Description

Lifespan Biography                 For your final project in this course, you will write an analytical biography of a single person and evaluate their development, including successes and challenges. You are allowed to explore all aspects of development, whether they be large categories (such as physical development) or more focused topics (such as language development). You may also choose whether you want to write on a wide range of developmental aspects (including physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development), or whether you want to focus on a particular kind of development (such as just cognitive). Regardless, you will be asked to write a 6-8 page paper that includes the following: ·         A brief summary of your biography subject’s life over at least 4 contiguous periods of development (the summary should not exceed 25% of the paper). ·         An analysis of major developmental steps that occur during that period, and the areas in which a person demonstrated particular success or difficulty. Examples of this might include: o   Physical or cognitive skills that they learned particularly early. o   A psychosocial development, such as one of Erikson’s stages, that was difficult. o   An aspect of their development that is different from the “typical” development studied in class. ·         Active connections between developmental periods indicating how these successes or difficulties impacted later development. (For example, if you describe an adolescent who struggles with identity development, you should include how their difficulty with identity might have started in middle childhood or how it influences their behavior in early adulthood). For this assignment, YOU get to choose the subject of the biography, as long as they meet the following criteria: ·         Must be someone other than yourself. ·         You must be able to get a thorough understanding of the minimum 4 contiguous periods of development out of the nine covered in the course (prenatal/birth, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood, death/dying). ·         Their background, culture, or development is comparable enough to concepts covered in the course for you to use course material as a basis in writing. Note that I’ve intentionally left flexibility in this paper for you to explore aspects of human development that are relevant to you, and to find a subject that will be meaningful to that exploration. Examples of a subject would include: ·         A close friend ·         A family member ·         A historical figure who may already have a “biography” ·         A fictional character rubric Provides a concise and relevant accurate biography of the subject that does not exceed 25% of the paper. Information presented in the biography is relevant and serves to “set up” the later analyses.  For at least 4 developmental stages, describes an event or milestone that is impactful to the subject’s development. Analyses are robust, connected directly to course material, and include an understanding of how these events impact the subject’s development. Each event or milestone of the subject’s development is framed in how it impacts at least one of the other developmental stages. Paper is clear and understandable, containing few or no errors in grammar, sentence structure, or syntax. Paper length is appropriate for the number of topics covered