APU PSYC102 2018 August All Weeks Forums Latest

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 1 Forum

Self-Introduction & What is Psychology Not?

This week’s Forum consists of two parts; an introduction and a substantive question to answer.

Part I:  Please answer the following questions as part of your introduction.

Who are you?  Where are you from and where are you currently residing?

What are your learning goals for this course? This needs to be more than doing well in the course and/or earning a good grade--what specifically do you hope to learn.

Part II:  What is Psychology Not?

Without doing any reading or research in advance (this is not a test of what you can find out—there will be plenty of time for doing that in the remaining course weeks) reflect on your current understanding and knowledge of the following: What is psychology not?

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 2 Forum

Developmental and Personality Psychology Reflection

For this Forum, in your Initial Post you will share with your classmates your observations from your research on Developmental and Personality Psychology as subspecialties and career options.

Please be sure to address BOTH subspecialties in your response to each question.  Points will be deducted if both subspecialties are not clearly and separately addressed for each question.

1) After researching these areas, do you find them to be career possibilities you are interested in or careers that don’t capture your interest?  Why or why not?

2) What is at least one interesting thing you learned about each of the two subspecialties that you did not previously know?

3) Describe a “real-world” application for each of the two subspecialties.  How could knowledge gained through the pursuit of each subspecialty help us to understand everyday problems, dilemmas, or situations?  Note:  your answer does not have to be specific to psychology as a field.  Think broadly; psychological principles can apply to many different fields.

 

 

 

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 3 Forum

Biopsychology and Perception Psychology Reflection

For this Forum, in your Initial Post you will share with your classmates your observations from your research on Biopsychology and Perception Psychology as subspecialties and career options.

Please be sure to address BOTH subspecialties in your response to each question.  Points will be deducted if both subspecialties are not clearly and separately addressed.

1) After researching these areas, do you find them to be career possibilities you are interested in or careers that don’t capture your interest?  Why or why not?

2) What is at least one thing you learned about each of the two subspecialties that you did not previously know?

3) Describe a “real-world” application for each of the two subspecialties.  How could knowledge gained through the pursuit of each subspecialty help us to understand everyday problems, dilemmas, or situations?  Note:  your answer does not have to be specific to psychology as a field.  Think broadly; psychological principles can apply to many different fields.

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 4 Forum

Learning/Memory and Psychopathology Reflection

For this Forum, in your Initial Post you will share with your classmates your observations from your research on Learning/Memory and Psychopathology as subspecialties and career options.

Please be sure to address BOTH subspecialties in your response to each question.  Points will be deducted if both subspecialties are not clearly and separately addressed.

1) After researching these areas, do you find them to be career possibilities you are interested in or careers that don’t capture your interest?  Why or why not?

2) What is at least one thing you learned about each of the two subspecialties that you did not previously know?

3) Describe a “real-world” application for each of the two subspecialties.  How could knowledge gained through the pursuit of each subspecialty help us to understand everyday problems, dilemmas, or situations?  Note:  your answer does not have to be specific to psychology as a field.  Think broadly; psychological principles can apply to many different fields.

 

 

 

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 5 Forum

Investigation of Applying to Graduate Programs in Psychology

Last week, we took a brief break from focusing on specific psychology subspecialties to talk about career options.  There are numerous sources within the Course Syllabus that you may access to help you as you think about your own interests and goals.

For this purpose of this week's Forum discussion, we will assume that students in this course are interested in psychology-related careers.  As you've discovered by now, the majority of these fields prefer graduate degree holders (there are, of course, opportunities for Bachelor's level degree holders, but the number of opportunities open widely for those with graduate degrees).

Please explore the following website from the American Psychological Association (APA) before answering the below questions:

http://www.apa.org/education/grad/applying.aspx

Based upon your research on this website, please answer the following questions:

1.  Generally speaking, what pieces of information are applicants to graduate programs in psychology required to provide (e.g., academic information, standardized testing, recommendations, personal information, etc...)?

2.  What are the costs for graduate programs?  What types of financial aid are available?  What are other options (e.g., merit fellowships, assistantships, outside employment)?  How much debt do graduate students generally take on and does that vary based on degree (masters vs. doctoral) or program (e.g., Ph.D. vs. Psy.D.)?

3.  What about accreditation?  How important is it?  How can prospective students differentiate between quality programs and programs that could actually hinder their chances for professional internships or future employment?

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 6 Forum

Industrial/Organizational and Social Psychology Reflection

For this Forum, in your Initial Post you will share with your classmates your observations from your research on Industrial/Organizational and Social Psychology as subspecialties and career options.

Please be sure to address BOTH subspecialties in your response to each question.  Points will be deducted if both subspecialties are not clearly and separately addressed.

1) After researching these areas, do you find them to be career possibilities you are interested in or careers that don’t capture your interest?  Why or why not?

2) What is at least one thing you learned about each of the two subspecialties that you did not previously know?

3) Describe a “real-world” application for each of the two subspecialties.  How could knowledge gained through the pursuit of each subspecialty help us to understand everyday problems, dilemmas, or situations?  Note:  your answer does not have to be specific to psychology as a field.  Think broadly; psychological principles can apply to many different fields.

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 7 Forum

Experimental and Forensic Psychology Reflection

For this Forum, in your Initial Post you will share with your classmates your observations from your research on Experimental and Forensic Psychology as subspecialties and career options.

Please be sure to address BOTH subspecialties in your response to each question.  Points will be deducted if both subspecialties are not clearly and separately addressed.

1) After researching these areas, do you find them to be career possibilities you are interested in or careers that don’t capture your interest?  Why or why not?

2) What is at least one thing you learned about each of the two subspecialties that you did not previously know?

3) Describe a “real-world” application for each of the two subspecialties.  How could knowledge gained through the pursuit of each subspecialty help us to understand everyday problems, dilemmas, or situations?  Note:  your answer does not have to be specific to psychology as a field.  Think broadly; psychological principles can apply to many different fields.

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 8 Forum

"Take-aways," and Future Research Strategies

Part I:  Share with your classmates three "take-aways" from your learning experience in the course that you found particularly illuminating and/or surprising and that you can use in your continued APUS studies or can see yourself finding useful after graduation.

Part II:  Whether you choose to pursue a field related to psychology as your future career or not, hopefully you have learned how to research careers and how to begin to lay out a path toward your future career.  Name at least two strategies you intend to use to help map out your professional path as you are working on your degree.  Such strategies could include a variety of methods, potentially including identifying people in the field to interview, targeting specific websites to study, and/or using social media platforms to seek out professional opportunities.  Share with your classmates, as we can all learn from each other.