Self-efficacy Development of Graduate Student Leaders in Facilitating Groups for International Students

This article describes how facilitating a mindfulness-based well-being group for international students (MBWIS) impacts self-efficacy development in group facilitation for graduate counseling students. Twelve students facilitated these eight-week structured psychoeducation support groups online and were supervised weekly by group counseling faculty. With a qualitative case study design, students participated in focus groups to discuss their experiences in the group facilitation. Two broad qualitative themes emerged from the findings including areas of increased self-efficacy and factors promoting self-efficacy. Implications for incorporating such multicultural group facilitation experiences as a teaching strategy when preparing students to conduct group work are discussed.

Social-Scientific Research Competency

Abstract. Although the development of research competency is an important goal of higher education in social sciences, instruments to measure this outcome often depend on the students’ self-ratings. To provide empirical evidence for the utility of a newly developed instrument for the objective measurement of social-scientific research competency, two validation studies across two independent samples were conducted. Study 1 ( n = 675) provided evidence for unidimensionality, expected differences in test scores between differently advanced groups of students as well as incremental validities over and above self-perceived research self-efficacy. In Study 2 ( n = 82) it was demonstrated that the competency measured indeed is social-scientific and relations to facets of fluid and crystallized intelligence were analyzed. Overall, the results indicate that the test scores reflected a trainable, social-scientific, knowledge-related construct relevant to research performance. These are promising results for the application of the instrument in the evaluation of research education courses in higher education.

Defining Attributes and Metrics of Effective Research Mentoring Relationships

Despite evidence of mentoring's importance in training researchers, studies to date have not yet determined which mentoring relationships have the most impact and what specific factors in those mentoring relationships contribute to key outcomes, such as the commitment to and persistence in research career paths for emerging researchers from diverse populations. Efforts to broaden participation and persistence in biomedical research careers require an understanding of why and how mentoring relationships work and their impact, not only to research training but also to promoting career advancement. This paper proposes core attributes of effective mentoring relationships, as supported by the literature and suggested by theoretical models of academic persistence. In addition, both existing and developing metrics for measuring the effectiveness of these attributes within mentoring relationships across diverse groups are presented, as well as preliminary data on these metrics from the authors' work.

Assessing Research Self-Efficacy in Physician-Scientists: The Clinical Research APPraisal Inventory

Between 1980 and 1993, only 19% of medical school graduates chose faculty appointments with research responsibilities. Women and minorities represent only a small fraction of these, despite their growing numbers. The authors' goal is to study the effects of human agency, particularly self-efficacy, on the career development of physician researchers, especially women and people of color; therefore, we developed a reliable and valid inventory for assessing clinical research self-efficacy in a population of physicians training for clinical research careers. Scale items were pooled from expert knowledge, relevant literature, and existing inventories to create a 92-item Clinical Research Appraisal Inventory that was factor analyzed and refined to include 88 items. Although instruments have been developed to successfully assess research self-efficacy, this is the first instrument designed to assess self-efficacy in the clinical research domain using a population of academic physicians.

Career Self-Efficacy: Exemplary Recent Research and Emerging Directions

This article discusses what the author views as exemplary work illustrating important directions in research on the applications of Bandura's self-efficacy theory to career theory, assessment, and counseling. The author begins with research on measuring career self-efficacy, following which research testing the postulated behavioral consequences of career self-efficacy expectations is discussed. Notable studies of the learning experiences postulated to lead to the development of strong expectations of efficacy are reviewed. Studies of the possible relationships of efficacy expectations to parallel measures of vocational interests are included. Finally, exemplary studies applying the theory to the career development of diverse groups, studies of interventions designed to increase career self-efficacy, and new research attempting to integrate self-efficacy theory with personality constructs are included. The article is not intended as a comprehensive review of this research but rather to provide highlights of some of the excellent work being done in this area.

Time Management, Passion, and Collaboration

The present study interviewed 17 of the most research-productive counseling psychologists within APA-accredited counseling psychology programs. Using Consensual Qualitative Research, seven domains emerged from the interviews: root of productivity, personality characteristics, productivity strategies, work environment, nonwork life, impact, and tips. Within these domains, 13 general categories emerged and 19 typical categories emerged. Overall, these participants were successful early in their careers, received mentorship/support while in graduate school, chose research topics that were salient to them and about which they were passionate, effectively managed their time, collaborated well with students and professionals, had a structured approach to writing, worked in a supportive research environment, and spent a considerable amount of time outside of work with family or participating in hobbies. Based on the results, practical suggestions are offered for individuals within the field of counseling psychology who wish to be productive researchers.

Effects of an educational intervention on female biomedical scientists' research self-efficacy

Women and people of color continue to be underrepresented among biomedical researchers to an alarming degree. Research interest and subsequent productivity have been shown to be affected by the research training environment through the mediating effects of research self-efficacy. This article presents the findings of a study to determine whether a short-term research training program coupled with an efficacy enhancing intervention for novice female biomedical scientists of diverse racial backgrounds would increase their research self-efficacy beliefs. Forty-three female biomedical scientists were randomized into a control or intervention group and 15 men participated as a control group. Research self-efficacy significantly increased for women who participated in the self-efficacy intervention workshop. Research self-efficacy within each group also significantly increased following the short-term research training program, but cross-group comparisons were not significant. These findings suggest that educational interventions that target sources of self-efficacy and provide domain-specific learning experiences are effective at increasing research self-efficacy for women and men. Further studies are needed to determine the longitudinal outcomes of this effort.