Psychology
495 – Field Placement
in Psychology – Course Outline
SAMPLE, 3 credits, Organizer: Dr. Joanne Hoven Stohs
Meetings: SAMPLE,
EMAIL: jstohs@fullerton.edu, FAX 278-7134
PHONE: 278-3105, H-810D, Office Hours: W 3-4pm
Learning Goals Course meetings will be designed with the following goals in mind:
Learning Objectives:
At the completion of the internship, you should be capable of:
· Defining your site’s mission and target population.
· Identifying the psychological concepts or methods utilized by the site.
· Describing how the psychological principles are used by yourself and/or others
· Evaluating how well the site’s mission is addressed through its methods.
Texts: (Available at The Little Professor Bookstore)
Dr. Joanne Stohs (found at The Little Professor Bookstore).
Specifics: Before the course begins, you will have found a site from an approved list that the university internship center uses or one that I approve of. You should bring a signed Site Supervisor Approval Form to our first class meeting. Your three-unit field placement will entail a significant time commitment (120 hours on site) as well as the classroom portion of your experience that involves the processing of your field placement experiences in a group context.
Assessments
You will be assessed in the following domains: Working a minimum of 8-10 hours per week or 120 hours total for the course, at an approved site that utilizes psychological theories and/or methods to meet its objectives (50 points). Your site supervisor will evaluate your efforts at two points in the semester and send the assessment to me (10 points total). Bi-weekly journal keeping of your on-site activities and the logging of your hours is required (20 points), mandatory class attendance & participation (10 points) and a final paper (10 points) that summarizes and integrates academic material with your applied experience. You must participate in all aspects of the course in order to pass it. Your overall letter grade will be based on the following 100 point scale: 90+ points =A, 80-89 points=B, 70-79points=C, 60-69 points=D, below 60 points is a failure.
Class meetings with the group will be held regularly in order to process practical and professional issues. You will be encouraged to identify and assess the psychological methods and/or theories used at your site and to evaluate how well they work. Class meetings are crucial and involve group interactions. Missed classes will lower your course grade by ten points. Coming to class late will also result in lost points.
Journal-keeping. You are required to keep an organized bi-weekly summary of the amount of time spent on-site and the activities performed at your placement (in order to integrate personal, applied, and theoretical material). A standard form will be used to record the information. You should obtain your supervisor’s signature each time you complete your journal in order to verify your hours on site. The site supervisor does not have the right to read your journal entries (only to verify your hours per week). Your journal(s) should be turned in each time that our class meets even if you have already earned 120 hours on site. Late journals will lose points.
A final paper about the experiences you had in your field placement will be required at the end of the semester that is 10 pages in length. The report should: 1) describe the internship site by including a definition of its mission and target population, 2) identify which psychological constructs or theories the site used to meet its objectives, 3) describe how any psychological principles were implemented by yourself and/or others at the site, 4) evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the site’s methods in accomplishing its mission, and 5) assess your own growth during the placement by using the developmental stage model proposed by Sweitzer and King (the authors of our text). See our course packet for further details.
Aug 26, R. Read Chapter 5 in Sweitzer and King (S&K). Discuss syllabus and sites. Theme: Anticipation. Turn in Site Supervisor Approval Form.
Sept 02 No class meeting. Read Chapter 1. Theme: Laying the groundwork.
Sept 09 Read Chapter 2 in S&K (text). Stages of development. Turn in journal.
Sept 16 Read
Chapter 3 Theme: Self. Come to our class meeting.
Sept 23 No class meeting. Read Chapter 4 in
S&K. Theme: Self as intern.
Sept 30 Read Chapter 6. Theme: Clients. Journal due.
Oct 07 No class meeting. Read Chapter 7. Theme: Your colleagues.
Oct 14 Site super’s evaluation due. Read Chapter 8 in S&K. Theme: The Site. Journal due.
Oct 21 No class meeting.
Oct 28 Read Chapter 9 in
S&K. Theme: The Community. Journal due.
Nov 04 No
class meeting. Read Chapter 10 Disillusionment.
Nov 11 Read Chapter 11. Theme: Barriers and confrontation. Journal due.
Nov 18 No class meeting. Read Chapter 12. Theme: Competence.
Nov 25 FALL BREAK. NO CLASS MEETING. Read Chapter 14
in S&K.
Dec 02 No class meeting. Read Chapter 13 in S&K. Theme: Issues & Ethics.
Dec 09 Discuss final papers and
requirements.
Dec 16, R. All journals due. Turn in your final paper and the final evaluation.
CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING YOUR INTERNSHIP!!
Semester: Year:
Your name: Instructor’s
name:
Number of hours spent on site _________ during the week(s) of _____________________
Site
Name
Signature
of Site Supervisor_________________________
Please
print supervisor’s name_____________________
Describe the activities you performed during this period at your field site (be specific):
Describe any training or contact you had with your site supervisor at this time:
Comment on any reading you did in regard to your placement (including our text) and your reactions to the material read:
Please record any information about the psychological theories or techniques used at your site: