CCP Students are required to complete a Doctoral Dissertation, which serves as the capstone project for their research training in the CCP Program. The Doctoral Dissertation is a relatively independent project in which the student demonstrates the capacity for original research, the ability to review appropriate background material, formulate and address significant question(s), obtain, collate, and analyze data and draw logical conclusions, and integrate the new knowledge into the greater body of existing literature and state its significance. Doctoral Dissertations must conform to the Criteria for Research Projects Satisfying CCP Program Milestones. The Doctoral Dissertation involves several logistical requirements, in addition to the research project itself. Students must become familiar with and complete the requirements as directed by the CCP Program and the Graduate School/University. Questions about program requirements can be directed to your mentor and/or the DCT/A-DCT. Questions about Graduate School requirements can be directed to DeAnna Cobb (deannacobb@southalabama.edu or gradschool@southalabama.edu).
The Dissertation, Step-by-Step
Review this webpage and this document.
Discuss with your mentor your intent to begin work on your dissertation
Select a topic and delineate a problem that can be studied in terms of time, available resources, and accessible samples.
Select the Dissertation Committee members and request their participation on your committee.
Submit the relevant form to establish the committee
This form should be submitted via email to the DCT and the CCP Program Assistant. Students are not allowed to enroll in CCP799 credits until this form is completed and approved. For committee members who are NOT graduate faculty, including those external to USA, a second form is required by the graduate school.
Write your Dissertation Proposal
Conduct an exhaustive search of the literature for relevant studies on the topic of choice. Organize and synthesize the extant literature to inform any refinement to the primary research question and hypotheses. Generate a methodological and analytical approach that adequately addresses the research question and allows for the testing of the stated hypotheses. A proposal consists of an introduction, literature review, a statement of research questions and hypotheses as well as how constructs will be measured and how hypotheses will be analyzed.
The USA Graduate School offers a multitude of resources you should review, including a Guide for Preparing the Prospectus and the Guide for Preparing Theses and Dissertations. Although you do not have to submit your proposal to the graduate school, using these documents to guide formatting will save you time later. When that Graduate School documents do not specify format, the most recent version of the APA Publication Manual should be followed.
Schedule your Dissertation Proposal Meeting
Your mentor must indicate that your proposal document is sufficiently well developed and approve you to schedule the proposal meeting.
Submit your Dissertation Proposal document to your Dissertation Committee no later than 2 weeks before the Dissertation Proposal Meeting. Failure to provide your document to your committee may result in having to reschedule the meeting, which may delay your ability to proceed in the program.
This meeting is open to all interested Psychology Department and Department of Counseling & Instructional Sciences students and faculty members. Notice of the time and place of the meeting must be entered into the CCP Thesis & Dissertation Calendar. You were provided access to this Shared Calendar with editing privileges. Contact the DCT/A-DCT if you do not have access or are unable to locate the calendar.
Present your Dissertation Proposal
The Dissertation Proposal meeting will involve a presentation of the project and solicitation of feedback from the committee to inform any revisions to the proposed methods and analyses and identify gaps in the literature review.
Upon approval from the committee, the student may commence with the proposed project. See below for details on evaluation and approval.
Conduct your dissertation study
If your study involves human research, you must obtain IRB approval prior to beginning data collection.
Upon completion of data collection, conduct your data analysis.
Write your Dissertation Document
Make revisions to the introduction, methods, and analysis sections (e.g., change tense, revisions requested at the proposal meeting) and write the results and discussion sections.
Work with your mentor to revise the document towards in preparation for the Dissertation Defense.
If you haven't already, you should become familiar with the graduate school formatting requirements and that multitude of resources mentioned earlier.
Schedule your Dissertation Defense Meeting
Your mentor must indicate that your document is sufficiently well developed and approve you to schedule the proposal defense.
Submit your "final" Dissertation document to your Dissertation Committee no later than 2 weeks before the Dissertation Defense Meeting.
Email DeAnna Cobb (deannacobb@southalabama.edu or gradschool@southalabama.edu) to notify her of the date of your defense. She will make the required announcement to the University.
Notice of the time and place of the meeting must be entered into the CCP Thesis & Dissertation Calendar.
Present your Dissertation Defense
The Dissertation Defense meeting will involve a presentation of the project with an emphasis on the results and discussion of findings. The Defense meeting is intended to confirm your development of knowledge and skills and mastery of your major topic area and the project you conducted. As such, the Defense meeting involves evaluating that students have met minimal levels of achievement in different aspects of training.
The committee may require that the student performs additional revisions and/or another Defense meeting if the student is deemed to have not met expectations.
Obtain your committee members' signatures on your front/Dissertation Signature Page. These signatures can be electronic (e.g., adobe sign).
Revise your Dissertation Document
This revision may include required edits from your committee.
Upon approval by the committee, make sure that your document conforms to the formatting requirements of the Graduate School (see the Guide for Preparing Theses and Dissertations, University of South Alabama).
Submit your Dissertation Document
You must submit your signed Dissertation Document and the Dissertation Submission Form to the graduate school for review and processing. Deadlines for "first submission" of your Dissertation Document are published on the graduate school website. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have completed and submitted your document in a timely manner and within the timeline of your desired semester of graduation.
Resources to Support the Dissertation
While the Psychology Department or the Department of Counseling & Instructional Sciences may be able to furnish equipment and space necessary for dissertation research, this must be approved by the respective department chair prior to final approval of your proposal. Normally, any expenses incurred, including photocopying expenses and test materials, are the responsibility of the student. USA Students may also apply for the Graduate Student Activities Enhancement Award, which can provide funds to support dissertation projects.
Turnitin Review
The dissertation chair must submit the final draft to Turnitin prior to final acceptance. The results of this submission must be shared with the committee. Any evidence of plagiarism may result in a referral for an academic misconduct charge.
Evaluation of the Dissertation (Proposal & Defense)
Research Milestones, including the Dissertation Proposal and Defense, are evaluated by each committee member independently using the Research Milestone Evaluation Form. This form is completed via a RedCap Survey. A pdf copy of this form is provided here to help students understand the domains in which they will be evaluated.
These forms are completed after the presentation and any questions from the committee are addressed, during which time the student is asked to leave the room. Following completion of the evaluation form, the committee members discuss their ratings and determine the outcome, which include PASS, PRELIMINARY PASS, and FAIL.
PASS is determined when the student has been rated as at least competent ("3") in all domains assessed.
PRELIMINARY PASS is determined when the student receives one or more ratings of "2" (less then competent, but not poor) by any number of committee members, and specific revisions to the document are required. In such circumstances the committee members may request that they be given a revised copy of the document before providing their final signatures of approval. Students who receive a rating of "1" (poor) by one faculty member on a domain may still be provided a preliminary pass if deemed appropriate by the committee.
FAIL is determined when two or more committee members provide a rating of "1" (poor) on any domain on the written document or oral defense. In such circumstances, the chair will aggregate required improvements and feedback from the committee and is responsible for communicating this to the student and working with the student to improve the document and/or oral defense to a degree that a second attempt is warranted. The same evaluation procedures are used in a second attempt, with the exception being that a student who is deemed to have failed the second attempt is automatically dismissed from the CCP Program.
Approval of the Dissertation
The dissertation proposal must be completed and approved by October 15th of the academic year in which the student applies for their predoctoral internship in order to be eligible to apply for predoctoral internship.
Following the dissertation defense and approval by the committee (indicated by a defense determination of PASS), the final document must prepared according to the graduate school formatting requirements and the signature page and graduate school submission forms signed by the committee and the Department Chair. Once the department chair has signed the signature page and graduate school submission form, the student submits the dissertation to the Director of Graduate Studies for the College of Arts & Sciences (usually one of the Associate Deans). The Arts & Sciences Director of Graduate Studies provides and receives completed edits and signs the signature page and final dissertation form.
Importance of Timely Responding by Student
The student must respond in a timely manner to all reviewing parties at each of these stages. A failure to respond and make edits in a timely manner may result in the dissertation not being completed on track within the expected timeline for CCP students previously set forth in this Handbook. The expectation is that the student will submit the finished dissertation during the summer deadline of their fifth year in the program, and, having completed all PhD coursework and the dissertation by the end of that summer semester, will graduate at that time.
Correct Notation of Graduation Date
Students must be precise in listing the month in which they intend to graduate with their PhD on the signature page of the dissertation document when submitting the final dissertation document to the graduate school. Students have become confused in the past because there is not a graduation ceremony held by USA at the end of summer, and the next graduation ceremony is in the following December. This has led students to believe that they were not graduating from the PhD until December, which was in error as they completed their degree at the end of the summer semester. Note, students can request to take part in the spring graduation ceremony to commemorate completion of their PhD degree, even if they have not completed all coursework or the dissertation by the end of spring semester. Student wishing to take part in the spring graduation ceremony should speak with the CCP secretary, DCT or A-DCT for guidance on how to obtain approval to do so.
Dissertation Grades
At the end of each semester in which a student is enrolled for the CCP 799 dissertation course an academic grade, e.g. A-F, is required to be entered reflecting the progress made and the quality of the progress made by the student up to that point. In assigning a grade, CCP faculty may take into consideration prior work deadlines and progress benchmarks that were established between them and the students at the outset of that semester. Students cannot be given a grade of “P” (in progress) and should only be given a grade of “I” (incomplete) if some unforeseen circumstances impeded their completing the expected progress at the expected quality on their dissertation project up to that point.
Completion of a dissertation, as evidenced by entering of a grade of “B” or higher on the final dissertation course credit, is determined by the approval of the mentor, a majority of your committee, the Psychology Department chair, and the Dean of the Graduate School. Typically, a student will be enrolled in CCP 799 continuously from the inception of the research to its completion. However, a student MUST complete at least 9 credit hours of CCP 799 course credits in order to graduate and must be enrolled in at least one credit hour of dissertation in the semester in which they intends to graduate, unless an override to this policy is granted by the Dean of the Graduate School.