Updated Index

Current to 11/29

Topic	Dates of Posts
Dissertation, general	7/5, 8/16, 8/19, 9/27, 10/2
Selecting a Topic	4/23, 7/8, 7/10
Organization	4/22, 10/2
Committee Members	4/17, 5/3, 6/10, 7/19, 8/21
URR	5/8, 5/27
Overview of Process	4/19, 9/18
Premise	4/17, 9/6
Proposal	4/22, 9/9
Research questions	10/9
C. 1	5/6, 10/21, 10/23, 10/25, 10/28, 11/1
C. 2 (literature related)	4/26, 5/29, 6/3, 6/12, 6/17, 6/28, 9/16, 10/11, 11/4, 11/6, 11/9, 11/15
C. 3	5/1, 10/16, 10/28, 11/18, 11/20, 11/22, 11/25
Defense	4/23, 5/8
IRB	5/10, 10/14
Data Collection	5/13, 5/15, 10/16
Quantitative Analysis	5/17, 7/24, 7/26, 7/29, 7/31, 8/2, 8/5, 10/4, 10/7, 11/20
Qualitative Analysis	5/20, 11/20, 11/22, 11/25
Mixed Methods	5/22, 11/18, 11/20, 11/22, 11/25
C. 4	517, 5/20, 5/22, 7/17
C. 5	5/24, 9/20, 10/11
Final Defense	4/23, 5/27/ 9/11
Career	7/12
Goal Form	8/12
Motivation	6/5, 6/26, 7/1, 8/16, 8/23, 9/2, 9/18, 10/18, 11/8, 11/27
Secondary Data	5/31
Support, Getting	4/26, 6/5, 6/24, 8/16
Writing	4/26, 4/29, 6/12, 6/21, 7/3, 8/9, 8/14, 9/4, 9/23,9/25
Other	4/18, 6/7, 6/14, 6/19, 6/24, 6/26, 7/1, 7/8, 7/15, 7/19, 7/22, 8/7, 8/16, 8/19, 8/26, 8/28, 8/30, 9/2, 9/13, 9/18, 10/18, 11/27

 

Giving Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, let's take a moment to think about how that relates to your dissertation. As a dissertation student, you have come so far in your education! The doctorate is considered the terminal degree, meaning, there are none higher than that. Just making it to the point of working on the dissertation is a great achievement- take a moment and realize how far you have come!  

Only 1% of the population has a doctoral degree, you are very privileged, you are bright and capable, or you would not have gotten this far. Think of all of the faculty who have given you their time, effort, and wisdom to help you get here… they stretch out far beyond graduate school… all the way to high school, elementary school, and kindergarten. Send them blessings. 

Think about all of your classmates and friends who have helped you reach this point. All of the people who have shared your frustrations and your joys, who have been there for support. Send them thanks. 

And finally, think about your family members who have given up so much for you to achieve this goal. They have given you time to work, held you in crisis, and celebrated with you in your accomplishments. They may be your cheerleader, or your silent supporter, but you know they are behind you. Take a moment to let them know you appreciate them. 

I hope you have a wonderful holiday!  

Next time I will post an updated blog index. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

 

Chapter 3: Participant Selection (qual and mixed methods)

Today's section, participant selection, is only used for qualitative and mixed methods. First, you need to identify who your population is, it is often a good idea to think about it as who does the study generalize to? So if you are interviewing victims of domestic violence in your small rural town, your population may be victims in rural areas. 

Next, you will want to identify and justify your sampling strategy. There are a number of ways to recruit your participants, a couple of examples are placing flyers in areas that you suspect they frequent (don't forget hair salons, churches), another example is snowball sampling where you ask each participant to suggest others that might be interested. You need to explain why this is a good method for your study, perhaps you have a hard to reach group and this will ensure a sufficient sample size. 

Now you need to state your inclusion and exclusion criteria. Be very detailed, think about who can participate – people who are native English speakers? Able to read and speak clearly? Only people who have been divorced for over a year? Clearly articulate who can be in your study and also who cannot be in the study. Then you want to discuss how you will know if they meet the inclusion criteria- will you ask them? Do you assume if they can read your consent form they can read English? 

How many people will you have participate, why did you select that number? For mixed methods, you will need to go further and indicate how many people will be in the quantitative portion and do a power analysis (more on this next time). 

Then you need explain how you will be recruiting people and how you will identify they are appropriate for your study. This is similar to the section above, but here you are more specific in how it will be done. 

Part of all qualitative studies is the concept of saturation, whereby you continue to sample until you are consistently getting responses you have heard before. You will need to discuss this and how it relates your sample size. 

Next time we will give thanks. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Chapter 3: Role of the Researcher (qual, mixed methods)

In qualitative and mixed methods you need to discuss your role as the researcher. Why? Because you are going to be doing the interviews, therefore, who you are and how you know and interact with the participant is essential to understanding the study. 

You will want to first define and explain your role as an observer of the behaviors, a participant in the interview, and/or an observer-participant. Next, you will discuss any relationships that you have with the participants, particularly if you have a supervisory relation (this will be a big issue for the IRB, so think if there is a way around using your supervisees). 

Next, you will discuss how your own biases will be managed. Every researcher comes into a study with biases, if you didn’t have ideas as to what you thought would happen, you would not do the study! You may have been (or are) a member of the population group, how will you keep that from influencing your interview? You will need to be impartial and unbiased, how can you do that? One common way is to approach subjects/ participants neutrally and keep a journal where you relate your feelings that come up for you. It is common for new interviewers to want to engage in a social conversation with the participants and share their own experiences. Do not do this! Your story may influence how they respond to questions; you want to approach the topic as someone new to the topic. Do not assume that you know what they are going to say, let them explain the details. 

Finally, you need to think through any other ethical issues, such as, doing a study within one’s own work environment, conflict of interest or power differentials, and justification for use of incentives. Then lay out a plan for addressing any issues that are present. 

Next time we will look at Chapter 3: Participant Selection. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Chapter 3: Research Design and Rationale (qual, quant, mixed)

This section introduces the research design of your study. Each of the types of design has slightly different requirements for this section. 

Quantitative: State your variables, indicate which are independent, dependent, moderating, etc. Then clearly state the type of research design you will be using, an example, might be a 2 (gender) x 3 (age: 20-30, 30-40, 50-60 yrs) repeated measure design. Which means that you will have an equal number of males and females; equal number of people from each of the age groups, and each person will be tested more than once. Relate the design to your research questions.

Discuss how your choice of designs makes sense with what is needed to advance the literature. Perhaps, a great deal is known about the variable, gender and people's age at a single point in time. However, your design allows a look at how things might change over time by testing them at 2 time points. 

Qualitative: Begin by restating your research questions (from c. 1). Then you want to describe the main concepts that you will be addressing. Next, you will discuss the research tradition you are using, some examples include phenomenology, case study, narrative, etc. You need to then provide a rationale for using that tradition. Why is the one you chose most appropriate for your study? Why not one of the other traditions? 

Mixed: This one also begins by restating your research questions (from c. 1). Then you want to describe the main concepts that you will be addressing. You then need to identify how you are using a mixed method and how the data collection and analyses work together. Discuss how this is the best approach to answer your research questions, and why you need to use both quantitative and qualitative elements. 

Finally, discuss why you have chosen the analysis method you will use and how you will be analyzing the data. 

Next time we will look at Chapter 3: Role of the Researcher. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Chapter 3: Setting (Mixed Method)

Chapter 3 is going to be much trickier to explain than the previous discussions, because each research method has slightly different requirements. I am going to try to address all 3 research methods' sections. I will clearly indicate to which research method it applies.  

Today, we will look at the Setting section, which is only included in the Mixed Method checklist. In this section you will describe where you will be collecting the data and why this setting is appropriate and relevant to your study. Describe the aspects of the setting that will affect your study, some examples, are geographical location and the size of the organization, indicate how these aspects will affect your study. Think in terms of replication, if someone wanted to replicate your study, what should they need to know about where you did your study? 

Let's use an example, Walden students. Let's say you were going to do a mixed methods study of online students' opinions about variable X, using the Walden participant pool. You would describe Walden as a large online university (you would not give specific names of organizations). You would want to know how many students attend the university and any information you could gather about the participant pool. Then you would want to discuss why Walden is a good choice to examine your topics.  

Next time we will look at Chapter 3: Research Design and Rationale. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Chapter 2: Summary

The Chapter 2 summary is very important; it should be much more than a quick overview. Think of this section as where the reader can go to understand the key points in the literature in just a few pages. It should provide the reader with a good understanding of the literature. First, summarize the major themes that you found in the literature, the themes will probably be related to your variables. How to do this? Think through: what are the main issues that you found in the chapter? As a writer, I would approach it by reading through the chapter and highlighting the major themes that I find in each subsection. Copy those into the summary and rewrite them so they make a coherent summary. 

Second, summarize what is known and not known about your topic. What gaps are missing? Read through the paper again and highlight (in a different color – I love color coding!) everywhere that you found gaps in the literature. Again, copy those and rewrite them into a summary. 

Then carefully explain how your study will fill at least one of those gaps. Talk about how your study will extend the knowledge of the topic.  

If you have along the way, drawn out a concept map (see 10/23 post); it will make the summary easier for you to write. It will be clearer where the gaps are and how your study will be addressing them. 

Next time we will look at Chapter 3: Setting. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Chapter 2: Literature Review

We have talked quite a bit about organizing the literature review (see the index for dates of posts), but a few key points to keep in mind. Do an outline! Start broad- what is the broadest topic that applies to the study? So for example if you are interested in the elderly's opinions of their physician – the broadest area is aging- start there and narrow it as you go. 

 

Keep in mind that you are to synthesize the literature, meaning you are not making a list of the studies have been done. Instead, you are looking for commonalities between the studies. One way to think about this is that you are writing about the topic, using previous studies to support your arguments. Thus, if you are writing about a specific variable, let's say resilience, you will want to look at how others have examined the topic, the populations they have used, and what the results were. Let's use an example from my oldest old and physician paper (Stadtlander et al. 2013), here is the section on resilience: 

 

Resilience moderates the negative effects of stress and promotes adaptation (Wagnild, 2009; Wagnild & Young, 1993), and is described as an enduring personality characteristic (Foster, 1997).  Nygren et al. (2005) suggested that the development of resilience constitutes a form of compensation for losses of functional capacity and physical health. Leppert, Gunzelmann, Schumacher, Strauss, and Brahler (2005) reported that higher scores on the resilience scale correlated with lower rates of subjective complaints, and has been associated with health-promoting behaviors (Wagnild, 2000).  Higher resilience has been found to be correlated with higher self-efficacy (Caltabiano & Caltabiano, 2006); it has also been found to be correlated with LOC in women with traumatic experiences (Friedman, 2009), but this relationship has not been previously examined using the Wagnild and Young scale in the oldest old [as in the current study]. 

 

There are a number of techniques used in this paragraph – in yellow highlight are ones in which other research has been used to support arguments. In blue highlight are where other researchers' conclusions are brought in. Green highlights are where the results from previous studies are given. Finally, pink highlight is where the current study is tied to previous work. 

 

In your paper, you will go into more detail, but the same techniques may be used. Remember, that you want to put your study into the context of the literature, so keep relating it back to your study. 

 

Next time we will look at Chapter 2: Summary. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

 

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M., Sickel, A., Brooks, E., Brown, C., Cormell, M., Ewing, L., Hart, D., Koons, D., Olson, C., Parker, P., Semenova, V., & Stoneking, S. (2013). Independent Living Oldest-Old and Their Primary Health Provider: A Mixed Method Examination of the Influence of Patient Personality Characteristics. Journal of Applied Gerontology. Advanced online publication. doi:  10.1177/0733464813482182

 

 

Be a puppy!

 

I recently adopted an 8 week old keeshond puppy, Mandy (I'm attaching a photo). Several things have struck me about the puppy personality: enthusiasm, curiosity, and engagement. I think these are key issues for you and your dissertation as well! 

Puppies are enthusiastic about everything; their world is a wonderful place! Take this same approach with your dissertation, think positively; approach each topic area as a challenge, when issues arise, treat them as problems with solutions you can find. The dissertation is a mental challenge; it should push you to try and learn new things. 

Puppies are curious about their world, much to their human's concern. Everything must be explored, tasted, chewed on, or played with- whether it be a toy, the cat, or an electrical cord. Take a curiosity view of your dissertation. Keep asking "why"? Why do I think that this will happen? Why did my participants respond in this way and not that? Previous researchers have always looked at the variable from this way… what happens if were to look at it from that way? Stay curious about your topic, keep asking questions. 

Puppies are very engaged in their world, every moment they are busy exploring, tasting, trying new things. You want to be engaged in your dissertation in a similar way. Always, it should be in the back of your mind, consider how the ideas fit with other areas of your life. When you hear people mention a similar topic, listen in and hear what their views are. Yes, make some time to sit and work on the paper every day, but also play with it at other times- when you are on the bus or train, when you are waiting in line or on hold. Keep engaged in your dissertation. 

In the next week try to keep a "puppy mind" with your dissertation: be enthusiastic, curious and engaged. See what happens! 

Next time we will examine Chapter 2's sections on theory and conceptual model. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

Chapter 2: Literature search

The next section in chapter 2 is the literature search strategy. This section will go easily if you kept track of all of your literature searches in your research journal. If not, you may need to rerun them. L

You need to walk your reader through how and where you did your literature search; you are demonstrating the thoroughness of your scholarship. List the databases you searched, they should go beyond the psychology ones, include academic search premier, Thoreau, perhaps education and medical ones, dissertations, and Google scholar. List the search terms that you used, and the combinations of keywords that you used.  

One of the most common questions I get is how to do literature searches. A brief review: You need to think about both breadth and depth in your searches. Let's do an example together, let's say we are interested in the elderly and resilience. Some words to start with would be elderly, seniors, older adult, I would also try young-old, middle-old, and oldest old (these are terms you see in the literature). I would combine each of these with resilience. When I find relevant articles, I will check out their keywords and add those into my combinations. 

If you have difficulty finding appropriate literature and terms, please talk to the Walden librarians. They are a wonderful resource and will give you all kinds of ideas that you have not considered. Keep track in your research journal: everyone you talk to, all literature searches, and everything you do related to your project.  

Next time we will examine having a puppy mind. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

Chapter 2: Intro

The chapter 2 introduction sets the stage for your literature review. There are 3 main topics that need to be discussed in this section. 1) Restate the problem and purpose of the study; this should be a brief summary of these areas. You are putting the chapter into the context of your study for the reader.  

2) Provide a concise synopsis of the current literature that establishes the relevance of the problem. The keyword here is concise. You are showing why your study is needed. So discuss very briefly the gap in the literature and how your study will address the gap. Yes, this is very similar info that you are asked to provide in chapter 1, but resist the impulse to simply copy things. Restate it in your own words; be sure to include relevant citations to support your arguments. 

3) Finally, preview the major sections of the chapter. Give your reader a picture of where you are going in the literature review. 

By the end of the introductory section, your reader should understand why you are doing your study, why your specific study is needed, and where you are going in the literature review. 

Next time we will examine literature searches. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Chapter 1: Summary

A belated Happy Halloween! Students often treat the chapter 1 summary as a last minute add on- however, it is important in its own right. In the summary, you should briefly review the main points from your chapter and talk about what will be discussed in future chapters. Why do you have to do chapter summaries? The dissertation should not be looked on as a "paper," instead, it really is a book that you are writing. Just as a textbook has summaries at the end of each chapter and a preview of the next one to keep the reader interested, so should your dissertation. 

You need to keep your reader in the back of your mind, picture a future student, similar to you, who is trying to find out about your topic area and your study. Write clearly for him or her, explain your terms, your goal is not to impress them with your academic language- it is to educate them. Occasionally ask yourself, what is my future reader going to want to know? Have I explained it clearly? Let them be impressed with the clarity of your writing and your enthusiasm for the topic. 

Next time we will examine Chapter 2: Intro. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu