James Pennebaker

  b. 1950 | American psychologist

At The Bottom

— 1983

Years of hard work had seemingly just gone up in smoke.

James Pennebaker was a 33-year-old assistant professor of psychology when he received the worst possible news for a young professor:  he was being denied tenure and would no longer have a place at the University of Virginia, where he had been employed since finishing graduate school six years earlier.  One of the complaints made by the university — one of the reasons for his failure to earn tenure — was that he lacked a clear research program and that his work was not likely to make a mark on the field of psychology.  He was devastated, feeling crushed by a school he cared about and where he had expected to spend the rest of his career.  Years of hard work had seemingly just gone up in smoke.  For a professor, the denial of tenure not only represents the loss of a job, but it also provokes a deep, emotional sense of rejection.  Because the tenure decision rests on the evaluation of a faculty member’s research, teaching, and university/community service, a negative outcome is almost always interpreted as a judgment on one’s suitability for the profession as well as a judgment about one’s very character and being.  Pennebaker was humiliated and angry.  He wondered if Virginia’s decision would affect his future employment prospects, since a failure to reach tenure can become a black mark beside an academic’s name.  Maybe he’d find another job, maybe not.  If he hadn’t been so stunned and depressed by the news, he might have been overwhelmed with fear.