APU PSYC102 2018 August Full Course Latest (Except Week 6 Assignment)

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.

 

 

 

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 2 Assignment

Resources:

Developmental Psychology:

http://www.thepsychfiles.com/category/topics/developmental/

http://www.apa.org/action/science/developmental/

http://careersinpsychology.org/what-is-developmental-psychology/

Personality Psychology:

http://www.thepsychfiles.com/category/topics/personality/

https://www.ted.com/talks/brian_little_who_are_you_really_the_puzzle_of_personality

http://study.com/articles/Personality_Psychologist_Job_Description_and_Education_Information.html

Biopsychology:

http://www.thepsychfiles.com/category/topics/biological-psychology/

Perception:

http://www.thepsychfiles.com/category/topics/perception/

OPTIONAL Reading: APUS library

SOKAL, M. M. (2016). Launching a Career in Psychology with Achievement and Arrogance: James McKeen Cattell at The Johns Hopkins University, 1882-1883. Journal of The History of The Behavioral Sciences, 52(1), 5-19. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21764

After reviewing and researching the above materials and any other scholarly articles you may find in our library, choose ONE of the career categories and conduct a job search. Once you have completed the job search, complete the following:

Part I:

Complete a professional Resume applying for a job in the career field you have chosen.

Part II:

Complete a cover letter justifying why you are the best candidate for the job.

Part III:

Reflection:

Using your career choice above, complete a two-page summary regarding how you see yourself in this career five years into the job. Be creative, while focusing on a typical day, including, but not limited to:

Who are your clients/colleagues?

What continuing education have you accomplished?

Location

What skills have you learned?

How has your career choice affected and shaped your personal life?

Below is a career Resume template site you may use, or you may create your own, but it must be professional. At least three academic sources should be incorporated.

https://www.livecareer.com/resume-templates

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 4 Assignment

Week 4 Presentation:

Please use resources from Weeks 1 – 3 for this assignment. From the list below, answer the following questions in your PowerPoint presentation. This presentation should be no less than ten – twelve slides, not including title and Reference slide. Your presentation should include graphics, as well as utilizing the Note portion of the PowerPoint template. There are several YouTube tutorials available to help guide you through this presentation, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbc1HX8Jccw

Your presentation should include the following subsets of psychology: Developmental, Personality, Learning/Memory and Psychopathology, BioPsychology and Perception Psychology.

The following questions should be substantively addressed and answered.

What is your current interest in each of the above subfields of psychology covered thus far?

How can one utilize a degree in each of these fields of psychology?

What should your undergraduate degree plan be for the field that interests you the most?

Will you need to go to Graduate School to pursue these careers?

What surprised you the most about each of these fields?

Thinking about the career field that interests you the most, what do you believe you will have to improve upon to meet or exceed expectations?

The last two – four slides of your presentation should substantively summarize what you found most interesting while completing this assignment and at least one element you learned during this assignment of which you can benefit in knowing more.

Your presentation should include:

Title Slide

Body of slides, with Note portions (8-10 slides)

Conclusion/Summary (2-4 slides)

Reference Slide (at least three academic references)

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 6 Essay Assignment

Review the material and deliverables from our Syllabus and Lessons.

Essay should include title page, abstract, body (5-page minimum with sub-categories), summary/conclusion and reference page (at least three academic references), per APA guidelines.

Please provide subcategories studied thus far for each of our career fields.

Developmental Psychology

Personality Psychology

Biopsychology

Perception Psychology

Learning/Memory Psychology

Psychopathology

Industrial Organized Psychology

Social Psychology

For each of the career fields, please explain:

What type of work is involved in each career field. Provide examples.

The opportunities available within the fields

Level of education one must achieve in each of these career fields

Typical work setting. Provide examples.

Average incomes

Your biggest take-away learned from each career field

 

 

 

 

PSYC102 Professional Careers and Education in Psychology

Week 7 Capstone Presentation

For our Week 7 Assignment/Capstone project, from our discussions these past weeks describe your psychology career choice, e.g.  clinical psychologist, school psychologist, psychology professor, research psychologist in a university hospital, etc. and respond to the questions below based on what you have learned about that job from your research in class. Imagine you have just completed your first year in your first job with any one of the career fields we have covered.

In a twenty slide PowerPoint presentation (not including title or Reference slide), please address the following:

Discuss your goals and expectations for your first year in this career field.

What is the focus of your interaction with your clients?

Explain a typical day in this future career.

What is most rewarding about this first year? Why?

What conflicts in your career do you believe you will encounter in this first year? How will these conflicts be resolved?  (Be elaborative. A great rule to remember is “who, what, where, when, how”).

What is your annual salary and has it met your expectations? Why or why not?

What part of your education has benefitted you the most in achieving this career?

What type of continuing education are you required to complete to maintain credentials/expertise and grow in this career choice?

Your presentation should include a title slide, Body of presentation, including in text citations, NOTES, Conclusion/Summary, Reference slide (at least three academic references), per APA.