Individual Capstone Project Guidelines
1. The individual project is a major component of the capstone seminar, as reflected in the weighting of 25% it will be given in determining your course grade. It is also a major component of the seminar in terms of how it contributes to reaching the goals of the capstone requirement:
(a) to consider ways in which the study of psychology and the environment embodies the goals of liberal education, such as thinking critically and understanding contexts.
(b) to integrate students' previous knowledge in the various subdisciplines of psychology and other fields.
(c) to develop skills in presenting information and facilitating discussion.
(d) to practice skills relevant to clear and effective writing in an appropriate professional manner, e.g., APA format.
(e) to integrate information from a variety of sources, including written materials, the work of other students, guest speakers, etc.
(f) to foster reflection and initiate personal commitment to a position on issues having to do with psychology and the environment.
3. Final Paper and Abstract Due Thursday, December 4. The report should clearly and rigorously present the theoretical and empirical context for your project within the field of psychology and related disciplines. This will undoubtedly include references to articles and books that you have encountered during your research of the topic. The text and many of the articles we have read this semester might serve as models for how to do this effectively. In addition, the paper should clearly and thoroughly describe and explain the project itself, or trace the development of your concept, whichever is most appropriate for your own circumstance. Finally, in most cases it is probably appropriate to include a section which presents your conclusions and assessment of the implications of your work. Throughout the paper, use organizing techniques of headings and subheadings to make your communication clearer and more effective (this is where APA style is relevant). There is no specific requirement for the length of the paper, but the scope and nature of the projects that have been described would lead me to expect that a thorough job would be around 12-15 pages. The paper must be typed or word-processed, double-spaced with approximately .75" margins, type size of 10 cpi or 12 pt. If you have any questions about these details, feel free to see me at any time.
References. Include a section which lists the articles, books, websites, etc. that you have cited in your paper, again using APA style.
Appendices. For some of you it might be appropriate to include conceptual or physical material as appendices to your paper. Following APA style, anything appearing as an appendix must have been referred to in the body of the paper.
Abstract. An abstract is a summary presentation of your project. These will be published on the course website under your authorship. The abstract for this project should be the equivalent of two double-spaced pages, which is much longer than the usual APA style abstract. Submit this to me electronically, either by email or on a pc-formatted disk, saved in text or ascii format. Include at least one web link in the text of your abstract that will add depth and informativeness to your report. Indicate the text for the link(s) and provide the exact url's of the links in the same way as we have previously.
The projects will be evaluated on the following dimensions:Clarity, Thoroughness, and Rigor of Report
Evidence of Meeting Course Goals (b, e, and f above seem most relevant)
Note: Beginning December 9th students will present their projects to the rest of the class. You should retain a copy of your report to help to in your presentation. If you need other assistance, see Kim or Chris.
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Psy 412 Miami University. Last revised: Friday, April 19, 2002 at 00:01:38. This document has been accessed 3 times since July 15, 1997. Comments & Questions to R. Sherman . Also See: Social Psychology at Miami University