The art and science of mentoring in psychology: a necessary practice to ensure our future

Abstract

Skillful faculty mentoring of graduate students is essential for producing the next generation of scholars. Unfortunately, the mentoring process is underappreciated and understudied. This article initially presents an overview of the extant literature. Subsequently,it borrows models from a related but more advanced field of study to stimulate the development of conceptual frameworks for guiding research on mentoring. Until the field progresses from its current state (i.e., an art) to a science, there will be few empirically informed answers regarding how to mentor effectively. Nevertheless, some suggestions are warranted and are offered in order to encourage effective mentoring.