Clinical Program Dissertation

The dissertation enables students to develop in-depth understanding of an important clinical problem, and advance their professional identity as scholarly clinicians and psychologists. The dissertation is an original, independent investigation or exposition of a topic relevant to clinical psychology. It may be an original study that contributes new information to the field, or a scholarly synthesis with original applications of existing information to a significant clinical problem.

Sample Dissertation Titles

  • The Relationship Between Clinician Training and Treatment Outcomes of Clients in DBT Skills Group at the San Francisco DBT Center
  • Adjustment to Disability for Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury: A Comparison of the Minority and Medical Models
  • Exploring Clinical Psychology Doctoral Students' Attitudes Towards Adults With Substance Use Disorders
  • A Qualitative Study of Therapists' Experiences Practicing Multicultural Psychotherapy
  • Families in the ICU Conference: Conflict, Resolution, and the Impact on Decisions at the End of Life
  • An Examination of the Relationships Between Conventional and Novel Assessments of Attention and Functional Outcomes in Patients with Unilateral Neglect
  • Second Opinions: A Model of Supervision Drawn From Wilfred Bion's Concept of Container/Contained
  • The Long-term Effects of Emotionally Focused Therapy Training on Knowledge, Competency, Self-Compassion, and Attachment Style
  • Integrating Story Time into the Treatment of Children with Social Phobia
  • Control Mastery Theory and Anti-Racism: Interviews with White Control Mastery Therapists about Anti-Racism as a Therapeutic Stance
  • White Therapists Addressing White Racism in Treatment: A Theoretical Analysis and Integrative Treatment Model
  • On the Process of Psychospiritual Development, Old Age, and the Narrative Theory Model of Personality Development
  • What Has Theory Done for Me Lately?: A Qualitative Study of Therapists' Reasons for Preferring Their Theoretical Orientations
  • Anger and Depression Among Incarcerated Juvenile Delinquents: A Pilot Intervention
  • Eating Disorders in Gay Men: The Link to Shame and the Risk of Suicide
  • South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission: A Reckoning of Psychology's Contribution
  • Separation Guilt and Recidivism Among Incarcerated Mothers
  • Grief and the Foreclosure of Hope: A Phenomenological Investigation of Violent Loss among Inner-City African American Women
  • Memory Functions of Youth with Prodromal Schizophrenia
  • Ethnic Role Guilt and Academic Underachievement of African American Students
  • The Relationship Between Sensory Processing and Play in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders
  • The Serial Visuospatial Learning Test (SVLT): A Psychometric Study
  • The In/visible Race in Multicultural Psychology Literature: A Recognition of Whiteness and Power
  • Asian Sisters in Action: The Psychosocial Development of Asian American Female Adolescents
  • Seeking Meaning from the Past: Examining the Psychological Effects of the Tule Lake Pilgrimage on Japanese American Former Internees and Their Descendants
  • What are You? A Qualitative Study on Multiracial Identity Development
  • Survivors of Torture and Survivors of Gender Persecution: A Comparative Study of Symptom Severities at Intake