I also made a guide with my tips for applying to post-bacc and phd positions and the applications I used: helendevine.academicwebsite.com/pages/9373
join the slack for post-bacc jobs here š«¶: join.slack.com/t/postbacc-p...
pls share widely to help make psych more accessible for new, great minds š¤
The simulator is programmed to cry, need feeding, diapering, burping, and soothing. Couples did a 10-min caregiving task in the lab Friday, took the baby for the weekend, then came back Monday for a second task. We measured testosterone (via saliva) before & after each task. š¶
The takeaway: caregiving experience seems to help people lean into nurturance and hormones follow. T isn't just up or down with caregiving; it depends on whether the moment feels nurturant vs. overwhelming. š
We gave 30 couples without kids an infant simulator for the weekend and tracked how they handled it. Nope, this isn't a reality show: it's a scientific paper! š¼
New in Human Nature šš
Past work suggests testosterone drops in nurturant contexts and rises in challenging ones ā but findings with dyadic caregiving have been mixed. šš§āš¤āš§
Finding 1: Both men and women showed significant T declines after the second caregiving session ā but not the first.
if you're looking for a position: join and browse.
if you're in the field (grad students, PIs, lab managers): join and drop links as you see them. takes 2 seconds, can mute notifs, or just forward to me and I can share!
psych post-bacc jobs are scattered across wikis, twitter/bsky, and random lab sites. hard to find if you're not already in the field.
I started a slack to pool them in one place ā a low-effort bulletin board, channels by subfield, updated live!
šā¬ļø
Finding 2: The difference was driven by people who started out less comfortable with babies, or less enthusiastic about parenting.
People already comfortable with babies showed T declines in both sessions. The less comfortable Ps needed a weekend of practice to get there. šŖ
Huge credit to first author Rachel E. Brandon for leading this paper, and the rest of the team ā @annikafrom.bsky.social
, Miranda Reynaga, Amie M. Gordon, and Robin Edelstein!
Paper is open access here: doi.org/10.1007/s121...