PhD in Social Psychology

Join the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology as a PhD candidate working on the MORDISGUST project, which seeks to understand how and why disgust relates to morality.

As a member of our research team, you will play a key role in a project seeking to better understand the relation between disgust and our moral psychology. You will work with the Josh Tybur, the project’s lead investigator, and other members of the research team, including postdoctoral researchers and at least one co-supervisor. As part of a collective endeavour, you will explore novel ideas related to disgust and morality, conduct research that contributes to new scientific knowledge in this area, and report on findings to your colleagues, at conferences, and in publications. Your work will end with a PhD dissertation. A project description is available on request from Prof Josh Tybur, j.m.tybur@vu.nl.

Your duties

• map out existing literature and generate new ideas
• co-design and implement new experiments
• collect, analyze, and curate data
• report on the findings in local meetings and (inter)national conferences
• write several scientific articles and a PhD thesis
• assist in (minor) teaching activities within the department
• contribute to the team spirit and help others achieve their goals

The plan is to publish all chapters of your dissertation as registered reports, meaning that your manuscripts and research plans will be peer reviewed before data are collected.

Requirements:

• You have completed or will soon complete (before the position’s starting date) a (research) master’s degree or equivalent in social psychology or a closely related field (e.g., evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, experimental philosophy
• You have a familiarity with and passion for evolutionary approaches to emotion, cognition, and/or morality
• You have experience with quantitative research methods
• You value open science and registered reports
• You enjoy quantitative analyses and have a strong background in statistics
• You have excellent verbal and written English language skills
• You are a team player with good communication abilities

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

Salary Benefits:

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of € 2.901,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.707,00 (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• an employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge

Van der Boechorststraat 7