Final Project: Cognitive Development Theories and Social Change

For your Final Project in this course, you will complete a brief literature review on a specific topic within language or cognitive development. A literature review is a synthesis of the research within a field. It can be used to identify themes, evaluate the application of theories, and even create a basis for future independent research later in your program or career. Because language and cognitive development are broad areas within developmental psychology, the topic you have selected for your literature review should be sufficiently specific that you are not overwhelmed by the amount of research on your topic. Nor, however, should your topic be so narrow as to yield insufficient research results. Your Instructor should have approved your topic and provided feedback on your Final Project outline already. Use this final week of the course to finish editing your project and ensuring that you have used proper APA style and formatting.

To Prepare:

• Select a topic from the literature on language or cognitive development.
• Choose two theories of language or cognitive development to apply to your selected topic, one from each of the following categories:
  • Nature (biological perspective)
  • Nurture (environmental perspective)

The Assignment (8–10 pages):

Submit an 8- to 10-page paper in which you do the following:

• Briefly introduce the topic you have selected.
• Provide a comparison of how each of the two theories you selected explains or characterizes your topic.
• Explain which theory you think best accounts for the topic/phenomena and why.
• Support your argument with at least six to eight references to the literature. Use proper APA format and citations