Postgraduate Course: DClinPsychol Thesis (CLPS12038)
Course Outline
| School | School of Health in Social Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 12 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Dissertation |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 140 |
ECTS Credits | 70 |
| Summary | This course comprises the major research component of the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, enabling trainee clinical psychologists to design, develop and undertake a significant original research project.
The thesis project is based upon original research relevant to clinical psychology practice and comprises two papers prepared according to the format of a journal of the trainee¿s choosing. These take the form of a paper describing a piece of empirical research and a systematic review/meta-analysis of the literature in a related area.
Please note that due to the nature of the course, which essentially takes part over 3 years for full time trainees, the course credits are spread across the years of training. Twenty credits are nominally allocated to year 1 and year two with the remainder, comprising 140 credits in total, awarded in the final year. |
| Course description |
The DClinPsychol thesis is a 140-credit doctoral thesis which trainees work towards during all years of their training. Whilst most tuition for the thesis is provided via individually tailored research supervision with academic thesis supervisor(s), relevant whole class teaching is shared with the Research 1 course (which involves preparing a thesis proposal to aid trainees in project risk assessment and project planning) and the Research 2 course (which involves undertaking a small service related project). There is an emphasis on teaching transferable research competencies, such as project management, data management, writing concisely, preparing research reports for publication and systematic critical appraisal of literature.
Specifically, learning and teaching activities comprise; Lecture hours 55, Project supervision 72, Fieldwork hours 540, Feedback / Feedforward hours 43, Summative assessment hours 2, programme level learning and teaching hours 28, directed learning and independent learning hours 660. Total hours 1400.
Academic thesis supervisors are selected to enable a best possible match of their research expertise to the requirements of the project. These academic supervisors are allocated within the first few months of training and then meet with the trainee for research supervision once a month, in addition to providing feedback on drafts of proposals and chapters. A clinical thesis field supervisor with expertise in the area of the project is also expected to be part of the research team. Class teaching and thesis supervision are supplemented by e-learning resources on the Research and Statistics and Thesis sections of Learn.
Assessment is via a doctoral thesis, which includes a systematic review and an empirical project written up according to the guidelines for a suitable peer reviewed journal. The thesis should not exceed 30,000 words and is assessed in accordance with the current University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Assessment Regulations for Research Degrees.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 51 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
1400
(
Lecture Hours 60,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 28,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
1312 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
A thesis project of up to 30,000 words submitted for assessment and examined in viva by an internal and an external examiner. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback will be given by supervisors throughout the process.
Summtive feedback will be given once the thesis process is complete. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Under supervision, exercise a high level of autonomy and initiative in developing, designing and conducting a clinically relevant research project leading to a systematic review and a research article..
- Demonstrate an ability to critically evaluate applied psychological research.
- Recognise ethical issues and apply for and obtain appropriate ethical approval.
- Demonstrate originality and creativity in the development and application of new knowledge, understanding and practices.
- Be capable of communicating research findings in a journal format at the standard expected of academic peer-reviewed work.
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Reading List
See also reading lists for Research 1 and Research 2 courses.
Systematic Reviews
From the York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination:
http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd
Cochrane Reviewers' Handbook: http://www.cochrane.org/handbookSIGN 50: A guideline developer's handbook: http://www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign50.pdf
Moher, D. et al. (2001). "The CONSORT statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel group randomized trials." BMC Med Res Methodol 1: 2. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2288-1-2.pdf
Booth, A., Papaioannou, D. & Sutton, A. (2012) Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review. Sage, London.
Effect sizes and power
Coe, R. (2002) What is an effect size? Building Research Capacity, 4, 6-8
http://www.tlrp.org/rcbn/capacity/Journal/issue4.pdf (scroll to page 6)
Cohen, J. (1992). "A Power Primer." Psychological Bulletin 112(1): 155-159.
Clark-Carter, D. Quantitative Psychological Research: a student's handbook.
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.-G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149-1160.
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175-191.
Soper D. Online power calculators http://www.danielsoper.com/statcalc3/default.aspx
Suitability of measures (incl. overview of reliability & validity)
Fitzpatrick R., Davey C., Buxton M.J., Jones D.R. (1998). Evaluating patient-based outcome measures for use in clinical trials. Health Technology Assessment, 2 (14). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9812244
Qualitative research
See qualitative research references provided on the Learn space
Bloomberg, L.D. & Volpe, M. (2008) Completing your Qualitative Dissertation. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage
Mays, N. and Pope, C. (2000). "Qualitative research in health care. Assessing quality in qualitative research." BMJ 320(7226): 50-2. http://www.bmj.com/content/320/7226/50.1.full.pdf
Murphy, E; Dingwall R; Greatbatch, D; Parker S., Watson P. (1998). Qualitative research methods on health technology assessment: a review of the literature Health Technology Assessment; 2(16). http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hta/volume-2/issue-16 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Graduates will have gained academic competencies in knowledge development, application and transfer; professional competencies in theory-practice links, communication, evaluation and research and research competencies in analytical thinking, ethical practice, organisational ability, research reporting and data preparation & management. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Maria Gardani
Tel:
Email: maria.gardani@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Timothy Abbot
Tel: (0131 6)50 8498
Email: Tim.Abbot@ed.ac.uk |
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