Dissertation

Semester and Year Offered: 6th Semester, 3rd Year

Course Coordinator and Team: Mamatha Karollil, Anshumita Pandey and Vatsala Saxena

Email of course coordinator: mamatha[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim:

The main aim of the dissertation course is to let the student know how basic research is done and to expand the horizon of their knowledge through independent research. The undergraduate program in Psychology provides students with research skills through the courses on Statistics, Methods in Psychology, Experiments in Psychology, Psychological Testing and Case Study. In keeping with the empirical tradition in Psychology, the dissertation will allow a few of the students to further these capacities by exploring a research question with a small sample, reading appropriate research around the question and formulating a set of responses to the question on the basis of these. The end result will be a dissertation of about 10,000-15,000 words. Each dissertation student is assigned to and supervised by one Psychology faculty till the completion of the dissertation work. The dissertation student is closely and carefully monitored by the supervisor on the progress of the dissertation work. The supervisor may ask the student to read different literatures from time to time and assign to different places for data collections. Basic research methods and psychological tests might be taught to the student by the supervisor as need arises. Students are expected to learn the writing skills and different formatting styles especially American Psychological Association (APA) pattern of formatting for the undergraduate level.

Course Outcomes:

1. To learn the fundamental basics of doing research and acquiring of knowledge through self exploration and experience.
2. To develop the necessary skills of a researcher and ability to write academic research papers.
3. To better link and apply theoretical knowledge with individual research findings.
4. To learn different techniques and methods in understanding psychological and social realities.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Not applicable.

Assessment Details with weights:

• Dissertation Write-Up: 70%
• Viva:30%
• Reading List: Not Applicable

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE: Not Applicable