Human Development—Summer 2012
My Virtual Child Paper
This paper is to be 3-5 pages long, discussing various aspects of human development and parenting experienced through the My Virtual Child program.
Your task for the assignment is to:
- Describe your virtual child’s development.
- Describe your parenting choices.
- Integrate three theories in Human Development into your paper.
A final version of your paper is due at the start of class on July 31, 2012. No late papers will be accepted.
No plagiarism. (If you aren’t sure about this, I can help). You will be submitting your paper through a plagiarism assessment program prior to submission. Your paper will not be accepted without submitting it to TurnItIn and demonstrating acceptable duplication levels.
The Assignment:
You will need to incorporate at least three theories of human development in your discussion of your parenting practices and/or your child’s outcomes.
Please address the following topics in your paper:
- Personality Development: Describe your child’s temperament and personality from birth to 18 years (at relevant time-points). What role did nature and nurture play in the development of his/her temperament/personality? Provide specific examples from the program.
Additional possible topics: Do you think that your parenting decisions provided a goodness-of-fit with your child’s temperament/personality? How so?
How do you think that your child’s temperament/personality influenced other areas of development (e.g. school performance, activities, cognitive development, social relationships)?
You must demonstrate your knowledge of at least one theory of development through your description of your virtual child’s personality development.
- Parenting Practices: Analyze your own parenting philosophy and practices. What principles do you appear to have relied on in making your parenting choices or interpreting your child's behavior? Describe specific ways in which you think your parenting mattered for your child’s development, based on evidence from your child and the course regarding the contributions of parents to child development. Explain how what you have done fits (or doesn't) with what you know about those theories. You must demonstrate your knowledge of at least one theory of development through your description of your parenting behavior.
- Topic of You Choice: Describe another aspect of your child’s development discussed in the MyVirtualChild program (e.g. physical, cognitive, social, language, intelligence). Incorporate at least one theory discussed in class into your discussion. Remember to demonstrate your understanding of the theory discussed.
GENERAL PAPER GUIDELINES
1. Organization: The paper should be well-organized with one topic should logically follow another.
2. Grammar, Spelling, Sentence Clarity: I expect all words to be correctly spelled, the proper form of all words to be used, and each sentence to be structured clearly. We will take off points for technical errors of these kinds. If you feel you need help with this, please see me.
3. General Format: All papers should be 12 point font, typed, and double-spaced. A separate title page should be included with the paper’s title, your name, the class, and the date. Each page should have 1 inch margins and should be numbered. The text of the paper is to be between 3 and 5 pages long.
4. Plan ahead! Please start thinking about this paper early. Come see me with ANY questions. Bring ideas, early drafts, whatever you may need some input on.
5. Rules:
Plagiarism in any form is not acceptable.
No late papers will be accepted.
7. Quotations: Whenever you use someone else’s words in the text, they should be either in quotation marks or, in the case of a long quotation, indented and single-spaced. After each quotation, you need to cite it in the text (see example) and be sure the source is included in your reference list.
Use quotations very sparingly (if at all). A quotation is used only if they said something in such an amazing/poetic/precise way that you cannot possibly say it so well. Do not simply quote any old phrase you find in the journal article.
Quotation Example
“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example” (Twain, 1883, p. 7).
8. Reference list: The last page of your paper should include a reference list. You will only need to reference the article which you read since this is what your discussion is focused on. The reference should be accurately typed in APA (American Psychological Association) style. If you don’t know how to do it, ask one of us.
- Citations in text: When you want to cite a work in the body of your paper, use APA style.
It looks like this:
The researchers (Smith, 2002) found a significant difference between the conditions presented to the participants.
or this:
In Liebert & Baron’s (1972) study, they discuss the results of their experiments.
Do not list the first names of the authors or the name of the article in the text of the paper.
10. Reference list: The last page of your paper should include a reference list. You will only need to reference the articles which you read since this is what your discussion is focused on. The references should be accurately typed in APA (American Psychological Association) style.
Books
Author, A. A. (Year of publication).Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
Note: For "Location," you should always list the city and the state using the two letter postal abbreviation without periods (New York, NY).
Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991).APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Online Lecture Notes and Presentation Slides
When citing online lecture notes, be sure to provide the file format in brackets after the lecture title (e.g. PowerPoint slides, Word document).
Hallam, A. Duality in consumer theory [PDF document]. Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web site:
index.html
Roberts, K. F. (1998). Federal regulations of chemicals in the environment [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
11. Have subjects and verbsagree:
Example:
Some things that were different between the two articles is the fact that.....(Wrong way)
Some things that were different between the two articles are [now you need to talk about at least two things] (Correct way)
12. Try not to use the passive tense: it really weakens the way the paper sounds.
Example: A study was done by researchers. (Passive voice)
The researchers did a study. (Active voice)
13. Use the past tense in a paper like this and be consistent in the tense you use throughout the paper.
14. Affect and Effect--how to use them:
affect: this is usually a VERB and almost always one in the way it is used in your papers.
A typical sentence using affect would be:
Watching violent television programs affects aggression levels in children.
effect: in most psychology paper contexts and most often in everyday usage is used as a noun. A typical sentence using effect would be:
The effect of violent television programs on children=s aggression levels is strong.
15. Proof read!Just because a word goes through spellcheck as okay doesn’t mean it is exactly the right word for the context. Through and threw have two very different meanings as dothere, their, and they’re. It is your language. Think about the actual meaning of the words when you write them.
TITLE PAGE(1)
______Title and name
INTRODUCTION (5)
______Content appropriate
BODY(51)
______/10Child’s development
______/10Parenting behavior
______/10Topic of your choice
______/7Theory 1 described and integrated
______/7Theory 2 described and integrated
______/7Theory 3 described and integrated
CONCLUSION (5)
______Content appropriate
IN-TEXT CITATIONS (1)
______APA Format
REFERENCE LIST (2)
______APA Format
OVERALL QUALITY(10)
______Writing style, grammar, spelling
______TOTAL NUMBER OF POINTS (75 possible)
______MyVirtualChild Grade (25 possible)
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