Eska - I can totally see where you're coming from as I do sometimes share things on here when really I should be telling someone that can actually help me practically. I'm really pleased that I came across pgf though, because I am only at MSc level and desparately wanting to start a PhD in the near future; however I don't know anybody who has done/is doing a PhD apart from my university tutors, therefore I don't really have anybody to talk to, in a colloquial non-judgemental way, about the process. Its also difficult because none of my friends on my MSc course want to do a PhD and although they're brilliant listeners, I feel bad boring them with all my proposal/supervisor/funding related panicking.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that I speak to my friends and family more than I do to people on here, but when studying becomes lonely, worrying or frustrating; and when I'm worrying about my PhD applications, this place is invaluable as everybody understands!

Thanks for the birthday wishes, I am very nearly finshed but still faffing around...I always have to go through this process though. Will be glad when its handed in, I'm actually looking forward to writing my dissertation proposal and getting stuck into next semester's work, had a tough time personally this semester so this will be a fresh start.

Well done for your productive weekend, hope your day tomorrow goes well and you manage to get everything done! Nx

I am here too....only finishing a MSc essay though that was quite dull at first but now looking quite interesting, shame it has to be in tomorrow really! I don't want to be up too late as its my birthday tomorrow and I have to start my dissertation proposal!

Good luck to everyone else doing more important-sounding PhDs! Nx

Hi Luke - I am only at MSc level (psychosocial studies) and I find the debate between discursive and biographical narrative methods really interesting, actually just used it as part of an essay, hopefully showed some understanding of it! I know what you mean about the massive gap rather than the more subtle disparities - I guess you've read the Frosh and Baraitser paper? Also have you looked into any of the more philosophical approaches - my tutor is very into those, pm me if you want some references.

Thats fantastic - well done!! Especially after all you've been through, you so deserve it! Nxx

If you look at the jobs offered in the Guardian higher education supplement they usually mention salaries - from what I can remember it starts at about 30k for a lecturing post to around 50k for principal lecturer. Professor is about 70k+ I think. They are really rough estimates though, and theres probably a lot of variation - I don't think its too bad though!

Good luck, I'm only at MSc level so can't say I know how you feel, but I will be thinking of you tomorrow. Try to calm yourself down though, it will probably go much better than you think, Nx

Hi Luke - what area of psychosocial studies are you in, is it more the health psychology side or the critical psychology side? I'm sure you've already done this and I'm not suggesting anything new to you, but have you looked into narrative-based methodologies, or possibly Q-methodology?

I did chemistry a-level and faintly remember this sort of reaction but thought I'd ask the experts! One of my dogs has a sore foot after a little cyst got infected and burst, she's been to the vets and is on antibiotics, also the vet gave me some iodine to put in boiled water to bathe her foot 4x a day.

Obviously the iodine solution is orange/brown, but when I put her foot in it, it goes like a milky white/transparent colour - why is this? Is it a sign of infection and the iodine cleaning it?

Thanks, Nx

Sorry to hijack your post Maria, but how does the home tutoring work? I've been thinking of giving up my p/t receptionist job to do something thats more relevant to my MSc - I was thinking about tutoring but wondering whether I was suitable. I'm doing a MSc in psychology/sociology so would probably be able to teach up to A-Level psychology and sociology, and a selection of degree topics as well but obviously wouldn't be so confident helping anyone at that level.

Do you advertise privately or is there an agency you sign up to? Do you need any specefic qualifications other than a degree? Thanks, Nx

Thanks KB - I just think that for me its really important that I understand all the theory properly, not just because I enjoy it but because I do want to go further, therefore I'm not just going to focus on one thing and exclude others. I'm doing a theoretical MSc dissertation this year as well and it will provide a good background for my PhD, which will be empirical; I'm hoping that my dissertation will provide a starting point for my literature review, so I guess I am synthesising before applying in that sense.

I like doing really different things as well, I've always seemed to do things like that; its not always paid off but sometimes I think its better to take a risk and do something interesting rather than repeating what everyone else has done, although its generally more difficult. My tutors seem to think its a good thing though, the subject area I'm in is very new and tanscisciplinary and so lots of interesting research is being done to push it forward - I think I've come into it at the right time!

Good luck with writing your theory paper!

Nx

Thanks Pjlu for the helpful and reassuring responses - I do think she could have been testing how far I could go rather than trying to catch me out, I don't know her very well as she hasn't taught me before but I think she is a nice enough person, but she is the sort of tutor who would push you, which I think is a good thing. It didn't really do me any harm anyway!

I agree with you in that we all have different strengths; however I may have been trying to run before I can walk if I was synthesising before applying, according to Bloom's theory!

Thanks again, will try not to worry so much and show my application skills next time!

I don't really know a lot about dream interpretation, however according to Freud dreams are repressed wishes, could this be like three tasks that you need to get done, but are worried about doing and wish they would just go away or that other people would do them? Are you finding yourself doing things for other people that they should be doing themselves? This is all I can think of at the moment, like Eska I do think dreams mean something, however abstracted from reality they may be. My dreams tend to be very realistic, which can be quite scary sometimes, they often wake me up and it takes me a while to work out I was dreaming.

I'm not sleeping very well at the moment so not really dreaming, but I find that when I do I have had a much better night's sleep and wake up feeling (slightly) more awake - in theory you should wake up feeling better if you've had a vivid dream because that means you've entered a deeper kind of sleep.

I had to do a seminar presentation (MSc) and have been worrying about it ever since, we could do it on basically anything we had been taught on a theoretical module so far, we were told to be creative (prof likes use of video etc.). I will admit to not being the most creative student in the world but I love critically engaging with the theory, that is my strength I guess.

So for my presentation I chose a concept and evaluated different approaches to understand it, we hadn't looked at that concept in detail or made any links in terms of approaches and so I think I was being original, even if I was speaking in quite abstract terms, I did understand it. I'm worried though because the other students in my class all chose concepts that we had covered in class quite extensively, and used a film to show their understanding of them. Therefore, mine was really different and I'm worried it was different for all the wrong reasons. I was asked a really tough question about application from the second marker at the end and attempted to answer it, but it wasn't good, so I apologised and said there was nothing more I could say. It was horrible at the time, but later she said it was a bit cruel of her to ask it, and my prof said that I did a good job of it and that I should have carried on!

My main point though, I am obviously ok at understanding the theory, but awful at applying it, I feel like I'm really letting myself down here, I don't think I'm going to do very well in this presentation but I guess its a learning curve. But I'm wondering what is actually more important/better, being able to make links between theories or applying a single theory?

I'm sorry if this is all really obscure but I've been worrying about it for a few days...any sense-making/reassurance appreciated. Nx

Thats ok, I think the only way you can assess whether the department would be right for you is to look on the university website and get an impression of what seem to be the 'popular' things to research in that department. It should be quite straightforward to do that as they frequently have research groups concentrated around paticular topics. Also have a look at what the PhD students are doing as you'll be able to see whether your interests fit in.

I can't really recommend any universities though, I never looked at any of those when I applied for my Masters. Good luck with your search though.