MALK5900 Master's Thesis Course description

The master’s program final exam is a written thesis in the form of an innovation project report with an executive summary. The thesis should describe a project based on best practice for the relevant field. Theses may be written about topics from research projects run by faculty or initiated by the student. The thesis should be on a topic relevant for the field of behavioral science as the term is used in the context of the current degree.

The 60 ECTS thesis for the specialisation in Innovation and Implementation will justify and describe an innovation project in an organization, whether public or private. The student must be in a position to suggest and implement the project, or the organization may request a particular project for the student to conduct. The thesis will describe all relevant factors in the change process, and include an evaluation of the results, including customer satisfaction. Needs assessment; choosing primary and secondary objectives; means and methods of change; implementation strategies; required resources, and results, must all be reported. The candidate must present an analysis of risk and success factors, and an analysis of ethical and legal concerns in the project.

All courses included in the specialisation must be completed with pass grades and all coursework requirements must be approved before the candidate may submit the master’s thesis.

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student can

• analyze and critically assess the scientific work of others

Skills

The student can

• demonstrate working knowledge of the ethical and technical principles that govern scientific research and publication, including international citation and reference standards
• demonstrate that they can plan, implement and evaluate a supervised innovation project in accordance with research ethics guidelines and regulations, and guidelines from relevant governmental bodies (i. e., The Norwegian Data Protection Authority, relevant Norwegian Research Ethics Committees and so on)
• choose and apply relevant methods of data collection for research or scientific inquiry
• write a thesis according to criteria determined by the university
• critically assess the results of his own work
• critically assess various sources of information

Competence

The student can

• participate in the development of the behavioral sciences
• justify their professional behavior with reference to ethical guidelines, general ethical considerations and their own assessment of the situation
• analyze and critically assess various sources of information with relevance for the thesis

The thesis outline and the thesis are individual work. The thesis outline must be submitted the semester before thesis submission at the latest.

In addition to the compulsory seminars on research ethics, the students must participate in and submit work requirements for the 6 compulsory thesis seminars. The seminars require preparatory work in research methods, implementation strategies, article writing, and use of library services and search engines. Individual adaptations are dictated by the candidate’s chosen project. Students are advised to find a lab group to participate in.

Thesis supervision is compulsory. Students are assigned a field supervisor employed and trained for this purpose by the Department of Behavioral Science, with responsibility for students for the duration of the project. Field supervision is 40 hours per project, distributed according to agreement between student and supervisor. In addition, the Department of Behavioral Science provides back-up supervision as needed up to 20 hours per project. As the supervisor is formally responsible for the fulfilment of requirements by data protection authorities and ethics review boards, the thesis cannot be submitted without the written approval of the (main) supervisor.

As the thesis supervisor is formally responsible for the fulfilment of requirements by data protection authorities and ethics review boards, the thesis cannot be submitted without the written approval of the field supervisor.

The course introduces Behavior Analysis as a research discipline and presents the basic concepts of behavior analysis, mainly from experimental work and findings. Experimental analysis of behavior is a natural science with ontology and epistemology distinct from other behavioral sciences, and these distinctions are emphasized. Dimensions of Behavior Analysis, respondent and operant conditioning, recording and measurement, and single-case designs, are core topics. In addition, ethical concerns regarding changing other people’s behavior, are discussed. This includes introducing the concept of social validity.

Thesis. Submission of master’s thesis according to program specifications, consisting of a project report. Technical standards according to the current APA manual. Submitting dates each year: June 15th  and November 15th.

Thesis format

The Master’s thesis consists of a project report. The format of the project report should conform to the publishing conventions of the science of behavior analysis, and the length should be appropriate for the work that is reported. The project report must include an executive summary for the Best Practice project bank. The project report is written according to the current APA Publishing Manual Standard; double spaced Times New Roman size 12 with standard margins for MS Office Word. Examiner’s guidelines are provided.

Ethics and data protection

An account of ethical considerations is required if the thesis includes empirical data on humans or nonhuman animals. A risk -and vulnerability analysis (ROS-vurdering) should normally be conducted, and a case number should be included in the title page of the thesis article. If data on humans are included in the thesis, an account of data protection issues is typically required. The description of ethical and data protection considerations can be included in the main body of the thesis. If the decision is made that such an account is not appropriate in the main body of the thesis, a reflection note on this topic should be attached to the thesis. A reflection note is a short description of ethical and data protection considerations, maximum 6000 characters, including spaces. For theses that do not include empirical data, research ethics relevant to the thesis should be discussed, either in the main body of the text or a reflection note. 

Some Master projects may require consideration or approval from external bodies, such as Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD), the Regional Committee for Medicine and Health Sciences Research Ethics (REK), National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH), and/or internal or external data protection officials. It is ultimately the responsibility of the main supervisor to ensure that the relevant bodies are consulted. If external bodies are consulted, a case number should be included in the title page of the thesis article. If a decision is made that there is no need to consult external bodies regarding ethics or data protection, a description of the deliberations preceding this decision is required, either in the main body of the thesis or in the reflection note. If the thesis is an empirical work, the main supervisor must state in writing that the research is conducted in accordance with current laws and regulations before the thesis can be submitted.

All

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student can

• describe and discuss characteristics of behavior analysis as a science
• explain core concepts and relations in classical and operant conditioning
• discuss how prediction and control can be demonstrated in single-case designs
• describe and exemplify different measures of reliability
• discuss different methods of observation and recording of behavior
• describe core elements of behavior chains and different ways in which such chains can be established
• describe and exemplify verbal operants and their controlling events
• describe core ethical principles and discuss how the core ethical principles relate to behavior analysis
• discuss how social aversive contingencies may influence behavior
• describe and discuss ethical concerns related to changing the behavior of others

Skills

The student can

• select the appropriate behavioral dimensions and methods for reliable measurement
• describe how a behavior chain can be established
• identify examples of the operant paradigm
• identify examples of respondent conditioning
• interpret data from line and bar graphs

Competence

The student can

• provide practical examples of respondent behavior
• provide practical examples of operant conditioning
• use and explain core concepts in behavior analysis to professionals from different backgrounds

Campus-based lectures and seminars are the main teaching methods, in addition to digital simulation exercises, study questions, and student presentations. The lectures will partly be based on Interteaching sequences using readings from the curriculum. Texts used for Interteaching are announced in the digital learning platform of the university. Feedback is used on written assignments.