I'm currently looking for places to be a research assistant, and I'm interested in much of the psychology related research opportunities on campus. A professor is conducting research on depression/anxiety and I was thinking about becoming a part of it. What would DO/MD admissions think of this? I'm personally doing it to learn more about it, but I really don't want to waste my time(not that it is) instead of pursuing other research opportunities in more of the physical sciences.
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- Thread starter Noidea10
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Well, the first question is what YOU think about it. The scientific method, rigorous record-keeping, ethical treatment of subjects, careful design of experiments with a null and alternative hypothesis, probabilistic and statistical analysis...those are all things you can learn from most any form of disciplined research. Psychology gets a bad rap for some shoddy study designs, sometimes with good reason, but that's mostly because understanding the confounds and biases of bench science requires more experience and tolerance of tedium. If you have a real opportunity to get meaningful research experience, and I mean hands-on experience with some 1:1 time with the investigators involved, maybe even getting on an abstract or paper, then I would absolutely recommend it. Depression and anxiety are some of the most highly prevalent medical problems in the U.S., particularly among the working population, with a large public health and economic impact. If it's something you enjoy, then you'll get more mileage out of it and your faculty mentors will be more enthusiastic about helping you than if you take some job cleaning glassware for an HHMI investigator because you think it might look better to some AdComs. Best of luck.
