Faculty of Social Sciences,

Department of Psychology,

Section for Health-, Developmental- and Personality Psychology

About the position

A PhD fellowship is available at the PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo. PROMENTA is a newly established interdisciplinary research center at the Department of Psychology aiming to provide answers to three central questions in mental health, well-being, and drug use research: What processes lead to poor and good mental health, and how? How do social and geographic inequalities in mental health arise? How can we develop, tailor, and evaluate effective interventions in communities to promote good mental health? To address these questions, we examine sources of mental health on a variety of levels, such as genetic risk, neurocognitive development, the psychosocial environment, and the socio-cultural and political context. For more information about PROMENTA, please visit www.promenta.no.

The PhD position is funded through a grant from the Research Council of Norway for the project "Motherhood and Quality of Life: The causal processes of caregiving burden, illness coping, work-life, genetics and social relations"

More about the project

The fellowship is for a period of three years. A fourth year can be considered with the addition of a 25 % teaching requirement, depending on the competence of the applicant and the needs of the department.

Motherhood and Quality of Life

The PhD fellow will collaborate with colleagues at PROMENTA to generate vital knowledge about causal factors and processes contributing to maternal quality of life and good mental health. The project will focus on the sources and trajectories of mothers’ wellbeing and resilience through the childrearing stage, examine the unique and joint risks of care demands, illness and work-related challenges - and seek to identify protective factors, particularly in the web of social relations.

Specific objectives:

1) Examine the nature of dynamic relations between maternal wellbeing and the adversities of caregiving burden, illness exposure and work-life challenges over time

2) Determine the role of maternal social relations in generating resilience, and thereby counteracting and moderating negative effects of adversities

3) Examine the role of genetic and environmental factors in the associations between maternal wellbeing, social relations and adversities, and

4) Examine gender gaps in risk profiles, and gendered pathways from adversities to wellbeing. The project will use longitudinal data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (Moba). The project is led by Professor Espen Røysamb (PI) and Senior researcher Ragnhild Bang Nes (co-PI). We encourage candidates to contact the project leaders for more information about the position and project prior to submitting an application. The projects involve collaborations between the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and international researchers.

Qualification requirements

• Applicants must have a Master’s degree (120 ECTS) or equivalent in relevant fields such as psychology (Professional program or Master’s program), social science, epidemiology, medicine, or related
• Excellent skills in quantitative analysis
• Long-term potential for high-quality research
• High fluency in English, orally and in writing
• Ambitions for excellent research within the project, as evidenced by the required letter of application, explaining the motivation for applying and how own qualifications are suitable for the announced position.Preferable qualifications
• Some experience with longitudinal data analysis, structural equation modelling, psychometrics
• Competence in software such as R, Mplus, Stata, or SPSS.
• Excellent writing skills
• Experience in the research fields of wellbeing, quality of life, mental health, genetics, health, developmental or personality psychology.Personal skills
• Creative thinking and analytic abilities
• High motivation and efficient work structure
• Ability to work in collaborative groups and independently

In assessing applications, particular emphasis will be placed upon the quality of the candidate’s academic qualifications. Interviews with selected candidates will be arranged where the applicants personal suitability, motivation and cooperative skills will be emphasized.

We offer

• Salary NOK 482 200 - 526 000 per year, depending on qualifications in a position as PhD Research fellow, (position code 1017)
• A professionally stimulating work environment at the Promenta Research Center, at the Department of Psychology
• Enthusiastic colleagues with high expertise in relevant fields
• Opportunities for extensive collaboration with national and international collaborators
• Favorable pension and social welfare benefits
• Attractive welfare arrangements

How to apply

The application must include:

• Letter of application, 1-2 pages, explaining the motivation for applying and how own qualifications are suitable for the announced postdoc position.
• Curriculum vitae summarizing education and positions, including a publication list (if applicable).
• Copies of educational certificates and up to five publications/academic work (if any) that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee.
• Names and contact details of at least two references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail, and telephone number).

International applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University’s grading system. All documents should be in Scandinavian or English.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Research Fellowships at the University of Oslo.

No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the University of Oslo.

This is a project funded by the Research Council of Norway and applicants with a previous PhD degree cannot be appointed for this position.

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

The appointment may be shortened/given a more limited scope within the framework of the applicable guidelines on account of any previous employment in academic positions.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.

The University of Oslo aims to achieve a balanced gender composition in the workforce and to recruit people with ethnic minority backgrounds.

Contact information

• Project leader, Espen Røysamb: espen.roysamb@psykologi.uio.no
• Project co-leader, Ragnhild Bang Nes: RagnhildBang.Nes@fhi.no
• Head of office, Nina Rundgren, e-mail: nina.rundgren@psykologi.uio.no

Apply for position