Master's Culminating Project
In
addition to coursework and field-based experiences, students in the masters
program are also expected to complete a culminating experience. In keeping with
the scientist-practitioner model, students can complete a thesis (producer of
science) or an intervention project (consumer of science). The expectations for
each project are described below.
Master's Thesis
(Plan A). The selection of a thesis topic should occur
the summer prior to the second year of study. This will require a greater
frequency of meetings between advisor and student before the final decisions and
proposals are made. In most cases the student will pursue one of the current
lines of research in the department or current research of the advisor. In other
cases, the research will be of significant interest to the advisor, but it may
not be a direct extension of a current research program. It is important that
the research project include guidance from the advisor. The research topic must
be work that can be accomplished in a reasonable time. It is also important to
consider the availability of resources, resource personnel, and funding (cost of
research) before deciding on a project.
The
research advisory committee consists of the student's primary advisor and a
minimum of one other faculty. The research advisory committee should be formed
by the end of the first year of study and certainly before the beginning of the
second year of study. The student should prepare a written research proposal
early during year 2. This proposal should minimally contain the research
questions, review of literature, and proposed methods. Ideally, the student will
have worked with the advisor to obtain adequate pilot data to suggest that the
study is feasible within the time course outlined in the plan of study. This
research proposal should be approved by the committee chair or research advisory
committee before data collection begins. In addition to the proposal, the
student must obtain approval from the Office of Responsible Research Practices (often
referred to as the Institutional Review Board or IRB) before they can begin
collecting data. The time course for completing the thesis and the presentation
of results should be set by the advisor and student during the discussions of
the research plan.
Based upon the progress to
date and upon problems arising from the beginning stages of data collection for
the research project, the plan of study may need to be revised. If necessary,
the plan should be revised by the student with approval of the advisor. During
the final stages of graduate work it is helpful if the plan identifies the
anticipated week or month for the final copy of the thesis/project and defense.
Each student will be expected
to obtain data in conjunction with and under the supervision of the advisor. The
student should schedule meetings with the advisor on a regular basis (weekly or
bi-weekly) during the period of data collection. The student should be prepared
to provide drafts of manuscripts in progress to the advisor prior to the
termination of the study. The student must ensure that all written documents to
be included in the thesis conform to the requirements of the Graduate School.
These guidelines can be found in the handbook "Graduate School Guidelines for
Preparing and submitting Theses, Dissertations and D.M.A. Documents" found on
the Graduate School web site.
The student and advisor
should meet during the periods that encompass data analysis, data
interpretation, and initial stages of writing. This will likely be a minimum of
once every month until graduation. It is the student's responsibility to provide
the advisor and other committee members the required written drafts of the
thesis in a timely fashion. The advisor should attempt to return the material
with comments and suggested revisions in a timely manner, and this should
ordinarily not exceed two or three weeks from the time of submission. This
schedule should be part of the time course earlier drafted between advisor and
student. The student should also expect to prepare at least one manuscript for
presentation and/or publication of research material during this period of time.
During this final stage, the student will complete writing the project and
presenting the results of this work. It is important that the advisor return the
written drafts of the project to the student in a timely fashion. Normally, the
drafts should be returned to the student with suggested comments for revisions
within two or three weeks after submission. It is recommended that the student
and advisor meet at regular intervals to discuss the drafts and progress of the
work to ensure a timely graduation. The student should ensure that the posted
deadlines and specified requirements for graduation are met. In addition,
students will be expected to present their thesis results at the School
Psychology Colloquium held in the Spring.
Co-authorship of publications arising from the thesis collected under the
supervision of the advisor should be decided before the research is begun. This
will eliminate any misunderstandings between student and advisor after the work
is complete. Typically, data collected in conjunction with an on-going research
project of the advisor will include the advisor as a co-author. This is
especially important if research funds awarded to the advisor have been used for
the student's study as faculty are obligated to report back to the granting
agency to publish their findings, and to provide the appropriate acknowledgment
of the funding agency. If the student does not prepare the project/thesis
material for publication in a timely fashion, the faculty advisor is obligated
by the funding agency and the university to publish the material (i.e., to
justify the resources spent on such projects). Occasionally advisor
co-authorship may not be warranted. In such circumstances the student will have
independently provided the idea for the project and the resources for data
collection and analysis, whereas the advisor will have had only a minimal
supervisory role in the project.
Master's
Intervention Project (Plan B). In lieu of a thesis,
students can choose to complete an intervention project instead of a research
project. Selection of a topic for the intervention project should occur before
the first quarter of the second year of study. It is important that the
intervention project include input from the advisor. The topic must be work that
can be accomplished in a reasonable time. It is also important to consider the
availability of resources, resource personnel, and funding (cost of
intervention) before deciding on a project. The advisor's role is clearly
described in the thesis section and should be used as guidelines for the
advisor's role in the intervention project.
Students must conduct a
literature review related to their topic and design an intervention based on the
research. The student's advisor approves the literature review and intervention
plan before the intervention can be implemented. Before collecting any data or
implementing the intervention, the student must obtain approval from the Human
Subjects Institutional Review Board (IRB). The intervention must be implemented
no later than Spring quarter of the second year of study and be implemented at
least 6 weeks.
In
addition to designing and implementing the intervention, students must also
create an intervention evaluation plan to determine the efficacy of their
intervention. Data need to be collected before, during, and after the
intervention. A formal presentation of the results will be presented to the
School Psychology faculty and student body the 7th week of Spring
quarter. The advisor is responsible for approval of the literature review while
the faculty evaluate the quality of the presentation, the intervention, and the
evaluation plan. Students are encouraged to set their presentation up in poster
style fashion. |
