University Presentation Showcase: Undergraduate Division

Motivated Mentorships: How Reasons for Undergraduate Research Predict Scholarly Outcomes

Presenter Hometown

Murrieta, California

Major

Psychology

Department

Psychology

Degree

Undergraduate

Mentor

Dr. Jonathon Gore

Mentor Department

Psychology

Abstract

Mentorship experiences involve a variety of motives at work simultaneously, and some of those are more effective than others. We hypothesized that personally-autonomous reasons (PARs, “for me”) and relationally-autonomous reasons (RARs, “for us”) for pursuing undergraduate research would be associated with better perceived and scholarly outcomes, whereas controlled reasons (CRs, “I have to”) would be associated with worse outcomes. Fifty-five undergraduate students who were presenting their mentored projects at university-hosted poster events completed surveys indicating their reasons for working on and completing their project, their perceptions of their project and their mentorship, and the number of past and planned future projects, presentations, and continued mentorship experiences. The results indicated that both PARs and RARs were associated with positive outcomes, but PARs were more commonly associated with the project and RARs were more commonly associated with the mentorship. Implications and practical applications for mentorship approaches are discussed.

Presentation format

Poster

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Motivated Mentorships: How Reasons for Undergraduate Research Predict Scholarly Outcomes

Mentorship experiences involve a variety of motives at work simultaneously, and some of those are more effective than others. We hypothesized that personally-autonomous reasons (PARs, “for me”) and relationally-autonomous reasons (RARs, “for us”) for pursuing undergraduate research would be associated with better perceived and scholarly outcomes, whereas controlled reasons (CRs, “I have to”) would be associated with worse outcomes. Fifty-five undergraduate students who were presenting their mentored projects at university-hosted poster events completed surveys indicating their reasons for working on and completing their project, their perceptions of their project and their mentorship, and the number of past and planned future projects, presentations, and continued mentorship experiences. The results indicated that both PARs and RARs were associated with positive outcomes, but PARs were more commonly associated with the project and RARs were more commonly associated with the mentorship. Implications and practical applications for mentorship approaches are discussed.