DIGEST - Volume 9, Issue 4- FULL DIGEST

6 TPC Digest R esearch training environments (RTEs) have an impact on the development of counseling doctoral students, including their researcher identity, research self-efficacy, and scholarly productivity. RTEs are anything in the training program that reveals attitudes and behaviors towards research. This can include formal coursework; interactions with faculty, other students, and staff; informal mentoring experiences; and institutional culture that promotes or devalues research. This article proposes that the RTE likely has the biggest impact on whether a doctoral student gains research and publication experience, given that research is not a major focus of a counseling master’s program. It is essential to strengthen the training of future researchers so they are successful at promoting and expanding the research in the counseling profession. Self-concept theory provides a framework for conceptualizing the way a person organizes beliefs about themselves. This theory can provide faculty with insight into how doctoral students think about themselves and their experiences, including how they organize, develop, and stabilize their researcher identities. Faculty can create RTEs that facilitate student development by helping them make meaning of their research experiences and incorporate them into their professional identity. Organizational developmental theories also are useful to understand how doctoral students navigate their RTEs. Graduate program cultural norms include expectations for how to act, what to strive for, and how to define success and failure. Formal socialization happens through classroom instruction, faculty direction, and focused observation. Out-of-classroom conversations with faculty and other university Promoting Doctoral Student Researcher Development Through Positive Research Training Environments Using Self-Concept Theory Margaret R. Lamar, Elysia Clemens, Adria Shipp Dunbar