FALL 2020: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PROJECT
PURPOSE
The purpose of this assignment is to develop your ability and comfort level working with numerical data, assessing that data in a relevant and significant manner, and communicating the findings and implications of the data. These complementary skills are called quantitative literacy skills (QL, for short). In today’s economy, employers in all fields expect their employees to be able to apply QL skills to complete their work responsibilities (AACU, 2016).
Psychology incorporates the scientific method to develop theories and conclusions about human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Quantitative and qualitative research, and the data that result from that research, informs all psychological theories and conclusions that are published. Three of the critical steps in the scientific process are collecting data, analyzing the data to draw conclusions, and sharing that information. These steps relate directly to QL.
Quantitative Literacy includes
1. The ability to interpret information in mathematical forms (e.g., equations, graphs, diagrams, tables, and words).
2. The ability to represent and convert relevant information into various mathematical forms.
3. The ability to perform mathematical calculations.
4. The ability to make judgments and draw appropriate conclusions based on the quantitative analysis of data, while recognizing the limits of this analysis.
5. The ability to make and evaluate assumptions in estimation, modeling, and data analysis.
6. The ability to communicate quantitative evidence in support of the argument or purpose of the work. This includes using terms of what evidence is used, and how it is formatted, presented, and the context of the data.
Social Justice and Community Involvement
In addition to developing your QL and effective communication skills, it is equally important to recognize needs in the community and become involved in our communities – these skills fall under the umbrella of social responsibility and include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities.
Intercultural competence includes:
1. Knowledge of your own culture and how it has shaped your world view.
2. Knowledge of significant characteristics of other cultures.
3. Awareness of differences and similarities in cultures.
4. Ability to adjust your actions to successfully interact with someone of another culture.
How do we continuously improve our intercultural competence? First, by understanding that intercultural competence is complex, and it requires growing and maturing in three areas: mind set, heart set, and skill set.
Mind set is the domain whereas we learn and engage with others, we recognize similarities and differences. A growth mind set requires self-awareness and cultural awareness.
Heart set is the domain where we learn to acknowledge, appreciate, and accept cultural differences. There are six dimensions to your heart set:
1. Self esteem
2. Self-monitoring
3. Empathy
4. Open mindedness
5. Reserved judgment
6. Social relaxation – being relaxed around others who may be different than we are
Skill set involves our intercultural agility; the ability to adjust your actions to successfully interact with someone of another culture. Specific skills include message skills, appropriate self-disclosure, behavioral flexibility, and interaction management.
Knowledge of civic responsibility includes:
1. Recognizing your civic responsibility to a specific community.
2. Identifying action you will take as a citizen to address the pertinent issues within your community.
Engagement in a community includes:
1. Describing effective participation in civic engagement activities.
2. Understanding the purpose and benefits of your engagement in the community.
As you can see, intercultural competence requires: Knowledge, skills, and reflection.
the following:
Project Guidelines
In this academic year, Mountain View campus is focusing its Social Justice and Equity Learning Service program on four broad topics and has partnered with the following organizations: North Texas Food Bank (food insecurity); Dallas Habitat for Humanity (affordable housing); Keep Dallas Beautiful (the environment); and Salsa, Sabor Y Salud through the Metropolitan YMCA (health and wellness). In addition to these organizations, other relevant and timely topics include racial justice and civil rights (e.g., Black Lives Matter, and LULAC).
This link will take you to more information about the purpose and impact of not-for-profit service organizations in Texas.
This project has six parts:
1. Identify an organization that is meaningful to you from the list provided above.* Review the organization’s mission, history, and processes (how does it serve the community?). Contact the organization directly and let them know what you are doing and why you are doing this project.
Find out how you or someone else can get involved in the organization, and what the organization needs. Record who you speak to and how often.
* You may choose another organization, but please clear it with me before you proceed.
2. Collect relevant data. Each of the organizations listed above, and any not-for-profit organization that operates on behalf of a community, includes detailed information about its purpose and impact, volunteer involvement (e.g. hours), as well as financial information including expenses and donations. The data that you collect will be the foundation for your numerical reporting. You should include at least two sets of data in your report.
Examples of types of data you can collect (do not limit yourself to these examples)
a. What is the rate of food insecurity in North Texas? How much is needed to feed a family of two, four, six? How long will one trip to a food bank last? What are the outcomes – short-term and long-term – for people who do not get proper nutrition?
b. What is the housing situation in North Texas? Who is more likely to own their own home? How much is needed to build an affordable house? How many volunteer hours are needed? What is the family moving into a Habitat house responsible for providing? What is the impact of affordable housing on people’s psychological well-being?
c. Information about the population served: demographics, ethnicity, socioeconomic status.
d. Geographic areas hardest hit by poverty or food insecurity. What are the statistics related to these areas and the impact of food insecurity?
e. Why was Black Lives Matter organized? What are the facts (numbers, statistics) related to the deaths of African American people in the United States that inspired the formation of this organization?
f. How many people are seeking U.S. citizenship? What is the contribution of immigrants to a community in terms of taxes, revenue, sales? What is the contribution of immigrants to a community in terms of work force, knowledge, diversity in a community?
g. What impact has Covid-19 had on the ability of these organizations to serve their customers? What impact has Covid-19 had on the number of people seeking services?
h. How does access to health resources change people’s lives compared to those who do not have adequate access?
i. What are the short-term and long-term impacts of climate change? How can people make a difference?
3. Once data is collected, analyze the data and draw conclusions. Your data should include some calculations, such as differences between 2019 and 2020, or changes in the number of people served. Make comparisons between groups served. What is similar, what is different? What do the data imply? For example, is the organization on track for serving its clientele? Will the organization require more volunteers or funding? What changes have occurred related to the organization’s impact? For example, how has organization changed lives? Has it served more or fewer people over the past year, six months, five years?
4. Create graph(s) illustrating the findings from #2 or #3, or both. The graphs should be clearly labeled. See tutorial links below.
5. Reach out to the organization and find out what you can to do help. Do they need donations in the way of tangible items or time? Commit to make a donation to the organization if you are able and do not keep yourself safe to the pandemic.
6. Write a report that includes Parts 1-5: a detailed overview of the organization
(#1), a detailed account of the data you collected
(#2), an analysis of the data, including calculations and implications
(#3), graphical illustrations of changes (using a bar, line, pie, or table chart;
(#4), and the impact your involvement has had on you
(#5). Include at least two topics from psychology that are related to the purpose and impact of the organization and/or the people served. (These will become clearer to you as you learn about different theories and principles in this course.
Examples of different psychological theories (with some key points, but choose any points of each theory that you want to use) from Chapter 01 and later Chapters are: Structuralism (the elements of the mind), Functionalism (how we function in everyday life, Psychoanalysis (the dark sides of the mind and psychosexual implications, Gestalt (an organized whole is greater than the sum of its parts), Behaviorism (stimulus response, operant conditioning), Humanism (unconditional positive regard), Cognitive (thoughts), Sociocultural (cultural norms, values and expectations), Biopsychological (biological basis of behavior and mental process) and Evolutionary Perspective (biological basis for universal mental characteristics that all humans share). Please choose your favorite theory and more examples will follow below.
Project Details
This project is valued at 500 points and is due according to the syllabus due date.
Do not rush through the assignment. Take time to research the organization, collect and analyze the data. Think carefully about why this issue is important to you, why you want to be involved, and why other people should be involved.
Your discussion/writing should be clear, concise, and in-depth. Your essay should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the organization you chose, and how psychological principles apply to the purpose and impact of the organization in the community, or the clients it serves.
Research aspects: Read your organization’s website thoroughly; call and take notes as you speak to organization representatives; talk to other people who are engaged in addressing the issue you chose. Get involved.
Length: Minimum 4 pages (maximum 6 pages, not including a cover page and references); typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, 12-point font. Also, Grammar, style, and spelling account for your essay grade. If the paper you turn in is illegible or not the proper format (see the syllabus), you may forfeit all points for this assignment.
Style: Paragraphs should transition logically. Use complete sentences, proper grammar and spelling. Mountain View provides virtual writing assistance. ACW Online Writing Support.docx
Citations: You should have at least two (2) references to specific psychological theories to support the data and/or conclusions. The theories/concepts should be clearly related to your conclusions. You could include theories from:
• Behaviorism such as rewards and punishments, or latent learning
• Personality such as defense mechanisms or traits
• Social psychology such as ingroup/outgroup. prejudice, contact theory, cognitive dissonance Cognitive psychology such as decision-making, heuristics, problem solving obstacles
• Positive psychology such as inherent goodness, helping behavior, altruism
• Psychological disorders such as depression, stress, anxiety, and ways to treat different conditions
• Human development and Biology such as brain development at different stages of life, moral development, theories about infallibility or ego.
Cite theory, author(s), main points, and how it supports your answer.
• In Psychology, we use the APA format for citations (a tutorial link is provided on eCampus). These are in-text citations that either precede or immediately follow cited information. Although there are some similarities to MLA, the APA format is slightly different.
• Do not include first names, book titles, or journal article titles in your written answers.
o For example, if you cite information from your text, do not write: “According to Sandra Ciccarelli and J. Noland White in Psychology: An Exploration…”
o Do write: According to Ciccarelli and White (2019), psychology is a fascinating discipline.
• Do not copy and paste sections from a website – this includes graphs. This is considered plagiarism and will result in a 0 (zero) for this project. Safe Assign, where you will submit it first, will also let me know if anyone besides you, ever has used it on the internet.
• Direct quotes should be used sparingly (no more than two for the entire project) and only when the original author’s statement is the most effective way to state a concept or finding. Try to put other sources’ work in your own words.
• If you use a direct quote, it should be no longer than one sentence.
• Use proper citation for the quote:
o “In any society, there will always be ingroups and outgroups, or us versus them” (Ciccarelli & White, 2019, p. 384).
o According to Ciccarelli and White, “in any society, there will always be ingroups and outgroups, or us versus them” (2019, p. 384).
o Periods go at the end of the sentence, but inside quotation marks, if the quotation mark ends the sentence. Periods always go outside the parenthesis that holds the citation: (Ciccarelli & White, 2019).
• A complete list of references should be at the end of your assignment (not part of the 4-page minimum). This is a separate page and is titled, References. The word References is centered. Do not use “Works Cited” or “Bibliography.” A template will be provided in the APA examples.
Standards of Critical Thinking
This project will be graded using the Standards of Critical Thinking elements of the MVC Quality Enhancement Program (QEP) Writing Rubric.
o Clarity: understandable, nothing is confusing
o Accuracy: the information is true, correct, and can be verified. The data are correct. Project demonstrates accurate and knowledgeable understanding of the organization’s purpose and impact.
o Precision: includes the specific information needed to address and explain the problem, issues. The data address a specific issue.
o Relevance: Incorporates meaningful information and observations. Information provided relates directly to the project.
o Depth: includes enough complex information to address the psychological concepts related to the purpose and impact of the organization.
o Breadth: involves more than one point of view; considers alternative perspectives
Logic: answers/paper makes sense; nothing is confusing, no contradictions
o Significance: focuses on the important aspects of the organization’s purpose and impact. Psychological principles related to the organization are significant (not trivial or based on assumptions
o Fairness: considers the thoughts and views of others
** You must upload your final project to the link in eCampus under the Community Organization Project Submission button, no later than the syllabus due date.
Additional Resources to help you with your Community Involvement Project
Affordable Housing/Homelessness
a. Dallas Housing Authority
b. Dallas Life Organization
APA examples and templates
a. APA templates for Word
b. APA Examples
Health and Wellness
c. Disparities in COVID-19 infection rates based on race, age, gender, income:
Metro Care Services
Dallas County Health Department
d. Domestic Violence:
Family Place
Genesis Shelter
Mosaic Family Services
How to create a graph in Word, Excel, or on a Mac
These YouTube video links below demonstrate how to create different types of graphs.
How to create a graph in MS Word
How to create a bar graph in Excel
How to create a bar graph using Mac Numbers (there are additional videos on how to create other types of charts)
Article-Making a graph in Word or Windows
How to get free tutoring to help you with this assignment
Free help and tutoring for this assignment
Writing tutoring
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