Can Spirituality in Children and Adolescents affect their mental comprehension?
Your paper should represent research both within psychology as well as within religious studies and should address items such as but not necessarily limited to:
1) What is the topic/theorist/phenomenon you’ve chosen to research? Why did you choose this topic?
2) Complete an exhaustive academic literature review of the topic. You should provide a high-quality literature review as though you were preparing a paper for journal or professional submission.
3) Describe historical approaches to the chosen topic. This may involve different theoretical perspectives, methodological concerns, historical developments, etc.
4) Are there methodological approaches to studying this topic or theory? Describe psychometric or experimental attempts to understand the topic/theory. What are the strengths and weaknesses of these attempts?
5) Describe controversies associated with your topic. How have researchers attempted to answer these? How have these affected the study of the topic?
Given the wide range of possible topics, papers will look somewhat different from each other, but each paper should have a thesis or theme that guides the reader through the paper.
Your paper should include an abstract as well to summarize your article to the reader. Good papers will demonstrate a thorough undertaking of research. Original thinking is highly valued, so take time to fully think through your paper before you attempt to write it—use your knowledge and skills about how to write an appropriate academic paper. Papers should ideally be between ten to fifteen pages in length—this is a general guideline, not a requirement (it is likely difficult to cover the topic in depth in any fewer pages). DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK QUESTIONS! You must use at least three academic sources outside of your textbooks for this class; you will likely have more (please note that reference materials such as dictionaries and encyclopedias [including online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia] are not academic resources). All citations need to be in a consistent, APA standard format—points will be deducted for poor citation skills and should be represented in both the body of your paper as well as in your Works Cited/Reference page. Plagiarism, intentional or unintentional, may result in your failure of this assignment and the course. Please visit http://www.ualr.edu/copyright/articles/?ID=4 for further anti-plagiarism information. Papers will be graded on quality of research and your presentation of the material in your paper. Points will be deducted for poor grammar, spelling, and form, all of which constitute 20 points available in the paper.