The Clinical Psychology program has 200+ applicants each year from which 6-12 students are admitted. A select few (20-25) of the applicants to the program are invited to interview. Many applicants have specific interest in our research and some come with previous backgrounds in cancer control (e.g., a current student was a research assistant at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown). We are able to offer full, four year funding "packages" to the majority of students. Virtually all students receive a university fellowship; these are competitively awarded by the Graduate College to the finest incoming students. This success is not surprising as the mean scores for pre-doctoral trainees within the lab are the following: GRE verbal of 680, GRE quantitative of 725, GRE analytic of 706, and GPA of 3.85.
The graduate Clinical Psychology program offers a superior education. Students complete two years of a core curriculum averaging 4 courses per quarter; course load is then reduced after the second year to 1-3 per quarter on average. Practicum training begins in the second year. The average clinical student completes 1,300+ hours of practicum.
Within this context, pre-doctoral trainees in the lab are very accomplished by any metric. Currently, predocs are publishing an average of 2.7 papers and make an average of 3.2 presentations at national meetings during their training. Following their first year, students essentially complete a paper and presentation each year. The publications typically include 1-3 empirical papers from degree projects and another paper for which they assist with data analysis or with writing a chapter. Trainees' empirical papers appear in top tier primary journals (e.g. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Obstetrics and Gynecology) or top tier specialty journals (e.g., Health Psychology). Trainees are successful at presenting papers at national scientific meetings. For example, in the recent years three trainee papers have received merit citations. It is important to note that the pre doc trainees' high-level of productivity in the lab is not achieved by the trainees remaining in the clinical program longer. The average time to Ph.D. completion for Andersen's trainees is 4.5 years.
Trainees come to an exceptional research environment. The lab is spacious, attractive, and well supported. There is sufficient meeting, administrative, and research space. In addition, all trainees have office space with desks, bookcases, filing cabinets, computers, and telephones. The opening of the new psychology building provides another spacious and attractive environment for the staff and students.
An important strength of the graduate training program in clinical and mentor activities is the substantial coverage provided directly and indirectly in research design SMF methods and statistics. Behavioral scientists incorporating variables from the basic sciences must be skilled at identifying and addressing research design and methods and quantitative issues posed with interdisciplinary cancer data. As part of the clinical curriculum, students take one course in research design, one in psychometrics, and four courses in statistics. Those in the lab also typically complete at least two additional bio/statistics offerings for a statistics minor. The methods/statistics core includes the following.
1). Research Design and Methods (Psychology 861): Essentials of experimental and quasi-experimental designs, single case designs, field studies, and ethical issues.
2). Psychometrics (Psychology 864.06): Classical and contemporary approaches to issues of reliability and validity and statistical and theoretical issues vis-à-vis test construction, evaluation, and assessment.
3-5). Statistics: (Psychology 826, 827, 828). A three-course sequence covering descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing, ANOVA models, and intro to correlation and regression models.
6). Statistics: (Psychology 820) Fundamentals of Factor Analysis.
7). Statistics: (Psychology 830) Covariance Structure Models.
8). Electives for minor: (e.g., Psychology 831) Time Series Analysis.
Pre Doctoral (Graduate) Students
Brittany Brothers, B.S.
Kristen Carpenter, M.A.
Heather Jim, Ph.D
Radha Nadkarni, B.A.
Jason Purnell, M.A.
Rebecca Shelby, M.A.
Laura Simmonelli, M.A.
Lisa Thornton, Ph.D
Trainees complete, at a minimum, three empirical projects: first year project, master's thesis, and dissertation. In addition to learning research design, statistics, and the scholarly literature, an important part of mentoring includes guided experience in scientific writing. Degree-related projects are substantive and successful and appear in top tier outlets (e.g. Cyranowski & Andersen, 2000; Karlsson & Andersen, 1986; Shelby & Andersen, in press; Yurek, Andersen, & Farrar, 2000).
The lab's externally funded research and other related cancer control projects offer interdisciplinary research opportunities to trainees; the co-authors with the students are often residents, physicians, and immunologists. Provided below are examples of the range of research projects and exemplar publications for trainees in the last 10 years. As can be seen, students are often involved in more than one line of research. In addition, trainees also work together to develop new lines of research (e.g., 2 and 3 below).
1). Sexual morbidity [D. Yurek, G. Frierson, K. Carpenter; (Yurek, Andersen, & Farrar, 2000; G. Frierson, in preparation)].
2) Post traumatic stress disorder [V. DiLillo, D. Golden-Kreutz, and R. Shelby; (Shelby & Andersen, in press)].
3) Meaning of cancer and life changes [S. Aarestad, D. Golden-Kreutz, and H. Jim; (Jim et al, under review)]
4) Basic research in sexuality [S. Aarestad, J. Cyranowski, J. LeGrand, K. Carpenter; (Cyranowski & Andersen, 2000; Andersen & Carpenter, 2003)].
5) Psychosocial aspects of gynecologic cancer [K. Carpenter, P. Gupta, M.D., J. Vander Does, M.D.; (Fowler, Gupta, Carpenter et al., 2004)].
6) Partners coping with recurrence (S. Wells, in preparation).
Predocs typically complete at least one additional writing or data analysis project during their training. Trainees may also be involved in chapter authorship and empirical papers from the project for which they complete data management and/or statistical analyses (e.g., Brown, Golden-Kreutz, Frierson, & Andersen, 2004; Carson, Crespin, Thornton, & Andersen, 2004). The senior research staff (e.g., T. Crespin, Ph.D.) also provides guidance on these efforts, which underscores the richness and breadth of the laboratory's opportunities.
Grantsmanship training is begun early and is most intense during a trainee's 3rd and 4th years. Trainees are regularly successful in securing research grants from the University and some have received large, competitive, external awards.
The large laboratory also lends itself to trainees learning the basics of grants administration and management. The trainees work with the full-time research staff (e.g. project coordinator, interviewers, assessors, nurses). With this trainees are exposed to and learn of the practical (personnel and fiscal) responsibilities, interdisciplinary aspects, and day-in, day-out complexities of running large cancer prevention and control research effort. This is one strategy for the trainees to be more familiar with the practicalities of grant and personnel management before they become independent investigators.
Andersen is a visible "hands on" mentor and is regularly in the lab for individual, group, and collaborative supervision. Mentoring activities occur in at least two contexts. First, individual supervision averages one hour every two weeks, at a minimum. The individual time is for research planning and monitoring of progress, oral/written feedback on the current writing projects, advising (e.g. meeting program time lines for degree attainment, job search, application process, etc.), and general career counseling.
Second, there is a weekly, 60-minute research meeting with the trainees that include the senior research staff (e.g., T. Crespin, Ph.D.), Andersen, and others. This is a 10-year Wednesday tradition. The agendas consist of presentations of new research ideas, discussion of recent articles in the literature, group review of manuscript drafts, and practice presentations for scientific meetings, MA/PhD practice defenses, job talks, and related activities. For this and the cancer seminar Dr. Andersen teaches, the group is joined by co-Investigators or other investigators on campus who are conducting NCI-funded cancer control research. The inclusion of all trainees--undergraduate honors students to post docs--with senior research staff and faculty provides a multi-level, multi-disciplinary, research and mentorship environment. Moreover, the regularity of the gathering provides a longitudinal experience for the trainees' development and an opportunity to hear and see the same in their peer-colleagues.
Trainees are regularly involved in the activities and research of the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Program. The Program also has a monthly speaker series. Also, regular meetings provide training breadth and the opportunity to meet pre and postdocs from other programs (e.g., nursing, public health, dietary sciences). The meeting agenda includes research planning sessions for collaborative projects, presentations of current faculty research, discussion of center application/grants, and related topics.
Andersen has recently received a grant that will provide even greater opportunities to trainees. The number of trainees in the lab will grow. This will result in, on average, 6 predocs and 2 post docs in the lab per year, up from the previous roster of 4 predocs and 1 postdoc. More important than increasing the numbers of trainees is providing special, enhanced mentoring experiences for trainees who possess the highest motivation and greatest promise for becoming future leaders in cancer prevention and control. This is designed for pre and postdoctoral trainees that express clear interest, evidence, and plans for a research career in cancer prevention/control. The enhancements will occur within two time frames, some 'on site' and others at the time of career transition.
The first goal of these enhancements is to provide additional individual supervision to lead to a higher quality and quantity of research projects/papers/presentations during the traineeship. There will be greater opportunities for meeting and interacting with cancer prevention and control researchers and further research opportunities. Examples include funds available for trainee travel to scientific meetings, and for visits to NCI-funded cancer control laboratories. To illustrate, funding was recently provided for two students to attend an NCI/ACS summer conference at the NCI for beginning investigators.
A second enhancement entails aggressive activity in the realm of grantsmanship. Trainees will learn to prepare grants applications for internal and external funding. This enhancement will build on recent successes by extending them to all trainees, ranging from undergraduates to postdocs.
Enhanced mentorship is also offered at the time of career transitions, such as during the initial year or two for an assistant professor/beginning investigator. Mentorship of assistant professors can be one of the critical success factors in academia. As requested by the trainee, this includes mentorship for initial grant submissions, for example, and other assistance (e.g., identifying local mentors, reviewing manuscript submissions). For trainees interested and in-need, this plan offers a time-limited continuation of mentorship designed to be maximally useful during his/her transition years.
A rich mentoring experience is offered. Individuals seeking training in our research have exceptional academic records and subsequently participate actively in state of the art, interdisciplinary, cancer control research. A mentorship program is in place which includes 'trainees' ranging from undergraduate honors students to post docs and junior faculty. In addition, trainees also learn from senior research staff, co-investigator faculty, and other faculty in the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Trainees' productivity is high, as indexed by numerous publications in top tier journals, presentations at national meetings, awards, grant funding, and others. Trainees have success in securing cancer-relevant internships, post docs, and job placements. The laboratory environment facilitates the 'best and the brightest' to their transition as independent investigators and leaders in cancer prevention and control.