Applied Final Project: What are the Issues – An Investigative Essay

This assignment will leverage your curiosity and reinforce your understanding of lessons learned throughout the course. It will invite you to explore your ideas and to connect lifespan development concepts to daily living.

The What are the Issues paper is an integrative assignment that supports synthesis and the three learning outcomes for the course:

  • apply empirical research and theories of lifespan development to enhance interpersonal, community, and organizational relationships
  • apply knowledge of lifespan development to inform personal growth and communicate effectively
  • use critical and creative thinking and the scientific approach to make ethical and logical decisions related to lifespan development

Objective: Research and report on (a) a developmental stage and (b) a developmental topic relevant to experiences and outcomes of the developmental stage. Submit a 6- to 8-page, APA style research paper, that 1) communicates how the developmental stage is defined in terms of physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains; 2) introduces research on a developmental topic relevant to the experiences and outcomes of the developmental stage, with an emphasis on fundamental issues, questions, and controversies; and 3) presents your synthesis of lessons learned through research and the writing of the paper.

Instructions Summary: The principal steps for the assignment are…

  1. Select a developmental stage of life you are interested in and choose a topic that intrigues you from the following list. If you want to write on a topic not listed here, get your instructor’s approval first.
  2. Research the developmental topic using the UMGC library, focusing on fundamental issues, questions, and controversies that bear relevance to the developmental stage you have selected.
  3. Write and submit for grading a well composed 6- to 8-page APA style formatted What are the Issues research paper.
  • Free range parenting
  • Socialization
  • Nontraditional families
  • Birth order
  • Eating habits and disorders
  • Exposure to violence
  • Emotional bonding
  • Sleep
  • Gender identification
  • Memory
  • Self-efficacy
  • Culture