Thesis Thoughts

Colby and I just returned from a nice walk on a spring day. Oxford is already quite lovely, and I am very excited to experience summer here. I have just about one month left in my first year here at Miami, and so far, I am tremendously enjoying the program here. The primary focus of the PhD program is research. Of course, clinical practice is also important, and they ideally inform each other. I'll start seeing clients in the psychology clinic here next spring, so right now I am quite research-focused. One of the first large tasks of the PhD program is to complete a Master's thesis that consists of original research.

I am moving along nicely with my thesis, and just a few days ago officially set the date for when I will have my thesis proposal with my committee. The proposal happens when I have developed the hypotheses and methodology for my project, and is a time for me to sit with my committee and make sure they give me the go-ahead to actually carry out the project and collect data. It's not nearly as big a deal as the thesis defense, but it certainly is an important marker in the whole process. My proposal date is Wednesday, April 22. It also happens to be Earth Day, so maybe after the meeting my committee and I can go outside and plant a tree to help make up for all of the paper I'll be using to make copies of my proposal.

A few people have recently asked me what I was doing for my thesis, so I thought I'd share that with all of you. It might be really boring, so feel free to quit reading now. It's interesting to look back and think about what research interests I put down on my applications a year and a half ago. The cohort of first year students have all discussed the ways in which these interests have changed and morphed, a natural process that makes you wonder why graduate programs place so much emphasis on research interests in the first place. Broadly, I came into graduate school wanting to do work in the area of adolescents and attachment theory. This is still the case for me, and I'm thankful that my thesis incorporates both of these interests. Throughout this year, I have been involved in an ongoing research project at a local juvenile detention center, where I weekly administer assessments for PTSD and trauma.

Building off of this ongoing project, I will be examining the role of parental attachment in the development of delinquency, while also incorporating aspects of trauma and alienation. Specifically, I am interested in knowing more about male adolescents' attachment to father, and how attachment to father may uniquely impact these young men compared with their attachments to mother. Although previous research has shown a link between trauma and delinquency, poor parental attachments and delinquency, alienation and delinquency, and the unique role of the father in predicting male delinquency, the purpose of the present study is to fill a gap in the existing literature by investigating the interrelationships among these variables. Hopefully, my study will allow for greater understanding of the pathways to delinquency as well as the role of differential parental attachments and general attachment styles in the lives and development of male adolescents.

Sound fun? I'm actually quite excited to propose and hopefully move along this summer into data collection. I feel like quite the nerd when research starts to excite me, but so be it. I'm okay with it, so you should be too.