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Theory of Change (Management)
Research and choose an international development project you find interesting. Using the
Development Impact and You outline from this week’s readings, create a Theory of Change for the
project you have presented, and answer the question, in what ways is the Theories of Change
approach a helpful tool for planning development programs?
Structure of the Paper (4-6 pages with at least 2-3 references in APA style), including the Theory of
Change diagram. Use the Development Impact and You template from the syllabus (including
assumptions) and not another format.
– Introduction
– Overview of the organization and project you chose
– Create and present a Theories of Change diagram for this project
– Present and assess the benefits and pitfalls with the Theories of Change approach
– Conclusion summarizing your key points
– References
******Please make sure to use these sources
Readings:
Stein, D. and Valters, C. (July 2012). Understanding “Theory of Change” in international
development’, Justice and Security Research Programme. Retrieved from
http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/JSRP/downloads/JSRP1.SteinValtersPN.p
Development Impact and You. (2011). I want to clarify my priorities by defining my goals and the
path to reach them: Theory of change. Retrieved from http://diytoolkit.org/media/Theory-of-ChangeSize-A4.pdf
Video:
+Acumen (July 2014). Lean for social change: Theory of change. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/99746940
Communication in Accounting
As a business manager, you may encounter situations that require a wide variety of
communication responses. For this assessment, you will be creating a portfolio of
communication documents. Please appropriately format each communication for the message
type.
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the
submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted
or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. An originality report is provided
when you submit your task that can be used as a guide.
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by
more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions
of the course.
Create a portfolio of communication documents based on one of the scenarios by doing the
following:
A. Compose a motivational email to internal staff that discusses two advantages and two
disadvantages of the product and explain how to mitigate the disadvantages should they occur.
B. Compose an informational email to external stakeholders (i.e., investors, shareholders) that
discusses two distinct organizational and/or financial impacts the product will create.
C. Compose a consumer-facing blog post that highlights three distinct benefits of the product and
informs the consumers what sets this product and/or business apart from others in the industry.
D. Compose a persuasive letter to the business partner to discuss their challenges in meeting
your production needs.
E. Compose responses to the customer complaint about the product that was posted on the
company’s social media page by doing the following:
1. Develop a public response that acknowledges the customer complaint and improves the company image within the social media page.
2. Develop a direct private message with a proposed adjustment (resolution) for the customer.
F. Evaluate the communication strategies and methods (i.e., email, letter, blog, and social media)
used in items A–E by doing the following:
1. Explain how the communication strategies support or do not support the desired outcomes
and provide examples to support your conclusion.
2. Explain how the four communication methods effectively or ineffectively serve the target
audience and provide examples to support your conclusion.
G. Acknowledge sources, using APA-formatted in-text citations and references, for content that is
quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
H. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.
Abnormal Psychology (Discussion)
Introduction to Abnormal Behavior
Psychologists agree that mental disorders are serious debilitating illnesses that affect the brain
and one’s ability to function daily. However, defining the term mental illness has its challenges.
The psychology field has multiple definitions of the term mental illness, but psychologists tend to
agree that mental illness affects a person’s thinking (cognition), behavior and emotional state.
According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual-5 (DSM-5; 2013), mental illness is defined by the
four criteria.
According to Durand and Barlow (2019), psychological disorder is a dysfunction associated with
distress or impairment in functioning that is not atypical or a culturally expected response.
However, defining and differentiating abnormal behavior from that of normal behavior can
present some difficulties. For instance, consider that depending upon a society’s mores and
norms, what is considered normal in one society may not be considered normal in another.
Another example is trying to determine a person’s level of dysfunction; it can include not
functioning normally in one or more areas such as cognition, emotion, and behavior. The
individual who cries a lot or the teenager that binge eats may be showing emotional dysfunction.
The individual must be showing personal distress for the behavior to be considered abnormal as
well; yet, how should a person’s level of distress be identified?
References:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
(5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Durand, M. V., & Barlow, D. H. (2019). Essentials of abnormal psychology. (8th ed.). Mason, OH:
Thomson Wadsworth.
To prepare for this week’s Discussion Board, review the following video in addition to this week’s
assigned Reading: