Part Two (due March 8)

Description.  Select one of the life events that you described in Part One of the project.  In Part Two of the project, you will explore the developmental literature that relates to your life event.  For example, if you described a confrontation you had with a parent when you were an adolescent then you can examine the research on one of the following:  the generation gap; adolescent identity development; peers vs. parents; or parental influence on teens.  Or, you can focus on the content of argument and explore the research on the following topics:  drug and adolescent use; career development; adolescent friendships; or development of moral values.  If you have difficulty deciding what to investigate, see me soon.  I can offer you several options to explore.

Research Articles.  You will find and read two research articles on the topic you have identified.  These articles must come from the professional literature with a publication date no earlier than 1985.  You are most likely to find articles for this assignment in the psychology, education and counseling journals in the NEIU library.  You can locate articles using the Periodical Search on NEIU Library page and following the Psyc Info link.  Be sure to select articles that describe an individual experiment (manipulative or naturalistic). Do not use review articles that summarize many experiments. I will schedule several help sessions for students who do not know how to do an on-line periodical search or have difficulty finding appropriate articles.

See me if you have a question about the appropriateness of your articles. You must use complete articles for your paper.  The abstract alone will not have enough information for you to complete the assignment. Do not use textbooks, newspapers, Dissertation Abstracts internet sites or magazines as substitutes for your articles.

Project topic and article abstracts are due on March 8.

This will be returned within one week with comments about your selections and may include directions to change your topic and/or articles.  If you do not turn in your topic and citations, you will fail the course.

Part Three (due April 12)

The final paper should include the following:

Cover Sheet.  This can be found on the course website.  It contains the point values for each section of the project.  You may want to review this sheet before you write the paper so that you understand the emphasis you must place on each section.

Life Event and Research Area.  A brief description of your life event you have selected from part one and the research area you have decided to examine.  Explain how this research area is related to your experience.

Article Summaries.  Write a summary of each article, your summary must include the following:

    1. Complete citation (authors' names, title, journal, etc.).  If you are unclear on what should be included in a citation, check the reference section of your textbook.
    2. Identify the authors' research question(s), hypotheses, independent and dependent variables.
    3. Using your own words, describe the experiment.  Be as complete as possible so that anyone who reads your description will understand what the experimenter did.
    4. Using your own words, explain what the experimenter found (what were the results).  Do not write things that you don't understand (e.g., statistical methods).  The authors will state the same findings without the statistical reference in another section of the article.  Were the hypotheses confirmed or refuted.  Do you agree with the results?  Why or why not?
    5. What did you think of the article?  Did it make sense to you?  Why or why not?  Did you understand the article?  Why or why not?
What Do You Know?  After you have completed #2, write an informed discussion of what you currently know about your topic.  You may include information from the textbook and class lectures.  Be sure to include information from the two articles you have read.  Be sure to identify the theories, issues and variables that are central to your topic.  Imagine that you writing this section for someone who knows very little about developmental psychology and you are giving them an introduction to the topic.  Be sure to use your own words and avoid "lifting" material from your sources without giving the appropriate reference.  If you use the words or ideas  of another author without acknowledging the source, you have plagiarized.  Ask me if you are unsure. This section should be the longest one in your paper.  It is here that you demonstrate what you have learned about the behavior, research and theory related to your experience.

How Well Does The Research/Theory Fit Your Experience?  How well does the information from the textbook, lectures and the two articles explain your own life experience?  If you believe that these materials provide a good explanation of your experience, explain why that is the case.  If you believe that none of the material gives you a reasonable explanation of your experience, then provide a reasoned discussion of why it fails and provide an alternative explanation for your experience.  Your alternative explanation must be based on scientific knowledge.

Would You Change Your Experience?  Given what you have learned, was your experience and behavior typical or atypical?  Was this experience inevitable?  Why?  Why or why not?  If you could, would you change your experience?  Why or why not?   Would your life have been different, if you did not have this experience?   Why or why not?   If you would change your experience, what would it be?

Have You Changed?  Go back and read what you originally wrote about this experience in Part One.  Do you agree with everything you said?  If you rewrote Part One now, would your answers and reasoning changed, explain why?  If your answers and reasoning would not change, explain why?

Attach the articles to your final paper.  You must attach complete articles if you attach only the abstract, I will assume that you never read the entire article.