Psychology Question
Throughout this course, you had opportunities to clarify your passions and interests in psychology practice and scholarship, to create goals to help you achieve your vision, and to explore the competencies and requirements for pursuing a career in your specialized field of psychology. To begin this assignment:
- Take some time to reflect on all you have learned about the field and ways you can contribute to psychology, especially within your specialization.
- Review work you have done in previous weeks that you could revise and incorporate into this final assignment.
- Review the Your Career in Psychology [DOCX] template. You will need to use this template when writing your paper.
Example assignment: You may use the assignment example, Week 9 Assignment Example [PDF], which provides an example of the way this paper should be organized. This example will also give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the rubric would look like.
Instructions
Complete the following in the Your Career in Psychology [DOCX] template:
- Application of Vision.
- Update an inspiring description of your future career vision as a psychology practitioner-scholar.
- Explain the benefits of becoming a practitioner-scholar in the field of psychology and explain the importance and relevance of your vision and goals to your personal and professional aspirations.
- Goals.
- Discuss personally meaningful and relevant educational, career, and life goals to achieve your vision.
- Use the SMART goals discussion from Week 6 as your starting point to further discuss three specific goals that are measurable and achievable and include timed steps to leverage current competencies and overcome skill gaps and potential barriers.
- Influence of Research and Resources.
- Explain how reading the course resources, journal articles, and Career Center resources has affected your vision.
- Discuss why it is important to look for evidence-based literature to support your studies, including the types of articles you may need to find beyond peer-reviewed journal articles, to support your work in the field.
- Value of Networking and the Professional Interview.
- Discuss how developing and maintaining supportive professional relationships will contribute to your overall academic and career success.
- Include information on what you learned from conducting the professional interview.
- Specialization-Specific Professional Competencies.
- Describe the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for success in your career path.
- Include common skills critical to success within psychology, such as those related to critical thinking, decision making, problem solving, evidence-based practices, cultural competence, and conflict resolution.
- Include ethical competencies related to your specific profession.
- Include any key responsibilities associated with positions related to your future career.
- Critical Thinking.
- Reflect on the importance of critical thinking and analyze the importance of critical thinking and effective decision making as a psychologist, with reference to real or hypothetical examples.
- Cultural Competence.
- Discuss methods and techniques you will use now and throughout your program to establish cultural competence as it relates to your specialization and the future population you would like to work with.
- Ethical Competencies.
- Discuss the ethical competencies related to your profession. Analyze the functions, responsibilities, and ethics required of a professional practitioner in a specialized area of psychology, integrating comprehensive knowledge of relevant professional standards and requirements.
- Specialization-Specific Professional Requirements.
- Outline the requirements for your future career including high-level Capella program and specialization requirements, credentialing, certification, licensure, accreditation practices and standards, additional training, et cetera.
- Action Plan.
- Create and discuss a detailed action plan to achieve career goals that includes all the required elements including the start-to-end duration of the goal or milestone, the goal or milestone being addressed, and the skill and experience gains from this goal or milestone.
- Conclusion.
- Explain the benefits of becoming a practitioner-scholar in the field of psychology and explain the importance and relevance of your vision and goals to your personal and professional aspirations. Summarize the entire paper from the abstract to the action plan.
Review the SMART Goals presentation and Career Development CenterLinks to an external site. resources, and search the Capella University LibraryLinks to an external site. for additional reflective exercises and inspiring ideas about transforming your vision into an action plan.