Postdoc “Pressure perfect: Developing confidence in a perfect world” (0,8fte)

Introduction

What are the optimal conditions for youth to grow up successfully? Join the GUTS consortium as a Postdoc researcher and conduct cutting edge research on adolescent behavioural and brain development in an interdisciplinary team. Do you enjoy working in a vibrant team that wants to push the frontiers of science? Do you believe that young people should be involved in shaping our research questions? And would you like your research to have an impact in society? Then this position may be the perfect fit for you. 

Job description

How do young people successfully grow up in an increasingly complex society, and what are the main causes for differences in becoming engaged and contributing citizens in society?

This postdoc project is part of the larger consortium Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) where seven Dutch universities collaborate to find answers to the question of how young people grow up successfully. What are the skills that young people need to develop? And what can parents, peers and society do to create optimal opportunities? This project is part of a subteam of the project that operates in Rotterdam, which has the unique aim to include 600 young participants (ages 10-22-years) from a diverse background in one study including measures of self-report, smart phone app questionnaires, behavioral testing, and brain imaging (sessions for EEG and for fMRI). While the GUTS project is a longitudinal project which will span 10 years, we are currently looking for a postdoctoral researcher willing to take on the opportunity to be involved during the starting years of the project, including the first and second measurement waves.

Our vision on research is that we do not only aim to obtain information from participants but also want them to benefit from their participation. As such, in addition to collecting data, we will think of ways to make the participants active contributors to the science and make the experience of taking part in the study personally valuable. As postdoc you will work in a team of PhD students and postdocs and together you will run the study. You will get skilled in all kinds of methods and go in-depth on your personal research topic. In addition, the GUTS project offers opportunities to develop yourself in terms of interdisciplinary research, societal impact, outreach, and open science.

Postdoc “Pressure perfect: Developing confidence in a perfect world” will examine how adolescents deal with the everyday hassles of growing up and how they develop guts, confidence and self-esteem. Many  youth develop confidence and self-esteem as they mature. At the same time, growing up may come with sudden rises in negative feelings and self-evaluations, such as feelings of insecurity, school pressure and an experienced pressure to be perfect. For instance, because youth are exposed to a tremendous amount of “perfect pictures” online. This project aims to better understand how youth navigate their complex social realities, how confidence and self-esteem grows, and why youth differ in the extent to which they grow up into socially well-adapted youth. The project employs ecologically valid experience sampling methods (ESM) to assess multiple times per day how youth feel, and what they experience. This can be linked to longituidinal data on their social functioning, as well as fMRI data.

The postdocs will be collaborating with Eveline Crone and Loes Keijsers.

Job requirements

In this project, you will collaborate with interdisciplinairy colleagues, and develop yourself as a scientist of the next generation. You enjoy team science and you like to dive into challenging scientific questions. We value an open culture where everybody feels free to ask questions and make suggestions.

What is needed for this position:

• You completed, or will soon complete a PhD in psychology, family studies, cognitive neuroscience or associated degree
• You are passionate about discovering the optimal conditions for youth to grow up successfully
• You can connect to youth of various socioeconomic backgrounds, and you value diversity and inclusion
• You are a team player and open to learning new skills and to sharing skills
• Given that you will interact a lot with youth, it is necessary that you speak Dutch
• You have experience in data analysis, especially when it comes to ESM data (e.g., DSEM, multilevel modeling in R)
• Building on your experience, you are excited to lead a large ESM study (n = 600) with a team of PhD students, you are detail-oriented and communicate clearly

It is important that you are flexibly available, including evenings and weekends, given that we accommodate the needs of our participants. It goes without saying that these working hours are compensated during the week, as we strongly value a healthy work-life balance.

Employment conditions and benefits

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The start date of this position is 1 February 2025 and you will be based in Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB). This position is for 0.8 fte. The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 4.537 to a maximum of € 5.013 gross per month, scale 11 on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. The contract is offered for a period of 1 year and can be extended with 1 year if suitability is proven and if financial and/or organizational circumstances remain the same.

Everything else we offer you, you can find below!

• Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!
   
• Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME or QuEUR.
   
• Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.
   
• Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.
   
• Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR).
   
• Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the 30%-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we will also help your partner find the right job for them.

Employer

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Faculty / Institute / Central service

Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB)

The Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences is home to a vast diversity of scientific disciplines: public administration, pedagogical sciences, psychology and sociology. In addition, the Erasmus University College, IHS, and two research institutes RISBO and DRIFT are linked to the faculty. This also reflects in the content of the (international) bachelor's and master's programs and in research.  Our activities are always focused on people and society. At the ESSB fundamental, internationally oriented research is of paramount importance. In addition, social research for professionals, policy makers, and the society is part of our research activities. ESSB offers a stimulating research environment where major national and international research grants are received. Appealing guest researchers and ambitious PhD candidates come along to conduct their research. Our education is small-scale and works with innovative forms of education. Both the Dutch and English programs are highly ranked by students and alumni. ESSB is home to over 4000 students and more than 400 staff-members. The different disciplines are supported by the Faculty Office (for more information, please visit www.eur.nl/essb).

Group

Department of Psychology, Education & Child Studies (DPECS)

Our department consists of 6 teams covering the disciplines of Psychology, Educational Sciences and Pedagogical Sciences; three closely related disciplines with each their own profile. The different psychological specialization areas of DPECS focus on understanding cognitive, physical, and social functioning and well-being in the context of mental health, education, and work. The educational sciences focus on issues regarding effectiveness and inclusion in primary, secondary and tertiary education. The pedagogical sciences focus on issues related to everyday as well as problematic development and upbringing within families, at school and in youth care. The disciplinary perspectives of DPECS complement each other and share the mission to generate societal impact with high-quality scientifical research on timely societal issues, and with the use of innovative methods and techniques and open science. The bachelor and master programs of DPECS build on this mission and educate students to become scientifically trained professionals for the society of the future.

More information about the research at DPECS can be found here: https://www.eur.nl/en/essb/information/researchers/lab-society

More information about the education programs offered at DPECS can be found here: https://www.eur.nl/en/essb/education

Our department also has access to an excellent laboratory for research and education purposes. The Erasmus Behavioural Lab offers state-of-the art facilities, including video observation, EEG, eye-tracking, virtual reality, experience sampling, and biofeedback: https://www.eur.nl/en/essb/information/researchers/erasmus-behavioural-lab

Additional information

You can find more information about the EUR on our website www.eur.nl. For more information about this vacancy, please contact Yolijn Aarts via aarts@essb.eur.nl. 

Applying

Please submit your application, consisting of a motivation letter and CV, before the vacancy closing date.

The selection procedure consists of 1 or 2 interviews and possible additional selection measures. Interviews are expected to be held in December.

We look forward to receiving your application.

Persons of all gender identities or expressions, sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, ages, neurodiversities, functional impairments, citizenships, or any other aspect are welcome to apply and join the EUR community.