Monday, November 23, 1998
Services help doctoral students master stress
DISSERTATIONS: Group therapy assists pacing, writer’s block,
anxiety
By Andy Shah
Daily Bruin Contributor
The 11,000 graduate students on the UCLA campus may have one
thing in common: high levels of stress.
While the amount of stress associated with earning a master’s or
doctoral degree differs for each individual and department,
graduate students often encounter higher levels of anxiety and
different causes of stress than they faced as undergraduates.
"Graduate students stressing is a very common experience," said
Clive Kennedy, a clinical psychologist for Student Psychological
Services (SPS).
Kennedy said that SPS holds many group sessions throughout the
week to help graduate students cope with the stress."It’s a very
popular group," he said.
Kennedy said that many graduate students come to the support
group because they are daunted by the enormity of writing a thesis
or dissertation.
"A lot of students get writer’s block and get overwhelmed with
the task," he said. Theses and dissertations are often hundreds of
pages long and require extensive amounts of research.
Kennedy added that students also assign a great amount of
importance to their theses and dissertations.
"Students often feel, ‘This work represents who I am as a
person,’" Kennedy said. "They view it as their life work."
Students are also hit with feelings of inadequacy and
insecurity.
"Students feel that their words are too mundane to meet the
enormity of the task," Kennedy said.
These feelings may lead to writer’s block, procrastination or
even depression.
"If you’re unsure if you are sufficiently knowledgeable about
making a contribution to your field, it’ll be harder to write
another chapter of your thesis," Kennedy said.
He added that many students who are insecure of their abilities
are actually competent high-achievers.
Adding to the stress is that graduate theses and dissertations
are usually highly specific.
David Beaudry, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in music, said
it took him roughly a year to think of a dissertation topic.
"You have to define a topic, get focused and find something you
can answer," said Beaudry, who is focusing on the role digital
technology will play in classical performance. "It takes a long
time."
Also, graduate students have to become more self-sufficient.
Karleen Boyle, a sixth-year doctoral candidate in biology, said she
was "naive" about what to expect from graduate work.
"I expected it to be challenging, but I didn’t know it would be
this super-stressful," said Boyle, who is specializing in
ecology.
Boyle said she and her colleague, Kathy Boyer, a second-year
doctoral candidate in biology, put in 60-hour weeks because they do
a lot of field work.
Boyle said that she wasn’t fully aware of all the aspects of
graduate work, such as writing grants and speaking at conferences.
She said that these activities can be tough to balance because she
usually has four to five projects going on at once.
"I could be writing a grant for one project, collecting data for
another one, analyzing data for a third one and presenting data for
a fourth one," she said.
Boyer said that graduate students are judged on more than their
academic work.
"We’re also judged on our ability to publish and present at
conferences," she said. "So there’s a constant pressure to complete
things while starting new things."
Boyle said that many students are "unprepared" for graduate
work.
"You have to do it because you’re passionate about it," she
said. "Graduate school is great, but the wrong reason to go is if
you’re unsure of what you want to do after you graduate, so you
think, ‘Oh, I’ll just go to grad school.’"
Kennedy said that graduate curricula are not as structured as
undergraduate courses, which may fuel procrastination.
"In undergraduate courses, you’re usually told what to do. You
have things like course outlines and syllabi," he said. "Many
graduate courses are not like that. No one’s waking you up telling
you that you have to write three chapters by this date."
Graduate students also work with advisors, who may pose problems
at times.
"Your relationship with your advisor is paramount," Kennedy
said. "You need a good working relationship and good
communication."
Kennedy said that students may be afraid to see their advisors
when they start to procrastinate, which may lead to little progress
and feelings of depression and insecurity.
"Some advisors are very personable and helpful," he said.
"Others are like slave drivers who have very little tolerance for
procrastination."
To cope with this stress, Kennedy suggests that students
construct their own timetables.
"You should create your own structure, like a time line or a
deadline," he said. "It’s making a little monster out of a big
monster."
Also, he suggests that students also "understand how negative
thinking can contribute to writing block."
In addition, he suggests that students learn self-discipline and
pacing.
"You have to be able to work focused, then be able to relax and
reward yourself," he said. "It’s all about keeping a balance."
Boyle said she is taking Tai Chi lessons to help her cope.
"It’s helping," she said.
Kennedy emphasized that stress is shared by all graduate
students, so group therapy may be helpful.
For information on dealing with dissertation stress, call SPS at
825-0768.DAVID HILL
Fifth-year economics doctoral candidate and TA Jordi Prat grades
papers, another stressor he faces while writing his
dissertation.
Comments, feedback, problems?
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