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hdfs 501 human development theories
4 hours (lecture-discussion)
Fall Semesters
Course objectives
The intent of this seminar is to engage students in critical examination of the theories and theoretical issues of human development. In contrast to courses that aim at conveying a large amount of information about a field, the objective of this seminar is to give you the opportunity to think critically about this field's major ideas. Additional aims are to sharpen your basic skills for reading, discussing, writing, and analyzing ideas in the field, and your skills for formulating sound concepts, theoretical frameworks, and hypotheses for use in research and applied work.
For the bulk of the seminar we consider a number of the major theorists (e.g., Piaget, Freud) and theoretical approaches that provide accounts of child and adolescent development. The objective is to take a fresh look at these accounts to see what each has to offer. As a part of this process we also examine how the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, biology, and sociology draw attention to differing processes in human development, with the goal of understanding how they compliment (or contradict) each other. At the end of the seminar, we shift focus from childhood and consider what these differing theories and disciplines have to say about human development in adulthood.
Topics
- Development, Theory, and the Relationship between Theory and Research: Mead and Bronfenbrenner
- Cognitive Models: Piaget and Vygotsky, culture and language, learning and information processing
- Emotional Models: Freud and Erickson, relationships as development contexts
- Biological Models: Evolution and ethology, behavioral psychology,
- Sociological Models: Social constructivism and the life course,development and community
- Multidisciplinary Perspectives: Combining viewpoints, examining adulthood, reconciling lived experience and theory
Assigned text and readings
Miller, Patricia, (2002). Theories of Developmental Psychology , 4th Ed., Worth Pubs.
HDFS 501 readings packet
Graded activities
Weekly analysis papers (13)
Essays (2)