A goal-directed perspective on alcohol and gambling addiction

The Faculty of Psychology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) are seeking two highly motivated PhD candidates to contribute to the research project “Unraveling the Mechanisms of Rigidity: A Goal-directed Perspective on Alcohol and Gambling Addiction”.
This unique opportunity involves one doctoral position at KU Leuven and another at ULB under the supervision of Agnes Moors (KU Leuven) and Xavier Noël (ULB). Successful candidates will join a dynamic, interdisciplinary team dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of addiction-related behaviors.

Project
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Project: This research investigates addiction through the lens of a goal-directed framework, highlighting how biases in discrepancy detection and action selection contribute to addictive behaviors. The biases we will study are (a) increased sensitivity to goal-discrepant events, leading to inflated negative affect, (b) an inflated expectancy that the addictive behavior will help regulate this negative affect, and (c) the persistence of this expectancy after contradicting evidence.
The methodology combines behavioral experiments and neuroscientific paradigms that allow for the measurement of discrepancies, affect, and expectancies in both direct and indirect ways, including self-report, implicit measures, and electroencephalograpy (EEG).

Profile
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Master’s degree in Psychology or Neuroscience.
Experience in conducting experimental research.
Strong interest in theory related to addiction and goal-directed behavior.
Experience with, or a willingness to learn, neuroscientific methods such as EEG.
Experience with, or a willingness to learn, essential coding (e.g., Python, MATLAB, R) 
Excellent English communication skills

Offer
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Two four-year PhD positions: one at KU Leuven, the other at ULB. For both positions, you can apply using the KU Leuven platform.
Application Deadline: March 01, 2025.
Start of doctoral appointment: between June 1 and October 1, 2025.
https://psymed.ulb.be/research/?lang=en

Interested?
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For more information please contact Prof. dr. Agnes Moors, tel.: +32 16 37 32 79, mail: [email protected] or Xavier Noël, mail: [email protected]
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