1.4 Assignment. Capstone Reflection Journal – Developing Your Capstone Project
Getting Started
Remember, this assignment is separate from your TED-style talk assignment. The TED talk and the Capstone Project are two separate projects that you will be working on, refining, and implementing in the next few courses.
Throughout the Masters in Psychology program, we have been referring to a capstone project that you will be working on. We’ve structured it so that you have been sequentially working on pieces of the project along the way. You began thinking about a topic in your very first course, then you completed a literature review in PSY-561, and then completed an outline of the content in a broad manner to get some general direction. In PSY 561, you also reviewed your journals and previous coursework to begin a deeper dive into what your Capstone Project will look like.
Also, keep in mind that your Capstone Project idea needs to meet these three criteria also highlighted in PSY 561:
· Your project needs to engage a small group of people.
· It needs to be related to life coaching and/or positive psychology.
· It needs to reflect the work you’ve completed in your literature review from PSY-561.
Do you remember this example about gratitude? A Capstone Project could be demonstrating gratitude to a few people in your life by writing and delivering meaningful gratitude letters to them and measuring your level of happiness before and after the visits. Another capstone idea mentioned could be designing a brief series of life coaching lessons for young adults and then sharing the information with a small group over a three-week period of time with pre- and post-tests to assess the impact of your work. You could also decide to create a positive psychology podcast series and share it on YouTube or Facebook with a small group of friends and family and ask them for feedback. You are only limited by your imagination and the three criteria mentioned above.
You should have a better idea of what you are doing for your Capstone Project based on what you have done so far, especially after working through assignments in PSY 561. If you are still struggling with what you are doing, please do reach out to your instructor as soon as possible.
As a reminder, over these next two specialization courses (PSY-562, 563), you will continue to work on components of your Capstone Project. In this course, PSY-562, you will refine it. In PSY-563, you will finalize the details so that you are ready to implement your plan and evaluate the outcome in PSY-590. So, this course allows you to refine and focus your project idea.
Because you have chosen the life coaching and positive psychology specialization in your program, you also want to keep in mind that your project should be related to some aspect of life coaching and/or positive psychology. Ideally, you will also want your project to reflect one of the 12 life coaching niches that were mentioned previously and that you will review in this assignment.
Over these next two specialization courses (PSY-562 and 563), you will also work on preparing for and practicing life coaching with an individual client.
This is separate from your Capstone Project, and the client with whom you will practice life coaching is different than the individuals you will be working within your Capstone Project. For your Capstone Project, you will need to work with a small group of people, preferably in the area of coaching you hope to go into. The coaching sessions you complete in PSY 563 may help you prepare for your Capstone Project, even though they will be separate individuals.
In this Capstone Reflection Journal, you will focus on refining your plan for the Capstone Project. For this journal entry, it would be helpful to first review the Capstone Project Outline Update document that you completed in Workshop Five of PSY-561. This, along with any feedback that the instructor gave you on that assignment, will give you the best starting point for developing a more concrete plan for your Capstone Project.
To develop your Capstone Project plan even more, write at least one substantive paragraph addressing each of the seven points below. Here are the components that need to be included in your plan:
1. Provide a detailed description of your Capstone Project.
2. Who is your target audience and why have you chosen them?
3. What is the specific need you are trying to meet for this audience through your project?
4. What do you specifically intend to do with this target audience to meet that need?
5. How does your intended action point relate to life coaching and positive psychology?
6. How will your project incorporate and reflect your literature review from PSY-561?
7. Where will you conduct the project?
8. What resources might you need to complete the project?
Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:
· Explain the foundational design of the capstone project based upon the chosen life coaching area.
Background Information
The focus of this journal entry is to help you adequately prepare to finalize your Capstone Project in the next course so that you can implement it in the final course. In order to be prepared to do that, it is critical that you elaborate as fully as possible on the questions posed in the eight questions below. The more detail you can provide, the better your course instructor can help guide you and offer feedback that will give you a strong foundation for finalizing the Capstone Project preparation in PSY-563.
Instructions
1. Remember, this is separate from your TED-style talk assignment. The TED talk and the Capstone Project are two separate projects that you will be working on, refining, and implementing in the next two courses. You will finalize your TED-style talk and record it in PSY-563, and implement your Capstone Project in PSY-590.
2. Keep in mind the three criteria by which your project will be evaluated:
a. Your project needs to engage a small group of people.
b. Your Capstone Project needs to be related to life coaching and/or positive psychology.
c. It needs to reflect the work you’ve completed in your literature review from PSY-561.
3. Write at least one substantive paragraph addressing each of the eight points below, which are the core components of your implementation plan for PSY-590.
a. Provide a detailed description of your Capstone Project.
b. Who is your target audience, the small group you will work with, and why have you chosen them?
c. What is the specific need you are trying to meet for this audience through your project?
d. What do you specifically intend to do with this target audience to meet that need? Remember, you will have two to three weeks to work with your small group in PSY-590. You will need to provide the small group with content related to what you have been learning in this program, positive psychology and coaching, and include an intervention or practice they can utilize in their lives in some way.
e. How does your intended action point relate to life coaching and positive psychology?
f. How will your project incorporate and reflect your literature review from PSY-561?
g. Where will you conduct the project?
h. What resources might you need to complete the project?
4. Read the article
How to Interview Someone Like a Journalist
(new tab)
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5.
Your journal entry should be a minimum of eight paragraphs.
