Learn about research from both sides of the process.
The information you read in your textbooks and learn about in courses comes from studies just like those being conducted at UMKC. Because you attend a research-intensive university, you have the unique opportunity to collaborate with faculty and also volunteer as research participants.
Mentored research experiences with nationally known scholars advance our knowledge of human behavior and help our students develop research and analysis skills. Every year approximately 60 undergraduate students work with faculty mentors on research projects. Many present their work at UMKC, and some have even presented their findings overseas.
Students in PSYCH 490/491 work independently under the supervision of a research mentor and participate as research assistants on research projects. These courses can be taken for one to three credit hours during the 16-week semester. Generally, students are expected to work three hours per week for each credit in which they are enrolled.
Students who participate in a faculty research project may have the opportunity to present the outcome of their work at local, regional or national conferences. All PSYCH 490/491 students are encouraged to present their projects at the annual UMKC Symposium of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship held each spring.
Many faculty members offer extra credit for research participation and some of the studies offer to compensate you for your time. Some projects require you to come to one of the faculty labs at 5030 Cherry Hall, while some can be completed online. Some of the studies require your time for a very short period and others are more involved.
Some projects require you to come to one of the faculty labs at 5030 Cherry Hall, while some can be completed online. Some of the studies require your time for a very short period and others are more involved.
Please make a note of the building and room number, date and time of appointment, and name of experimenter. After you participate, the experimenter should assess credit (unless this is a paid study) within 24 hours. If you have not received credit after 24 hourrs, contact the experimenter. The use of factoring these credits into your class grade is at the discretion of the instructor.
Our faculty have a wide range of research interests and enjoy mentoring both doctoral and undergraduate students who are interested in working with their team!
At UMKC, our faculty come from clinical and experimental traditions, including social psychology, cognitive science and quantitative psychology. They have active programs of research and invite student participation in their projects. Research areas range from understanding basic cognitive and emotional processes to more applied questions related to the impact of crime and victimization, the adaptation of refugees in Kansas City and the promotion of better food choices by children.
Area of Research: The impact of social cognition on health — how causal attributions shape physical and psychological health
Area of Research: Physiological measures of attention and emotion, attentional function and dysfunction, aging and psychopathology
Lab: Cognitive Psychophysiology Research Group
Area of Research: Infant and child development using behavioral and physiological techniques — eye-tracking, mouse-tracking, economic games — with a particular focus on eating decisions, self-control, resilience to advertising effects in children with and without obesity, identifying risk factors for developing obesity in infant-parent dyads, prosocial decision-making in parent-child dyads, as well as impacts of stress, rejection, inequity contexts on adults’ prosocial and eating decisions.
Lab: Child Lab
Area of Research: Children who have been exposed to trauma or adversity. Specific lines of research include identifying risk and protective factors following exposure to trauma or adversity, identifying helpful ways for caregivers to talk to children about disasters, and evaluating the effectiveness of available trauma treatments in community-based settings.
Lab: lab PANDA
Area of Research: Using computational, behavioral and functional neuroimaging — EEG and fMRI — techniques to understand the neural mechanisms of cognitive-affective interactions and decision-making in the brain and their implications for affective-behavioral dysregulation in normal and clinical populations
Area of Research: Eating disorders, body image and obesity, including the impact of circadian rhythm and sleep disturbance on eating behavior and obesity
Area of Research: Translational methodology, motivational theories — flow, anxiety, reactance — measurement, social justice advocacy, evaluation of institutional/educational programs for minority outreach and support
Area of Research: Risk and protective factors surrounding adolescent problem behaviors — delinquency, aggression, and drug use
Currently not accepting student applications
Area of Research: Cognitive aging, particularly in attention and memory processes. Also applies methods from cognitive psychology to understanding cognition in stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, as well as in severe mental illness.
Lab: SilverRoo Lab
Area of Research: International issues and populations — international students, refugees, and immigrants — supervision, and social justice advocacy
Area of Research: Serious mental illness, disability and rehabilitation, neurocognition and community outcomes for individuals with psychiatric disabilities, and community-based participatory research
Lab: Serious Mental Illness and Community Functioning Research Lab
Area of Research: Psychosocial and health consequences of trauma exposure across the lifespan, in particular, the development and evaluation of traumatic stress prevention and early intervention programs
Lab: Stress and Trauma Evaluation and Prevention Science Lab