Fall 2022
Guidelines for Adolescent Psychoautobiographical Analysis Paper
Purpose
The purpose of this analysis paper is to demonstrate your ability to use adolescent developmental theories, empirical research findings, and information from class material and other assigned readings and videos to critically analyze selected aspects of your own adolescent development. The goal is to better understand your own adolescent experiences and to examine those experiences within a developmental framework.
Advice for Writing a Quality Psychoautobiographical Analysis Paper
Your analysis paper is comprised of two important parts.
The adolescent experiences you choose to analyze for this paper, AND
An in-depth analysis of those experiences using different theoretical, research, and adolescent developmental lenses.
You need to ask yourself the following questions:
How does _____ theory of _____ (e.g., Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development; Cooley’s theory of the “looking glass self”; Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory; Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory, etc.) help me better understand this experience?
If I examine this event using a different theoretical perspective, what additional things can be learned?
What does the empirical research say? Do my experiences fit with empirical research?
If I consider the adolescent developmental tasks associated with this stage of life, what else do I learn?
How does the course material (theoretical perspectives, research, etc.) help me better understand aspects of my own adolescent development?
The application of a variety of developmental theories, concepts and research is more important than long, detailed accounts of specific life events with no attempt at analysis (although, it is important to provide enough details to make your analysis easy to understand).
Creative Options
You may augment your personal stories by interviewing individuals who knew you during your own adolescence (e.g., parents, friends, siblings, etc.).
You may also include memorabilia such as excerpts from old diaries, letters, teacher’s comments, pictures, etc. to help illuminate different aspects of your adolescent development.
Specifics
Select a creative title for your paper. “My Adolescent Psychoautobiography Analysis Paper” is not a creative title.
Start your paper with a strong introductory paragraph that sets the stage for the remainder of your paper.
Be sure to provide the reader with a roadmap for your paper.
Tell the reader the theme of your paper, how your paper is organized and what the reader can expect.
Follow your introduction with a short background section that situates your adolescent story within the framework of your entire developmental journey thus far. This is where you want to share important background details that have relevance for your adolescence.
Organizing your paper by sections and sub-sections (with thoughtful titles) helps keep your paper organized.
Use sections and subsections that make sense. If your section or subsection is only one paragraph, then rethink your organization.
Be sure to include transition statements between paragraphs, subsections, and sections. This practice helps with the flow of your paper. You do not want to end up with a series of unrelated paragraphs, sections, and sub-sections.
Finally, include a short summary at the end of each section that summarizes the important points made in that section and makes connections to the next section.
End your paper with a strong conclusion section. This is where you review the important aspects of your analysis paper and tie everything together into a cohesive whole. Your last sentence should make a connection between your adolescent journey and the next stage of your life.
Your analysis paper should be between 14-18 typed (12-point font) and double-spaced pages (not including your reference page).
All within paper citations and references on your reference page must be in APA style format.
Read your paper out loud before turning it in. This is an excellent way to identify editing errors, omitted words and incomplete sentences. It is also an excellent way to check for organization and/or logical flow problems.
Things I will look for in your analysis:
Use of Adolescent Developmental Theory (40%)
Good – Superior: Meets or Exceeds Expectations
___ Utilizes many adolescent developmental theories covered throughout the semester to help explain or analyze personal experiences; consistently makes logical and relevant associations between personal experiences and later outcomes using a variety of adolescent developmental theories; able to use a range of theoretical perspectives as lenses to examine adolescent behavior, experiences, and perceptions
Average: Somewhat Meets Expectations
___ Utilizes some adolescent developmental theories covered throughout the semester to help explain or analyze personal experiences; able to make some logical and relevant links between personal experiences and outcomes using some adolescent developmental theories; able to use a limited range of theoretical perspectives as lenses to examine adolescent behavior, experiences, and perceptions
Below Average: Does Not Meet Expectations
___ Utilizes few or no adolescent developmental theories covered throughout the semester to help explain or analyze personal experiences; does not demonstrate the ability to connect personal experiences to later outcomes using adolescent developmental theories and perspectives; unable to use theoretical perspectives as lenses to examine adolescent behavior, experiences, and perceptions
Use of Assigned Empirical Findings and Readings, Assigned Videos, and Class Material (40%)
Good – Superior: Meets or Exceeds Expectations
___ Utilizes material from many of the assigned empirical research articles and other readings, assigned videos, and class material to help explain or analyze experiences; consistently makes logical and relevant associations between experiences and later outcomes using a variety of research findings and other relevant class material; able to link aspects of behavior, experience and perceptions to research and class material
Average: Somewhat Meets Expectations
___ Utilizes material from some of the assigned empirical research articles and other readings, assigned videos, and class material to help explain or analyze experiences; able to make some logical and relevant links between experiences and outcomes using some research and class material; somewhat able to link aspects of behavior, experience and perceptions to research and class material
Below Average: Does Not Meet Expectations
___ Utilizes material from very few of the assigned empirical research articles and other readings, assigned videos, and class material to help explain or analyze experiences; does not demonstrate the ability to connect experiences to later outcomes using research and class material; unable to link experiences, behaviors and perceptions to research and class material.
Background details (10%)
Good-Superior: Meets or Exceeds Expectations
___Provides key details of the experience being analyzed in a logical and easy to understand manner
Average: Somewhat Meets Expectations
___Provides some details of the experience being analyzed but not enough to allow the reader to fully grasp the implications when theory and research are applied
Below Average: Does Not Meet Expectations
___Provides few details of the experiences being analyzed; omits key information; presents the information in a disorganized manner
Conventions and Organization (10%)
APA style
Good-Superior: Meets or Exceeds Expectations
___ Consistently used APA style within-paper citations and references included on the reference page
Average: Somewhat Meets Expectations
___ Made some APA style within-paper citation errors and/or errors in the references included on the reference page
Below Average: Does Not Meet Expectations
___Did not use APA style for within-paper citations and/or references included on the reference page
Grammar, spelling, editing
Good-Superior: Meets or Exceeds Expectations
___ No grammatical errors, misspellings, omitted words, etc. Did an excellent job editing their analysis paper
Average: Somewhat Meets Expectations
___ Some grammatical errors, misspellings, omitted words, etc. Missed a few things when editing their analysis paper
Below Average: Does Not Meet Expectations
___ Many grammatical errors, misspellings, omitted words, etc. Did not demonstrate their ability to edit their analysis paper
Organization
Good-Superior: Meets or Exceeds Expectations
___ Paper is well organized with strong introductory paragraph, good transitional statements between paragraphs or sub-sections (good flow) and strong conclusion
Average: Somewhat Meets Expectations
___ Paper is somewhat organized; may have somewhat strong introduction and conclusion but uses few transitional statements (no logical flow to the presentation of material)
Below Average: Does Not Meet Expectations
___ Paper is disorganized; material is presented randomly with no logical flow; conclusion seems unrelated to presented material
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