Psychology

Topics in Cognitive Psychology

1. How do people learn a new language? Is it different for adults and kids?
2. What helps a memory stick? What helps us remember things better?
3. What makes memories become more accurate or inaccurate? What does this mean for eyewitness testimonies?
4. Why are we so good at seeing “faces” from objects, like an outlet or a smiley face [ 🙂 ]? Does this have an evolutionary reason?
5. Carrying a heavier backpack can make a hill look bigger. What are some other ways in which things change our perception?
6. What affects our attention, and what distracts us? How do we select what we pay attention to?
7. How do other people affect how we think? How do opinions of others change our own opinions?
8. Why are we so captivated by surprising and unexpected things, like magic? Does this have an evolutionary reason?
9. How do optical illusions work? How do they trick our brains?
10. What happens in our brain when we make predictions that turn out to be wrong? How does this experience help us learn?
11. We’re really good at hearing our name, even if it’s said by someone standing really far away in a loud room. Why does this happen?
12. Are babies’ brains as good as adults’ brains? In what way?
13. What do babies do to learn? Are they good learners?
14. Can newborn babies tell their mothers apart from other people? In what way?
15. A lot of toys are marketed to be good for the brain. Is this true? Which toys? Why or why not?
16. What is our brain doing when we form memories and remember things from the past?
17. What is our brain doing when we see numbers and do math?
18. What is our brain doing when we see alphabets and read a sentence?
19. What is our brain doing when we’re not paying attention in class?
20. How does the brain change when we learn a new skill and become better at it?
21. What factors lead to differences in intelligence? Is IQ a good measure of how intelligent someone is?
22. What makes different education styles work better than others? What does it mean to be a certain type of learner?
23. What are the differences between short and long-term memory? How do attention and memory interact?
24. What role does memory play in eating behaviors? Can we use memories to help us lose weight?
25. What are the barriers to access to mental health services between different racial and ethnic groups?
26. Are there differences in how mental illness is perceived between different racial and ethnic groups?
27. Are there differences in perception of mental illness between men and women, and does this have long-term consequences?

Topics in Clinical Psychology

1. Uncertainty is a core feature of our everyday lives, especially during current times. How do humans respond to uncertainty? How does it affect our cognition, emotions, and behavior?
2. How does the psychological trait of intolerance of uncertainty increase risk for anxiety disorders?
3. Does it make sense to think of mental disorders as discrete categories or as dimensions that we all vary on?
4. How do cognitive factors like attention, memory, and interpretation contribute to depression?
5. What is the difference between fear and anxiety?
6. How do we regulate our emotions? How does emotion regulation go awry in psychopathology?
7. Is worry adaptive?
8. Rumination refers to repetitive negative thoughts about the past, and worry refers to repetitive negative thoughts about the future. Are these two processes fundamentally the same or different?
9. Why are we not better at treating mental disorders?
10. Does it make more sense to call mental disorders (e.g., depression) a “brain disease”? Why or why not?
11. What are the “active ingredients” in psychotherapies for emotional disorders? How do we know that these are really the mechanisms of change?
12. What is depression, exactly? Is it one syndrome, or is it a collection of different syndromes that we’ve grouped under the same name?
13. Are today’s youth really more anxious and depressed than youth in the past? If so, what is contributing to this increase?
14. What do we know—and what do we not know—about treatments for emotional disorders?
15. How do scientists study treatments for mental health problems? What are empirically supported treatments, why are they useful, and what are their limitations?
16. How can mental health treatments be delivered? What are the advantages and disadvantages of certain delivery formats?
17. How can we increase access to mental health treatments?
18. Are apps and internet programs effective treatments for common mental health problems?
19. How have treatments been adapted for people in low- and middle-income countries? What strategies are used to ensure that treatments are effective and culturally appropriate?
20. What is the research-implementation gap? How long does it take for research evidence to reach clinical practice?

Topics in Pathology and Data Science

1. The network theory of mental disorders states that mental disorders do not have a single underlying cause but instead are the result of feedback loops in a complex system. How does this theory apply to depression? Anxiety? Trauma? Other psychological problems?
2. Why do mental disorders co-occur at such high rates? How can network analysis inform the comorbidity between them?
3. How can novel developments in data science (e.g., machine learning methods) contribute to the field of clinical psychology?
4. What can we learn from exploratory data analysis of mental disorder symptoms? What kinds of psychometric data analyses and visualizations are most helpful?
5. Why are rates of emotional disorders often observed to be more common in developed nations compared to less developed nations?
6. One hallmark of anxiety disorders is avoidance. What factors lead people to avoid versus approach their fears?
7. Rates of violence across the world have been steadily decreasing. If this is indeed the case, why are rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stagnant or even increasing?
8. To what extent do mental disorders represent a “mismatch” between the modern world and our environment during evolution? What factors of modernity might influence mental illness?
9. Why do some individuals with PTSD seem to compulsively revisit their traumatic past? How does this square with research on avoidance?
10. Are trigger warnings or safe spaces effective approaches to helping those with PTSD? Why or why not?
11. Today, phones and devices capture a huge amount of data about individuals (e.g., location, movement, texts, phone calls, app usage). Can this data be used for good when it comes to mental health? How?
12. Can people really experience “post-traumatic growth” after a trauma? If so, what does this growth look like?
13. What is idiographic science? How can we study one person at a time?
14. Can we personalize psychotherapy interventions for each person?
15. How can data science help us predict substance use for each person?
16. Can a single survey item capture enough information, or do we always need multiple items?
17. How much can we generalize from group-level research?
18. How can we best capture fluctuations in people’s emotions? What are affective dynamics?

Topics in Psychology and Law

1. For cases in which juvenile offenders are transferred to adult court, do jurors take their developmental vulnerabilities into account when they make decisions about them?
2. Mistaken identification is the leading cause of wrongful conviction. What procedural best practices can make eyewitness evidence more reliable? How can social psychological theory inform these practices?
3. Do the demographics of the people selected as jury members affect their ultimate verdict decisions?
4. What strategies can help jurors better understand complex evidence in the courtroom?
5. Most all criminal cases are adjudicated through plea negotiation. How can social psychological theory help attorneys better advise their clients?
6. Racial disparities in the criminal justice system are well documented and widespread. How can we lessen racial bias in policing, prison populations, and participation on juries?
7. Why do people make false confessions? What aspects of police interrogations might increase the rate of false confession?
8. Why do innocent people plead guilty? What components of plea bargaining increase the odds an innocent person will plead guilty?
9. How do the racial characteristics of a criminal case impact jurors’ decision-making?
10. How do robust social cognitive processes, such as stereotyping, affect jurors’ perceptions and decision-making in civil and criminal cases?
11. What is criminal profiling, and does it resemble the crime shows on TV? What does the science say about criminal profiling? How is it practiced by law enforcement agencies, and does it work?
12. Jurors are often presented with a lot of complex information presented in a disorganized fashion. How do jurors make sense of the evidence and render their decisions?
13. How do jurors’ emotions impact their decision-making?
14. How does pre-trial publicity impact jurors’ decision-making?
15. What is ‘juror rehabilitation’? Can it successfully reduce jurors’ biases?
16. Jurors are constitutionally required to be impartial at the outset of a trial, but are they? How effective are legal system safeguards (e.g., voir dire and jury selection) at removing biases? What about implicit biases?

Applied Developmental Psychology

1. How do early differences in attention, memory, emotion recognition, perspective-taking and brain-related risk factors relate to later psychotic-like experiences such as schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders?
2. How do dimensional approaches to mood, anxiety and attention symptoms compare to traditional DSM-5 categories, and could a spectrum perspective help identify risk and support needs earlier?
3. How do non-medication approaches like mindfulness, CBT, DBT, physical exercise and creative therapies compare to medications in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD and other serious mental health challenges in teens and young adults?
4. Can brief cognitive and behavioral activities improve attention, memory and emotion regulation in individuals showing ADHD-like symptoms, anxiety and learning difficulties?
5. How do caregiver support, attachment style and early life stress affect social relationships and performance on cognitive and emotional tasks in teens and young adults?
6. How does social media influence mood, self-esteem and perceived social pressure among high school students?