For this assignment, you will write a paper no less than 7 pages in length, not including the required title and Reference pages, describing a single personality theory from the course readings that best explains your personality and life choices. You are free to select from among the several theories covered in the course to date but only one theory may be used.
Your task is to demonstrate your knowledge of the theory you choose via descriptions of its key concepts and use them to explain how you developed your personality. It is recommended that you revisit the material covered to date to refresh your knowledge of theory details. This is a “midterm” assignment and you should show in your work that you have studied and comprehended the first four weeks of course material. Your submission should be double-spaced with 1-inch margins on all sides of each page and should be free of spelling and grammar errors. It must include source crediting of any materials used in APA format, including source citations in the body of your paper and a Reference list attached to the end. Easy-to-follow guides to APA formatting can be found in the tutorial section of the APUS Online Library.
Your paper will include three parts and should therefore be structured with at least three APA formatted subheadings:
I. A brief description of the premise and key components of the theory you selected. You should be thorough and concise in this section and not spend the bulk of the paper detailing the theory, but rather just give enough of a summary of the key points so that an intelligent but uninformed reader would be able to understand its basics. If you pick a more complicated theory, you should expect explaining its premise and key components to take longer than explaining the same for one of the simpler theories but, in either case, focus on the basics and keep in mind that a paper that is almost all theory description and little use of the theory described to explain your personality will receive a significant point deduction as will the reverse case of the paper being largely personal experience sharing with little linkage to clearly described key theory components.
II. A description of how your chosen theory explains your personality and life choices with supporting examples.
III. A description of the limitations of the theory in explaining your personality or anyone else’s.
NOTE: Although only your instructor will be reading your paper, you should still think about how much personal information you want to disclose. The purpose of this paper is not to get you to share private information, but rather to bring one of the theories covered in the course to life by applying it to your own real-world experience.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON APA FORMAT: Importantly, you are allowed to use the first-person when illustrating connections between theory and your own personality. However, try to remain objective, scientific, and keep your writing in the third-person when discussing the others sections of the paper. Your writing should never be in the second-person.
