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Research Involvement of Graduate Students

(October, 2002)

Graduate students in the Behavior Analysis program are expected to be involved fully in research from matriculation until graduation with the Ph.D. degree. Research involvement encompasses several activities, each of which is described in this document.

First Year Research Involvement

To set the stage for continuing research activity, faculty advisors are responsible for seeing that their first-year advisees are engaged in an experiment, and not simply bibliographic or other "library-type" research, no later than September of the student’s first year in the program. This initial project can be either a project on which the advisor is working also or it can be a new project initiated jointly by the student and advisor. This initial research project may lead to, and perhaps become part of, the M.A. thesis research. Regardless of its outcome and status vis a vis the masters thesis, this initial research activity will define the first-year project.

Involvement in Laboratories

Students are expected to participate in the laboratory activities of at least one faculty member throughout their tenure in the program. Students may participate in the laboratory meetings of more than one faculty adviser, either within or outside the behavior analysis program. There are two additional guidelines concerning such activity. First, only one research project can be started during the student’s first semester in the program. Second, involvement in more than two laboratories at one time is not recommended for students in their first two years in the program, when the competing time demands of research, course work, and teaching are high.

Courses Directly Related to Research

One half of the course load each semester in the first two years is devoted to research involvement through a combination of three courses: Psychology 731 (Research issues in Behavior Analysis) requires that students attend at least one laboratory meeting per week and that the student be involved in research in one laboratory. Other meetings, such as specially arranged reading groups, are not offered for credit under Psychology 731. Psychology 795 (Independent Studies) may be taken to provide academic credit for involvement in other laboratories. Psychology 698 (Master’s thesis) is intended to provide credit for the actual M.A. thesis research (students are limited to 6 hours of Psychology 698 credit).

Development of Research Skills

During the first year, the student should make significant progress in acquiring the technical skills needed to become an independent researcher. The specific skills will depend on the student's areas of interest. The student should consult with the research advisor and the advising committee to identify the required skills and a plan for developing them.

The M.A. Thesis

The M.A. thesis must be an experimental study and should be completed by the end of the student’s second year in the program (assuming that the student entered the program with a Baccalaureate degree). The thesis is a collaborative research activity between the student and the faculty thesis advisor. It is the Program’s way of introducing the student to, and teaching directly about, the methods and contents of an area of behavioral research.

The thesis proposal should be a document of no more than 20 to 25 pages of text that presents the research problem and the methods to be used in the investigation. The presentation of the research problem should be in sufficient depth and breadth that the rationale for the study is clear to the faculty committee members. The methods should be presented in sufficient detail that the procedures of the experiment could be replicated on the basis of the document alone. A section on data analysis also should be included in the proposal. Minimally, the dependent variables to be collected from session to session, and how they are to be examined and appraised relative to the experimental manipulations, should be described. The methods used to compute any derived measures (e.g., ratio of responses on two alternatives, percent "correct," index of curvature, discrimination index, etc.), and the means by which they will be presented and interpreted, should be described in detail. Unconventional analyses and analyses of novel procedures require more description than do conventional, widely used analyses. The data analyses to be performed should be described in enough detail that they will be clear to a psychologist generally familiar with analyzing experiments. The thesis proposal functions to protect the student by delineating the agreement between the student and the thesis committee as to what will constitute the thesis project.

The time-lines for the thesis are as follows: By the end of the first semester (December 15 of Year 1), a student should have a working title for the thesis. By mid-March of the student’s first year in the program, the student should be prepared to outline the proposed project and its rationale as their BA Day presentation for that year (unless the student is presenting other data). The proposal is to be approved by the thesis advising committee no later than May 15 of the first year.

The recommended date for the completion of the thesis completed (final meeting held, final document approved, bound, and thesis turned into the library) is May 1 of the second year. The final thesis document is expected to contain a well-developed literature review of 10 to 25 pages, a description of the method and results, and a discussion of the methodological and conceptual issues raised by the research.

Requirements for the thesis committee composition are described in the Psychology Department Graduate Handbook.

Toward Increasing Independence in Research

By the third year, students should be conducting more research projects, including projects that they have developed as a result of their thesis and other research involvement during the first two years. The dissertation is expected to develop from one or more of the research lines under way in the third year.

The Ph.D. Dissertation

The dissertation is distinguished from the M.A. thesis by its scope and by the significantly greater independent contribution of the student to the idea for the work and its subsequent development. Normally, the dissertation will involve a series of two or more interrelated experiments that investigate different dimensions of a general theoretical or applied problem in behavior analysis.

The dissertation proposal should be a document of no more than 20 to 25 pages of text that presents the research problem and the methods to be used in the investigation. The presentation of the research problem should be in sufficient depth and breadth that the rationale for the study is clear to the faculty committee members. The methods should be presented in sufficient detail that the procedures of the experiment could be replicated on the basis of the document alone. A section on data analysis also should be included in the proposal. Minimally, the dependent variables to be collected from session to session, and how they are to be examined and appraised relative to the experimental manipulations, should be described. The methods used to compute any derived measures (e.g., ratio of responses on two alternatives, percent "correct," index of curvature, discrimination index, etc.), and the means by which they will be presented and interpreted, should be described in detail. Unconventional analyses and analyses of novel procedures require more description than do conventional, widely used analyses. The data analyses to be performed should be described in enough detail that they will be clear to a psychologist generally familiar with analyzing experiments. The dissertation proposal functions to protect the student by delineating the agreement between the student and the dissertation committee as to what will constitute the dissertation project.

The dissertation should be proposed to the dissertation committee no later than September 15 of the student’s fourth year in the program (third year in the case of students entering with approved M.A. theses). The dissertation should be completed by May 1 of the student’s fourth year (third year in the case of students entering with approved M.A. theses).

Requirements for the dissertation committee composition are described in the Psychology Department Graduate Handbook.

Role of the Faculty Thesis and Dissertation Advisor

The thesis advisor functions as a senior collaborator, often suggesting the research area and problem but also allowing the student flexibility in articulating the specific problem and developing the design of the experiment. By contrast, the dissertation advisor may be seen as a junior collaborator, with the student taking leadership in both suggesting the research problem and designing the experiment under the more indirect guidance of the advisor.

Thesis and Dissertation Proposal and Final Meeting Presentations

Students should assume that the faculty committee members have read the written proposal document. Therefore, presentations of both background and research methods should be brief. The entire proposal presentation should be no more than 10 minutes long, and devoted primarily to method. The remainder of the meeting will be devoted to discussion and questions.

The final meeting presentation should be on the order of a research presentation at a conference symposium, that is, no more than 20 to 25 minutes to cover rationale, methods, results, and discussion. As with the proposal meeting, the remaining time will be devoted to discussion and questions.

Normally, and unless the advisor suggests otherwise, proposal and final meetings should be scheduled for two hours. Proposal meetings are closed to those not on the thesis or dissertation committee, except by prior agreements between the committee chair and the student. Final meetings are open to all members of the University community.