Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in School Psychology
Doctoral Project
The Doctoral Project is a culminating component of the academic program. The student selects a topic of school psychology practice that has emerged as a particular area of interest. Doctoral project work promotes the integration, expansion and consolidation of previously established research and/or investigation competencies. Acceptable types of projects are as follows:
- Intervention Study
- Evaluation of a program or service
- Survey
- Measure or Test Development
- Qualitative study
- Empirical or quasi-empirical research study
- Action research
Students take two courses (Doctoral Project I: Advanced Research Methods, and Doctoral Project II: Project Design and Development), usually in the second year of post-CAGS enrollment, to supplement previous research training and to expedite their completion of the doctoral program. Students then register for Doctoral Project III and (if necessary) Doctoral Project IV for ongoing individual mentorship by the doctoral project chair.
The stages and components of the doctoral projects are as follows:
- Topic selection
- Selecting a doctoral project committee and chair
- Prospectus (initial brief proposal)
- Proposal (first three chapters: introduction, literature review, methods)
- Final doctoral project (final version of above, plus results and discussion)
- Colloquium (public presentation of project)
Updated 9/21/09