Stress Among Clinical Psychology Doctoral Students

External and internal factors can contribute to positive or negative stress. External factors that lead to negative stress include such factors as deadlines for papers and exams, being fired from one’s job, a breakup or turmoil in a relationship, or the death of a loved one. External factors that lead to positive stress may be the reverse of the above, such as timely completion of papers and exams, promotion in the workplace due to impending completion of the dissertation, marriage, and birth of a child. External factors cannot be controlled, while internal factors can be controlled. Internal factors are influenced by lifestyle, psychological and mental states and one’s personality. Internal factors that influence positive stress or negative stress include a level of self-efficacy, personality characteristics, and an optimistic or pessimistic style of thinking (Keady, 1999). Differences between men and women earning doctorates are minimal in education, social sciences, and humanities (Hodgson, 1990). However, according to Lenson (2002), the character type of the individual drives how stress is perceived. Stress perceived as negative by one person may be perceived as positive to another.

Background of the problem

Doctoral education is among the most challenging, demanding and intense areas of academic study. Many pressures and tensions exist within doctoral education. A critical issue among students concerns stress and its effect on learning and whether they will complete the doctoral program. The main stressors that doctoral students commonly experience involve their academic life. Stressors include many personal, academic responsibilities, struggles to meet academic standards, time and money management worries, concerns over grades and the ability to juggle work and family. Fear of academic failure related to the associative tasks of the doctoral program influence students’ perceived level of stress.

Individuals vary in their ability to manage the stresses in their life, and doctoral study is no different. As the number and intensity of hassles increase, so do individual levels of stress. Doctoral attrition in graduate study as a whole is a problem. Experts estimate the rate of doctoral student attrition in academia to be as high as 50% (Hodgson, 1990). Attrition from the ranks of doctoral student population appears to be growing. Even though no comprehensive national studies have been done on attrition from Ph.D. programs, researchers still know a lot about the problem. Many institution-specific studies in recent decades verify the same trends, women drop out at a higher rate than men, minority students leave at a higher rate than white students, Americans drop out more often than international students, and students leave humanities and social-science programs at a higher rate than those in the sciences. Time required to complete the doctorate has increased by two years over the past three decades (Kerline, 1998) as have rising educational costs.

Statement of the Problem        

The objective of this quantitative study is to assess and compare stress levels of psychology doctoral students, as well as the impact of students’ gender, age, and marital/parental status among five years of a doctoral psychology program. Students perceived stress levels are investigated in the course of the individual academic years.