Are acknowledgements in psychology dissertations a science-bound or religion-bound script? A comparison between Ghana and the UK

Acknowledgements in students’ dissertations are considered a socially anticipated illocutionary response and act. This article aims to contribute to our knowledge about graduates' gratitude expression in dissertations. A content analysis was conducted on the acknowledgement section of 60 Psychology dissertations submitted to the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana (DoP-UoG), and the School of Psychology, University of Leeds (SoP-UoL). The findings showed that acknowledgements in Psychology dissertations submitted to the DoP-UoG are framed as a religio-scientific script (i.e., religion-and-science bound script), whereas acknowledgements in dissertations submitted to the SoP-UoL can be described as a scientific script (i.e., science-bound scripts). Cross-cultural explanations of this observation are discussed.