High School Research Assistants
Stay tuned!
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More information will be available soon on how to apply to be a Research Assistant in our lab!
Closed for Winter Term
OSU undergrads interested in gaining research experience! Join us as an undergraduate research assistant in the TIDES Lab. Research in the TIDES Lab focuses on understanding what increases adolescents' risk for depression, self-harm, and suicide and developing and testing new treatments to reduce this risk. Find out more here. Interested in adolescent mental health? Want to gain experience designing engaging smartphone interventions for teens? Care about suicide prevention and reducing depression risk? We will be recruiting undergraduate RAs in the future.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Honors College Students
We love to support honors college students in doing a thesis as part of the TIDES Lab. If you are interested in potentially doing a thesis in the lab, you must first work in the lab as a research assistant for at least 1 year (3 terms). After a year, you and Dr. Lawrence can determine whether or not the TIDES Lab is a good fit for your honors thesis. See above for whether there are currently openings for undergraduate research assistants in the lab.
I will be reviewing applications for graduate students to begin in Fall 2023
I hope that the following information is helpful to you in deciding whether to apply to be a graduate student in the TIDES Lab at Oregon State University. As you read through this Q & A and consider your options for graduate school (and next steps more broadly) I would encourage you to search for the right program that will support your goals. The goal is not to get into a PhD program. The goal is to find the training and mentorship that will help you thrive both in graduate school and beyond. That may be in the TIDES Lab and that may not and that is ok! Please only apply if your goals and values align with those of our lab and our graduate program.
Are you reviewing applications for graduate students?
Yes! I am reviewing applications for a graduate student in our experimental PhD program to start in 2023-2024.
Is this a Clinical Psychology PhD Program?
No. Currently we have an experimental PhD program with faculty who do research in health psychology, applied cognition, and engineering psychology (https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/sps/psychology/graduate-psychology). There is no clinical training offered in this program and applicants interested in clinical careers would be better served by other programs. Stay tuned in coming years for updates regarding our newly forming Clinical Science PhD program!
Why does “fit” matter?
I am invested in helping graduate students develop their own lines of research. By the time graduate students leave my lab, they should have their own research identities independent of my own or those of the lab. That said, many of the opportunities I can offer and training I can provide are tied to ongoing research projects in the lab. Put frankly, the data graduate students will have access to and the methods they learn (at least during the early years of graduate school) will largely depend on the ongoing research in the lab. For graduate students to be productive and happy in the TIDES Lab, it works best when their interests align well with the research focus of our lab.
What does “fit” look like in the TIDES Lab?
Research in the TIDES Lab focuses on depression, self-harm, and suicide in adolescents with a particular focus on the role mental imagery plays. That does not mean that graduate students need to be interested in these exact areas; in fact, I am very interested in welcoming graduate students to the lab who expand on this work and take it in new and exciting directions. Here are just a few ways that graduate student interests might “fit” with those of the lab.
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Interest in cognitive risk factors for depression, self-harm, and/or suicide other than mental imagery
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Interest in the role mental imagery plays in exacerbating risk for depression, self-harm, suicide, or some other mental health concern
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Interest in developing mental imagery-based interventions for depression, self-harm, suicide, or some other mental health concern
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Interest in developing scalable interventions for adolescents with depression, self-harm, and/or suicide even if they don’t include mental imagery
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Interest in a subpopulation that may be especially susceptible to maladaptive mental imagery or especially benefit from interventions incorporating mental imagery
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There are lots of other ways your interests may “fit” too!
I am best-suited to mentor students who are interested in pursuing careers that involve research. This could mean a faculty position at a university or a hospital, it could mean an industry position (e.g., at a tech company), it could mean conducting research as part of a position in a clinical setting or community mean health organization, or it could be working for the government or nonprofit (amongst many other career paths that incorporate research!). Currently, we do not offer clinical training in our PhD program and we are not positioned to train individuals who aspire to clinical positions.
How can I find out about what projects you’re currently working on?
Check out the “Current Projects” tab of our website.
Should I email you before applying?
To be as fair as possible to all applicants I do not discuss applying to my lab ahead of time. I also care deeply about supporting my current students and am very protective of my time devoted to mentoring them. This is all to say that you do not need to email me ahead of applying. Whether or not you email me will have no impact on whether you are invited to interview or offered a position in our program. If you do have a specific question that is not answered on my website, the School of Psychological Sciences website (https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/sps/psychology), or the Oregon State Graduate School Website (https://gradschool.oregonstate.edu) you are welcome to email me and I will do my best to respond.
What resources are there to help me put together a strong application?
*Note we are not admitting students into a clinical psychology PhD program this year at Oregon State University. Some of these guides are specific to clinical psychology programs. They may help you determine whether or not applying to our experimental PhD program is a good fit or if you should apply to clinical psychology PhD programs or many other fantastic types of graduate programs.
Project SHORT is an excellent program where you are paired with a mentor to help you through the process of applying to graduate school: https://www.project-short.com/
Help preparing different parts of the application:
Annotated personal statement examples
How do I actually apply to OSU’s program?
Apply here: https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/sps/psychology/graduate-psychology/future-graduate-students