Doctorate

The dissertation represents the culmination of a student's graduate training and involves an original piece of research that advances psychology as a science.

Admission to Candidacy

As soon as you have finished your master's thesis (or earlier if you had a master's when you enrolled at Rice) you should form your admission to candidacy committee. Your admission to candidacy committee is often the same as the master's committee, but it need not be. Your admission to candidacy committee is responsible for determining your requirements for admission to candidacy. Since faculty and students in this department have diverse research interests and philosophies of education, we believe this flexible system for admission to candidacy is preferable to a uniform set of requirements.


The attainment of candidacy marks the completion of all requirements for the degree other than those related to research leading to the writing, submission, and defense of the thesis.

1. The student's committee will decide on a set of candidacy requirements.

The student should initiate this process by giving each member of the committee a summary of progress in the program. Among the points that should be included in the statement are: publications, research in progress, presentations, and courses taken (with grades). The committee should use the student’s statement as a basis for preparing candidacy requirements. Requirements may include (among other things) that:

• A version of the Masters thesis be completed in a form suitable for submission to an appropriate journal. 
• The student demonstrates successful completion of at least one additional research project that has been written up in a form suitable for submission to a journal.
• The student present at a conference.
• Additional courses or reading necessary to fill in gaps in background.
• The student take a written exam.

2. After completing the candidacy requirements, obtain the signature from each member of the committee on a statement that the admission to candidacy requirements have been met.

3. Fill out the form for admission to doctoral candidacy . The thesis committee which hears your oral defense must be the same as the committee you list on this form. The committee must consist of at least three members, with one member whose primary appointment is outside the Department of Psychology, but within the university.

4. Present the forms from #2 and #3 above to the Director of Graduate Studies who will sign the admissions to candidacy form. Then submit to the Graduate Coordinator, who will sign the form and turn it into the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

A student who is in good standing and making satisfactory progress may change specialty areas and/or advisors at any time prior to filing for admission to candidacy (subject, of course, to agreement on the part of the new advisor and/or committee). Once the admission-to-candidacy procedure is set, however, it must be satisfactorily completed before any further change is considered. In the unlikely event that a student should want to switch areas after successfully completing the admission-to-candidacy procedure, he or she may do so only by repeating the procedure in the new area.

Doctoral Dissertation

The thesis committee is responsible for reviewing the thesis and for examining the candidate on the subject matter contained therein. The thesis committee must contain three members from the department and one outside member who must have his or her primary appointment in another department within the university. Almost all other actions necessary for final completion of the remaining degree requirements is the sole responsibility of the candidate.

The dissertation represents the culmination of a student's graduate training and involves an original piece of research that advances psychology as a science. Typically, work on the dissertation begins with a series of conversations between the you and your advisor. Once a clear direction for the research is established, you write a dissertation proposal summarizing the relevant literature and outlining in detail the methods to be used in the dissertation research.

Once the advisor judges that your proposal is ready to be presented to the committee, you provide a copy of your proposal to the committee members and arrange a proposal meeting. The purpose of the dissertation proposal meeting is to get feedback from the committee members on ways to improve the proposed study. At the end of the meeting, the committee members and you should agree on the exact nature of the study and whether or not another proposal meeting is required.

It is critical that you keep your advisor updated on the progress of the dissertation research and any changes and decisions made along the way. The advisor must decide if any deviations from the proposed research warrant review by the rest of the committee.

Once the research is complete, you begin the process of writing and rewriting your dissertation. This revision process often takes several rounds before your advisor judges that the document is ready to distribute to the committee for the final dissertation defense.

Differences of opinion within the committee on any aspect of the research should be resolved as follows: (a) at the proposal meeting anyone who does not accept the general process agreed upon by the majority should resign from the committee and be replaced by another faculty member and (b) any disagreement about any phase of the conduct of the research must be resolved in a timely fashion by the entire committee. If agreement cannot be reached by any other means, a vote must be taken. Those in the minority must then either accept the majority decision or appeal the matter to the Department Chair. If the Chair cannot resolve the issue through discussion with the parties involved, he or she may replace the minority members through consultation with the majority and the student. The dissenting member may appeal the Chair’s decision by calling a special meeting of the entire Department faculty.

If a student feels that the committee’s instructions are unclear or ambiguous, or that different members are making different or conflicting demands, it is his or her responsibility to obtain clarification. It is his or her prerogative to call a committee meeting if he or she wants assurance that the matter is resolved. The student accepts verbal understandings with individual committee members at his or her own risk. The best procedure is to put all changes of plans in writing for the committee members.

A complete draft of your dissertation should be given to your advisor at least one month before it is given to the whole committee. A copy of your dissertation must be submitted to the committee at least 10 days before the oral examination.

A public oral defense is required for the Ph.D. degrees. Arrange for public notice to appear at least two weeks in advance of the oral examination. Defense announcements can be submitted to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by filling out the following form: http://events.rice.edu/rgs/. In appropriate circumstances an oral examination for the Ph.D. may be scheduled during the summer, and the procedure for posting of notice is the same as during the regular school year.

The oral examination must be publicized within the department at least one week ahead of time by notifying all faculty in the department individually (i.e., by notices in their mailboxes or via e-mail).

Be sure to follow the graduate schools thesis procedures described in the following link: Thesis Procedures.