Revive and Thrive: Reclaiming Balance After the “Academic Grind”

As the semester draws to a close, graduate students can often find themselves teetering on the edge of burnout, their mental and emotional reserves drained by the relentless demands of academia. It’s a familiar narrative, marked by sleepless nights, endless deadlines, and the perpetual pursuit of perfection. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2021 Work and Well-being Survey, 79% of individuals reported experiencing some form of work-related stress, with 3 in 5 participants noting negative impacts from work such as apathy, reduced energy, or decreased motivation. Yet, amidst the chaos of the academic year, a glimmer of hope emerges – an opportunity to reclaim balance, restore vitality, and rediscover the joy of simply being in the summer. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore the phenomenon of burnout among graduate students, offering insights and strategies to navigate the treacherous waters of academic exhaustion. From practical self-care tips to rejuvenating hobbies for the summer months ahead, we’ll arm you with the tools you need to replenish your spirit and emerge more vital than ever. 

So, take a deep breath and let’s embark on this journey together. It’s time to prioritize your well-being, nurture your passions, and embark on a path of self-discovery. Are you ready? 

What is burnout?  

In an APA Speaking of Psychology podcast, Dr. Christina Maslach describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon that embodies a triadic manifestation: (1) Pervasive stress and exhaustion, (2) a manifestation of cynicism and hostility toward one’s work environment, and (3) a profound sense of personal inefficacy (Mills, 2021). Distinguished from mere stress and exhaustion, burnout is characterized by the chronic and simultaneous presence of all three aforementioned components – exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. This distinction is paramount, as it delineates a condition wherein individuals, despite potentially enjoying their work, find themselves grappling with an overwhelming workload (Mills, 2021). 

Stressors that can lead to burnout can encompass environmental and personal factors, which can overwhelm students who lack effective coping mechanisms. Burnout often manifests through symptoms like chronic fatigue, decreased motivation, and detachment from work (Clay, 2018). The demanding nature of graduate studies, such as tight deadlines, heavy workloads, and limited resources coupled with the pressure to excel academically and professionally, can exacerbate feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. However, it’s crucial to recognize that burnout is not an inevitable consequence of academic pursuits; rather, it signals that self-care and proactive coping strategies are essential. In the following sections, we’ll explore various techniques and practices, including self-care rituals, engaging hobbies, and reflective journaling, to empower graduate students to combat burnout and cultivate resilience.

Self-Care Rituals

Amidst the hustle of graduate life and even working through the summer, carving out time for self-care may seem like a luxury reserved for the privileged few. However, it is crucial to recognize that self-care is not a selfish indulgence but a fundamental necessity. Recognizing that self-care can be an accessibility issue, here are some activities that APA recommends that are primarily low-cost and easy for graduate students to incorporate (Clay, 2018): 

  1. Limit screen time
  2. Catch up on sleep
  3. Prioritize more nutritious foods
  4. Reconnect with loved ones/your community 
  5. Delegate responsibilities 
  6. Go on a trip
  7. Start your nighttime routine again 

Hobbies to try 

As summer is on the horizon and the weight of academia begins to lift, there’s no better time to explore new avenues of joy and fulfillment. Engaging in hobbies not only offers a welcome respite from the rigors of graduate studies but also provides a much-needed opportunity for self-expression and exploration. Whether immersing yourself in the soothing strokes of a paintbrush, losing yourself in the pages of a captivating novel, or embracing the therapeutic rhythm of a yoga practice, the world is brimming with possibilities waiting to be discovered. Below are some new hobbies to try: 

  1. Photography
  2. Gardening
  3. Hiking 
  4. Kickboxing
  5. Cooking/baking
  6. Knitting/crocheting 
  7. Pilates

Questions to Reflect on:

As graduate students’ workload begins to slow, it’s the perfect time to get back in tune with our thoughts, feelings, and aspirations. Reflection journaling offers a sacred space for unraveling the tapestry of our experiences, inviting us to pause, ponder, and gain clarity. Below are some questions to reflect on for the summer to measure how your academic year went and set goals for the next one!

  1. How am I measuring success? How did I see this play out during the school year? 
  2. How did I prioritize self-care and well-being this year? What practices were most effective? 
  3. How can I apply the lessons learned from this semester to improve my academic performance and well-being as a grad student?  

As the academic year comes to an end, it’s important to remember that resilience is not merely about weathering storms but also finding strength and growth amidst stress. By prioritizing self-care, embracing rejuvenating hobbies, and engaging in reflective practices, graduate students can equip themselves with the tools and strategies needed to navigate the challenges of academia with grace and resilience. For more resources from APA, see below! 

APAGS Related Blog Posts: 

7 Tips to Help Create a Positive Mental Attitude
Self-Care on a Student Budget
Year-by-Year Self-Care for Graduate Students: Part 1 of 4

APA Monitor on Psychology: 

Speaking of Psychology:

Why we are burned out and what to do about it, with Christina Maslach, PhD

About the Author:

Lauryn Hoard is a second-year clinical psychology graduate student at George Washington University and is the current intern for the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS). Her current research interests pertain to examining the effects of offline and online racial discrimination and protective factors in Black Americans. When she is not doing work, she is either running, doing Pilates, trying new foods, reading a book, or watching a documentary. 

References

American Psychological Association. (2021). The American workforce faces compounding pressure. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-well-being/compounding-pressure-2021

Clay, R. A. (2018, February). Are you burned out? Here are signs and what to do about them. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/ce-corner

Mills, K. (2021, July). Why We’re Burned out and What to do about it, with Christina Maslach, PhD (No.152) [Audio podcast episode]. In Wireman, L. (Producer) & Mills, K. (Host), Speaking of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/burnout

Announcing the 2024 APAGS PSRG Grant Winners!

Every year, graduate students apply for $1,000 worth of funding to provide support for their psychological research endeavors through the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) Psychological Science Research Grant (PSRG). This year, we are proud to provide $12,000 of funding in $1,000 increments: $9,000 awarded to student researchers with an additional $3,000 awarded to innovative research dedicated to topics on diversity and inclusion. I am incredibly excited to announce the winners of our 2024 PSRG Grant applications!

Here are PSRG winners for the general category:

Christopher Gomez aims to investigate the relationship between exposure to community violence and experiences of peer conflict among Latino youth and how these experiences are related to changes in daily negative affect and peer conflict. Additionally, this study seeks to explore the mediating role of daily negative affect and peer conflict on the relationship between community violence exposure and school engagement.

Jill Smokoski proposes a mixed-methods study which aims to provide an overview of associations between racial trauma symptomology and key aspects of parenting. Qualitative interviewing will be used to allow for a greater understanding of how caregivers’ experiences of racial trauma shape their parenting beliefs and behaviors.

Jenna Stadheim plans to understand the experience of young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when enrolled in college by elucidating how symptoms are expressed and change over a year of college. Further, Jenna aims to compare these individuals’ experiences with substance use when compared to peers without ASD or ADHD.

Kevin Summers seeks to highlight the impact of racial and ethnic identity on inaccurately identifying children and adolescents as older than they really are, or “adultification.” Kevin plans to identify the identify the primary modalities in which the adultification of children might occur, while investigating the boundaries of adultification across racial and ethnic identities and age.

Sarah Dolan proposes a study to investigate the relationship between eating disorder symptoms and motivation for reward in women with and without loss-of-control eating. Sarah aims to test whether individuals with self-reported symptoms of an eating disorder differ significantly in their responses on tasks in the presence of food versus monetary rewards when compared to other populations.

Meghan Evans aims to understand the relationship between former foster youths’ current resilience and the perceived cultural humility and trauma-informed parenting of their poster parents. Meghan seeks to shed light on the importance of incorporating culturally humble and trauma-informed parenting approaches in foster parent training.

Celine Lu and co-PI Wendy Chu seek to examine the impact of an applicant’s intersectional race and mental health disclosures on graduate school admissions decisions. This team also aims to understand factors in evaluating applicants who disclose such details in their application paperwork and explore how faculty-level variables influence graduate admission decisions.

Elyssa Barrick proposes a study to establish the role of theory of mind in omniscience errors, or errors about another person’s knowledge. Additionally, Elyssa aims to investigate omniscience errors in individuals with autism spectrum disorder to further identify the strengths and weaknesses of theory of mind ability.

Zainab Shabbir seeks to understand the role of phenotypical characteristics on self-categorization choices among multiracial individuals. This study aims to further understand ethnic-racial identity development in multiracial individuals.

Here are the three diversity grant winners:

Qingyi Zhang proposes a grounded theory study to investigate the experiences of mattering and anti-mattering among Chinese international students in the United States. In doing so, this study aims to identify interpersonal experiences that enhance or deter Chinese international students’ feelings of mattering and anti-mattering, along with how these experiences are influenced by cultural factors and are associated with psychological well-being and sense of belonging.

Bek Urban aims to fill an existing gap in current literature by working to understand eating pathology in the trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and otherwise gender expansive (TNB) community. To do so, Bek plans to validate a new scale to measure the multifaceted nature of eating pathology in this population.

Adrienne Jankowski plans to evaluate the use of specific attention-based tests for the potential utilization as cognitive performance validity testing. Further, Adrienne aims to evaluate potential invariances to racial and ethnic language differences when completing the task.


As always, thank you to all the PSRG reviewers and the members of the APAGS Science Committee for dedicating their time and efforts to reviewing proposals and identifying winners. Be on the lookout for information on next year’s application process if you are interested in applying for future funding!

Tackling Student Debt: Loan Repayment Options for Psychologists to Explore

By Megha Nagaswami, MA

You’ve worked hard to learn new skills, take classes, and gain experience for your future career in psychology. With graduation from a master’s or doctoral program in the U.S. comes new opportunities, excitement, and … worry about repaying your loans. Student loans can seem like a daunting obstacle to overcome, especially as a brand new graduate. What you may not know is that there are many federal programs designed to help support recent graduates in psychology. Keep reading to learn more about these loan repayment options!

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program benefits psychologists who work for qualified public service providers. For those who meet the employment criteria, the remaining balance of their student loan is forgiven after making 10 years of qualifying payments. Since the program began in 2007, a total of $10 billion in loans have been forgiven for 175,000 individuals. There are many eligible qualified public service providers, such as government groups and certain non-profit organizations.

Heads up! In October 2022, the Limited PSLF Waiver Opportunity expired. As of October 31, 2022, certain types of payments or loan types will no longer be counted towards PSLF repayments. However, additional changes, providing more flexibilities for PSLF eligibility, went into effect in July 2023. More information about the specific changes to PSLF policy can be found here and here.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs)

The NIH LRP is designed to help scientists with doctoral-level degrees pursue careers in research. Through the program, psychologists can have up to $50,000 of their student loans forgiven each year for two years (up to $100,000). In exchange, you must commit to at least two years of research. You can apply to the LRP as an independent researcher or a mentored researcher.

Health Resources and Services Administration Loan Repayment Programs

HRSA has a number of loan repayment programs that include behavioral health professions such psychologists. Several of them are through the National Health Service Corps, under which health service psychologists are an eligible professional.

The links below include all of the loan repayment programs for which behavioral health professions are eligible.

Learn more about managing student debt through other APA resources:

About the author: Megha Nagaswami, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a member of the APAGS Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT) since 2022. Please contact Megha if you have any questions about this blog post or about the Advocacy Coordinating Team. 

Meet the 2023 JSF Winners!

One of the many incredible resources provided through the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) Science Committee is access to funding to support student research. Every year, the APAGS Science Committee and Psi Chi work together to provide financial support to research-oriented graduate students in psychology programs (either in their first year or first semester of their second year) through the Junior Scientist Fellowship (JSF). This year, we are proud to announce that 16 students were awarded $1,000 in grant funding to support their psychological research endeavors from a pool of 42 applicants. Below are the recipients and their research topics.

Ann Bernhardt (Texas A&M University) plans to study the impact of ADHD and anxiety on diagnostic identification and college-level performance. Ann’s research aims to reframe anxiety as a compensatory tool to help students increase their self-efficacy and college success.

Marley Billman Miller (Auburn University) aims to assess how food insecurity influences stress levels in racial/ethnic minority women in rural populations. Findings from this study may impact our understanding of populations who experience adverse health outcomes related to food insecurity.

Rachel Brough (University of Denver) strives to continue previous research on the influence of affective and motivational states on cognitive control. Specifically, Rachel plans to investigate the relationship between uncertainty and an increased need for control.

Jonathan Doriscar (Northwestern University) will investigate the factors contributing to systemic racism and prejudice reduction. Jonathan’s work aims to bridge psychological research with societal change.

Eli Halbreich (Texas Tech University) will investigate the role of companion animals as social support for LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults. Eli’s research aims to understand the relationship between companion animals, coping with stress, and physical activity.

Elizabeth Kruse (University of Rochester) plans to evaluate the degree to which people can suppress the area of the brain allocated to focus their attention. Elizabeth hopes to use this research to inform interventions for improved cognitive performance.

Brandon Martin (Kent State University aims to understand how stigma related to weight and body image in men informs our understanding of men’s health. Brandon’s research will address a gap in existing research on weight management and stigma, which has previously focused on women.

Renee McCauley (George Mason University) strives to understand how speaking with an accent impacts an applicant’s likelihood of being hired in job interviews, and how gender further informs this relationship. Renee hopes to improve our understanding of gender and accented speech as this intersection of identities has been underrepresented in the research to date.

Maggie McCracken (University of Utah) plans to further research the interaction between multisensory cues, focusing on the benefits of auditory cues when performing tasks which require the perception of distance. Maggie hopes to investigate if the presence of sound will improve the performance on distance perception tasks for people who are visually impaired.

Charlie McDonald (Binghamton University – SUNY) aims to identify the mechanism of dissociation, or the disruption of consciousness, emotions, and other cognitive functions. Charlie hopes to use virtual and augmented reality to inform the development of treatments for dissociation.

Margaret Powers (University of Louisville) aims to examine the relationship between abstract thinking skills and understanding or engaging with information about systemic racism. Margaret further aims to incorporate the results of this study into anti-racist work in explaining systemic racism to racially privileged groups.

Krutika Rathod (University of Maine) plans to continue researching the mechanisms associating substance use, specifically regarding cannabis, to socioeconomic adversity. This research will continue to advance the fund of knowledge on the social determinants of substance use in rural communities.

Joseph Slade (Oregon State University) strives to investigate the degree to which students retain information when using artificial intelligence (AI) databases, such as ChatGPT. Joseph’s study will not only focus on the depth of student engagement with course material as they use AI to complete tasks but will also investigate the impact of learning when students believe information was generated by AI versus humans.

Nikhila Udupa (Florida State University) aims to develop and validate a measure used to examine the uncontrollability of suicidal thought. Nikhila hopes to further examine the association between uncontrollability of suicidal thought and other control-related constructs.

Marie Wild (Cornell University) will examine the impact of relocating older adults to a senior living facility on their emotion regulation abilities. This research will advance our understanding of how aging impacts our emotion regulation behaviors and inform interventions aiding in the adjustment of relocation in older adults.

Alireza Zareian Jahromi (Fordham University) aims to conduct a longitudinal study to investigate the mental health outcomes of Iranian people living in the United States following sociopolitical events in Iran. This research further aims to understand the impact of emotion regulation strategies, acculturation, and perceived social support on mental health outcomes following these sociopolitical events.

Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all who participated in the 2023 JSF process! The APAGS Science committee and Psi Chi are committed to supporting research-oriented graduate students by promoting their work in psychological sciences. Participating in the JSF allows students to gain experience in grant writing, ultimately preparing them to apply for further funding and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Additional thanks to the APAGS reviewers for their time reviewing applications and providing valuable feedback to each applicant!

Posted by Sarah Kohnen, an APAGS Science Committee member and counseling psychology doctoral student at Chatham University. Feel free to reach out to Sarah with any questions you may have!

Peer Review Opportunities for the Translational Issues in Psychological Science Student Journal

Many graduate students find that participating in the peer review process helps them become better writers, readers, and collaborative researchers. To help more graduate students get involved in publishing and reviewing, APAGS and APA co-sponsored the development of a peer-reviewed journal that serves as a training ground for student publishing and reviewing, called Translational Issues in Psychological Science (TPS). 

Each issue of TPS concentrates on a single critical and timely theme in Psychology that is translational and of broad interest to scientists, practitioners, and the general public. Each article covers both scientific research and its application. TPS is uniquely positioned as a well-respected peer review journal with a specific focus on graduate student involvement at every stage of the publication process. Furthermore, graduate students can serve as authors, reviewers, editorial board members, and even associate editors. 

In the coming months, we will be opening submissions for the following 2024 special issues: Psychology and Gender/Sexual Minority Experiences, Psychology in the Age of Technology, and Modern Psychological Measurement. The special issue of Psychology & Gender/Sexual Minority Experiences will focus on both the distinct risk conferred with these populations, as well as mechanisms for promoting resilience. The special issue of Psychology in the Age of Technology calls for interdisciplinary research on technology-based psychological services and data collection. It aims to understand the role of telepsychology and tele-neuropsychology in future practice and research better via presenting multidisciplinary research on assessment, ethical consideration, real-life application, and data collection using technology in psychology and neuropsychology fields. Last but not least, the special issue of Modern Psychological Measurement will help update researchers and clinicians update their knowledge of psychological measurement methods given the rapid, continual advancements in open science, statistical methodology, “big data” availability, and analytics. Therefore, this issue aims to solicit the latest work demonstrating innovative or advanced methodological knowledge related to psychological measurements to inform researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. 

If you are interested in the opportunity of serving as a peer reviewer for any of these issues, apply today! To do so fill out the application form, and submit a two-page CV. The CV should indicate your affiliation and year of training and demonstrate your experiences with peer-review avenues such as conferences and journals (e.g., listing any manuscripts that you have submitted to a peer-reviewed outlet, highlighting any experiences you may have served as a peer reviewer). 

All eligible reviewers will complete a reviewer training, and then enter the reviewer pool for TPS. If selected to review a manuscript, you will be credited within the journal, and we encourage you to indicate your service on your CV. If you have any questions, please contact Yolanda Yang on the APAGS Science Committee.