The Psychology Department at Utrecht University offers a PhD position in the project entitled 'Losing yourself in the restrictions of society'. The PhD project addresses the role of institutional obligations and regimes in undermining personal choice and responsibility, and how such obligations affect the neurocognitive underpinnings of the sense of agency, that is, the pre-reflective experience of oneself being the author of one’s own actions and resulting consequence in social and physical environments. We are also interested in how resistance to, and repeated experience with obligations impinge on these effects.

 

The project has two main objectives: (1) advancing a social-neurocognitive model that offers novel insights of human autonomy in societal context that are relevant for self-regulation, behavioral change and social behavior; and (2) developing tools to assess and distinguish the impact of institutional rules and regimes on sense of agency, responsibility and resistance. The project is part of a larger research programme (Institutions for Open Societies) that aims to study and model how norms, rules and laws at the micro-macro level of institutions shape society at large. Read more about the project here (.pdf).

Job tasks/responsibilities

• Conducting research (literature research, designing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, reporting the results), resulting in international scientific publications and a dissertation.
• Presenting results at national and international scientific conferences.
• Teaching in the Psychology programme (max. 10%).
• Active participation in the research group of the project and of the Department.
• Ambition to collaborate with and visit international partners in research.

We are looking for someone who:

• holds (or nearly holds) a Master’s degree in Psychology or a related field, preferably with a profile in Social Neuroscience;
• has good experimental and programming skills (e.g., E-Prime, Presentation, Matlab, Phython, R) to design and conduct laboratory research;
• is familiar with neuroimaging methods, such as EEG and/or MRI;
• has good methodological and statistical skills;
• is open-minded to apply and translate basic research to issues in society;
• is able to meet deadlines, and conduct research independently and as part of a team;
• has good communication skills (written and oral) in English.

We offer a position of 1.0 FTE, starting preferably September 1, 2019. The first year you’ll be offered a temporary contract, after which an evaluation will decide whether or not the contract will be extended with another 45 months. During this period the PhD has to be completed. In the first year, the candidate will work 1.0 FTE on the PhD project. After the first year, the candidate will start working as a Research Coordinator for 0.2 FTE and 0.8 FTE as a PhD candidate, so the task of Research Coordinator will commence in the summer of 2020.

 

Based on a full-time contract, the gross salary per month amounts €2,325 in the first year to €2,972 per month in the last year for the PhD part of this position (scale P according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities). Based on a full-time contract, the gross salary per month amounts between €2,579 and €3,445 (scale 8 according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) for the Research Coordinator part of this position.

In addition, we offer attractive and flexible secondary terms of employment such as an annual holiday pay of 8%, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% per year and partially paid parental leave. We also provide an attractive working environment and a vibrant research climate. More information is available at our website: working at Utrecht University.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

Utrecht is a young and vibrant city with a large academic population, around 30 minutes south of Amsterdam. It combines a beautiful old city centre with a modern university. Utrecht has an excellent quality of life, with plenty of green space and a strong bicycle culture.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences is one of the leading Faculties in Europe providing research and academic teaching in Interdisciplinary Social Science, Cultural Anthropology, Educational Sciences, Pedagogical Sciences, Psychology, and Sociology. More than 5,600 students are enrolled in a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programmes. The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has some 850 faculty and staff members, all providing their individual contribution to the training and education of young talent and to the research into and finding solutions for scientific and societal issues.