Psychology 110: Assignments

Work To Do

Assignment Set I

Child Care Observation 1. Due date: September 24. Answers must be typed. 20 points. There is a three page (double-spaced) limit on the length of your essay.

Part 1. Choose one child from the nursery school who seems to have a special interest or talent (e.g., music). Describe the interest or skill. Speculate on how genes and the environment might have worked together to foster that interest or skill.

Part 2. Describe a study that a behavioral geneticist might perform to determine the contribution of genes and environment to the behavior described in part 1. [You can describe this for the behavior in general, rather than for the specific child mentioned.]

Part 3. Critique the study you just proposed.

Child Care Observation 2. Due date: October 15. Answers must be typed. 20 points. There is a three page (double-spaced) limit on the length of your essay.

According to Piaget's theory, children in the Nursery School should not be able to conserve. Try one or two of Piaget's conservation tasks (see pg. 223) on one child in the nursery school. Describe the results of your observation. Are your results consistent with Piaget's theory? Why or why not?

An important criticism of Piaget's theory is that children often exhibit more advanced knowledge than Piaget proposed. We know this, in part, because if you ask the questions in different ways you get different answers than those that Piaget recieved. Try one of the modifications suggested by other researchers that might show that children in the nursery school would now provide evidence for the ability to conserve. For example, you might change the way you ask the question, you might choose different materials or tasks for which the children have more experience, you might try to train a child, etc. You should do a little research to see what has been done before and you can try to replicate the procedures that have worked in the past or you can try your own. (The section on Piagetian Contributions and Criticisms may help you choose a technique.) Describe the results of your observation. Are your results consistent with Piaget's theory? Why or why not?

Taking into consideration both observations, what is your evaluation of Piaget's theory. Justify your evaluation.

Child Care Observation 3. Due date: November 3. Answers must be typed. 20 points. Target length is three pages (double-spaced).

Describe the ways in which a particular child at the nursery school displays intelligence. Be specific.

How does the particular child you described differ in intelligence, in general, from other children at the nursery school? That is, how does he/she compare to the other children?

When thinking about the intelligence of the child you described, do you find it easier to think about his/her intelligence using Sternberg's, Gardner's, or the psychometric view of intelligence. Justify your answer.

Child Care Observation 4. Due date: November 19. Answers must be typed. 20 points. Target length is three pages (double-spaced).

Part 1. Contrast the behaviors of the boys and girls in the nursery school. How are they alike? different? Do they favor "gender appropriate" toys and activities (equally) ? How do they respond to the suggestion of playing with "inappropriate" toys ?

Part 2. Describe the ways in which the Nursery School (deliberately or not) encourages or discourages gender stereoryped behavior. Are there ways in which the Nursery School could improve in this regard?

Child Care Observation 5. Due date: December 6. Answers must be typed. 20 points. Target length is three pages (double-spaced).

Evaluate the Nursery School. Write this as if you were a reviewer making recommendations to the Nursery School. Be sure to point out what is being done well along with any problems you may note. (The Table on page 356 might give you some concrete ideas of what to look for and what to evaluate, but feel free to consider other factors.)

Assignment Set II

Part 1. Find five articles on one topic relevant to developmental psychology.

• The articles must be taken from peer reviewed articles.
• Our library must have the journals.
• Follow our library's homepage to ohiolink to databases to social sciences to psycinfo. Psycinfo will allow you to search for articles.
• Turn in a list of references in APA format. References are due Friday, 9/17. The assignment is worth 10 points.

Part 2. Take one of the five articles you cited in part 1 (or a new article) and answer the folling questions:

• What is the independent variable in the study?
• What is the dependent variable?
• How is the dependent variable operationalized?
• What methodology is used? (e.g., experiment, correlational design, etc.)
• Is the study cross-sectional, longitudinal, or something else?

Turn in your answers to the questions and a photocopy of the abstract of the article. The assignment is due October 8. 10 points possible.

Hints

• Choose your article carefully. It is very easy to answer these questions for some articles and very difficult for others.
• Some questions may have more than one answer.
• Remember that eventually you will be asked to write a short paper on some topic, so if you have good articles now it will save you a good deal of effort later.

Part 3. Create an annotated bibliography of the five articles you plan to use for your paper.

• The articles must be peer reviewed articles.
• The citation portion of bibliography must by typed in APA format. If you have questions about this format, please ask me about it.
• The annotation portion of the assignment should point out how each article directly relates to the theme of your (future) paper. This is in addition to other information that you may want to include.
• The assignment must be typed. It is due October 22. 20 points possible.

Help

• Two examples of annotated bibliographies: One on Fair Testing and one on the Psychology of Racism
• You can use articles you have already found, or you can get new ones. If you need new ones, remember you can get to PsycInfo by: Follow our library's homepage to ohiolink to databases to social sciences to psycinfo. Psycinfo will allow you to search for articles.
• For help with APA format check out the APA manual (on reserve in the library under Claudia Thompson's name) or the following web site. APA format.

Part 4. Turn in an abstract for your paper.

• The abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of your final paper.
• The abstract should reflect the references, content, and organization of your final paper.
• It should typed in APA format. For help with APA format check out the APA manual (on reserve in the library under Claudia Thompson's name) or the following web site. APA format
• There is a 120 word limit for the abstract.
• 20 points possible. Due date: Nov. 12.

Part 5. Turn in your paper.

• At least five references should be cited.
• It should typed in APA format. For help with APA format check out the APA manual (on reserve in the library under Claudia Thompson's name) or the following web site. APA format
• Length: approximately 5 pages.
• 40 points possible. Due date: Nov. 30.

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