Developmental Psychology: Theoretical refinements, life-span perspective and applications

Welcome to PSYC 2015, Developmental Psychology. The purpose of this course is to provide you with an insight into the breath of developmental psychology and to give you the opportunity to explore the depth of the subject. The level of detail in this course will be more extensive and comprehensive than the knowledge that you gained after successfully completing pre-requisite Year 1 courses such as PSYC 1000 ‘Introduction to Psychology: Social, Developmental and Abnormal’. If you completed the course PSYC 1000 you are likely to recall that the topics covered included a brief discussion of the physical, cognitive and moral milestones over the life-span (from infancy to adulthood); the risk and protective factors associated with young people; the effects of the actions of young people on the attitudes and behaviours of other groups in society; issues affecting adolescents and young people including theories of personality; personality disorders; exploration of the theme of the self; and answers to the issue of self-identification and the question ‘Who Am I?’ The following strategies are designed to refresh your memory of the material covered in Year 1. There is overlap in the coverage areas of PSYC 1000 and PSYC 2015 this will help you to understand PSYC 2015 even if you did not complete PSYC 1000. The course text is written by Denise Boyd and Helen Bee (2012), Life-span development, 6 th edition, Pearson Education. A YouTube video is introduced in Activity 1.1 which reviews the principles of human development over the life-span. After viewing this video you should be in a better position to benefit from the advanced information on developmental psychology presented in Unit 1 and the expanded coverage in a number of key areas. Throughout the unit there is emphasis on viewing activities, reflective questions on the reading material, tutorial assignments and revision questions. These are geared towards enhancing your experience as an on-line learner and to encourage you to benefit from, and to contribute to, the information discussed in this unit and the other 9 units of the course.