Preparing and Defending Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Graduate programs in the United States can be thought of as being on a continuum EHWZHHQWZRLGHDOL]HGPRGHOV,QWKH?UVWPRGHOJUDGXDWHHGXFDWLRQSDUWLFXODUO\GRFWRUDO education, has as its primary purpose the training of research skills (Passmore, 1980). This training is designed to prepare scholars, with the university-based researcher/teacher as the prototypic product. In this model, the thesis or dissertation is considered to be the most important single aspect of the student’s educational experience. Its successful FRPSOHWLRQLVWKRXJKWWRGHPRQVWUDWHWKDWWKHVWXGHQWKDVDFTXLUHGWKHVNLOOVWRIXQFWLRQDV DQLQGHSHQGHQWUHVHDUFKHU)LQDOO\LWLVVXSSRVHGWREHRIVXI?FLHQWTXDOLW\WRDGGWRWKH general body of knowledge in the content-area researched (Berelson, 1960). $OWKRXJK WKLV PRGHO RI JUDGXDWH HGXFDWLRQ LV GRPLQDQW LQ PRVW ?HOGV LW KDV EHHQconsistently challenged by critics who say it tends to remove students from the problems of the real world and their solutions. Many have proposed a second model that in its pure form looks much like contemporary medical education. The product of such an HGXFDWLRQDO H[SHULHQFH LV FRQFHSWXDOL]HG DV D ?HOGEDVHG SURIHVVLRQDOZKR DSSOLHV WKH EDVLFNQRZOHGJHRIKLVRUKHU?HOGLQDQDWWHPSWWRGLUHFWO\LQWHUYHQHLQKXPDQSUREOHPV This model of graduate education emphasizes applied practitioner skills and knowledge; research training takes a clearly secondary position. In a prototypic program utilizing this PRGHOQRWKHVLVRUGLVVHUWDWLRQLVUHTXLUHGFrom the earliest days of graduate education in the United States there has been tension between these two models of training (Berelson, 1960). This tension is readily apparent in con-temporary applied psychology (i.e., clinical, counseling, industrial/organizational, and school psychology) in the distinction between doctor of philosophy (PhD) and doctorof psychology (PsyD) training. Applied training programs are often housed in psychology or educational psychology departments in which the majority of the faculty have basic research-teaching interests rather than practitioner interests. Many students in these programs are seeking high-level applied skills. During the 1960s and 1970s this tension resulted in the establishment of PsyD programs in which applied skills, not research skills, were considered primary. Many of these program retained research papers as one terminal DFDGHPLF H[HUFLVH VRPH RIZKLFK ORRNHG OLNH D WKHVLV RWKHUV UHTXLUHG VPDOO SURMHFWV directed at descriptions of applied projects.