Cyn-8

PSYC 6393/FPSY 6393/IPSY 6393: Capstone 

Social Change

Walden University was founded on the principle of promoting positive social change. This remains the guiding philosophy as described in the university’s mission and vision statements:

Mission

Walden University provides a diverse community of career professionals with the opportunity to transform themselves as scholar-practitioners so that they can effect positive social change.

Vision

Walden University envisions a distinctively different 21st-century learning community where knowledge is judged worthy to the degree that it can be applied by its graduates to the immediate solutions of critical societal challenges, thereby advancing the greater global good.

Social Change at Walden University

Walden University defines positive social change as a deliberate process of creating and applying ideas, strategies, and actions to promote the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, communities, organizations, institutions, cultures, and societies. Positive social change results in the improvement of human and social conditions. This definition of positive social change provides an intellectually comprehensive and socially constructive foundation for the programs, research, professional activities, and products created by the Walden academic community and services offered by Walden’s Center for Social Change. In addition, Walden University supports positive social change through the development of principled, knowledgeable, and ethical scholar-practitioners who are and will become civic and professional role models by advancing the betterment of society.

Walden University General Policies and Governance (November 2018)

Writing for Social Change in the Capstone

Developing a social change implications framing.

Remember, these are potential social change implications, so using language like may, might, could, is appropriate and preferred.

1. Begin with your sample (individual or group that is the focus on your Capstone problem). Explain how the results of the capstone will help the specific individuals or group related to your study.

2. Consider whether the same is true for the larger population (community or local municipality). Now that you have described how the actual individuals might use this information, think about whether the larger population may see the same results.

a. How might the larger population benefit?

b. What are the potential outcomes for the larger population if they took action based on your results?

3. Consider a larger benefit to society (state, national, and international).

a. If the larger population implements changes, what broader changes might society benefit from (policy, laws, social views).

b. These are generally larger scale ideas that have broader implications.

4. Be sure that you tie the potential social change implications to the problem statement. The goal of the capstone is to address the problem. As such students should ensure that potential positive social change implications are related specifically back to the problem.

Adapted from: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/formandstyle/writing/socialchange

© Walden University 2019