Join us in the VAIL!

Lab Culture and Values

If you are interested in joining the VAIL, please take a moment to read more about our lab culture and values and how we strive to enact those values.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Undergraduate students who are interested in volunteering to do research in the VAIL should complete our research assistant application form and email it to Dr. MacCormack.

• When to apply. We tend to consider new research assistant applications either in the start of the semester (to join the lab that semester) and at the end of semesters (to join the lab the next semester). However, new projects are always starting, so it is worth letting us know you are interested asap!

• What is involved. Research assistants positions are expected to commit around 5-10 hours per week of time to lab research activities and training. Depending on your interests, our current studies, and how long you stay in the lab, you will be able to assist with the research process from study design and recruitment to data collection and data processing. There will also be opportunities to acquire hands-on training and experience in psychophysiology, human neuroimaging, biological assays, and behavioral experiments, depending on a given project or study’s needs. RAs are expected to attend a bimonthly lab meeting, where we discuss professional development and practical or theoretical issues related to our research questions and methods.

Undergraduate Distinguished Majors Program Students

The VAIL supports undergraduate students who wish to complete the Department of Psychology’s Distinguished Majors Program (DMP), i.e., a senior honors thesis in the lab with Dr. MacCormack as their DMP advisor. Please read all DMP eligibility requirements and details in the link above before contacting Dr. MacCormack. Additionally, to be eligible to complete a DMP thesis in our lab, we require that students complete at least 1-year as a research assistant in the VAIL. If you are a current undergraduate RA in the VAIL and interested in completing a DMP with us, please reach out to Dr. MacCormack ideally sometime right before or early on in your first semester (e.g., Fall) of your third year, so that we can help plan your DMP project and submit a DMP application together sometime in the second semester of your third year (e.g., Spring). This will ensure timely progress on your DMP thesis throughout your senior year.

Graduate Students

Dr. MacCormack will NOT be accepting graduate student applications for the upcoming graduate application cycle (PhD start date of Fall 2025). Applicants can apply to work with Dr. MacCormack as either a primary advisor in the UVA Social Psychology Program or as a secondary advisor in the Department of Psychology. Prospective graduate students interested in working with Dr. MacCormack should contact her directly. See this infographic to learn more about the types of research topics, methodologies, and mentorship that Dr. MacCormack offers.

Applicants may be particularly good fits for the VAIL if they are interested in training and conducting research on one or more of these themes:

• The dynamical interplay between physiology (i.e., physiological arousal; cardiovascular reactivity; metabolic states; inflammation, etc.) and interoception in shaping the mind and behavior. This work considers the nature and pathways by which specific physiological systems translate to the brain and behavior; the role of attention, awareness, and attribution; the importance of meta-cognition, context effects, recency effects, etc. Applicants may wish to examine these dynamics within a given “outcome” domain of interest or specialization (e.g., emotion and stress, social relationships, social perceptions, moral judgments, self-regulation, risk-taking, etc.). Research on these topics will typically involve experimental paradigms (e.g., social cognitive experiments; stress or emotion inductions; fMRI behavioral tasks) and/or physiological manipulations (e.g., administration of ghrelin, beta-blockers, endotoxin, etc.).

• The pathways and impacts of physiological, brain, and interoceptive development and aging. For example, some applicants may be interested in understanding how aging of the body and brain can contribute to cognitive, interoceptive, and/or emotional aging. Other applicants may wish to test interoceptive development and change at different stages of life or in response to major life events (e.g., early life socialization, early life adversity, menopause, etc.). Research on these topics will typically involve using developmental or age-appropriate methods,, approaches that capture within- and between-person differences (e.g., longitudinal vs. cross-sectional designs; experience sampling), and experimental, physiological, or neuroimaging paradigms.

• The nature and implications of interoception. Applicants may be interested in pursuing deeper training in interoceptive theory and methods and integrating interoception within their area(s) of interest. For example, some applicants may wish to study how interoception matters for real-world outcomes such as stress and wellbeing, pain and somatic symptoms, or health behaviors, etc. Other applicants may be interested in pursuing questions about how interoceptive processes vary across culture, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc. and what this means for emotion, wellbeing, and health. Research on these topics will typically involve developing or innovating with interoceptive measures and methods, extending questions into broader domains (e.g., health inequities, culture), while capitalizing on other paradigms in the lab (e.g., psychophysiology, neuroimaging, health and stress, experience sampling, etc.).

Other important information for applicants:

• If you are considering joining our lab, please read more about our research and some of our recent publications to identify how your interests might fit within the VAIL’s program of work.

• The application submission portal typically opens around September 15th each year with a deadline of December 1st at 5pm U.S. Eastern Time. Applications submitted after this deadline unfortunately cannot be accepted. Note UVA Psychology PhD Programs no longer require nor request any GRE scores.

• To help improve accessibility, transparency, and equity across applicants, please see our lab’s guide on application evaluation criteria as well as our guide to writing a personal statement for Psychology PhD programs. You may also want to consider submitting your personal statement draft for valuable feedback through the Application Statement Feedback Program. Usually the submission portal for the ASFP opens and closes in early October. The ASFP especially prioritizes feedback to underrepresented minorities and individuals who do not have access to informed mentorship.

• You may be eligible for an application fee waiver. You can submit an application fee waiver request as early as October 1st and as late as up to one week prior to the December 1st application deadline. More details on eligibility requirements and waiver request process can be found here.

• All primary doctoral students in the VAIL are encouraged to complete the Quantitative Psychology Concentration offered in the Department of Psychology. If interested, you may wish to mention this in your application materials. Some doctoral students may also wish to take advantage of UVA’s Masters in Data Science during their PhD, made possible by UVA’s innovative, interdisciplinary School of Data Science.

• You may be interested in additionally applying for an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF) which is offered via the UVA Graduate School for the College of Arts and Sciences. Because the research and training offered in the VAIL is highly interdisciplinary, applicants interested in working with Dr. MacCormack may find this fellowship particularly relevant. Applicants who wish to be considered for an IDF should upload an additional statement of interest within the PhD program application portal. You can learn more about the specific research clusters, benefits, and IDF application process here.

• Do you need more experience and mentorship before applying to PhD programs? The UVA Graduate School also offers a Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship (deadline March 1st each year) to support post-baccalaureate students from groups that are underrepresented in their disciplines and who have not had sufficient training or research experiences to prepare them for admission to doctoral programs. This program offers two full years of fellowship support without teaching responsibilities for students to enroll in courses, guided research opportunities, and UVA’s intensive graduate student professional development curriculum known as “PhD Plus.” Each bridge fellow will work individually with faculty to develop a customized academic plan that will help them develop a competitive portfolio for applying to doctoral programs. Bridge fellows will have the opportunity to complete a graduate certificate or master’s degree. Qualified students will be considered for promotion into UVA’s own doctoral programs after the first or second year.

Postdoctoral Fellows

We do not have any open postdoctoral positions in the VAIL. If you would like to explore postdoctoral funding options via fellowships such as the NIH National Service Research Award, the NSF postdoctoral fellowship, or other fellowship programs at UVA, please contact Dr. MacCormack.