Moller began studies for a Ph.D. at the University of California, but took time off to travel through Europe in the spring of 1903. Following her marriage to Frank Bunker Gilbreth in 1904 and relocation to New York, she completed a dissertation for a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1911, but was not awarded the degree due to her noncompliance with residency requirements for doctoral candidates. The dissertation was published as "The Psychology of Management: The Function of the Mind in Determining, Teaching and Installing Methods of Least Waste" in 1914.