Both internships (PSY 297, PSY 397, and PSY 497) and independent studies (PSY 299, PSY 399, and PSY 499) allow you to explore a particular area of psychology in greater depth. These courses give you the freedom to choose an area of interest to you, and build upon previous psychology coursework to gain a greater understanding of that area. Internships and independent studies can provide you with practical experiences that can be helpful when either applying for a job or applying to graduate school. By taking at least 3 credit hours of 400-level internship or independent study, you will also fulfill the depth requirement of the NCC Psychology Degree (the other alternative for fulfilling this requirement is to take a 3 credit hour PSY 400 seminar course).
What's the difference between an internship and an independent study?
During an internship, students
gain hands-on experience by working at internship sites in a variety of
settings. For example, students may work with emotionally disturbed children
at a day school or in the personnel office of a company. Internships are
usually designed so that students earn the equivalent of 3 - 6 credit hours
for them and are an excellent preparation for work immediately after graduation
as well as for graduate school.
For More Information
About Psychology Internships, Click Here.
An independent study involves
intensive research into a subject of special interest to the student. For
example, a student might survey the literature on controlling aggression
in mentally retarded adults or conduct a study on memory or problem solving
in college students. Students usually earn the equivalent of three credit
hours for this work. Independent studies provide excellent experience for
students pursuing research-oriented positions after graduation or entrance
into Ph.D. and other graduate programs that emphasize research.
For More Information
About Psychology Independent Studies, Click Here.
1.
What exactly is an internship?
2.
Do you get credit for this?
3.
How much time is involved on-site and off-site?
4.
Can you do an internship for less time? Perhaps for 2 or 3 credit hours?
5.
Can you get paid for your internship?
6.
What can I do if I can't fit an internship in because of my job or because
of my other classes?
7.
What kinds of places have students been able to work as interns?
8.
If I think I want to do an internship, what do I do next?
9.
What classes should I take in preparation for an internship?
10.
Once I have arranged my course schedule, how do I go about actually planning
an internship?
11.
Let's say I've found some places I'm interested in and a faculty supervisor.
What's next?
12.
What does the College expect from the internship site organization?
13.
What forms need to be completed by the internship site before I register?
14.
How do I register for an internship?
15.
How far ahead do I have to plan an internship?
16.
How do I get evaluated for my internship work?
17.
Are there any other course requirements in doing an internship?
A FINAL WORD ABOUT INTERNSHIPS
Click here for a list of sites where NCC
students have previously completed internships.
1. What exactly is an internship?
During an internship, students gain hands-on experience by working at
an internship site in some capacity which uses their training in psychology.
For example, students may spend time at a home for battered women working
with the children who are there or at a juvenile detention center with
adolescents. Students interested in business psychology might work in the
personnel office of a company designing a survey of employee satisfaction.
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to Internships Menu.
2. Do you get credit for this?
There are two types of internships available at North Central College: credit and non-credit internships. Credit internships in psychology are usually planned to be worth 3 to 6 credit hours. Typically students do credit internships during terms in which they only enroll in one or two regular courses, and spend the rest of their time on their internships.
On the other hand, non-credit internships provide a way to gain experience
for students who are unable to devote the time necessary for a credit internship.
NCC 297, NCC 397, and NCC 497 (Non-Credit Internship/ Cooperative Learning
I, II, and III) are non-credit courses, but are officially recognized
on the student's transcript.
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to Internships Menu.
3. How much time is involved on-site and off-site?
When you sign up for your internship, you will actually be registering
for two courses. You will register both for an academic course (for which
your grade is based largely on a research paper you will write concerning
some area related to your internship experience), and also for a practicum
course (for which your grade will be based largely on your on-site performance).
Typically, students register for one credit hour of academic coursework,
and 2-5 credit hours of practicum coursework. The College guideline is
that students should devote 5 hours per week per credit hour. This means
that for a four credit hour (total) internship, students should be spending
about 15 hours per week at the internship site and about 5 hours per week
working on academic aspects of the internship.
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to Internships Menu.
4. Can you do an internship for less time? Perhaps for 2 or 3 credit hours?
While possible, it is difficult to do a psychology internship that involves
fewer than 15 hours per week on site. This is because the sites that take
interns invest time in both training and supervising them and need to receive
in return more hours of service to make the investment of their time worthwhile
to their agency or company.
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to Internships Menu.
5. Can you get paid for your internship?
While it is possible to get a paid internship, these are quite rare
in psychology. For the most part, human service positions in psychology
are found in non-profit agencies that operate on very tight budgets. These
agencies are willing to devote scarce resources to training and supervising
interns partly because in return they receive free help.
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to Internships Menu.
6. What can I do if I can't fit an internship in because of my job or because of my other classes?
One possibility is to consider doing a non-credit internship or working as a volunteer to gain some of the same experience which the credit internships provide. The Career Development Center has numerous listings of non-credit internships in business and social services. The psychology department also has listings of human service organizations that welcome volunteer help. Usually volunteers and students in non-credit internships can work many fewer hours than interns work; in addition, you would not be writing a paper as you would with a credit internship. Sometimes non-credit internships and volunteer work do not involve as much genuine pre-professional training as a credit internship, but this varies from one setting to another. Whether taken for credit or not, these types of experiences can be valuable when applying to graduate school or jobs, and you can emphasize them in letters of application. Contacts you make also may be helpful sources of letters of recommendation.
Some students substitute a more experientially based independent study
for an internship experience. In an independent study, students write a
research paper in a subject area of interest to them. They may also collect
and analyze data as part of a research project, or add experiences which
make their independent study a combination of library research and experiential
learning. For example, one student wrote a paper on the hospice approach
to caring for dying individuals and also participated in a training program
for hospice volunteers and acted as a volunteer for a year. Since independent
studies normally carry three credit hours and do not involve extensive
hours at an internship site, some students are able to fit these more easily
into their schedules. Independent studies are discussed in more detail
in a separate section of this page.
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to Internships Menu.
7. What kinds of places have students been able to work as interns?
Many psychology students do internships related to human services or clinical psychology. They have worked at schools for emotionally disturbed children, homes for battered women, psychiatric wards of hospitals, group homes for adolescent girls, juvenile detention centers, pediatric hospital wards, nursing homes, and day hospitals for adults with schizophrenia. It is also possible to arrange for an internship in business or governmental agencies. In these settings a psychology student might assist a personnel officer or work with a manager to develop an employee incentive plan.
You can click here to see a list of internships
sites where North Central students have previously completed internships.
In addition, the Psychology Department maintains two binders describing
various internships available in the clinical psychology/human services
area (see Dr. Davis for more information about clinical internships). Dr.
Karl Kelley is available to talk with students interested in internships
in business and industry.
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to Internships Menu.
8. If I think I want to do an internship, what do I do next?
The first step is to talk with your advisor to see when an internship
would best fit your schedule. In general, you want to find a term that
is relatively free. Most students do internships in their junior or senior
years. This is partly because by then they have completed course work that
helps prepare them for their internships.
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to Internships Menu.
9. What classes should I take in preparation for an internship?
This depends, of course, partly on the particular internship. In general,
you should consider taking (or at least be taking concurrently) some of
the courses listed below for the different types of internships noted.
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Adulthood and Aging
Personality Counseling Abnormal |
Social Psychology
Industrial Psychology Tests and Measurements |
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10. Once I have arranged my course schedule, how do I go about actually planning an internship?
The first step is to find some internship sites that interest you and a supervisor on campus who can supervise your internship.
A. Finding some Internship Sites that interest you:
B. Finding a College Supervisor:
In general, Dr. Steven Davis supervises most clinical
internships and Dr. Karl Kelley supervises the industrial psychology internships.
Other members of the Department can and do supervise internships (Click
here for a list of interest areas for faculty members). Since supervisors
usually meet with interns weekly, faculty members must limit the number
of internships they can direct in any given term. Depending upon their
teaching schedules, there are some terms in which the faculty member is
unable to direct any internships. Once you have located a possible internship
site, you should discuss it with the member of the Psychology Department
whom you hope will direct your internship and see if he or she is able
to do so in the term needed.
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to Internships Menu.
You will need a commitment from an internship site for the term you desire. The best procedure is generally to contact the agency or business firm directly. Call or write to the internship or volunteer coordinators at the sites that interest you. Tell those people that you are interested in doing an internship in their organizations, explaining what term you will be available and the number of hours per week you will be able to work on site. Then ask how you can go about applying for an internship position. Usually this will involve being interviewed and perhaps sending a resume.
The Career Development Center can give you further
advice about applying for non-credit internships. For credit internships,
it's a good idea to consult your faculty supervisor before your interview.
Your supervisor may have some hints to help you with the interview process
and can also let you know about his or her expectations for the internship
experience. You need to be aware of what the College expects from an organization
so that you can answer their questions about this.
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to Internships Menu.
12. What does the College expect from the internship site organization?
In return for the hours of work that you will be contributing to the organization, the College expects the organization to provide a truly pre-professional experience and an on-site supervisor.
A. "Pre-Professional" Experience
Nearly all professional positions also require work (such as keeping records or logging information) which does not involve direct contact with clients. Interns will be expected to do this sort of work just as they would if they were on staff. However, they should not be spending their time in primarily secretarial capacities. The goals of the intern, the needs of the organization, and the ways in which these two can be combined should be discussed among the intern, on-site supervisor, and faculty supervisor.
Before registering for an internship, your on-site
supervisor must agree to and sign the "Expectations for NCC Psychology
Internship Sites" form (Appendix B of the Internships and Independent
Studies in Psychology Booklet). If your internship involves direct
contact with a client population, your on-site supervisor or some other
appropriate authority on site must also sign a liability agreement with
North Central College, available at the Career Development Center Home
Page (http://www.noctrl.edu/stud_current/career/ncc_cdc.shtml).
Your on-site supervisor may require you to purchase student liability insurance
before agreeing to sign this document. Such insurance is available at a
reasonable rate to students from the American Counseling Association (http://www.counseling.org).
Internship Coordinator Marlene Starzyk (in the Career Development Center)
has a list of other insurance providers.
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to Internships Menu.
14. How do I register for an internship?
To register for an internship, you must complete an approved Cooperative Learning Program Agreement (available from the Registrar). The procedure differs somewhat depending on whether you intend to complete a credit or a non-credit internship.
A. FOR A CREDIT INTERNSHIP
a. Share and review the job description. Attach it to your Cooperative Learning Agreement form.
b. Determine academic component (i.e. a research paper or project) with your faculty supervisor.
c. Obtain the signatures.
2. Complete both sides of the Cooperative Learning Agreement form. Note that the total number of
weekly hours on the final project and in the field must equal or exceed 5 hours for each credit
hour. Note also that you must include a list of five current journal articles relevant to your internship.
3. Bring your completed Cooperative Learning Agreement form with attached job description to the
Career Development Center for the Cooperative Learning Program Coordinator’s signature. Be sure
the title of Field Experience is the same on both sides of the agreement.
4. Take the original, completed Cooperative Learning Agreement form (with all necessary signatures)
to the Registrar’s Office and a copy of the completed form needs to be sent to the Cooperative Learning Program
Coordinator, Marlene Starzyk. A second copy of the completed form should be given to your faculty supervisor.
5. Complete add/drop slips as needed. You will receive a letter grade from your faculty supervisor,
based on your internship project.
a. Share and review the job description. Attach it to your Cooperative Learning Agreement form.
b. Obtain Advisor's signature.
2. Complete only side one of the Cooperative Learning Agreement form.
3. Bring your completed Cooperative Learning Agreement form to the Career Development Center
for the Cooperative Learning Program Coordinator’s signature.
4. Take your completed Cooperative Learning Agreement form (with all necessary signatures) to the
Registrar’s Office.
5. Complete add/drop slips as needed.
15. How far ahead do I have to plan an internship?
According to College policy, you should register
for an internship by the middle (fifth week) of the term preceding the
one in which you carry out the internship. However, you can tell by the
previous sections that preparing the application form necessary to register
for an internship takes considerable time. Here is an "ideal" schedule
for planning an internship:
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16. How do I get evaluated for my internship work?
Every intern receives two grades: one for the field work (usually 2-3 credit hours) and one for the paper (usually 1 credit hour). The fieldwork is evaluated on the basis of the weekly meetings you have with your faculty supervisor, feedback from your field supervisor (see Appendix C of the Internships and Independent Studies in Psychology Booklet for sample Intern Evaluation Form), and other criteria that your faculty supervisor may designate. Often, faculty supervisors will require you to submit a self-evaluation and/or keep a journal, which may be included in your field work evaluation (see Appendix D of the Internships and Independent Studies in Psychology Booklet for a sample of the syllabus which Dr. Davis uses, including sample self-evaluation and journal requirements). The papers are ordinarily 15-20 pages in length and are evaluated (similar to other academic papers) according to the quality of the library research, the thoughtfulness and creativity of your ideas, and the clarity of your writing. Superior papers generally will not only summarize the literature, but will evaluate that literature to reach a conclusion. However, unlike other research papers, internship papers also are judged on how well you integrate your internship experiences with your library research.
For example, assume an intern is working with autistic children and
conducting library research on the effectiveness of behavior modification
techniques with autistic children. In the beginning of her paper, she uses
the articles she has read to describe the symptoms of autism. However,
she might also draw on her own internship experience to describe illustrations
of those symptoms from the children with whom she worked. Later, she describes
studies illustrating successful behavior modification programs and showing
some of the difficulties that are encountered when these are applied to
autistic children. Here, she might then summarize a program she designed
for a particular child and then describe some of the pitfalls she experienced.
These examples illustrate how she might "integrate" her internship experiences
with a thoughtful summary of the literature she studied.
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to Internships Menu.
17. Are there any other course requirements in doing an internship?
During the term of your internship, you are required to submit weekly timecards to the Career Development Center in Schoenherr Hall. You are responsible for recording the number of hours you work as well as providing a brief description of your activities each day. If you have access to a fax machine, you may fax your completed time cards/time report logs to the CDC at 630/637-5146.
The Psychology Department has a requirement that every intern submit a 2-3 page summary of an interview with a professional who works at the internship site or at another agency. Appendix E of the Internships and Independent Studies in Psychology Booklet shows you the guidelines for this interview. The purpose of this is to gather information about jobs for future psychology students and interns. For this reason, the interview should be with someone who has less than a Ph.D. degree in psychology, preferably a Bachelor's degree, and whom a previous intern has not interviewed (you may wish to interview someone who holds the degree you plan to achieve). Most interns find this exercise personally useful as they interview someone whose field interests them.
Particular internship supervisors sometimes require other activities.
For example, often faculty members supervising an internship require interns
to keep a journal of their personal reactions to the internship experience.
Sometimes interns informally discuss their experiences in classes such
as Psychopathology of the Child, Industrial Psychology, or Counseling.
Check with your faculty supervisor to see if anything additional is required
of you.
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to Internships Menu.
Many students report that their internships were among the most meaningful educational experiences they had as College students. Internships allow students to express abilities that are not always recognized in traditional classes. These include self-awareness, sensitivity to others, interpersonal communication skills, and creativity in problem-solving. Through internships, students can gain a sense of direction and self-confidence about the work they eventually hope to do.
However, internships are often as stressful as they are exciting. Interns are adjusting to the demands of an unfamiliar setting and work which often represents their first experience in a professional role with clients. At the same time, they unofficially represent both North Central College and the Psychology Department when they are working on-site. This means that interns need a sense of support that allows them to candidly discuss difficulties so that they can work out solutions with their faculty and on-site supervisors.
The Psychology Department's commitment to you as an intern is to provide
you with the support that you need in carrying out your internship responsibilities.
For this reason, your supervisor is available to you on an "as needed"
basis and develops a personal relationship with you. Supervisors also try
to provide support through group supervision meetings in which you join
other interns and learn from one another's experience. We invite each Psychology
major to explore the internship possibilities that would be most meaningful
to you, based on your own goals.
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to Internships Menu.
1.
What do you actually do in an independent study?
2.
Does it matter which type of independent study you do?
3.
What kinds of independent studies have North Central College Psychology
students actually carried out?
4.
How much time does an Independent Study require?
5.
What can I do to prepare myself to do an independent study?
6.
When do students usually do independent studies?
7.
How do I go about registering for an independent study?
8.
What steps, exactly, do I need to take in planning an independent study?
A
FINAL WORD ABOUT INDEPENDENT STUDIES
1. What do you actually do in an independent study?
Independent studies at North Central College provide students with the opportunity to earn course credit (typically three credit hours) through an intensive study of a topic of their choice. In Psychology, this study may take one of three forms.
B. Secondly, students in Psychology are encouraged to develop independent studies in which they test hypotheses of their own, designing a study and collecting the relevant data. In this case, they usually begin by reviewing the literature related to a more focused area. For example, one student was interested in the way young children's perceptions seem to shift from being dominated by the colors of objects to being dominated by their forms. She summarized the research related to this question, designed a study of her own, and tested 40 pre-school children on a color/form task. The actual papers written in this kind of independent study are briefer than the literature review papers, since the questions they are considering are narrower in focus and they are written in the succinct format required by APA (the American Psychological Association).
C. Finally, students sometimes may take a middle ground between the
first two options by conducting a literature review and then including
a proposal for a study that they don't actually carry out. For example,
after reviewing the literature on the effects of child abuse, one student
described a study that might be conducted comparing the self-perceptions
and self-esteem of children who had been abused with those who have not.
She would not have been able to actually carry out her study since the
State protects abused children from the intrusion of researchers and it
is very difficult to obtain permission to conduct a study with them. When
it is not feasible to actually implement a study, students can gain some
experience in research methodology by designing one as part of a research
proposal.
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to Independent Studies Menu.
Many students who engage in independent studies do so partly to make themselves stronger candidates for admission into graduate programs or for research jobs after graduation. In these cases, it is best to carry out an investigation that includes the collection and analysis of data. This will give you actual experience as a researcher that will be helpful both in a job and in carrying out the thesis and dissertation requirements of graduate degree programs. In addition, you may be able to submit your paper to a conference or journal for publication.
If it is not feasible for you to collect data, developing a research
proposal provides more experience in research methodology than simply conducting
a literature review. Whether or not you will be able to actually collect
data depends greatly on your subject population. In general, studies using
college students as subjects will be more feasible to carry out than research
with other populations. Research with children and vulnerable populations
such as mentally ill individuals is especially difficult because of the
precautions instituted to protect them. For example, if you wished to conduct
an experiment with children in a Naperville public school, you would probably
have to obtain permission from the district Board of Education to approach
a principal at a particular school, permission from the principal to approach
a particular teacher, permission from the teacher to work with the children
in her classroom, and written permission from each participating child's
parent or guardian.
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to Independent Studies Menu.
3. What kinds of independent studies have North Central College Psychology students actually carried out?
A list of studies carried out by some past NCC Psychology students can
be found in Appendix F of the Internships and
Independent Studies in Psychology Booklet.
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to Independent Studies Menu.
4. How much time does an Independent Study require?
Independent studies typically earn three credit hours. This means that
they are expected to require an average of 15 hours per week of study or
150 hours over the term. This time includes time meeting with your supervisor,
conducting library research, actually collecting data, and so forth. As
you can see, this means that you are working "on your own" most of the
time. You need to be sure that you have the self-discipline and motivation
to do this before you undertake an independent study. One sign of your
readiness is your willingness to take steps that prepare you for independent
work.
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to Independent Studies Menu.
5. What can I do to prepare myself to do an independent study?
First, it is essential that you have completed course work in Research Design and Methodology (PSY 255) before you conduct an independent study in psychology, especially one in which you actually collect and analyze data. Your background for this type of independent study will be stronger if you have completed at least one other laboratory course in psychology. These include PSY 340 Learning, PSY 345 Cognitive Psychology, and PSY 370 Physiological Psychology. In some cases, you can use initial work from these classes to develop a proposal for an independent study. You also need to have some course background in the particular area you are investigating. For example, a student conducting a literature review related to hospice care of the dying will usually have taken both the Adulthood and Aging course in the Psychology Department and the Death and Dying course in Religious Studies. A student interested in investigating children's memory ideally should have taken both Child Development and Cognitive Psychology.
You can click here to see the research areas of
the Psychology Department faculty members. If any of their areas interest
you, see if they can use your assistance on current research projects.
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to Independent Studies Menu.
6. When do students usually do independent studies?
Typically, students conduct independent studies in their junior or senior
years so that they have the time to prepare adequately for them.
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to Independent Studies Menu.
7. How do I go about registering for an independent study?
To register for an independent study, you must submit the normal registration form along with an approved application form (available from the Registrar's Office). To complete this form, you need the signature of your supervising professor as well as of the Departmental Chair. You need to include a tentative annotated bibliography as part of the application. This means that you will need some time to research the books and articles you will use for your independent study before you enroll for it.
Appendix G of the Internships and Independent
Studies in Psychology Booklet includes some samples of student
independent study applications that illustrate what is involved.
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to Independent Studies Menu.
8. What steps, exactly, do I need to take in planning an independent study?
Independent studies can provide an excellent opportunity for students to develop and express their skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, data analysis, and communication. In the past, some students have had their independent study papers accepted for presentation at the Midwest Psychological Association conferences, competing with submissions from professional Psychologists. Other students have had their work accepted in the student Psi Chi program of the same conference. There are numerous other conferences and publications which are restricted to student work and provide ways for students to have an audience for both literature review papers and empirical studies. Locally, for example, North Central students have presented their research at the annual NCC Rall Symposium, and at the annual ACCA (Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area) conference. Appendix H of the Internships and Independent Studies in Psychology Booklet lists various forums for student work.
Whether or not you are able to present your research at a professional
meeting or get it published in a professional journal, your independent
study paper can become part of a portfolio which you present to prospective
employers or to graduate schools. Even more importantly, the skills you
gain in carrying out the research will strengthen your confidence as you
approach graduate school or work. Both of these settings require individuals
who can solve complex problems that do not lend themselves to simple solutions.
As one employer commented: "Life is not a multiple-choice exam." Independent
studies essentially involve "question-asking" and "problem-posing." They
provide practice in defining and investigate the "messy" real-life problems
that challenge individuals and organizations today.
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