1Psyc 230 (Sec 02): Lifespan Developmental Psychology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Semester: Spring 2007 Lecture Time: Tuesday, Thursday 2:00-3:15 Lecture Room: Young Hall Rm 411 Course Professor: Name: Jenessa Steele, PhD, Asst. Professor, Psychology, Experimental Program Office: Washington Hall B15 (Basement) Phone: 831-5256 Email: [email protected] Website: www.radford.edu/~jcsteele (where all class information is found, minus grades) Office Hours: M-F 8:45am – 9:45am, or by appointment. I am also typically available the hour before or after your class. GENERAL COURSE POLICIES Course Description: Psyc230 Lifespan Developmental Psychology provides a survey of human development with emphasis on change in physical, cognitive, and social-emotional processes. This course emphasizes lifespan developmental psychology theory and concepts, developmental research methods, cultural differences, and application of empirical findings in human development to real world issues. Student Learning Objectives: With the successful completion of this course, students should have a sound understanding of the psychological, physical, and socio-emotional aspects of human development. Among the learning objectives for this course include the following: • Gain knowledge regarding lifespan developmental psychology theory and concepts, as well as developmental research methods commonly employed in empirical research. • Understand and demonstrate course concepts via, in-class verbal communication, in-class activities, written assignments and exams. • Research and critique current psychological, physical, and socio-emotional issues facing humans. Be able to coherently write and discuss potential changes in current issues facing human development and whether changes might be due to age, time, or cohort effects. • Understand the interacting roles of heredity and environment in human development. • Thoughtfully discuss moderating and mediating factors contributing to human development in addition to age group (e.g., family dynamics, gender, cultural, socioeconomic differences).2 Course Textbooks & Readings Santrock, J. W. (2007). A topical approach to life-span development (3rd Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Students are required to complete any assigned readings before the class in which they will be discussed. There will also be outside readings to be completed for the course topic discussions. All students should read and be familiar with the course topics. All readings related to course topics will be emailed to students a month in advance of the topic discussion day. Class Attendance and Participation • Students are required to complete assigned readings before the class in which they will be discussed. • Sometimes Dr. Steele will provide student handouts. If a student is absent the day a handout is provided, he or she must request the handout from Dr. Steele. Handouts are testable materials. • Regular class participation will be worth approximately 14% of your course grade. Thus, you CANNOT get an ‘A’ in this class, unless you come and participate in class! Class attendance and participation is expected. Students will be encouraged to contribute regularly through class discussions and activities. Although the textbook will help students’ understanding of research methods, in-class lectures and discussions will provide additional and testable material. Thus, students are encouraged to attend and participate in every class. Individual Class Participation I will award up to 10 extra credit points to students who are able to answer “point questions”. I will allow an additional 10 points of extra credit to be accumulated through extra in-class participation. Group Class Participation Another goal for this course is to allow you to learn from your fellow classmates. Thus, this class will hold 10 in-class activities worth 8 points each. In these activities, each group member will be expected to equally contribute to the activity. The activity will be related to class concepts and will likely demonstrate ‘real world’ scenarios and encourage critical thinking skills. Thus, the maximum points to be received for in-class group participation will be 10 days x 8 points = 80 points. These activity days will typically be unannounced. Class Assignments Students will be required to complete 1 take-home, written assignments of approximately 5-7 pages. This assignment is worth 80 points. The written assignment will ask you to consider multiple sides of a current life-span topic related to developmental psychology. Dr. Steele will randomly assign each student their topic and subsequent due dates. Papers will be turned in periodically throughout the semester as we discuss the life-span issues. COURSE REQUIREMENTS3Students writing papers on the relevant topic will be asked to report what they have found and help lead class discussion on the topic. Details regarding the assignments will be provided at a later date. However, it is expected that students read assigned readings related to the instructor-assigned topic and write a review of the literature on the topic using APA writing and referencing style. The assignment will likely require you to consider issues in life-span development (e.g., cohort effects, stability/change, plasticity, etc.), as well as compare two or more age groups on the topic. Students will receive required readings and questions to answer on the life-span issue one month prior to the paper’s due date. The day your paper is due, we will discuss the topic as a class. Dr. Steele will call upon students who wrote on the particular topic to report on what was found. Late assignments will be deducted 5 % of the total points each day the assignment is late. EACH ASSIGNMENT IS TO BE GIVEN TO THE INSTRUCTOR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS DAY IT IS DUE. Life-Span Topics To Be Assigned: Cognitive Development: Alzheimer’s Disease Emotional/Personality: Development: Shyness Social: Eating Disorders End-of-Life Development: Caregiving Exams Students will be given 5 in-class exams throughout the semester. You will be allowed to drop your lowest exam grade, for a total of 4 exam grades toward your grade. Each exam will be worth 80 points, totaling 320 points for the semester. Exams will consist of 40 multiple-choice questions worth 2pts each. The final exam for this class will be