Developmental Psychology

Module overview

This module will develop your understanding and knowledge of development across childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. We will present historical and current research studies and explain how these link to related theoretical frameworks.

The module will explore basic issues in the study of development including social and emotional development, language and cognition. For each area of development, we will explore key changes in development including infancy, preschool, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age.

The main areas of development we explore include; (i) birth and early infancy (e.g., early perception and learning, early experiences); (ii) social-emotional development (e.g., development of emotion recognition and expression, understanding and regulation of emotion, development in the context of relationships with parents and peers); and (iii) cognitive development (development of perception, language, cognition, developing minds, intelligence).

For this module it is recommended that you have prior knowledge in Psychology, which could be through successful completion of one or more from PSYC1016, PSYC1017 or PSYC1018.

Pre-requisite for PSYC3053, PSYC3057, PSYC3069

Linked modules

Pre requisite: PSYC1016

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

different theoretical perspectives/models and relevant research evidence which psychologists use to characterise change across development and use to consider underlying processes and mechanisms which explain change across development.
psychological developmental across the life span in social, emotional, cognitive and language domains.
core issues and methods in the study of development and measure of change

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

critically evaluate research papers in this area
independently research topics in developmental psychology

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

select and apply relevant material to effectively communicate coherently and critically about theoretical and empirical issues in developmental psychology
apply learning to other areas of psychology and related disciplines and to relevant career pathways

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

The module is delivered across lectures and tutorials. You attend two tutorial sessions that focus on the module’s written assignment.

Lectures: We deliver lectures in a double session once a week across Weeks 1 to 11. Week 12 is a reading week, supported by a 1-hour online revision lecture. Lectures will include the delivery of core material. They will also use key figures and video material to aid understanding. In order to encourage active learning, some sessions will use classroom activities, including student questions and quizzes. We invite a number of guest lecturers.

Tutorials: There will be two tutorial sessions focused on the module coursework assessment.

Online Q & A: There will be an online question and answer session to support questions about your coursework.

Other: To aid revision, multiple choice quizzes and in class discussions are held.

Study time
Type	Hours
Independent Study	124
Teaching	26
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Other. There are a number of excellent Developmental Psychology textbooks available in the library covering the lecture topics, many of which are accessible online. Indicative texts for this module include, but are not limited to, the following two resources: •Boyd, D. & Bee, H. (2019) Lifespan development (8th edn). Harlow, England: Pearson. Available in print and as eBook: https://southampton.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1223879486 •Berk, L. E. (2014) Development through the lifespan (6th edn). Boston, MA: Pearson. Developing independence You are now close to the end of the second year of your degree and preparing for your third year. At this level, we expect you to make independently informed choices to support your learning and no longer rely solely upon the recommendations by lecturers as your primary sources of information. Please view these as a starting point to guide your further study. To demonstrate independence, make sure to identify and read relevant journal articles which are available through the library. We want to develop conversation and dialogue about topics in developmental psychology. To this end, we encourage you to discuss questions with us in sessions and office hours and amongst yourselves. Lecturers may provide suggestions for key readings linked to their topics. We use the module Blackboard site to make the module handbook available to every student. This contains all the relevant information including the aims and objective of the module, weekly topics, details linked to the module assessment, etc. The Blackboard site also includes lecture PowerPoint slides available for each week. We also use Blackboard for any additional material where relevant.

Assessment

Assessment strategy

You will be assessed through one piece of coursework, an end of module exam, and research participation.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Research Participation	2%
Assessment	53%
Critical Analysis	45%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Exam	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External