2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: Toward an Understanding of Psychological Safety in Graduate Engineering Research Groups – Preliminary Progress on Trust and Respect Constructs

Presented at GSD Session 5: WIP Roundtable

The purpose of this work in progress paper is to present a preliminary codebook to understand how psychological safety manifests in graduate school research laboratories. Psychological safety is generally regarded as the belief that an individual working in a team can safely engage in interpersonal risks such as asking questions, seeking feedback, reporting mistakes, and proposing new ideas. Many researchers have explored psychological safety as a mediating factor of desired team-based outcomes such as creativity, effective communication, and performance. However, little research has explored how psychological safety manifests in graduate school, where research groups are often multicultural in nature and vary in the extent to which students work together on projects. As part of a larger, NSF-funded project, we have collected interviews investigating graduate engineering students’ experiences and perspectives in research group environments. To determine how psychological safety is actualized in these settings, we have formed a preliminary qualitative codebook based on prominent psychological safety framings. This codebook consists of 8 constructs: Trust, Respect, Advisor Leader Behavior, Peer Leader Behavior, Peer Interactions, Group Characteristics and Work Design, and Positive Work Engagement. This codebook will be used to analyze 28 interviews with engineering PhD students, a subset of interviews from the larger project, to highlight how psychological safety constructs manifest in graduate research group settings. This work in progress paper details the development and preliminary findings of the Trust and Respect codes.

Authors

Erin Johnson [biography]

Erin Johnson is a PhD candidate at Pennsylvania State University in Mechanical Engineering and NSF Graduate Research Fellow. She is under the advisement of Dr. Catherine Berdanier. She completed her undergraduate degree at Tuskegee University and a Master's degree at Pennsylvania State University
Jiuqing Yu Pennsylvania State University [biography]

Jiuqing Yu is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, working under the advisement of Dr. Catherine Berdanier in the Engineering Cognitive Research Laboratory (ECRL). She previously earned a Master of Philosophy in Industrial Systems, Manufacture, and Management from the University of Cambridge and completed her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University.
Nosakhare Iyobosa Idiaghe http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-4152-0267 University of Nebraska - Lincoln [biography]

Nosakhare Idiaghe is a PhD Candidate in Engineering Education Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He holds dual master’s degrees in Engineering Management and Industrial Engineering, and a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering.
Dr. Jessica R Deters http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-8766-9548 University of Nebraska - Lincoln [biography]

Dr. Jessica Deters is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Discipline Based Education Researcher at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She holds her Ph.D. in Engineering Education and M.S. in Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from Colorado School of Mines. Her research focuses on engineering culture, workplace preparedness and career trajectories of undergraduate and graduate students, and student well-being. She is the recipient of the Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award, Henry Y. Kleinkauf Family Distinguished New Faculty Teaching Award, and the UNL University Distinguished Teaching Award.
Catherine G. P. Berdanier http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3271-4836 The Pennsylvania State University [biography]

Catherine G.P. Berdanier is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from The University of South Dakota, her M.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and her PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University. Her research expertise lies in characterizing graduate-level attrition, persistence, and career trajectories; engineering writing and communication; and methodological development.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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