Adler School of Professional Psychology Catalog 2008 – 2009

The Community Service Capstone Paper requires students to integrate
experiences acquired during their Community Service Practicum (a requirement
of the doctoral program) with theories and research covered in first year classes
including Social Psychology and Individual Differences, Community Psychology
and Mental Health, Introduction to Adlerian Psychology and Psychopathology,
and Professional Development, Issues and Ethics. This integrative paper
requires students to conduct a critical review of relevant empirical and
theoretical literature on a psychological issue related to a community problem
encountered at their practicum site as approved by their faculty advisor. The
goal of this capstone paper is to assess the ability of students to integrate
course material and material derived from their literature review to the analysis
of a community problem and the development of methods of intervening to
alleviate that problem. Students are expected to register for this requirement
upon completion of one-year full time matriculation or the completion of 51
credit hours whichever comes first. The Community Service Practicum must
also be completed prior to engaging in the capstone task. Further information
on this capstone task is provided in the Community Service Capstone Paper
Description available in the Scholar360 community for the Office of the
Registrar.
Students, who fail the Community Service Qualifying Examination, may be
referred to their advisor or the Student Comprehensive Evaluation Committee
for review, depending on the nature of the failure. A determination will be made
of whether and what type of remedial measures are needed to assist the
student in addressing areas of deficiency and successfully passing the
examination a second time. Students, who fail this examination a second time,
are subject to administrative withdrawal from the doctoral program.
The next two qualifying examinations are clinical-competency based and
patterned after the type of examination used at the post-doctoral level to earn
board certification. In both examinations, students are required to synthesize
and integrate clinical data from a range of sources to develop a clinical
formulation and treatment plan, using theories and methods acquired in the
classroom and at practica. The first of these examinations, the Doctoral Clinical
Qualifying Examination-Assessment Competency, consists of a comprehensive
psychological report on an individual case integrating assessment material,
social history, diagnosis, treatment plan; a paper integrating research with a
pertinent clinical issue posed by the case; a formulation of the case based on
Adlerian theory and methods; and a discussion of the impact of social issues on
a pertinent clinical issue. Deadlines for submission of this examination and
other details pertinent to preparation and submission of required materials are
described in the Doctoral Clinical Qualifying Examination Handbook available on
Scholar360. Students submit the required written material for the examination
to the Examination Coordinator who then assigns it to a Core Faculty member
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