Mentor Areas
Our current study examines emotions, such as anxiety and depression, and how they relate to positive and negative events that people experience in their lives. More generally, the Ruscio lab research interests are anxiety and depression -- their nature, classification, and comorbidity.
Description:
NOW RECRUITING FOR FALL 2025: The Boundaries of Anxiety and Depression Lab in the Department of Psychology at Penn is seeking undergraduate students to assist with clinical research. Our lab’s research focuses on anxiety and depression. We focus in particular on cognitive, behavioral, and emotional processes that increase risk for these conditions. We study these processes in clinical populations using a variety of approaches, including laboratory experiments, daily diary methods, and psychophysiological measurement.
Our student assistants are exposed to all aspects of the clinical research process (when available), including study planning and design, participant recruitment, data collection and management, library work, and preparing presentations of our research findings for conferences and journals. Our planned research for the fall includes the development and application of a rating system to extract features of places where people often worry and/or ruminate. Lab meetings provide opportunities to learn about the broader field of clinical psychology and to discuss professional and graduate school issues. This is a great chance to learn skills that complement knowledge gained in class and to increase preparation and competitiveness for graduate school.
Preferred Qualifications
We are looking for highly conscientious, responsible, detail-oriented student volunteers who are enthusiastic and self-motivated. Psychology or Neuroscience majors considering graduate school are preferred. No prior research experience is necessary. The position requires an in-person, two-semester commitment of at least 10 hours per week; hours are flexible. The start date for this position will be fall 2025.
Deadline for applications: Friday, March 28th, 2025
Please download an application from our website and return it to Grace Chen (Lab Manager) via email by Friday, March 28th.
Accepted file types: .docx, .doc, .pdf
E-mail: psych-rusciolab@sas.upenn.edu
Phone: 215-573-4007
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.