Integrative Project

Teachers College is unique in requiring all Master’s level students to complete an independent research project called an Integrative Project (IP) as their capstone achievement before receiving their degree. In the Clinical Psychology MA program, students prepare a significant piece of scholarship that captures the breadth and depth that would be characteristic of a graduate level thesis of at least 25-50 pages, exclusive of references and most types of appendices. It must be original scholarly work and not previously submitted for any other purpose.

 

Types of Integrative Projects 

Your Integrative Project must be in the field of Clinical Psychology and fit into one of the allowable categories below:

• Quantitative analysis of original data collected by student 
• Quantitative analysis of pre-existing data 
• Qualitative study
• Comprehensive or systematic review of literature 
• Clinical case study
• Questionnaire construction & validation
• Proposal for future research
• Program development and evaluation

Note that each type of study will have many sections in common, such as a lit review, methodology, references, etc. For more specific guidance, detailed guides are available online for project types such as Qualitative studies, Systematic Lit Reviews, Clinical case studies, and Quantitative research papers. Educate yourself with online resources such as the APA’s Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) which can give you a sense of sections your project type will need to include. This Research Proposal outline from the APA also explains sections that would be part of almost every IP.

 

Sponsor Requirement 

Each student must find a faculty sponsor who will guide and ultimately evaluate the finished project. This person may be a TC faculty member, or any doctorate-level professor or researcher with expert knowledge relevant to your project. It is strongly suggested that students use the Integrative Project as a vehicle to make contact with professionals beyond TC that may also be useful links to career development (e.g. employment, publication, graduate school, etc.). In this way, the IP can serve as a bridge to your next career move. When seeking a sponsor, consider contacting authors of articles in your subfield, researchers for whom you have worked, or professors of courses you have taken that are relevant to the project.

 

Steps in the Integrative Project Process 

Creating your IP always involves conceiving a topic, finding a sponsor, getting your proposal approved by the department, and then working through drafts of the project with your sponsor until final approval is granted. 

But there are important procedural steps and deadlines which may be different depending on when you intend to graduate. Your completed and approved IP is generally due one month before your graduation (e.g. May graduates will submit their final IP in April). And there are several earlier steps. Below are six steps in the IP process, with precise deadlines provided in the chart at bottom.

 

Step 1: Topic & Sponsor 

Decide on a topic and find a Sponsor around the start of your second year. Have your Sponsor complete the Sponsor Information Form.

Step 2: Proposal 

Submit a Proposal for your IP to the department by the end of the semester before your graduation term and receive approval via email from the Program Director. This step is to ensure your project fits the general requirements of the IP at TC. Sample proposals are provided below.

Step 3: First Draft & Apply to Graduate

Email the First Draft of your IP to your Sponsor at least two months before graduation and file your TC Application to Graduate. 

Step 4: Revisions 

Receive feedback and make corrections required by your Sponsor. Set aside at least a month to do this, as Sponsors can have busy schedules.

Step 5: Final Draft to Sponsor for Evaluation

Email the Final Draft of your IP to your Sponsor at least one month before graduation. Your Sponsor will submit their evaluation to the Department shortly after.

Step 6: Upload Completed IP 

Submit a PDF of your completed IP through the IP Upload and Exit Survey Tool by the deadlines below. The department will check your IP to make sure all requirements have been met.

 

The most ambitious and impressive IPs will be offered a chance to present a poster during the IP Showcase held in late April each year. The top IPs can win significant tuition refunds of a full credit or more. IPs that involve original data collection are heavily favored by judges.

 

Specific Deadlines in the IP Process	For May Graduation	For October Graduation	For February Graduation
Upload IP Proposal before… (Step 2 above)	Dec. 23rd (end of Fall)	May 12th (end of Spring)	November 1st
Send First Draft to Sponsor & Apply to Graduate before… (Step 3)	March 1st	August 1st	December 2nd
Send Final Draft to Sponsor before… (Step 5)	April 1st	Sept. 1st	January 2nd
Upload Final IP and Complete Exit Survey before…  (Step 6)	April 7th	Sept. 7th	January 7th

Note: The deadlines above are only the latest dates; students are welcome to complete these steps early. Missing deadlines simply means your graduation may be delayed to the next of three TC graduation dates, May, October or February.

 

Technical Requirements of the Integrative Project 

Your completed IP must meet all the requirements below or it cannot be considered for fulfillment of the degree, and could even generate plagiarism concerns:

• Formatted in APA Style; Guidelines are available for title page and paper format, or for both.
• At least 25 pages in length; this page count does not include references or appendices and we count only 4 pages of relevant in-text graphs and figures toward the total (additional figures should go into an appendix).  
• Writing already submitted elsewhere, such as for a class or publication, may not be submitted for the Integrative Project. You may expand on previous work, but be aware that re-submitting previous work is considered self-plagiarism. As with any other area of academic endeavor, plagiarism on the Integrative Project will be treated very seriously and may result in expulsion from the College. 
• No co-authors are permitted. The Integrative Project must be completed independently by the student alone. Data used may come from a lab project or even publicly-available datasets, but all analyses and other components must be produced individually by the student in their own words.
• The submission of AI-written material is not permitted.

 

Sources of Support

Along the way you may be in need of more support to clarify your research ideas. Students may choose to meet with Jada Rene Flint, the Integrative Project Advisor, to brainstorm potential projects. She can serve as a sounding board to help you think critically about what you want to research and what type of project to attempt. In addition, she will help address any technical questions regarding the Integrative Project. 

The Program Advisors and Program Director are also available for consultation and hold office hours. Additionally, the Graduate Writing Center at TC is available for support on the writing and editing process. If you plan to collect your own data, be sure to consult with TC’s IRB office so you can understand the human subjects process.

You should also attend the annual IP Showcase held each April to see first-hand what your colleagues are doing for their IPs. It’s always a great source of inspiration.

 

Your Integrative Project Proposal 

As your idea takes shape, the Department will review your IP topic to make sure you’re on the right track. Your IP Proposal is always due by the end of the semester before your final IP is due (see deadlines listed below). Submit a Word or Powerpoint document of your topic proposal to the IP Proposal Upload Tool. The proposal should be a coherent outline of your Integrative Project that includes:

1. A title and description of the type of IP you are proposing
2. A brief overview of the relevant literature
3. Description of the gaps in the current research
4. A carefully-worded research question
5. Explanation of the possible contributions of the topic in the field
6. Description of your planned methods

 

Here are two examples of IP Proposals; either style is acceptable.

Sample IP Proposal - Word Doc format

Sample IP Proposal - PowerPoint format

You will need to list a Sponsor when you submit your IP Proposal, and their information will be requested by the Proposal Upload Tool. 

The Program Director will contact you to verify that your proposal meets the general requirements of the Teachers College IP, or to offer feedback to bring it into line.

	For May Graduation	For October Graduation	For February Graduation
Upload IP Proposal before…	Dec. 23rd (end of Fall)	May 12th (end of Spring)	November 1st

 

Examples of Recent Integrative Projects 

Below are descriptions of recent Integrative Projects produced by Clinical Psychology MA students – one for each of the allowable formats. Bear in mind that all formats require some of the same pieces: An original idea, a robust review of the literature and its gaps, and a clear statement of your research question, as well as sections on your methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing data of whatever type. 

 

IP Format:  Analysis of data collected by student

Paula Aljovin – Social determinants of mental health among adult members of Amazonian rural communities along the Lower Ucayali River in Loreto, Peru

 

Paula applied psychological methods to a group that is economically cut off and subject to climate change issues, both of which are eroding the fabric of their communal life leading to an explosion of mental health issues. Traveling on a medical ship, Paula recorded and transcribed 71 interviews with leaders from 24 villages and indigenous communities along the river. Paula used thematic analysis, with a coding team of four colleagues, to identify the main social determinants of mental health. 

 

IP Format:  Analysis of pre-existing data

Drishti Sanghvi – Examining the Quality of Future-Oriented Thoughts among Suicidal Adolescents using Natural Language Processing

 

Drishti produced an IP focused on suicidal ideation that also shows how research can be conducted through natural language processing (NLP). The project features a compelling application of NLP models to expedite the research process; it applied NLP code to suicidal adolescents' future event descriptions that yielded data more than ten times faster than the traditional method of manually coding those same descriptions. Importantly, the project yielded identical conclusions as parallel analyses (conducted by a broader research team) involving the manually coded dataset. 

 

IP Format: Clinical Case Study 

Peter Núñez Amézquita – The Bilingual Complex: Exploring How Bilingualism Impacts Auditory Hallucinations 

 

Peter wrote an ambitious paper on a topic for which there is not adequate existing research: how one’s native and acquired language skills impact the experience of the most commonly-encountered psychotic symptom, auditory hallucinations. The project involves four case studies and a review of the literature.

 

IP Format: Qualitative Study

Yatong Ji – Emotional Responses to Biochemical Pregnancy Loss in Chinese Women: An Integrated Approach using Text Mining, Sentiment Analysis, and Social Media Data

 

This study investigated the emotional responses of Chinese women to biochemical pregnancy loss, a topic that is distinct from general miscarriage and has been largely overlooked in the field. Yatong analyzed social media posts (N=273) using text mining, sentiment analysis, and statistical techniques, producing meaningful results.

 

IP Format:  Grant Proposal for Future Research

Mica Poerio – “I think I can’t”: Examining the relationships between implicit theories of emotion, hopelessness, and treatment adherence in individuals with borderline personality disorder

 

Informed by Dweck and colleagues’ growth mindset research, Mica designed a quantitative research study to observe the relationship between BPD individuals’ implicit theories regarding their emotions and 3 other constructs: the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004); the Beck Hopelessness Scale (Beck et al., 1974); and the Treatment Motivation Questionnaire (Ryan et al., 1995). Mica designed a Qualtrics survey and a plan to analyze the resultant data using multivariate regression and factor analysis.

 

Format:  Systematic or Comprehensive Review of Literature 

Yasmin Butts – A Systematic Review and Critical Methods Appraisal of the Literature on the Relationship between Psychosis and Latin American Migrants 

 

Seeking to examine evidence on psychosis among Latin American migrants, Yasmin used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) to guide search and reporting strategies for her systematic review of the literature. She identified a number of key articles, evaluated them for quality (The most common methodological issues involved not considering the relationship between researcher and participants (82%) and ethical issues (64%)). Rates of psychosis ranged from 13.6% to 72.8% higher than the general population, but discrepancies by gender and race emerged.

 

Format:  Questionnaire Construction & Validation

No one has yet completed an IP involving the construction and psychometric validation of a research questionnaire. This is a fairly technical type of project which requires original data collection. You could be the first! 

 

Format:  Program development and evaluation

Trishla Saran – Anand: A Proposed Positive Psychology Intervention-Based Program for Secondary Education Students in India to Reduce Youth Suicidal Rate

 

Inspired by a course in Positive Psychology, Trishla developed a program to teach these principles to high school students in India, providing robust support from the existing research, detailed procedures for conducting the program, and a complete research plan for evaluating the success of her intervention. 

 

 

Recent Winners of the Annual IP Showcase 

Below are the winners of our annual Integrative Project Showcase! Thanks to all who came to see the brilliant work of our graduating scholars, and congrats to our very deserving winners. Each year, the most ambitious and impressive IPs are nominated by Sponsors to present a poster during the IP Showcase held in late April. The top IPs can win significant tuition refunds of a full credit or more. IPs that involve original data collection are heavily favored by judges.

 

First Place 

Veronika Kobrinsky: The Role of Emotion Regulation and Cognitive-Affective Factors in Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Among Trauma-Impacted Adults. Sponsor:  Dr. Karen L. Siedlecki of Fordham University    

 

Second Place 

Inna Goncearenco: Self-Disgust and its Relationship with Conformity to Masculine and Feminine Norms and Suicidal Ideation in the LGBTQ+ Population.  Sponsor: Dr. Megan L. Rogers of Texas State University

 

Third Place 

Ben Giber: Predicting treatment discontinuation in psychotherapy using electronic health records. Sponsor: Dr. Nili Solomonov of Weill Cornell Medical Center

 

Honorable Mentions

Byoungwook Park: Examining the Potential Association between Adverse Experiences, Family Functioning, Perceived Parental Criticism, and Adolescent Suicidality. Sponsor: Dr. Christine Cha of Teachers College 

 

Austin Barkhorn: Motivation and Regulatory Flexibility: Testing the Moderating Role of Optimism and Coping Self-Efficacy. Sponsor: Dr. George Bonanno of Teachers College 

 

Aditya Bhise: Identifying Factor Models for the PHQ9, GAD7, MSPSS, and DIME to Observe Associations Between Scores Across Subscales, Determine the Subdomain-Specific Outcomes of IPT Intervention, and Assess Whether Changes in Scores of Particular Subscales can Predict Changes in Social Perception. Sponsor: Dr. Bryan Cheng of Teachers College

 

Audience Favorite Award

Lisa Sholomon: Time to Reform Sex Ed: A Teacher Education Program Evaluation in Reproductive Health. Sponsor: Dr. Aurelie Athan of Teachers College