Theory Application Paper For this paper, choose one theory of development (ex: Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development theory). Then choose a specific life stage to focus on (ex: the preschool years). Clearly explain how this theory of development makes sense of this stage of life. What are the key ideas, concepts, terms, etc. that are central to how this theory explains this specific age? You can include a few sentences explaining the theory as a whole (ex: Erikson’s theory includes eight stages that cover the entire lifespan and each involves a crisis…), but please don’t spend time going into detail about other stages that you are not focusing on (ex: how Erikson views late adulthood does not tie into your story about being in preschool, so don’t talk about it). The next step is to apply this theory to ONE personal experience. You might want to ask your parents to share some stories of your childhood if you’re focusing on an early stage of development, or you may wish to focus on an event you clearly remember. (Make sure it is a specific experience and not a general/vague “when I was a child” kind of story. More specific details make this easier to write and relate the theory to!) This must be a story about YOUR development – not your child, sibling, etc. Describe your personal experience and relate it to the theory of development you chose. How is this experience an example of this theory in action? How would this theorist explain what happened in this event and how you behaved/responded/interpreted it? Tie in the vocab terms and key concepts of this theory into your personal story. There are three parts to this paper: 1. this theory’s view of this stage of life (Ex: the way Erikson would explain the preschool stage; though you can spend a few sentences describing the whole theory, please focus on this particular stage of development) 2. your personal experience (Ex: something that happened to you during the preschool years) 3. how the theory explains your event (Ex: the way Erikson would explain YOUR event/memory) The main focus of your paper should be how this theory specifically applies to your personal experience (step #3) – make sure to connect these dots very clearly if you want full credit. Theories to choose from: • Erikson • Freud • Piaget • Vygotsky (if you go beyond just ZPD and scaffolding) Please use APA formatting: 12″ TNR font, 1″ margins, double-spaced (no title page or abstract necessary); 3 full pages; include reference page for sources. Please put your name, class, and “TAP: theory/stage” in upper left-hand corner, single-spaced (fill out which theory/stage you did). You may use other sources to help you write the theory section. Our textbook is chalk-full of info. You may use websites, but they must be legitimate sources (.org, .edu, .gov) and have an author to cite. If you use any info from the text or a website, you must have a parenthetical citation at the end of that sentence. This means you may have MANY sentences with parentheses at the end. There is no minimum or maximum for citations, but if you use information from a source and you do not cite it, that’s considered plagiarism!!! Please cite/quote any outside sources you used or direct info you got from the textbook and include a reference page at the end of your paper. Plagiarism is not acceptable. Any paper with a TurnItIn similarity score of over 15% will not be graded! (TurnItIn similarity score is the amount of your paper that is word-for-word from another online source – if you are citing or quoting things properly, you should be close to 0) If you use information that’s from the textbook or from a website, you need to tell us where you got it from, even if you put it in your own words. The way you do this is by using a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. The standard way of citing a source is by using the author’s last name, followed by the date of publication, at the end of any sentence in which you refer to information from that source or quote that source. Ex: Piaget’s theory stemmed from observations about his own children (Smith, 2012). If you use information that is worded exactly the same, you must put quote marks around it and cite it. Ex: “Piaget developed his cognitive theory by observing his children” (Smith, 2012). The standard format for a reference page can be found here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_basic_rules.html (use the list on the left to find the correct page for your source) Please see the sample paper for help on what this paper should look like. Email me with any questions. I will be looking to see that you put in effort to try and get this APA stuff correct, but I understand for many of you, this is your first time using APA, so I will take that into account. J

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