The ReMa-IDA contains four internal traineeships. The internal traineeships allow students to acquire hands-on experience with diverse aspects of research. Each traineeship has a different primary goal, covering knowledge and skills required throughout all phases of a research project in the following sequence: knowledge/skill acquisition(Traineeship 1); research design (Traineeship 2); data analysis and reporting(Traineeship 3); and peer-reviewing (Traineeship 4).
The general aim of the Internal Traineeship 1 is for students to acquire new knowledge and skills. The first traineeship can take one of two forms, based on an agreement between student and supervisor, with comparable learning outcomes and level of difficulty. Specifically, it can involve the acquisition of conceptual knowledge(i.e., conducting a literature review)or the acquisition of skills in a specific assessment method (i.e., becoming familiar with a specific assessment technique and the literature on this technique). Depending on this choice, there will also be slight differences in the type and content of the final product, as described below.
In practice, the first traineeship gives students an opportunity to explore an area that aligns with their interests, or to broaden their horizons by learning about a completely new topic, resulting in a wide variety of topics each year. For those who chose to acquire skills in a specific assessment method, the first traineeship is a unique opportunity to master a new skill.
Some students choose to deepen their understanding of everyday experiences and behavior, often using the approach of experience sampling methodology (ESM), and diving deeper into topics such as personality, job crafting, interpersonal relationships and participant compliance. Others take on a more interpretative angle, drawing on qualitative analysis to explore issues such as climate anxiety and disordered eating behaviors.
Another “type” of topics is more oriented toward measurement and evaluation. Some students choose to do psychometric evaluations or reviews of lifestyle interventions, inventories, and measurement instruments. Examples of such topics are updating a systematic review on the maintenance of lifestyle changes following lifestyle interventions in breast cancer survivors, or validating the Flemish version of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment Short Form.
Last but not least, the first traineeship is a great opportunity to get more familiar with hands-on skills, such as biological data assessment methods. Students have learnt to assess facial and bodily expressions of shame using observer software, to assess momentary facial expressions of disgust using EMG, and to preprocess EEG data, to give some examples.
