Adult development
Paper length 5-10 pages. Papers are to be typed double spaced, 1-inch margins. The paper is to be in APA style and it is to have a minimum of 3 appropriate references. Do not use footnotes for your citations. I will be looking forward to reading papers that show evidence of careful research, organization, writing, and thought. There is no excuse for turning in a paper with spelling errors, poor grammar or a series of long quotations one after another held together by your brief sentences. The term paper is worth a maximum of 100 points.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold:
• to engage you in independent literature search using the adult development, gerontology and geriatrics literature
• to have you demonstrate the applied and practical implications of theory and research in the psychology of aging on understanding and enhancing the aging process or understanding and addressing important social issues in aging.
Process
Search the research literature in scholarly journals in adult development/gerontology/geriatrics since January 2019 to pick ONE research article that reports results of an empirical study that you find interesting and can understand. DO NOT PICK AN ARTICLE THAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW, A THEORETICAL PAPER, OR A META ANALYSIS. If you have any doubts, check with me. Journals you will want to look at include: Journal of Gerontology, Gerontologist, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Sit down in the library or at your computer (accessing the journals through the library’s web site) and thumb through the journals’ table of contents to identify potential articles. Read the abstracts to narrow your search.
When you have selected your article, write the paper in the following format:
1) Title Page in the following format:
Title of your paper
Your name
SUNY Buffalo State
Date you handed in the paper
PSY 327
2) Start off with a topic paragraph that:
• provides the citation of the article your are using
• clearly states the major theme of your paper, i.e., major point(s) you will be making in your paper. Be thoughtful. The topic paragraph should be like a synopsis of your paper, or, if you will, an abstract of your paper. I should be able to figure out the major points you will be making in the paper after reading your topic paragraph.
3) Review the article in 2-4 pages in your own words (don’t endlessly quote or worse, plagiarize):
• describe the study purpose and major hypotheses.
• summarize the study sample.
• describe the research methods used.
• summarize the major results and conclusions.
4) Tell me in 2-4 pages WHY IS THIS STUDY IMPORTANT?
• how does the study you picked contribute to the knowledge about important research questions or our understanding of a contemporary aging issue and how we respond to it
• how does this study results relate to other studies in the area:
does the study support other research?
does it blaze new trails?
does it contradict other research?
You should review and cite other relevant studies from the gerontology and geriatrics literature to support the points you are making. You will be expected to do additional library research for this. You will need to reference at least three additional scholarly publications or scholarly websites (NOT Wikipidia, NOT YOUR TEXTBOOK) in making your argument.
