Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon successful completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Describe the major biological, cognitive, social, and emotional changes that occur from conception to death.

2. Explain key issues in lifespan development.

3. Compare and contrast theories in lifespan development, and explain how developmental events can be interpreted through multiple theoretical perspectives.

4. Compare and contrast research methods used to study lifespan development, including the advantages and limitations of each approach.

5. Explain how factors such as gender, culture, socioeconomic status, historical context, and race help shape development.

6. Apply knowledge of development to real-world situations, from broad social issues to everyday experiences.

Students may demonstrate learning outcomes by any or all of the following:

1. Individual or in-group class presentations pertaining to the applications of concepts, theories or issues in human development.
2. Design and complete a research project that can take the form of a developmental interview, an observation or assessment through service learning.
3. First hand observation of children of all ages in the classroom, at home, or at a daycare, to identify patterns of growth and development.
4. Interviews or observations of adolescents or adults to identify patterns of growth and development.
5. Develop and maintain a Reflection Journal.
6. Scores obtained from essay and or objective tests.
7. Attendance, classroom participation, small group interactions.
8. Research and write about relevant topics.

The following content, organized with a chronological, topical, or mixed approach.

Intro

• Overview and history of the field of developmental psychology

• Introduction to the lifespan perspective

• Domains of development (i.e., biological, cognitive, social, and emotional development)

• Key issues

  • Nature and nurture

  • Activity and passivity

  • Continuity and discontinuity

  • Universality and context-specificity

• Theoretical perspectives

  • Cognitive theories including Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

  • Learning theories including operant conditioning and Bandura’s social learning theory

  • Systems theories including Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory

  • Psychosocial theories including Erikson’s psychosocial theory and Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s attachment theory

Research

• Methods of data collection

  • Self-report and other-report

  • Behavioral observation

  • Physiological measures

• General research designs

  • Descriptive 

  • Correlational

  • Experimental

  • Meta-analytic

• Developmental designs

  • Cross-sectional

  • Longitudinal

  • Cross-sequential

• Concerns with developmental research

  • Bias

  • Ethics

Physical Foundations

• Genetics

  • Classic Mendelian inheritance (including dominant and recessive patterns of inheritance)

  • Polygenic traits

  • Sex-linked traits

  • Chromosomal abnormalities and mutations

  • Kinship/twin/family studies

  • Behavioral genetics

  • Epigenetics

• Prenatal development

  • Periods of development and related outcomes

  • Teratogens

  • Prematurity

• Other aspects of physical development and how they relate to cognitive, social, and/or emotional development (e.g., how neural development impacts cognitive changes, the effects of chronic stress on health, etc.)

Cognitive Development

• Piaget

  • Advantages and limitations (including modern criticisms)

  • Central concepts of schemas, assimilation, accommodation, adaptation, organization, and cognitive equilibrium

  • Four stages of cognitive development, including milestones such as symbolic representation (e.g., object permanence)

  • Post-formal reasoning

• Vygotsky

  • Advantages and limitations

  • The roles played by social interactions and culture on cognitive development

  • Central concepts such as the zone of proximal development, social scaffolding, guided participation, self-directed speech, mental tools, the active role of the novice, the role of the more knowledgeable other, and intersubjectivity (e.g., joint attention)

• Intelligence

  • Different conceptualizations of intelligence (e.g., g or general intelligence factor, crystallized and fluid intelligence, multiple intelligences, primary mental abilities, triarchic theory of intelligence) 

  • Measurement and testing of intelligence across the lifespan

  • Criticisms and controversies around conceptualizations and measurement of intelligence

  • Stability and changes in intelligence across the lifespan

  • Genetic and environmental influences on intelligence (e.g., range of reaction, the roles of systemic barriers and interventions)

  • Other related concepts, including stereotype threat, mindsets, and praise

• Other aspects of cognitive development, such as the information processing approach, memory changes, and language development

Social and Emotional Development

• Attachment

  • Bowlby and Ainsworth’s attachment theory and stages, including attachment fears, behaviors, and the role of the attachment figure

  • Ainsworth’s strange situation and attachment styles

  • Factors that influence attachment styles, including temperament, goodness of fit, and caregiving practices

  • Attachment across the lifespan and associated outcomes 

• Social relationships

  • Relationship development patterns across the lifespan, including play, peers, friendships, crowds, cliques, and romantic relationships

• Emotion

  • Developmental progression of emotions

  • Changes in the experience of emotions across the lifespan, such as those outlined in socioemotional selectivity theory

  • Development of emotion regulation and coping strategies, including factors that influence these strategies

• Self, identity, and personality

  • Development of the self, including self-awareness, self-recognition, self-categorization, self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy

  • Development of identity, including Erikson, Marcia’s identity statuses, and consider ways group membership may influence identity development (i.e., ethnic identity, gender identity, sexual identity, moral identity, and career and vocational identity)

  • Development of personality over the lifespan, including the roles of temperament and life experiences. Using the lens of trait theory and other theories as relevant such as Erikson, Rothbart, social learning theory, and behaviorist theories

  • Social, cultural, biological, and cognitive factors that influence the development of the self, identity, and personality

Social Cognition and Morality

• Social cognition

  • Theory of mind, person perception, and perspective taking, including how nature and nurture (e.g., the role of continued practice) influence the development and maintenance of these skills

• Moral development

  • Affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of morality

  • Theories of moral development such as Kohlberg and Social Learning Theory, including critiques (e.g., Gilligan)

  • Consider modern research-based explanations of moral development

  • Moral socialization including parental practices that may promote or hinder prosocial and antisocial behavior

Gender and Sexuality

• The differences between the terms sex, gender, and sexuality

• Development of gender and sexuality across the lifespan, including the development of diverse gender and sexual identities

• Gender

  • Development of gender from the biological, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives

• Sexuality

  • Development of sexuality and sexual orientation across the lifespan

  • Psychological and social outcomes of physical and reproductive changes

  • Influence of comprehensive sex education on sexual health outcomes

Aging, Death, and Dying

• Changes in late adulthood, including physical, cognitive, social, and emotional changes, as well as the influence of lifestyle on such changes and the diversity of outcomes

• Theories of aging

• Selective optimization with compensation theory

• Aging stereotypes and their impact on older adults

• End-of-life decisions, such as palliative and hospice care, advance directives, and medical aid in dying

• Grief reactions and models of grief (both for the self and for others), and tasks of mourning, including the variability of reactions