PSY 121 - Developmental Psychology

Credit(s) 3.00
Lecture Hours: 3.00
This course examines the psychological, social, and emotional development of individuals across the lifespan, from infancy through late adulthood. Students will explore key theories of development, including cognitive, psychosocial, and biological perspectives, and analyze the factors that influence development, such as genetics, culture, and environment.

Key topics include physical growth, language acquisition, attachment, moral development, and identify formation. The course will also address the developmental challenges and transitions, such as those related to parenting, education, and aging.

SLOs:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of social science methods used in analyzing social phenomena in the diversity of human perspectives.
Demonstrate an understanding of human development throughout an individual’s lifespan.
Demonstrate an understanding of fundamental interrelationships between individual’s physical, cognitive and psychosocial developent during the following periods of the lifespan: prenatal, infancy and toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood.
Demonstrate a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach with an emphasis toward students who are pursuing objectives in education, medical arts, human services, and parenting.
Describe the life span as an ongoing developmental process involving both continuity and change, including the aspects of physical, cognitive and psychosocial development.
Identify different developmental events from the perspective of the major theories of development: evolutionary, learning/behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, sociocultural/contextual, humanistic.
Analyze human development issues with a cross-cultural approach, recognizing the similarities and differences between various cultural perspectives.