Main Objective of Term Paper
1) Explore in–depth your personal interest in Gerontology;
2) Demonstrate expertise in that specific area in Gerontology.
Ask a question that pertains to Gerontology, then provide “an answer” using empirical
results from professional publications. Peer–reviewed literature from other scientific
domains may be used (e.g., developmental psychology, personality/social psychology,
health, community, medicine & nursing (palliative care), and public policy).
· Topic/Questions must be pre–approved
· Length: 3–5 pages
· Three articles from professional journals that report research
studies (not popular magazines or web pages)
· APA Forma
Explain why you chose your research question and why it is an important one.
Provide a basic overview of the topic (i.e., definitions, where might you encounter
topic in life, frequency of topic, general research done on topic). Provide a
hypothesis of what you expect to find.
Method: (5 Points)
State the type of experiments/studies that were conducted in each of the
publications used. What questions were asked? What was being measured? How was it
being measured? How will the methods provide answers to your question? Who did
they sample? For instance, 200
undergraduate students from a liberal arts college were surveyed. Likert scales
surveys were used to measure well–being, a higher score meant more positive sense
of well–being; the participants were judged by three independent observers for
anxious behaviors, the higher the rating meant that they were exhibiting greater
anxious behaviors according to the judges.
Results and Discussion: (6 Points)
Explain the results and discuss them. What is your interpretation of the results?
How does everything fit together? What did you learn? What did you gather from
results? Where there any surprises? The results and discussion should be “the bulk”
of your paper. Add whatever you think is appropriate to support how you formulated
your conclusions.
Limitations and Future Suggestions: (2 Points)
Discuss any limitations encountered by the studies you reviewed in your paper.
Provide sug gestions about the possible future implications of the research and what
can be improved upon. Suggest a more “ideal” future study that would fill in some
hole in knowledge.
