From Within the Walls of the Ivory Tower: Understanding the Differences in the Effects of the Research Training Environment and Mentor Race-Matching on Pursuing an Academic Career Between White and BIPOC Counseling Psychologists

A 2020 report published by American Psychological Association’s Division 45 Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race highlighted that although BIPOC contributions in research and scholarship have propelled innovative and revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of psychology, they consistently continue to be discounted by the overall White Eurocentric perspectives propelled by the “ivory tower.” From being minoritized in demographic representation, to falling out of the academic pipeline due to various stressors and barriers to success, the academe of psychology still seems to reflect a deficit in its facilitation of BIPOC psychologists. This dissertation study addressed this phenomenon within the counseling psychology PhD training environment, examining the relationship between the research training environment, mentor race-matching, and the pursuit of an academic career among White, Black, Asian, and Latinx counseling psychologists. A total of 107 counseling psychologists who earned their PhDs between 2005 and 2020 responded to a survey consisting of demographic information and the Research Training Environment Scale – Revised. Results indicated that having an advisor/mentor of the same self-identified race/ethnicity does have a significant effect on a counseling psychologist’s perception of their research training environment. Study findings can inform recommendations to universities and faculty advisors/mentors to evolve their graduate training programs and redesign the doctoral mentorship experiences. Study limitations and areas of future research are also explored.