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Dissertation Experiences Of Doctoral Graduates From Professional Psychology Programs, Alan Burkard, Sarah Knox, Shauna Elizabeth Fuller, Clara E. Hill, Lewis Z. Schlosser

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Worldwide, dissertation experiences are acknowledged to be challenging endeavors for students and the faculty members who advise them, and dissertation completion continues to be a concern when seeking to improve overall doctoral graduation rates. Although a number of factors have been associated with completion rates across disciplines, further research is needed within professional psychology graduate programs to understand overall student dissertation experiences. In this USA-based investigation, a mixed-method design was used to examine the experiences of 25 professional psychology doctoral graduates’ dissertation experiences, 12 of which were self-identified as positive and 13 as negative. Participants with positive experiences typically had …