How can I narrow down my EE topic? (Psych)

[richardjalba]

My topic is "To what extent can poverty impact a child's emotional development?", I know I know, It's VERY broad now that I look at it (it used to be "impact child development [in general]"). But I had already done a lot of research on it during summer vacation. My "rough" reaches near 5,000 words so I can bear to cut some information out.

Here's an old outline I used for the rough (excuse my weird formatting):

O. Intro Paragraph

M. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

- What is Maslow in regards to child development

- Poor home and community environments

- Family and Financial Structure

- Abuse

A. Effects of Child Abuse

- Child abuse in poverty threatens child d.

- What are the Four Types of child abuse

- Signals; parents who abuse, children who are victims

- Physical Abuse (short cause and effects)

- Child Neglect (short cause and effects)

- Sex Abuse (short cause and effects)

- Emotional Abuse (short cause and effects)

F. Family Structure

- Incomplete families do worse

- Divorce by father; poverty-family st. correlation

- Stresses among everyone

- Kuber-Ross' model (divorce-fashioned)

- Impact on child

- Impact on parent-child relationship

- More impact on child

G. Erikson's Theory

- Definition of Erikson's Theory

- Trust v. Mistrust Age 1

- Autonomy v Shame/Doubt Age 1-3

- Initiative v Guilt Age 3-6

- Industry v Inferiority Age 6-11

E. Extra Info

-1 general

- comparison of poverty and standard

-2 Family Systems Theory + info

- Poverty and Social Class influencing Family Functioning

- Family Stress in Poverty / Homelessness

-3 Poverty effects on health and nutrition

Please Help me make my topic narrow and appropriate!!!! XL

[abirkbeck9]

Hey, this is a great topic. One way you may be able to shorten it is by going back through your essay and reviewing to see if you had repeated anything or made any redundant remarks. Also, some of these topics in your outline may be shortened depending on what your going for as your final goal. Such as "divorce", that's a pretty broad range and maybe you need to look back at that exactly, as you did mention poverty having to do with a child's development and divorce on its own could be a whole EE.

I hope this helps. Good luck with the rest of your EE!