Developmental Psychology

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 5
• Convenor: Emily Jones
• Assessment: a 1500-word essay (50%) and a 1.5-hour examination (50%)

This module reviews major theories of human development, including environmental and biological influences on development. It introduces social, emotional, perceptual and cognitive development during infancy, childhood and adolescence and considers how we evaluate the findings from experimental, observational, longitudinal and survey research.

The module aims to:

• provide an introduction to the main influences on social, emotional, perceptual and cognitive development during infancy, childhood and adolescence
• review major theories of human development
• evaluate the evidence from different research designs used in developmental psychology
• introduce you to both basic and applied perspectives on child development.
  

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• list the general themes that have been covered in the course
• list the main theories covered in each of the lecture topics
• critically evaluate each of the theories in relation to rival theories
• use research evidence to support or refute each idea
• evaluate the strength of research evidence in developmental psychology.