PSYC 621 Child Psychology Biological and Physiological Development

Research Paper: Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography Assignment Instructions

Overview

Discerning and clarifying your research interests and knowing how to locate and evaluate scholarly sources of information are important skills for graduate students. This assignment will encourage you to think critically about the topic of attachment as a major concept of developmental psychology and select and refine a more specific area of attachment that is of interest to you. You will also gain experience locating and selecting scholarly sources as well as thoughtfully examining and critiquing the sources, an important skill for graduate students.

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Instructions

In this course, you will write a research paper that discusses and evaluates the current research in the field of attachment.  To formally present your argument in your paper, you will need to create a thesis statement, which is a single sentence that presents your argument and main idea to the reader. The rest of the paper provides evidence and rationale to support this argument. PSYC 621 Child Psychology Biological and Physiological Development

For this Research Paper: Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography Assignment, you will write a thesis statement that will be used to present the argument for your research paper.

In order to create a credible thesis statement, you will need to read about your topic and give significant thought to what you read. You will need to explore the scientific literature concerning the topic.  For this assignment, please read peer-reviewed articles directly related to your topic and look for issues and themes that are common to all your sources. You will develop an annotated bibliography of your scholarly references.

• Please read at least 12 potential, primary peer-reviewed articles
• Current APA style formatting
• Following each reference, please provide a paragraph of 100-200 words providing a summary of the research article
  • This should include an analysis and evaluation of the article

An analysis will capture strengths and weaknesses of the study and reliability of results.  The evaluation will include a statement related to the usefulness of the study, including why the study was useful or why the study was not useful.

The Jerry Falwell Library is a reliable place to conduct your searches.  Some of the databases have the option to select “peer-reviewed” sources; selecting this option will help you eliminate non-scholarly sources from your search results.  You do not need to pay for articles. Articles that ask you to pay for access can generally be accessed through the Jerry Falwell Library without requiring payment. You can access the Jerry Falwell Library through the Resources section.

Remember that you are choosing a research paper topic related to current research in the area of attachment.  Be sure to review the criteria on the Research Paper: Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography Grading Rubric before beginning this assignment.  It may also be helpful to review the Research Paper: Final Submission Assignment Instructions before beginning this assignment.  PSYC 621 Child Psychology Biological and Physiological Development

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

Research Paper: Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography

Template

Please follow these guidelines to create your assignment:

1. Provide a current APA formatted title page that includes a descriptive title for your paper.

2. Write a thesis statement (a single sentence only) that summarizes your argument and main idea that you intend to present in your Research Paper. PSYC 621 Child Psychology Biological and Physiological Development

3. Create an Annotated Bibliography that includes:
   • A working References page that is formatted according to current APA guidelines and that contains the bibliographic information for the 12 potential primary sources that you found while exploring the scientific literature for your topic.
     • This list will not include secondary sources, such as the Bible, the textbook, or other scholarly books.
     • This initial list of References is only a potential list for your final paper.
   • Following each reference in your list, you will provide a paragraph of 100-200 words (no more than 200 words) that provides a summary of the research article, including an analysis and evaluation of the article.
     • An analysis will capture strengths and weaknesses of the study and reliability of results.
     • The evaluation will include a statement related to the usefulness of the study, including why the study was useful or why the study was not useful. PSYC 621 Child Psychology Biological and Physiological Development