1.
10-page paper consisting of three parts:
first, an interview with your parents to gain their perspective of your journey through Erikson’s stages,
second, a personal exploration of that same journey. For each stage that you have traveled, explore how you personally resolved the conflict presented in that stage and how that resolution facilitates future stages. For example, the first stage is trust vs. mistrust. Explore with your parents the events and circumstances of your first year. Examine also your past and present issues concerning trust and mistrust. Conclude with your own understanding of your resolution to this stage. Remember, having resolved the conflict at one year does not preclude your dealing with that conflict at a later age/stage. Yet, how you deal with trust vs. mistrust currently may be a window into your earlier resolution.
The third part of the paper is to be a critique of Erikson’s stages based on your personal journey. Does his theory adequately explain your behaviors? Did you have any problems relating to his theory? In what way is his theory helpful for developmental psychology? Speak to potential drawbacks as well as to strengths. Like all papers, this is to be in APA format, link provided below to APA Manual 7th edition.
APA Manual 7th Edition
Paper Reference Formats: APA style
Journal articles: List authors in order, last name first, then first name initial. Year of article in
parentheses, followed by the title. Next the name of the journal (underlined), the volume number (underlined) and the issue number in parentheses. Page numbers are last.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R., & Nyman, M. (1994). The relations of emotionality and regulation to children’s anger related-
reactions. Child Development, 65 (1), 109-128.
You place all references in alphabetical order on a separate page at the end of the paper. This page (as well as title and abstract pages) does not count as one of your 10 pages for the paper.
To cite someone’s work in your text you place the last names of the author and the date of the work in parentheses after you have cited the study.
Example: Young children’s anger reactions are associated with the intensity of their emotional
reactions and with expression of negative emotions (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Nymen, 1994).
Example: Eisenberg, Fabes, and Nymen (1994) demonstrated that young children’s anger
reactions are associated with the intensity of their emotional reactions and with expression of negative emotions .
Once you have cited the research once you may abbreviate the author list:
Example: Eisenberg and colleagues (1994) also demonstrated that anger reactions are predictive
of peer social competence.
Example: Young children’s anger reactions also are predictive of their peer social competence
(Eisenberg, et al., 1994).
There are several aspects of good research writing which you will need to incorporate into
your paper: (a) Keep your topic specific. Very broad topics (e.g., learning disabilities) can not be adequately discussed/researched in an 10-page paper. Instead, choose a narrower sub-topic, for example, Dyslexia, (b) Present relevant research which addresses the issues and questions you raised in your introduction. Do not be afraid to mention important articles which present contradictory evidence. You can deal with the contradictions in your conclusion. The research articles you use to support your arguments should come from major research journals, and (c) In your conclusion, briefly summarize the research findings. Draw your own careful and well considered conclusions about your finding based on the evidence presented in the research articles you have cited in the body of the paper. (Do not simply state “more research needs to be done”.)
Be sure to provide a minimum of 5-7 scholarly/peer-reviewed journals.
Some Examples of Peer-Reviewed Journals:
American Journal of Mental Retardation
Child Abuse and Neglect
Child Development
Developmental Psychology
Developmental Psychopathology
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Journal of The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Journal of Educational Psychology
Journal of Experimental Psychology (all four fields)
Journal of Health and Social Behavior
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
