Term Paper Requirements

Main Objective of Term Paper
1) Explore in–depth your personal interest in Gerontology;
2) Demonstrate expertise in that specific area in Gerontology.

Ask a question that pertains to Gerontology, then provide “an answer” using empirical results from professional publications. Peer–reviewed literature from other scientific domains may be used (e.g., developmental psychology, personality/social psychology, health, community, medicine & nursing (palliative care), and public policy).

  • Topic/Questions must be pre–approved
  • Length: 3–5 pages
  • Three articles from professional journals that report research studies (not popular magazines or web pages)
  • APA Format

Introduction: (4 Points)
Explain why you chose your research question and why it is an important one. Provide a basic overview of the topic (i.e., definitions, where might you encounter topic in life, frequency of topic, general research done on topic). Provide a hypothesis of what you expect to find.

Method: (5 Points)
State the type of experiments/studies that were conducted in each of the publications used. What questions were asked? What was being measured? How was it being measured? How will the methods provide answers to your question? Who did they sample? For instance, 200 undergraduate students from a liberal arts college were surveyed. Likert scales surveys were used to measure well–being, a higher score meant more positive sense of well–being; the participants were judged by three independent observers for anxious behaviors, the higher the rating meant that they were exhibiting greater anxious behaviors according to the judges.

Results and Discussion: (6 Points)
Explain the results and discuss them. What is your interpretation of the results? How does everything fit together? What did you learn? What did you gather from results? Where there any surprises? The results and discussion should be “the bulk” of your paper. Add whatever you think is appropriate to support how you formulated your conclusions.

Limitations and Future Suggestions: (2 Points)
Discuss any limitations encountered by the studies you reviewed in your paper. Provide suggestions about the possible future implications of the research and what can be improved upon. Suggest a more “ideal” future study that would fill in some hole in knowledge.

Conclusion: (2 Points)
Short synopsis of what you learned (about a paragraph).

References and APA Format: (1 Points)
Cite all references used (APA format).