Students in my PSY 245 Human Growth and Development class are required to submit their personal “Life Story” at the end of the semester. This assignment is reflective in the class theme of human development being a “journey” which we all experience developmental stages which have great influences on our lives. Students are asked to write their own autobiography, memoir or personal life history. It should reflect a combination of what they remember of their lives (memoir) and a history of their life events (autobiography).
Headings could include the following:
My Beginnings
My Neighborhood
School Days
Work
Romance and Marriage
War and Peace
Triumphs and Tragedies
Wisdom
Humor
Gratitude
Other headings could be:
Critical Events
Peak Experiences
Turning Point
Earliest Memory
Personal Ideology
Below is an example of a students’ “Life Story” submission.
Student Submission Life Story Psych 245
In PSY 101, topics are covered which attempt to describe human behavior. Discussions include differences within personality traits, learning and behavior, emotions, and states of consciousness, to mention a few . For their final papers, I ask students to submit their “Insights and Reflections” of what they learned about themselves at the end of the class.
Below is an example of a student’s “Insights and Reflection” submission.
Salvatore Buffo 