SCPI Master Thesis

Course goals

• Being able to provide a theoretical foundation for a research question and to search the existing scientific literature to provide an overview of the results of previous studies.
• Approaching a social issue from an interdisciplinary perspective.
• Being able to apply methodological and analytical skills in order to analyze data in a scientifically sound manner.
• Being able to clearly write down the results of a research project
• Being able to scientifically discuss your own results and put them in a broader perspective, i.e.: being able to discuss the results based on interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical arguments,  to identify strong and weak aspects of your own research, and to identify implications for future research and for practice.

Content

The Master Project takes place in the second semester (period 3 and 4) and consists of two interrelated components: the writing of a master thesis (this course) and an internship (course 202300017 Master Internship), ideally both are focused on the same societal challenge (topic is the choice of the tudent).
 
For their master thesis, most students will analyse existing data to answer their research question. These existing data can either be made available by the internship organization or by the master thesis supervisor at ISS, or found by students via online databases (e.g. DANS). A few students may be able to conduct their own research as part of their internship and use these data for their master thesis. During the writing of your master thesis, you work largely independently, with guidance from the SPPH supervisor. Supervision will take place in small tutorial groups and/or individually, and will include the exchange of peer feedback. The research you undertake for your Master Project will need to have an interdisciplinary social science focus and draw on a combination of behavioural and social science concepts.