Graduate School, the Socialization Process, and the Genesis of Emotional Distress in Academia

• In Event: 31.049 - Faculty Well-Being

Abstract

During graduate school, faculty members are socialized with the values, norms, attitudes, and behaviors of the academic profession. The purpose of this qualitative investigation is to describe some of the ways in which the socialization process can establish and reproduce emotional distress and stigma in mental health in the academic profession. Thirty-two narrative interviews were conducted with tenure-track and tenured faculty members from the Social Sciences, Humanities, and STEM fields. The site of this investigation was one public research university in California. Findings suggest that some of the values, norms, and attitudes learned during graduate school influence the internalization of isolation, the normalization of the impostor syndrome, and the establishment of emotional distress as common characteristics of the academic profession.

Author

• Evelyn Morales Vazquez, University of California - Riverside