Postdoctoral Position in Developmental Psychology

Are you interested in understanding early socio-emotional development We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to test whether infants sense of self is necessary for self-conscious emotions to occur. This research is at the intersection of developmental psychology and affective science.

Post-doctoral position in developmental psychology

The post-doc will replicate the seminal study by Lewis and colleagues (1989) in which the authors examined the necessity of self-awareness for the emergence of self-conscious emotions in infants and young children. The project will consist of a lab study in which observational tasks will be used to assess childrens self-awareness and self-conscious emotions

What are you going to do

You will:

• Develop the study protocol to replicate the study of Lewis and colleagues (1989): Self development and self-conscious emotions.
• Conduct a lab study with infants and young children;
• Process data and conduct a range of statistical analyses;
• Write a high-quality scientific article together with other project members and present at conferences.

As well as being hosted in the supportive research atmosphere of the Research Institute of Child Development and Education at the University of Amsterdam the post-doc will have the opportunity to engage in open science practices conduct an exact and extended replication and establish a research line on young childrens socio-emotional development.

The post-doc will conduct their research under the supervision of Dr Milica Nikolic at the University of Amsterdam and engage with her research group as part of Dr Nikolics NWO-Open Science-funded project: The necessity of self-awareness for self-conscious emotions. Dr Nikolics research group is part of Developmental Psychopathology group at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education. The project will be conducted in collaboration with Dr Disa Sauter at Oxford University.

The position includes allowances for research expenses and travel and subsistence costs toward project-specific travel including conferences.

What do you have to offer

You are:

• Curious and eager to learn;
• Motivated to share your knowledge with academic and non-academic audiences;
• Strongly committed to methodological rigor and scientific integrity;

You have:

• (or are about to obtain) a PhD in Psychology Child Development or related field;
• expertise on early child development and/or emotions;
• experience conducting lab studies preferably with young children;
• demonstrated experience with designing conducting and publishing high-quality quantitative research;
• experience with open science practices;
• excellent written and spoken English sufficient for academic writing presenting and collaboration;
• proficiency in Dutch sufficient for conducting data collection with participants;
• excellent research project management skills (implementing and documenting research protocols coordinating lab studies communicating about recruitment and scheduling monitoring progress);
• experience with behavioural observations and/or use of physiological measures is advantageous.

What else do we offer you

The appointment concerns temporary employment of 30.4 hours per week (0.8 fte) for a period of two years. Subject to availability and qualifications there might be a possible temporary extension with teaching. The intended starting date is as soon as possible after 1 March 2026.

Based on a full-time appointment (1.0 fte/38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will be between 4.728 and 5.705 euros (scale 11.0 11.6 depending on qualifications based on the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities).

You will work here

The Research Institute of Child Development and Education (RICDE) is part of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. Dedicated to advancing knowledge on the development learning and well-being of children the institute integrates cutting-edge research with real-world applications to impact education and care. We offer a dynamic environment paired with an informal and supportive atmosphere. The institute is situated centrally in Amsterdam an international city consistently ranked as one of the worlds top places to live. Our faculty offers excellent facilities for undertaking research in a broad range of areas including EEG ERP TMS fMRI social observations labs eye-tracker and physiological measurement. The Family lab of the faculty comprises two large video studios for observing and filming the behaviour of children and family interaction.

If you recognize yourself in this profile and are interested in the role we look forward to receiving your motivation letter (maximally one page) and your motivation letter you should describe how your research to date is relevant to the project. You can apply via the red button until February 8 2026. Interviews for shortlisted candidates will take place in the second half of February.

For questions about the vacancy you can contact Dr Milica Nikolic (). Please quote Inquiry post-doc Replication Project in the subject line. A summary of the research project proposal can be made available to interested candidates.

In case of equal suitability the internal candidate is preferred over the external candidate.