Adult Forensic Research Group Dr. Christopher Weaver
E-mail: [email protected]
Primary areas of interest (active ongoing projects):
Malingering of PTSD
Police Crisis Intervention Training
Secondary areas of interest (secondary datasets, hibernating projects, etc.)
Violent and General Criminal Offending in Veterans
Psychopathy and Violence Risk Assessment
Violence Risk Among Psychiatric Inpatient Settings
Openings:
2-4 new members
Apply: Interested students are asked to submit the following to Dr. Weaver by the announced
deadline via the email address above. Applications will be considered as they arrive:
Cover letter (2-page max) that includes the following minimum information:
•
research interests
•
brief description of your current career goals (e.g. professor, clinician, consultant, etc.)
and populations of interest (e.g. incarcerated offenders, SMI, Veterans, juveniles, etc.),
understanding that these are still flexible at this point.
•
list any interests you have in other areas related to forensic psychology (e.g. suicide risk
assessment, sex offenders, training police officers to interact with mental health patients, etc.)
•
your rank order of and interest in the specific ongoing projects (see project descriptions
below)
•
Your anticipated available start date (Sept. 1st, immediately, etc.). This will become your
official start date so please indicate carefully.
•
Any plans you have to work in multiple research labs should you be accepted into the
adult forensic lab.
•
Computer software with which you are particularly skilled (Powerpoint, SPSS, Endnote,
etc.) and any programming experience you have, particularly with Mac/iPhone or web page
construction and maintenance.
• Curriculum Vitae
• Writing sample(s), preferably something for which you were the primary author. The topic
need not be forensic in nature. Send us your best writing! If you send your paper from
Research Methods, please send the original draft (unedited) and the final draft.
Selection: Qualified applicants will be considered by our entire existing research group as
student opinions are critical to maintaining our work environment. Depending on the number of
applications, interviews will be conducted by Dr. Weaver and/or existing members of the lab.
These may be in group or individual format. New students will be selected based on merit,
degree of fit with the existing research team and projects, and writing skills. Strong applicants
with relevant interests outside of the forensic area are also encouraged to apply, specifically in
the areas of PTSD and psychological assessment.
Notification: Students accepted into the Forensic Research Group will be notified by email
according to the standard PAU notification policies for a given year. Offers will not be made to
students who we do not think will fit with the group. Please do not over-interpret the time of day
during which you get an acceptance email. We will only invite you if we are excited to work with
you and we see a path to mutual success in research. That being said, we recognize the stress
of the situation and you can contact Dr. Weaver via the email above at any time during the
process to inquire as to the “current state of your application with the group.”
Primary Projects:
1) Improving the detection of deception in PTSD assessment – The presentation of the beta
version of our new measure of PTSD malingering occurred in March 2015. We have both
that original development dataset and an additional replication dataset in hand. We do,
however, maintain primary data collection in this simulated malingering design study at
local community colleges (e.g. DeAnza). This is our largest-scale project and all members
of the group participate in this study in some manner. The study involves significant
amounts of data entry and management, but it also gives students face-to-face assessment
time (MMPI, BDI, PTSD self-report measures), as well as advanced training, supervision,
practice, and face-to- face experience conducting risk assessment (primarily suicide).
2) Police Officer Crisis Intervention Training – The primary focus of this area currently is our
National VA Police Train-the-trainer Program Evaluation project that is funded by the VA’s
National Center for PTSD and Veterans Justice Programs Office. Funding for this project is
expected to last through 2018. The switch from primary data collection to write-up and
dissemination is scheduled for the 2015/16 academic year. Plans that have been on hold for
some time include those to expand the research to archival police administrative data, and to
evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based version of the training that has been developed in
collaborations between PAU and the VA’s National Center for PTSD.
Expectations: There will be numerous expectations of all lab members including presentations at
conferences and participation writing manuscripts for submission to scientific journals. You will be
expected to attend lab meetings throughout your participation in the lab (including dissertation year),
and to contribute to our larger projects. Work should average about 10 hours per week. Most of this
activity (except lab meetings, etc.) can happen on a schedule of your choosing, although we do
continue to function through the summer.
FAQ:
Q: Did you already select students for your group?
A: No. While some first-year students work with our group, their positions expire at the end of this
academic year. They are, of course, welcome to apply and will be considered with all other
applicants.
Q: Can I publish/present with your group?
A: Yes! We are swimming in publication-quality data and have many ideas in various stages of
manuscript development. The opportunity to publish/present with us is limited only by your own
mix of time and writing abilities. The minimum number of presentations by a student in the group
is 1, the maximum is 18. Students should have multiple presentation co-authorships in their first
year with us. Particularly hard-working students can get their first primary author presentation in
their first year (with us). We also have a number of book chapter possibilities on the reasonable
horizon. The work required to get these ideas from their current stages to published papers is easy to
underestimate, so please know ahead of time that publication will take dedicated consistent time
input over multiple years. Welcome to research life!
Q: Do I have to be in the forensic track?
A: No. Participation in the forensic track is certainly one way in which a student may
demonstrate fit with our group. However, because of this focus, we have a backlog of general
assessment/psychometric and PTSD-specific work that needs to be conducted on our existing
data. So long story short, those areas of interest are most likely to catch our eye.
Q: Can I bring in my own project or continue to conduct research that I am doing currently?
A: Generally, no. Any such activities would probably be outside the scope of our research group.
Some students have tried to maintain outside research activities, meeting with mixed success. This is
a very active and hands-on group (your hands), and successful students have more than enough work
to do with our group projects. However…
Q: Do I have to do my dissertation on your research?
A: Sort of. All students have to participate on the large ongoing group projects. They are simply too
large for us to handle without all of the help we can muster. So far, all of my students have been able
to find their own spin off from the larger projects for their own dissertation work. Definitely ask my
students about this to get their impressions, but I hope that this means that their dissertation can be a
focused piece of a larger study than would have been possible if they just worked on a project solo.
From my perspective, student ideas really take our central projects in directions that I would never
do by myself (e.g. cultural variations on malingered PTSD assessment).
Q: If I get stuck working on one of your projects, do I have to do a dissertation on that particular
project?
A: No. If you come and work as needed for the group, you are welcome to use any of the data that
we generate on any of our projects. The one limitation that is out of our control is that any data
housed at the VA hospitals requires student participants to have VA status. Both our Malingering
and Police data are housed at PAU, so this only applies to some archival data. This typically
requires the student to have or get a practicum placement at the VA. We cannot generally get you
status just for the research.