Durham University

Durham University is one of the world's top universities with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences.

The Department of Psychology is consistently ranked as one of the very best in the UK with an outstanding reputation for excellence in teaching and research. We are currently ranked in the top 100 of Psychology Departments worldwide according to the QS World Rankings. Currently, the department's research falls within three groupings: Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Science, and Quantitative Social Psychology.

The department is extremely well-equipped for research, including facilities for fMRI, TMS, tDCS, EEG/ERP, VR, eye movement tracking, and biophysiological recording. The department also has a motion capture lab for analysis of visuomotor action and experiments in immersive VR, a 'bar' lab for naturalistic studies in health psychology, and setups for psychophysics including an echo-attenuated chamber.

The Role

The 6-month fixed-term Research Assistant (RA) position is available 14 hours per week in the Department of Psychology at Durham University. The successful candidate will join the research project "A comprehensive framework for understanding solitary experiences of living-alone adults" led by Dr Thuy-vy Nguyen. The project focuses on individual characteristics, social and physical environment can shape people's daily experiences with solitude, with a specific focus on living-alone adults.

The Project: The first aim is to conduct a systematic review that aims to analyse different perspectives that provide insights into the question of how social and physical environments create, interact with, or modify solitary experiences of living-alone individuals. The review will integrate literature from sociology and anthropology to analyse how solitary experiences might be impacted by the individual's social environment, including their developmental upbringing, social norms, social relationships with others, including strong ties like family and friends and weak ties such as neighbours or co-workers, etc. The systematic review will be completed within the first 3 months.

The second aim is to conduct qualitative interviews with living-alone adults in the UK. The research Assistant will help with recruiting participants across age groups, including those who live within the 5-mile radius around Durham city centre and those who live in rural areas around Durham.

The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to conducting a literature search for the systematic review part of this project. They will need to interact with participants from the local communities for the second part of the project. The successful candidate will join the vibrant Quantitative Social Psychology Research Group who host regular meetings and activities.

This post is fixed term for 6 months. The successful applicant will, ideally, be in post by the end of October 2021 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The post-holder is employed to work on a research project which will be led by another colleague. Whilst this means that the post-holder will not be carrying out independent research in his/her own right, the expectation is that they will contribute to the advancement of the project, through the development of their own research ideas and development of research protocols.

How to Apply

All applicants are asked to apply via https://www.dur.ac.uk/jobs/ and submit a CV and covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential.

The assessment for the post will include an interview. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview and assessment in October 2021.