ABSTRACT
The first year of graduate school is the perfect time to discover what readers need to do to stay mentally and physically healthy. Evaluation is ever-present in health psychology careers—health psychologists receive critical reviews of grant proposals and manuscripts submitted to peer-review journals, teaching evaluations, and clinical evaluations. Evaluating research progress is most helpful when students are asked to conduct a self-assessment before they are evaluated. Most health psychology programs are committed to promoting diversity and attracting graduate students from diverse backgrounds. A good health psychology program will periodically assess the extent to which students and faculty feel that the program is promoting its diversity goals. Although there may be variability in the individual styles, all mentor-mentee relationships should be professional, collegial, and nonsexual in nature. Mentoring is a social relationship so there are also expectations for health psychology students. Mentors help graduate students develop a strong professional identity and competence in their work.
