Dissertation in Psychology 03

Please SUBMIT your Dissertation by the end of Week 15

Prior to submitting please make sure of the following:

1) The dissertation should not significantly exceed 7500 words (+/- 10%) in length (plus 500 words dissemination activity placed in the appendix) and should be submitted within all agreed parameters. This does not include references or appendices. 

2) It is typed carefully as per the requirements of MSc Psychology

3) It includes ALL THE REQUIRED chapters and sections:

- A title page (as per the example provided in week 14)

- An abstract of 200 words

- A declaration of Authenticity

- A contents page with chapter headings and page numbers

- An acknowledgements page 300 words

- The main body of the dissertation divided as:

· Introduction  1000 words approx.

(Including- Clearly stated scene-setting, research background, research gaps, the purpose of the study)

· Review of Literature  1000 words approx.

(Including carefully designed sub-chapters, critical review of current literature, and argumentative structure of theoretical frameworks)

· Methodology  1500 words approx.

(Including- Clearly stated research approach and design, methodological criteria for selection of reading sources or texts for analysis, ethical considerations to research etc)

· Results & Findings  1500 words approx.

(Including- Clear presentation of research findings, critical discussion of results with a clear connection to literature, re-assessment of research hypotheses/Research questions under the light of the new findings)

· Conclusions and Discussion 2000 words approx.

(Including a clear summary of key parts of the study, theoretical and methodological contributions, recommendations for further research, strengths and limitations of the current study, and implications of the study for practise or policy stated completely and clearly)

· Appendices (Dissemination Activity) 500 words approx. (Including- A clear analysis of Who would be a suitable audience for your research study, how do you intend to disseminate your research? Who can be benefited from your results after reading your dissertation??)

4) To acknowledge all sources by citing and referencing them.

5) The formatting of your citations and references is always in line with the requirements of the APA Referencing System

Assessment Task:

This Dissertation assessment will involve you undertaking and reporting on a desktop project, supported by a written text (the Dissertation submission) of 7,500 words(+/- 10%). You will be facilitated through this research process under the supervision of an individual tutor as well as other members of the tutorial team and outside advisors as appropriate.

Full guidance on the Dissertation Module (PL4D119), the research process, the responsibilities and practicalities of the supervision process, structure of your dissertation, and other important information are provided in the MSc Psychology Dissertation Handbook. You should refer to this supporting handbook regularly throughout this module.

Please note that information on the grading criteria and marking processes for the Dissertation are also provided in the Appendices section of the handbook.

Assignment Guidelines:

1. Title: This should be as concise as possible and should indicate the key facets of the study.

2. Abstract (200 words, 10%): A brief summary of the report (maximum of 200 words) indicating the tasks investigated, describing the sample and methods, indicating the main findings and hinting at their implications. Ideally, an abstract should be self-contained to such a degree that a (professional) reader can grasp what you did and what you found, together with an idea of their implications, without reading the full report.

The abstract should be the last section you write and needs to be structured using the following sub-headings:

· Background

· Aims

· Methods

· Results

· Conclusions

3. Acknowledgements (300 words, 5%): It is usual practice to briefly thank those individuals who have helped and supported you in completing your research; usually your tutor, the participants who have given their time, health or other professionals who have facilitated your access to research resources, etc.

4. Introduction/Literature Review (2000 words, 25%): This section should describe the general context of the study and end with the specific rationale of your study. A critical appraisal should be made of previous studies in the area together with the main theoretical views. It is very important to build a bridge for the reader between the general context and the specific motivation for your research. Attention should be drawn to the aims of your research. This section should end with a clear statement of your research questions or hypotheses

5. Method (1500 words, 20%) :

This section needs to give enough detail for another researcher to replicate what you have done. The precise ordering of the sub-sections may vary and some sections are optional or may be amalgamated.

i. Design:

This section is the most critical part of secondary data research. You should address eligibility criteria and justify the type of secondary data and what study is included in your research. For instance, you need to specify study characteristics (e.g., PICOS, length of follow-up) and report characteristics (e.g., years considered, language, publication status) used as criteria for eligibility, giving rationale.

ii. Data resources:

You describe all information sources, e.g. databases and included studies. Furthermore, you need to present your search strategy and address how to o identify and select these studies. it is critical that you should report evaluation on relevance of datasets for the study together with a brief explanation of why the design was chosen.

iii. Procedure:

You need to describe method of data extraction from reports (e.g., piloted forms, independently, in duplicate) and any processes for obtaining and confirming data from investigators.

iv. Data analysis:

Explain how the data were collated and describe any statistical procedures used. This is also required for qualitative data and the process must be described.

6. Results (1500 words, 15%) :

In this section you should describe your findings in terms of main trends and interesting details. However, don’t interpret them – that should be in your discussion. It is a good plan to start with a simple statement of results and to use graphs and tables of summary data. It is essential that you describe the results in writing. Do not simply present graphs, tables or the results of statistical tests and expect them to speak for you. Tables and figures should present the data in a clear and concise manner which should be understandable without reference to anything else.

The task is to take your reader for a guided tour around your main results pointing out the interesting features. Follow the usual conventions in indicating the strength of statistical support for a finding. That is, you should describe the finding and follow it by a statement of the observed value of the test statistic together with a measure of its chance probability of occurrence. Make sure that you are using the appropriate method of analysis/ statistical tests to answer your questions. Check with your tutor!

The continuity of many results is totally ruined by mutually redundant tables and graphs, so avoid being repetitious. Likewise, tables of raw data should not be displayed in this section, but rather be placed in an Appendix, where again they cannot destroy the reader's continuity.

7. Discussion (2000 words, 25%):

It is sometimes useful to begin this section with a brief reiteration of the main findings in relation to your hypotheses and overall aims of the study. Try to start with the main findings that support your hypotheses and deal with the problematic and unsupportive findings later in the discussion. You should then turn to the task of interpreting the results you have obtained.

A number of questions can be addressed in your discussion, e.g.

· How do the results from your study compare with findings from the literature? What do they add to the literature?

· What are the theoretical and practical implications?

· What issues are still unresolved and how might they be investigated?

· Don’t go ‘beyond your data’ and make claims that you can’t justify

· It is important to be constructively critical of your research design e.g. reliability of methodology; show that you are aware of shortcomings, but don’t make an endless list.

· Conclude your discussion by reiterating the most important outcome of the research and its theoretical/practical significance.

8. References:

Using the APA method, you should provide a full list of references to articles or books that you cited.

9. Appendices

Should be clearly listed, with a separate appendix for raw data, measurements, any other relevant information that cannot be included in the main body of your report.

General reading list

APA (2009). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition). Washington: APA.

Biggham, J. (2011). Succeeding with your Master’s dissertation: A step by step handbook. Maidenhead. Open University Press

Bowling, A (2007). Research methods in Health (3rd ed). Buckingham. OUP

British Psychological Society (2014). Code of human research ethics. Leicester: The British Psychological Society

Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. London: Sage

Hinton, PR, Brownlow, C, McMurray, I & Cozens, B. (2004). SPSS Explained East Sussex Routledge

Marks, D & Yardley, L. (eds.) (2004) Research methods for Clinical and Health Psychology. London: Sage.

Smith, J.A. (ed) (2008). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods (2nd ed.). London: Sage

Michie, S. & Abraham, C. (2004). Health Psychology in Practice. Oxford: Blackwell.

Miles, J. & Gilbert, P. (Eds) (2005) A handbook of research methods for clinical & health psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Petticrew, M & Roberts, H. (2006). Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences. Oxford: Blackwell.

NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (2009). Systematic reviews: CRD's guidance for undertaking reviews in health care. (3rd ed.). York: CRD, University of York. Available from: