Thesis Behavior Analysis Guidelines

Thesis Proposal

Your thesis proposal should be written IN THE FUTURE TENSE and adhere to the 7th edition of the APA style manual (American Psychological Association, 2020). All thesis students should purchase the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition. You may choose to write your thesis proposal as part of the Research Methods class that you will take during your first semester in the program, or write a new proposal once you begin working with you thesis advisor in the summer semester between your two years in the program. You advisor will work with you to revise your proposal; you should expect at least a one-week turn-around time from your faculty advisor per revision.

Apply for IRB Approval

All thesis research projects must be submitted to the FIT Institutional Review Board (IRB) for approval. See the Florida Tech IRB website for the application and instructions about submission. You must include your methods section with the application and an informed consent form. Also, if your participants are part of, or receive services from, an agency or group, you must get written permission from the director of the agency or group to recruit participants (this includes the Scott Center). You should allow two weeks AT THE VERY LEAST to hear back from the IRB as to the status of your application. You may submit your IRB proposal prior to your thesis proposal meeting (discuss with your advisor - s/he may want you to submit AFTER your thesis proposal meeting), but if major changes are requested by your thesis committee, you may be required to submit an addendum to your IRB proposal to the IRB.

Registering for Thesis Credit

Register for 1 thesis prep credit during the summer between your first and second year, and thesis credits for all remaining semesters (e.g., Fall and Spring of 2nd year) (except for ABA + OBM students, who register for thesis credits in the spring of their second year and summer of their second year). Look on the Office of Graduate Programs website to find out the current requirements regarding (i) posting your defense announcement (ii) necessary forms and their due dates, and (iii) due date of your final thesis materials for on-time graduation, as these vary by semester. Be sure to follow the Master's Thesis Program Checklist each semester.

Requirements for Earning a Passing Grade each Semester

For thesis prep, which is taken in the summer between the first and second year of the program, students must submit a first draft of their proposal to their faculty thesis advisor by the last day of the summer semester in order to receive a passing grade. For the fall semester, students must have proposed to their committee by the last day of the fall semester to receive a passing grade (note that ABA + OBM students do not generally take thesis credits in the fall, so their deadline for this is spring break of their second year). The requirements for the spring semester are less rigid due to data collection and the delays that can arise during this process. However, students are expected to finish their thesis by the end of the spring semester. If a student does not finish by the end of the spring semester, s/he may still receive a passing grade for the spring semester, as long as adequate progress on the thesis has been made. Determination of adequate progress is made by the faculty thesis advisor. ABA + OBM students are expected to finish their thesis by the end of their second summer semester.

Select Thesis Committee

A thesis committee consists of (at least):

• 1 Committee Chair (your faculty advisor)
• 1 School of Behavior Analysis Member
• 1 Florida Tech (non-BehAn) member

You should ask your thesis advisor about potential non-BehAn committee members, and you can also visit the Office of Graduate Programs office to view a list of approved graduate faculty members. Psychology faculty are considered nonBehAn faculty. You should contact your potential committee member by phone or email and briefly explain who you are and what you are doing in order to determine if they might be interested. If they are interested, it might be good to set up a face-to-face meeting during which you can explain a bit more about your project and learn more about their background.

Set Proposal Date

Set date, time, and room (contact administrative assistant) in the COPLA Main Office [321-674-
8104]) for your thesis proposal meeting. The assistant will have you complete an Establishment of Master's or Specialist Committee  form indicating your thesis title and committee members. Be sure to allow at least 2 weeks for each 
committee member to read your proposal before attending your proposal meeting.

At your proposal meeting, you do not need to bring a snack (cookies, water, coffee, etc. depending on the time of day) for the committee members (some programs encourage this but we do not). Plan on a one-hour meeting. You will present each section of your proposal (e.g., PowerPoint presentation), for about 30 minutes. Each committee member will then provide feedback, ask questions, and make suggestions for improving the proposal. At the conclusion of this meeting, have all the committee members sign the Establishment of Master’s CommitteeForm and then turn the form and a copy of your thesis proposal to admin. assistant in the main office of the School of Behavior Analysis (SOBA) (this form can be signed before the proposal meeting as well, but should be signed no later than at the proposal meeting). This will be filed in your student file in the main office after the dean signs the form. The possible outcomes of this meeting are as follows: a) asks for minor revisions to the thesis proposal; or b) the committee requests major changes to your thesis proposal. Although there is no formal exam report form to sign for the thesis proposal meeting, approval to proceed must be given orally by committee members at this meeting.

Proposal Revision

After you have modified your proposal according to the comments of your committee members, let your committee chair review the changes. After getting the “go ahead,” (i.e., paperwork is filed, and IRB approval obtained) start collecting your data!

Data Collection

During data collection, you should meet with your committee chair AT LEAST once per week to discuss your progress. DO NOT MAKE ANY MODIFICATIONS OR PHASE CHANGES WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING WITH YOUR COMMITTEE CHAIR! Also, during the course of data collection, if you make any major changes to the project, these changes must be approved by your entire thesis committee.

Number of Participants

For single subject designs, students are generally required to use 3 participants in a thesis. This number is based on a brief survey of existing ABA program requirements at other universities. However, this is a general guideline, and depending on the individual thesis project, two participants might be permitted in some circumstances. For example, if a thesis involves a sequence of detailed treatment evaluations, two participants might be acceptable. If a group design is used, generally a minimum of 10 participants per group should be used, but before starting data collection, the student should conduct a power estimate/analysis to identify the number of participants needed to obtain statistically significant differences between groups. Each student's thesis committee ultimately decides on an individual basis the number of participants they required of the student. This is the case with all these across all units on campus - the committee is the final judge, but the committee uses guidelines from the school or department to inform the student and make a determination as to whether the student has passed.

Reporting Your Results

Write up your results and discussion section and modify your documents to reflect that data collection has now occurred in the past (i.e., use past tense). Submit your revised document to your Committee Chair for feedback. Once approved, set your final thesis defense meeting.

Thesis Defense Meeting

Set date, time and room (contact Suzie Philbeck in the Main Office) for your thesis defense meeting. Be sure to allow at least 2 weeks for each committee member to read proposal before attending your defense meeting.

Prior to your thesis defense, please fill out the Oral Examination/Defense Announcement - see example Appendix A) 14 days prior to your scheduled defense. Plan on a 1-1.5 hour meeting. Be sure to dress professionally. You will present each section of your thesis, with PowerPoint, for about 30 minutes. For this presentation, you should focus on your results and discussion. Each committee member will then provide feedback, ask questions, and make suggestions for improving the manuscript. At the conclusion of the defense, your advisor will have all the committee members sign the Exam Report Form and the advisor will turn this form in to the office of graduate programs or the SOBA admin. assistant. The possible outcomes of this meeting are as follows: a) the committee signs your exam report form and asks for minor revisions of the thesis; b) the committee signs your exam report form, but requests major changes to your thesis; or c) the committee asks to see changes to your thesis before signing your exam report form. A grade of "fail" may be given if you did not do what you proposed in the thesis proposal.

References

American Psychological Association (2020). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.