PSY265 - Childhood and Adolescence - Seibert

Topic Paper Instructions from Dr. Seibert

Assignment:

Find a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal article related to an aspect of children's physical, cognitive, or social development. Summarize the main points of the article, compare/contrast the article to information learned in class, and provide a write-up of the article for a general audience.

Things to think about when writing for a general audience:

• Introduce your topic in a way that someone with no background knowledge in the subject area will be able to understand.
• Explain why the topic is important.
• Select two or three findings from the article that you think would be the most interesting and/or relevant for a general audience to know about and explain those findings in a non-technical way so that the general audience can understand.
• Suggest at least two practical ways that the general audience can use the information from the article.
  • For example, if you pick parents are your general audience:
  • Summarize for parents what they can expect from their children regarding your topic at certain ages (e.g., explain any developmental trends you found in your research). This way parents can see if they are expecting too much or too little from their children at various ages.
  • Suggest ways for parents to help with the development of their child's abilities regarding your topic. If you found that parents play an important role in the development of these skills, you could suggest ways for parents to help with their child's development.

Purpose:

The purpose of this assignment is to give students the opportunity to learn about one aspect of child development in more depth and to more fully understand the topic by explaining it to individuals who do not have any relevant background knowledge. It will also give students the opportunity to see how research can be applied in the real world.

Guidelines:

The paper should be approximately 2-4 pages double-spaced, typed, and stapled. Late or e-mailed papers WILL NOT be accepted. You must be in class at the time the papers are collected, otherwise your paper will be considered to be late.

For this paper, you must use proper APA style in-text citations and you must also provide an APA style reference page at the end of your paper. Note that I am only requiring that students follow APA style for the in-text citations and the references. You do NOT need to attach a hard copy of the article to your paper, just be sure to include the reference for the article on the reference page of your paper.

Due:

Monday, November 13th in class