1. A typical, straightforward research paper. The topic is to be of your choosing, as long as it pertains to developmental psychology. Some sample topics would be: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Alzhiemer’s Disease, Schizophrenia, Prematurity, Learning Disabilities, Intelligence Testing, Autism, Erikson’s Theory of Development, etc.

2. If you aren’t interested in doing a straightforward research paper, you may like the second option. The assignment is to choose a character from a TV show, Movie, or Book and apply either Erikson’s or Freud’s Personality Theory (or Theory of Development) to the character. The idea is to show the character’s personality (or life development) through the eyes of the theory you choose. When I wrote this paper, for example, I used the character ‘John Doe’ from the movie Seven, and applied Freud’s theory of personality to the character. The paper requires you to explain the theory in detail, and explain (using examples from the movie, TV show, or book) the character’s behavior/personality/development