Research for San Diego Clinical PhD Program

Students are required to complete a dissertation which demonstrates that the student has learned investigative techniques, has made a contribution to knowledge and has developed skills that will prove useful in assuming a professional role. A dissertation committee, composed of a chairperson and two other members, helps each student develop the dissertation proposal, reads and passes on the quality of the final dissertation, and administers and evaluates the student's oral examination. Each doctoral student is responsible for enlisting a core or research faculty member to serve as dissertation committee chairperson. The chair is commonly the leader of the dissertation group in which students participate beginning spring semester of their second year, and has expertise in the topic area. Other members of the committee consist of core faculty, adjunct faculty, or consultants with special expertise in the dissertation area.

Some students finish their dissertations by the end of the final year of their classroom work. The majority, however, continue their dissertation work beyond completion of other coursework. Extensions of one to three years may be granted to students demonstrating sufficient need and continued progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Examples of recent dissertations 

• Assessment of aggression in children: An exploration of self and peer report methods
  Author: Heather O'Shea
  Chair: Sharon Foster
• The association between psychopathy and autonomic reactivity in young adolescents  
  Author: Rebecca L. Moore
  Chair: Donald J. Viglione
• Obstacles to empathy in sex offenders: Recognition and interpretation of children's emotional cues 
  Author: Carlos A. Cuevas
  Chair: Constance J. Dalenberg
• The relationship between anger expression style and depressive symptomatology in African American men
  Author: Diane Drishell Waddell
  Chair: Richard Baker
• The effects of expressive writing on psychosocial adjustment and autonomic arousal in individuals with mild to moderate hypertension
  Author: xxxx
  Chair:   Melanie A. Greenberg