Review and identify the positions that developmental theorists take regarding the influences of gender, and describe what you believe influences gender identity most. Elaborate on your answer.

/in /by

Discussion Prompt 1

The Developmental Debate on Gender Identification

There is debate among developmental theorists as to what influences thoughts and behavior related to gender. For example, what influences a child to play with a doll versus a truck, or what influences a child to engage in active play versus passive play? Do we make these choices because of innate desires determined by biological factors, or is it because we have become socially conditioned to make certain choices? Review and identify the positions that developmental theorists take regarding the influences of gender, and describe what you believe influences gender identity most. Elaborate on your answer.

Discussion Prompt 2

Learning Language

Some experts emphasize the importance of adult reinforcement of early speech, others suggest that language learning is innate, biologically wired, while others believe it to be a biproduct of social impulses. Reflect on this week’s video, Out of the Mouths of Babes. Which language development theory does this video emphasize, and how can you tell? To support your answer, provide an example of one of the experiments conducted and explain how it fits in to the learning theory process you identified. What position do you take on the matter of language acquisition, and based on that position, would you advocate that parents read to children even before they start to talk? Explain your rationale.

Review several of your colleagues’ posts and respond to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week.

/in /by

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, please watch the Virtual Clinic  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. video and review the Guidelines for the Practice of Telepsychology (2013). Be sure to also read Baker and Bufka (2011), “Preparing for the Telehealth World: Navigating Legal, Regulatory, Reimbursement, and Ethical Issues in an Electronic Age,” Harris and Younggren (2011), “Risk Management in the Digital World,” Luxton et al. (2014), “Best Practices for Remote Psychological Assessment Via Telehealth Technologies,” and Gros et al. (2013), “Delivery of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy via Video Telehealth” articles.

In your initial post, provide an evaluation of the efficacy of using telehealth with mild, moderate, and severe mental health disorders. As part of your evaluation, assess the integration of evidence-based practices into the telehealth trend in psychotherapy. Consider the population, specialty, and treatment preferences you identified in the Week One Creating a Specialist Website interactive assignment, and assess the appropriateness of using telephone, text-based, virtual clinics, and/or video telehealth given your client focus, specialty, and treatment preference(s). Analyze ethical and professional issues you might encounter and explain the risks and benefits of using these delivery methods with your identified treatment population.

Guided Response: Review several of your colleagues’ posts and respond to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful interactive discourse in this discussion.

In your responses to your peers, consider the evaluation provided by your colleague and explain whether or not he or she provided sufficient information on the appropriate uses of e-therapies with mild, moderate, and severe mental health disorders. Recommend other mental health disorders that might be best treated with this type of therapeutic modality. Suggest other evidence-based practices your peer may not have considered in his or her assessment.

Consider the population your colleague identified and explain whether or not the geographical location of that population would impact his or her ability to deliver e-therapy. Suggest any additional ethical and/or professional issues your colleague might encounter in the delivery of e-therapy with the identified population, as well as any additional risks and/or benefits e-therapies might have.

Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 5:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST) on Day 7 of the week and respond to anyone who replies to your initial post.

 In addition, you should discuss whether the explanations offered by the different perspectives are complimentary to one another or contradict one another.

/in /by

Your task is to select ONE psychological topic you find particularly interesting. This may be a topic we have covered in the course or a psychological topic we have not covered.  You will then examine this topic from three different philosophical or theoretical perspectives within psychology.  For example, you could examine your topic from any of the following philosophical perspectives: physiological, behavioral, cognitive, social, humanistic, evolutionary, psychoanalytic, etc).  Alternatively, you could opt to examine your topic more specifically using three different theories, which may or may not differ in their philosophical perspectives.  For example, imagine that you choose “bullying” as your topic.  You could examine how bullying is explained from a biological, behavioral, and social perspective (three different philosophical perspectives).  Alternatively, you could choose to examine how three different theories attempt to explain bullying.  Two of these theories might be theories from a “social” perspective and one might be a theory from a “biological” perspective.

In either case, you must utilize and cite original sources for those perspectives in your analysis/discussion. This means that you must research your topic to find three different explanations for your topic. Your analysis cannot be based on personal opinion alone.

Write-up: Your write-up should begin with a general overview of your topic and the reasons why it is particularly interesting or relevant to you.  This introduction should be followed by an analysis of your topic from three different philosophical or theoretical perspectives.  Your analysis should demonstrate a general understanding of your topic and the fundamental principles used by each philosophical or theoretical perspective to explain that topic (using at least three academic sources outside of your textbook as source material).  In addition, you should discuss whether the explanations offered by the different perspectives are complimentary to one another or contradict one another. Finally, your analysis should include your own personal reflection of these perspectives and an informed assessment of what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each based on your research of them.

THE CRITERIA:

Review the grading criteria for this assignment on the attached grading rubric (see page 3) to understand what you need to address in your case study to earn points on this assignment.

Your Completed Assignment MUST Include:

1) Identification and description of ONE psychological topic that interests you.

2) A 2-3 page write-up (12 point font, double-spaced and 1 inch margins) in which you examine this

topic from THREE different philosophical or theoretical perspectives within psychology (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, social, physiological/neuroscience, evolutionary, psychoanalytic, etc).

3) Full citations (in text and in a Reference list) for all research sources used in this assignment in APA

format.

Complete 12 rows in the table following the style of the examples in the first two rows. Following the table in the same Word document, write a reflection paper according to the instructions below.

/in /by

Instructions

The table you will be asked to complete provides you the opportunity to evaluate your progress in the areas of skills, knowledge, and attitude with which you started the course. The table also gives you an opportunity to propose the level of change or improvement you would like to see in one to two years from now. The reflection paper provides you with an additional way of looking at the changes which have taken place in your thinking or even in your life since the first week of this course.

  1. Download and open the Progress Table in the Week 8 Books and Resources area.
  2. Complete 12 rows in the table following the style of the examples in the first two rows.
  3. Following the table in the same Word document, write a reflection paper according to the instructions below.

Reflection Paper Instructions

As part of the Week 1 assignment, you were asked to reflect on the Lao-tzu quotation (as cited in Lee, Haught, Chen, and Chan, 2013) that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It is now nearly eight weeks since you were introduced to that quotation and completed your reflection. This Signature Assignment provides you with the opportunity to further reflect on your decision to take that first step and your path since that time. Please write a minimum of a three-paragraph reflection of the changes which have taken place in your thinking or even in your life since that first week.

Length: 12 entries on the chart and a minimum of a three-paragraph reflection paper, not including title and reference pages