Topic: Developmental Psychology and a Movie Character
Literature Review: The course assignment is to write a short literature review that provides an
overview of some of the available developmental psychological research on a particular topic. A
thematic literature review presents a synthesis of information, which consist of specific themes
(patterns of similarities or differences of research findings on various topics) in the existing research
literature that are then critiqued, compared, and contrasted. The assignment requires you to become
familiar with and integrate the 5 Cs of a Literature review (cite, compare, contrast, critique, and
connect), which will be introduced in Assignment 2.
Basic Requirements: The paper should consist of a minimum of 800 and no more than 1000 words
and should be formatted in APA style (7th edition). Please note that post-secondary academic writing
differs in significant ways from (high school) essays. Assignments 1 and 2 will introduce students to
essential aspects of academic writing and to literature review research papers. You may also wish to
consult relevant resources from the Douglas College library or other resources about standards of
academic writing (and how they differ from a typical essay).
Preparation: In preparation for your paper, you are asked to pick a developmental stage of your
interest, read the textbook chapter about that stage to review some of the psychological
developmental literature, watch a movie with a character who is at that developmental stage, and
observe developmental phenomena of the character in that movie. You are then to write a paper with
a focus on critiquing (i.e., comparing and contrasting) developmental psychological research and
theory with your observations about the movie character’s developmental processes and issues.
Please note that the assignment is not to summarize a movie, but to emphasize review of the literature
(i.e., research). Short summaries of observations from the movie character should be used to illustrate
concepts, theories, and research findings from the developmental psychology literature in the
textbook.
Example: For example, you might choose to focus your paper on adolescence. You would then read
the Adolescence chapter in your textbook, familiarize yourself with some of the literature on
adolescence, and watch a movie that features an adolescent character. While watching, you would
look out for and take notes on adolescent developmental issues. In your paper, you would then
present relevant concepts, theories, and research findings from the developmental psychology
literature (from the textbook) and critiquing (i.e., compare and contrast) these with short and succinct
examples taken from your observations from the movie.
If your movie character had significant conflict with parents, you would a) briefly summarize a
particular assertion or claim about adolescent conflict, 2) present research, theories, and concepts
from the textbook as evidence for your assertion/claim, and 3) describe relevant critiques by
illustrating, comparing, and/or contrasting 1) & 2) with brief examples about how the movie portrayal this conflict illustrates, compares, and/or contrasts with research. Assignment 1 will provide further
information about this.
APA Style: Make sure to familiarize yourself with how to cite and reference the movie according to
APA style. Include an in-text APA citation (of the movie) when first introducing the movie character in
the introduction. Students often inadvertently perpetrate plagiarism by not becoming familiar enough
with academic standards related to citation. Please make sure you are thoroughly familiar with citation
rules according to APA style.
