SWell Lab: Perimenopause, Health, And SExual Function Study

SWell Lab: Perimenopause, Health, And SExual Function Study

Are you currently in perimenopause? Share your experiences in the Perimenopause, Health, And SExual Function Study (PHASE) study.

The Sexuality and Well-being lab (SWell Lab) is looking for women and people with ovaries to participate in a ~30 to 45 min online survey in understanding people’s experiences of perimenopause and sexuality.

What is PHASE?
While millions of Canadian women and people with ovaries are currently in their perimenopause/menopause transition, research on this important women’s health issue is severely lacking. The goal of the PHASE study is to better understand the sexual and relational experiences of people experiencing perimenopause/menopause.

What is involved?
You will complete an online survey that will take approximately 30 to 45 minutes. You will be asked to answer some questions about your background, perimenopause/menopause symptoms, sexuality, and relationships.

You may be eligible if you:

  • are between the ages of 42 and 51
  • have a uterus and at least one ovary*
  • have had a menstrual period in the last 12 months and have experienced some irregularities in your menstrual cycle during the last 12 months
  • have experienced some symptoms of perimenopause (e.g., hot flashes, night sweats, sleep problems, bladder problems, joint and muscular discomfort) in the last 12 months
  • are NOT taking hormonal birth control or oral contraceptives
  • are NOT pregnant or nursing
  • are fluent in English
  • are living in Canada or the US

*Inclusivity matters: PHASE is open to people of all genders, bodies, and sexual orientations.
*Individuals who are taking hormone replacement therapy or taking hormones for gender-affirming care are eligible to participate.

Type of compensation
Upon completion of the survey, you will be eligible to receive a $20 CAD (or USD equivalent) Amazon gift card as compensation for your time.

Contact
If you are interested, or have any questions, please contact us at perimenopauseproject@psych.ubc.ca or click here to complete the eligibility survey.

About the SWell Lab
The Sexuality and Well-being lab (SWell Lab) is a research laboratory in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. They are a group of psychological scientists who conduct multi-method research to identify risk and protective factors contributing to individuals’ and couples’ sexual health and well-being.

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Lab: Stress, Cognitive Control, and Repetitive Negative Thinking Study

Are you 18 years or older and fluent in English? Have a cellphone? You might be eligible to participate in this paid study opportunity!

The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (DAS) Lab is conducting the Stress, Cognitive Control, and Repetitive Negative Thinking Study to investigate how stress affects the way people think and process information.

Purpose of the study:

This study aims to see if biases in cognitive control change before and after stress stimuli and whether biological responses to stress are associated with stress-related changes in cognitive control biases.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Joelle LeMoult

Who can participate?

  • 18+ years old
  • Fluent in English (able to read, speak, and write)
  • Have access to a cellular phone

What does my participation involve?

This study involves 3 tasks, with 1 optional task as a follow-up.

Task 1 (~30 minutes) is an online pre-laboratory session questionnaire about your feelings, behaviours, and thinking patterns.

Task 2 (~2.5 hours) is an in-person laboratory session with 2 computer tasks and 2 verbal tasks, which non-invasively measures psychophysiological variables, like heart rate and skin conductance. During Task 2, you will be asked to provide saliva samples at 5 time points to examine salivary cortisol.

Task 3 (~1 hour) is short surveys about your feelings and behaviours, 8 times a day for 5 consecutive days, using ExpiWell’s phone application. To receive full compensation, you must complete at least 5 daily surveys.

Task 4 is the optional follow-up questionnaire 1 year after Task 2.

Type of compensation:

You will receive $25 for the baseline questionnaire and first session, as well as $15 for completing 5/8 of the daily at-home notification surveys. If you complete Task 4, you will be entered into a draw for a $50 Amazon gift card.

How do I get involved?

If you would like more information or wish to participate in this study, please email us at controlstudy@psych.ubc.ca !

The Solitude Study

Help UBC researchers better understand how partners aged 60 years and above feel and think about their everyday activities and wellbeing.

The Solitude Study (Principal Investigator: Dr. Christiane Hoppmann, Health and Adult Development Lab) seeks to gain knowledge about activities people engage in by themselves and with other people in everyday life.

Co-Investigators: Christiane Hoppmann, Anita DeLongis, Denis Gerstorf, Theresa Pauly

Eligibility Requirements: Participating partners must be 60 years or older, living in Canada, and co-residing.

Location of Study: Online

Compensation: Volunteers receive a President’s Choice online gift card of up to $90

Questions? For more information email solitude@psych.ubc.ca or phone 604-822-3549

UBC Kindness Challenge

The UBC Social Health Lab is recruiting UBC students for a study on spreading kindness within campus residences.

Are you a UBC student currently living in student residence on campus? Want to participate in a kindness challenge? Sign up today!

Study Description:
The UBC Social Health Lab  invites you to participate in a study aimed at spreading kindness within UBC student residences. In this study, you will be invited to a 30-minute lab visit in the UBC Psychology Kenny building, where a researcher will provide instructions for the Kindness Challenge. You will be asked to complete two 10-minute follow-up surveys and perform a few acts of kindness directed at other students in your campus residence over the course of two weeks.

Co-Investigators: Ariya Kosavisutte and Stella Xia

Purpose of the Study:
To examine the impacts of engaging in acts of kindness towards others in your UBC campus residence.

Eligibility Requirements:
Currently living in UBC campus residence
Have a Canadian phone number that you are willing to share with researchers to receive text message reminders

Location of Study: UBC Social Health Lab, Douglas T. Kenny Building, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 and few online components.

Compensation: 2.5 HSP Credits

Questions? Contact Ariya Kosavisutte at ariyak@student.ubc.ca

Social Perceptions and Life Experiences

Are you a Canadian student? Take part in a small-group discussion study about life as a Canadian student and share your experiences!

The UBC Emotion and Self Lab is recruiting Canadian students for a study on social perceptions and daily experiences as a student in Canada.

Study description:
In this paid study, you will participate in a focus group discussion about aspects of your life as a Canadian student. The discussion will be video-recorded strictly for data coding purposes, and will only be accessible by members of the research team. The discussion should take approximately 15 minutes. After the discussion, you will complete a final survey (10 minutes long) in the same lab session. Overall, the study should take about 25-35 minutes to complete. This study can be taken either in-person or over Zoom.

Co-Investigators: Gabrielle Ibasco and Dr. Jessica Tracy

Purpose of the study:
To understand Canadian students’ social perceptions in relation to events and experiences in their day-to-day lives.

Eligibility requirements:<
Must be a Canadian citizen who is fluent in English and eligible for HSP credit. See if you’re eligible and sign up through this quick survey: https://tinyurl.com/emoselflab-study

Compensation:

For psychology students eligible for HSP credit:

  • For in-person participation: 1.5 HSP credits + $4.00
  • For Zoom participation: 1.0 HSP credit + $4.00

Location of study:
UBC Emotion & Self Lab, Douglas T. Kenny Building, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC or Zoom (whichever you prefer).

Questions?
Contact the Emotion and Self Lab at emoselflab.study@gmail.com.

Lived Experience of Craving in the Context of Compulsive Overeating Study

Do you experience binge eating? Share your experiences in a study with the Motivated Cognition Lab.

Study description
This study is investigating “what it is like” to crave and feel out of control around food, focusing on those attentional processes and emotions that are likely to generate and motivate compulsive overeating.

The participation involves keeping a diary using a journaling app for one week. At the end of the week, there will be an interview session to further explore the experiences.

Research team
Dr. Rebecca Todd (Principal Investigator; Motivated Cognition Lab, UBC Psychology)
Laura Bickel (Graduate Student Investigator, UBC Philosophy)

Eligibility requirements
To take part in the study, you must meet the following criteria:

  • Over 19 years of age
  • Located in the Lower Mainland
  • Fluent in English
  • Access to a smartphone or laptop
  • Willing to install the research journaling app on their mobile phone or laptop and commit to using it at least three times a day
  • Comfortable with being voice recorded in interview sessions
  • Willing to share their diary notes
  • Able to commit approximately 4 hours for one week and a 45-minutes pre-study meeting
  • At least one binge eating episode per week for the last 3 months. Binge eating is characterized by both of the following:
    a. Eating a very large amount of food within a 2-hour period
    b. Feeling out of control during those binges

Location of study
The pre-study meeting and interview can take place at a mutually agreed upon location such as UBC campus, a community center with a private room in the Lower Mainland or alternatively online via Zoom.

Compensation
Participants will receive a gift card (28$) for one yoga session at YYoga or for the book store Indigo.

Note: Participants can only receive one of the two.

Sign up today! 
Email Laura Bickel at Ibickel@mail.ubc.ca

Thinking about quitting social media? There may be another option, UBC researcher says

Featured in CTV News: A study by Dr. Amori Mikami, a professor of psychology, looks at healthier ways to use social media.

Investigating thought dynamics using brain connectivity and experience sampling

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought Lab is recruiting participants for their study Investigating thought dynamics using brain connectivity and experience sampling.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between self-reported dynamics of thought and large scale functional networks in the human brain.

Study description:

Research in mind-wandering and spontaneous thought typically relies on task or stimulus relatedness. A framework has been suggested for understanding the dynamics mind-wandering and thought constraints that moves beyond task-relatedness to evaluate the movement of thought over time (Christoff et al., 2016). Work in this area has focused on the characteristics and dynamics of thought, but little has investigated how these constraints influence the content of thought. Using an experience sampling paradigm, we aim to evaluate the frequency and dynamics of thoughts across different thought constraint conditions

Eligibility requirements:

Participants must be healthy right handed adults (>18 years of age) and  eligible for fMRI scans, the criteria for which are listed below.

You  are NOT eligible to participate if you have any of the following:

  • Retained wires from an electronic implant that has been removed (i.e. pacemaker wires not attached to a pacemaker)
  • Cardiac pacemaker or defibrillator
  • Metal in eye or orbit
  • Ferromagnetic aneurysm clip
  • Pregnancy
  • Makeup tattoos that are not designed to fade over time
  • Stainless steel intrauterine device (IUD)

Depending on the individual situation, you MAY NOT be able to participate if you have/had any of the following:

  • Artificial heart valve
  • Ear or eye implant
  • Brain aneurysm clip
  • Implanted electronic device (i.e. drug infusion pump, electrical stimulator)
  • Coil, catheter, or filter in any blood vessel
  • Orthopedic hardware (artificial joint, plate, screw, rod)
  • Shrapnel, bullets, or other metal fragments
  • Surgery, medical procedure or tattoos (including tattooed eyeliner) in the last six weeks
  • Other metallic prostheses

Location of study:

Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health

Compensation:

Compensation for participants starts at $50/hour for the first session and rises by $10/hour each following session.

Contact: 
If interested in participating, please contact Desmond Wood-Anderson by email at: dwoodanderson@psych.ubc.ca

eSense Non-Binary Study

The Sexual Health Research Lab is conducting the eSense Non-Binary Study to adapt an online therapeutic platform for non-binary individuals experiencing sexual difficulties. This study seeks to gather feedback from non-binary participants to ensure the eSense program meets their unique needs, ultimately enhancing accessibility and relevance of sexual health treatments in diverse communities.

Purpose of the study:

The purpose of the eSense Non-Binary Study is to adapt the eSense online platform, originally designed for cisgender women, to better serve non-binary individuals experiencing sexual difficulties. Non-binary people lack access to psychological treatments for sexual difficulties that are specifically tailored towards their needs, so an adapted version of eSense offers potential to fill this key gap in healthcare. Soliciting feedback from the non-binary community is essential to adapting eSense into a platform that is inclusive and involves content helpful for non-binary people with sexual difficulties. Our research aims to assess in what ways, if any, eSense needs to be changed to best fit the needs of non-binary people. This study also aims to understand more broadly the need for, and relevance of, treatments for sexual difficulties amongst non-binary people. The results from this study may allow our research team to adapt eSense into a program tailored to non-binary people (eSense Non-Binary), which may increase non-binary people with sexual difficulties’ access to treatment, including those living in remote areas or facing other accessibility barriers. It may also fill healthcare gaps for non-binary people of varying ethnicities, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic statuses.

Description of the study:
After recruitment, you will need to consent to participate in the study. After doing so, you will be assigned to be part of a focus group session held via Zoom. One week prior to the focus group session, you will be given access to the first module of the eSense program to review. You will have one week to review this module and reflect on what changes should be made to the content, if any, to make the content more relevant to non-binary people. You will then participate in a single, 2-hour focus group session via Zoom with other non-binary participants, facilitated by two non-binary members of the research team. After the focus group session, you will be sent a link to complete a brief follow-up questionnaire. After completing the questionnaire, you will have the option to review all eight modules of eSense if you wish to. After completing each module, you would be sent a brief questionnaire to complete to provide your feedback on the module.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Lori Brotto
Graduate student co-lead: Kiarah O’Kane

Who can participate?

Non-binary (e.g., gender non-conforming, genderfluid, genderqueer, etc.) people who:

  • Are ≥ 19 years of age
  • Report symptoms of sexual difficulties
  • Are fluent in English
  • Have reliable internet access and basic competency in using online platforms
  • Are able and willing to review modules of an online program for one week, participate in a two-hour focus group session, and complete brief associated questionnaires
  • Are able and willing to discuss content related to gender, sex, and anatomy.

Location of the study: online

Type of compensation:

Participants will be entered into a prize draw with a 1 in 10 chance of winning $100.

How do I get involved?

If you are interested in taking part in this study, please contact Kiarah, our graduate student research assistant coordinating eSense: Non-Binary at kiarah.okane@psych.ubc.ca

 

Teen Health and Development Study

The Social Health Lab invites young females between the ages of 13-15 who are currently using hormonal contraceptives to take part in a longitudinal study. Receive an honorarium of up to $240!

Participate in the study!

The UBC Social Health Lab is exploring how hormonal contraceptives affect teens’ health and social development.

The Lab is inviting female teenagers who are using hormonal contraceptives and one of their parents to come to six lab sessions conducted over Zoom across three years.

Participating families will be compensated with an honorarium of up to $240.