Contents

• Introduction
• Expectations
• How It Works
• Things to Do Early in the Process
• A Senior Thesis Mentor's Primary Responsibilities

Introduction

Psychology majors have the option of doing a Senior Thesis in their final undergraduate year. The thesis is a 2-semester effort, and is highly recommended for students who plan to apply to graduate school. (also see CHM Undergrads - Applying to Grad School for more tips on grad school) Your planning for your senior thesis and your initial actions for applying to grad school should both start around the same time--in the summer before your graduation year.

The Senior Thesis is similar to other research credit work in some ways, but very different in others. In short, a Senior Thesis student will, under the guidance of a supervisor / mentor, run a small scientific project, then will write up and present a scholarly paper based on that research work.

The Senior Thesis experience, in addition to providing both personal and professional growth, has two important benefits for any undergraduates considering a career in research:

• It significantly strengthens the student's academic transcript and background. Many graduate schools look for--and some insist on--a senior thesis as a key part of an applicant's experience.
• It is excellent preparation for the expectations and requirements of graduate school. Many grad school Psychology programs (including UW-Madison's) require that new graduate students do a first-year project. This project is similar to a senior thesis project in many ways, but may be more complex and broader in both scope and size. Having the experience of a senior thesis under your belt makes the first-year project much less daunting, and greatly increases your chances of carrying out the first-year project successfully and with a minimum of stress.

A senior thesis takes 2 semesters to complete because it involves processing and analyzing data (and possibly even collecting the data), then writing up and presenting a scholarly paper. It is not something to be undertaken lightly, especially on top of a heavy courseload. Undergraduates often underestimate the amount of time that a senior thesis effort will require, and the total number of hours that they spend on the project may significantly exceed the "45 hours per credit" that they register for.

This is partly because the senior thesis project is true scientific exploration, and doesn't have a predefined number of hours that it will take to complete. However, one part of the role of the supervisor / mentor overseeing and guiding the thesis project is to prune back and/or focus the project if it seems to be growing beyond the appropriate scope or scale of a 2-semester undergraduate effort.

Expectations

One important aspect of a senior thesis effort is that an appropriately-sized and -scoped sub-project is "carved out" from an ongoing research effort, where the student can take the lead on that sub-project and have responsibility for the data management and analysis for it. We expect that a senior thesis project will be a proactive effort on the student's part, with the student leading the inquiry, rather than simply participating in and being directed within a larger project. So, in that sense, a senior thesis effort is very different from typical "working for research credit".

Early on in the process--ideally before the start of the first semester of the thesis effort--the student should meet with their supervisor / mentor to discuss the overall plan for their thesis effort: which ongoing project or study will their thesis data come from; which questions or hypotheses will they explore; etc.

The student, with assistance from their mentor, should create a charter for their thesis project during the start of the first semester:

• This is a document that will provide a high-level overview of the project. It will help ensure that the student and mentor have the same understanding about the project, and will provide a reference point as the project progresses.
• The student should email the charter to Dr. Davidson, the supervisor/mentor, and Jane Lambert within 1 month of the start of the first semester. (For example, if the student starts their thesis in Fall semester, and the semester begins on September 3, the student should email the charter by October 3.)
• For a senior thesis project, the charter will probably be 2 pages long or slightly longer.
• See How to Make a Charter for more details on roughing in and refining a charter document.
• If the thesis project will have any expenses (supplies or equipment purchased, human subjects paid, lab staffers or other undergrads working on the project), then a budget is required with the charter. See How to make a budget for more information. The budget need not be detailed or exact, but it should include all of the major expenses anticipated for the project.
• A timeline is required with the charter. It should include predicted dates for all major milestones, including:
  • Completion of Intro and Methods section
  • IRB protocol approval (if required)
  • Start of data collection (if data will be collected)
  • Completion of data collection (if data will be collected)
  • Start of data analysis
  • Completion of data analysis
  • Completion of thesis paper
  • Completion of thesis presentation document (Powerpoint, Google Docs, etc.)
  • Presentation of thesis at FAN meeting

The standard research credit requirement of a 5 -8 page semester paper is waived for senior thesis students. In lieu of the semester paper, senior thesis students are expected to turn in the Introduction and Methods sections of their thesis papers at the end of Fall semester; these sections are expected to be complete and polished when they are handed in.

At the end of Spring semester, senior thesis students are expected to turn in the complete and final version of their thesis paper rather than a semester paper. In addition, senior thesis students are expected to present their paper or findings at the final FAN meeting of Spring semester.

Senior thesis students are exempt from participating in the mid-semester peer review paper exchange, though they are invited to participate at their discretion.

Because of the nature of senior thesis work, time spent working on the thesis and lab hours will be one and the same. Senior thesis students are expected to track and record their (combined lab and writing) hours on their lab hours logsheets, which will be due to their supervisors on the final day of classes for the semester.

How It Works

The very first step is for the student to approach their supervisor and discuss the possibility of doing a senior thesis project in the labs. The student shouldn't expect that their supervisor will automatically be the mentor for the senior thesis, or even that the thesis project will be derived from the research effort that the supervisor is focused on. The supervisor may not have the time to commit to acting as a mentor, or there may not be sub-projects or data sets that are of the appropriate scope to be "carved out" from the overall research effort and shaped for use in a senior thesis project.

Rather, these are good questions for the student and supervisor to discuss: Does the student have any particular areas or questions that they would like to focus on for their thesis work? Which study might have a sub-project or data set that would be appropriate for the student's interests? Who in our community might be a good match as a scientific mentor for the student's interests and thesis work, and will they be available to take on the role?

Dr. Davidson is extremely interested in thesis efforts and very much wants to be involved in them from the outset if his schedule allows. The supervisor and student should reach out to Jennie Nguyen (Dr. Davidson’s executive assistant) at jhnguyen5@wisc.edu to see if it is possible to schedule a meeting with Dr. Davidson to discuss the potential thesis plans and options. (If Dr. Davidson is not available to meet, then the student should proceed to the authorization step, below.)

Next, the student should contact Jane Lambert so that they can get authorization to sign up for the senior thesis class (see Authorization for Research Credit Courses) and then register for the class.

There are two options for Psychology senior thesis classes: Psychology 691 (Fall) and 692 (Spring) for non-honors senior thesis, and Psychology 681 (Fall) and 682 (Spring) for honors senior thesis. If you would like to do a Psychology honors senior thesis, you must be entered in the Psychology Honors program. Ask the Psychology Undergraduate Advisors for more information on this program.

Seniors enrolling in 691 and 692 will typically register for 3 credits each semester, though they may register for 2 or 4 credits one semester if their mentor thinks the design of the thesis project calls for it. Seniors enrolling for 681 and 682 are required to register for exactly 3 credits each semester.

Note that the actual time put into the senior thesis effort by the student may significantly exceed the "45 hours per credit" typical of research credit work.

The student will earn the number of credits that they register for each semester. The grade assigned for Fall semester will, assuming that the thesis effort is going satisfactorily , be (P)rogress. A standard letter grade ("A", "AB", "B", etc.) will be assigned for Spring semester.

Things to Do Early in the Process

"Early in the process" should be interpreted as "before the start of Fall semester". Due to the complexity and level of effort involved in a senior thesis project, the planning for the project should be well underway by the time the Psych 681 or 691 semester officially starts.

1. The student and supervisor should schedule a meeting to discuss the overall aims, hypotheses, and plans for the thesis. It is not expected of the student to have every detail figured out in advance of this meeting, since that is what this meeting is for. This meeting is an excellent time to begin roughing in the thesis charter, which will be due one month into the semester.
2. Ideally, the student's supervisor and scientific mentor should be the same person. If not, then the student, mentor, and supervisor should discuss their roles and make them explicit.
3. The supervisor / mentor should determine an appropriate sub-project that can be given to the student to run, and which will form the basis of the senior thesis.
4. The student should schedule a meeting with the undergraduate advisers at the Psychology department, and discuss the thesis plans with them. See if they have any suggestions, or know of any additional steps that might be required.

A Senior Thesis Mentor's Primary Responsibilities

Mentoring a student through their thesis effort can be extremely rewarding, and can also be a great way to involve your mentee in the heart of your research efforts. The primary responsibilities of a thesis mentor are:

• Help the student select a thesis project that is suitable for a 2-semester 6-credit effort (270 lab-hours total, including all IRB issues, collection, analysis, writeup, presentation prep, everything). The overall time commitment likely will go above this, but this is what you want to aim for.
• Help the student create a charter for their thesis project, which will be due October 3 (if starting in the fall).
• Oversee the thesis effort. Make sure that there is no scope creep. Scale down the project if it looks like it will take substantially longer than first thought. Keep the student's efforts focused and on schedule.
  
  • In particular, make sure that the student is doing at least half of the expected work during Fall semester--don't let everything pile up in Spring.
• Provide scientific mentorship and guidance to the student. Expect to meet regularly with the student, weekly during Fall semester, likely more often during Spring semester. Some meetings may be long if the student needs detailed technical or scientific guidance or training.
• Review the student's Intro & Methods thesis sections midway through Fall semester and provide feedback.
• Grade the students I&M sections and labwork at the end of Fall semester, and provide the grade recommendations to Jane Lambert (and thus Dr. Davidson).
  Review the student's entire thesis paper midway through Spring semester and provide feedback.
• Provide guidance and feedback on the student's Spring FAN thesis presentation. The presentation will be given at the final Spring FAN meeting in late April or very early May. The presentation length will depend on how many students are doing a thesis in the lab at the time.
• Grade the student's thesis paper, presentation, and labwork at the end of Spring semester, and provide the grade recommendations to Jane Lambert.