Proposing and Completing Your Dissertation

Abstract

Discusses the dissertation in graduate psychology education. Within psychology, completion of the dissertation has been central to training at the doctoral level since the Ph.D. degree was first granted to G. Stanley Hall in 1878. As it was originally introduced, the dissertation was to be an "original research project" that "clearly extended the boundaries of knowledge in one's discipline" (Olson and Drew, 1998). Thus, it is crucial to the development and growth of a discipline and is not simply a rite of passage or means of evaluating the student. This chapter discusses: the goal of the dissertation, considerations in choosing a dissertation committee, choosing a topic, reviewing prior research, how to write a proposal, proposing the dissertation, resources available to fund the dissertation, getting started, creating a timeline for completion of the dissertation, writing the dissertation, preparing for the dissertation defense, publishing the dissertation, after the dissertation defense, and getting the dissertation bound and obtaining copyrights. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (create)