identify and research a topic in developmental psychology

The purpose of this course is to encourage students to apply their classroom knowledge to real- world issues as well as to improve your research, writing and critical thinking skills. For this assignment, students will identify and research a topic in developmental psychology. You will select your own topic; topics that are not related to developmental psychology will not be accepted. Combinations of different areas are allowed (e.g. cognitive development, social development, personality development, moral development, etc.), so long as the main point is on development. The emphasis of this paper will be an examination of past research to identify a gap in our knowledge and propose an area of research that would address this gap. There are no clear “right” or “wrong” research topics, but there are “better” or “worse” ways to propose a research project. You will be evaluated primarily on how well you present what we already know based on the research literature, explain the gap in our knowledge that your study is intended to fill and justify the need for the research that you are proposing as well as the evidence/rationale that you use to support your proposal. Proposals will also be evaluated on the quality of the evidence and arguments presented. This assignment should be between 3-4 pages (double spaced). The paper should be in APA style (12 point font, Times New Roman, 1”margins, citations/references, etc.). Note that the body of the assignment should be 3-4 pages — this page limit does not include the title page or reference list. An abstract is not required. I will attach an example of a term paper that you can use as a reference.