Research Associate

The postholder will support the development of research into male psychology
between the School of Psychology and the Helen McArdle Nursing and Care
Research Institute to support outputs for REF2027. The post-holder will be
funding and writing up data for publication.

**Key Responsibilities**
**and Accountabilities**:
**Faculty Specific**:

- Support the delivery of an external collaborative project into factors affecting

men’s health to make a strong contribution to scaling up existing research in
this area
- Develop and carry out the specific external project to time and target
- Meet with external collaborators to produce a dissemination plan and map out
- future work in men’s health- Assist to develop policy documents in the area of men’s health.
- Assist with write up of the project research for publication

**Generic to all Research Associate roles:
- Develop and implement a personal research plan and where appropriate related
- reach-out plan.- Conduct individual and collaborative research and assist with related reach-out
- projects.- Assist with the dissemination of research findings and reach-out activities
- through publication, presentation or exhibition.- Continually update knowledge and understanding in field or specialism.
- into research activity.- Assist in the development of student research skills.

**Special**
**Circumstances**:
University of Sunderland
**Role Profile**
Part 2

**Part 2A: Essential and DesirableCriteria**
**Essential**

**Qualifications and Professional Memberships**:

- Educated to postgraduate degree level.- Specialist knowledge of male psychology and factors affecting men’s health.

**Knowledge and Experience**:

- In depth knowledge of health and wellbeing issues affecting men’s
- health- High quality academic writing skills
- Effective literature searching and critical appraisal skills
- Strong an demonstrable mixed methods methodological expertise
- High level of IT literacy (SPSS, Word, Excel)
- Strong communication skills and able to engage with academic, government
- and public audiences- Strong critical thinking skills
- Positive, can-do attitude
- Strong organisation and time management skills
- Able to work independently and as part of a team

**Desirable**:
Member of British Psychological Society

**Knowledge and Experience**
- NHS ethical approvals experience

***Evidence of high quality publications

**Part 2B: Key Competencies**
**Competencies are**
**assessed at the**
**interview/selection**
**testing stage**

**Analysis & Research
- Gathers data rigorously and conducts robust analysis, questioning

assumptions and existing knowledge
- Develops hypotheses and concepts to explain data, events and

phenomena
- Reports findings to wider community and is able to withstand challenge by

relying on evidence gathered and processes used for analysis

**Communication**

**Oral Communication
- Summarises and interprets complex, conceptual and special matters to aid
- others' understanding and aimed at their needs- Uses appropriate styles and arguments to influence and negotiate
- satisfactory outcomes- Monitors understanding of others, develops approach and takes corrective

action if require

**Written Communication
- Conveys information of a complex, conceptual and specialist nature using a
- range of styles and media selected to meet the needs of others- Presents complex information in formats appropriate to non-specialists
- without comprising meaning- Monitors the reactions of others and takes appropriate steps to remedy any

miscommunications

**Decision Making**
**Independent Decisions
- Considers wider impact of decisions, assesses possible outcomes and their
- likelihood- Uses judgement to make decisions with limited or ambiguous data and
- takes account of multiple factors- Distinguishes between the need to make a decision, when to defer and when

not to take a decision

**Collaborative Decisions
- Helps others to explore options that initially appear to be inappropriate or
- unfeasible and recognise when a decision is or is not needed- Enables others to contribute to decisions
- Ensures that options are weighed, outcomes identified, and chances of
- success considered- Challenges decisions, appropriately to ensure consideration and processes

are robust

**Provision of Advice
- Anticipates and highlights issues that need to be taken into account
- Outlines possible impacting factors, assessing their degree of influence on
- the choice of options- Ensures previous learning is included

**Initiative & Problem Solving
- Analyses problems to identify their cause
- Takes action to prevent recurrence of problems
- Considers possible solutions to identify those which offer wider benefits
- Obtains evidence to support intuition

**Service Delivery
- Has accurate and up to date knowledge of services available in own and

related areas of work
- Correctly refers customers elsewhere
- Ensures that the experience of each customer is positive and satisfa