Adolescent and Cognitive Development Assignment

Question Description

Adolescent Cognitive Development
In this unit, you had a chance to learn about how the adolescent brain develops. Apply what you have learned to one of the possible decisions faced by adolescents below:
Whether or not to engage in sexual activity with a dating partner.
Whether or not to drink alcohol.
Whether or not to cheat on an assignment.
Whether or not to get a summer job.
Whether or not to get into a physical fight.
For your chosen topic, address the following:
Describe the factors that influence an adolescent’s cognitive development and decision-making processes.
Include relationship, cultural, and environmental factors.
Identify the biological and cognitive perspectives of adolescent development.Adolescent and Cognitive Development Assignment
Describe how the biological and cognitive perspective would explain an adolescent’s decision making.
Identify family patterns that may influence cognitive development.
Describe how family patterns might explain an adolescent’s cognitive development and decision making.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The resources introduced in the second study in Unit 1 can help you in writing and formatting your paper.
Communication: Apply critical thinking and communication skills concerning adolescent psychology in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful.
Use higher order thinking skills that go beyond simply summarizing issues.
Your writing should contain no grammatical or spelling errors.
Resources: Be sure to support the paper with concepts from your assigned reading. Include at least two peer-reviewed, scholarly resources, which are no more than five years old.
APA Guidelines: Use current edition APA style and formatting for your writing and references.
Cite course materials and supplemental journal articles using APA style in-text references and a reference list.
Consult study resources to help you in writing and formatting your paper.
Length: Your paper should be 2–3 pages in length, excluding the title and reference pages.
Size and Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Read the Adolescent Cognitive Development Scoring Guide prior to submitting your assignment to ensure you have met all of the expectations of this assignment.Note: Your instructor may also use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click the linked resources for helpful writing information.
RESOURCES
Adolescent Cognitive Development Scoring Guide.
Additional Guidelines for Formatting Papers [DOCX].
APA Style and Format.Adolescent and Cognitive Development Assignment
APA Paper Template [DOCX].
RefWorks.
Smarthinking.
Turnitin.
Writing Feedback Tool.
Prewriting.
Find Scholarly & Peer-Reviewed Sources.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.Adolescent and Cognitive Development Assignment

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.Adolescent and Cognitive Development Assignment
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.