Dissertation topic and Internship

[Psychstuca]

My question might not be a very typical one for this forum. Do people feel that having a dissertation research topic and doing research on the population that is entirely different from what you want for your internship might hurt your chances to be selected for your desired intership setting?

For example, if I consider doing my dissertation research, say, on emotions and personality in forensic or multicultural area, would this might somewhat hurt my chances to be matched at the VA in 2 years?

I am a PsyD student interested in clinical work first and foremost and won't be applying to any research-heavy intership programs.

I appreciate any thoughts on this! If someone tells me I worry too much, I'll accept that too

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[psychmama]

I'm on my way to internship, so I'll give you my 2 cents. All things being equal, I think it can be helpful to have a dissertation topic that maps on to the clinical setting you hope to wind up at for internship. My friend is going to a VA next year, and her dissertation relates to PTSD, which I think was a plus in getting the internship there.

That said, I wouldn't say it's a big problem if your research interests are unrelated to your internship, especially if your focus is more on clinical work anyway. My dissertation is on grief and loss, and I'm going to a psychiatric hospital for internship. There's not too much overlap there, but I didn't find this to be much of an impediment to matching for internship. I think it depends on how passionate you are about your dissertation topic -- this will come across in your internship applications and probably will be viewed favorably. Even more important than the dissertation, from most internship sites' perspective, is whether your clinical training is related to the population/treatment issues of the internship. For instance, a help for me in matching to a psychiatric hospital was having practicum experience with inpatients, as well as experience with group therapy and dbt.

good luck in your process!

 

[Cosmo75]

My dissertation wasn't really related to a VA setting, where I am currently on internship. However, since I was applying for health psych internships it was helpful that my dissertation fell under this category. I know that when we looked at applicants for this year for the health psych track, we looked to see if they had a health related dissertation, but not necessarily a VA related one.

Hope that helps.

 

[Psychstuca]

Thank you Psychmama and Cosmo for your very helpful responses. It seems from your experiences it is definitely more advantageous and useful if the two (diss topic and the internship setting/track) are somehow related. This makes sense, too, in terms of selecting a candidate whose credential and experiences are reflecting his or her true interests and dedication to the chosen career path.

This makes me think harder about what I really want!

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

My primary research was completely unrelated to my internship placement (VA). My secondary research from the last 1.5 years is much more closely related....though I'm not sure if that really had an effect on my placement.

 

[ChildPsyc]

I realize this is an old thread, but I'm having a somewhat similar issue. I'm currently a 2nd year student in a university based PsyD program, and starting to think about dissertation topics. Clinically, I am very interested in children and families. I'm not crazy about research with them, however, because they're so logistically difficult to work with (IRB, consent, etc.). I am concerned that if I use college students (a convenience sample here) in my dissertation that it will hurt my chances at a child/family-focused internship placement. The town my university is based in is very small, and it would be very difficult to get a sufficient number of children. Would it be acceptable to do something with college students and, if asked, comment on the lack of feasibility in gaining enough subjects in my area (which is true)? Or is it important enough to try to make something work?

I have been trying to get opinions on this from those in my program and responses have been mixed. It has been suggested to me that I do something with college students that could be generalized to children with further study. Someone also stated that if I tried to apply to a hospital for internship, it would be a big problem to have a different dissertation topic, whereas if I applied to a community mental health setting they likely wouldn't care.

I'm very conflicted here. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LucidMind]

I realize this is an old thread, but I'm having a somewhat similar issue. I'm currently a 2nd year student in a university based PsyD program, and starting to think about dissertation topics. Clinically, I am very interested in children and families. I'm not crazy about research with them, however, because they're so logistically difficult to work with (IRB, consent, etc.). I am concerned that if I use college students (a convenience sample here) in my dissertation that it will hurt my chances at a child/family-focused internship placement. The town my university is based in is very small, and it would be very difficult to get a sufficient number of children. Would it be acceptable to do something with college students and, if asked, comment on the lack of feasibility in gaining enough subjects in my area (which is true)? Or is it important enough to try to make something work?

I have been trying to get opinions on this from those in my program and responses have been mixed. It has been suggested to me that I do something with college students that could be generalized to children with further study. Someone also stated that if I tried to apply to a hospital for internship, it would be a big problem to have a different dissertation topic, whereas if I applied to a community mental health setting they likely wouldn't care.

I'm very conflicted here. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

It seems like your question has already been answered in this thread. I actually started another thread a month or two ago about the same issue and I even got the same answer (there seems to be a lot of reliability!).

Anyways, from the information I have gathered in this thread, the thread I created, and talking to graduate schools/professors, I have come to the conclusion that:

A. It is definitely a plus to conduct research in a similar area where you're looking for an internship.

B. In the end it doesn't matter too much if you do research that is more or less unrelated to your future internship...like I said, it helps, but it's definitely not necessary As long as you have the clinical experience (from practicum, externships, etc) and training which is related to your internship, then you should be fine

C. However, during internship interviews you may be asked about your research and questioned as to why it's so different. It would be prudent to think of a way connect your research to that internship. You really have to tailor your experience and training specifically for each internship you apply for...from what I have read here it is all about how you present yourself and how you are able to connect your experience and expertise with that specific internship. Just to keep in mind.

 

[ChildPsyc]

Thank you, LucidMind. I think you summarized much better than I was able to in my head. Very helpful, and appreciated.

 

[LucidMind]

Thank you, LucidMind. I think you summarized much better than I was able to in my head. Very helpful, and appreciated.

No problem! Sometimes it just takes an outside perspective, as us current and future clinical psychologists know