Promoting doctoral students' research self-efficacy: combining academic guidance with autonomy support

By N. Overall, Kelsey L. Deane, Elizabeth R. Peterson. 2011

236 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A diverse sample of doctoral students completed an on-line questionnaire assessing their supervisors' academic, personal and autonomy support and their research self-efficacy. The more task-related help and personal support students received, the more positively they evaluated their supervision. The degree to which supervisors encouraged students to think and act autonomously (autonomy support) was not uniquely associated with students' supervision satisfaction but predicted greater research self-efficacy. A combination of high levels of autonomy and academic support was associated with the highest levels of research self-efficacy, whereas when greater levels of personal support were accompanied by low levels of autonomy support, students reported lower research self-efficacy. These results indicate that effective doctoral supervision involves supporting students to voice and act on their own ideas while simultaneously providing guidance on how to complete research tasks.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, General Health Professions, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e55b8d7d4ea49f6246badba024e9042a8a79a138

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In Clinical Psychology

In General Health Professions

In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Citations in the corpus

Research self-efficacy: A meta-analysis (2021, background): “Some (but significantly fewer) studies also focused on moderation analyses in the relationship between RSE and other variables (some exceptions are Deemer, 2010; Kuo et al., 2017; Overall et al., 2011).”
An Exploratory Investigation of the Research Self-Efficacy, Interest in Research, and Research Knowledge of Ph.D. in Education Students (2014, background): “In addition, research self-efficacy may be fostered by supporting students’ autonomy in conducting research (Overall et al. 2011).”
Determinants of PhD student satisfaction: the roles of supervisor, department, and peer qualities (2019, background): “Moreover, with respect to the university experience as a whole, Elliot and Healy (2001) and Overall, Deane, and Peterson (2011) likewise determined that the perception by students that they were welcome and valued was the strongest determinant of their satisfaction, surpassing instructional…”
Factors that influence PhD candidates’ success: the importance of PhD project characteristics (2019, methodology): “…and intention to quit, in contrast to previous studies on doctoral education that usually focus on only one category of predictors, such as supervision (e.g. Agné and Mörkenstam 2018; Ali et al. 2016; Overall, Deane, and Peterson 2011) or socialisation (e.g. Ali and Kohun 2006; Gardner 2007).”