Applied Final Project Positive Psychology

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Applied Final Project: Positive Psychology in Action Proposal

This assignment will leverage your curiosity. It will tap into your ideas for applying positive psychology in daily life. It will invite you to explore how to connect those applications to others within your community.

The 
Positive Psychology in Action Proposal is an integrative assignment in support of the 
three learning outcomes for the course:

1.
Analyze the components of positive psychology that contribute to the health and well-being of individuals, organizations, and environments

2.
Use critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, research methodologies, and appropriate instruments to analyze scientific evidence to differentiate positive psychology from other psychological approaches

3.
Evaluate positive psychology theories and theorists to determine appropriate and ethical applications and interventions within the individual as well as organizational and multicultural settings

The Positive Psychology in Action Proposal (PPA)

Objective:
 Create Positive Psychology in Action (PPA), demonstrating how a positive psychology construct/theory can be applied in a practical manner to bring about a positive impact for others. Examples of practicality include educational programs, video, podcasts, and interventions.

To achieve this, you will build your knowledge of the construct/theory, and then create a proposal for putting your positive psychology product into action. Because this is 
not a formal empirical study and no data is to be collected, you are presenting a proposal for your Positive Psychology in Action product, program, or intervention.  

*A formal study (where the proposed materials and/or procedures are put into practice, monitored, and evaluated) requires ethics approval from the CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY Institutional Review Board. Those actions reach beyond the scope of this course.  

Instructions:
  Below are all the steps you will need to take in order to create your PPAs*:

1. Review what we have covered in class.

2. Choose one or more positive psychology constructs or theories that you would like to explore and apply in your life (e.g., constructs: altruism, gratitude, forgiveness, mindfulness or e.g., theories: the broaden and build theory of positive emotions)

3. Create the proposal (i.e. educational program, video, podcast, or intervention)

4. Write and submit for grading an APA formatted proposal document.

*More details for each step are addressed in Requirements.

Grading Considerations:
 The following lists elements that should be included in the paper.  A more detailed rubric accompanies the assignment within course content.

Requirements:
  The Positive Psychology in Action Proposal assignment is structured to encourage research, creativity, and the development of your action idea. If it is helpful, you can frame the goal of the assignment as follows:

You have just learned there is a Positive Psychology in Action Scholarship being offered by Dr. Seligman, the father of positive psychology himself! Cool! The scholarship is a full ride that will pay for your future course work AND reimburse you for tuition directly tied to courses required for your degree from CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY.  AWESOME! Dr. Seligman is seeking proposals for new ways to bring positive psychology into the daily lives of others. He has created three categories for application: products, programs, and interventions.

·

·
Products (e.g., video, podcast script, audio production, storyboard, children’s book, etc.)

·
Programs (e.g., community, ’building…insert construct
…in teens’)

·
Intervention (e.g., counseling, workplace, senior citizens)

Winners in each category will receive a full scholarship. Competing applicants can submit a single proposal that clearly falls into oneof the categories. Proposal submissions must:

1.

a.
Introduce a clearly defined construct that will be leveraged (e.g., gratitude, mindfulness)

a.
Leverage the applied construct via a thoughtful product, program, or intervention

a.
Have purpose; the product, program, or intervention must have a clear goal/outcome

a.
Be designed for a target audience

a.
Be neatly and concisely presented in an APA formatted document containing

.
Introduction

1.
Literature Review

1.
Proposed Action (Purpose and Goals)

.
Methods

2.
Participants

2.
Materials

2.
Procedures

.
Results

.
Discussion

.
References

Reading this, you smile. You think, “I am preparing a proposal for my PSYC 437 class that matches the scholarship’s goal perfectly! I have some ideas! I am going to follow the Applied Final Project’s Project Stages 
and Writing Guidance
 my instructor has given me. With this scaffolding I am going to write a proposal for submission and win!!!”

Project Stages:

1.
Review what we have covered in class.  Reflect on the readings and think about topics that captured your attention, invited contemplation, or led to moments where you paused and envisioned how the lesson connected to yourself and others. Grab a piece of paper. Write down these topics. Next, write down ideas that come to mind that offer examples of how the construct/theory can be applied in a practical manner to bring about a positive impact for others.

2.  
Choose one or more positive psychology constructs or theories that you would like to explore and apply in your life (e.g., constructs: altruism, gratitude, forgiveness, mindfulness or e.g., theories that broaden and build theories of positive emotions).

3.  Once you have decided what construct/theory you wish to put into action, begin conducting literary research. Dig into empirical literature to learn what studies and theoretical insights are available to inform your action design. And learn about your target population (who your project is dedicated to). 

4.
Create the proposal. Map out and build your action informed by your research on the construct/theory, and the need by your target population. 

5.
Write and submit for grading an 

APA

 formatted proposal document.