Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Final Degree Project
Other languages of instruction: Catalan, English
Teaching staff
Students may contact the tutor by email to request a tutorial.
Introduction
The Final Degree Project (TFG) is a compulsory subject taken during the fourth year of the Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. Its purpose is for students to demonstrate, autonomously and individually, the integration of the competencies, skills and knowledge acquired throughout the degree programme.
The TFG must be an original piece of work, produced by the student, reflecting both their capacity for critical analysis and their practical application of the training content. The project may take one of the following modalities: quantitative empirical study, qualitative empirical study, systematised literature review or psychological intervention proposal.
Each student develops the project under the guidance of a tutor, assigned by the TFG coordination team according to the topic, the project modality and the availability of teaching staff. The tutor guides and supervises the process, supports the student in academic decision-making and ensures that the work meets the standards expected of a TFG.
Once completed, the TFG must be submitted and subsequently defended in a public, in-person session before a panel composed of teaching staff and/or professionals with expertise in the field. Submission and defence of the TFG require prior authorisation from the tutor, who will assess whether the work meets the minimum academic, methodological and formal requirements to be defended publicly.
The defence is a central academic exercise in which the student responds to the questions and observations raised by the members of the panel. This stage makes it possible to assess the student’s command of the work, their understanding of the theoretical and methodological decisions adopted, their capacity for argumentation and their intellectual authorship.
The TFG is therefore an integrative and formative experience that enables students to put into practice the competencies acquired, exercise academic communication and demonstrate their readiness to face future professional and academic challenges.
Pre-course requirements
To enroll in this subject, it is required that the student be enrolled in the final year of their study plan and have passed all the subjects of previous years, or, in any case, have a maximum of 20% of the ECTS credits corresponding to the subjects of the year immediately prior to the last year pending.
It is obligatory to have cursed the following research-related subjects:
- Introduction to Psychology research
- Methodology applied to Psychology
- Assessment and diagnostic techniques
- Research Projects
Students who do not meet all the requirements must request approval for their TFG enrolment by completing the application form. This form must be submitted together with the remaining enrolment documentation and must receive a favourable resolution.
Objectives
The objectives of the TFG are:
- To encourage students to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired during the degree programme.
- To develop students’ capacity to work autonomously.
- To familiarise students with the development of projects in the field of Psychology.
- To foster reflective and critical thinking in the development and evaluation of projects.
- To enable students to acquire and practise the skills needed to produce academic written work and to defend their work orally and argumentatively before a panel.
- To encourage students to justify, both orally and in writing, the theoretical, methodological and applied decisions adopted in their TFG.
- To promote the responsible, transparent and critical use of generative artificial intelligence tools when these are used as support in the TFG development process.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- CP02 - At the end of the Degree, the student will be able to demonstrate their knowledge and defence of the code of ethics using discretion in the employment of data that may affect individuals, groups or organisations.
- CP07 - At the end of the Degree, the student will be able to defend a personal project before an expert audience through the use of data sources, the application of methodologies and research techniques and tools of the discipline of psychology, demonstrating the acquisition of the different competencies and knowledge of the bachelor’s degree.
- HB01 - At the end of the Degree the student will be able to reasonably justify decisions made through relevant and reflective data on issues of a social, scientific or ethical nature.
- HB02 - At the end of the Degree the student will be able to critically analyse a scientific bibliography, its origin, its epistemological framework and its contributions in relation to psychology.
- HB08 - At the end of the Degree the student will be able to report on the results obtained in an evaluation process, with an appropriate oral and written language and proper to psychology.
- HB12 - At the end of the Degree the student will be able to synthesise their assessments and psychological arguments critically, ethically and with the vocabulary of psychological knowledge.
Learning outcomes of the subject
At the end of the TFG course the student will have acquired new knowledge and skills through developing the project, to complement those already acquired during the undergraduate studies. The student is able to work independently and with reflective and critical thinking. The student can communicate in a concise and appropriate manner, both in written form and in oral presentations. Lastly, they can recognise the ethical issues regarding to plagiarism, confidentiality of information and intellectual property.
The specific learning outcomes are:
- The student is able to look for and select suitable and reliable bibliographic sources for the construction of the theoretical framework.
- The student contextualises the project within the theoretical framework and is able to draw conclusions.
- The student writes an integrated set of questions/objectives.
- The student can plan their own learning and carry it out independently and appropriately.
- The student identifies the main contributions of the work indicating their interest and importance.
- The student can complete a final written document within the stipulated requirements, making correct use of the style, content and structure.
- The student can make an oral presentation respecting the formal presentation rules and meeting the established requirements.
- The student considers the ethical aspects of the work he has done.
Syllabus
The contents of the subject are organised around the progressive development of the Final Degree Project and the competencies needed to produce, substantiate and defend an academic project in the field of Psychology.
The main contents are:
- Delimitation of the TFG topic and formulation of the problem or working question.
- Identification of the TFG modality: quantitative empirical study, qualitative empirical study, systematised literature review or psychological intervention proposal.
- Search, selection and critical use of scientific literature.
- Formulation of objectives, research questions and/or hypotheses, depending on the project modality.
- Methodological design of the TFG, appropriate to the chosen modality.
- Ethical considerations in the development of the TFG, especially when personal data are collected or when working with participants.
- Data analysis, literature synthesis or development of the intervention proposal, as applicable.
- Preparation of results, discussion, conclusions and implications of the work.
- Academic writing, appropriate use of bibliographic references and application of APA standards.
- Responsible, transparent and critical use of generative artificial intelligence tools when they are used as support.
- Preparation for the oral defence of the TFG before a panel, focused on providing reasoned answers to the questions raised by the evaluators.
Each TFG modality will have specific guidance on the minimum expected sections and the basic methodological criteria that the work must meet.
In the case of quantitative empirical studies, the student must propose an appropriate design for analysing numerical data, describe the sample, the instruments used, the data collection procedure and the statistical analyses performed.
In the case of qualitative empirical studies, the student must justify the design, describe the participants, the information-gathering techniques, the procedure and the qualitative analysis system used.
In the case of systematised literature reviews, the student must formulate a review question, document the bibliographic search, specify the inclusion and exclusion criteria, describe the study selection process and synthesise the reviewed literature in an integrated way.
In the case of psychological intervention proposals, the student must justify the need for the intervention, ground it in scientific literature, define the target population, establish objectives, design the structure of the programme, describe the proposed activities and include an evaluation plan.
Teaching and learning activities
In person
Students participate in different training activities aimed at the progressive development of the TFG: group seminars, autonomous project-based work and individual or group tutorials with the assigned tutor.
At the beginning of the subject, the TFG coordination team presents the general organisation of the subject, the planned project modalities, the calendar, the tutoring system, the assessment criteria, the requirements for submission and defence, and the guidance on the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence tools.
The TFG topic is chosen by the student from among the topics proposed by the teaching staff. The TFG coordination team assigns each student a topic and a tutor according to their preferences, academic record, thematic suitability and teaching staff availability. Each topic will be linked to one of the four planned modalities: quantitative empirical study, qualitative empirical study, systematised literature review or psychological intervention proposal.
The student develops the TFG autonomously and individually, under the guidance of the tutor. Tutorials may take place in person or online, depending on the availability of the tutor and the student, and always respecting teaching hours. The student is responsible for contacting their tutor to schedule tutorials and for preparing in advance the materials or progress to be reviewed in each session.
Five tutorials are planned throughout the academic year. These tutorials are intended to guide the TFG development process, review the student’s progress, support academic and methodological decision-making and progressively assess whether the work meets the minimum requirements for submission and defence.
During the process, the student must progressively define the topic, the modality, the objectives, the methodology, the development of the work and preparation for the oral defence. The work must conform to the assigned modality and to the specific guidance provided by the TFG coordination team and the tutor.
The tutor provides comments on the written work. The student must submit each chapter or piece of progress on the dates previously agreed with the tutor. The tutor has an indicative period of one week to return their observations. The student is responsible for critically incorporating the guidance received and for submitting a complete and revised version of the TFG within the established deadlines.
Submissions after the official TFG submission deadline will not be accepted. Submission of the work and its public defence require prior authorisation from the tutor. This authorisation does not imply an anticipated grade, but rather confirmation that the work meets the minimum academic, methodological and formal conditions to be assessed by the panel.
At the time of submission, the student must attach at the end of the TFG a signed responsible declaration on the use of generative artificial intelligence tools. This declaration must be submitted whether or not AI tools have been used.
Once the work has been submitted, the student will undertake the public and in-person defence of the TFG before a three-member panel. The defence will consist of reasoned responses to the questions and observations raised by the panel. This stage will make it possible to assess the student’s ability to justify their theoretical and methodological decisions, interpret the results, the literature review or the proposal developed, recognise the limitations of the work and demonstrate their command and intellectual authorship.
If the student does not pass or does not attend the ordinary call, they may attend subsequent calls in accordance with current regulations. Students attending subsequent calls will be entitled to additional tutorials: two additional tutorials in the second call, three in the third and fifth calls, and two in the fourth and sixth calls.
If the student does not pass or does not attend the ordinary calls, they may request to submit their work in an extraordinary call. The purpose of the extraordinary call is for the student to complete and submit the work started in the previous academic year and, therefore, they must continue with the same topic and previously assigned tutor. Students attending the extraordinary call will have a maximum of three tutorials from the start of the new academic year. To be eligible for this modality, the student must submit a request through the Psychology Secretariat and receive a favourable resolution.
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
The TFG is assessed using rubrics that ensure the homogenisation of assessment criteria. Different aspects of both the process and the final outcome are taken into account:
- Assessment of the development of the work by the tutor: 15% of the final grade
- Assessment of the written report by a three-member panel: 15% of the final grade
- Assessment of the public and in-person defence by a three-member panel: 70% of the final grade
Each component must be passed in order to calculate the weighted average and obtain the final grade for the subject. The weighting reinforces the oral defence as a space for verifying the student’s command of the work, understanding of theoretical and methodological decisions, academic argumentation skills and intellectual authorship. The written report remains an essential requirement of the process and will be assessed by the panel using the corresponding rubric.
The tutor will be a lecturer from the Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. The assessment panel will be composed of lecturers from the Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology or from other departments with expertise in the field of study. Professionals from placement centres may also be members of the panel. Tutors may not be part of the assessment panel for their own tutees.
Students must complete the online satisfaction survey on the TFG process in order to receive the final grade. This must be completed on the date of submission of the written work.
The use of generative artificial intelligence tools must be declared responsibly and transparently through the corresponding appendix. The use of AI does not replace the student’s authorship, understanding of the work or academic responsibility for the content submitted. The inclusion of false, unverified or artificially generated references, citations, data, results or statements may have academic consequences in accordance with the applicable regulations.
Plagiarism or copying (more than 30% in Turnitin, or one or more paragraphs copied at 90%) will result in failure of the TFG subject.
The distinction of Honours, which recognises student excellence, may be proposed by the tutor and/or the panel. The TFG coordination team will award it based on the criteria provided by the evaluators. This distinction may remain unawarded.
The assessment systems and criteria will be the same for students attending the extraordinary call.
Bibliography and resources
Writing your psychology research paper - Baldwin, Scott A.