Most of us probably agree that we like the movies we watch or the plays we attend to end well. We want to know what happened, why, and when possible, we like a sense of what will happen to the characters next. We like resolution. Will they live happily ever after? Reader, more romantic comedies than you and I can list imply that yes, all will be well. But when all manner of things is not well--when meaning is not apparent or not there to be had (I am taking one of my classes to see Waiting for Godot this weekend at my College, so the absence and comfort of meaning and the weight of meaninglessness is very much on my mind), we are, in a word, discomfited. Samuel Beckett is not about closure. And we want, no, we need, closure.
So, it turns out, do students of psychology. If the designers of a curriculum (psychology faculty and administrators) are not careful, the experience of the undergraduate psychology major can be similar to that of the audience attending a theatre of the absurd play. They will leave shaking or scratching their heads as if to say, "What is it all for? What does it all mean? And what does it mean for me?" Of course, the crafting of existential dilemmas is part and parcel of such plays, but it should not be so in a curriculum. I commented on one proposal for the psychology curriculum a few blog entries back, but now I want to turn to one part of the curriculum-it's ending, the last class in the psychology major.
In the vernacular of higher education, the last course in a coherent major curriculum is called a capstone course. In ideal cases, the capstone experience is an integrative one. Knowledge and skills acquired along the way-both earlier courses in the major and those outside of it that comprises liberal or general education requirements-are brought to bear on some question of consequence. Besides the content knowledge psychology students acquire in introductory psychology and in domain specific classes, such as personality or developmental psychology, students also learn practical, particular skills in research methods and statistics (e.g., writing, critical thinking, statistical inference). In the best curricula, such knowledge and skills are called upon so that students can apply them. To that end, capstone courses serve as a final experience in undergraduate psychology as well as a launching point for students to learn about the world of work or graduate or professional education.
So, a capstone course should provide mastery sorts of experiences that promote discussion, critical reflection, and action. Such experiences encourage students to synthesize or integrate topics or issues; critique and broaden the discipline's direction; examine popular or prominent theories with an eye to their validity and utility (e.g., facilitated communication and autism); use research data to tackle a problem by proposing a solution (e.g., encouraging healthy behaviors); examine values and views of life through a disciplinary lens (consider the positive psychology movement, which certainly does this); among other experiences. Given the variety and complexity of these experiences, it makes sense to have them provide a good but challenging ending to the major.
What sorts of classes serve as capstones? Senior seminars that examine a question, a theme, a theory, or a sub-area of psychology are among the most common capstones. Where earlier courses in the major provide breadth, a capstone seminar can provide depth (e.g., children's friendships and bullying in elementary schools, terror management theory's link to the origins of prejudice). One of the best and often overlooked capstone possibility is the history of psychology course (often labeled history, systems, and theories), which helps students trace the origins, as well as twists and turns, of psychological theories from the past to the present. Other, more personalized capstones are honors or independent study courses. Such courses allow a student to design and execute an original piece of psychological research or to investigate a topic deeply by writing a comprehensive and critical review of the existing literature.
Finally, of course, students can get a taste of the working world by lining up an internship experience for their capstone. Such experiences are terrific because they enable students to learn whether an intended career is a good fit to their character and skills (e.g., wanting to work in a community-based mental health setting is quite different than the experience of actually doing so). Last summer, one of my advisees had a coveted internship. When he returned to campus, he was upset--even discomfited--because he discovered during the internship that he genuinely disliked the work and working environment a great deal. I told him that was valuable information and a good outcome for an internship: Why pursue a career path that holds no interest or meaning for you? (Why, indeed?) Now he has another career path, an exciting and meaningful one to which he is committed--and his eyes and mind are wide open.
There are many opinions on the nature of good educational endings; one size won't fit all academic programs in psychology or any discipline. But the value of a good capstone is that both curriculum and student are not left hanging-a good account of what was learned and why, as well as direction forward into life is provided. Unlike Beckett's characters, Estragon and Vladimir, who, at the end of Godot stay put in a barren landscape, psychology students must move on.
