

How to Navigate the Doctoral Dissertation Process
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this comprehensive and engaging course, you will be able to:
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- Identify key differences between a Doctoral Dissertation and a Master’s Thesis
- Review the standard timeline for the completion of a Doctoral Dissertation
- List the 5 key audiences for a Doctoral Dissertation
- Use a structured checklist to select a Doctoral Dissertation topic
- Conduct a systematic literature search and prepare an annotated bibliography
- Formulate research questions and hypotheses for your Doctoral Dissertation
- Choose the methodological design and statistical analytic approach for your Doctoral Dissertation
- Prepare a successful Institutional Review Board (IRB) application to get ethics approval for your Doctoral Dissertation research
- Use a structured checklist to select a Doctoral Dissertation advisor and contact them using an e-mail template
- Use a structured checklist to select Doctoral Dissertation committee members and contact them using an e-mail template
- Effectively communicate with your advisor and committee members throughout the Doctoral Dissertation process
- Navigate common problems encountered with advisors and committee members
- Develop effective coping strategies to deal with repeated rejection, Imposter Syndrome, and burnout
Instructor

Sarah M. Coyne, PhD is Mary Lou Fulton Professor of Human Development in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. She received her BSc in Psychology from Utah State University and her PhD in Psychology from the University of Central Lancashire. Dr. Coyne is a popular speaker at both national as well as international conferences and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications on topics including media, aggression, gender, and child development. Dr. Coyne currently serves as an Editorial Board Member for Psychology of Popular Media Culture as well as Developmental Psychology, and she is former Associate Editor of Aggressive Behavior. Her research has been supported by grants from leading funding bodies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).