Musings of a Ph.D. student

  There are at least three takeaways from my interviewer regarding the dissertation. (1) She gave me some great advice regarding the dissertation.   She told me to choose a topic I am most passionate about.   Her advice is to choose something I love because I would get sick of the topic.   She talked about my dissertation idea about chemotherapy-induced alopecia and self-esteem in adolescent cancer patients.   She thinks that my dissertation is doable!   I can make my research easier by studying cancer survivors that are young adults, instead of cancer patients.   I could also interview parents of cancer patients or CCLSs.   I would have to work with hospitals but I can put flyers up at clinics.   She told me it doesn’t have to be perfect; it is merely an exercise. (2) Her best advice for a Ph.D. candidate starting would be to hold the dissertation lightly.   She was fixated on her dissertation being her opus or masterpiece.   She...

  This week, I gained a lot from my peers reviewing my curriculum vitae. They had a keen eye for detail, and I had many changes.   This week, I was bummed because the interview I hoped to happen fell through.   Due to her travel schedule, the interviewer couldn’t do it on such short notice.   This is a person I admire and aspire to be like.   She is prominent in her field, studying PTSD in cancer patients and their families.   I reached out to Dr. McCarroll and Dr. Cantrell to help me with my interview project.   Dr. McCarroll’s Ph.D. is in HDFS, and she has a CCLS, so I aspire to be like her.   I also admire Dr. Cantrell.   I hope to ask them questions about pursuing my CCLS, in conjunction with my Ph.D. in HDFS, Child and Adolescent Development.   I also want to ask them some questions about the possible dissertation topics related to Child Life, in addition to HDFS.   I need to ask them about possible topics, pa...

  This week’s readings interest me.   I would like to talk about my friend who just went for a presentation.   I have a friend named Dr. Lee, Ph.D., R.N. who is a visiting scholar here at the TWU Dallas Campus in Nursing.   She is amazing because she has accomplished a lot, and she is my age.   She conducts work with other mentor professors for presentations, listens to nursing classes, and makes presentations.   Recently, she shared with me her poster and poster presentation process.   She studies the relationship between loneliness in adolescents and suicidal ideation.   It is a complicated process to fix the aesthetics of the poster but also includes the most pertinent information.   She attended a Colloquium on the TWU Houston campus this past week, where she shared her poster and had a Q&A.   At this time, she shared that this was her first time in the United States to which she got an applause. She shared with me the draf...

 

Consider what you know about literature reviews- what's their purpose?   How could they serve to benefit researchers? How could a literature review be manipulated to reflect bias? How do you choose what literature to include in a literature review? Is it just based on search results? If not, what else might you consider?      According to Sarnecka (2019), there are three different literature reviews.   They all serve different purposes.   The first is stand-alone literature reviews, which provide an overview of literature on a particular topic.   The second is an introductory literature review, which is included near the beginning of an article or book.   The purpose is to present new, original research and provide background knowledge that the reader needs to understand that new research.   Finally, the third is the student’s literature review.   This is the type of literature review we are going to focus on.   It helps a stud...

 I had a great idea!  Tell me what you think of my idea.  I would like to read the whole dissertation and reach out to Dr. Barbara Buchanan, LMFT, who wrote the dissertation on  alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune disease that strips the patient of all their hair.    Her dissertation is unique because she uses family systems theory to see how the disease affects the family.  Linda Brock, her dissertation chair and professor Emerita at TWU, died this past July 2024.  I would have liked to talk to her. Specifically, I wanted to talk to her about research methods and how she got IRB approval for such a sensitive topic.  I do not want to throw away my original research idea of studying adolescent chemotherapy-induced alopecia.  I know it's different, but I'd love some feedback.  I would like to study the same population but modify my topic a bit.  I will do a Literature Review shortly. Thanks for reading!  Stay tuned!