Dissertation Guidelines

Read this first!

• Use this document as the primary source of information about what

goes into the dissertation. The sixth edition of the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association (808.06615 PUB in the
library) is a necessary secondary source.
• The OWL at Purdue’s APA Formatting and Style Guide at
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ can be useful as
a quick reference guide.
• Bem’s (2006) article on writing an empirical journal article -
http://www.dbem.ws/WritingArticle.pdf - may also prove invaluable,
especially when it comes to what goes into each section.
• The dissertation has a weighting of 70%.

Content

Please note that each section should start on a new page.

Section Content
Title page  The recommended length for a title is no more than 12 words. “It
should be a concise statement of the main topic and should
identify the variables or theoretical issues under investigation and
the relationship between them.” (APA, 2010, p. 23).
 Your name and student number.
 The following statement: “Dissertation submitted as a requirement
for the degree of BSc (Hons) Psychology Applied to Information
Technology, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology,
2011”.

Declaration  The following declaration with your signature and the date: “I
declare that this submission is my own work. Where I have read,
consulted, and used the work of others I have acknowledged this
in the text”.
 Word count.

Acknowledgements  Thank everyone who helped you with your project, including your
supervisor/s, other lecturers, etc.

Table of contents  Headings and subheadings should be listed with their

corresponding page number.

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  Page numbers start at the abstract and continue throughout the
appendices.

Abstract  An abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of

the dissertation.
 Abstracts should be accurate, nonevaluative, coherent and
readable, and concise (see APA, 2010, pp. 25-27 for further
details).
 Abstracts should not exceed 200 words.
 Use the past tense and third person.

Introduction The introduction (incorporating the literature review) presents the

specific problem under study and describes the research strategy.
Before writing the introduction, the APA (2010) suggest considering
the following questions:

 Why is the problem important?

 How does the study relate to previous work in the area?
 What are the primary and secondary hypotheses and objectives of
the study, and what, if any, are the links to theory?
 How do the hypotheses and research design relate to one
another?
 What are the theoretical and practical implications of the study?

“A good introduction answers these questions in just a few pages and,

by summarizing the relevant arguments and the past evidence, gives
the reader a firm sense of what was done and why.” (APA, 2010, p. 27)

It is important that the introduction:

 Explores the importance of the problem.

 Describes relevant scholarship.
 States hypotheses and their correspondence to research design.

The introduction should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words in length.

We strongly recommend that you read more than one of the resources
listed in first paragraph of this document to help write the
introduction.

Method This section should give a clear account of how the study was
conducted. Basically, there should be sufficient detail for someone
else to be able to replicate your study in its entirety. The method
should be divided into subsections:

 Design
Describe the research design and independent and dependent
variables (if there were any). Indicate what the levels of the
independent variable/s were, and whether the factor(s) were
repeated, matched, or independent. Describe how the participants
were assigned to groups and any control procedures used (Plonsky,
2007).

 Participants
Give the total number of participants. Report the procedures for
selecting and assigning the participants. Report major

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 demographic characteristics such as sex and age and anything else
that is appropriate (e.g., socioeconomic status). Indicate that the
treatment of participants was in accordance with the ethical
standards of the Psychological Society of Ireland and that the
Department of Learning Sciences Ethics Committee approved the
study.

 Apparatus (or Materials)

This subsection briefly describes the apparatus or materials used
and their function in the study. Identify specialised equipment
obtained from a commercial supplier by the model number of the
equipment and the supplier’s name and location. Only specialised
equipment needs to be included, not paper or pens. Tests or
questionnaires can usually be described in a short paragraph
including information about what exactly it measures, number of
items, type of scale, types of questions, and scoring.

 Procedure
Here you describe exactly what was done from the arrival of the
participant to the debriefing. Also included are any instructions
given to the participants and any precautions taken to prevent the
results being affected by other variables than the independent
variable.

Results  The findings are included here. Mention the descriptive statistics
– Means, Standard Deviations first - then the inferential
statistics, for example, ANOVA.
 Do not include individual scores or raw data. SPSS output tables
should be in the Appendices.
 Use tables, graphs and other graphical forms of presentation. Use
titles (on top of tables and below graphs) and always refer to the
tables/graphs in the text.
 No interpretations, inferences or conclusions should be made here.

Discussion  Begin with an overview of the findings, with reference to the

research question and expected findings.
 Next work on the finer points; considering different aspects of
the data, including inconsistent or unexpected findings. What
were the strengths and weaknesses of the current study? Link the
findings to the literature you reviewed in the introduction.
 Consider theoretical and practical implications.
 Future research; what would be the next steps for someone
interested in studying this topic further? How might the current
study be conducted differently? What type of future research
would you recommend?
 Conclude with a paragraph summarising the study and what overall
conclusions can be made.

References  This should be an alphabetical list of all books, journal articles and
electronic sources cited within the text. For full details on how to
reference, please check the Publication Manual of the APA (2010).
OWL at Purdue -
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ - provides a
good overview of APA style for both in-text citations and the

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 reference list.
 Please note that in-text citations and references in the
references list should match.

Appendices  Include here material that will be useful to the extern examiner
and the dissertation second reader, for example, blank copies of
any questionnaires. If your dissertation has more than one
appendix, label each one with a capital letter (Appendix A,
Appendix B, etc.) in the order in which it is mentioned in the main
text.

Format

• Length: The dissertation should be approximately 5,000 words in

length (not including the Title Page, Declaration, Acknowledgements,
Table of Contents, Abstract, References, and Appendices), 1.5 lines-
spaced, and 12 point font. A plain font should be used, preferably
Times New Roman. For certain kinds of research (e.g., qualitative
interviews) you can seek permission for extensions of up to 10,000
words.
• Headings: Headings and subheadings help organise the dissertation.
Two levels of heading should be sufficient. Headings are centred and
require standard capitalisation (e.g., Method) and subheadings are
italicised, flush-left with standard capitalisation (e.g., Participants).
• Tone: Aim for a scientific writing style. Take a look at the OWL at
Purdue’s one-page summary of style basics
athttp://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/15/. This covers
point of view and voice (e.g., you should use the third person), clarity
and conciseness, word choice (e.g., use phrases like "The evidence
suggests ..." or "Our study indicates ..." rather than referring to
"proof" or "proves" because no single study can prove a theory or
hypothesis), and avoiding poetic language. You should also avoid
colloquial or informal expressions.
• Printing and Binding: The dissertation should be printed on one side of
A4 size paper and bound into two spiral bound copies and one soft copy
to be submitted on Blackboard as a pdf.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism – presenting another person’s ideas or phrasing as your own –

will not be tolerated. Please note that plagiarism can take many forms,
from not citing a piece of work correctly to deliberately cheating.
Depending on the severity of the offence, appropriate marks will be

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deducted or the dissertation will be failed to an F grade. Second
offences will of course be taken more seriously. We strongly recommend
you take a look at Fairfield University’s Plagiarism Avoidance Tutorial to
help you understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Furthermore,
we will always welcome questions about plagiarism. You just have to ask!

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the

American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC:
Author.
Plonsky, M. (2007). Psychology with style: A hypertext writing guide.
Retrieved from http://www.uwsp.edu/PSYCH/apa4b.htm - IIDa

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