Choose ONE of the eight ground-breaking psychologists below as the focus of your essay:
*Sigmund Freud *Lev Vygotsky
*Albert Bandura *Urie Bronfenbrenner
*B.F. Skinner *Paul Baltes
*Jean Piaget *Ivan Pavlov
*Erik Erikson *Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Researching Your Topic
You are expected to be well-versed in the life and times of your chosen social scientist. This means that you
can provide, in YOUR OWN WORDS, a comprehensive summary of the psychologist’s childhood experience,
educational background, professional research topic(s) of focus, major contribution(s) to the world of
psychology, and later life (and death if your psychologist is deceased). You should read any and all reliable
sources regarding your chosen social scientist that you can get your hands on. The Plaza College library is a
great place to do this. Our librarian and her staff will be happy to help you locate newspaper articles, peerreviewed professional journal articles, and expert-written literature on the topic at hand. You should utilize
Ebsco Host and/or ProQuest to acquire these sources. Therefore, you will be submitting a complete essay with
in-text citations and a references page in APA format as your final report.
Depth of Discussion (Essay Outline)
Paragraph One: Introduction…. Draw Prof. ________ in by sharing some interesting statements about your
chosen psychologist on which you’ll elaborate within the following paragraphs of your essay.
Paragraph Two: Childhood Experience…. Time period and location of childhood, socio-economic status of the
family, type of upbringing (lenient, strict, religious, non-religious, etc.), components of family life (parents,
siblings, etc.).
Paragraph Three: Educational Background…. Early education details, higher education details, majors and
minors of study, etc.
Paragraph Four: Professional Research Topics
Paragraph 5: Later Life…. Did your chosen psychologist retire, or did he work until the day he/she died? How
and when did he/she die (if deceased)? What is your psychologist of choice doing these days (if still living)?
Paragraph 6: Conclusion…. Tie together all that you’ve mentioned regarding the life and times of your chosen
social scientist in some final, ending statements.