Psykologisk Institut

Supervision Letter

In this document, I will provide you with the information about the supervision that I am able to offer and how I generally approach my job as a supervisor. Please be aware that, these are broad guidelines, and we can always exchange ideas about how you might want the supervision to develop or what might work better for you as an individual. It is therefore important that you understand my view of the supervision process and that we agree on what we might expect from each other before deciding to work together. For this reason, it is important that you always ask when you are in doubt.

In which topics do I supervise?

I supervise bachelor projects and master theses. I strongly prefer to supervise on topics that are part of my expertise, such as cognitive psychology, theories of emotion, theories of the self, autobiographical memory, and applied psychology on business (e.g., consumer behavior, marketing, etc.). If you decide to choose me as supervisor on topics that are outside my teaching or research areas, the level of help I can provide—in literature selection—will be very much limited.

My take on supervision

As supervisor, I have the conviction and belief that you are the primary responsible for leading the thesis project, its development, and conclusion. In these terms, the final product is yours, and not mine.

It is important that you know that the university has some specific rules about the amount of hours I can use to work in your project / thesis. However, I am not strict at the time to count hours. However, I do usually structure my supervision around individual and group meetings with strict deadlines and plans.

For bachelor projects: 1-2 meetings on problem formulation and outline. Then 2-3 supervision meetings on pieces of text up to 15 pages.

For master theses: 2-3 meetings on problem formulation and outline. Then 5-7 supervision meetings on specific pieces of text up to 70 pages.

Overall, you can expect guidance in relation to problem formulation, argument construction, and thesis structure. If you have chosen to write your thesis in English, I am also willing to provide some guidance in relation to writing style, flow, etc. Conversely, if you are writing in Danish, I expect that you will seek guidance on your writing style from friends and/or other staff at the institute. In most cases, the structure of the thesis write-up will be a central topic of discussion throughout the supervision process.

What do I expect from you?

Primarily, I expect that you will take an active role in the general process of writing, finding relevant material, and structuring your own ideas before and during our meetings.

For specific matters, I expect:

1. That you work independently and in groups to prepare and execute a project within a set timeframe. Do not forget that your classmates can be a great resource and you can learn a lot from each other.
2. That you have familiarized yourself with the formalities and requirements for your project or thesis. It all is stated on the website of the institute.
3. That, largely, you independently do literature searches yourself and find relevant texts.
4. That you clearly state your processes and your needs in terms of guidance.
5. That you engage in a dialogue with me during the supervision. For example, that you tell me if my suggestions and comments make no sense, are out of your interest or exceed your level of ambition or working hours.
6. That you develop and train yourself in critical thinking in relation to the analysis of complex topics.

Mainly, I view my role as supervisor as such, as a supportive role. My primary task will be then making suggestions about how you may enhance the quality, content, and form of your work. However, and as mentioned above, you are the final and only responsible for the process as well as for the final product.

Contacting Me

The easiest and preferable way to contact me is by email. You are also welcome to come by my office if you have a quick question. But please, you must also respect that I might be unable to see you because I am busy at the moment.

If you want to postpone a scheduled meeting because you are still writing or need some extra time to prepare, you must notify me by email within 3 working days before the meeting and be aware that there might be a delay before we can re-schedule. If you want to postpone a meeting because you are having a writing block or have been stuck for an extended period of time on a particular section of your thesis, I will encourage you to come for a short meeting instead, so that we can discuss the problem and work together to help you move forward.

If you have questions regarding the information outlined above, I look forward to addressing them the first time we meet.

Best regards,

Sinué Salgado

Email: sinue@psy.au.dk

Office: 430/1350