Academic Year 2022-2023
Subject area Humanistic Studies
Cycle 38
Coordinator Prof. Elisabetta Crocetti
Language English
Duration 3 years

Application deadline: Dec 14, 2022 at 11:59 PM (Expired)

2nd NRRP Call for Applications - Further PhD positions

Enrolment: From Jan 27, 2023 to Feb 06, 2023 - On www.studenti.unibo.it, PhD candidates awarding NRRP positions should use NRRP forms only

Doctoral programme start date: Mar 01, 2023

NRRP loghi

Application deadline: Aug 02, 2022 at 11:59 PM (Expired)

NRRP Call for Applications

Enrolment: From Sep 26, 2022 to Oct 05, 2022 - On www.studenti.unibo.it download NRRP forms only

Doctoral programme start date: Nov 01, 2022

NRRP loghi

Application deadline: Jun 09, 2022 at 11:59 PM (Expired)

Call for Applications

Positions: More information in the PhD Programme Table

Enrolment: From Jul 29, 2022 to Aug 29, 2022

Doctoral programme start date: Nov 01, 2022

Operating centre
Bologna
Main Department
Department of Psychology "Renzo Canestrari" - PSI
Curricula
  • Psychological Sciences
  • Joint PhD Program in Cognitive Neuroscience
Research topics

Psychological Sciences:

General Psychology

  • Emotions, attention and learning
  • Psychophysiology of sleep and dream
  • Chronopsychology and chronobiology
  • Perception and decision making
  • Body action and cognition
  • Spatial cognition, memory and individual differences

Psychometrics

  • Psychometric methods in cognitive and clinical assessment
  • Advanced inferential statistics
  • Qualitative methods for psychological research
  • Bayesian Inference in Statistical Analysis

Developmental and Educational Psychology

  • Typical and atypical development from early childhood to adulthood
  • Risk and protection factors in development
  • Development in the life cycle and technologies for information and communication
  • Teaching, learning and social processes in educational settings

Social Psychology

  • Gender inequalities and prejudices reduction
  • Personal and social identity
  • Equal opportunity and community participation
  • Psychosocial factors in risk and safety

Work and Organizational psychology

  • Diversity management in organizations
  • Organizational change and development
  • Employability and new careers
  • Psychosocial factors in the workplace

Psychodynamic psychology

  • Perinatal psychopathology
  • Developmental psychopathology in childhood
  • Child and parents psychotherapy research
  • Emotional intelligence in clinical and educational settings

Clinical psychology

  • The use of new technologies in clinical psychology
  • Clinical assessment of psychological distress/well-being/adjustment/attachment
  • Psychosomatics
  • Applications of new technologies in clinical psychology
  • Psychological interventions

Joint PhD Program in Cognitive Neuroscience

  • Action, motivation and decisions
  • Reinforcement learning
  • Representation of space and time
  • Representation of the body

 

Job opportunities and potential areas of employment
PhD graduates will be able to obtain research positions or jobs related to applied Psychology or Neuroscience in variuos domains: national and international Universities, national and regional health service, social services, rehabilitation centres, private organizations. In particular, the period spent abroad can clear the way for the establishment and consolidation of international collaborations, facilitating the international mobility. Thanks to the PhD program, PhDs will be able to apply for calls in national and international research projects, improving their area of research. In addition, PhDs can collaborate with the Psychological Counselling Services which are located in the two sites of the Department, that is, Bologna and Cesena in relation to their field and competence.
Admission Board

NRRP Call - Further PhD Positions
Appointed by RD 952/2022 Prot. n. 0357333 of 02/12/2022

Surname Name university / Institution Role Email
Bertini Caterina Università di Bologna Member caterina.bertini@unibo.it
Gostoli Sara Università di Bologna Member sara.gostoli2@unibo.it
Surcinelli Paola Università di Bologna Member paola.surcinelli3@unibo.it
Di Pellegrino Giuseppe Università di Bologna Substitute g.dipellegrino@unibo.it
Montebarocci Ornella Università di Bologna Substitute ornella.montebarocci@unibo.it
Rafanelli Chiara Università di Bologna Substitute chiara.rafanelli@unibo.it

NRPP Call Admission Board
Appointed by RD 1103/2022 Prot. n. 0162873 of 17/07/2022 and modified by RD 1218/2022 Prot. 0174497 of 29/07/2022

Surname Name University / Institution Role Email
Bertini Caterina Università di Bologna Member
Mariani Marco Giovanni Università di Bologna Member marcogiovanni.mariani@unibo.it
Menegatti Michela Università di Bologna Member m.menegatti@unibo.it
Cicognani Elvira Università di Bologna Substitute elvira.cicognani@unibo.it
Romei Vincenzo Università di Bologna Substitute vincenzo.romei@unibo.it
Toderi Stefano Università di Bologna Substitute stefano.toderi@unibo.it
Zaniboni Sara Università di Bologna Substitute sara.zaniboni4@unibo.it

* The following shall take part in the work of the Examination Board as expert members for positions linked to specific research topics:

  • Daniel Perez-Marcos - MindMaze SpA
  • Agnese Zazio - IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli

 

Call for Application Admission Board
Appointed by RD 830/2022 Prot. n. 0127511 of 30/05/2022

Surname Name University / Institution Role email Curriculum
Costa Marco Università di Bologna Member Joint PhD Program in Cognitive Neuroscience
De Pascalis Leonardo Llewellyn Duncan Università di Bologna Member Psychological Sciences
Gremigni Paola Università di Bologna Member Psychological Sciences
Mariani Marco Giovanni Università di Bologna Member Psychological Sciences
Mazzoni Elvis Università di Bologna Member Psychological Sciences
Bertini Caterina Università di Bologna Substitute Joint PhD Program in Cognitive Neuroscience
Bonifacci Paola Università di Bologna Substitute Psychological Sciences
Prati Gabriele Università di Bologna Substitute Psychological Sciences
Tomasetto Carlo Università di Bologna Substitute Psychological Sciences
Tomba Elena Università di Bologna Substitute Psychological Sciences
Learning outcomes

The PhD programme aims at training candidates in innovative basic, field, applied, clinical and rehabilitative research in Psychology. This goal is achieved by training candidates in basic skills concerning comprehension of scientific texts, scientific writing, presentation skills, oral communication of scientific results in national and international conferences, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis. When basic research skills have been acquired, PhD candidates will be able to pursue their research goals in one of the fields of Psychological Sciences or Cognitive Neuroscience. They will then review the relevant scientific literature pertaining to their topic, formulate a clear research hypothesis, adopt a method fitting their research design, run the appropriate data analyses and provide discussion and interpretation of findings in the light of the relevant, available literature.

Activities to be carried out by Doctoral candidates

The PhD program is based on the integration of training, individual study and research activities. Thanks to their training, PhD candidates will acquire basic research skills with particular attention to the main theoretical models of Psychological Sciences and Neuroscience, mastery of research methodologies and techniques of qualitative and quantitative data analysis. This knowledge will be completed by the individual study on the specific field of investigation, in agreement with the tutor. This knowledge will also be deepened thanks to the discussion with the teaching staff and with the other students of specialized scientific articles. After the consolidation of basic research skills, PhD candidates will carry out their scientific project in a topic of Psychological Science or Cognitive Neuroscience with characteristics of innovation and originality both at a theoretical and a methodological level. The Curriculum in Cognitive Neuroscience emphasises the "hypothesis driven" approach to scientific research. Lab activities form the main commitment of PhD candidates and imply training in neuroscientific methods, techniques data handling and theoretical reasoning.

Research training activities compliant with the Doctoral programme's learning outcomes

PhD students are required to attend seminars and courses for acquiring the skills necessary for designing and implementating a research project. The courses introduce and deepen issues related to scientific communication, research methodology, and statistical models. Alongside these specific courses, seminars and workshops will be offered by national and international experts. Furthermore, PhD students have the opportunity to participate in international summer schools and seminars at other universities, which offers topics relevant to their research. The specific training for the research field of each PhD student will be carried out in the reference laboratory and supervised by the tutor. PhD candidates will present to the Academic Board and to the Department of Psychology their research during the three years, implementing oral and written communication skills of their research activities. The Curriculum of Cognitive Neuroscience offers training in Journal Club, Article reviewing, Programming Language, Statistics in Neuroscience, Theoretical neuroscience, training in Neuroscientific techniques (such as recording of EEG signals, psycho-physiological indices eye movements, transcranial stimulation, damage mapping).

Internationalization features

During the period abroad PhD students will be able to consolidate international collaborations, integrating their training with theoretical insights, new research methods and procedures of data analysis, in order to formulate theoretical and practical implications of their research results. Moreover, the PhD program includes seminars and courses taught by international experts. English is the official language and it characterizes all the activities of the PhD program. The PhD program is visible in the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window program. The PhD program is also sent to several national and international psychological associations to promote the attractiveness of the PhD program for students from other Italian and international Universities. The curriculum of Psychological Sciences which relies on colleagues belonging to seven areas of psychology offers the possibility to spend visiting periods abroad in prestigious academic universities where scientific collaboration among colleagues are productive. Moreover, there are agreements of co-tutorships between the program and international Universities. The Cognitive Neuroscience curriculum is held in collaboration with the University College of London (UCL), which has signed an official agreement for jointly conferring doctoral title recognized both in Italy and UK. The program shows a high degree of internationalization: students complete their doctoral thesis at 2 institutions (typically, 2 years at UNIBO and 1 year at UCL), discussing potential projects and selecting an advisor at the 2 institutions and members of the curriculum include experienced Italian and UK academics who have conducted research at International institutes, are supported by International funding agencies and can provide students with an International environment for conducting scientific activities.

Expected research results and products

At the end of the program, PhD candidates are expected to have acquired evaluative and critical capacities in regard to the research topics addressed, communication skills of scientific findings, mastery of research methodologies in the field of Psychological Sciences or Cognitive Neuroscience. During the three years program, the advance of each candidate is systematically assessed. At the beginning of the program, a tutor is assigned to each candidate. At the end of the first year, the PhD candidates will submit a research project to the Academic Board for evaluation. The research project will be orally presented to the Academic Board and to the other PhD candidates and to the members of the Department, and it will be evaluated by two reviewers who will provide the candidate with a written evaluation and guidance in revising the research project. In the second year, the ongoing research will be presented to the Academic Board and to all other PhD candidates. The Academic Board will give an evaluation of the research advances. In the third year, a draft of the PhD dissertation must be submitted to the tutor for evaluation. At the end of the PhD, students are expected to have published at least one paper, and to have at least one more paper submitted. This is achieved throughout the three years, under the guidance of the supervisor.