Internship in Psychology

Course Details

Course Number: PSYC 4903  Section Number: 101

Fall 2011

Location: O'Donohoe Hall

Classroom Number: 102

Days & Times:

 

Syllabus

PSYC 4903

Psychology Internship

Fall, 2011

 

Coordinator:  Paul C. Guthrie, Ph.D.                                     Office:  O-113

Office Hours:  TBA                                                                Phone:  397-4178

Class Times:  TBA                                                                  Location:  PY 102

Email: paul.guthrie@mwsu.edu

 

Text:  Baird, B. (2011). The internship, practicum, and field placement handbook: A guide for the helping professions (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Course Description: The undergraduate psychology internship at MSU is an advanced elective available to psychology majors who have demonstrated academic achievement and a desire to explore the application of psychological principles in a “real-world” setting. This course is designed to provide you with supervised experience in a setting in which psychology is either practiced or psychological principles and knowledge are applied. The internship experience, along with your required readings, is the basis for monthly class discussions (seminar).

 

Course Objectives: 

 

  1. To provide paraprofessional level hands-on field experience in a community organization.
  2. To gain “on-the-job” training experiences which will help successful trainees obtain employment in the human services area.
  3. To use the ability to perceive and define human service needs and to generate tentative solutions for solving these issues by reading, observation and direct involvement.
  4. To use and fine-tune self-assessment abilities of specific skills through site supervision, seminar group discussion, presentations and journal writing.

 

Course Prerequisities:

 

  1. Psychology Major
  2. Junior or Senior level.
  3. GPA of 3.0 or higher
  4. Be of good character and committed to helping people.

 

Course Requirements:

 

  1. ON-SITE PLACEMENT – Minimum requirements are 100 hours over at least 10 weeks. Schedules and internship duties will be negotiated between you and your on-site supervisor, with input from the coordinator as needed. For ethical and practical reasons, you should not expect to provide professional services, but client contact, at a paraprofessional level, is an expected part of the internship experience.

 

  1. INTERNSHIP SEMINAR – Seminar will meet monthly for one and a half hours. Interns are expected to attend all meetings; attendance is one component of your grade. Short multiple-choice quizzes will be administered over the required readings at each seminar meeting; in addition, each intern will be expected to report on their internship activities. These meetings are scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on the last Friday of each month. Seminar dates will be on 8/26 (Chapters 1 – 3), 9/30 (Chapters 4 – 6), 10/28 (Chapters 7-9), and 12/2 (Chapters 10-11) for the Fall, 2011 semester.

 

  1. LOG – For your time on-the-job, you will keep a daily log of activities. The log form will document your hours on the job, describe your activities very briefly and will be signed by your site supervisor to verify your accounting.

 

  1. SITE EVALUATION BY SUPERVISOR – You will receive a rating and a letter grade for your performance at the internship site at the end of the semester.

 

Grades:

 

Your grade will be based on

 

  1. Your evaluation by your on-site supervisor (60%)
  2. Quiz grades (10%)
  3. The quality of your log (15%)
  4. Attendance (15%)

Course Attachments

Textbooks
MSU Faculty Member
Dr. Paul C. Guthrie   
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