A perennial controversy, off and on, within every graduate program in psychology, concerns requirements for the PhD. What should they be? Prior to answering this question, we need to ask: “Do we know the best way to train the next generation of researchers and scholars?” I think the answer to More
Everyone with a PhD must have thought long and hard about how to conduct dissertation research. Everyone currently in graduate school must contemplate the same topic. Those two groups include virtually everyone reading the Observer. In my own case, conceiving, proposing, conducting, presenting, writing, defending, and publishing my dissertation consumed More
Assume that you have a younger sibling who is going to be a college freshman next Fall. Assume further that this particular sibling actually believes that you may have learned something – that is, that you may be a source of good advice on how to succeed in college. Drawing More
The growth area in graduate education is in master’s degrees. The number of master’s degrees awarded in the United States has increased 41 percent over the last 25 years, while PhD degrees have increased only 19 percent. Psychology awards master’s degrees but only in a limited number of areas. The More
Who is Number 1? We are fascinated with this question. What is the best pizza, the best movie, the best TV show? In sports, winning and losing is part of the game and in most sports, a Number 1 team is usually unmistakable. In universities or psychology departments, the answer More
Universities are businesses, although we academics do not like to think of them as such. However, we are not in business to make a profit, but rather to produce teaching and research. Thus, our bottom line needs to be measured in quality and productivity of our teaching and our research. More
