Message from Instructor
Welcome to PSYC699, I am looking forward to us working together to achieve your success during the Capstone. It is my goal to help you achieve your objectives and goals for this course (step-by-step to Masters of Arts in Psychology), and write an effective Capstone Paper as you desire. For the 30-40 page paper, select a topic related to,” 1) psychological construct of why people abuse alcohol and drugs ” I do not see a problem with you being able to develop a Topic and Thesis around your interest. Narrow the focus of your topic and thesis; then, think of cause and effect related to 1 above in the context of your focus. A broad topic can create many challenges finding 24 Scholarly quantitative evidence-based Articles to support topic and thesis (i.e., your thesis is a claim to be proven). In addition, no Articles previously used during your graduate program can be used for the Integrative Project. Narrow down the topic related to 1 above; so as not to make it to broad and challenging to fine experimental evidence-based Articles/quantitative research for AB and Final Capstone Paper. There is a plethora of Scholarly information in APUS Online Library related to your focus, “psychological construct of why people abuse alcohol and drugs.” Moreover, why “scholarly evidence-based research”, it is only based on quantitative research (i.e., quantification to understanding phenomenon), and not a qualitative approach to solving problem/providing proof to support your claim”. Moreover, evidence for Integrative paper means that the Author(s) conducted the particular experimental research; it is not the interpretation (qualitative) of another author’s work about other author’s research, as in a meta-analysis, review, interview, case study, observational study, etc., (i.e., you need quantitative methodology such regression Analysis, ANOVA, etc.). You can approach this project with confidence, why, because we know in advance based on experiences that the Articles are there in APUS Library to select from categories related to your focus. I have confidence that you are going to do well. Get a good understanding of what experimental evidence-base research is, and what it is not in supporting your claim. Good luck to you!
Dr. Gregory
