Human Development

Final Paper

You will need to find 4 articles located in scholarly journals. Scholarly journal
articles are also referred as primary source peer reviewed articles. A scholarly
journal article can be found in the South University Online Library. To find more
information regarding utilizing the South University Library and accessing
scholarly journal articles click on Library Guide. What cannot be used for this
assignment are web pages, magazines, newspapers, text books, and other books.
Finally, current research for our purposes is an article that was published within
the last 5 to 6 years.

Remember this is a course on human development so when looking for articles
make sure they are related to the subject matter covered in the course. To help in
your search here are some of the major areas we covered in this course (these are
meant as a guide, not specific topics to find).

• Major developmental theories across the lifespan
• Nature of geographic, gender, social, cognitive, emotional, and

developmental factors during each period of development
• Developmental factors that impact one another.
• Historical and current trends in development
• Current trends which may differentially impact the future development of

populations in the United States
• Social, and diversity issues related to developmental psychology

With the major areas above in mind, focus on at least two of the following age
groups:

• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Adulthood
• Older Adults

First, give an overview of each article, including:

• Write a 2-paragraph summary for each article.
• Write a 1-2 paragraph analysis and evaluation for each article found.
• Make sure to integrate course material in that analysis

Then, write a summary (1-2 pages) integrating what was leaned from the articles
reviewed on the chosen age groups as seen from the life-span perspective. Cover
the following in that summary:

• What similarities did you find in the types of research and what was being
studied? What differences did you find?

• Based on your course readings, what developmental theories did you find
that were applicable?

• Explain how the life-span perspective may provide a way of better
understanding the research reviewed.