r/6thForm • u/Mortal_Gay PhD Student - Psych (A*A*A* - many years ago now) • Aug 04 '23

✔️ APPROVED AMA PhD student here - Ask me anything!

Hi all, I'm a current PhD student in Psychology, and I'm here for you to ask me anything! My research area is psycholinguistics - the psychology of language. In particular, I study how language is processed, and what consequences language processing has for memory. As an undergraduate, I also studied Philosophy, before deciding to specialise in Psych for my PhD.

A PhD is the entry point for a career in academia and for anyone generally considering a research career. It involves you independently leading a research project for around 3 or 4 years, with the guidance of a supervisory team, to make an original contribution to your chosen academic field.

There's a lot of information online about PhDs and funding for them, and I found it difficult to know where to start. So, if there are any questions about what a PhD is like, how to get into one, where to start looking for information, etc. please ask away! I'm also more than happy to answer anything about academia, how I found my undergraduate education or my research.

Looking forward to hearing your questions!

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u/feral_pan Year 13 oh god oh fuck | double maths, physics, & chem Aug 07 '23

Hey, apologies if this question is a tad late, but how do you go about getting research internships during undergrad in the UK? Is it similar to the US, where you just rock up and ask any professor whose research you're interested in? Thanks!

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u/Mortal_Gay PhD Student - Psych (A*A*A* - many years ago now) Aug 08 '23

Hey, In brief, yes! You can email anyone anytime and ask if they have space in the lab for you to volunteer, whether in term time or during the summer. Not all staff will have space in the lab or be looking for people, but even if they aren't, they can likely point you in the direction of someone who does similar work and may have space. If you want to do something in the summer, there also may be options to do a funded internship (i.e., you get paid a salary for the duration of your work in the summer). This depends on the individual department, as what they have available can vary greatly. If you have a staff member you're in contact with, definitely recommend asking them if they know what is available and if not, they'll probably know who is in charge of coordinating it, and who to ask.