MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies



Dissertations

Past Titles
Subject & Supervisor
Length & Format
Word Count Penalties
Literature Review
General Advice
Submitting
Late Submission Penalties
Marking Proceedures
Use of Clinical Material

Please note that starting in Term 2 group meetings are held to discuss dissertations. In addition, please do not hesitate to ask for an individual meeting with the Programme Tutor if you are concerned about what you should be doing.

Past Titles
 

A collection of dissertations of previous MSc students is held in the general office (543B) and is available for student reference. This may help current students to orientate themselves to the level and style of work required, and to the kind of topics which others have tackled. Unfortunately, from the point of view of learning what is expected, we cannot give you the marks given to other students' dissertations, as these are confidential. However, if the students concerned give their permission, we will indicate whether the dissertation received a distinction or not.

Click here for a list of past titles

Subject & Supervisor
 

Each student will be provided with a supervisor for their dissertation and this supervisor can be any person qualified to offer appropriate supervision whether or not they are part of the MSc teaching team. Each student will be offered a dissertation meeting with Ruth McCall to discuss their dissertation topic and can discuss possible supervisors at this time. Once the topic and supervisor has been agreed the supervisor will be appointed by the department.

Each student will normally receive about 10 hours of supervisory assistance. This will most usually consist of 3 – 4 meetings in person, some email or phone contact and preparation and reading time. So long as a student submit drafts to his or her supervisor in good time, he or she will be able to comment on structure, clarity, accuracy and give guidance as to how the dissertation could be improved. At the time the dissertation is submitted each student will be asked to submit an email indicating how frequently he or she saw or were in contact with their supervisor.

All supervision must be completed before midnight on 31st July. If you get into severe difficulties after this point, or you become ill, you must contact Ruth McCall for advice about how to proceed.

Length & Format


The dissertation should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words to include everything (footnotes, text references, etc) except the cover sheet, bibliography and an appendix if used (e.g. data on which the argument is based, such as a published case history, or reproductions of works of art which are used as the basis of theoretical argument in the main body of the text). The examiners will not include this in reaching your mark, it is extra material for their reference only, and will not be allowed to be a way for some students to extend the word limit.

Literature Review
 

It is important to ensure that the dissertation contains some form of literature review. Some dissertations are, by their nature, a form of extended literature review in which the author compares and contrasts a range of theoretical approaches. Others will need to contain less formal consideration of the work of established theorists; however it is important that students produce at some point in their dissertation a brief summary of the relevant work of other psychoanalytic authors, if only to demonstrate that they are appropriately familiar with the relevant work in the field. Please seek further clarification from Ruth McCall if you are uncertain what a literature review should entail.

General Advice
 

It is difficult to give hard and fast guidelines about dissertations; some of the best may break some usual 'rules', but the following guidance may help. Make sure the subject is clearly within the area of psychoanalytic theory, but it does not necessarily have to have been covered within the MSc programme. The idea is to engage with the complexity of a subject, including the limitations of your treatment of it, not to offer glib new formulations in the hope of seeming to be offering originality. Choose a topic which is not too broad, otherwise you probably will not be able to go into enough depth to show the sophistication you are capable of. Similarly, a subject which has already been extensively worked over in the literature may not be a good choice unless you have some original ideas which you can present well in relation to this literature. Try to carry through a coherent argument of your own, as well as showing familiarity with and understanding of the existing literature. We will have some group meetings to discuss progress on dissertations; do not hesitate also to ask for an individual meeting if you are concerned about what you should be doing, the contact with your supervisor, or any other aspect of this important part of the degree programme.


Submitting


Date for submission 2013: Friday 16th August, 12.30pm

Cover sheet for dissertation submission

Your dissertation must be submitted by 12.30pm on the day of the deadline. Failure to submit work on time will quite possibly lead to a fail. Under exceptional circumstances, an extension to the date by which work must be handed in can be negotiated. This should be requested in advance and will normally be given in the case of serious illness (with medical certificate) or major life-events, etc. (but NOT because of predictable pressure of work or minor ailments). All extensions must be requested from Ruth McCall or Mary Target (or, should they be absent, then the Chair of the Board of Examiners, Professor Peter Fonagy). Students may negotiate an extension of up to one week. Any proposals for a longer extension should be made in writing to the Chair of the Board of Examiners, and will require evidence of truly exceptional circumstances.

You should submit four bound paper copies and an emailed copy of your dissertation to the MSc Programme Administrator.

A word count must be stated at the time that the dissertation is submitted, together with a statement that the dissertation is the work of the candidate alone (except, of course, where the work of others is properly cited). The format should be as for the coursework essays. The cover sheet of the dissertation should state the student's academic code, the title of the work, the name of the degree, the Module number (PSYCGT98), the word count and the year of submission. It does not need to be cloth bound, but should be in a form which makes it both easy to read and durable, e.g. spiral binding between plastic covers.


PENALTIES

Word Count Penalties


The 10,000-8,000 words include everything (footnotes, text references, etc.) except the cover sheet, bibliography and an appendix (if used).

Dissertations that are over 10,000 or under 8,000 words will not be accepted for submission and will be immediately returned to the student with instruction to reduce the word length. The dissertation may then be resubmitted but the original deadline for submission still applies and penalties for late submission will be applied as detailed in the ‘Late Submission Penalties’ section below.
If after resubmission the dissertation still exceeds/falls below the word limit, the following word count penalties will apply:


Word limit

Essays that exceed or fall below the word limit by less than 10 % after resubmission

Essays that exceed or fall below the word limit by 10% or more after resubmission

Upper

10001-10999

11000 and over  

Under

7999-7201

7200 and under

Penalty:

Deduction of 10% off your mark

A mark of zero

 

Late Submission Penalties
 

The full allocated mark will be reduced by 5 percentage points for the first 24 hour period after the deadline for the submission of the coursework.

The mark will be reduced by a further 10 percentage points if the coursework is submitted during the following six days.

Dissertations submitted more than seven days late, the mark will be recorded as zero but the assessment would be considered as complete.

Marking Procedures

Two people independently mark the dissertations. The first marker and second markers are both internal examiners. The dissertation supervisor is asked to give comments on the work as the one who knows the area most thoroughly and also as someone who can comment on how much help the student received (those who have worked more independently will get somewhat higher marks). The Visiting Examiner will also read a sample of the dissertations across the range of marks and any dissertations which are felt to be borderline (pass/fail or pass/distinction).

For information, the guidance given to markers is as follows:
 

As a general rule: a student can bring any relevant material, regardless of whether it has been specifically taught in the degree programme syllabus. It is important however that the overall subject and content of the dissertation is within the area of psychoanalytic theory. A more complex or difficult topic should be marked somewhat more leniently than a straightforward one, though obviously if the student has been over-ambitious and got out of his or her depth the work will not get a very high mark. If there is an appendix, do not include this in reaching your mark, it is extra material for reference only (e.g. data on which the argument is based, such as a published case history, reproductions of works of art which are used as the basis of theoretical argument in the main body of the text), and must not be allowed to be a way for some students to extend the word limit.

Distinction (70% or above)

Work which shows a particularly high level of awareness and understanding of psychoanalytic theory. It shows convincing evidence of capacity to present an argument and a good appraisal of the relevant literature. The work is on the whole presented clearly, succinctly, and coherently, and there is a well-developed and at least partly original line of argument.
2:1 (60-69%)

The work is quite well-organised and presented. It shows a capacity to evaluate issues critically, and addresses a question intelligently, with good knowledge of the literature. However, it is not worthy of a distinction mark. This may be for many reasons, for instance because there is too little development of a line of argument, or there is very little evidence of originality, or the expression and presentation are careless in spite of other impressive aspects. However, the dissertation is generally a good and solid piece of work by a student who appears adequately to understand what he or she is writing about.
2:2 (50-59%)

The work addresses the issue chosen, but in a limited way. The material presented may show reasonable familiarity with the issues and general knowledge base, but it has significant flaws. For example, the student may lack knowledge or show misunderstanding of some clearly relevant theory, or fail to appreciate some important aspects of theoretical approaches, he or she may have good knowledge but show problems in presenting a coherent review or developing any line of argument. The reader may have the impression that the student has summarised an area without any real feeling for the important issues.
Fail (below 50%)

The student's work is too heavily flawed to pass. There may be clear plagiarism, an argument which cannot be followed, a review of the literature which is very inadequate, a very brief dissertation (less than 5,000 words) which does little justice to its subject.

Use of clinical material in dissertations

This MSc is a non-clinical programme, and does not require clinical training or experience. Understanding of clinical material is only included in the programme to the extent that it illuminates theoretical issues or the ways in which theory has developed (e.g. Freud's case histories are relevant because they were crucial in his developing theoretical formulations and sometimes in his technical innovations). We do not wish to give an unfair advantage, in formal assessments, to those students who have had clinical experience. We therefore issue the following guidelines:

There is no need for students to show knowledge of any clinical material which has not been set as part of the required reading for the programme, and students who do not use clinical illustrations will not be penalised;

If students have access to unpublished clinical material, e.g. from professional practice, this should not be used in assessed work. Only clinical material which has been published (whether by the student or someone else), which is therefore available in principle to all students and to the examiners, may be included;

If students choose to illustrate theoretical arguments with clinical examples, they should be careful to consider the extent to which these examples are really evidence for their conclusions, and remember that the marking will take into account only the strength of theoretical understanding and originality, not clinical knowledge. They should also take into account that writing about clinical material will use some of the space allowed, and so is not advisable unless it is the best way of furthering the theoretical argument. Students should beware of going beyond their competence, in interpreting clinical observations. Particularly if not clinically trained, offering explanations of clinical phenomena is likely to be risky. Students need to have a lively respect for the complexity of clinical work and of its relationship to theoretical developments. Venturing interpretations without adequate information about the case, and/or without appropriate training, risks suggesting to the examiners that the student has not recognised the limitations of the knowledge covered by the degree programme, and by implication that he or she may not have sufficient appreciation of the difficulties of applying psychoanalytic theory in practice.