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Dissertation motivation!

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  • Haven't got a supervsor yet. I need an hypothesis first to take to potential supervisors.
  • pandora205
    pandora205 Posts: 2,939 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 9 February 2010 at 1:49AM
    What are you interested in? Individuals, groups? Adults, children? Emotions, cognitive processes? Personality, artificial intelligence? Hospitals, schools, prisons? The list is endless - It would help to narrow your area of interest down a little.

    Some more thoughts if you are absolutely stuck for ideas:

    buy a couple of newspapers/watch breakfast tv/listen to the radio and find something topical that touches on psychology. Just listening on the way home there was a report that older mothers have a higher chance of having a child with autism (for example) which is very topical and throws up loads of issues about definitions, diagnoses, etc. as well as leading potentially to some research.
    somewhere between Heaven and Woolworth's
  • Hi all, I am in my final year. However I am studying for the social work degree and my Uni does things a little differently.

    As i am on work placement the 'dissertation' is actually an analysis of the work undertaken on placement, focusing on 1 particular intervention or serivce user for example and is 8000 words

    However, we get no extra time for this. So basically we work full time, with a case load (albeit less than qualified staff) then have to write the 'dissertation' to hand in the same day we finish placement.

    Other Uni's have at least a few week once placement is over to do this but not us! Ah well, never mind the ned is in sight....kind of!!

    I think I hve identified a 'case' I am working with that would demonstrate a a lot of different interventions I have used and a sounding working knowledge of legislation so think I will decide soon then can crack on through March and April.
  • The_One_Who
    The_One_Who Posts: 2,418 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Haven't got a supervsor yet. I need an hypothesis first to take to potential supervisors.

    There is no one you can discuss this with? Throw around some ideas with them and see if any of them grab you?
  • beanrua
    beanrua Posts: 407 Forumite
    Got a good book out of the library - straightforward and simple to read with lots of good ideas. As I've left it back I can't remember the author but it's called 'How to write a dissertation' lots of info on how to break it up into small manageable sections. intro, conclusion and referencing etc etc Definitely helps to get you focused. Good luck to everyone still struggling.
    Treat the Earth well,
    It was not given to you by your parents,
    It was loaned to you by your children.
    Masai proverb
  • pandora205
    pandora205 Posts: 2,939 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I got my paper back and whew, I passed and feedback was good. I'm getting neurotic in my old age, as I thought I'd failed or needed to rewrite (2 months to get it back is too much time to think!).

    Anyway, onward and upward. I'm on my final assignment (another 4000 words due 1st March) prior to my main study, which is a partial write up of my pilot study. I'm drowning in data just now, scoring questionnaires and entering on a spreadsheet. I just hope the SPSS course I'm doing next week enables me to analyse it easily. I've made a plan and after the intro much will write itself, hopefully!

    Good luck everyone else out there. It's a cold miserable time of year to be studying (though it's hard when it's hot too).
    somewhere between Heaven and Woolworth's
  • pandora205 wrote: »
    I got my paper back and whew, I passed and feedback was good. I'm getting neurotic in my old age, as I thought I'd failed or needed to rewrite (2 months to get it back is too much time to think!).

    Anyway, onward and upward. I'm on my final assignment (another 4000 words due 1st March) prior to my main study, which is a partial write up of my pilot study. I'm drowning in data just now, scoring questionnaires and entering on a spreadsheet. I just hope the SPSS course I'm doing next week enables me to analyse it easily. I've made a plan and after the intro much will write itself, hopefully!

    Good luck everyone else out there. It's a cold miserable time of year to be studying (though it's hard when it's hot too).


    You'll be okay with SPSS - if you're analysing questionnaire data it will likely be non-parametric, so choose non-parametric analyses from the options. Descriptive analysis can include mode and median. Your inferential options will likely be Wilcoxon Sign-Rank, Mann-Whitney-U and Freidman's Non-Parametric Anova. Of course, it will depend on exactly what you'll want to do with the data.Also, bear in mind that you can keep it simple and do a lot of this stuff with Excel itself - it's just not signposted quite so well. Good luck with it.
  • pandora205
    pandora205 Posts: 2,939 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Thanks McGuiver. I'm probably doing t-tests as although the questionnaires are standardised my sample is small although a fair cross section, though will think about this in more detail. I've still got a lot of questionnaires to score (fortunately online) before I can process.

    However, I will think about it more before I go on the SPSS course. (I have quite a background in stats - but it is all 25 years+ ago, so need a bit of revision to say the least!)
    somewhere between Heaven and Woolworth's
  • pandora205
    pandora205 Posts: 2,939 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Starting to have a deadline panic once again.

    My analysis hasn't gone well (data got scrambled when transferring to SPSS) and preliminary results look surprising/dodgy, so there could be more errors. I think I'll choose the data collection option for the assignment (was going for data analysis of pilot study data), though the deadline is 1st March and I have 4,000 words to do for then.

    I think I'll have to resign myself to this course taking an extra year (so five years part time rather than tfour) and probably have to self fund for the last one. Serves me right for taking it easy early on.

    For anyone else doing a research degree (mine's a doctorate with 40% taught and 60 research), stay focussed and get ahead early on. I've found it difficult to pace myself after the taught component finished and always have good reasons not to study (like family and work). My other advice (and I should listen to this myself) is not to be too ambitious in your project.

    I'm off to install SPSS on my home laptop so I can play with this strange data a bit more. Oh, then I'd better write the introduction to this assignment. What fun!

    Good luck everyone else.
    somewhere between Heaven and Woolworth's
  • Hi people

    I am struggling to find motivation to complete my Masters thesis. I have already left it too late, with 2 months to hand in date. It really grinds on me that I am not doing it. Its a really big weight on my shoulders that I constantly feel, but I still don't do any work on it. I know its massively important to do, but still no action is taken, or not enough action. I have already done a dissertation, and I am quite sick of education at this point, but I know that if I just put my head down for 2 months straight, I can get a good grade and then will be relatively well set up in the world. So why am I not doing it?! Why am I not putting my head down?! Its like I know what I SHOULD be doing, but I don't ACTUALLY do it!

    Help :(
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