Why a PhD is different….

As a therapist specialising in stress and anxiety in higher education I get to work with lots of PhD and other postgraduate research students who at times find life tough to navigate. I also run a range of resilience skills training workshops to help build greater self-efficacy among such students.

Doing a PhD is a bit of a weird lifestyle; you get to research something you're interested in for typically 3 to 4 years, writing it up as a thesis to then be awarded the title 'Doctor'. During that time you usually have a degree of freedom to manage your own time and develop personal ownership of your research project, even if it is part of a bigger research programme. But there are several things that can predispose a PhD student to experience difficulties along the way, or find it difficult to respond to these difficulties with sufficient psychological flexibility. Here are just some of those most important key factors.

Problems are normal

Problems are a normal part of doing a PhD. They are inevitable in a research process spread over several years - unexpected things will happen in the research and life can intervene over that time scale. Developing a problem solving mindset helps to recognise and define a problem accurately if you are to solve it successfully. Seeing a problem as normal and as a challenge to overcome rather than as a potential disaster can profoundly change the way you deal with the ups and downs of doing a PhD.

what motivates you…?

What is your motivation for doing a PhD? You should have been asked this question at interview, but as time passes your reasons may have faded or are worth re-evaluating in light of experience. How important is the PhD in relation to other personal values? Your motivation makes a difference to how you deal with ups and downs, and how you approach the PhD process. It’s what can keep you going; it gives you purpose even when things seem tough. Greater self-awareness can help you keep things in perspective, to be able to stand back and observe your thoughts and feelings rather than getting too caught up in the content of those thoughts and feelings.

Another question to ask yourself is 'what is the motivation of your prospective/actual supervisor in supervising PhD students?’ Use the interview process to interview your prospective supervisor as well as being interviewed by them. How many other research students do they have; what support, e.g. from post-docs do they have; what other priorities do they have and what is their approach to supervising PhDs? Are they nurturing or dictatorial? This may be difficult to find out about in advance, but if you get a chance to talk to existing PhDs they may offer you some insights!

You might also want some clarity about the role you see your supervisor playing in your research - clarity about 'ownership' is essential to feel in control of what you are doing, and especially if the PhD idea has come from them in the first place, i.e. you as the one having the agency to act. How do you manage that relationship, i.e. take responsibility for cultivating a good working relationship, helping the supervisor to provide the sort of support you need.

How important, for example, are publications for you as opposed to your supervisor? To some extent that will depend on your own motivation. If you want an academic career after the PhD publications will be essential to get a post-doc position. But if your future is more likely to be outside academia, then publications are less critical, useful though they may be for giving you external feedback on your research. If the latter, then it’s worth establishing that understanding with your supervisor early on; a compromise on outputs may need to be negotiated!

Anxiety and Worry……

Don’t assume you should be on top of things from the beginning. Acknowledge that doing a PhD is a learning process that takes time and will continue even after you’ve completed your thesis. And you learn by doing, by discovery and errors. Aim to enjoy the learning and the research process - be mindful in your learning, mindful in your research. Find joy in curiosity. This can help keep you grounded in the research process rather than focused on how it will all turn out - will it be enough for a PhD etc? If you follow the process, then the PhD will emerge out of it.

In general, you are likely to have had to perform pretty well at undergraduate and/or taught postgraduate level to get a place and especially funding for a PhD. It's a competitive process and there's a good chance you will have pushed yourself hard to get there. You may recognise perfectionism in how you approach your studying. So it isn’t surprising that perfectionism is common among PhD students and a major source of anxiety. It can be debilitating; undue focus on the outcome - and striving for perfection - can result in a lack of engagement in the actual process of research - the discovery, the exploration, curiosity. And you'll likely need every bit of interest to keep you going through the PhD.

Worry, procrastination and over-thinking are particularly common when there is undue focus on the future and outcomes - results - and is common among PhDs given uncertainty about how much is enough to make a PhD (actually, probably rather less than you might imagine). I’ve written elsewhere about worry, but ultimately it is a fruitless and maladaptive coping strategy to anxiety (since it doesn’t solve anything). You may need help to manage it and find more helpful alternatives, to be able to let go of over-thinking, so don’t be afraid to reach out.

Support network

What is your support network? Family, close friends, new friends being made at university alongside your PhD? What other activities, sport and interests are you engaged in? Seeing a PhD in perspective becomes increasingly important the more you become engrossed in your subject - there is, and should be, life outside the PhD!

Doing a PhD is naturally a solitary activity - it's about doing independent original research. So putting in place mechanisms that keep you actively engaged with other people, with groups, with friends can help prevent you isolating yourself even further, and especially if you find yourself having to work remotely from others (e.g. during Coronavirus/Covid-19 restrictions).

Reluctance to seek help

Seek help sooner rather than later. If you are struggling your supervisor(s) should be the first port of call. If you're struggling with your supervisor(s) then your department/school have a responsibility to help manage that and ensure you have appropriate supervision. Talk to a senior tutor or Director of Postgraduate Studies. Talk to your colleagues in the same research group. Your supervisor is not the sole arbiter of your future life and does not need to be held in such high reverence as if they were. As your supervisor they have a job to do and that is provide you with appropriate supervision. You also have a responsibility to negotiate what that looks like, because supervision needs vary enormously amongst students, but there are some minimum expectations. Ultimately you can change supervisors if the relationship has broken down. But watch out for early warning signs and try to prevent the relationship breaking down in the first place. Building assertiveness skills can help you do that.

Make the most of personal development courses offered by the university - see them as an integral part of your PhD process (they also help you network with other PhD students). And engage fully in those courses - don’t, for example, allow a meeting with your supervisor to override a training course! Rearrange the supervision meeting, telling your supervisor you are attending an essential training course.

It’s your PhD…..

So, we know what makes for a supportive PhD research environment, and that involves participating in your research community, within your department (not just your immediate research groups or colleagues) and beyond. It makes sense therefore for academics and PhD research students to strive to construct a mutually supportive environment, but as a PhD student you do have agency to influence your own experiences. Reach out and seek support and get involved. [And see my PhD Peer Support Group launched 7 June 2023]

Expect the unexpected - there will always be challenges during a PhD; the nature of a PhD is to seek to resolve those challenges and, if they can’t be resolved, to understand why. Negative results in research are still results, and possibly may be more important than what you hoped for. Overcoming those challenges will provide you with a valuable set of transferable skills for the future, whatever career direction you choose to follow.

See the PhD as a learning process, rather than about completing a thesis and getting the title ‘Doctor’; the ‘Doctor’ becomes simply a recognition that you have been through that learning process successfully, i.e. you will have learnt something from it and have a set of skills to show for it.

Above all, aim to be curious, and seek to enjoy the PhD process. Make that your priority, so if you become aware that the enjoyment and curiosity have faded and things become a struggle, you will also be aware that you may need to take some action to do something about it.

Bill Sheate, 20 June 2021