148 Who Are Our Friends?
example faculty and friends outside of the program, would have a high- range but
low- density developmental network.
The relationship strength or intensity refers to the amount of support provided
by the mentor. Individuals with close ties to one another would have greater inten-
sity. Only 16 of the students reported having no mentor, which would characterize
them as having a low- intensity developmental network. One- third of the students
had three or more mentors, in addition to their advisor. It is likely that they did
not have strong ties with all of these mentors— given limits on psychic strength
that anyone can invest in a relationship. Thus, these students had a lower intensity
developmental network. Two- thirds of the students reported having a second fac-
ulty mentor; if the students also strongly agreed that their advisor was a mentor to
them, then they may be said to have a greater intensity developmental network.
Interestingly, scholars have clarified that a developmental network perspec-
tive includes friends (Dobrow et al., 2012). Indeed, in the study just described,
many students reported receiving emotional, career, and networking support from
family and from friends in the program and outside their program. Furthermore,
those students who reported such a network of supporters were significantly more
likely to also report receiving instrumental support from their doctoral advisor
(r = .22) and more likely to consider their advisor to be a mentor to them (r = .16)
(Lunsford, 2007).
Thus, developmental networks reflect the reality of the relationships that the
emerging professionals develop to navigate their careers. Further, some research-
ers suggest these relationships are increasingly important for individuals in the 21st
century. Organizations have become flatter, people change jobs more frequently,
and successful individuals often have a well- developed network to provide support
and guidance (Allen & McManus, 1999; Dobrow et al., 2012).
Informal Mentoring and Natural MentorsMentoring relationships have been characterized as formal or informal. Formal
relationships occur when a third party recruits participants to engage in mentoring
when these individuals might not have otherwise connected, such as the peer men-
toring program described earlier. Formal mentoring relationships have expectations
and goals for the participants and may involve “programming” in the form of certain
activities or a prescribed number of times to meet, what might be discussed, and
so forth. Informal relationships develop naturally between two individuals, with-
out assistance from another individual. There are fewer studies of informal men-
toring for adults (Allen et al., 2004). Scholars use the term “informal mentoring”
when studying adult relationships and often use “natural mentoring” when studying
youth populations. How might informal mentorships overlap with friendship?
When natural mentors occur for adults, it is typically in the context of work set-
tings and studied under the construct of peer mentors or informal mentoring. There