SUBJECT

Thesis

other

master

Faculty of Education and Psychology

20

Semester 4

Autumn/Spring semester

Course description

The research part of the thesis is a scientific piece of work, that should follow the general requirements of a scientific research and publication. Furthermore, this paper should be completed individually, under the directions of a supervisor, and should contribute to prior research in the given field of science. Its purpose is to demonstrate the student’s proficiency and creativity within the relevant field, to research more extensively the chosen topic, and to show that they are able to carry out a scientific research and publication while maintaining high professional standards.

The purpose of the applied psychology part of the MA thesis is to provide the opportunity to demonstrate practical proficiency in a given field of psychology and the ability to use their skills in a practical issue. The applied psychology part may be a case study, a description of a method implementation, experimental design implementation etc.

Learning outcomes and competencies

knowledge:

• Knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research strategies
• Knowledge of formal criteria of scientific publications
• Knowledge of managing scholarly resource databases
• Processing and critically evaluating scholarly literature
• Methods of data processing and analysis, knowledge of statistical programs

attitude:

• approach when reading and preparing scientific publications

skills:

• Formulating relevant and precise research questions
• Selecting appropriate research strategies and methods fitting the research questions
• Planning scientific research (research project) and its professional realization
• Data analysis, using statistical programs as a skill
• Capability of writing texts with scientific, elaborated language

Course content

Topics of the course

Collection and processing of scientific literature, the rules of reference, content and formal criteria of scientific publication. Hypothesis formation, selection of research strategy (qualitative and quantitative data analysis strategies), statistical procedures, knowledge of various softwares and ethical aspects of scientific research.

Learning activities, learning methods

Group and individual consultation.

Evaluation of outcomes

Requirements:

• Submission of the research and applied parts of the thesis

Method of evaluation: 

The evaluation of the Thesis course is based on the average of the grades given by the supervisors of the applied and the research parts.

Criteria of evaluation

• justification of the chosen topic and the purpose of the thesis
• presenting the literature of previous research in the relevant field, the standard of analysisinterpretation- application
• the researched question being novel and well-grounded, the precise statement of the hypothesis(es)
• the choice of relevant research methods and statistical procedure(s) for testing the hypothesis and the clear presentation of their application
• presenting the results in a way which is clear and well-grounded from a statisticalmethodological and professional point of view
• placing the student’s own results within the research on the topic, self-reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the research, future research directions

• Babbie, E. (2010). The Practice of Social Research. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
• Denzin, N., K. – Lincoln, Y., S. (Eds.) (2011). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Field, A. (2009): Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. Third Edition. London: Sage.
• Flick, U., (ed.) (2014). The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis. Los Angeles: Sage.
• Kaplan, D. (ed.) (2004). The SAGE handbook of quantitative methodology for the social sciences. London: Sage.
• Millsap, R.E. – Maydeu-Olivares, A. (Eds.) (2009). The SAGE handbook of quantitative methods in psychology. London: Sage.