The staircase model Essay!Final Paper Project – With More Details than Description in Syllabus For your final project in class, you will have a choice of conducting and analyzing an interview of a dyad (i.e., pair of people, such as a romantic couple or s

Your proposed questions should be based on the important aspects of the topic or concepts, and you should plan to ask 5-10 open-ended questions. For example, you might choose to investigate relational termination by interviewing two people who used to date but have broken up. You might construct questions that relate to things like reasons for breaking up, the stages of dissolution, and dissolution strategies. You can choose to interview the dyad together or separately, depending on what you think is best for your topic. Aim to have the interview(s) last 30-60 minutes. I highly recommend recording the interview, with the participants’ permission of course, or at least taking very detailed notes to help you remember what you talked about later.
Once you’ve conducted the interview, you should analyze it by thinking about how the participants’ responses related to the concepts from your topic, and what general ideas or takeaways there are in their responses. In the example of a former couple, you might find that they identify particular reasons for breaking up, or that their breakup is more consistent with catastrophe theory (i.e., a sudden breakup) than with a process model (i.e., a gradual breakup). These conclusions and insights will form the basis of your paper.
For your paper, you should have 3 sections (Each will be a main heading within the paper:
1. Literature Review: Provide an overview of your topic and summarize research
related to it. What is already known about your topic?
2. Interview Analysis: First begin by briefly discussing who you chose to interview, how
you approached the participant(s) about participating. How you interviewed them (i.e. in person, Skype, phone, chat, etc.). How your interview went and what types of questions you asked should also be covered. Then relate the concepts you discussed in your literature review to your interview. Focus on being specific about what concepts apply to your dyad, how they apply, and why. Remember that you are making arguments for how the concepts apply and how well they apply (or do not apply), so in addition to identifying these things you should also provide reasons for your analysis. Direct quotations from your participants will be helpful in doing this, too.
3. Conclusion: Conclude by commenting on what you or others can learn from the dyad/interview. For example, does the interview highlight the importance of a particular concept? Should the dyad have done something differently? If so, what? (Think of this as your conclusion—what can we learn or take away from your analysis?)
Your paper should include a minimum of 5 scholarly, peer-reviewed sources from outside the class. These sources may come from the annotated bibliography assignment or may be new sources. You can also use the class textbook, but it does not count as one of your 5 sources.
Your paper will be graded on the following criteria:
 Literature review (50 points): Fully and coherently integrates the literature
reviewed. Includes sources that are relevant and appropriate to the topic. Demonstrates a full understanding of the literature reviewed and its underlying concepts. Goes beyond the material covered in class (a classmate who reads the paper should learn something new).
 Interview analysis (50 points): Accurately and insightfully applies the relevant concepts to the interview, in a way that demonstrates your understanding of those concepts. Convincingly argues for your analysis. Goes into sufficient detail and provides a thorough analysis.
 Conclusion (30 points): Provides insightful, compelling conclusions and recommendations based on the analysis. Conclusions and recommendations are clearly based on the concepts from the literature review. Goes beyond the obvious conclusions/recommendations to make new insights or draw new connections.
 Writing and style (20 points): Scholarly writing (following APA) throughout, absence of informal writing. Writing is clear, concise, direct, and free of grammatical and spelling errors. Follows paper formatting requirements (title page, margins, font, spacing, page limits).