Lecture 7 - Academia

Question 1

What are the duties of an academic psychologist?

Answer 1

• They conduct research in their given specialism and are responsible for the tuition and training of students at their host institution
• Undertake administrative duties e.g. attending strategic planning meetings, reviewing ethics for research proposals

Question 2

What are the steps you need to take to become an academic psychologist?

Answer 2

1. undergrad degree
2. doctorate (Ph.D.) in your field = highly competitive

Question 3

What are the 2 categories for academic positions?

Answer 3

1. research-focused
2. teaching-focused

Question 4

Research focused positions?

Answer 4

• known as post-docs
• responsibilities include running studies, designing experiments and analysing data
• also have the opportunity to present research at international conferences
• positions usually last for 2-3 years

Question 5

Teaching-focused positions?

Answer 5

• known as teaching fellowships
• offers opportunities for career academics to develop their teaching skills
• responsibilities include the delivery of lecture + tutorial content as well as providing project supervision
• usually last for around 1-3 years

Question 6

More info on these academic positions?

Answer 6

• when applying you will need evidence of a strong track record in both teaching and research
• as you become more senior you may become less directly involved in research and becoming a manager of your lab
• so people management skills become important

Question 7

What is psychological resilience?

Answer 7

One’s ability to emotionally cope with various stressors in their life and turn to pre-stressor levels of coping and functioning.

Question 8

Why is resilience important within academia?

Answer 8

• academics face challenges that test their resilience every day
• the nature of the job requires individuals to face down potential failures and carry on in spite of them
• it is not uncommon for things to go wrong and so it is important to be able to overcome this

Question 9

Why is resilience important when publishing papers?

Answer 9

• reviewers are often peers who will comment on the paper
• the comments are not always nice
• having others be critical of your work is an important part of the scientific process but it is easy to become demoralised