Master’s Degree

All students entering the program are expected to obtain an MS degree on their way to the PhD unless they enter the program with an acceptable Master’s degree from another institution. A psychology-related Master’s thesis earned at another institution should be submitted to the DET during the summer before enrolling so that acceptability of the thesis can be determined as soon as possible. This should be submitted no later than June 1. Only well-written theses based on empirical research will be acceptable. No more than 13 credits of relevant graded coursework completed in another graduate program may be applied to the PhD. The course(s) must be listed on the student’s official transcript from their prior institution. Detailed syllabi must be submitted to the DET as soon as possible so that previous coursework can be evaluated for possible transfer (typically by June 1 prior to starting the program). Students should communicate with the DET early to request an exception if these deadlines are not feasible.

Requirements for a master’s degree

• Completion of at least 30 credit hours of coursework, including a minimum of 21 hours of graded coursework plus a minimum of 4 credit hours of Psych 700 (Master’s research). The student must sign up for at least 1 credit of Psych 700 each semester until the thesis is completed, and 2 credits of Psych 700 the semester of the thesis defense. Graded coursework for the Master’s degree must include three required courses (Psych 540, Psych 511, and Psych 512) and at least two core elective courses.
• Completion (conducting and passing defense) of a Master’s Thesis. The focus of the Master’s Thesis should be an original piece of empirical research performed by the student. While the demands for comprehensiveness of treatment, scope, and impact on the field are less than for the dissertation, the research should be original and of publishable quality. Every effort should be made by the student and their faculty advisor(s) to publish the work. Normally the best strategy for planning and executing the Master’s research is to address a single question in an elegant and clear manner rather than to attempt to answer several questions in an unclear and inconclusive manner. The emphasis should be on simplicity and elegance rather than on comprehensiveness.

Master’s thesis committee

During the first year of study, the student should choose faculty members to serve on their Thesis Committee in consultation with their major advisor.

Requirements for committee composition.

The Thesis Committee consists of three or more faculty members, including the chairperson. The chairperson (usually the student’s major research advisor) must be a member of the core, active tenured or tenure-track research faculty in the Psychology Department (and their primary appointment must be in Psychology). Two co-chairs (in some cases, a co-chair from outside of Psychology) may be permissible if one of the co-chairs is a core, active research faculty in the Experimental Psychology program. At least one additional faculty member serving on the committee must have a primary appointment in Psychology. Additional committee members who hold the highest appropriate degree and whose special knowledge is particularly important to the proposed program, but who are not members of the faculty, may be appointed to the committee after discussion with the DET and approved by the Department Chair and the Graduate School.

Forming the committee

It is recommended that students meet with the DET when deciding on committee members to ensure that all committee members meet the Experimental Program requirements. A list of faculty currently approved to serve on committees is available on page 48 of this Handbook.

Approval of the committee

The Thesis Committee is subject to approval by the chairperson of the major and minor (if applicable) departments, the DET, the Department Chair, and the Graduate School.

Master’s program of study

After selecting the members of the Thesis Committee, the student should download the “Program of Study Request” form from the Graduate School Website, fill out the form with relevant completed and planned coursework, and obtain signatures from all committee members on the same form. The Master’s degree program of study should be submitted before the end of the student’s first year. Students are strongly encouraged to send a draft of their program of study form to the Graduate Program Coordinator to confirm that their form has been completed correctly before obtaining signatures.

This completed document should be submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator at the following email address: psych.grad.sign@wsu.edu. She will review and approve the form before obtaining approval from the DET and will then submit the form to the Graduate School. The DET signs only after the Program Coordinator’s review.

Requirements for the Master’s Program of Study.

Specific requirements and deadlines regarding the Master’s program of study are detailed in the “Policies and Procedures” on the Graduate School website.

Thesis proposal development

Student Responsibilities

The student, under the direction of the committee chair, is responsible for conducting a literature search, preparing the proposal, and the developing required skills and competencies. The student is also responsible for consideration and solution of logistical problems related to the research. Students should edit the proposal carefully and obtain their major advisor’s approval before it is disseminated to committee members. Students are prohibited from using AI in the writing of their thesis and proposal (see page 9-10).

Chairperson and committee member involvement.

The relative involvement of the chairperson may vary, depending on the student’s background and the nature of the problem. It is valuable to discuss relative contributions/expectations, responsibilities, and authorship with the major advisor at this stage. The American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists instructional aids should be the guide. The chairperson of the committee should help the student to carefully edit the proposal, and indicate preliminary approval of the proposal before it is submitted to other committee members. Members of the committee should be involved at this stage in a consultant capacity. Ideally, students should meet with their Thesis Committee annually (at the end of each academic year) to discuss their progress.

Thesis proposal meeting (T1):

When the student has completed a research proposal, in consultation with the major advisor and possibly other members of the Master’s Committee, a formal meeting is held to discuss and approve the research plan. The T1 is scheduled through the department, not through the Graduate School.

The T1 meeting typically includes only the student and their Thesis Committee, although others may attend with permission of the committee chair. The function of the T1 meeting is to discuss and evaluate the proposal. This results in a judgment of feasibility and scientific merit and an action accepting the proposal, recommending changes, or rejecting the proposal.

Pilot data for the T1 meeting may be useful but is not necessary. However, the student should meet with their Thesis Committee prior to starting any data collection for the thesis. It is very important that the research is proposed rather than completed at the time of the T1 because the point of the meeting is for the committee to critique the empirical question and methodological approach and advise on required and recommended changes.

Scheduling the T1 meeting

It is the student’s responsibility to determine the availability of committee members and to identify a date and 2 hour time interval for the meeting. Once a date and time has been set, the student should notify the Graduate Program Coordinator of this date as soon as possible. A 2-hour time period must be scheduled for the T1.

• For students in Pullman, room scheduling should be requested through the Psychology Graduate Program Coordinator.
• For students on Vancouver or Spokane campuses, room scheduling should be requested through the appropriate administrative assistant, with the Graduate Program Coordinator cc’d on these requests.
• If Zoom is needed for the meeting, the Graduate Program Coordinator will set this up after the room has been reserved (if applicable). The student should provide the names and emails of their committee members, and WSU room number (if applicable) in their request. The student CANNOT be the person to set up Zoom meetings.

Paperwork for the T1 meeting.

Students must complete the Thesis Proposal (T1) Form located in the Experimental Program’s Microsoft Teams folder. This form must be signed by all committee members and submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator (psych.grad.sign@wsu.edu) within five business days after the T1 is completed (regardless of the outcome). The DET should be cc’d on this email.

Thesis Proposal format.

Most decisions regarding format, length, and organization are up to the Master’s Thesis Committee. Unless the intention is to be published in a non-APA journal, the proposal should be written in the style described in the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Content to include in the Thesis Proposal.

See “The Preparation of Thesis (T1) and Dissertation (D1) Proposals” in this Handbook.

Distribution of the Proposal for the T1 meeting.

Students should send their Thesis Proposals to committee members at least two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting.

Oral presentation for the T1 meeting.

The student should prepare a brief (20-30 minute), well-organized visual and oral overview of the proposed project. The student should consult with their major advisor on the presentation. The degree of formality of the T1 meeting varies with chairpersons and committees. The student should consult with their major advisor ahead of time to discuss expectations. Regardless of the degree of formality, the student should cover the following list of topics (bulleted items below). These concern what is already available in the proposal, but remind the Thesis Committee of details, help to maintain a logical order, and permit the student to summarize the proposal.

• Statement of your background, interests, and professional goals (very brief).
• Why you are interested in a particular problem area. How is it related to your goals?
• Theoretical or empirical background, leading to a precise statement of hypotheses to be tested.
• Statement of procedures, including participantsm materials, procedure, and timeline.
• Description of empirical design, showing how the design will test the hypotheses.
• Description of proposed statistical analyses.
• Statement of predicted results (with graphics if appropriate) and how particular outcomes will be interpreted.
• Description of the implications of the research.

Review by the Thesis Committee.

Committee members and any other faculty in attendance may ask questions related to any of the above points, or any other matters relevant to the thesis and to the student’s graduate and professional experience.

The Thesis Committee’s role and responsibility.

The committee members judge the significance, soundness, and feasibility of the proposed research and the ability of the student to successfully complete it. The action of the committee at this meeting may be to:

1. Accept the proposal as presented.
2. Suggest changes in the procedure.
3. Suggest limitations or expansion in the scope of the research.
4. Suggest a different emphasis or direction.
5. Reject the proposal.

Actions (2), (3), (4), or (5) may require additional meetings of the committee. If an additional meeting is scheduled, responsibilities for scheduling and distribution of materials should be as described above. If an additional meeting is not required but changes are needed, the student should prepare a statement of those changes and distribute a copy to each committee member. Rejection of the proposal usually results in the selection of a new research question/problem. After development of the new proposal, students should schedule a second thesis proposal meeting following procedures outlined above, and submit a new Thesis Proposal Form to the Graduate Program Coordinator after the T1 meeting. Depending on how much the new proposal deviates from the original proposal, a change in committee or chairperson may be warranted.

Chairperson and committee member involvement after project approval.

The chairperson should be cognizant of progress in all stages of the research. Periodic informal reports of progress – particularly when the project takes longer than 1 year to complete – should be made to committee members by the student. Significant changes in design or procedure should be reported to the committee. The determination of “significant” will be made by the student and their chairperson.

Applying for graduation 

Applying for Graduation must occur at the beginning of the semester that the student plans to complete their T2. Consult the Graduate School deadlines page for specific deadlines and procedures.

Thesis defense meeting (T2):

After the thesis project is completed, a final oral presentation and examination is conducted. The T2 should be conducted during the Fall or Spring semester. The student must register for a minimum of 2 credits of Psych 700 during the semester they defend. If the defense must be conducted during the Summer, the student will need to:

1. Ensure all committee members are willing/able to attend a summer defense (note: most faculty are off contract in the summer),
2. Enroll in 2 credits of Psych 700, and
3. Pay associated tuition and fees.

The T2 should not be scheduled until the student has produced a thesis draft that the committee chair judges to be defensible. Typically, this requires multiple revisions of the document; students should edit the document before it is given to the committee. However, the student has the right to proceed with a defense even if the committee feels that the document is not defensible; in that case an outside member of the Graduate Mentor Academy should be requested to attend the defense (this requires providing documents to the Graduate Program Coordinator 17 business days prior to scheduled defense).

Scheduling the T2 meeting.

It is the student’s responsibility to determine the availability of committee members and to identify a date and 2-hour time window for the meeting. All members of the committee must participate in the defense, and must be present (in the room or via WSU videoconference or Zoom, not on the phone). A 2-hour time period must be scheduled for the T2, with no exceptions.

Important: Before the meeting can be formally scheduled (which must happen at least two weeks prior to the meeting date), the committee members must have two weeks to review the final thesis document before their signatures are obtained on the scheduling form. Therefore the thesis should be completed one month prior to the planned defense date.

Paperwork and formal scheduling

The student should consult the “Policies and Procedures” of the Graduate School for University requirements. Since specific requirements change periodically, the student should contact the Graduate School early in the project for information about forms to be filed and deadlines.

Tips about paperwork and scheduling

• The student should download the scheduling form from the Graduate School forms website.  
• The graduate school encourages a member of the student’s committee be present in person during a defense; however, the T2 may be conducted in person (in a WSU videoconference-enabled room), over Zoom, or a combination of the two.
  • For students in Pullman, room scheduling should be requested through the Psychology Graduate Program Coordinator.
  • For students on Vancouver or Spokane campuses, room scheduling should be requested through the appropriate administrative assistant, with the Graduate Program Coordinator cc’d on these requests.
• All thesis defenses are public. To meet this requirement, a Zoom link to attend should be made available. The Graduate Program Coordinator will set this up after a room has been reserved (if applicable). The student should provide the names and emails of their committee members, and WSU room number (if applicable) in their request. The student CANNOT be the person to set up Zoom meetings. Members of the public are permitted to attend thesis defenses but only faculty can remain for the questioning portion of the meeting.
• After the committee has two weeks to review the thesis document, the student should obtain signatures from all committee members on the same form and then submit the form to the Graduate Program Coordinator (psych.grad.sign@wsu.edu). This form, along with documentation of appropriate review board approval/exemption (e.g. IRB), should be submitted 12 business days before the scheduled defense which gives an additional two business days for the department to process and submit the form to Graduate School by their deadline of 10 business days. 
  • Students are encouraged to send a draft of their scheduling form to the Graduate Program Coordinator to confirm it has been completed correctly before obtaining signatures.
• Because the thesis must be sent to committee members at least two weeks before the scheduling form is due, the thesis must be finalized at least one month before the scheduled exam date.

Graduate School Copy

Students must submit an electronic draft of the thesis to the Graduate School no later than 10 business days before the examination. See Theses and Dissertations page at the Graduate School website.

Department Copy

An electronic copy (PDF) of the thesis must be submitted to the Psychology Graduate Program Coordinator (psych.grad.sign@wsu.edu) at least 5 business days before the oral examination. Following the oral examination, a final electronic copy (PDF) of the thesis should be emailed to psych.grad.sign@wsu.edu for the Psychology Department’s permanent collection no later than 10 business days after the defense(this is the same deadline as the Graduate School).

Formatting the thesis document

• For the committee and department: Most decisions regarding format, length, and organization of the thesis are up to the Thesis Committee. In general, the paper should be written in the style described in the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, unless the student will publish the work in a non-APA journal.
• For the Graduate School: For format and copies required by the Graduate School, see the Graduate School website.

Conducting the thesis defense meeting

This is a formal oral examination designed to assess the student’s breadth and depth of knowledge and ability to think logically. An examiner may ask about any topic that they feel the student should know as a research psychologist, even if it does not pertain directly to the study being presented. The primary purpose of these questions is to ensure that the student possesses master’s-level knowledge of psychology. The student should prepare an oral presentation of the study with visual aids. Typically, the presentation is approximately 20-30 minutes long, although the major advisor may recommend a shorter or longer presentation.

The thesis defense is a is a public meeting scheduled with the Graduate School. The thesis presentation portion of the meeting is open to any member of the public; however, the oral examination is closed to members of the public. Primary responsibility for conducting this examination belongs to the Thesis Committee. The student will be examined by all members of the committee, and may also be examined by any other members of the faculty who attend the defense. Non-voting eligible attendees (e.g., family members, friends) may attend the presentation but may not ask questions and must leave the meeting before the oral examination begins. The DET will attend when possible. If they cannot attend (or is a member of the committee), they may designate a member of the Experimental Faculty to act as proxy. All other Experimental Faculty are encouraged to attend.

After the oral examination, the student is required to leave the meeting so that the committee and other attending faculty can deliberate privately. During deliberation, committee members may request changes to the final thesis document prior to the student submitting it to the Graduate School. The student should rejoin the meeting to hear the results of the examination and be informed of requested changes if applicable.

The Graduate Program Coordinator (psych.grad.sign@wsu.edu) and DET (carrie.cuttler@wsu.edu) should be informed of the results of the exam to keep track of outcomes.

If the student or committee anticipate significant conflicts at the defense, an outside member of the Graduate Mentor Academy (appointed by the Graduate School) should be requested to attend the defense. Please contact the Graduate Program Coordinator to set this up, and be aware that the scheduling form is due 17 business days prior to the scheduled defense date when a member of the Graduate Mentor Academy is requested.

Failed examination

In the event of a failed examination, the student will receive a grade of “U” for Psych 700 for that semester and will be re-examined for a second and final attempt per WSU Graduate School guidelines (see the Graduate School Policies and Procedures for exceptions to this policy; Chapter 1.E.2, Examination Failure). The second attempt may be scheduled after a period of at least three months. Scheduling for a second examination requires submission of the scheduling form to the Graduate Coordinator (psych.grad.sign@wsu.edu) at least 17 business days in advance of the exam. A member of the Graduate Mentor Academy (appointed by the Graduate School) must be present. A second failure of the exam will result in a grade of “U” for Psych 700 for that semester, and dismissal from the program as stipulated by the Graduate School. The student as the right to appeal the decision by filing a formal grievance with the Graduate School.

Grievances by the student.

If not informally resolvable, grievances may be discussed with one or more of the following: the committee chairperson, the DET, the Department Chair, the Dean of the College, and the Vice Provost of Graduate and Professional Education. See the Graduate School website.

After a successful defense, the student must:

1. Address any required changes to their thesis document and seek approval from their committee.
2. Submit the formal thesis to the Graduate School (after approval of any changes by their committee).
3. Create a service request in my.wsu.edu for e-approval of thesis.

Submitting the formal thesis to the Graduate School

Within 10 business days of a success defense, the student is required to submit a formal thesis to the Graduate School (conforming to the formatting requirements by the Graduate School) in addition to the copy submitted to the department. The format required by the Graduate School is available on the Graduate School website.

E-approval of thesis

The following steps must be completed within 10 business days of the successful defense:

1. The student should download and complete the Thesis/Dissertation Approval Form from the Graduate Student forms website and upload it in my.wsu.edu.
2. The student should create a service request in my.wsu.edu. This will generate approval requests that are sent to the Graduate Program Coordinator and Thesis Committee members. Their approval serves as final approval of the thesis.
3. Students can check the status of their request by going to the service request portion of the profile page.
4. The 10-day deadline includes receiving faculty approval through myWSU. Thus, a student should submit these final documents as soon as possible prior to the 10-day deadline.

Graduate School Requirements

See also Graduate School forms and paperwork requirement for thesis defense and deposit of thesis to Graduate School on the Graduate School website.