All MA students of the CCAP program are expected to submit a thesis research proposal to their Advisory Committee and get the committee’s approval before proceeding with their thesis research work. The proposal must be approved by the Advisory Committee no later than the end of the 3rd semester in the Master’s degree.

The proposal should include the following: Introduction, Method and Materials/Procedure, Proposed Analyses, and a short discussion of feasibility, and can be written at publication length. Proposals must follow the most recent APA formatting guidelines.
Typically, students will submit multiple drafts of their proposals to their advisor prior to submitting it to their committee. 

A minimum of two weeks will be allowed for any Advisory Committee member, including the Advisor, to evaluate any work submitted to them.

When the MA candidate’s Advisor has deemed that the candidate’s proposal is ready to be circulated to the committee the student will send an electronic copy to members of the Advisory Committee.

Students are encouraged to review the Department of Psychology Statistical Methods in Theses: Guidelines and Explanations with their committee (if applicable).

Once the committee has read the proposal, a meeting of the advisory committee may be scheduled to hold a proposal meeting as needed. Typically, the meeting consists of feedback and questions from the Advisory Committee based on the research proposal. It may also include a brief presentation by the student of the proposed research. Evaluation of the proposal will be done holistically. Numeric grades are not required; instead the work is reported as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. 

It is the responsibility of the committee and the student to have a discussion regarding feasibility of the thesis project. This discussion should include the development of a rough timeline of major checkpoints throughout the research process including: ethics submission and approval, recruitment, data collection, and completion of analyses. Further, students and the committee should discuss a backup plan to ensure students can meet the proposed timeline and the sufficiency requirements. It is important to consider the relative level of difficulty of the components of the proposed thesis project and find a balance between all parts of the research process. For example, if data collection/recruitment is expected to take a significant amount of time, students and their committee should consider this within the context of data analyses that will be required.

The proposal should strive to demonstrate critical and creative thinking skills, literacy skills and communication skills and a global understanding. Proposals must be professional and adhere to the highest ethical standards.