PhD Psychology

In the first two years, the training programme include formal training by completing prescribed courses and informal training like participation in seminars, case conferences, ward rounds, psychodiagnostic service responsibilities, etc

Formal Training Program:

The candidates will be required to complete the following course during the course:

Informal Training Programme
Seminars
Case Conferences
Ward Rounds
Psychosomatic Rounds
Research Forums
Participation in ongoing courses
Social Psychology
Child Psychiatry

The students enrolled in the Department for the Ph.D. degree of the Institute are required to actively participate in all the academic activities of the Department meant for Junior Residents in Psychiatry, during their training programme. It includes weekly clinical case presentation, journal club/seminar, research forum, and didactic lectures in methodology and statistics. As part of their clinical responsibility they are required to see the patients daily, under the guidance of the consultants. These are in addition to the requirement to submit a thesis for award of the Ph.D. degree

The candidates are expected to attain a high degree of proficiency in the theoretical and practical aspects of clinical psychology and allied disciplines. The candidate is expected to be acquainted with the recent advances and current research and literature on the subject of study, as well as its historical aspect

A thesis proposal has to have a guide and one or two co-guides and the specific contribution of each guide/co-guide has to be spelled out in the thesis plan. Every Faculty member (Assistant Professor and above) shall ordinarily be eligible to act as supervisor/co/supervisor, provided he/she is suitably qualified. However, all Faculty members irrespective of their period of service are eligible for Co-Guideship. Any Faculty member who has less than 2 years of service for superannuation should not be appointed as Guide of any candidate but he/she can be considered for appointment as Co-guide

The candidate will select a Guide for his research project. The supervisor and the candidate together can select one or more Co-guide(s)

The selection of the research project and the supervisor/co-supervisor shall be governed by the following considerations. The necessary facilities for the proposed study should already exist in the Department. The supervisor should be capable of independently guiding the thesis work according to his own experience or, with some assistance from the co-supervisors(s), in case of some special fields. Any member of the faculty who has made an original contribution to the field closely allied to the candidate’s subject of thesis may be designated supervisor/co-supervisors. In the event of protracted absence of the supervisor for over 6 months, the responsibility for guiding the thesis shall be taken over by the co-supervisor if any. The Dean may appoint a new supervisor/co-supervisor, on the recommendations of the Doctoral Committee

Research Thesis:

Research Thesis must afford evidence of originality by way of discovery of new facts or by a critical appraisal of existing knowledge. Thesis should show high attainment and ability and a contribution to existing knowledge relating to any significant problem in clinical psychology, psychological aspects of psychiatric disorders, psychological aspects of neurological illnesses, any other problem considered pertinent to these, and should be approved by the Doctoral Committee

Doctoral Committee

The Doctoral Committee for each Ph.D. research project may be constituted by the Dean on the recommendation of the Head of the Department. The supervisor will be the Convener of the committee

Ordinarily the Doctoral Committee may have two members from the Department and two senior members from allied Departments.

Duties of Doctoral Committee are broad, advisory and often mandatory and include giving suggestions, comments and recommendations about the thesis plan, changes in the material and methods, special training requirements of the candidate and extensions of time etc

Thesis Plan

The candidate should make a preliminary submission of the thesis plan to the Doctoral Committee incorporating the review of literature relating to his research topic within 3 months from the date of enrolment. By the end of 6 months at the latest, a tentative plan should be submitted. The plan before it is finally approved will have to have sanction of the Ethics Committee. By the end of 12 months, the final plan, duly approved by the Ethics and Doctoral Committees, will be submitted. These dates can be extended, depending upon the need of training etc. required, on the recommendation of the Doctoral Committee. After this any modification of the title or plan, if considered necessary will be permitted only on the recommendation of the Doctoral Committee

Progress of Research

At the end of first six months, the Doctoral Committee will meet to critically assess the candidate’s grasp on the subject of his/her ability for independent work. The candidate’s continuance as Ph.D. student will depend upon a recommendation to that effect by the doctoral committee to the Dean, PGI

The candidates will be required to regularly submit a report on progress of his/her research work every six months, for consideration of the Doctoral Committee. Maximum period up to which a candidate can submit the thesis will be five years

Examination

Examination for Ph.D. would be as per rules of the Institute for Award of Ph.D. degree