Saint Leo University PSY325 Developmental Psychology

Course Description: A survey of the major areas in human development with an equal emphasis placed on child, adolescent, and adult development. The course examines developmental changes over the entire life-span and the processes underlying these changes. All major areas are reviewed including biological, cognitive, language, personality, emotional, moral, social, and career development. This course is an upper level elective course in the major. It is a course that is highly desirable for students in Social Work, Education, Human Services, Pre-Med, and Pre-Nursing. The sub-discipline of Developmental Psychology also draws heavily upon almost every other field in psychology. Prerequisite: PSY121 Textbooks: Berk, L. E. (2014). Exploring lifespan development (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-205-95738-5 Course Objectives: Developmental Psychology is perhaps the most interdisciplinary field within psychology. It encompasses genetics, learning, physiological psychology, perception, cognitive psychology, intelligence, personality, gender issues, social influences, and psychological disorders. It uses a similar methodology as other fields but also utilizes some innovations specific to human development research. This course is a lifespan development course. That is, it will examine in detail how we develop physically, mentally, morally, and socially from the moment of conception through adulthood and old age. Our objective is to explore the interrelations listed above and to develop literacy in terms of developmental issues and research. It is important that students understand the interrelations of psychological research as they are applied to the domain of life-span development. In this course, development is viewed from many perspectives. Thus adequate treatment of issues in regard to parents,