SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES – DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

VOLUNTARY RESEARCH ASSISTANT SCHEME

The Voluntary Research Assistant Scheme (VRAs) is an experience offered to all UG and PG students enrolled in a Psychology programme at Heriot Watt University.

Aims

  1. Increase your employability profile by including the scheme in your CV
  2. Develop further your transferable skills in terms of data handling and reports preparation
  3. Get greater knowledge of a research environment, including team work, and of the research environment in general
  4. Get hands-on research experience on a specific topic of Psychology of your interest


How?


By taking part in a research project led by a staff member.

Minimum duration: 2 months; Maximum duration: 12 months
Minimum hours/week: 2 hours; Maximum hours/week: 4 hours

The number of hours undertaken will depend on the time of year and your commitments in relation to your studies and should be discussed and agreed with your supervisor.

Is there a selection process?

The VRA experience is agreed with the supervisor. If the supervisor accepts the application and there are places available, then no further selection is needed. If there are more applications than places available, then there is a selection process.

The selection is based on:

  • CV (qualifications acquired up until the application and extracurricular relevant activities)
  • Personal statement highlighting the reason for pursuing this opportunity ( e.g. experience useful for pursuing Masters programme or PhD position; experience useful for developing particular skills; experience useful for deciding between clinical and research career)
  • Match between abilities-project (e.g. if project requires use of SPSS independently, unlikely to benefit year 2 student).

Here is what previous students have said about their experiences…
Video 1
Video 2

If you are interested in becoming a VRA for any of the projects below, please email the relevant staff contact copying in VRA Coordinator:
Edinburgh – Dr Kelly Wolfe k.wolfe@hw.ac.uk



Campus:Edinburgh
Project:Clean Land, Open Minds: How Can We Reduce Littering at Scotland’s Scenic Locations? An Intergroup and Environmental Psychology Approach
Description:Littering at scenic locations such as Loch Lomond, the West Highland Way, and other iconic Scottish landscapes poses a growing environmental, social, and economic challenge. While much work in environmental psychology has focused on individual attitudes or norms (Chaudhary et al., 2021), far less attention has been paid to the role of social identity, belonging, and intergroup relations in shaping pro‑environmental behaviour. Thus, the overarching aim is to investigate how group identities, belonging, and social categorisation influence littering and non‑littering behaviour, and whether these insights can be used to design more effective interventions.

Key guiding questions include:
  • Can stronger place attachment or shared group identity reduce littering?
  • Do different social groups respond differently to anti‑littering interventions?
  • Can intergroup theories (e.g. superordinate identity models; Gaertner et al., 2000) inform better environmental messaging?
Core Research Questions
  1. What anti‑littering interventions already exist?
  2. What does the existing literature identify as the strongest predictors of littering and non‑littering behaviour?
  3. What does research say about the links between littering and re/de/categorization methods?
Chaudhary, A. H., Polonsky, M. J., McClaren, N. (2021). Littering behaviour: A systematic review. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(4), 478-510.

Gaertner, S. L., Dovidio, J. F., Nier, J. A., Banker, B. S., Ward, C. M., Houlette, M., & Loux, S. (2000). The Common Ingroup Identity Model for reducing intergroup bias: Progress and challenges. In D. Capozza & R. Brown (Eds.), Social identity processes: Trends in theory and research (pp. 133–148). Sage Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446218617.n9
VRA Role:The VRA will assist with the following activities:
  • Literature searching and reviewing (excel)
  • Literature synthesising
  • Identify and support contact with institutions relevant to the project
  • Potentially help to design a pilot study
Start Date:From June 2026 (If you are interested, please contact us before Mid-May 2026 to express your interest in the project).
Duration:3 months (June-August); ideally 3 hours per week (36 hours in total), but can be negotiated (no more than 4h per week)
Benefits to VRA:As a VRA on this project, you will have the opportunity to:
  • Develop essential research skills, including literature reviewing of social and environmental psychology, critical analysis of behavioural theories, and research design for data collection on littering habits at scenic locations across Scotland.
  • Collaborate with an interdisciplinary research team comprised of senior career researchers focused on the intersection of human behaviour and environmental science.
  • Develop knowledge and understanding of the impact of psychological, social, and environmental predictors on prosocial behaviours such as littering and community-wide environmental stewardship.
  • Participate in real-world research with the potential to directly impact Scottish environmental policy and national waste-reduction practices.
  • Enhance your CV and employability through skills building and exposure to professional networks involved in sustainability and behavioural change.
Staff Contact: Dr katherina Addington-Lefringhausen & Dr Mioara Cristea
Email: Dr katherina Addington-Lefringhausen and/or M.Cristea@hw.ac.uk
Students should submit an outline of why they would like the role, why they think they are right for the role, and how they feel they could contribute to the project via email but are free to contact with any questions in advance of this submission.


Campus:Edinburgh
Project:Changes in speech patterns, behavioural mimicry, and eye contact during social interactions in social anxiety and autistic traits.
Description:People with social anxiety have been known to perform avoidance behaviours – during and in – social interactions. These behaviours are performed to avoid social attention and evaluation (Evans et al., 2021). These include avoiding eye contact, maintaining greater physical distance from others, talking less about oneself, and not approaching others. These behaviours also displayed by autistic people and people with higher autistic traits, however, studies have not determined if safety behaviours arise from social anxiety or autism. It is important to create this distinction as social anxiety and avoidance behaviours can worsen the symptoms of autism, and hence, reduce satisfaction in social interactions.


The present study aims to examine how people with social anxiety and autistic traits respond and adapt their behaviour and speech when during a social interaction with two peers. The study is interested in the changes in behavioural mimicry (smiling as a response to a social smile), self-disclosure (how much information is revealed about oneself) and eye contact (with the excluders). This study will allow researchers to gain insight into the complex patterns of facial expressions and gestures, attention, and speech in people with different levels of social anxiety and autistic traits.
VRA Role:
The VRA will assist in the following activities:

  • Rating participants’ statements on 4 indices using a provided 10-point rating scale. These statements will be provided to the VRA in an excel sheet which will be used to fill in the responses of the VRA.

  • Watching video footage from the social interactions of participants and coding specific behaviours made by the participants based on an excel sheet which will be provided. The responses will be filled in the sheet.

  • Involvement in data analysis

Start date:Immediately
Duration:3 months (minimum) to 12 months (maximum).
Benefits to VRA:

  • The VRA will gain knowledge of experimental methods and design, including blinding in research.

  • The VRA will gain experience in rating and coding subjective data.

  • The position can be adapted to be fully remote and hence, accessible to all VRAs during the summer period.

  • The VRA will experience working in a research team and strengthen their CV.

  • As the VRA will primarily assist a PhD student, they will be able to get a close understanding what it is like to be a PhD student and an ECR (early career researcher).

  • If interested, the VRA will be invited to participate in data analysis in SPSS and/or R which would be useful to practice cleaning messy data and successfully analysing it. Support with this will be provided.
Staff Contact:Dr. Mel McKendrick
Email:m.mckendrick@hw.ac.uk
dp2038@hw.ac.uk


Campus:Edinburgh
Project:Congruence effects in the spread of (mis)information
Description:Misinformation plagues modern society. To combat it, it is important to understand how it spreads in communities.


Features of the source of information affects whether we believe a piece of information. We investigate whether it also affects who we, in turn, share that information with.


Following Tamariz et al. (2023), we will test the hypothesis that congruence between the context of learning and the context of onward sharing promotes transmission. In simpler terms:



  • When you are teaching some information to a novice, you are more likely to share the version an expert taught you, than the version you heard from a peer

  • And, when you are sharing information with a peer, you are more likely to share the version you heard from another peer than the version an expert taught you.
In this online experiment conducted in Surveylab, we will present participants with two pretend social media posts on a story, e.g. “aliens have landed on earth” and “the alien landing story is false”. One version will be posted by a rigorous press agency (the “expert version”) and the other by someone who you follow and who follows you on social media (the “peer version”). Then the participant will be asked to share their story in one of these conditions “you are now an expert and have to share with social media users who know nothing about this” (“expert condition”) or “you now have to share with social media users who you follow and follow you” (“peer condition”).


We will analyse whether participants tend to transmit the “expert version” more in the “expert” condition, and the “peer version” more in the “peer condition”.


Tamariz, M., Papa, A., Cristea, M., McGuigan, N. (2023) Context congruence: How associative learning modulates cultural evolution. PLoS ONE 18(4): e0282776. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282776
VRA Role:
– Preparation of stimuli

– Study programming (SurveyLab)

– Data collection

– Data processing and analysis in R

Start date:24th April 2025
Duration:2-6 months, with flexibility based on student availability.
Benefits to VRA:

  • You will gain experience with programming an online study, data collection, data processing and formatting in R, potentially data analysis, also in R, and report writing.

  • You will become familiar with the literatures on misinformation spread and cultural evolutionary theory.

  • You will be part of a research team and experience the research process first hand.

  • You will enhance your CV and employability through skills building and exposure to professional networks
Staff Contact:Dr Monica Tamariz
Email:M.Tamariz@hw.ac.uk
Students should submit a brief outline of why they would like the role, why they think they are right for the role, and how they feel they could contribute to the project (max 200 words) via email but are free to contact with any questions in advance of this submission.


Campus:Edinburgh
Project:Exploring the role of identity leadership in academic citizenship behaviours and wellbeing.
Description:Academic institutions are typically large-scale organisations employing substantial numbers of academic staff to perform teaching, research, management, and administrative roles. In a context of growing economic pressures and a proliferation of performance metrics within academia, citizenship behaviours, that may not be explicitly defined within the remit of academic workloads, are essentially to the effective operation of academic institutions and their research culture. Enacting citizenship behaviours, e.g., unofficial mentoring, support for PGR students, development of and participation in events that support research culture, peer reviewing etc., may feel burdensome but they also constitute valuable prosocial behaviours that can be rewarding in the context of a positive working environment. The presence of prosocial behaviour also provides a useful litmus test of well-functioning groups.

Social psychological research within the Social Identity Approach suggests that

1) social group bonds (e.g., work teams or organisational group identities) can influence health, wellbeing, and helping behaviours positively;

2) meaningful group bonds and leadership that reflects and advances workplace group identities leads to more motivation, increased performance, greater trust, and stronger connections between group members (i.e., employees).



Drawing upon this evidence, this research project will begin to explore the influence of leadership behaviours and workplace group identity processes on employee wellbeing and vital citizenship behaviours. A literature review and subsequent pilot survey study will begin to identify the predictors, mediators, and outcomes in these pathways (e.g., local and organisational identification, stress, productivity, trust in leadership, communication styles, burnout, and perceived agency).



The study will be aimed at producing vital insights into the role of leadership and organisational dynamics in motivating citizenship behaviours and maintaining employee wellbeing in academic workplaces. These insights will be used to generate a funding application for a large-scale mixed method study aimed at influencing institutional practice and policy in the UK and beyond.
VRA Role:The VRA will assist with any of the following activities:

– Literature searching and reviewing

– Literature synthesising

– Short report writing

– Creating literature and methods overviews and assessment of existing projects

– Survey design and research planning

– Ethical application preparation

– Pilot data analysis
Start date:From March 2025
Duration:Ranging from 2-6 months.
Benefits to VRA:As a VRA on this project, you will have the opportunity to:

– Develop essential research skills, including literature reviewing, critical analysis of existing theory and research, research design for data collection.

– Collaborate with an interdisciplinary research team comprised of early and senior career researchers.

– Develop knowledge and understanding of the impact of organisational and social relationships on prosocial behaviours and staff wellbeing

– Gain detailed knowledge of the ethical principles guiding research and practical experience of ethical permissions processes.

– Participate in real world research with the potential to impact policy and practice

– Participate in research with potential for publication and student co-authorship

– Enhance your CV and employability through skills building and exposure to professional networks
Staff Contact:Dr Mhairi Bowe Research Portal
Email:M.Bowe@hw.ac.uk
Students should submit an outline of why they would like the role, why they think they are right for the role, and how they feel they could contribute to the project via email but are free to contact with any questions in advance of this submission.


Campus:Edinburgh, Dubai, Malaysia
Project:Validation of a potential training paradigm for student presentation skills
Description:The aim of the current study is to trial a combination of exposure and cognitive restructuring in a training paradigm with live social performance situations in order to provide the basis for research development in a virtual training application programme 
VRA Role:We are looking for students who can help running the study and act as audience members where participants engage in presentation practice. You will help with administering feedback exercises and in analysing behaviours.
Start Date:Ongoing
Duration:The study will involve coding, helping to recruit and conduct the study and analysis.
Benefits to VRA:You will gain experience of working with groups of participants in an online video study and learn about social anxiety in relation to speech content, gestures and attention. You will also gain knowledge of analysis and statistics depending on your role. 
Staff Contact:Dr Mel McKendrick
Email:M.McKendrick@hw.ac.uk


Campus:Edinburgh, Dubai, Malaysia
Project:Validation of a potential training paradigm for student presentation skills
Description:The aim of the current study is to trial a combination of exposure and cognitive restructuring in a training paradigm with live social performance situations in order to provide the basis for research development in a virtual training application programme 
VRA Role:We are looking for students who can help running the study and act as audience members where participants engage in presentation practice. You will help with administering feedback exercises and in analysing behaviours.
Start Date:Ongoing
Duration:The study will involve coding, helping to recruit and conduct the study and analysis.
Benefits to VRA:You will gain experience of working with groups of participants in an online video study and learn about social anxiety in relation to speech content, gestures and attention. You will also gain knowledge of analysis and statistics depending on your role. 
Staff Contact:Dr Mel McKendrick
Email:M.McKendrick@hw.ac.uk
Supervisors and students may also be interested in applying for an externally funded internship. 

The BPS and EPS schemes are designed to provide a stipend to 3rd year students to assist the supervisor on a research project driven by them. 

https://www.bps.org.uk/about-us/awards-and-grants/society-grants/undergraduate-research-assistantship-scheme
 (Early March)

https://eps.ac.uk/undergraduate-research-bursary/ (Early March) Must be supervised by an EPS Ordinary Member – only one per department. 

The Carnegie scheme is designed to give 3rd year students the direct opportunity to propose their own research project. 

https://www.carnegie-trust.org/award-schemes/vacation-scholarships/ (Early February)

The Medical Research Scotland scheme is designed to provide promising undergraduate students with hands-on experience of research relevant to human health or disease. Supervisors and students should develop the project and application together. https://medicalresearchscotland.org.uk/undergraduate-vacation-scholarship/
(Early February)