24610 - Professional Stage

Learning outcomes

The student, at the end of the professional stage, will be able to: - identify key aspects in an organizational contexts - to apply competencies to conduct situational assessments and psychological interventions - to develop professional interactions with clients and other practitioners in an organization.

Course contents

The main goal of this activity is to familiarise the student with a professional setting and to promote the development of professional skills and competences, which are complementary to knowledge and skills developed during the study period. This means the opportunity to face specific professional problems in a real context, practicing someone of the Europsy competences: situational awareness, diagnosis, design, intervention, evaluation, reporting and documenting the experiences.

Contents of this educational activity depend from the organization where the student will run the stage. More concretely, each student will agree with the professional tutor a “program of activities” to be conducted during the stage. This program consists of individual projects in which the student will be involved.

The student is responsible of the choice of the firm where to have the stage. The stage is typically run in the second semester of the second year. The use of the English or Italian language during the stage depends from the workplace. Thus international students have to consider this aspect when applying to specific organizations.

The two alternatives in which the stage can be conducted are:

a) stage –practicum: It is a period in a workplace selected by the student. A list of workplaces having a cooperation agreement with the University of Bologna and/or the School of Psychology for the stage is available on the website pages of the stage. The student may propose a new workplace not in the list; in this case, the International Relation and Stage office of the Campus di Cesena must be contacted some months before the start of the stage.

b) stage – internship: It is a period in a Department, or research center, of the University of Bologna related to the program, under the supervision of one professor of the Master program. Activities will concern research and applied projects agreed with the professor, and conducted under his/her responsibility. This stage will not include research activities related to the master thesis which the student is working upon.

Readings/Bibliography

- Bartram, D., Roe, R.A (2005), Definition and assessment of competences in the context of the European Diploma in Psychology, European Psychologist,, 2, 93-102

- Roe, R.A. (2002), What makes a competent psychologist? European Psychologist, 7 (3), 221-225.

Teaching methods

This activity requires student’s individual commitment to the frequency of the organization where the stage is run and the accurate execution of the tasks attributed by the organization and/or the professional tutor. Stage is under the personal responsibility of the student and has to be defined and managed using a working plan. Consequently, to be authorised to run the professional stage, the student has to submit the individual project of the stage using the University online website. During the stage, in order to reflect on the experience, and to get feedback on skills’ acquisition, supervision moments with the professional and the academic tutor, have to be agreed, conducted and reported.

The stage ends with a final report written by the student.

Assessment methods

In order to obtain the stage CFU, the student has to write a final report of about 25 pages (about 3500 characters per page), which describes the following points:

1. structure and functioning of the organization where the internship was done;

2. activities and the role of the student, with methods and tools used during the stage;

3. theories related to the activities conducted during the stage;

4. interactions with the supervisor, contents and frequency of the interactions;

5. assessment of the competencies and skills developed during the stage (by using the Europsy model).

More information on the stage and the template for the stage report are available on the website of the Master Course, pages on the Stage (Studying/Internship)

Teaching tools

Reports, guided discussions, examination of psychological tests that are in the Department library

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Zappalà