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Overview Current projects People Join the lab Read more about anxiety disorders

Getting Involved with the Anxiety Lab

Are you a Psychology Major at UNC looking for opportunities to join a research lab? Our research group includes a large team of undergraduate Psychology majors who help us run experiments, collect, enter, and analyze data, and work on posters and papers for conferences and publications. Undergraduate students typically get direct experience with much of the process of planning, running, and communicating the results of research studies--skils that are required for admission to top doctoral programs in psychology. Undergraduates may work as volunteers, for course credit (e.g., the PSYC 395 course), or as Honors Students.

If you are interested in joining the lab, complete this application form and email it to Prof. Abramowitz. Interviews are conducted during the time of class registration.

***Please note that our lab is currently full and we are NOT able to accept new lab members or PSYC 395 students at this time. Check back later in the Spring 2012 semester to see about openings for Fall 2012.

Are you planning to apply to graduate school in Clinical Psychology? Check out this Grad School Fact Sheet.


Are you thinking about UNC-Chapel Hill for graduate school in clinical psychology? For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a professor at UNC is helping to train the psychologists of tomorrow. Graduate students in our Clinical Program who work with me typically come with interests in anxiety disorders. While working in our program, they conduct research and learn how to implement effective treatment for anxiety disorders.

All graduate students in the Anxiety Disorders Lab become full members of my research group from the first semester they arrive. Even while they start to gain familiarity with the research and clinical literature, they also begin to get hands-on experience working in the lab, either helping design a new study and/or collecting data on a study already underway. This work usually leads to the development of a Master's thesis proposal. In addition to attending our weekly lab meetings, graduate students also meet individually with me on a regular basis (usually weekly), to discuss the development of their research and clinical skills, and the ideas they generate. There is nothing more important to me than helping my graduate students become thoughtful and successful psychologists.

Students and posdtoctoral fellows I have trained have applied for and received grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the International OCD Foundation, and the March of Dimes. They present posters and papers at professional conferences, and sucessfully submit their work for publication in our field's top journals.


Required Readings for Anxiety Lab Members

The reading list below contains papers that cover some of the key ideas and concepts we work with in the Anxiety Lab. Reading these papers is the best way to learn about these concepts so that you can contribute to our work in the lab. Click on the reference citation to open a PDF of the paper.

1. Abramowitz, J. S. (2006). The psychological treatment oif obsessive-compulsive disorder. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 51, 407-416.

2. Abramowitz, J. S., Khandker, M., Nelson, C. A., Deacon, B. J., & Rygwall, R.  (2006). The role of cognitive factors in the pathogenesis of obsessions and compulsions: A prospective study.  Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 1361-1374.

3. Clark, D. M. (1999). Anxiety disorders: why they persist and how to treat them. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, S5-S37.

4. Foa, E. B. & Kozak, M. J. (1986). Emotional processing of fear: Exposure to corrective information. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 20-35.

5. McKay, D., Abramowitz, J., Calamari, J., Kyrios, M., Radomsky, A., Sookman, D., Taylor, S., & Wilhelm, S. (2004). A critical evaluation of obsessive-compulsive disorder subtypes: symptoms versus mechanisms.  Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 283-313.

6. Nelson, E. A., Abramowitz, J. S., Whiteside, S. P., & Deacon, B. J. (2006). Scrupulosity in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: Relationship to clinical and cognitive phenomena. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 20, 1071-1086.

7. Taylor, S., Abramowitz, J. S., & McKay, D. (2007).  Cognitive-behavioral models of obsessive-compulsive disorder. In M. M. Antony, C. Purdon, & L. Summerfeldt (Eds.), Psychological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Fundamentals and beyond (pp. 9-29). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press. (sorry about the quality of this reprint).