Thesis Supervision

I have a responsibility to supervise undergraduate student theses in psychology at King's University College. I can also supervise undergraduate theses for students registered in the honours specialization in psychology at the University of Western Ontario and would consider doing so. I am entitled also to co-supervise theses for students registered in the MEd program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. I am also willing to assist all undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Latvia with their research projects on an informal basis.

My philosophy is that a thesis is a student's independent research project from conceptualization, through design, data-gathering, data-analyses, presentation of results, and writing. My job is to intervene only as necessary for pedagogical purposes. Students can choose whatever topic in the area of consciousness studies that they want as long as they do not hurt anyone. If students wish, they can adopt projects from my research agenda described on my research projects page or I can suggest other topics that may be of interest to them.

Several years ago, after some reanalysis of data and rewriting, I submitted several students' undergraduate theses for publication. Four in a row were published in four separate refereed academic journals:

I have not had time to continue this publication process, although the quality of student work has been equal to those that were published. I certainly encourage students to continue to work on their theses even after they have been completed if they wish to prepare them for submission for publication. And, indeed, the first of those has now been published:

    Wammes, M. & Barušs, I. (2009). Characteristics of spontaneous musical imagery. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 16(1), 37–61.

I have a laboratory at King's University College for student use that is minimally equipped with a computer and some furniture. The Department of Psychology pays the research costs for students registered at King's University College. I have some money donated by a private corporation that I can use to cover some of the costs of students' projects that are not otherwise covered. At any rate, there are lots of cutting-edge projects that can be done at little cost.

Previous Theses

Beliefs about reality and the phenomenology of introspection, John Miedema, 1991 (co-supervised with Dr. D. Humphrey)
Imaginal activity in wakefulness and lucid dreams, Heather Andrews, 1991 (co-supervised with Dr. S. Davies)
Photic stimulation and altered states of consciousness, Scott Wright, 1997 (co-supervised with Dr. S. Davies)
Personality correlates of beliefs about consciousness and reality, Sonya Jewkes, 1999
Spirituality in late adulthood, Lisa Heintz, 1999
Intelligence correlates of beliefs about consciousness and reality, Nicole Lukey, 2003
Changes in psychological well-being associated with childbirth, Rebecca Webster, 2003
Psychological effects of past-life imagery, Kellye Woods, 2003
Characterizing feelings of reality, Lee-Anna Sangster, 2004
Personality, spirituality, and the experience of elevation, Sarah McNichol, 2005 (co-winner of King's thesis award)
Profanity as an addictive behaviour, Rob Horvath, 2005 (co-winner of King's thesis award)
The stages of the will: An investigation of Roberto Assagioli’s model of the will, Matt Hayter, 2005
Existential intelligence: A preliminary study for the development of a new construct, Colleen Iascone, 2006
The role of anomalous phenomena in psychological well-being: A correlational study, Mike O'Reilly, 2007
The characteristics and correlates of spontaneous musical imagery, Mike Wammes, 2007
The effect of disidentification on authenticity of life purposes, Barbara Zboinska, 2007
Perceived parental attachment and achievement motivation free from fear of failure, Mena Bal, 2009
Personality correlates of human/machine interactions, Lindsay Morris, 2009
The role of perceived interpersonal closeness and receiver collaboration in anomalous information transfer, Patrick Gruggen, 2010
The effects of instruction on anomalous human-machine interaction, Jennifer Leandro, 2010

Other Possible Thesis Topics

From time to time, I think of possible projects that I do not have time to do myself, but that I think would be worth doing. The following is a list of some of those:

1. I have been surprised by the fact that some people emerge from cults, not only unscathed, but having actually gained some spiritual insight. How is it that genuine spiritual advancement is possible in situations that are blatantly unsympathetic to genuine self-transformation? It would be helpful to document this phenomenon and then seek to understand why it occurs.

2. No one has actually looked to see to what extent scientists use a billiard ball schema for making judgments about reality in spite of what could otherwise be sophisticated theorizing about the nature of reality.

3. Although it happens rarely, there are cases in which two people will sometimes share dreams. In the cases that have come to my attention, these were typically people who were close friends. They both have the same dream, but each from her own perspective, as though they were both participating together in a shared non-physical reality. No one has studied such dream sharing, but it would be important to document any such occurrences and to determine their characteristics.