The Impact of Life Experiences on Development
Complete a 7- to 9-page paper (excluding title page and references) with the following criteria:
Choose four events from your life which you believe had a significant impact on your development. There must be at least one event from childhood, one from adolescence, and one from adulthood; the fourth event may be in any one of those three stages. When developing the paper, be sure to provide the events in chronological order.
For each of the life events selected, do the following:
Provide a brief summary of the event. This should be a single event, not a period of time nor a developmental stage. In your summary, include identification of the event as age-graded, history-graded, or non-normative and why.
Explain how it was significant to your development and why, including how it impacted or changed you cognitively, psychologically, and/or socially.
Explain how each event and its associated changes influenced your identity development through your lifespan.
Support your statements with developmental theory and integration of knowledge you gained throughout the course. This should include the course textbook and at least one peer-reviewed article from the past 5 years for each event.
Remember this is not a narrative of your life, but rather an analysis of developmental influences using yourself as the “case study.” Your introduction should include an overview of the significance of life experiences on development; your conclusions should include a brief recap of key points in your paper, and any new perspectives gained from your analyses.
The Final Project will be evaluated according to the Final Project Rubric located in the Course Information area. Be sure that the Final Project is written using APA format and the final project template.
The Final Project is due Day 7 of Week 9. Please refer to the Final Project area in Week 9 for submission details.
