Academic CV example: PhD candidate in cognitive and clinical psychology

Psychology · PhD candidate · APA citations · Classic template

This academic CV example is written for a third-year PhD candidate specialising in cognitive and clinical psychology. It illustrates how to present a developing publication record alongside research experience, conference work, teaching duties, and funding — exactly the combination of sections most useful when applying for postdoctoral positions, fellowships, or clinical research roles.

The example follows APA 7th edition citation format throughout the Publications section, which is standard practice in psychology. Preprints and poster presentations are labelled clearly and kept separate from peer-reviewed journal articles. Skills are broken into statistical methods and software, a convention common in quantitative psychology CVs.

Illustrative example. Mara Lindqvist is a fictional researcher and the publications below are fabricated for demonstration — any resemblance to a real person or work is coincidental.

Mara Lindqvist, MSc, PhD candidate

PhD candidate in Cognitive and Clinical Psychology

Department of Psychology, Hartwell University · Utrecht, Netherlands

Education

  • PhD in Psychology (expected 2026) — Hartwell University, Utrecht, Netherlands. Thesis: 'Attentional bias modification and its effect on worry in generalised anxiety disorder: a randomised controlled trial.'
  • MSc in Research Methods in Psychology (with Distinction), 2021 — Hartwell University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • BSc in Psychology (Honours, First Class), 2019 — University of Veendam, Groningen, Netherlands.

Research experience

  • Doctoral Researcher, Anxiety and Cognition Lab, Hartwell University (2021–present). Conducting a pre-registered RCT of web-delivered attentional bias modification in adults with generalised anxiety disorder (N = 180). Responsible for trial coordination, data collection, fMRI pre-processing (FSL), and statistical analysis.
  • Research Assistant, Clinical Cognition Group, Hartwell University (2020–2021). Assisted with data collection and coding for a longitudinal study examining rumination and executive function in recurrent depression (n = 120 community sample). Managed SPSS and R data pipelines.
  • Research Intern, Centre for Mental Health Innovation, University of Veendam (2019). Conducted a systematic literature search and meta-analytic data extraction for a review of interpretation bias in social anxiety. Co-authored the resulting manuscript.

Publications

  • Lindqvist, M., Bakker, T., & Verhulst, S. (2024). Attentional bias modification via web-delivered training: A pilot randomised controlled trial in generalised anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 94, 102741. doi:10.0000/jad.2024.102741
  • Lindqvist, M., & Verhulst, S. (2023). Does attentional bias predict worry severity? A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 102, 102285. doi:10.0000/cpr.2023.102285
  • Kowalczyk, R., Lindqvist, M., De Vries, P., & Mulder, E. (2023). Executive function deficits as a transdiagnostic risk factor: Evidence from a community sample. Psychological Medicine, 53(8), 3412–3421. doi:10.0000/psymed.2023.3412
  • Lindqvist, M., Bakker, T., & Verhulst, S. (2025, April). Neural correlates of attentional bias reduction following web-based ABM training: Preliminary fMRI findings. [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. doi:10.0000/psyarxiv.2025.abm

Conference presentations and posters

  • Lindqvist, M., Bakker, T., & Verhulst, S. (2024, September). Attentional bias modification in GAD: RCT interim results. Paper presented at the European Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (EABCT), Vienna, Austria.
  • Lindqvist, M., & Verhulst, S. (2023, July). Interpretation bias in worry: Stimulus specificity matters. Poster presented at the International Congress of Psychology (ICP), Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Lindqvist, M. (2022, May). Measuring attentional bias reliably: A comparison of dot-probe paradigm variants. Poster presented at the Netherlands Annual Psychology Congress (NJC), Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Teaching

  • Teaching Assistant, Research Methods II (undergraduate), Hartwell University (2022–2024). Led weekly seminars (n = 25 students), marked coursework, and provided feedback on quantitative research reports.
  • Guest Lecturer, 'Cognitive models of anxiety' (MSc Clinical Psychology module), Hartwell University (March 2024). One 90-minute lecture on attentional and interpretive biases in anxiety disorders.
  • Thesis Supervisor (co-supervision), Hartwell University (2023–present). Co-supervising two BSc final-year project students on eye-tracking studies of attentional bias.

Awards and funding

  • NWO PhD Scholarship (PhDs in the Humanities and Social Sciences), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (2021–2025). Full funding for doctoral project.
  • Best Poster Award, Netherlands Annual Psychology Congress (NJC), 2022.
  • Faculty Excellence Award for Outstanding MSc Dissertation, Hartwell University, 2021.
  • Hartwell University Research Travel Grant (€1,200) for EABCT 2024 attendance.

Professional memberships

  • European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (EABCT) — Student member
  • Association for Psychological Science (APS) — Student affiliate
  • Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP) — Graduate member

Skills

  • Statistical methods: General linear models, mixed-effects models (linear and logistic), meta-analysis (fixed- and random-effects, heterogeneity, publication bias), power analysis, mediation and moderation (PROCESS macro), pre-registration (OSF).
  • Software: R (tidyverse, lme4, metafor, ggplot2), SPSS, Python (basic data wrangling), FSL (fMRI pre-processing and GLM analysis), E-Prime (experimental presentation), Qualtrics, JASP.
  • Languages: Dutch (native), English (fluent, C2), German (intermediate, B2).

Build your own academic CV

SigmaCV builds a clean, citation-formatted CV like this from your ORCID and OpenAlex record — free and open source. You curate what appears and export to PDF, DOCX, LaTeX or Markdown.

Build your academic CV free

Related

← All examples