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Perhaps It’s Not You It’s Them: PhD Student-Supervisor Relationships

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Managing your Mental Health during your PhD

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Abstract

This chapter explores the PhD Student-Supervisor relationship, outlining the role of a PhD Supervisor, discussing relationship management, and how to recognise signs of bullying and harassment if they occur.

(Trigger Warnings: bullying, harassment, sexual harassment)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Depending on your country of study a PhD Supervisor may be called the Principal Investigator (PI) or you PhD Supervisor, or PhD Advisor. For the purpose of this chapter I will use “Supervisor”, to mean the academic in charge of your PhD research.

  2. 2.

    I count myself lucky every single day that I fell into the 76% category.

  3. 3.

    If you did not get this memo before starting your PhD, please do not worry. It is common for first-generation students to not get this information ahead of time.

  4. 4.

    Survivor bias is defined as the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that made it past some selection process and overlooking those that did not, typically because of their lack of visibility.

  5. 5.

    The sunk cost fallacy reasoning states that further investments or commitments are justified because the resources already invested will be lost otherwise. In the case of PhD study it can be that if we just “stick it out” and try to manage the abuse we are being subject to we will get our PhD. In reality, leaving and starting a PhD elsewhere may be beneficial.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rugby, UK

    Zoë J. Ayres

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  1. Zoë J. Ayres
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Ayres, Z.J. (2022). Perhaps It’s Not You It’s Them: PhD Student-Supervisor Relationships. In: Managing your Mental Health during your PhD. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14194-2_9

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