Internship Requirements

  1. Read and pledge that you have read the Ethical Guidelines for Research or for Clinical Practice, depending on which is relevant to your placement. This is required by the end of your first week.
  2. Make a contract (a sample is available) and have it signed by all three parties by the end of the second week (first draft is due to on-campus instructor by the end of the first week). An internship contract must include:
    1. A description of your interest, goal, purpose for doing this internship-what you hope to learn
    2. A brief (one paragraph) description of a specific project you will work on during this internship. Specify that you will write a paper describing this project. This paper will be evaluated by your on-campus supervisor.
    3. The name and position of the person on-site who will be your primary supervisor. Specify how frequently you will meet with this person, and say that this person will be responsible for evaluating your performance on-site. If there are people other than your primary supervisor with whom you will work regularly, name them and describe their position if possible.
    4. Specify that you will keep a journal.
    5. Specify that you will prepare an annotated bibliography that will provide a one paragraph description of each work you read in conjunction with your internship work. Your on-site supervisor will help select readings. The on-campus supervisor will be responsible for evaluating the bibliography.
    6. Specify that you will write a 250-500 word summary of your internship experience which will be kept on file in the department of psychology for use by future students.
    7. Specify the days and hours that you plan to spend on-site.
    8. Specify how the hours will be allocated between various on-site activities, library work, and writing. The total number of hours allocated should equal 46 x the number of credits you are enrolled for.
    9. Signature, name with title, address, and phone number of each: the on-site supervisor, the on-campus supervisor, and yourself.
  3. Keep a journal describing all on-site activities. This will be checked at midterm and at the end of the term. In it you will:
    1. Keep a log of all on-site activities.
    2. Reflect on those activities, evaluating your experience in light of material you have read and in light of related coursework you have done. Your contract should specify that your journal will be evaluated by your on-campus supervisor. You may optionally turn this in to the on-site supervisor as well.
  4. Prepare an annotated bibliography, typed in APA style, with a one-paragraph description of the relevance and usefulness of each reading.
  5. Write a paper that reports on the internship project. This paper should integrate practical experiences on-site with academic and library work. It just be written and typed in accordance with APA style. (We highly recommend Rosnow and Rosnow′s paperback, Writing Papers in Psychology, as a reference book for learning APA style).
  6. Write a 250-500 word summary of your internship experience which will be kept on file in the department of psychology for use of future students.