Capstone wk2

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5.4 Assignment.Capstone Project Outline Update

This updated version of your Capstone Project Outline is intended to help you solidify some of the initial thoughts you had in your preliminary outline in Workshop One. Be as specific as you can with your responses. You will have ample opportunity in the next course to refine your plan.

Based on the work you did in Workshop One on the Capstone Project Outline and the feedback you received from your instructor, restate your capstone idea.

My capstone project is "Empowering Christian Women in the African American Community to Cultivate Purpose, Potential, and Identity through Faith-Based Positive Psychology Coaching." This project involves finding a group of women and coaching them to see potential, purpose, and identity through discussing tenets in the Bible and walking together to demystify the modern myths concerning success, purpose, and identity in Christ. With this knowledge, they can achieve their full potential.

Discuss three intended outcomes from your Capstone Project that you hope will improve the lives of the individual(s) or group(s) you are targeting for the project.

For the women I am targeting for this project, the intended outcomes for the Capstone Project to help improve their lives are:

· To enhance their sense of purpose and discover what God has planned for their life. This is achieved through letting go of what society counts as purpose and accepting what God declares is the purpose for these women.

· To build an identity in Christ. This means letting go of superficial ideas of self-worth and embracing their identities as daughters of God, purchased by the blood of Jesus.

· To break limiting beliefs with Biblical truths. These limiting truths make reaching one's potential and finding identity and purpose hard.

Identify three to five important themes or lessons from previous journal entries, or other learning during the curriculum that you consider to be part of your journey that you would want to incorporate into your Capstone Project.

The themes are:

· The power of Biblical truth to shape identity I have learned that there is power in using the Bible as the basis of truth. This can help women shift from pursuing external validation to relying only on what God thinks of them.

· Positivity Physcology coaching is an experiential phenomenon. I have learned that as a Positivity Psychology coach, I am not like a soccer coach who only issues commands and the person follows. I am to walk with these women and help them identify their identity and purpose by aiding them in identifying all roadblocks, including mental ones.

· There is value in introducing practical insights that may not be in the Bible. Elements such as cognitive-behavioral therapy can be very influential and applicable in my project.

· My journey has also taught me the value of community. I would want these women to know that while the world is pushing them to want to remain isolated, God did not make us to be islands. He made us as social beings, which shows the value of community.

Choose the most crucial theme from those you listed in #3 and describe how you might incorporate it into your Capstone Project.

The theme that I find most important is the first one, which affirms the power of the Bible in shaping identity and finding purpose. My target is Christian women. I intend to study Philippians 4:8, Proverbs 23:7, and 2 Corinthians 10 to help these women understand how God wants them to shape their thinking and use His mindset structure to shape their purpose, potential and identity. The goal is to show them the value God sees in them, given by Grace, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul then says, "we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." This verse can then become a good segue into discussing purpose. This is just one way I intend to incorporate this theme into my capstone project.

Clearly describe at least three distinct principles from life coaching and/or positive psychology that you intend to base your Capstone Project on.

The principles I aim to base my project on are:

a) Strengths-based approach.

I intend to leverage my knowledge of strengths-based approaches to build on individual strengths. The goal is to equip these women with the ability to find identity and purpose while realizing their potential. In my project, I'll help the women identify their God-given strengths and how they can use these to pursue their purpose and potential. By focusing on what they already possess, I aim to empower them to maintain a growth mindset and feel capable, valuable, and equipped to affect their lives and communities effectively.

b) Goal setting and accountability

I intend to leverage my knowledge in Positive Psychology coaching to help these women set goals and hold them accountable to these goals. This project requires involvement from them. The women need to take part in study and introspection sessions. This principle is crucial because it allows the women to know what they must focus on and set goals to achieve them. Accountability can then be used to achieve these goals. In addition, I'll also help participants define goals aligned with their faith and purpose, providing support and accountability as they work toward them. This structured, intentional approach will encourage them to make tangible changes in their lives, even after the meetings stop in the future.

c) Growth mindset

Positive psychology contributes to a growth mindset, which is one's abilities and intelligence can be developed with effort, learning, and persistence. This mindset is closely tied to resilience, or the ability to bounce back from setbacks. I will use insights from this positive psychology tenet to teach women the value of constantly growing and seeing challenges as opportunities to grow. This can help them even after the project is over, as it will help them hold on to their purpose and identity even as they get tested by the world. This will help them reframe their perspective on life and help them continue to grow in their knowledge of the world and their chosen profession.

What specific findings from your literature review and your research proposal in PSY-535 will you be drawing upon in your Capstone Project?

One of the insights I will be drawing heavily upon is that the media has portrayed women in the African-American community in a way that is limiting. They are often portrayed as "Strong Black Women" or "Angry Black Women," which is a limiting way to represent them (Henry, 2011). Social media also propagates this by limiting their portrayal of African American women (Carey, 2024). This understanding can help show how society has forced these women into a box and how this can be limiting. However, there is hope. For one, engaging with Faith-based media has positively impacted women (Kleinz, 2023). It can help eliminate limiting beliefs and help women establish their identity in Christ (Piggue, 2017).

Another insight I intend to leverage is that faith can be a solid foundation for finding self-worth and purpose (Baxter et al., 2019). I aim to integrate this by including tenets such as prayer and Bible study into the project. Another critical insight I intend to leverage is the value of community. Mattis (2002) proved that Christian communities can help create a sense of purpose. This is a central tenet of my project, and I intend to show these women the value of community.

How does your Capstone Project reflect one of the 12 life coaching categories you've been introduced to previously in this program and course?

My Capstone Project aligns closely with personal development coaching. It reflects this by helping the target audience, Christian African-American women, become more self-aware of their values, strengths, and the areas in which they should grow. It also clarifies goals and aspirations. Personal development coaching involves helping individuals recognize and use their unique strengths and abilities. My project also aims to do this and help women become better versions of themselves.

One of the primary criteria for your Capstone Project is that you engage a small group of people in some way within your project. Describe who your target audience will be and how you plan to implement your project with this group in your final course, PSY 590.

My target audience is Christian African-American women. I am blessed to have these women in my church. I have a partial relationship with these women and have begun approaching them to ask them to participate. The goal is to have a relationship I can draw upon when implementing the project in my final course.

References

Baxter, K., Medlock, M. M., & Griffith, E. E. (2019). Hope, resilience, and African-American spirituality.  Racism and psychiatry: Contemporary issues and interventions, 141-156.

Carey, B. (2024).  Instagram and Self: A Feminist Perspective on the Formation of Identity Through Young Women's Self-Perceptions (Doctoral dissertation, Adler University).

Henry, C. P. (2011). Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America.  The Black Scholar,  41(4), 52-54.

Kleinz, M. (2023).  Self-Verification and Intrinsic Spirituality as Related to Gen Z's Instagram Use. Neumann University.

Mattis, J. S. (2002). Religion and spirituality in the meaning-making and coping experiences of African American women: A qualitative analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly,  26(4), 309-321.

Piggue, B. (2017).  African American Clergy Women in Community with" the Self": A womanist pastoral theology study exploring self-literacy and self-relationship utilizing concepts from neuroscience and indigenous spirituality (Doctoral dissertation).