Introduction
This manual aims to help students meet the required standards of organization, appearance, and format for a dissertation at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at National Louis University. As a Psy.D. degree requirement, every student must complete a dissertation. The dissertation is expected to be original research formulated by the student, written in a scholarly manner, and approved by the student's dissertation committee. The goal of the dissertation is for students to demonstrate their ability to design and conduct research, analyze and evaluate data, and draw conclusions. It requires each doctoral student to articulate a particular clinical question, or set of questions, that they attempt to address in the following way: • Review of the relevant theoretical, clinical, and research literature • Design of a research study to address gaps in the literature • Collect data • Report findings based on data analysis • Discuss the results in light of the organizing question(s), the clinical/research literature, and critical applications. The faculty of ISPP hope students will research topics that are personally exciting and fulfilling while adding to the knowledge base of the field of clinical psychology. Dissertations—and research in general—has the aim of facilitating useful dialogue among scholars, even (and perhaps especially) when they don’t agree with each other initially. These norms allow academically serious people to learn from each other, and they allow those who disagree initially to be persuaded by data or at least clarify the exact nature of their disagreement. Students may be able to see the value of this kind of disciplined, restrained writing if they picture themselves wanting to learn about a new field that they want to judge for themselves, or they might picture themselves reading research by a writer with whom they seriously disagree but want to give a fair hearing. In these situations, the reader might want to understand what research or opinions are being marshaled in support of this position but might also want to scrutinize the arguments closely every step of the way. The reader may be partially or totally persuaded by the power of the results and influenced in their clinical understanding or practice. Alternatively, the reader may not be persuaded, but- instead- have a better idea of where their differences of opinion lie. This may suggest important avenues of research or practice for them to clarify the reader’s positions. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Edition) (2020) offers specific guidelines and criteria for writing such a project. ISPP expects that dissertations will be written according to APA-7 standards and at a level of quality that would be expected for publication.
Powered by FlippingBook