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PhD candidate in Developmental Psychopathology
- Specifications - (explanation)
Location Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences Function types PhD positions Scientific fields Natural Sciences, Behaviour and Society Hours 38.0 hours per week Education University Graduate Job number 10-2073 Translations en
Job description
The mission of the developmental psychopathology research programme is the development of theoretical models to understand the aetiology and maintenance of psychiatric disorders and to develop theory-based interventions.
Project: 'Cognitive and Motivational Components of Adaptive and Maladaptive Decision-making: an Integrative Approach'
The main topic of this project is decision-making and the control of voluntary action. Different research traditions have modelled and explained human intentional action with a focus on either perceptual action effects (ideomotor approach) or the affective consequences (motivational approach), but how these relate to each other remains unclear. We hypothesise that representations of perceptual and affective action effects serve different, dissociable purposes in human decision-making. By bringing together methods from different research traditions and subdisciplines we will dissociate these two functions in healthy participants as well as clinical populations (specifically drug abuse, obesity). In collaboration with Prof. Bernhard Hommel and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leiden, individual differences in behaviour, personality, and genetics will be related to individual differences in (fMRI) brain-activation profiles.
Tasks
The PhD student will mainly be responsible for conducting behavioural experiments with healthy participants as well as clinical populations, for statistical analysis and reporting of the data. The PhD student will also have the opportunity to present his/her research at conferences.
(S)he will write at least 5 articles on the findings, resulting in a doctoral dissertation. About 15% of the time will be devoted to teaching, which includes supervision of BA and MA level theses on the same topic.
The PhD student is expected to collaborate with the postdoctoral researcher and the principal investigators on this same project. The postdoc will focus on the fMRI research part of this project, which will be conducted at the University of Leiden, while the PhD student will mainly focus on the behavioural research (including experimental tasks, personality measures, and relating behaviour to individual differences in genetics) at the University of Amsterdam. The PhD student will, however, also be offered the opportunity to gain experience in fMRI research and the collection of genetic data.
Requirements
- (Research) Master-level degree in Psychology, Biomedical Sciences, Cognitive Neurosciences, or Medical Sciences
- Affinity with experimental behavioural research
- Interest in addiction and psychiatric genetics
- Good command of English
- Programming experience or willingness to acquire this skill
- Good command of Dutch and programming experience are welcome but not required
Conditions of employment
The appointment will be for a period of four years (one year plus a further three years after a positive evaluation) and should lead to a dissertation. Based on a full-time appointment, the gross monthly salary will be in accordance with the University regulations for academic personnel, and will range from €2,042 (first year) up to a maximum of €2,612 (fourth year).
Department
The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) is the largest educational and research institution in the social sciences in the Netherlands. The Faculty serves 7,500 students in numerous Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Science, Psychology, Social Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, and Educational Sciences. The academic staff is employed in education as well as research. There are over 1,100 employees at the Faculty, which resides in a number of buildings in the centre of Amsterdam.
Additional information
For further information or for a copy of the awarded grant application for this project, please email Dr Sanne de Wit (co-promotor): s.dewit@uva.nl, and cc this email to the promotors: Professor Reinout Wiers (University of Amsterdam): r.wiers@uva.nl, and Professor Bernhard Hommel (University of Leiden): hommel@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
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More information about and active vacancies of University of Amsterdam (UvA) on AcademicTransfer.
More vacancies of function type: PhD positions;
or scientific field: Natural Sciences; Behaviour and Society.
