applying critical thinking & effective decision making

applying critical thinking & effective decision making

applying critical thinking & effective decision making

Your Career in PsychologyResources……………
Note: You will be required to submit this assignment to Turnitin before submitting it to your instructor for a grade. It is also recommended that you have your assignment reviewed by Smarthinking. Plan 24–48 hours to get results from these services, and time to make revisions before you submit the assignment to your instructor for a grade.Reminder: Links to the template and optional worksheet for this assignment are given in the resources.Throughout this course, you had opportunities to clarify your passions and interests in psychology practice and scholarship, create SMART goals to help you achieve your vision, and explore the competencies and requirements for pursuing a career in your specialized field of psychology. This final assignment provides you an opportunity to transform your vision into reality by translating your exploration and brainstorming activities into a plan to actualize your vision and achieve your goals. This assignment will integrate information from all previous assignments and several of the unit studies and discussions. You are encouraged to cite relevant information from your interview with a psychology professional where it is relevant to this assignment, however, remember to critically evaluate the information you use.Your writing in this assignment should not just be a collection of notes, lists, or questions and answers. Instead, it should be a well-organized discussion that flows logically from one idea to the next.Include the following in your assignment.Vision and GoalsBy the time you complete this final assignment, you will have gained a lot more knowledge and insights about your interests in psychology and your career trajectory. To begin this assignment, take some time to reflect on all you have learned about the field and ways you can contribute to psychology.What aspects of your research affected your vision and/or goals? Given this, what research topics do you think you would you be interested in the future?How was your vision affected by the career information in your readings from your Career Paths in Psychology text, and your exploration of the Career Center and other resources?Revise and refine the vision statement and long-term goals that you developed earlier in in response to the feedback you have received and your studies in this course. Update your Articulating Your Purpose activity to help support these revisions.Competencies and RequirementsUnderstanding the competencies and responsibilities involved with your future career in psychology is essential for preparing yourself to become a practitioner-scholar in your field. It is also necessary to understand any requirements that needed for your specialized practice and scholarship. For this step in the assignment, analyze the competencies, responsibilities, ethical considerations and other requirements needed for achieving your vision and goals as a professional in psychology. These may include:Capella program and specialization requirements.Skills, abilities, and attitudes critical to success in the field of psychology such as critical thinking, effective decision making, problem solving, evidence-based solutions, ethical integrity, cultural competence, and conflict resolution skills. Make note of skills, abilities, and attitudes related to the practitioner-scholar model and the experience you had in researching scholarly sources in your last assignment.Credentialing, certification, licensure, and accreditation practices and standards.Ethical codes, principles, laws, and policies applicable to your chosen career path.Reflect on your current competencies, previous experiences, and achievements that help you meet those requirements. Since you are at the beginning of your journey to a future career, you will have gaps in required knowledge, skills, attitudes, and credentials. Identify any areas in which you need further development to achieve your goals and vision as a psychology practitioner-scholar.Action PlanWith all this knowledge of your vision and goals, and the competencies and requirements for the field in hand, you are ready to plot your course to make these aspirations a reality. The final step in this assignment is to create a revised action plan to achieve your goals. This means translating the requirements for your profession and the development areas you identified into specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timed (SMART) steps to achieve your vision.Include the following elements in your action plan:Completing your Capella program.Possible opportunities for additional training and/or volunteer work to address gaps in your knowledge or skills.Possible opportunities in your current position to develop additional skills through coaching or stretch assignments.Capella Community groups and/or professional organizations that you could join for networking with others and completing additional informational interviews.How you will stay current with the research and literature in the field.How you can apply what you have learned in this course about researching psychological literature and evaluating it in terms of reliability, credibility, ethics, and value.How you will apply critical thinking and effective decision making as a psychologist.How you will use Capella’s support resources to develop the skills required to successfully develop your writing and other competencies essential to the profession and your role as a graduate learner.At this point, there may be an overwhelming number of steps that you could complete to work towards your vision. If it helps you work through this plan, focus on major milestones and requirements as well as steps you can take during your Capella degree program to help translate your vision into SMART short-term goals and tasks.If you feel the need for more input, consider reviewing the SMART Goals presentation and Career Center, or searching the Capella library or the Internet for additional reflective exercises or inspiring ideas about transforming your vision into an action plan.To maximize your scoring potential, be sure that you fully address all assignment requirements and the meet the criteria in the Your Career in Psychology Scoring Guide that will be used to assess your assignment.SmarthinkingBefore you turn in your assignment, it is strongly recommended that submit it to Smarthinking in advance, and revise it based on the feedback you receive. Be aware that the turnaround time for Smarthinking can be 24–48 hours from submission to receiving the feedback report. Plan accordingly.Submit the Assignment to TurnitinIt is very important that you always submit your work as a draft, so you can make revisions before submitting it to the Turnitin assignment link. Review the Analyze Your Originality Report tutorial for guidance in accessing your feedback from Turnitin, interpreting your report, and improving your writing and citations for your assignment. Note: Submitting the work to Turnitin does not submit it to the course room for evaluation. Retain your Turnitin report in case your instructor asks to review it. Be aware that the turnaround time for Turnitin can be 24–48 hours from submission to receiving the feedback report. Plan accordingly.Submit your assignment no later than Friday, 11:59 p.m. CST. Make sure your submission is a Word document. To submit an assignment, click on the Assignment link at the top of this assignment, then, attach your finalized assignment and the reports. Enter your name and the assignment number in the comment box.Assignment RequirementsYour assignment should also meet the following requirements:Template: You may use the Your Career in Psychology Template to format your assignment.Length: 7–9 typed and double-spaced content pages in Times New Roman, 12-point font. This length does not include the title page, abstract, and reference list.References: Your references may include both scholarly literature and practitioner sources. Your paper is to include a minimum of five references, with at least three of them from course readings. All references need to be cited in text, according to current APA standards as well as listed on References page. Remember that citations are to support your thoughts, not take the place of them.Written communication: Must be clear, with correct spelling, grammar, syntax, and good organization.Writing style: APA expectations for scholarly writing include the use of third-person narrative.APA formatting: The assignment must be formatted according to current APA style and formatting and include a title page, abstract, and reference list. Note that these three elements are not counted toward the length of your assignment.Use the Your Career in Psychology Scoring Guide to self-assess your completed assignment prior to turning it into your instructor for feedback to ensure you meet all evaluation criteria.Note: Your instructor may also use the APA Writing Feedback Rubric to provide additional feedback on your academic writing. The writing feedback rubric does not affect your assignment grade, but its feedback may factor into the grading criteria, if professional communication and writing is a course competency. Evaluate your own work using this rubric. Refer to the Learner Guide for instructions on viewing instructor feedback.
Due Date: End of Unit 10.
Percentage of Course Grade: 25%.                 Your Career in Psychology Scoring Guide Grading Rubric Criteria Non-performance Basic Proficient Distinguished Revise a vision statement and action plan for becoming a psychology practitioner-scholar  in response to feedback and studies.
20%   Does not revise a vision statement and action plan for becoming a psychology  practitioner- scholar. Revises a vision statement and action plan for becoming a psychology practitioner-scholar, but is insufficiently responsive to feedback and studies. Revises a vision statement and action plan for becoming a psychology practitioner-scholar in response to feedback and studies. Revises a vision statement and action plan for becoming a psychology practitioner-scholar in response to feedback and studies, with specific, measurable, achievable, and timed steps to leverage current competencies and overcome skill gaps and potential barriers. Analyze the functions, responsibilities,  and ethics required of a psychology professional.
20%   Does not identify functions,  responsibilities, and ethics required of a psychology  professional. Identifies some functions, responsibilities, and ethics required of a psychology professional. Analyzes the functions, responsibilities, and ethics required of a psychology professional. Analyzes 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. Discuss how to evaluate psychological literature in terms of reliability,  credibility, ethics, and value.
20%   Does not provide any examples or discussion of how to evaluate psychological literature in terms of reliability, credibility, ethics, and value. Provides at least one example of how to evaluate  psychological literature in terms of reliability, credibility, ethics, and value. Discusses how to evaluate psychological literature in terms of reliability, credibility, ethics, and value. Discusses how to evaluate psychological literature in terms of reliability, credibility, ethics, and value, and consistently applies such evaluation to perform as a knowledgeable consumer of research. Discuss how to apply critical thinking and effective decision making as a psychologist.
20%   Does not describe examples of how to apply critical thinking and effective decision making as a psychologist. Describes examples of how to apply critical thinking and effective decision making as a psychologist. Discusses how to apply critical thinking and effective decision making as a psychologist. Analyzes the importance of critical thinking and effective decision making as a psychologist with reference to real or hypothetical examples. Write clearly, with correct spelling, grammar, syntax, and good organization.
10%   Does not write clearly, and there are errors in spelling, grammar, syntax, and organization. Writes clearly overall, but there are some errors in spelling, grammar, syntax, or organization. Writes clearly, with correct spelling, grammar, syntax, and good organization. Writes concisely with excellent clarity and organization, with no errors in spelling, grammar, or syntax, and employing critical or analytical reasoning as needed. Conform to basic APA style and formatting guidelines with minor errors.
10%   Does not conform to APA style and formatting guidelines. Conforms to some APA style and formatting guidelines but there are significant errors or omissions. Conforms to basic APA style and formatting guidelines with minor errors. Conforms to all relevant APA style and formatting guidelines without errors.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.