Final Paper Guidelines 100 points (30% of your final grade) Although this paper

Final Paper Guidelines
100 points (30% of your final grade)
Although this paper will not be due until the end of the quarter, it is important that you plan the project early. It takes planning and actual conduction of the project before you can work on the paper. Below are the guidelines on the project in terms what you are expected to do and how to write your paper.
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To enrich your learning experience with Child Psychology, a final paper is assigned. For this paper, you will first find a topic of interest (see the “Project Ideas” document for more information about potential topics), conduct your observation, interview, and/or experiment on an infant or a child (no older than middle childhood, around age 11), record the results of what you had them do in details, and complete the instructions below. Make sure you obtain parental permission for this class project.
This paper should be double-spaced and 4 to 6 pages long excluding the Title page and References page as well as any appendix.
Due to health concerns during the pandemic, you should avoid in-person interactions unless the participant is a family member living in the same household. Your observation, interview, and/or experiment should be conducted via a phone call or a video meeting.
Topic choice and subject of observation
The topic for observation, interview, and/or experimentation is flexible. Any aspect of child development is suitable. If you do not have any idea, you can take a look at the “Final Paper Ideas” file (attached to this module and also available in Dropbox).
How to write your report:
The following points describe the essential information and the discussions that you should address in your paper. Failing to address any of them will result in point reduction.
(1) Introduction: State your topic of observation, interview, and/or experiment. Review the literature on this topic by referring to at least two academic journal articles you find from Psycinfo. (5 points)
(2) Method: Describe the nature of your observation, interview, and/or experiment, including (15 points)
Time and place of observation, interview, or experiment (3 points)
The age, gender, and ethnicity of the child (or a group of children) you observed, interviewed, and/or conducted an experiment on. (3 points)
The environment in which the child lives. (5 points)
Briefly describe the instruments (e.g., measure, interview questions, experimental procedure) you used for the study. Detailed description of the instruments can be put in an appendix at the end of the paper. (4 points)
(3) Results: Describe the results of your observation, interview, and/or experiment (20 points)
Describe in detail the results of the interview, what behaviors you observed, and/or the results from the experiment. Organize your results and present them in a clear fashion
(4) Discussion: Discuss your observation, interview and/or experiment (45 points)
Compare your results to those published in journal articles and describe the similarities and differences. For example, if you interviewed a child about a topic, you would then compare what he/she had to say about the topic to what researchers reported in the literature. There may be the chance that the results are similar and in this case, you would just compare. (15 points)
How do environmental factors benefit or hinder the child’s development on your topic? This may be supported by research findings or be speculative. You should be able to at least attest to environment factors even if the only information you have is about how well dressed or what type of neighborhood the child lives in. (15 points)
Discuss your thoughts on how to enhance the child’s development by implementing changes to the child, the family and/or the society. Even when the child’s development is normal or typical, some changes to the environment may potentially make their development better. (15 points)
(5) Writing and reference (15 points)
Include a title page.
Include a subtitle for each section (introduction, method, results, discussion, and reference).
Abstract is optional for this paper.
Provide citations in APA style in your paper (5 points)
Include a “References” page in APA style at the end of your paper. (5 points)
Proof read your paper before submitting it. Your paper should be written in a clear and coherent way. Poorly written paper will result in point reduction. (5 points)
Tips for the final paper:
Find at least two academic journal articles from Psycinfo as your resources. You may include additional sources to support your arguments, but do not use website information as your source.
No quotations from your references are allowed in this paper. Any usage of quotations from your references will result in five-point reduction per quotation. You may use quotations from your participants in the results section but not from your references, but still please use quotations from your participants sparingly.
Write the facts or mention what an author has to say and then provide a citation. For instance, write something like “Author1, Author2, and Author3 (publication year) explained that x relates to y.”
Be sure to link your findings to class topics and research findings in the literature.