Entry requirements
Elective module to be completed during students’ first year after enrollment in the MSc Psychology (research) program.
Course objectives
Aim of the Research Apprenticeship Psychology (RAP) is that students gain hands-on research experience in their area of interest by learning from expert staff members in the institute. This elective module takes place and is completed in the first year of the two-year master’s program, allowing students to contribute to an ongoing research project at an early stage of their studies. Students are expected to choose a project that is clearly different from the Research Internship and the Thesis project that they intend to do in their second year of their master’s program (e.g., a different topic, method, supervisor and/or in a different research group). The Research Apprenticeship Psychology is an individual internship that is somewhat more structured than the Research Internship in the second year of the MSC Psychology (research) program.
Mode of Instruction
During the RAP students will gain experience with several aspects of research planning, data collection, data analysis and other practical aspects of conducting psychological research. In scheduling the workload, the student and supervisor will take into account the planning and constraints of the research project as well as the coursework of the student. Students may be involved in making a research plan, writing a proposal for the ethics committee, preparing research materials (including informed consent and debriefing texts), recruitment, instruction and testing of research participants, operating research equipment (e.g., EEG system, eye-tracker), data management, time-keeping, etc..
Assessment
Before the start of the RAP the supervisor and student sign a working plan in which the student’s activities, the rough planning, and assessment criteria are registered. To complete the RAP students write a final report about the challenges they faced in the day-to-day practice of their research project to acquire the skills, knowledge and professional attitude (i.e., the learning goals phrased in the working plan). The assessment is based on the student’s work throughout the RAP and his or her reflection in the final report.
Literature
No prescribed literature. Starting from September, up-to-date information about the research projects open for Research Apprenticeships, the working plan and guidelines for the final report are provided in the Blackboard module ‘Research Apprenticeship Psychology’.
Application
Send your application (with your vita, including study results) to participate in one of the research projects by contacting the supervisor of your preferred RAP project directly. Contact details of supervisors are included per available project on the blackboard module ‘Research Apprenticeship Psychology’. If you have a match with a RAP project, fill in the work plan together with your supervisor and send a signed work-plan to the RAP coordinators at RAP@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact information
Dr. Anna van Duijvenvoorde, Dr. Lotte van Dillen
RAP@fsw.leidenuniv.nl