Dissertation Advice for The BSc Student
This article offers advice and guidance to BSc Psychology/Social Science students who are about to start their Dissertation. Read the following fully, save this page to your ‘favourites’, and send it to another panicking student. Just remember, before we get into it, you got this far academically for a reason – believe in yourself.
At the end of your Second Year at University you’ll likely be given a list of all of the lectures available about how to do a Dissertation. Ensure you attend all of them. No matter how tempting it is to “just read up about it online”. Don’t skip out.
Decide what you want to do as far ahead of starting your Dissertation year (Third Year) as possible. Ideally over the summer. Use this time to start collecting notes and resources on your topic.
Check your University Module Handbook over and again as if it’s your Bible – because it is. It will hold all of the critical dates you will need to know across this academic year. Pay attention to it.
Buy a giant poster calendar poster off ‘Amazon’ for your wall, and mark on all of your critical dates, and cross off the days as you go. This will be such a life saver in keeping you organised and present. Put it up on your wall at home by your computer, ideally, where you work.
Make time to explore every link and resource on your online Student Resource Portal because it will be filled with critical information across places you might not expect.
You will submit your Ethics Form by Christmas (usually). Which is where you will make the proposal for your research to your University’s Ethic Committee. During this process, it is your Supervisors job to be as anal as possible – to pick as many holes in your draft proposal as they can, so it ends up looking and feeling similar to a doily. It’s ok. It’s part of the process and how you will end up producing something fantastic later down the line. Don’t take the feedback personally.
Extensions are your friends - don’t be afraid to ask for a million of them. There is always room for negotiation. Do not fear doing so.
Your Supervisor might make you feel as though you are lazy, stupid or as though you’ve not been paying attention. They are experts in their field and you are brand new to this. Again, don’t take it personally and don’t let it put you off.
Remember that no one is coming to help you – this is YOUR journey, so own every inch of it.
Become best friends with your University Lab Technicians – ask them for help, book appointments with them, ask as many questions as possible, ask for their opinions with everything stat-related for the results and analysis of your work. It’s a challenge and support is available. Use it.
Buy the book ‘Discovering Statistics Using IMB SPSS Statistics’ by Andy Fields to help you with you stat work. It’s fantastic.
Rent or buy a copy of ‘SPSS’ from your University to use at home for your analysis (bring a USB stick). Working from home means you aren’t constrained just to the Uni library/Lab. This will be useful.
When you have meetings with the Lab Technicians, ask to audio record your conversations. When complicated things are explained in the moment, it’s useful to revisit this in private later, and decipher.
Remember a Dissertation shouldn’t feel totally alien – the bulk of it is just a large literature review, which you will likely have done multiple times throughout Uni already. The only difference, is it is far longer. So start with the Abstract (to edit/complete come the end), Intro, Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References, and Appendices. You know this stuff, don’t freak out about it. You’ve got this.
Don’t believe anyone that says “you still have time for XYZ”. You don’t. You’ll be doing your Dissertation 80% of your existence Third Year - I was doing 8am - 6.30pm days almost every day. For more critical periods, longer hours and through weekends. The sacrifice is worth the reward. Focus on the end goal.
You will still have other normal modules you have to produce work for. It’s not all about your Dissertation. So do all of the work as soon as you get it.
If you are basing your experiment on existing research/methodology, make sure you understand the original first – fully and confidently. I ended up doing two questionnaire Likert scales and a correlation – which actually ended up involving far more complex other processes that I was never taught at Uni, because I didn’t fully understand what I was modelling my research on before committing to it. The lesson? Don’t base anything on anything unless you thoroughly understand it’s components.
On the above note, don’t be afraid to do a basic analysis if that’s what you feel comfortable doing - you won’t get down marked for it at all.
Remember you can, by contrast, make things more exciting if you want to, too! You can do qualitative research (so, interviews) or you can use the Uni’s technology to do eye tracking, sweat monitoring, or use brainwave signal machines etc. Ask your Tutor ASAP what tech is available to you, and book a meeting to be walked through everything so you can decide what you’re interested in early on. Voice record and take notes so you can make your decision confidently.
Your University will likely house an array of measures you can use, so you don’t have to source your own and panic. Explore your Uni’s Psych lab website for any lists they may have.
After Christmas you will likely be invited to a Workshop where you will be taken through how to design your survey online, for your future participants. This is easier than it looks – and fun too! Remember to enjoy the process. Design your survey promptly and get your Supervisor to check over it and publish it with you. The Lab Tech’s will deal with everything else such as recruitment, posting the survey, and giving participants credits etc. You don’t deal with any of that – phew!
Email your Supervisor and Lab Tech’s regularly asking questions and keeping them up to date with your progress - it makes helping you easier.
Attend EVERY lesson in Third Year (Dissertation year), as this is the most valuable time. It’s tempting to “manage your own time”; skipping lessons to study at home in your comfy clothes, - but don’t do that this year. You’ll be at a disadvantage. You can however afford to not attend the whole month of Jan and from April onwards should you need to concentrate your time. I used those months just to grind on my Dissertation at home. Each Uni is different though, so your schedule might require something different from you, making this an unwise choice. Be mindful.
This time in life can feel so utterly bewildering, so it’s important you remember you can do this and that you didn’t come this far just to come this far. Treat Second Year as if it’s as serious as Third Year, so to practice getting into a rhythm and being disciplined so that Third Year doesn’t come as a complete and utter shock. It’s a great opportunity to start practicing working longer and more dedicated hours; making you more resilient to this change.
Ultimately just do what you can and remember there is a huge pay off at the end. The confidence you will develop through this will also be unparalleled. If there are moments that just feel too hard and impossible, just know it’s not and that you WILL get through it. You will have times where you cry, doubt yourself, and debate re-starting the year or quitting altogether. Don’t let the voice of discomfort and uncertainty win. You CAN do this, and these feelings are normal. But the reality is, it is stressful, you will have to make sacrifices socially, and will likely spend some periods of time living off toast, instant noodles, and take-out. It’s ok. Because at the end, you’ll look back with such pride, holding your Degree that you can now do anything with.
Believe in yourself and enjoy the experience as much as possible. The future is yours. Grab hold of it.