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• Student support
• Research
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• Choose Kingston
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Advanced Developmental Psychology

• Module code: PS6002
• Year: 2018/9
• Level: 6
• Credits: 30
• Pre-requisites: Successful completion of PS5002 Social, Individual and Developmental Psychology or equivalent
• Co-requisites: N/A

Summary

This is an optional module for Level 6 students who wish to expand their knowledge about child development. The module will cover a broad range of issues in developmental psychology including both examples of typical and atypical development, such as reading development and dyslexia, children's relationships and bullying, language in typical and atypical populations, sensory impairment, children's understanding of number and dyscalculia, children with Williams Syndrome, among other themes. The module will involve a combination of keynote lectures, interactive lectures and guided independent study during which current theories, methodologies and research will be discussed and critically evaluated. In addition, transferable skills will be fostered through student led interactive discussions and tasks.

Aims

• To develop the student's understanding of some of the current issues in developmental psychology including both typical and atypical development;
• To extend the students' critical appraisal skills;
• To foster transferable skills in group work, presentation skills, research capability (e.g., using literature databases to find relevant research in theoretical and applied psychological research), and written skills.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate a wide knowledge of developmental psychology with areas of specialization in depth and an awareness of the provisional nature of the state of knowledge.
• Demonstrate the ability to critically review research evidence supporting conclusions/recommendations including its reliability, validity and significance, and to investigate contradictory information.
• Identify and critically evaluate some of the key theories relating to typical and atypical development.
• Demonstrate key transferable skills including; working effectively in a group and alone, the ability to debate in a professional manner and produce written and oral work to a high standard.

Curriculum content

• Risk factors in development
• Learning to read
• Developmental dyslexia
• Children's understanding of number
• Dyscalculia
• ADHD
• Theory of Mind
• Autism
• Children with sensory impairments
• Children's peer relationships
• Bullying
• Emotional disorders
• Language in typical and atypical populations (e.g. Williams Syndrome, Specific Learning Impairment, etc.)

Teaching and learning strategy

A combination of 22 weekly three-hour lectures, each including a keynote and interactive component, will be used to introduce topics and to provide a structure for the students' reading. Students will be expected to make full use of psychology literature databases to find relevant empirical work and to use these readings to contribute to a full discussion of topics. The interactive lectures will be built around student-centered small group research which will utilize information covered in the keynote lectures and the students own reading and will encourage students to learn through application of this information to relevant problems and debates. Students will be encouraged to make use of tools that promote collaboration and student contribution, for example; blogs, discussion groups and student created groups.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Assessment strategy

Students will be encouraged to demonstrate the knowledge and critical skills they have acquired in a two-hour written unseen exam (50%) and an essay (50%). The exam will encourage students to identify and critically evaluate research and theories in areas of developmental psychology. The essay will require students to demonstrate key transferable skills such as analytical and critical skills. These will be initially practiced through contribution to interactive lecture discussions. Students will be required to work in groups on some weekly tasks and alone on others. An example of a task may be to find, summarise, and evaluate an article that is related to a set question. There will be opportunity for practice and feeding forward through these formative workshop tasks. These will allow students to collect up-to-date revision material for the exam (the second piece of assessment), as well as practice their written and evaluative skills and to acquire direct feedback from their tutor and their peers.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Elements of Assessment

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module

Bibliography core texts

• Goswami, U. (2011). The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development (2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Herbert, M. (2003). Typical and atypical development: From conception to adolescence. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Howlin, P., Charman, T., & Ghaziuddin, M. (2011). Handbook of developmental disorders. London: Sage.
• Lewis,V. (2003). Development and disability (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
• Smith, P. (2009). Children and play: Understanding children's worlds. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Bibliography recommended reading

Journal articles related to specific weekly topics will form the basis of the majority of reading on this module.