Where to Find Positive Psychology, Wellbeing and Resilience Dissertations
You can find real positive psychology, wellbeing and resilience dissertations through four main routes. EThOS lists UK doctoral theses, OATD indexes open access graduate theses from around the world, ProQuest holds dissertation records that usually need a library subscription, and the University of Pennsylvania publishes capstone projects from its Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP). DART-Europe, which many older guides still recommend, closed permanently on 3 February 2025.
Below we explain what each resource actually gives you, what it does not, and how to search it. We also list six real UK theses on wellbeing and resilience, so you can see how finished work in this area is structured.
| Resource | What you get | Full text | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| EThOS | Records of UK doctoral theses from the 1700s onwards | Not hosted. Links to the university repository where the thesis is available | Doctoral theses only, and some records are metadata only |
| OATD | Index of open access graduate theses and dissertations worldwide | Free to read on the repository that hosts the thesis | The repository’s own terms of use apply |
| ProQuest Dissertations and Theses | Dissertation and thesis records, including many US dissertations | Usually through a subscribing library, with some open access titles | Full text normally needs institutional access |
| Penn MAPP archive | Capstone and service learning projects in applied positive psychology | Many are in Penn’s Scholarly Commons | Capstones are projects, not conventional dissertations, and authors choose whether to deposit them |
What counts as a positive psychology, wellbeing or resilience dissertation?
Positive psychology research looks at what helps people function well, not only at what goes wrong. In dissertations that usually shows up as studies of wellbeing, hope, gratitude, resilience, flourishing and positive psychology interventions (PPIs). A thesis on one of these topics will not always have “positive psychology” in its title, which is why the search phrases later in this guide matter.
Degree type matters too. Several of the examples below are PhDs, but others are professional doctorates such as the Doctorate in Educational Psychology (DEdPsy). If you are working on a Master’s dissertation, doctoral theses are still useful for method and structure, but they are longer and broader than anything you will be asked to write.
Where to find positive psychology dissertations online
Finding UK doctoral theses through EThOS
EThOS is the British Library’s discovery platform for UK doctoral theses. It was unavailable after the 2023 cyber-attack on the British Library and returned in 2026. The British Library’s July 2026 update says it holds records for over 650,000 theses and that over 400,000 are openly available to download from university repositories.
The important point is that the restored EThOS is a directory, not a file store. It does not host thesis files itself. Where a university has made a thesis available, the record shows an “Access thesis from university” button that takes you to the repository copy. If the button is missing, the thesis may be pre-digital, may not be in the repository, or may not have been linked yet, and the British Library suggests contacting the university library. You do not need to log in to search.
You can start from the EThOS search page, and the British Library’s EThOS update and FAQs explain how records are added.
Finding open access theses through OATD
OATD (Open Access Theses and Dissertations) aims to index graduate-level theses that are free to read online, and its records come from universities and research institutions across the world. It does not store the thesis itself. Full text stays on the hosting site, usually the awarding university’s repository, so you click through to read it.
OATD is the quickest way to see international wellbeing and resilience theses alongside UK ones. Its FAQ also reminds users that most theses remain protected by copyright, so personal reading is fine but you should not assume permission to redistribute or reuse them.
Searching ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses is the best-known commercial dissertation database. The OATD FAQ notes that it includes many US dissertations and that access is restricted to subscribing institutions, with most records not open access. In practice, that means you search it through your university library login, not through the open web.
It is still worth checking, because the abstract and subject terms often tell you whether a thesis is relevant before you chase the full text. ProQuest also runs PQDT Open, a collection of open access dissertations and theses with free full text, so ask your library what your login includes.
Finding Penn MAPP capstone projects
Penn’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology is described by the university as the first programme of its kind, and its library guide to positive psychology points to three separate collections. Penn PhD and EdD dissertations on positive psychology are searchable in ProQuest. MAPP capstone projects and MAPP service learning projects sit in Penn Libraries Scholarly Commons.
Treat these as different document types. A MAPP capstone is an independent project that applies what the student learned on the programme to a professional or research area, so it is not the same as a doctoral dissertation, and the library guide says individual students decide whether their capstone is added to Scholarly Commons. You can browse the MAPP capstone collection, read short descriptions on the programme’s capstone pages, or start from the Penn Libraries positive psychology guide.
DART-Europe has closed, so what should you use instead?
DART-Europe was a portal for open access European research theses, run by UCL Library Services. UCL’s notice says it was closed permanently on Monday 3 February 2025 and points researchers to general open access aggregators and to individual institutional repositories. Do not rely on any guide that still sends you there.
For European and other non-UK theses, these routes still work.
- OATD, for graduate theses that are free to read online.
- CORE, an Open University service that aggregates open access research outputs from repositories and journals.
- BASE, a search engine run by Bielefeld University Library that harvests repository metadata.
- The repository of the university you already know produced the research.
If you want the broader picture beyond psychology, we cover it in our guide to finding free dissertations and theses online.
Six real wellbeing and resilience theses to look at
These come from UK university repositories. We checked each record page for author, title and date, but repositories change their access settings, so check the record before you plan around a download.
| Thesis | Level, university and year | What it is useful for |
|---|---|---|
| Positive psychological factors in late adolescence: the role of resilience and hope in the well-being of 16 to 18 year olds (Victoria Charles) | PhD, University of Liverpool, 2013 | A small cross-sectional questionnaire study of 50 college students, with clear measures for wellbeing, resilience and hope |
| Effecting well-being improvements in educational settings with positive psychology interventions (Paul J. Carter) | PhD, Bangor University, 2022 | Four studies testing PPIs in schools and universities, useful if you are designing an intervention |
| Understanding the links between positive wellbeing and health (Jennie L. Brown) | PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL, 2015 | Resilience and a two-week gratitude intervention, linked to cortisol, heart rate variability and blood pressure |
| A grounded theory of wellbeing and resilience (Nicola Peek) | Doctoral thesis, University of South Wales, 2024 | A qualitative model: eleven counselling psychologists interviewed using constructivist grounded theory |
| Positive mental health and resilience in young people (Jessica M. Armitage) | PhD, University of Bristol, 2021 | Treats resilience as a process built from protective factors, using both positive and negative mental health measures |
| Pupil perceptions of wellbeing: a positive psychology perspective during a pandemic (Lauran Eckloff) | DEdPsy, Cardiff University, 2021 | Uses the PERMA model and Q methodology with pupils, and shows how a professional doctorate is written up |
Check access on each record. The Cardiff repository, for example, lists the item’s availability as restricted, so confirm what you can actually open before you rely on it.
Search phrases to try in each database
Because titles vary, search for the concepts a thesis would use as well as the topic label. If the search box accepts quotation marks, put multi-word terms inside them.
- “positive psychology” thesis
- “psychological wellbeing” thesis
- resilience wellbeing dissertation
- “positive psychology interventions” thesis
- “PERMA” wellbeing dissertation
- gratitude “psychological wellbeing” thesis
- flourishing “positive psychology” thesis
Try British and American spellings (wellbeing, well-being) in the same search session, because repositories do not index them consistently. For the narrower topics inside this field, our list of positive psychology dissertation topics gives you more search terms to work from.
How to use these dissertations in your own research
A finished thesis is most useful as a model for how an argument is built, not as a source you copy from. These are the parts worth reading closely.
- The method chapter. See how the author justified the design, the sample and the measures. It helps when you are choosing a methodology of your own.
- The literature review. Notice how the author moves from broad theory to a specific gap, which is the skill behind any good literature review. If yours is the part you are stuck on, our literature review help covers it.
- The reference list. It is a shortcut to the journal articles the field relies on. Read those originals before you cite them.
- The limitations section. It shows you what examiners accept as an honest weakness, such as the small, single-college sample in the Liverpool thesis.
Many universities allow students to cite theses, but check with your supervisor first, and use the referencing style your department requires. Our guide on how to cite a dissertation shows the usual format. If you want to see how complete UK projects look across other subjects, our collection of UK dissertation examples is a good next stop, and if your own research question is still forming, a research proposal is where most students start to narrow it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I download dissertations from EThOS?
Not directly. The restored EThOS does not host thesis files. Where a university has made a thesis available, the record links to the repository copy through an “Access thesis from university” button. If there is no button, contact the university library.
Is DART-Europe still available?
No. UCL closed the DART-Europe e-theses portal permanently on 3 February 2025. Use OATD, CORE, BASE or the awarding university’s own repository instead.
Is OATD free to use?
OATD focuses on graduate theses that are freely available to read online. The full text sits on the repository that hosts each thesis, and that repository’s terms of use apply.
Are Penn MAPP capstone projects publicly available?
Many are listed in Penn Libraries Scholarly Commons, but not all. Penn’s library guide says individual students decide whether to add their capstone, so some will only appear as short descriptions on the programme’s website.
Where can I find free psychology PhD theses?
Start with OATD, CORE and BASE, then follow EThOS links to UK university repositories. The six theses above all sit in repositories you can search directly, though some records restrict access.
Can I use a dissertation as a source in my own work?
Often yes, if your supervisor and department allow it. Cite it as a thesis in your required style, and where possible go to the journal articles it relies on for key claims.
