Topics in Developmental Psychology

Description

Content: The first section, taught by Dr Schlottmann, considers typical cognitive development, in particular the development of “higher” reasoning skills and the development of memory. The second section, taught by Dr Pingault, explores a variety of topics in typical and atypical socio-emotional development.  There is a focus on the role of the care-giving environment, the importance of both nature and nurture, and longitudinal approaches to studying psychological development. This module normally requires students to have taken the Year 2 module PSYC0016 Developmental Psychology (level 5), or a similar introductory module.  Students who do not have the pre-requisite should look at the Moodle page for PSYC0016 and skim the core readings to become familiar with the general approach, in preparation for the present module. Teaching delivery: This module is taught in 15 hours of in-person lectures spread over 10 teaching weeks (usually in the format of 5 2-hour sessions in one half of term and 5 1-hour lectures in the other half of term). Indicative Topics: Indicative lecture topics – based on module content in 2024/25, subject to possible changes: From formal operations to scientific reasoning, Logical reasoning, Memory development, Causal perception and reasoning, Gene-environment correlation & interaction, Perinatal influences on children’s development, Early deprivation in children’s development, Understanding developmental pathways: Longitudinal studies of development, Developmental trajectories of externalising behaviours, Child victimisation, The role of peers throughout social development. Module Aims: Students should learn about diverse cognitive, social and biological determinants of development and how the contribution of such factors depends on the domain of development. Students should know about recent theoretical approaches to child cognitive and social development and should come to appreciate the conceptual link between views of the adult mind (the end state of development) and theories of how we develop towards this end state.