(PS13-B43) Perceived Norms About Self-relevant Research (Me-search) in Clinical Psychology

Many developments in cognitive-behavioral science have arisen from psychologists conducting self-relevant research (SRR; “me-search”), the pursuit of research by scholars with a lived experience, or close connection to, their research topic. Notable SRR examples include Marsha Linehan, who developed Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Lisa Najavits, who developed Seeking Safety. Although a recent study found that 55% of faculty and trainees in clinical, counseling, and school psychology have conducted SRR (Devendorf et al., 2022), psychologists rarely talk openly about their personal connections to their work—perhaps due to fears of stigma. In particular, some self-relevant researchers have described decisions not to disclose their connections to research as being motivated by concerns about how others might view this aspect of their identities and professional endeavors; as a result, research to better understand how psychologists perceive others to feel about SRR is uniquely important. In this study, we examined psychologists’ perceptions of others’ attitudes about SRR from a large, representative dataset of faculty and graduate trainees in accredited American and Canadian clinical, counseling, and school psychology doctoral programs (N = 1,748). In total, 62.6% of all respondents “agreed/strongly agreed” with the statement, “People in my field believe that a personal connection to one's research may bias one's objectivity.” However, participants “agreed/strongly agreed” less often that colleagues would endorse other negative SRR attitudes, such as the perception that one’s colleagues feel self-relevant researchers have bad judgement (16.4%), self-relevant researchers should pursue a different topic (14.6%), SRR is irresponsible (11.1%), and SRR is selfish (5%). We also compared differences in how self-relevant and non-self-relevant researchers perceive others’ overall attitudes about SRR. Relative to non-self-relevant researchers, self-relevant researchers were less likely to perceive that colleagues would stigmatize SRR (Cohen’s d = .15, p = .002). However, self-relevant researchers were also less likely than non-self-relevant researchers to perceive that colleagues would view SRR in a positive light (Cohen’s d = .16, p = .001). While most respondents did not perceive SRR to be viewed negatively by others, most respondents perceived SRR to be viewed as biased. Because scientific fields value objectivity, it is possible that the perception that SRR is viewed as biased may, alone, contribute to internalized stigma among self-relevant researchers, leading psychologists to be less likely to talk openly about how their lived experiences connected to their work.