Promoting Mentor-Protégé Relationship Formation in Graduate School

Abstract

This article proposes an approach to promoting and facilitating the formation of mentor relationships between professors and students in graduate training programs. Previous research indicates that approximately one-half to two-thirds of psychology graduate students had a mentor, and that those who did not were often unaware of the potential benefits of mentoring. Because mentoring is associated with numerous personal and professional benefits, graduate educators are often encouraged to “mentor” their students. Nonetheless, mentor relationship formation has rarely been investigated. Moreover, graduate students and faculty members often lack understanding of, or worse, hold problematic misconceptions regarding the nature and purpose of mentor relationships. The authors review the sparse literature bearing on mentoring and outline a psychoeducational approach to preparing professors and students for intentional development of effective mentor relationships.

Key Words:

• Mentor
• mentoring
• relationships
• graduate
• training
• psychology
• education