For Students

Joining the Lab as an Undergraduate or Post-Baccalaureate Research Assistant

Do you want to volunteer as a research assistant in the UGA Close Relationships Lab? Richard Slatcher is often on the lookout for bright, talented and motivated (especially motivated!) students. Interested students should be prepared to volunteer for 6-8 hours per week with a minimum one year commitment. Our research assistants work very hard and the application process is quite competitive (we typically receive over 50 RA applications each semester for just a few open slots).

A copy of one of our RA lab contracts, which outlines lab expectations, may be found here.

**Please note that we are not currently recruiting new research assistants. Check back in August to see if we have any open slots to apply for.**

Lab Culture

We have a fairly unique lab culture in several ways. First, we typically have a large number undergraduate and post-bac research assistants at any given time (to see how much our lab has grown over the years, click here). Much of what we need assistance with involves transcribing and coding sound files of social interactions from our studies of couples and families. Because our lab is quite large, my Ph.D. students and I work hard to build an open and welcoming lab community that provides real educational opportunities as well as fun opportunities for lab members to get to know one another.

We strive to make volunteering in our lab a truly educational experience. I usually meet biweekly or monthly with small groups of RAs to discuss recent lab papers, hear presentations by graduate students, learn about how the peer review process works, and read cutting-edge new papers from other labs pertaining to the science of social relationships.

In addition, we have several informal lab gatherings throughout the semester, including a monthly coffee/tea time from 3-4 pm on the third Thursday of each month in Psychology Room 221. Additionally, we often have other lab events throughout the year organized by students in the lab, such as ice skating at the Classic Center, going to watch a lab member direct a campus production of a play, or rooting on one of the student-athletes from our lab at a UGA sporting event (GO DAWGS!). We work very hard in the Slatcher lab, but we also try to have fun and support each other at the same time.

Apply to Grad School

The social and personality psychology Ph.D. program is part of the Behavior and Brain Sciences Program at the University of Georgia. UGA is the oldest public university in the United States and also one of the finest (among the top public universities in the nation in U.S. News & World Report). Graduate admission to our Psychology Program, and more specifically to our area, is very competitive; we admit only a small handful of students each year. As part of our holistic assessment, we thoroughly consider candidates’ scholarly performance and research experience during their undergraduate studies as well as their potential fit with our research programs and our departmental mission.

Ph.D. graduates from the Slatcher lab have gone on to very successful research careers in academia and industry (see our lab alumni). I look for bright, hard-working, highly conscientious students who are well prepared for the rigors of graduate school. Although I occasionally accept students straight out of undergrad, most of my students have had 1-4 years of professional experience (in a lab, industry, or other relevant work) prior to applying. I look for students who are resilient to the stressors that life throws at them. A good sense of humor is also important. Grad school can be stressful at times and so I tend to select students who are adept at weathering storms, are communicative when things get too difficult, and who support their fellow lab mates when life gets rough. Although grad school can be stressful, surrounding yourself with the right people and choosing the right lab when you apply to grad school can make it a whole lot easier. Ours is a very supportive lab environment from top (me) to bottom (our many wonderful undergraduate RAs). For more information about the overall culture in our lab see “Lab Culture” above.

Mentoring Style

A question that I am commonly asked by prospective Ph.D. students is, “How would you describe your mentoring style?”

You may be surprised to hear that most graduate students in most Ph.D. programs across the sciences get very little formal training on how to mentor graduate students. As a new assistant professor in the late 2000s, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to be the best mentor I could be to my graduate students. I read a lot of books on management and how to run a research lab. I talked to colleagues and listened a lot. If I had to sum up my style of mentoring that emerged from this process in one word it would be this: flexible. No two graduate students are alike. Every incoming graduate student comes with a different personality, different skills, different strengths, and different weaknesses. I believe that it is important for a Ph.D. advisor to tailor their mentoring style to the specific needs of their individual students.

During a Ph.D. student’s first year in my lab, I meet individually with them weekly. Much of the first year is spent getting to know one another and allows me to see how the student thinks, what their research interests are (very few students know exactly what they want to research in graduate school), and what challenges they may have. Often during this first year—once research interests are clear—the student and I usually come up with an idea for a collaborative paper to work on using existing data in our lab. On more than one occasion, this has resulted in a published first-authored paper for my students by the fall of that student’s second year. By the end of their first year, students in my lab are typically involved in multiple projects with senior students and me and are in the process of beginning to design their own studies.

Every other week we have project-specific team meetings, lab meetings with all of the grad students (typically 3-5 total in our lab at any given time), post-docs, and me. We also have biweekly journal clubs with our undergraduate RAs that graduate students are encouraged to attend (see above under “Lab Culture”). One-on-one meetings in the second year of graduate school and beyond are typically biweekly (more often when needed or desired) and on off-weeks from the aforementioned biweekly group meetings.

My individual meetings with graduate students cover master’s and dissertation projects, manuscript submission, career goals, data management and ethical issues in research, work-life balance, and coping with stress. I regularly publish articles and present posters with my graduate students. I also spend a significant amount of time discussing career goals with them. No student is alike in their specific career objectives so I often check in with my graduate students to assess how they are liking the various aspects of what they are doing—including teaching, research and mentoring of undergraduate students. Their goals and interests are often evolving and I try to tailor my mentoring accordingly. My “big-picture” mentoring is geared to helping students learn to use their time efficiently as a means of achieving their short-term and long-term goals.

Living in Athens

In addition to being a great place to get graduate training in psychology at a world-class university, Athens is known as one of the best college towns in the U.S. We have a temperate climate, with mild winters (highs typically in the 50s but occasionally in the 70s), early springs, hot summers, and beautiful autumns. I comfortably ride my bike to work year-round and walk to great downtown Athens restaurants (including the wonderful vegetarian restaurant) that are all walkable from our beautiful campus.

If you like music, Athens is widely considered one of the best music towns in the U.S. The bands R.E.M., B-52’s, Widespread Panic, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Of Montreal are all from here and you can go to see music any night of the week at one of the many iconic venues like the 40 Watt and Georgia Theater (as well as many other smaller gems). If you like hiking, we are less than an hour from the North Georgia mountains, with many day hike possibilities on the Appalachian Train and National Parks (including one of my favorites, Great Smoky Mountains National Park). And if you like sports, you would love UGA, which regularly vies for national NCAA championships in swimming, track, gymnastics, and, of course, football. For many, Athens is a pretty close to an ideal town for grad school.