PS501 Unit 10 Professional Development Plan Example

From the Control Desk to a Thesis: A PS501 Unit 10 Professional Development Plan for the Forensic Psychology Concentration

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

PS501: Foundations of Professional Psychology

Unit 10 Professional Development Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the detention center, the mentor and the dates are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

Where I Am Starting

Ten weeks ago I expected this degree to make me a licensed counselor. I now know it will not, and my goal has changed to research and evaluation work in juvenile justice, with detention leadership as a fallback. The plan below covers the rest of the degree, about two years at my pace, and the first year after it. It is built on what this course showed about my strengths and gaps.

Kaslow (2004) describes competencies in professional psychology as combinations of knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow a professional to perform a task well, and argues that they should be defined, taught and assessed explicitly rather than assumed. Rodolfa et al. (2005) organize competencies in a cube with three dimensions: foundational competencies, such as ethics, reflective practice, scientific knowledge and relationships; functional competencies, such as assessment, intervention, research and supervision; and the stage of professional development, from doctoral education to continuing competence. The cube was designed for doctoral training in health service psychology, so I use it loosely. It still gives me a way to sort what I can and cannot yet do.

Self-Assessment

On the foundational side, my strongest area is relationships. Eleven years in detention have taught me to talk with angry teenagers, worried parents and tired officers. My weakest is scientific knowledge and methods. The article critique in Unit 3 showed that I can find a study's main claim but needed help to judge whether its design supported it. My writing improved in Unit 2, but I still default to the shorthand of incident reports. Ethics is a middle area: I know our facility's rules, but the forensic guidelines I read in Unit 4 raised questions about roles and confidentiality I had never considered.

On the functional side, research and evaluation is the area my goal depends on and the one where I have the least experience. I have supervised staff for six years, which is a functional competency I can build on.

The competency my career now depends on is the one this course showed I had least of, which is why it comes first in the plan.

Goal 1: Research Methods and Statistics

Action: complete MM570 and PS504 with grades of A, and in each course, apply at least one assignment to detention data. By the end of PS504, draft a short proposal on whether holding a young person, rather than sending the young person home at the same risk score, changes later court contacts, the question raised in Unit 3. Measure: the proposal, reviewed by my mentor and the PS504 instructor. Date: end of next term.

Goal 2: Academic Writing

Action: use the Purdue Global Writing Center for every major paper this year, keep a list of the errors it finds and check each new paper against the list before submitting. Revise the Unit 8 annotated bibliography into a literature review of 15 sources by the start of the thesis. Measure: fewer than three APA errors per paper by the third term, and a complete review. Date: before PS601.

Goal 3: Ethics and Professional Role

Action: read the forensic specialty guidelines in full and the ethics sections of the forensic courses with one question in mind: what changes when I move from staff member to researcher in the same facility? Before collecting any thesis data at my own center, consult the university's review board and my director about the conflict of roles. Measure: a written plan for handling the dual role, approved by the review board. Date: before data collection.

Goal 4: Professional Identity and Network

Action: become a student member of AP-LS this month, attend two of its webinars a year and submit a poster to a regional conference in my final year. Measure: membership, attendance and one poster. Date: final year.

Mentoring Structure

Johnson (2002) argues that mentoring works best when it is intentional, with clear expectations, regular contact and attention to the student's growth. The court's evaluator has agreed to meet with me monthly. At our first meeting, I will share this plan and ask for honest feedback on Goals 1 and 3. Every three months, I will update the plan with what I have completed and what has changed, and send the update before our meeting.

Thesis or Capstone

The program offers a thesis track (PS601 and PS602) and a capstone (PS598). The research path favors the thesis because it gives me a finished study to show employers and, if I decide later to apply to doctoral programs, admissions committees. I will choose the thesis unless the research proposal in Goal 1 shows the data cannot support a study.

Risks and How I Will Manage Them

The main risk is time. I work twelve-hour nights four days a week, and the thesis will need more hours than the courses. I will ask my director about a schedule that gives me two fixed days for study each week during the thesis terms. A second risk is that my center may not allow its records to be used. If so, I will look for a public data set from the state's juvenile justice agency.

After the Degree

In the first year after graduating, I plan to apply for research and evaluation positions with the state juvenile justice agency and a university center that studies youth justice. In Rodolfa and colleagues' terms, that year moves me from education to the early stage of practice, where continuing competence becomes my own responsibility.

Conclusion

This plan turns the course's discoveries into four goals with actions, measures and dates. It puts research methods first because that is both my weakest competency and the one my goal requires, it builds in a mentor and quarterly reviews and it chooses a thesis that will carry the night shift question from Unit 1 into a study.

References

Johnson, W. B. (2002). The intentional mentor: Strategies and guidelines for the practice of mentoring. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 33(1), 88-96. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.33.1.88

Kaslow, N. J. (2004). Competencies in professional psychology. American Psychologist, 59(8), 774-781. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.8.774

Rodolfa, E., Bent, R., Eisman, E., Nelson, P., Rehm, L., & Ritchie, P. (2005). A cube model for competency development: Implications for psychology educators and regulators. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36(4), 347-354. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.36.4.347