests become more specific. If you’re just starting your academic journey, your interest might be as broad as the topic of a textbook; by the time you finish your PhD (if you so desire) your research interest will likely be on a specific paragraph or section of a textbook (i.e., much narrower). If you have a specific interest in mind, you can go to your school’s website to look up the psychology department, then look at the listing of professors in the department. Usually, these listings will also have short blurbs about their research interests. This is a great starting point to see if your interests broadly overlap with these professors. It’s also a good place to go to if you don’t have a specific interest yet. You can peruse these faculty profiles to see what topics are being studied on your campus. Maybe one of these faculty profiles will spark your interest in an area you didn’t even know existed.

After you find a professor who is doing research in an area you’re interested in, you might want to do a quick search of their name on Google Scholar. This allows you to see their latest works. University websites are notoriously out of date, doing a quick Google Scholar search will allow you to find their most recent publications. You’ll want to click on a few and at least read the abstracts, and maybe read one or two of those papers more closely. Maybe this professor has expanded their research interest to include other topics (a relatively common thing). By the way, while you’re on Google Scholar, you might want to see what their most cited papers are (especially ones in which they are the first author). This gives you an idea of what they are “known” for in their field.