Fresh from a research-oriented PhD program, “Dr. Smith,” a new assistant professor in a clinical PsyD program, was frustrated and mystified when some of her brightest doctoral students transferred to other advisers. The program’s training director confided to her that several of these students reported feeling pressure to pursue research careers although most of them were interested in professional practice. After some soul-searching and consultation with a seasoned faculty member, Smith realized she’d been attempting to clone her students in her own image, losing sight of the need for transparency around expectations of mentees and her ethical obligation to understand and promote her students’ autonomy in selecting their career paths.This scenario illustrates just one of the many ways psychologists who mentor trainees can inadvertently step into ethical trouble.
“Psychologists are generally conscientious and ethically minded,” says Fred Millán, PhD, director of the SUNY Old Westbury graduate mental health counseling program and chair of APA’s Ethics Committee. “Most ethical lapses are inadvertent and may come from a lack of awareness of ethical considerations rather than from malfeasance.”
To minimize harm and maximize the quality of mentoring relationships, experts offer this advice, starting at the beginning stages of the relationship.
Prepare. Before becoming a mentor, consider the time, energy and emotional capital that you will need to invest to support a trainee’s academic and professional growth. “There’s an implicit assumption on the part of most university leaders that if you have an advanced degree like a PhD, then surely you can mentor,” says Brad Johnson, PhD, professor of psychology at the U.S. Naval Academy and author of four books and dozens of journal articles about mentoring. “But that’s not always true.”
Mentoring can take many forms, including helping students choose coursework, overseeing research projects, providing emotional support, and helping trainees build networks and find jobs. Even experienced mentors have to be honest with themselves about the limits of their mentoring capabilities, says Drew Appleby, PhD, a professor emeritus of psychology at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis who mentored more than 750 students during his time at the university.
“You want to make absolutely sure that if the student needs more than you can give, that you don’t try to bluff them into thinking you can help them,” he says.
Manage expectations. In a related vein, be clear with yourself and your potential mentee about the parameters of your relationship. Spell out how long the mentorship will last, how often you will meet and the amount of time you’re prepared to offer, advises Nadine Kaslow, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and past president of APA. That includes clarifying fuzzy relationships. “Sometimes people think you’re their mentor, but you don’t think you’re their mentor,” she says. “And so, in an unspoken way, they may expect things from you, and when you don’t provide them, they can become disappointed.” To head off such misunderstandings, talk with potential mentees early on about what they, and you, expect from the relationship.
Be inclusive. It’s also ethically imperative to mentor diverse students, not just those who are similar to yourself. While such relationships may take more time and care to develop than those with demographically similar students, evidence shows that cross-gender, cross-race and cross-sexual-orientation mentoring relationships can be just as effective and produce the same outcomes (Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2009opens in new window).
To reach out, attend conferences hosted by diverse organizations at your campus and tell your college’s academic advising officers that you would like to mentor diverse students.
Similarly, find ways to reach out to shy or underperforming students, says Chris Brown, PhD, chair of counseling and educational psychology at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. “Highly successful students might find it easier to seek out mentoring relationships compared to students who see themselves as possessing characteristics that might make them appear as less desirable prospects,” she says. “We certainly want all students to have equal access to mentoring opportunities and don’t want unfair discrimination to occur when faculty are making decisions about who they would mentor.”
Protect mentees’ privacy. Mentees benefit when they perceive mentorships as safe spaces for divulging their fears, concerns and perceived failures. As a general ethical guideline, mentors should always work to protect mentees’ privacy while remaining mindful that mentor-mentee communications are not privileged in a legal sense, nor confidential in the sense of psychologist-client communications. But while keeping mentee disclosures private builds trust and enhances the value of a mentorship, training faculty also have a simultaneous responsibility to register serious concerns about a mentee’s competence, both with the mentee and with clinical training leaders.
“If you become aware that your mentee or your mentor is doing something unethical, you have a responsibility to do something about it,” says Kaslow. “Some people feel trapped and unable to do the right thing because of their perceived role as the mentor,” Millán agrees. “What happens if the mentor finds out their mentee has a substance use issue, for example?” he asks. “As the mentor, you’re an ally, but you also have a professional obligation to act on certain kinds of problems.” Ongoing discussions with your mentee about how you plan to protect his or her privacy while also insuring that competence concerns are addressed can help mitigate any surprises for the mentee.
Make sure the mentee gets deserved credit. A significant number of mentees work on collaborative projects with their mentors. Whether a project was initiated and largely carried out by the mentee, or whether the mentee played a supporting, but significant, role in an existing project, figuring out how to assign credit can be tricky. However, there are clear ethical guidelines regarding publication, Johnson says. “If it’s a dissertation or a thesis, clearly the student should be the first author,” he says. “But if you’re talking about something less formal where a mentee has a great idea and then lo and behold the mentor’s taking credit for that or writing a paper about the idea without including the student, it’s potentially exploitative.”
Even when mentors give their hard-working protégés all the credit they deserve, there’s a danger that mentees can be exploited in terms of the amount of work they are assigned. “Junior faculty may see mentoring as a low-risk way of enhancing their opportunities for career success, but it is important to make sure that trainees are being mentored in a way that will be professionally beneficial,” Brown says.
Maintain boundaries. Avoid blurring the relationship’s boundaries and having it morph into the inappropriately personal. While it’s OK to be friendly, avoid being a mentee’s friend—at least at first—and steer clear of acting like his or her therapist, Kaslow advises. And remember that your aim is to help your mentees fly on their own, says Appleby. “There’s going to be a time where the mentee’s going to have to move on to the next step,” he says, “and you want [him or her] to have the confidence to do so.”
An obvious no-no is entering into a sexual relationship with a mentee, but attraction and romantic feelings can begin to intrude in a mentorship long before any egregious boundary violations occur. Some warning signs for mentors to watch out for include finding themselves thinking about and looking for opportunities to spend more time with a mentee and making very personal disclosures to a mentee.
In addressing such feelings, says Johnson, a mentor should be careful not to abruptly withdraw and leave the mentee wondering if he or she did something wrong. It’s also important not to burden or confuse the mentee by sharing your feelings of attraction. A far better strategy, Johnson adds, involves seeking consultation with a trusted colleague, discussing appropriate options for keeping the mentorship professional and helpful for the mentee, or if necessary, devising a process for gracefully transferring the mentee to a different adviser. Whatever the ultimate decision in such a situation, it is a crucial time for a psychologist to rely on guidance and support from his or her own “competence constellation,” which can come from a trusted core group of colleagues (Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol. 44, No. 5, 2013opens in new window).
Minimize multiple roles. In many instances a mentor holds considerable power relative to the mentee—a power differential that can be problematic if the mentor also serves as an adviser, supervisor or classroom instructor. That’s why mentors should advise mentees to seek balance by ensuring that other psychologists fulfill these important roles in their education.
Also, because some mentors and mentees have overlapping duties in their roles, such as co-presenting at conferences or writing grants together, a mentor may be less likely to critically evaluate a mentee’s work. “Mentors have an obligation to avoid engaging in multiple relationships that could impair their objectivity and thereby risk exploitation or harm to their mentee,” Brown warns. “This concern for impaired objectivity when engaging in multiple relationships is noted in our code of ethics.”
Advocate, but evaluate. Over time, mentorships evolve to become more reciprocal, bonded and close. As the relationship develops, it’s natural for the mentor to become the mentee’s advocate or sponsor—to tout the mentee’s virtues in the public arena. But it’s not in the mentee’s best interests for the mentor simply to be a cheerleader for him or her, Johnson says.
Praising mentees in public and then later objectively criticizing their work in private can be confusing for them, he says. “Also, you don’t want to overlook opportunities for development if they’re having problems.” Especially in psychology, where many trainees go on to provide supportive services for others, mentors need to take seriously their responsibility to vet and prepare mentees for the sake of the clients and systems they’ll be working with, he adds.
“Intentional ethical mentoring requires self-awareness and, always, a focus on each mentee’s best interests,” Johnson says. “Modeling ethical behavior in the context of a personal developmental relationship can pay dividends by inspiring mentees to care for the ethical commitments and aspirations of their profession.”
