Human Development—Summer 2012
My Virtual Child Paper
This paper is to be 3-5 pages long, discussing various aspects of human development and
parenting experienced through the My Virtual Child program.
Your task for the assignment is to:
1. Describe your virtual child’s development.
2. Describe your parenting choices.
3. Integrate three theories in Human Development into your paper.
A final version of your paper is due at the start of class on July 31, 2012. No late papers will be
accepted.
No plagiarism. (If you aren’t sure about this, I can help). You will be submitting your paper through a
plagiarism assessment program prior to submission. Your paper will not be accepted without submitting
it to TurnItIn and demonstrating acceptable duplication levels.
The Assignment:
You will need to incorporate at least three theories of human development in your discussion
of your parenting practices and/or your child’s outcomes.
Please address the following topics in your paper:
1. Personality Development: Describe your child’s temperament and personality from birth to
18 years (at relevant time-points). What role did nature and nurture play in the
development of his/her temperament/personality? Provide specific examples from the
program.
Additional possible topics: Do you think that your parenting decisions provided a goodnessof-fit with your child’s temperament/personality? How so?
How do you think that your child’s temperament/personality influenced other areas of
development (e.g. school performance, activities, cognitive development, social
relationships)?
You must demonstrate your knowledge of at least one theory of development through your
description of your virtual child’s personality development.
2. Parenting Practices: Analyze your own parenting philosophy and practices. What principles
do you appear to have relied on in making your parenting choices or interpreting your
child's behavior? Describe specific ways in which you think your parenting mattered for
your child’s development, based on evidence from your child and the course regarding the
contributions of parents to child development. Explain how what you have done fits (or
doesn't) with what you know about those theories. You must demonstrate your knowledge
of at least one theory of development through your description of your parenting behavior.
3. Topic of You Choice: Describe another aspect of your child’s development discussed in the
MyVirtualChild program (e.g. physical, cognitive, social, language, intelligence). Incorporate
at least one theory discussed in class into your discussion. Remember to demonstrate your
understanding of the theory discussed.
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Human Development—Summer 2012
My Virtual Child Paper
GENERAL PAPER GUIDELINES
1. Organization: The paper should be well-organized with one topic should logically follow another.
2. Grammar, Spelling, Sentence Clarity: I expect all words to be correctly spelled, the proper form of all
words to be used, and each sentence to be structured clearly. We will take off points for technical
errors of these kinds. If you feel you need help with this, please see me.
3. General Format: All papers should be 12 point font, typed, and double-spaced. A separate title page
should be included with the paper’s title, your name, the class, and the date. Each page should have 1
inch margins and should be numbered. The text of the paper is to be between 3 and 5 pages long.
4. Plan ahead! Please start thinking about this paper early. Come see me with ANY questions. Bring
ideas, early drafts, whatever you may need some input on.
5. Rules:
Plagiarism in any form is not acceptable.
No late papers will be accepted.
7. Quotations: Whenever you use someone else’s words in the text, they should be either in quotation
marks or, in the case of a long quotation, indented and single-spaced. After each quotation, you need to
cite it in the text (see example) and be sure the source is included in your reference list.
Use quotations very sparingly (if at all). A quotation is used only if they said something in such an
amazing/poetic/precise way that you cannot possibly say it so well. Do not simply quote any old phrase
you find in the journal article.
Quotation Example
“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example” (Twain, 1883, p. 7).
8. Reference list: The last page of your paper should include a reference list. You will only need to
reference the article which you read since this is what your discussion is focused on. The reference
should be accurately typed in APA (American Psychological Association) style. If you don’t know how to
do it, ask one of us.
9. Citations in text: When you want to cite a work in the body of your paper, use APA style.
It looks like this:
The researchers (Smith, 2002) found a significant difference between the conditions presented
to the participants.
or this:
In Liebert & Baron’s (1972) study, they discuss the results of their experiments.
Do not list the first names of the authors or the name of the article in the text of the paper.
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Human Development—Summer 2012
My Virtual Child Paper
10. Reference list: The last page of your paper should include a reference list. You will only need to
reference the articles which you read since this is what your discussion is focused on. The references
should be accurately typed in APA (American Psychological Association) style.
Books
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location:
Publisher.
Note: For "Location," you should always list the city and the state using the two letter postal
abbreviation without periods (New York, NY).
Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal
publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Online Lecture Notes and Presentation Slides
When citing online lecture notes, be sure to provide the file format in brackets after the lecture title
(e.g. PowerPoint slides, Word document).
Hallam, A. Duality in consumer theory [PDF document]. Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web site:
http://www.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ501/Hallam/
index.html
Roberts, K. F. (1998). Federal regulations of chemicals in the environment [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved
from http://siri.uvm.edu/ppt/40hrenv/index.html
11. Have subjects and verbs agree:
Example:
Some things that were different between the two articles is the fact that.....(Wrong
way)
Some things that were different between the two articles are [now you need to talk
about at least two things] (Correct way)
12. Try not to use the passive tense: it really weakens the way the paper sounds.
Example: A study was done by researchers. (Passive voice)
The researchers did a study. (Active voice)
13. Use the past tense in a paper like this and be consistent in the tense you use throughout the paper.
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Human Development—Summer 2012
My Virtual Child Paper
14. Affect and Effect--how to use them:
affect: this is usually a VERB and almost always one in the way it is used in your papers.
A typical sentence using affect would be:
Watching violent television programs affects aggression levels in children.
effect: in most psychology paper contexts and most often in everyday usage is
used as a noun. A typical sentence using effect would be:
The effect of violent television programs on children=s aggression levels is strong.
15. Proof read! Just because a word goes through spellcheck as okay doesn’t mean it is exactly the right
word for the context. Through and threw have two very different meanings as do there, their, and
they’re. It is your language. Think about the actual meaning of the words when you write them.
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Human Development—Summer 2012
My Virtual Child Paper
TITLE PAGE (1)
________ Title and name
INTRODUCTION (5)
________ Content appropriate
BODY (51)
________/10 Child’s development
________/10 Parenting behavior
________/10 Topic of your choice
________/7 Theory 1 described and integrated
________/7 Theory 2 described and integrated
________/7 Theory 3 described and integrated
CONCLUSION (5)
________ Content appropriate
IN-TEXT CITATIONS (1)
_________ APA Format
REFERENCE LIST (2)
_________ APA Format
OVERALL QUALITY (10)
_________ Writing style, grammar, spelling
____________TOTAL NUMBER OF POINTS (75 possible)
____________ MyVirtualChild Grade (25 possible)
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