Literature Landscape of Psychology

Literature Landscape of Psychology

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Synthesis Paper – Research Skills

Department of Psychology, Grand Canyon University

RES- 820C: The Literature Landscape: Psychology

December 15, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synthesis Paper

In the past years, the rates of completing doctoral studies have been low, thus becoming a subject of concern. Typically, most students who join the program do not finish it for various reasons. Most concerns are related to the hardships these doctoral students go through, especially when writing their dissertations and theses.

Most of the time, challenges arise when approving the project comes. These students are required to provide theses of a high standard, and due to this, they face challenges which is the main reason why most of the delays in completing their dissertations.

A dissertation is a research project to be completed to graduate in their doctoral degree program. This project enables students to present their findings specifically concerning the questions or issues they have chosen for themselves.

The dissertation’s primary objective includes displaying a student’s research skills in independent exploration. According to Durdella (2017), a dissertation falls among the most challenging tasks that a doctoral student must complete, which is why most students deliver it late.

In their articles, the authors Klocko, Marshall, and Davidson (2015); Lindsay (2015); Lee, Chankg, and Bryan (2020) try to search the above problem and explore various ways that can be used to assist doctoral students in terms of making sure that they submit their work on time.

This is why there is a need for faculty members and peers to support these students to ensure that they complete their dissertations on time and successfully. Dissertation process writing is usually tiresome, and most of the time, it is the leading contributor to delays in doctoral accomplishment.

Lee et al. (2020) stated that approximately 56.6% of students attending universities in the United States and Canada usually complete their doctoral studies successfully without any issues. According to the authors, the rest of the percentage fail to complete their doctoral studies because they are not given the proper support they require.

Thus, these students’ issues cannot be solved on time hence taking them long to finish their studies. Thus, addressing these issues on time is necessary. Equally, Klocko et al. (2015) also recognize that the dissertation writing process is time-consuming and stressful and has many doubts and anxiety.

Anxiety and stress come in as the institutions have many expectations from these students, thus pressure. This becomes even tougher because every faculty has expectations from each student, thus the confusion date. It becomes a challenge, especially when some supervisors approve a student’s writing and the same is rejected by others (Lindsay, 2015).