Within the United States of America style of programmatic design at the doctoral level of attainment, the doctoral capstone is the final step towards achieving success within one’s doctoral studies and earning the doctoral degree. In traditional doctoral programs of study, the student must complete doctoral coursework, achieve support for their candidacy paper that represents their ability to write at an appropriate level of scholarly engagement, and successfully pass their comprehensive examination in order to achieve doctoral candidacy. Upon reaching the attainment of doctoral candidacy, the doctoral candidate’s final achievement is the doctoral capstone. The capstone is varied, including either a dissertation, a doctoral project study, defending a designated number of authored works that have been successfully published in quality double-blind peer-reviewed professional journals, or other capstone options that may be deemed appropriate by the university’s faculty and associated accrediting body.
Published in Chapter:
Showcasing Dreams, Desires, Vision, Whimsy, Illusion, and Anxious Uncertainty: Understanding Aspects of Perseverance and Determination Towards Doctoral Capstone Successes
Caroline M. Crawford (University of Houston – Clear Lake, USA) and Noran L. Moffett (Fayetteville State University, USA)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9707-0.ch010
Abstract
Personalized journeys that reflect the development of deep-seated perseverance and determination characteristics evolve from stresses and traumatic events that may be short-term or longer-term from past experiences, yet still can impact the doctoral candidate's progression through the dissertation journey. A sensitivity towards one's own psychological balance during highly stressful and destabilized beliefs around one's self-efficacy are impactful during the dissertation, potentially subverting and undermining a doctoral candidate's ability to maintain a balanced psychological approach towards anxiety-riddled and stress-inducing cognitive dissonance and engagement. Discussions around the ability to support doctoral candidates during the dissertation journey are highlighted, including perseverance and determination characteristic strengths, weaknesses, and areas of potential growth areas of engaged development, upon the doctoral candidate's personality.