I found it, but I’m not sure what to make of it. Maybe the readers can take a look at it and draw their own conclusions.

Let’s begin without a long introduction.

Northcentral University

This university is not to be confused with North Central University in Minnesota. The Minnesota institute belongs to the Assemblies of God and offers only a few master’s degrees, no doctorates.

Northcentral was founded in 1996, by Donald Hecht, as a for-profit university, in San Diego, California. It had offered bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. It moved to Prescott, Arizona, in 2003.

Source: Wikipedia

Financial Troubles

Quote:

In 2011 the US Department of Education  determined Northcentral was one of 75 US institutions failing its 2009-2010 financial responsibility test (a measure of the institution’s financial solvency). It would be required to post a letter of credit in order for students to receive federal financial aid.^[11] Northcentral also failed its 2010–2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 financial responsibility tests, scoring zero for 2010–2011 on a scale of -1 to 3, lower than the 0.2 it earned the prior term; 0.2 for 2011–2012; and 0.2 again for 2012–2013.^[12] In 2015 the US Department of Education placed Northcentral on “HCM-Cash Monitoring 1” status because of its financial issues.^[13]

Source: Wikipedia

The University Is Purchased

Shortly thereafter [accreditation by The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs], on October 8, 2008, Northcentral announced the university was being purchased by Rockbridge Growth Equity, LLC

Then National University acquired it in 2019, and it was merged with NU in 2022.

Source: Wikipedia

The Dissertation

I asked the librarian at National University for any information about Doug Weiss’s dissertation for an interlibrary loan, and here is what she sent me.

Title: The prevalence of depression in male sex addicts residing in the United States
Author: Weiss, Douglas W.
Advisor: [Name omitted by me]
Institution: Northcentral University
Year: 2004
ISBN: 978-0-496-63285-5
ProQuest Document ID: 305052829

I omitted the name of the one advisor because she cannot be found. There is a professor of psychology at a state university of the same name, but she appears much too young to be the advisor in 2004. I did not want readers to contact her.

Having only one advisor is okay, but normally a committee is formed, to get a broad perspective. I’m not certain there was a committee.

As it happens, the original printed dissertation is no longer available, but the digitized version is. It was digitized in 2010. The format was changed from a print copy to its present form in that year.

Here is the dissertation in a PDF format:

The Prevalence of Depression in Male Sex Addicts Residing in the United States

Click on it to see it.

My Assessment

I have a Ph.D. (dissertation here), in the University of California system. In 1997, Hendrickson published my dissertation: Women, Class, and Society in Early Christianity: Models from Luke-Acts (now out of print). But my dissertation is not in psychology.

Next, since Weiss’s dissertation was put in a digitized format in 2010, I cannot be sure that it was not improved between 2004 and 2010. I have to assume that it was not.

The first thing I noticed is that it is very short. Most dissertations are about 150 pages, plus (mine was over 300 pages). However, in the hard and social sciences some dissertations are allowed to be short, but only if they meet certain narrow research criteria. I do not have the background in psychology to determine whether this one is legitimately allowed to be short or whether it is substandard, just to get a quick doctorate.

Was Northcentral University a “shortcut” university, and all one had to do is write a dissertation without any or many courses to take and get the doctoral degree? A diploma mill, in other words  My impression is yes. It certainly had financial troubles. A for-profit university can also lead to a lowering of standards, cutting corners, in some cases, for profit.

Weiss had available to him many seminaries, like Fuller and Talbot (Rosemead). They have excellent schools of psychology. He could have attended either one or others and gone through rigorous training with coursework.

In short, I don’t know how to evaluate Weiss’s dissertation because I don’t have the right academic background. If anyone out there has an M.A. or a Ph.D. in psychology or Psy.D., you can contact me (look for my biography in the About page and scroll down to the bottom) or leave a comment. Unfortunately, there is a lot of dishonesty coming out of Daystar nowadays, so let’s keep an eye out for the right credentials.

You the readers can make up your own minds.

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