8-4-2009
- Hervé Tijssen’s : The legal dissertation under the magnifying-glass. The justification of methodological choices in legal dissertations. Now available(in Dutch). See: Text
Keeley, S. M., K. M. Shemberg, et al. (1988). “Dissertation Research in Clinical Psychology: Beyond Positivism?” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 19(2): 216-222.
The traditional, received view of science is reviewed, and an emerging alternative epistemology is discussed. Current dissatisfaction with research generated in clinical psychology is documented. To determine the extent to which research training remains tied to the traditional model of science, abstracts from all dissertations in clinical psychology from the years 1965 and 1985 were reviewed. These were sorted into categories reflecting the major research designs used. Four categories reflected traditional epistemologies, and three reflected nontraditional approaches. Comparisons between the 1965 and 1985 works revealed a slight decrease in research following traditional lines and a small but meaningful increase in research stemming from alternative epistemologies. These findings are discussed in relation to future research training in clinical psychology and the continued viability of the Boulder model.