Within the context of the Parent Cognition Approach in Chapter 3 (pgs. 72-77), discuss two (2)
examples of parental cognitions (Table 3.3) that can have a powerful effect on parent-child
interactions within a specific developmental stage of your choice. Then, discuss (1) recommended
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parenting strategy in the literature to improve one’s ability to evaluate their own parenting. Why
might this be an effective approach within your selected developmental stage?
You must include 4 empirical research articles (NOT opinion, meta-analysis, review, or theoretical
articles or book chapters) which support the topic you selected. Do not simply summarize these articles
for your paper but extract the findings from the articles to then support and develop your ideas. If you
use some non-empirical citations, please include them in the reference page, but they do not count
towards your total empirical article goals. If you cite the lecture or the textbook (which should be kept
to a minimum), this does not count towards your 4 empirical research article goal, either. You may go
beyond the 4 empirical research articles, if needed, but 4 should be more than adequate for the paper.
1. Papers must be typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, Times New Roman, Font Size 12, with page
numbers. Do not put extra spacing between paragraphs, just double spaced throughout. If your
formatting is disrupted when you upload your Word document to Blackboard, you may save
your paper as a PDF and upload that document instead.
2. Page 1 – Please create a Student APA Title Page for your paper (See Purdue Owl for reference:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide
/general_format.html). This includes no running head on the Title Page but do include a running
head for the remainder of the paper.
3. Pages 2 through 4 – Using the prompt you selected, write a formal paper format (e.g., an
introduction paragraph, develop a strong thesis for the paper that guides the reader on the
goals of the paper in this introduction paragraph, provide supporting main ideas clearly
throughout the body of the paper, and end with a separate conclusion paragraph that
summarizes your paper and links back to the paper’s thesis), using references you found in your
empirical article search and material you have learned throughout the course (not from other
courses). Please do not go below or extend beyond the 3-page guideline for this section, as a
goal of this paper is also to write a complete and concise essay.
a. This is a formal paper, and the writing style should reflect this (i.e., do not use first
person language in the main portion of your paper).
b. Please APA Publication Manual – 7
th edition format for the paper, including putting a
title at the start of this main section of the paper and doing in-text citations.
c. Do not use subheadings within the body of your paper. This is a very short paper, and
your topic sentences in each paragraph should be strong enough to guide the reader.
d. As mentioned above, the 4 empirical research articles you find should be used to
support your main points in the paper and help you develop your ideas in your own
words. This paper is not a summary of the research studies you found. Instead use the
research findings to support the ideas you are trying to make.
4. Page 5 - Please also include a final self-reflection section that reflects the topic of the paper
within your own experiences with parenting and/or what parenting strategies you originally
thought you would repeat or change at the beginning of the course (i.e., what you wrote in the
Introduction Discussion Board Post). This self-reflection section should be for you to
demonstrate your reflective thinking, analysis of your learning experience in the course thus far,
and ability to make direct connections between the content of the course and your experiences
in previous courses, lived experiences, and/or future goals. You can use first person language in
this last self-reflection section of the paper and detail the process of your learning here. Please
do not go below or extend beyond the 1-page guideline for this section, as the goal of this selfreflection section is to write in a complete and concise manner.
5. Page 6 – Create a reference page of your citations using APA Publication Manual – 7
th edition
format. You may want to explore downloading and using a free reference manager to help with
your in-text citations and reference page formatting (e.g., Mendeley or Zotero) in Word.