Join the Lab

• Opportunities for Undergraduates
  • Research Assisstantships
  • Research Apprenticeship Courses
  • Honours Thesis
  • Where do I start if I am interested in joining the lab?
• Opportunities for Graduate Students
  
  

Opportunities for Undergraduates

Research Assistantships

Research assistantships in the Culture & the Workplace lab are intended to provide undergraduate students with valuable research experience within a fun and supportive multicultural environment. Research assistants are given the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Adair and her students in order to gain experience with various aspects of culture, cross-cultural negotiation, and multicultural work teams. As such, RAs are involved in lab meetings and social gatherings and are deeply integrated into various aspects of research design, implementation and analysis.

We are always looking for enthusiastic, motivated and reliable students to join our lab. Students who apply should possess a desire to learn about cross-cultural interactions, should have strong organizational skills, and enjoy working within a team. Benefits associated with working as an RA in this lab include students’ acquisition of research experience important for admission to the Honours thesis program and to graduate school, and potential letters of recommendation from Dr. Adair.

Specific responsibilities of an RA within the Culture & the Workplace may include the following:

• Running participants for lab studies
• Data entry, coding and transcribing interview data
• Conducting literature searches

Research Apprenticeship Courses (Psych 264 & 464)

Students interested in obtaining research experience through one of these courses are encouraged to apply to the Culture & the Workplace lab. These courses provide valuable opportunities for networking, further developing one's research skills, and assessing one's educational and career choices.

• Psych 264 (Research Apprenticeship)
  
  This course involves an unpaid apprenticeship of no more than eight hours per week for 13 weeks in a faculty research program. Students will be assigned duties (see Psych 464 for examples) that will introduce them to the research process. It is the student's responsibility to find a research supervisor. It is expected that the students' workload will be equal or greater than that of most regular courses.
  • Prereq: Psych 291; Honours Psychology or Make-Up Psychology students.
  • Antireq: Psych 464
    
    
• Psych 464 (Advanced Research Apprenticeship)
  
  This course involves an unpaid apprenticeship of no more than eight hours per week for 13 weeks in a faculty research program. Students will be assigned duties that will enable them to advance their understanding of the research process. Examples of duties include: participating in the design of an experiment and obtaining ethics approval; scheduling, testing, and debriefing research participants; data entry on the computer; and preliminary data analysis. It is the student's responsibility to find a research supervisor. It is expected that the students' workload will be equal or greater than that of most regular courses.

The Honours Thesis course (Psych 499A/B/C) is an optional course for those who have a strong interest in conducting original research and wish to gain greater experience in research design, data analysis and interpretation. Students interested in completing their Honours Thesis in the Culture & the Workplace lab under the supervision of Dr. Adair should first check the departmental website for information on the prerequisites and deadlines for admission to the course.

Where do I start if I am interested in joining the lab?

Undergraduate students who are interested in joining the Culture & the Workplace lab should email Dr. Adair the following documents:

• A resume/CV highlighting relevant skills
• A letter explaining reasons for wanting to join the lab and indicating the position to which you are applying.
• An unofficial transcript containing all courses and grades to date
• An estimate of the number of hours per week you would be available
• An estimated start and end date of your availability.

Students interested in applying for graduate supervision with Dr. Adair should send their curriculum vitae, unofficial transcript, and GRE scores via email to: wladair@uwaterloo.ca

Please be sure to indicate your research interests, reasons for applying to Dr. Adair, the program to which you are applying (MAsc or PhD) and your long-term career goals.

Program information about Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Waterloo can be obtained through the departmental website. If you are applying to work with Dr. Adair as a graduate student, you are encouraged to apply to at least one of the following agencies for funding:

• The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
• The Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)