Supervisor issues in Psychology. Need some suggestions. Thank you!

[ensoleillee298]

Hi everyone, I am now going to my second year of PhD in Clinical Psychology in the US. I just finished the first year, and I am so happy with my coursework and the supportive cohort. The university campus is beautiful with lots of trees and old buildings.

However, I found my supervisor is not competent enough to guide her students in research. She seems to lack knowledge of research methods. I chatted with other senior lab members, and they shared about their frustration of working with her. They all feel our supervisor does not to know much about the content of their dissertation. They also feel the supervisor is not good at both statistics and qualitative methods, which made them very frustrated about their dissertation. I am now working on a  project with my supervisor and also share the same frustration. 

I am not quite sure what to do in this situation. She is a nice lady, and she always wants her students to graduate on time. I am not going to academia, so it does not really matter if I am good at research or not. I plan to do psychotherapy and assessment after I graduate. However, I am start worrying about if my PhD dissertation can suffer due to lack of support and guidance from my supervisor. Thanks for giving me some advice and thoughts! 

Edited May 16, 2020 by ensoleillee298

[PsyDuck90]

Check out this thread, as your story sounds incredibly similar. 

[Psyche007]

Does she publish? Look at her publications and see if she has a quant person listed amongst the authors, ask her if you can consult with them for guidance. If she doesn't, there's got to be someone in the institution that consults with faculty on research methods and stats (in my programme, that's my supervisor). As this sounds like a common theme, you could even reach out to former students of hers who do work in research, see how they coped. 

Your supervisor can't be everything to you. You have to network and locate your own resources, while being mindful and respectful of academic politics. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Psyche007
Altered terminology for clarity.