Final Paper

	The purpose of the final paper is for you to combine skills of applying theoretical knowledge to real world situations and evaluating research bearing on the theory which is being applied.  Each of these skills has been a focus of the class, which makes combining them in a final paper appropriate. There are two options for completing the final paper: An assessment of an adolescent’s developmental levels or an examination of their behavior.  In either case, the paper should be no more than five double-spaced typed pages and include three sections: a) a description of a particular child, b) an explanation of what you describe, and c) an interpretation/evaluation of your explanation. The content of those sections will be discussed below for each type of paper.  Each section will contribute equally in computing your final grade. 

Option 1: An assessment of an Adolescent’s developmental levels

	In this option, you are to examine a adolescent’s developmental level in each of the physical-motor, cognitive and social-emotional domains and then offer an explanation of what you find.  The idea is that you come to some conclusion about the adolescents’ developmental level in each domain and try to explain the connection between the domains.  

	Section 1: Description:  
	Assess an adolescent’s physical, cognitive and social-emotional development in any way you can.  The assessment can be observational in nature, involving simply watching an adolescent and assessing their puberty level from secondary sex characteristics (physical development), listening to them talk and assessing their level of egocentrism  (cognitive development), and observing peer interaction (social-emotional development).  Or the assessment can be more of an interaction with the adolescent, measuring their pubertal level with the scale in the book  (physical development), giving him or her a formal operational task (cognitive development), and interviewing them about their identity development (social-emotional development).   In either case, tell me everything relevant about the about the observation or interactions you have with the target person.  Provide all relevant details about a) the context (where it was, etc.), b) the participants (who was involved and their relevant characteristics, e.g., age, status, etc.),  c) the action (what was said and done, e.g., behavior, vocalizations, etc., and/or the tasks, i.e., what measures you used).  Tell me everything and anything that was relevant to your assessment of the adolescent’s development in each domain..

	Section 2: Explanation
	In this section, you will go back to course-related material (including the textbook, readings, lectures, etc.) to try to judge the adolescent’s developmental level in each domain.  Is the child at an age-appropriate level or is he or she advanced or slow for his/her age group?  Be specific about the characteristics of the child’s performance that lead you to your conclusions regarding his or her developmental level. Also present in detail the ideas you cite from the course-related material which explaining the conclusions you draw.   Make an explicit connection between what the book says and what your child did!

	Section 3: Interpretation
	In this section you will interpret the explanation you proposed in section 2. Generally you must come to a conclusion about the relation between the adolescent’s developmental level in each of the domains.  Interpret whether the developmental levels reflect a connection between the domains (so that development is a general interconnected process) or independence between them (so that development is an relatively separate process in each domain). Articulate a theoretical orientation which reflects your opinion about the connection between the adolescent’s developmental levels.  The discussion should focus on why you think that there is or there is not a relation between each domain with each other and, if you think there is a relation, explain the nature of the relation.  This may involve you being a theorist.  I only ask that you explain your thinking.  

Option 2: An examination of an adolescent’s behavior

	In this option, you are to examine a particular behavior of an adolescent that you find interesting, unusual, or worthy of attention, and then propose and evaluate an explanation of the behavior.  The idea is that you come to some conclusion about your explanation of the adolescent’s behavior.  

	Section 1: Describe a phenomenon
	The paper is fundamentally about an interesting, puzzling, or perhaps significant observation you made or an experience you had. Tell me about the observation or experience.  Provide all relevant details about a) the context (where it was, etc.), b) the participants (who was involved and their relevant characteristics, e.g., age, status, etc.), and c) the action (what was said and done, e.g., behavior, vocalizations, etc.).  Tell me everything and anything that was relevant to the situation.

	Section 2: Explain the phenomenon
	In this section, you will go back to course-related material (including the textbook, readings, lectures, etc.) or other material (popular readings, world wide web, etc.) to try to account for the phenomenon you observed or experienced.  While there may be many aspects to your observation or experience, try to focus on only one aspect. You should a) specify the aspect of the observation or experience you are focusing upon, b) describe the relevant ideas from class material (e.g., a specific theory or a research finding) by which you propose to explain the aspect you are focusing upon, and c) carefully account for why the ideas you cite explain the observation or experience you describe in section 1. With regard to c), don’t expect that I will see what you think is an obvious connection between the aspect of the phenomenon you describe in a) and the explanatory ideas you cite in b).  Make that connection explicit!

	Section 3:  Evaluate the explanation
	In this section you will evaluate the explanation you proposed in section 2.  Find an empirical research paper which provides evidence for the ideas used in section 2 to explain your observation or experience.  Such research papers may be found in difference ways.  First, you may find research papers cited by the textbook in support of the theory or finding you identified as an explanation.  Second, you can check out PsycInfo which is a computer service that allows you to search and retrieve the abstracts from all psychology research papers (talk to the reference librarian about this). Third, you can check out other sources of expertise (other textbooks, review articles, a professor, etc.) which may provide leads to research papers. In this section you should a) explain how the study bears on the explanation in section 2, b) describe the study by not only identifying the independent and dependent variables and the hypothesis but also briefly outlining the procedure and the results, c) comment on the study’s internal and external validity, and d) reassess the adequacy of your explanation (in section 2) in light of your comments about the validity of the study.