Clinical Psychology

BOX4-5 Graduate Student Perspective: Elizabeth A. Martin

Elizabeth A. Martin is a 5th-year, doctoral candidate in
clinical psychology at the University of Missouri. She
received her B.A. from the College of New Jersey and
M.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and
the University of Missouri. Liz studies emotional and
cognitive processing in schizophrenia-spectrum disor-
ders and currently has a fellowship that funds her
investigation of controlled affective processing in this
population. After graduation, she hopes to earn a
tenure-track position at a research-focused academic
institution.
She provided the following insights regarding her
graduate school experience.

What has graduate school in clinical psychology been
for you?
I didn’t think time could move more quickly than it did
in undergraduate school until I experienced graduate
school. Days are so full of varied experiences—
research, classes, clinical work, teaching—that there is
no time to be bored!

What things have you least expected about graduate
school?
I did not expect that extremely busy, well-known,
respected professors would devote as much time into
cultivating my research career as they have. I have a
supportive group of mentors who have helped me with
everything from developing study ideas and running
participants to analyzing data and writing manuscripts.
I am very grateful to all of these people!

Has graduate school changed you? If yes, how so?
Graduate school has really made me a more critical
thinker. Now, I try to avoid taking most things at face
value. Also, my clinical experiences have made me
more aware of the difficulties that people face every
day and more empathetic to these plights.

Are your professional or research interests similar or
different now than they were when you started
graduate school?
Although the population and general subject matter
has remained the same, my research interests have
become refined as I have gone through graduate
school. From extensively reading the literature and
conducting studies of my own, I have developed a
program of research aimed at understanding a con-
struct I was actually unaware of when I started gradu-
ate school.

Looking back, what activities or experiences were the

most important for you in your graduate school

program?

Academically, statistics courses have been vitally

important. Without the skills needed to organize,

analyze, and interpret data, the graduate school pro-

cess would have been even more difficult. Personally,

shared social experiences with fellow students have

helped me to survive exceptionally stressful periods of

graduate school.

Any additional hints for those trying to make it

through graduate school in clinical psychology?

I think that a successful graduate student is one who is

proactive in pursuing his or her professional goals from

the first day in the program. If a student is unsure of

his or her professional goals, I suggest actively seeking

out opportunities that may help to refine these goals.

Waiting around for things to happen or for people to

do things for you is not a successful strategy or one

that will make others, including yourself, happy.

Elizabeth Martin

Elizabeth Martin

RESEARCH METHODS IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY 119