At IUPUI, a Capstone has been defined as “A culminating set of experiences that captivate, encapsulate, synthesize, and demonstrate learning” (Sharon Hamilton, Ph.D., English Department, IUPUI).

A capstone is the final stone put on a construction project. This particular construction project is your college education, and the final stone is this class where you complete a project for which you will make use of much of what you’ve learned throughout the years as a psychology student.

SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

This course has 10 specific learning objectives that represent six Principles of Undergraduate Learning. Students are expected to have mastered the following specific objectives by the end of the course:

SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES:

1. Students can articulate a refined, focused research question, tied to a review of the scholarly literature.
2. Students can design and conduct a scholarly feasible study with appropriate measurement and sampling procedures, data collection, and data analysis procedures.
3. Students can prepare a successful institutional review protocol.
4. Students can demonstrate research ethics in the carrying out of their research project.
5. Students can critically analyze the strengths and limitations of their study.
6. Students can employ APA format in presenting their study and its results.
7. Students can develop an effective poster presentation highlighting the key elements of their study.

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS TIED TO EACH OUTCOME:

Outcome 1: Students will need to analyze the complex issues presented in the literature they review and make informed decisions as to their question based on these analyses. They will need to synthesize the literature in order to find an appropriate question. As they review the literature, they will need to evaluate the logic, validity and relevance of the data presented. Finally, in order to come up with a question students will need to use knowledge and understanding in order to generate and explore new questions.

Outcome 2: Students will need to analyze the complex issues associated with designing a research study and make informed decisions as to the steps to take in their design based on these analyses. They will need to synthesize the literature in order to find appropriate measures, sampling procedures, data collection techniques, and data analyses procedures. They will need to evaluate the logic, validity and relevance of the data they obtain. Mostly, they will need to solve challenging problems throughout the design and implementation of their study. Finally, in order to understand their findings and generate new questions based on these, students will need to use knowledge and understanding.

Outcome 3: Students will need to analyze the complex issues associated with writing the IRB protocol and make informed decisions as to the steps to take in their presentation of the study based on these analyses. They will need to solve challenging problems throughout the write-up and presentation of their protocol. Finally, in order to appropriately present their study, students will need to use knowledge and understanding of the IRB procedures.

Outcome 4: Students will need to analyze the complex issues associated with ethics in research and make informed decisions as to the steps to take in their design to meet ethical requirements based on these analyses. They will need to synthesize the information on research ethics in order to comply with ethical requirements at each step of the design and implementation. They will need to solve problems throughout the design and implementation of their study that may present a challenge to ethical principles. Students will need to use knowledge and understanding throughout this process to become ethical researchers.

Outcome 5: Students will need to analyze the complex issues associated with the findings of their research study and make informed decisions as to what its strengths and limitations are based on these analyses. They will need to synthesize the literature in order to understand their own results and be better critics of their own work. They will need to evaluate the logic, validity and relevance of the data they obtain to identify flaws through their own data analyses. Finally, in order to understand the strengths and limitations of their findings and generate new questions based on these, students will need to use knowledge and understanding.

Outcome 6: Students will need to analyze the complex issues associated with APA formatting of their papers and make informed decisions as to the steps to take in their writing to comply with this formatting based on these analyses. They will need to synthesize the information on APA formatting in order to successfully implement it in their writing. They will need to solve problems throughout the writing process. Students will need to use knowledge and understanding of APA formatting guidelines throughout this process to produce a paper in the correct format.

Outcome 7: Students will need to analyze the complex issues associated with presenting their papers in poster format and make informed decisions as to the steps to take in their efforts based on these analyses. They will need to synthesize the information they obtained from the literature and their own data analyses and discussion in order to present it effectively in poster format. They will need to solve problems throughout the writing and design of the poster and make decisions as to what information is relevant and what is not for the poster. Students will need to use knowledge and understanding of their research and findings in order to make the appropriate decisions as to what to include in the poster.