Research Paper:
There will be one research paper worth 100 points. Students will carry out research on a special topic of interest related to developmental psychology. More specifically, focusing on a developmental disorder or development in regards to a specific psychological disorder.
At the end you can create a PowerPoint of your presentation and submit for extra credit, this assignment is uploaded to Canvas. This paper is APA style. I put examples of APA style papers on Canvas in a different tab (APA section on Canvas). Only word documents or PDF only, pages program not accepted.
For example, the point of this paper, is for you to investigate an area of psychology but specifically focusing on a developmental disorder or developmental topic you are interested in. Maybe depression, bipolar, addiction, schizophrenia, etc. So, you are going to have your paper organized in a very specific manner that should correspond to your PowerPoint presentation (remember PowerPoint is extra credit). I would assume the PowerPoint would just be a short version of your paper. This paper is a part of the class but the PowerPoint presentation is extra credit (optional).
The paper is worth 100 points and is an APA paper.
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Let me further explain the paper. First, pick the developmental disorder or psychological disorder that you are interested in, pretend I know nothing on this specific topic and you want to teach me about this disorder. Maybe you want to discuss autism or ADHD and there are many more. The disorder I wrote about when I was a student was a developmental disorder known as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD.
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How am I going to write this?
First off, the minimum is 6 pages double spaced (I will grade on: Transition, Flow, Content, Intro, Body, Conclusion, APA style, Grammar, References = 100 points). Times New Roman 12 font. I have had students complain about 6 pages and this is not long at all. When I was a student one of my papers was 200 pages. Remember, you are in college this is not high school or jr. high. We are preparing to become professionals to one day get a job. Importantly, make this paper professionally relevant. I will be proud of anything you write, so have this paper help you.
Paper Sections:
Intro, body, conclusion. You can create other sections – this is your paper and this is the basic format expected but can go beyond using images, graphs, tables, just make sure you reference. I encourage you to be creative as much as you would like. Make sure if I remove all of the images you will have 6 pages.
The Introduction: I spoke about what ADHD was, a little history, definition, explanation, maybe address a controversy on the topic with current and past research in the body, don’t begin with an argument, you are introducing the disorder to your audience (me) so give your audience understanding of the disorder. A solid background is imperative. I remember when I was an undergraduate and I had to do this assignment, later in my life I worked at a clinic and would talk to people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction and would be surprised how many people I worked with didn’t believe or understand or had heard of different psychological disorders or issues. Importantly, this is why a background is super important, you captivate your audience in a way where they want to learn more about the topic.
The Body: I would have research, current, past, how we study the disorder what we know, what we don’t know, what we are learning. Now, it says on the syllabus research, but you can get all your info online. Check PubMed and PsychInfo or google scholar. If you need help finding a paper I will find them for you if you’re lost, just ask me. But the body of the paper has to teach us another level of information, you can even highlight controversial topics. I highlighted when I did ADHD on the idea of prescribing medication to babies when at that time a medical doctor wasn’t supposed to prescribe younger than 7 (this may have changed it’s been a while) but this was something I highlighted. Once again, this is your paper, but pretend I know nothing on the topic.
The Conclusion: is exactly what it is, make sure you start by restating what you are studying and why, do not copy and paste, restate it, really think about it. I have you organize this information a certain way just in case you need to reference it one day again. But the conclusion will connect everything together and really convince your audience that this is a true disorder or interesting topic and this is why and how we study it and what we know about the disorder and maybe end with future directions. You can use brain imaging studies, pictures of the brain, case studies, animal and human studies. Just be as creative as you would like and a lot of students are going to write about the same disorder or topic, this is fine, everyone is going to have their own individual paper.
