1

What Are Theses and

Copyright American Psychological Association

Dissertations, and Why Write

a Book About Them?

This chapter introduces you to this book and the thesis and dissertation
process, including
• what to expect in the book
• an overview of what theses and dissertations are and why you should do one
• helpful social, environmental, and resource supports

Read thoroughly if
• you are new to the thesis or dissertation process
• you want a quick overview of what you can expect to get from this book

Skim or skip if
• you are ready to dive right in!

Let’s answer the second question in the chapter title first. It’s been almost
30 years since we first conceived this book. When we started the first edition,
students often began graduate school with minimal formal research experience.
The thesis or dissertation may have been based on their first independent
research projects, and these projects were often their primary, if not only,
major research endeavors during graduate school. In addition, most students
relied largely on the professor who chaired their thesis or dissertation for
guidance on these projects.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0000161-001
Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish: Psychology and Related Fields, Third Edition,
by D. J. Bell, S. L. Foster, and J. D. Cone
Copyright © 2020 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.
3
 4 Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish

Times have changed. Today, it is much more common for students to

have considerable research experience by the time they get to the thesis or
dissertation; for many it is no longer the first project or the pinnacle of their
graduate years. For these students, the thesis or dissertation may feel like just
another project in their evolving program of research, requiring skills they’ve
already developed or at least observed in their lab mates. In addition, the
number of resources available to support thesis and dissertation writing has
Copyright American Psychological Association

exploded since the first edition of our book, including everything from online
resources such as websites, blogs, and YouTube videos, to articles and books on
the topic, to thesis or dissertation coaches and writing services! There are now
journal articles and books, often discipline specific, that address certain aspects
of graduate-level research projects (e.g., selection of a topic, organization
for writing, time management, self-care). So why another edition of this book?
First, the vast array of resources can be overwhelming, as the focus, depth,
and content of their support are different and sometimes even contradictory.
Online informational resources are often too brief to offer much specific detail
about any one aspect of the thesis or dissertation project, or they focus on only
one aspect (e.g., organizing a proposal document). The stream-of-consciousness
style of many blogs can take you down many informational rabbit holes before
you find a nugget that is helpful to you. Writing support websites may offer
some helpful hints, but many are really geared toward selling you a thesis or
dissertation, which, for obvious reasons, we strongly discourage! Face it—
the resources you find on the internet may not have been subjected to any
quality assurance review; you may find useful information, but it is clearly a
“buyer beware” marketplace. We believe that a single curated source of infor-
mation that takes students through the thesis and dissertation process step by
step still has a place on bookshelves and in libraries.
Second, there are key aspects of the thesis and dissertation process that
warrant close attention from students new to the research process, as well
as from students who are more seasoned researchers. If you are newer to
independent research, as a beginning graduate student or even an advanced
undergraduate, information on developing, implementing, and describing
research will be quite useful. If you are already an active researcher, things
such as the etiquette and formalities of university theses and dissertations,
working with committees, or managing greater independence than you’re
accustomed to may still be new to you. Regardless of your experience level,
considering topics such as how to assess your readiness, manage your envi-
ronment, and balance your priorities can be critical in facilitating your
research and graduate school success well beyond these two specific research
projects.
We wrote the first two versions of this book to help graduate students in
psychology and related fields more successfully negotiate the thesis and dis-
sertation process from beginning to end. We included everything from deciding
whether and how to embark on the journey to developing, implementing,
and writing up the project; managing the myriad logistical issues involved in
 What Are Theses and Dissertations? 5

making it to and through a successful defense meeting; and then disseminating

your results through professional presentation and publication.
We also wrote the book to serve as an archival source of the wisdom we have
amassed from a combined total of close to 100 years of supervising theses and
dissertations. All of us have told graduate students many useful (and some-
times not-so-useful!) things over the years to help them through the process.
Until we systematized these suggestions, we, like other faculty members, had
Copyright American Psychological Association

to tell each fledgling thesis or dissertation student everything all over again.
The first edition of this book compiled the best of our ideas on how to make
the process a less mysterious and more exciting educational experience, and the
second edition added a few things we left out and updated our suggestions in
light of new trends in the field.
In the 13 years since the second edition was published, research areas
and methods, expectations and requirements for theses and dissertations, and
technology have all changed in notable ways. The pages that follow address
these changes. Although we aim our suggestions primarily at graduate students
in psychology and related fields and focus more on quantitative than qualita-
tive research methods, much of the content of the book will be useful across
disciplines, research methods, and levels of research experience. Importantly,
we hope that many of our suggestions will be generalizable beyond thesis and
dissertation projects to an ongoing program of research, other types of formal
proposals (e.g., grant applications), collaborative projects that require com-
mittee approval, dissemination to multiple audiences, and even your general
approach to multifaceted and long-range tasks.

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

The 14 chapters of this book provide the tools needed to assemble good theses
and dissertations. Of course, simply reading this book is not sufficient to fully
prepare you for the thesis or dissertation process. The book will be most valu-
able as a supplement to an already adequate graduate education. We do not
explain research ethics, designs, methods, or statistics. Instead, we help you
apply what you have already learned in graduate school to the practical conduct
of research and point you toward resources to supplement that knowledge as
needed.
In this chapter, we talk briefly about what theses and dissertations are, what
they look like, and some of the reasons for doing one. Then, in Chapter 2, we
ask you to assess your own preparation and commitment. Chapter 3 helps
you estimate the time you will need to complete your project and anticipate
and manage the various events that can come along to derail your efforts.
Chapter 4 discusses finding a topic and developing a research question and
hypotheses. Because this is most often done in collaboration with one or
more faculty members, Chapter 4 also contains advice about selecting a chair
and committee members and about thesis and dissertation etiquette in general.
 6 Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish

Chapter 5 provides an overview of the all-important thesis or dissertation

proposal, and Chapter 6 follows with suggestions for developing your literature
review. Chapter 7 discusses what to include in a good Method section, along
with issues of research ethics and informed consent. Operationalizing and
measuring your variables, collecting and analyzing your data, and presenting
and discussing your results are covered in Chapters 8 through 12. Chapter 13
reviews strategies for handling your proposal meeting and oral defense.
Copyright American Psychological Association

Finally, Chapter 14 discusses readying your research for presentation at pro-

fessional meetings and submission for publication.
Each chapter begins with an advance organizer that gives you, in a few
bullet points, an idea of what to expect in the chapter as well as advice to help
you decide whether you should read the chapter thoroughly or can skim
or skip certain pieces of the chapter. Most chapters end with a checklist that
turns our suggestions from that chapter into concrete steps you can take to
move your project forward. You can adapt these checklists to suit your project
and use them to keep track of your progress.
At the end of most chapters, we also provide references to supplemental
sources you might find useful if you want to explore the topics in more depth.
These resources are ones we have found particularly useful for ourselves or
our students. Although websites come and go, we provide references to a few
websites that we believe offer particularly useful advice and may have some
staying power. When our reason for recommending a specific resource may
not be obvious, we provide a brief explanation of its topic and relevance.
The topics we cover follow the sequence you would normally encounter
in the thesis or dissertation process. We think most readers will benefit from
reading the chapters in order as they approach each new phase of their
research. Some readers, especially if they’ve had a great deal of experience in
a specific area, may want to focus more selectively on areas that are new to
them. It will be useful to skim the entire book quickly before digging in so
you have some idea of its contents and where to look for something should
you want to focus on it or need it in a sequence different from the one we
have chosen.
Now let’s go back to the first question posed in the title of this chapter:
What are theses and dissertations, anyway? First, we define them and talk a
little bit about their history. Then we say something about what theses and
dissertations in psychology actually look like.

DEFINITIONS, DISTINCTIONS, AND FUNCTIONS

Dictionary definitions of “thesis” and “dissertation” often do not distinguish

between these terms. Merriam-Webster (n.d.-a) defines a dissertation as “an
extended usually written treatment of a subject; specifically: one submitted for
a doctorate.” The same source defines thesis as “a dissertation embodying results
of original research and especially substantiating a specific view; especially:
 What Are Theses and Dissertations? 7

one written by a candidate for an academic degree” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.-c).

Similarly, the Oxford English Dictionary defines dissertation as “a long essay on a
particular subject, especially one written for a university degree or diploma”
(AskOxford.com, n.d.-a) and thesis as “a long essay or dissertation involving
personal research, written as part of a university degree” and gives the exam-
ple of “a doctoral thesis” (AskOxford.com, n.d.-b). Not only is there no clear
distinction between the terms “thesis” and “dissertation,” but both definitions
of the former include the latter!
Copyright American Psychological Association

In U.S. universities, it has become common to distinguish between theses

and dissertations by referring to the work done for a master’s degree as a
“thesis” and that done for a doctoral degree as a “dissertation.” This is not a
universally accepted distinction, by any means, and some faculty members
refer to dissertations as “doctoral theses.” Throughout this volume, we use
the term “dissertation” to refer to an original piece of empirical research done
as partial fulfillment of the requirements of doctoral (EdD, PhD, or PsyD)
programs in psychology and related fields. We use “thesis” to refer to empirical
research conducted en route to a master’s degree.
Despite terminological ambiguities, most faculty members agree on the gen-
eral functions of theses and dissertations. One major purpose of both projects
is to demonstrate the student’s skill at conducting independent research that
makes a contribution to knowledge on an important topic. Another is to
assess the student’s mastery of a specialized area of scholarship. Some see the
dissertation process as examining mastery of technical aspects of research,
including knowledge and ability to apply principles of research design, statistics,
and so on. Thus, the dissertation process is an examination of your compe-
tence to function autonomously as a researcher. The finished dissertation also
results in a new and significant contribution to the body of knowledge.
Theses, too, are expected to contribute to the body of knowledge. Thesis
requirements place less emphasis on originality, however, and candidates are
often given more guidance and supervision. Some thesis candidates conduct a
systematic replication of already completed research, for example. In addition,
thesis candidates rarely operate as independently as doctoral candidates must.
Not to be overlooked is the training function theses and dissertations serve.
In undertaking such a project, you learn and grow in your research skills
and knowledge of the field. You expand your skills in thinking critically,
synthesizing and extending the work of others, and communicating clearly
and professionally. Ideally, the process should also increase your respect for
the empirical aspects of the discipline and your pride in participating in the
development of new knowledge about important phenomena.

WHAT THESES AND DISSERTATIONS LOOK LIKE

You have probably asked yourself numerous questions about the form your
thesis or dissertation is supposed to take. Must you use particular methods?
How long is it supposed to be? What format are you supposed to follow?
 8 Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish

Are there writing style requirements to follow? Let’s look at some of these
questions.
First, about methods. Although this book focuses primarily on empirical
projects that involve quantitative research, not all theses and dissertations
require this type of project. The traditional terminal degree in psychology,
the PhD, virtually always requires an empirical project; frequently, these use
quantitative methods, but increasingly, mainstream psychology research
uses qualitative or mixed (i.e., quantitative and qualitative) methods. Some
Copyright American Psychological Association

applied psychology programs offer an alternative terminal degree, the PsyD,

or doctor in psychology. PsyD programs explicitly prepare students for careers
as practitioners and thus may have somewhat different degree requirements
than PhD programs. For example, many practitioner-oriented schools allow
alternatives to the traditional empirical dissertation, such as a theoretical dis-
sertation (or, more rarely, a case study) that addresses a clearly defined question
and makes an original contribution to knowledge. However, many students
in PsyD programs still complete an empirical dissertation. In a 1992 survey of
directors of 40 “Vail-model” programs (i.e., professional clinical psychology
programs, which presumably included a significant number of PsyD programs)
in the United States, Sanchez-Hucles and Cash learned that despite the variety
of acceptable dissertation formats, approximately half of the students in these
programs elected to conduct empirical dissertations. Our recent informal
consultations with colleagues in PsyD programs indicate that this is still true.
As for length, there is a great deal of variability within and between disci-
plines and within and between universities. Although we do not have objective
data on theses, we do know something about the length of dissertations.
We recently randomly sampled 100 dissertations completed in 2016–2017
selected from the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database. Psychology dis-
sertations had a mean length of 132 pages, including text, tables, appendices,
and related items, with a range of 42 to 285 pages.1 Interestingly, these
numbers suggest that dissertations have become shorter in the past 15 years;
when we sampled 2001–2002 dissertations, they averaged 44% longer, with
minimum and maximum lengths close to double our current range (Cone &
Foster, 2006). Likely this is due to the increased acceptability of publication-
style dissertations. Our educated guess is that master’s theses would average
about two thirds this length, or about 88 pages.
As for format: Yes, there is a format you are supposed to follow. This
format is dictated by your particular academic department and institution.
We suggest that you get in touch with the people knowledgeable about such
matters and learn about your local requirements. These people can usually be
found in your department’s graduate services office, your institution’s gradu-
ate school or office of graduate studies, or your library. They typically have a
website or written materials that spell out the acceptable format or formats.
In addition, they can most likely provide you with other useful information,

We are indebted to Madison Beedon for collecting these data.

1
 What Are Theses and Dissertations? 9

such as timelines, committee requirements, document deposit requirements,

fees, and so on. Theses and dissertations in psychology commonly follow the
style and format guidelines set forth in the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (also referred to as the Publication Manual; American
Psychological Association, 2020). This book has been written in that format,
and many journals in the behavioral sciences adhere to it. You will see frequent
references to the Publication Manual throughout this book.
Although the Publication Manual provides an often-followed format, it is
Copyright American Psychological Association

not universally accepted, even in schools and departments of psychology.

Furthermore, even where it is accepted, local deviations often exist (e.g., sec-
tions or chapters to include, their order, reference format, placement of tables)
that you will do well to discover. We advise you to make learning the local
norms one of your first priorities. You will save time and aggravation by
writing and referencing in the locally accepted format right from the start.
A good place to begin to find out what your thesis or dissertation will even-
tually look like is to examine some of those completed by previous students
working with the same committee chairs you are considering. These provide
good, concrete examples of what you can expect. Ask faculty members for
some suggestions. Be aware that completed projects vary in quality, and
faculty members should be able to direct you to the better quality examples.
Because norms for the format and content of a thesis or dissertation may also
differ depending on your specific area of research, you should ask for exam-
ples that are most relevant to the type of research you are contemplating.
Chapter 4 deals specifically with the selection of committee chairs, so don’t
worry if you haven’t yet selected one.
What, in general, will your final document contain? It will most likely
resemble a journal article, or sometimes a series of articles but with more
detail. The traditional thesis or dissertation begins with a table of contents and
then launches into a review of the literature. Following this are the Method,
Results, and finally Discussion sections. A reference section contains details on
the works cited in the text, and appendices provide supplemental material,
such as equipment blueprints, consent forms, data recording forms, and some-
times even raw data. Recently, many departments have begun to encourage
alternative formats that are closer to submission-ready journal articles but
that still allow students to demonstrate in-depth mastery of relevant knowl-
edge. These alternatives may include a journal-length document with an
appendix containing an extended literature review or a portfolio-style project
consisting of a series of two to three studies completed during doctoral study,
often with an integrated introduction and discussion. The portfolio-style alter-
native is more common at the dissertation stage, once students have amassed
a body of work, than at the thesis stage. We say more about these alternative
formats throughout the book.
So, there you have it. You know what theses and dissertations are and
what they look like. The remainder of this book discusses the nuts and bolts
of the process you will follow to complete this major undertaking. Now,
 10 Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish

let’s turn our attention to what is probably the most important question of
this chapter.

WHY DO A THESIS OR DISSERTATION IN THE FIRST PLACE?

There are many reasons for doing a thesis or dissertation. In the final analysis,
you are writing one because your graduate program requires you to do so to
Copyright American Psychological Association

obtain a specific degree. There are other good reasons as well, of course. Some
are pragmatic and directly related to your career plans: The project, as a way
to showcase your conceptual, methodological, analytic, and communication
skills, might be your stepping-stone to an academic research or teaching
position or an applied job. Any publications that emerge from the project, as
well as a rich data set that you may be able to work from for several years,
can also jump-start your career and help you maintain momentum as you
transition from trainee to professional.
Other reasons are more purely intellectual. Research offers many challenges
and opportunities to think about and solve conceptual, methodological, and
practical problems. Conducting research is a way to find out more about
some psychological or other behavioral science phenomenon that piques your
curiosity. Completing a thesis or dissertation can also provide the personal
satisfaction of taking on and mastering a complex and challenging task and
seeing how your intellectual skills have grown during the process.
Now that you are at this point in your program, take a moment to consider
how you view this specific requirement. Is it merely a troublesome hoop to
jump through on your way to a degree? Are you looking for the easiest,
quickest way to get beyond it? Do you eagerly anticipate gaining useful skills
during the project? Is it an opportunity for you to continue research you are
already doing? Do you see it as having any relevance to the work you plan
after graduation—for example, as a key part of your developing program of
research or a chance to master and advance knowledge of an area in which
you plan to practice?
As cognitive behavior therapists know, the way you think about the major
research you are about to undertake will contribute to the enjoyment, ease,
and speed with which you conduct the project and the amount you learn
from it. If you are filled with curiosity about some aspect of psychology or
about the process of doing research in psychology, good for you! You will
probably have the stamina to stick with your project from start to finish.
You will probably even have some fun along the way. You probably haven’t
gotten this far if you don’t enjoy learning. For many of us, doing research is
the ultimate learning experience. Even if the prospect of embarking on your
thesis or dissertation is daunting and you’re not sure it will qualify as “fun,”
it will be useful to concentrate on the positive aspects of the project and to
view the hurdles you will encounter as challenges and growth opportunities
rather than obstacles. With that attitude, although the project may never rise
 What Are Theses and Dissertations? 11

to the level of fun, it can be a very satisfying, rewarding, and esteem-building

experience.

FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

Before ending this chapter, a word of warning is in order. Some of the advice
we offer will not be useful to you. Not every strategy works well for every
Copyright American Psychological Association

student, and not every faculty member or department orchestrates the thesis
and dissertation process with the same instruments and score. There are
almost as many ways of getting from the beginning to the end of the thesis
and dissertation process as there are graduate students. The key is finding
ways of negotiating the process that work for you. In addition, rules and
traditions differ from place to place. Take what we say with some healthy
skepticism, and gather information along the way to see whether your local
situation is different from what we present in this book.
Remember, completing a thesis or dissertation is, in some respects, a rite of
passage. As with most such rites, some of the process may seem arbitrary and
nonfunctional. If you acknowledge this up front and decide to do what needs
to be done, whether it makes complete sense or not, you will succeed much
more easily and have a lot more fun along the way. Remember to keep your
eyes on the prize, and engage in lots of positive self-talk as you do.
In other words, don’t get too intimidated or annoyed by the thesis or
dissertation process. Yes, it’s lengthy. Yes, it involves seemingly arbitrary
requirements. Yes, you may never have done anything quite like this before.
Yes, it may be scary. And yes, you, like many others, will probably complete
the process and earn your degree. Remember, most of the project will involve
skills you already have. In addition, your chair and committee will be there to
help. One of our students put it very well:
As I come to the close of my graduate process and the completion of my dis-
sertation, one thought keeps coming back to me—that any goal is possible given
two factors: 1) the ability to break things down into tiny steps, and 2) the sup-
port of family, friends, and the community. (Dionne, 1992, p. iii)

We know you are motivated, or you wouldn’t be reading this book. Are
you ready to act on this motivation? Let’s turn to Chapter 2 to examine your
preparation in some detail and find out what you might do to be even better
prepared for the task ahead.