Psychology Professor Builds Pipeline For Minority Students

University of Cincinnati faculty member Bridgette Peteet, assistant professor of psychology, is an American Psychological Association 2016 Charles and Shirley Thomas award recipient.  She received the award, which celebrates successful student mentoring as well as efforts to make psychology relevant to African Americans, this month.

Peteet, for one, believes that creating a pipeline for minority students is very important to their success and admits she herself relied on mentoring and support from others during graduate school.

What sparked your interest in studying psychology?

When I was in undergrad, I was majoring in criminal justice. I was taking a civil law class and abnormal psych at the same time. I thought, ‘Wow, this is so interesting, learning about all of these different disorders and understanding people.’ I just thought that it was really fascinating, so I ended up with both a criminal justice and psychology majors. I think that there’s really an overlap of my interest in social justice and diversity and (criminal justice). I learned a lot, and I still think about it in a lot of contexts today.

What is the most fascinating thing that you have discovered about psychology during your years of research?

My research on impostorism (the feeling of being an imposter) has really focused on middle class white women. As they were describing it, I thought these are things that I experience as a woman of color at predominantly white institutions. So we looked at college students and found similar patterns and how (impostorism) affects your self esteem. We’ve identified other buffers that help African American students' healthy racial identity development. 

Do you believe a lack of diversity has a psychological impact on the workplace?

I think so. When people don’t see others like them that they can relate to, that may have had a similar story, they can feel really isolated. You may not have had the opportunity to see other people achieve the things that you want to achieve. You feel alone. I think increasing the pipeline with students all the way up through professionals, is just something that we really have to pay attention to.

It’s very important for me to make sure that we have those bridges. So I work with programs to help students to prepare for graduate admissions to make sure that we aren’t just talking about this pipeline issue, that we are actually addressing it. 

I know that’s important for me, and I know that was important for a lot of our students in our program.

How does the lack of diversity psychologically impact college students?

The students feel inspired sometimes when I teach Intro to Pysch. They are like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re the first African American faculty member I’ve ever seen.’ It’s like reality when they see someone who looks just like them. I think for graduate students it’s a very difficult road, so to have someone who looks like them, who is their advocate, is really meaningful for them in terms of getting through the program. The professional and personal support that they get really helps keep them here. They often don’t have other places to find that. In undergrad, they may have ethnic program and services. Graduate students don’t have the time to do extra stuff, so I definitely try to make sure that my lab is available for them.

What inspired you to become a mentor?

My mentor was Kathy Burlew. She is well known in the university, and when I came on board, part of our model in our program was a mentoring model. So we directly recruit students to apply to graduate school who want to work with us.

But I’m really interested in, one, broadening the diversity of the doctoral students, and two, having people who are really interested in impacting the African American community — so really finding students who are prepared to do that and not just stay in the ivory tower but think of the meaningful impact.

For me, mentoring is just something that you do. It’s the structure of our labs. My mentor mentored me. I mentor my students. They mentor undergrads. You know, sometimes, we have models where we have had high school students who were coming to our lab. So it’s just a part of the culture of our lab: giving back to those who come behind us, making the road a little bit easier for them than it was for us.

I love it. One of the best parts of my job is to see other people who are finishing and going through their training. My first graduate student, she’s going to be getting her doctorate this coming school year. I’m elated. I’ve trained her all throughout the program, and she’s going to defend her dissertation this fall and graduate next spring.

It’s just really amazing to see that process and to see her growth. It’s really awesome because a lot of them come straight out of undergrad, and they are kind of transitioning into a different stage of adulthood. It’s very cool to watch.

Tell me about one of your favorite moments that have had while mentoring a student.

We had a guest speaker this past spring, and she was talking about her work. She is a faculty member at the University of Michigan, and she mentored Kathy Burlew. Kathy mentored me, and my student was there. So, it was like four generations of mentoring in one room, just talking about our research, talking about our experiences. This is like a legacy. It was one of times that it hit me: ‘Look at that pipeline, it’s here.’

I remember one of my students saying that I feel like, in a way, it’s a family structure. You’re my mom, and that’s my grandma, and that’s my great grandmother. That was one of my favorite moments recently.

What does it mean to you to be a Charles and Shirley Thomas Award recipient?

It was really unbelievable. It was really a high honor because (my) division has done so much to benefit diverse communities, and they are very well respected and very well known in the field. I almost thought they made a mistake. Like that impostorism, the thing that I study, was kicking in. Are they going to take it away? I’m just really honored that my colleagues and my graduate students would think of me that way. I feel like I’m just getting started, and so to have this award this early just really means a lot to me.

Why should students study psychology?

I feel like you can do anything with psychology. A lot of times people have this image of doing therapy all day, every day. But I feel like people are doing so many things with psychology —whether that’s within an organization or whether that’s in the community, or whether that’s in a clinical situation, whether it’s through research. There is a lot more to psychology than just therapy. Therapy is great. Therapy is helpful. We definitely need more therapists especially as our population is shifting. We need more diverse therapists and people who are competent to treat diverse populations.

But it’s not just that, so I get to do a lot of different things in my field. I think people forget that. 

What do you enjoy the most about teaching?

When the students get it. I had a grad student last week talking about how her friends were talking about Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter, and they were like, ‘This is not a race issue in this country. It’s a socio-economic class issue.’ To have a student who I just had in diversity to be able to just outline all of the history of systematic racism in this country — and this is not a student of color. Those are things that she has learned in my class. She wrote me this email saying, ‘I wouldn’t have been able to do that before.’ It was a proud moment. So getting those kinds of messages from students where they get it. That’s the most rewarding thing.

What research are you currently working on?

I have two lines of research that I’m still working on, some work with first-generation students and looking at mental health and substance abuse, and work on impostorism and first-generation students.

Then, we also have a project where we are looking at racial socialization and academic socialization, so whether students of color are groomed towards certain academic careers or not. We have some qualitative data that we are analyzing on that project.

In addition, I am also a collaborator with the University of Kentucky looking at substance abuse and rural incarcerated women.