Individual Development(PS2201)
Module Leader: Dr Heather Price
Main aims:
This programme takes a psychosocial approach to development throughout the life programme. We aim to build upon what you have learned in PS1201 in the first year. You will receive a solid grounding in the theories and debates of developmental psychology, as well as more recent critical approaches to the topic of development. We place an emphasis on the social nature and context of development, and although the focus is primarily psychological, we stress the potential unity of the social sciences, and its value in understanding human development as a social and a cultural as well as a psychological phenomenon. Where appropriate, relevant issues in current social policy and political debates which touch on development are included .
Main Topics
The programme covers the following topics :
- Nature/nurture debate;
- deconstructing notions of childhood;
- cognitive development; moral development; language and culture;
- social construction of stages of life;
- 'race' and ethnicity;
- gender identity; adolescence;
- aging;
- critical perspectives on developmental psychology
