Reconstructing the Concept of Doctoral Thesis for Ph.D. Students through a Pathological Perspective and Presenting a rounded Theory

The aim of this study was to reconstruct the concept of doctoral thesis for Ph.D. students of Psychology and Educational Sciences, at Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, through adopting an interpretationist approach and using a pathological perspective. In conducting this study a qualitative approach and an ethnographic methodology were used. In addition to open and deep interviewing techniques, participatory observation was used in collecting the data. The sampling method used in this study was purposive sampling and by using theoretical saturation index, 15 Ph.D. students from the faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Allameh Tabataba’i University who were at various stages of developing their thesis were selected. The participant's attitude toward and their perspectives on thesis and its various dimensions were studied. In order to analyze the collected data and reach a conclusion, grounded theory was used. In other words, instead of testing a theory and confirming or rejecting it a theory was presented in brief. The Main findings of this study obtained through grounded theory, include categories such as shirking responsibilities, employment, graduation, administrative problems, problems related to the professors, financial and time difficulties, and insufficient scientific resources. All these categories can be considered as subcategories of the 'graduation' category. In other words, graduation in this grounded theory served as the 'core category'. Furthermore, using these categories, a paradigmatic model is presented.