Benefits of Psychobiography Training to the Professional and Personal Development of Psychology Graduate Students

In recent decades, psychobiography has witnessed a resurgence of activity and publication across many subdisciplines in psychology internationally. One area of recent research has been to evaluate the benefits of training in psychobiography to students’ professional development as perceived by professors and mentors in psychobiography. The present study extends this recent line of research by surveying the perceived impacts of psychobiography training among doctoral students in applied psychology. Twenty-five doctoral students who completed training and research in psychobiography in a summer course over three consecutive years, responded to an open-ended (free response) survey on the impact of conducting psychobiographies on their professional and personal development. Incorporating the methods of reflexive theme analysis and directed qualitative content analysis, results supported prior research that sampled professors. More specifically, student respondents documented the benefits of integrating psychobiography into their curriculum along four major areas: clinical skill development as practitioners; enhanced sense of professional identity as developing psychologists; increases in personal awareness and development; and learning and processing issues of countertransference toward their chosen psychobiographical subjects. Limitations of the study along with directions for further research and curriculum development are presented.