Department of Psychology
Undergraduate Advising Office

The Department of Psychology will host a social celebration of graduating seniors on Friday, May 2, 2025. All students who have applied for April graduateion, those who were confered for December graduation, and those who apply for summer 2025 will be invited. Please watch your Pitt email for additional details as they become available. 

Additional information regarding the psychology celebration can be found on our website. 

You can find University commencement information here as it becomes available.

The University Store on Fifth, in partnership with the Office of Special Events, will host Graduation Central at the University Store on Fifth. Graduation Central is going to be longer this year with even more events so stay tuned for more information!

At Grad Central, students will:

• Receive information about the ceremony
• Purchase caps and gowns
• Enter to win exciting prizes

Students also will be able to purchase graduation announcements, class rings, diploma frames, and additional alumni gear.

Location: University Store on Fifth, Oakland

Event dates: Tuesday, April 8 - Thursday, May 1

If you are participating in commencement, Graduation Central is the key event to kick-off the season!

Shop regalia and find more information here: https://www.pittuniversitystore.com/SiteText?id=89311

The long-awaited completion of the Hillman Library renovation is in sight. One major stage is the completion of the ground floor and the moving of staff, services, and equipment from their temporary locations on other floors to the renovated ground floor. Because of the magnitude of the moves, which include the major service points, Hillman Library will be closed to the public on May 1st-2nd and May 5th-7th while staff work inside to move. We apologize if this presents a problem for you and your faculty and students and are committed to working in advance to alleviate any inconveniences. These are the dates between the end of the spring and the beginning of the summer sessions, and we believe it will be the least disruptive time to close to the public.

We are a group researchers from Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) working on an NIMH-funded project focusing on Training Mental Health Supporters with Virtual Patients and are currently recruiting a small number of undergraduate and graduate Research Assistants to help with annotating therapist-client conversations. This role involves reading and annotating transcripts of some (public) therapist-client conversations. The RA annotations will help us evaluate how well LLMs can replicate human judgements.

About the Project
This research aims to develop immediate, personalized feedback systems to train novice mental health supporters and social workers. The project develops virtual environments with LLMs-based Virtual Patients to simulate therapy sessions, providing a scalable and adaptive training solution for mental health practice.

RA Responsibilities

• Complete a brief pre-task and training to ensure clarity and consistency
• Annotate excerpts from therapist-client sessions based on provided definitions and conversation context.
• Provide feedback during/after your annotation experience (optional follow-up interview)

Time Commitment
Training: ~ 2 hours
Annotation work: ~16-18 hours (depending on task distribution and availability)

Compensation
Hourly pay rate: $14-18 per hour (depending on school years)

Requirements

    Required:
        Native or fluent English reading ability, capable of understanding therapy transcripts without translation tools
        Completion of at least two Psychology or Counseling-related courses
    Preferred:
        Interest in mental health or Human-Computer Interaction

If you're interested, please fill out this survey
This helps us evaluate your readiness and match you with appropriate training materials.

Feel free to contact Siwei Jin, Canwen Wang, or Bob Kraut if you have questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

Identity & Intergroup Relations Lab
Supervising Faculty: Dr. Joel Le Forestier
Contact: Nalanda Ray (Lab Manager; IIRLAB@pitt.edu)

We are now recruiting research assistants for the Summer and Fall 2025 terms!

Lab website: www.joelleforestier.com

In the Identity & Intergroup Relations Lab, we research interactions between members of different social groups (e.g., gay people and straight people, Black people and White people, etc.), what influences the quality of these interactions, and what we can do to improve them. We also research the outcomes that follow from these interactions, particularly for members of minoritized groups (e.g., disparities in health and wellbeing, identity threat, etc.). Current projects in the lab examine when and why people choose to reveal or conceal their stigmatized identities, and what the downstream effects of prejudice reduction interventions are for minoritized-group members.

Volunteer opportunity: We are looking for organized, reliable, collaborative, and energetic psychology students to join the lab! Students will have the opportunity to participate in multiple phases of the psychological research process. Students will take on a mix of independent and collaborative work and will also attend biweekly lab meetings where they will interact with other lab members, present, and give feedback on, work being done in the lab, and participate in journal club-style meetings. Common tasks will include participant recruitment, data collection, literature review, assisting with developing study materials and procedures, and attending lab meetings. The anticipated time commitment is approximately 8 hours per week, but students who are available for fewer hours are also encouraged to apply.

Recruitment Process: Please fill out the following survey:  https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b8INqHeveeROexM. Once you have completed the survey, you will be contacted by the lab manager (IIRLAB@pitt.edu) regarding the next steps.

For any questions, please reach out to Nalanda (IIRLAB@pitt.edu)!

We are inviting you to participate in two studies, the Interpersonal Interaction Study and Dyadic Interaction Study!

These studies involve a very brief screening survey to determine whether you are eligible, and then a 1-hour session where you will come into the lab and answer questions about your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and potentially complete a reading and writing task. Additionally, we will ask you to have a conversation with other participants.

While there is no compensation for filling out the brief screening survey, eligible participants can earn $10 for each study!

To sign up for each study, you can take a brief screening survey by following the links below:

1. Interpersonal Interaction Study: https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bmwSoIcSrEmGKZE

2. Dyadic Interaction Study: https://pitt.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7Uw27JzbOKjSaPQ

These studies have been reviewed by the University of Pittsburgh’s IRB.

If you have any questions, please contact the lab manager, Nalanda Ray, at IIRLAB@pitt.edu.