PhD Scholarship in the Emotional Face at QUT in Australia 2022

The Queensland University of Technology in Australia welcomes applications for a PhD Scholarship in the Emotional Face in the 2022/2023 academic year.

Project details:

They are looking for a full-time, greatly motivated PhD candidate to carry out leading-edge research in the psychology of emotional expression processing. The selected applicant will be supervised by Professor Ottmar Lipp in the School of Psychology and Counselling. During the period of their PhD, the student will carry out a research project that extends present knowledge about the way in which facial expressions are processed and the things that influence it. It is anticipated that the new basic knowledge produced will add to high-quality publications. Travel to national and foreign workshops will be obtainable to the successful candidate.

Faces are an abundant source of social information transmitting, for example, the sex, age or race of a person. Furthermore, they also notify about an individual’s emotional state through facial expressions of emotion.

Former research has shown that social category cues, details about an individual or facial cues of attractiveness influence the manner in which we perceive emotional expression information. For example, happiness is identified faster than negative expressions like anger on faces that are assessed as positive (faces that are young, female or associates of an in group, faces that are good-looking or of individuals seen to be good), whereas this variance is smaller on faces that are less positive (faces that are old, male or associates of an out group, faces that are not good-looking or of individuals thought to be bad).

The present PhD project will expand on this work by examining the nature of the information that can influence the speed of emotion recognition. Previous research has put forward several avenues in which this question may be addressed. Specifics will be developed in teamwork with the successful candidate.

In all probability, the present project will require the gathering of behavioural data from simple classification tasks. However, it is possible that physiological measures like event related brain potentials may be evaluated also.

Worth of PhD Scholarship in the Emotional Face

The successful candidate will obtain a scholarship award, tax exempt and indexed yearly of $28,597 per year for a period of three years, with a possible 6 month extension, conditional on satisfactory progress.

Foreign candidates will also receive either:

• an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) fees compensation (International)
• a QUT research degree (HDR) tuition fee award.

As the scholarship award beneficiary, you will have the chance to work with a team of prominent researchers, to undergo your own ground-breaking research in and across the field of the psychology of emotional expression processing.

Eligibility for PhD Scholarship in the Emotional Face

To apply for PhD Scholarship in the Emotional Face, you have to satisfy the entry conditions for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at QUT, with any English language conditions for foreign students.

You must also have:

• An English language IELTS level of 6.5 or higher, with at least 6.5 in written English
• A training in Experimental Psychology or a related field
• First-class honours or equivalent

It would be desired for candidates to also have:

• Experience in programming experiments
• Experience in psychophysiological recordings

How to Apply for PhD Scholarship in the Emotional Face

Interested candidates have to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for deliberation before applying for this scholarship award, as per QUT’s how to apply website.

The EOI has to include:

• an up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV), comprising recent IELTS or equivalent score for foreign candidates
• a two-page research proposal talking about the scholarship topic a writing sample (e.g. copy of an article/essay/thesis you have written)
• contact details for two academic referees

The Expression of Interest has to specify that you are applying for this scholarship award, and should have Professor Ottmar Lipp nominated as your impending supervisor.

Application Deadline: Applications for PhD Scholarship in the Emotional Face ends on December 24, 2021.

Visit here for more details and to apply

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