NIMH Careers Opportunities in Research (COR) Training Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present renewal application seeks renewed funding of our COR program from the National Institute of Mental Health for a sixth cycle from 2007 to 2012. As with prior cycles, the main goal is to provide research training for nine upper division undergraduate psychology students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to enhance their qualifications and motivation to pursue doctoral degrees in areas of psychology relevant to improving mental health. Underrepresented backgrounds are defined in our program as ethnic minority group membership, low socioeconomic status, and/or first generation college student. Our COR Program is a uni-disciplinary program housed in the Psychology Department. Our focus on training Psychology students is a unique characteristic of our COR Program that was permitted by NIMH at the time of the original application, and we have successfully maintained this tradition over the last 25 years. The vision for this renewal application is to build on a momentum that has been developing at CSULB to become an active research institution. More specifically, the Psychology Department has created a fertile environment for basic and applied research on issues related to mental health and health disparities. The proposed COR program will ensure that the current momentum leads to a more integrated and systematic efforts for training and preparing students from historically underrepresented groups for mental health research career so that ultimately these students are better qualified to enter graduate training programs that lead to doctoral-level or M.D. research career degrees. Based on our assessment of the past success, available resources, and potential for excellence at CSULB, we have developed a specific aim for the next cycle of the COR program, which is to strengthen its focus on mental health research training while maintaining the successful elements of the past training program. The proposed COR program will accomplish this aim using a multi-pronged approach: (a) offer students intensive training in basic and advanced research methods and statistics; (b) expose students to current issues in mental health and topics of cutting-edge mental health research; and (c) involve students in the mental health disparities research projects conducted by faculty in the Psychology Department.