PSY 311 Course Layout.xlsx

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1	PSY 311 Child Develoment Course Layout		PSY 311 Child Development Course Layout © 2025 by Zoe Johnson-Ulrich is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
2			Link to creator profile: https://www.eou.edu/psych/psychology-faculty/
3	Course-level objectives:
4	Program	1. Describe major theories in developmental psychology.
5	P	2. Connect developments in biological, cognitive, emotional, and personality-social domains.
6	P	3. Identify major developmental accomplishments for each phase of life from infancy to adolescence.
7	P	4. Adopt the logic of experimental design (and, particularly, developmental designs).
8	P	5. Use web-based resources in psychology and connect research to theory.
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10	Gen Ed	1. Employ basic terminology and explain concepts of the psychology of child development.
11	GE	2. Identify key theories, and their historical progression, in child development.
12	GE	3. Read and evaluate primary and secondary sources of writing within child development.
13	GE	4. Describe sociocultural and historical influences on developmental psychology.
14	GE	5. Draw conclusions based on available evidence and in a way reflective of the modes of research and argumentation in the discipline of experimental psychology.
15	GE	6. Critically evaluate theories and research evidence, and make connections between areas of development (personality, biology, social, cognitive) as well as between psychological descriptions of child development and other disciplinary approaches (philosophy, anthropology, education).
16	(I did not write any of these outcomes; they were written previously when this course was added to our catalog.)
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18	How you understand the objectives:
19	KNOWLEDGE: P1, P3, GE1, GE2, and GE 4 all describe knowledge based outcomes; these are the things we want students to know and be able to describe.
20		Mastery is shown through 1) progression on weekly Quizzes and in-class discussions and activities and 2) Exams and Final Project.
21	CONNECTIONS: Some objectives ask for some deeper evaluation of knowledge: P2 and GE6 (making connections and critical thinking).
22		Mastery is shown through 1) progression on Journal Article Reactions, weekly Quizzes, and in-class discussions and activities and 2) Exams and Final Project.
23	PRIMARY SOURCES AND EVIDENCE: P5, GE3, GE5, and GE6 ask students to engage with evidence.
24		Mastery is shown through 1) progression on weekly Journal Article Reactions and weekly Experimental Design activity and 2) Final Project.
25	EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: P4 asks students to be able to design experiments themselves.
26		Mastery is shown through 1) progression Experimental Design activity and 2) Final Project.
27	Items in 1 scaffold to items in 2.
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29	Weekly Assessments:
30		Experimental Design assignment (complete in class on Mondays in groups)
31		Journal Article Reactions (submit online Thursday night, discuss in class Fridays)
32		Quizzes (due Sunday nights and cover the week's topics)
33		In-class discussions and activities.
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35	Mastery Assesments:
36		Midterm and Final Exam
37		Final Project (newsletter on topic within Child Development)
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40	Week	Topic	Narrative overview	Weekly Knowledge Objectives	Activities
41	1	Introductory Topics (Themes, Theories, and Research)	We will cover introductory topics (themes and theories in child development, contexts, and research methods) as well as the earliest developmental stages (prenatal and perinatal development).	Identify the periods and domains of development in childhood. Describe the major themes in developmental science. Summarize how views about childhood vary across times and cultures. Describe the main theories of development and identify theories from examples. Explain how contexts influence development, including the ecological systems model, cohorts, history, culture, and other identities. Identify and describe methods for studying development from summaries and primary research.	Icebreaker, in-class discussions, theory activity, research activity
42		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 1, sections from Chapters 1 and 2 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon), section from Chapter 1 of The Development of Children (Lightfoot, Cole, & Cole 8E)
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44	2	Genetics and Prenatal and Perinatal Health	We will cover how our genetics influence development with a brief overview of the biological of inheritance. Then we will discuss the first stages of development (reproduction and conception, prenatal development and health, the process of birth, and newborn health).	Describe how genetics influence development. Define genes, chromosomes, and DNA. Differentiate between genotypes and phenotypes and describe patterns of gene expression. Describe how mutation and recessive genes can lead to disorders. Describe some inherited factors that aren’t genes (epigenetics, microbiomes, and mitochondria). Explain how culture and inheritance work together to determine development (niche construction, ecological inheritance, and coevolution). Identify the periods of prenatal development (age and key terms). List problems that can occur during pregnancy for the mother and fetus. Describe how maternal and external factors can influence prenatal development. Describe the stages of labor, things that vary across cultures, methods for preventing pain, and interventions. Describe the newborn, how newborn health is assessed, and potential problems with newborns. Describe the experiences of new mothers and fathers (including post-partum depression) and the beginnings of family and parental bonds with newborns.	In-class discussions, Prenatal Health activity
45		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 2, sections from Chapters 3 and 4 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon), and a section from Chapter 2 of The Development of Children (Lightfoot, Cole, & Cole 8E)
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47	3	Physical and Cognitive Development in Toddlers	We will cover from birth to age 3: physical development (growth, sleep, feeding, brain development, health risks, and sexual development), motor development, development of play, sensory development, cognition and memory, and the development of language.	List changes in physical growth and explain how and why percentiles are used to measure growth. Describe how infants sleep and how it changes over time. List changes in brain development in infancy, including synaptogenesis and synaptic pruning. Describe how breastfeeding, malnutrition, and immunization influence infants. Describe what infants can sense when born and how it changes over the first two years. Hearing, vision, taste, smell, touch, and pain. Define fine and gross motor skills and describe the development of reaching and grasping and fine motor movements. List the ages at which motor milestones occur. Describe factors that influence motor development. Describe sexual development in infants and toddlers. Apply learning theories to infant cognitive development (Piaget, information-processing theory, and Vygotsky) and define key terms from each of these perspectives. Describe some of the issues with studying the development of object permanence (memory, perseveration, violation of expectations, and the role of experience). Explain the violation of expectation method. List the ages for different language and communicative developments. Define holophrases, over- and underextension, and fast-mapping. Describe different theories for language acquisition and factors that influence language learning.	In-class discussions, A-not-B error activity, visit from toddlers and cognitive activities
48		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 3, sections from Chapter 5 and 6 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon), and a section from Chapter 5 of The Development of Children (Lightfoot, Cole, & Cole 8E)
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50	4	Social and Emotional Development in Toddlers	We will cover from birth to age 3: the developing sense of self, temperament and personality, emotional development, social development, attachment, moral development, contexts of social and emotional development, and adaptive skills.	Describe self-awareness and the mark test. Describe the three different temperaments found in infants and how they can be influenced by niche construction and goodness of fit. Relate infant development to Erikson’s first two stages of development (trust vs. distrust and autonomy vs. shame and doubt). List ages of emotional development and describe synchrony and influences on emotional regulation. Describe when certain social milestones occur such as imitation, joint attention, and social referencing. Define attachment and describe theories of attachment (drive-reduction and Bowlby’s evolutionary theory). Describe the patterns of attachment and explain how the “strange situation” assesses patterns of attachment. Describe cultural influences on attachment. Describe the foundations of moral development. Explain how social contexts influence development. List adaptive skills for this age.	In-class discussions and attachment activity
51		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 4 and sections from Chapters 5 and 6 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon).
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53	5	Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Chilhood (Ages 3-6)	We will cover from ages 3 to 6: physical development (growth, sleep, feeding, brain development, and health risks, sexual development), motor development, sexual development, development of play, cognition, and the development of language.	List changes in physical growth in early childhood. Describe the brain development in early childhood. Explain how culture influences brain development. List nutritional needs and concerns for children. List examples of gross and fine motor skill development. Explain why children in early childhood are at high risk of harm due to accidents. Describe the information-processing approach to cognitive development. Explain the importance of executive function in cognitive development. Describe Piaget’s Preoperational Stage. Define mental operations, static reasoning, centration, irreversibility, egocentrism, and precausal thinking and give examples. Describe how children confuse appearance and reality. Define conservation and explain how children fail to understand it (and how this failure is influenced by centration and irreversibility). Describe some problems with Piaget’s theory of the Preoperational stage. Describe Vygotsky’s approach to cognitive development and contrast it with Piaget’s approach. Define the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, overimitation, private speech, and social mediation. Define privileged domains and explain how it contrasts with Piaget’s approach. Describe children’s naive psychology, including how theory of mind develops. Describe children’s naive biology. Describe children’s naive physics, including the gravity error. Describe language acquisition early childhood. List language and cognitive milestones and explain how overregularization, code-switching, pragmatics, and narratives emerge in early childhood. Explain the importance of play in childhood and influences on how children play.	In-class discussions, Preschooler cognitive activities with class visit from preschoolers.
54		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 5, sections from Chapter 7 and 8 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon), and a section from Chapter 8 of The Development of Children (Lightfoot, Cole, & Cole 8E)
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56	6	Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood	We will cover from ages 3 to 6: social and emotional development (Erikson, self-concepts and self-esteem, self-regulation, moral development, and neurodiversity), and contexts that influence identity, family contexts (parenting styles and culture), other social contexts (peer groups, friendships, and play), adaptive skills, and the effects of media exposure.	Describe how self-concepts, self-esteem, and emotions (including self-regulation and impulse control) develop in early childhood, including neurodiversity in social and emotional development. Describe Erikson’s third stage of development. Describe influences on identity development in early childhood. Describe Baumrind’s styles of parenting and their associated outcomes for children. Explain criticisms of Baumrind’s classifications. Describe types of punishment and their effects. Explain how peers affect development in early childhood (play, aggression, and prosocial behaviors). Explain how media exposure influences development in early childhood. List adaptive skills in early childhood.	In-class discussions and punishment methods activity.
57		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 6 and sections from Chapter 7 and 8 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon).
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59	7	Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood	We will cover from ages 6-12: physical development (growth, motor milestones, sleep, nutrition, exercise, accident prevention, sexual development, and other health concerns), cognitive development (Piaget and information-processing approach), intelligence (how to measure and define, theories of), school as a context of development, and languge development.	List influences on growth, sleep, nutrition, and health in middle childhood and list motor milestones. Describe sexual development in middle childhood. List changes in the brain in middle childhood. Describe the benefits of sports, art, theater, and music for both motor and cognitive skills. Compare and contrast different theoretical approaches to cognitive development in middle childhood (Piaget, Vygotsky, and the information-processing approach). Define concrete operations and identify cognitive abilities that Piaget noted develop in Concrete-Operational Stage. Classification, seriation, and metacognition. Describe Vygotsky’s ideas on cognitive development in middle childhood. Describe Bandura’s ideas on cognitive development in middle childhood. Explain how the information-processing approach accounts for cognitive development in middle childhood. Explain the difficulty in defining intelligence and define some terms related to intelligence (aptitude, general intelligence, and IQ). Explain how to calculate IQ and describe why the first IQ test was developed. Describe the WISC tests and what skills are included. Argue whether IQ tests are useful or valid and list critiques of IQ testing. Explain why it is not useful to compare IQ across populations. Describe two other theories of intelligence (Gardner and Sternberg). Describe ADHD, the specific learning disorders, and ASD and list causes and issues in diagnosis of these disorders. Describe how language continues to develop in middle childhood (vocabulary and pragmatics).	In-class discussions and Cognitive tasks for School-Aged children with class visit.
60		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 7 and sections from Chapters 9 and 10 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon).
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62	8	Social and Emotional Development in Middle Childhood	We will cover from ages 6-12: how identity and a sense of self continue to develop in middle childhood, emotional development and moral reasoning, social contexts of development and dangers, school as a context, and atypical development in middle childhood.	Describe Erikson’s Stage 4 (Industry vs. Inferiority) and explain how it relates to modern perspectives on developing a sense of self and self-esteem. Describe how self-concept and identity changes in middle childhood and describe the influence of social comparison on self-concept (and self-esteem and peer groups). List what self-esteem is associated with, the foundations of self-esteem, and cross-cultural perspectives on self-esteem. Describe how emotions and emotional regulation continue to develop. Define resilience and describe factors that buffer children from cumulative stress. Describe moral development and theories in middle childhood. Describe the social contexts of middle childhood, including social structures and popularity, family dynamics, aggression, bullying, and media influences and explain how they influence development. Explain what influences cooperation and competition in middle childhood. Describe the effects of childhood trauma. Explain the influence of school as a context for development. Describe atypical development and interventions in middle childhood.	In-class discussions and moral dilemnas activity.
63		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 8 and sections from Chapter 11 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon).
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65	9	Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence	We will cover from ages 12 to adulthood: physical development (growth, brain, nutrition, sleep, and health risks), sexual development, cognitive development (Piaget, Vygotsky, and the information processing approach), and language development.	Describe physical development in adolescence, including the effects of puberty but also general growth, brain development, nutrition and eating disorders, sleep, and other health risks. List biological developments of males and females in puberty (including primary and secondary sexual characteristics) and the role of hormones on physical and brain development. Describe how the brain changes during adolescence and the implications of these changes, including how the hypothalamic-pituitary (HPG) axis influences pubertal development. List influences on timing of puberty, and describe the effects of early maturation. Explain risks for adolescents as they begin engaging in sexual activities. Describe Piaget’s Formal Operational stage of cognitive development and define characteristic cognitive abilities of this stage (such as hypothetical and deductive reasoning). Describe Vygotsky’s perspectives on cognitive in adolescence. Describe the information-processing approach to cognitive development in adolescence. Explain why adolescents engage in poor decision making and risky behaviors. Describe how adolescents are egocentric and list some ways of thinking that result from their egocentrism. Describe how language develops in adolescence.	In-class discussions.
66		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 9 and sections from Chapters 12 and 13 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon).
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68	10	Social and Emotional Development in Adolescence	We will cover from ages 12 to adulthood: theories of adolescence (Piaget and Marcia), development of emotions, self-concepts, identity, and morals, as well as social contexts in adolesence (peers, romantic relationships, and family).	Explain how identity development continues . Describe Erikson’s 5th stage (Identity vs. Role Confusions). Describe influences on self-concept and self-esteem. Describe how several common types of identities form (religious, political, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities). List influences on emotional regulation in adolescence (both biological and social). Describe moral development in adolescence. Describe the social contexts of adolescence (peers and romantic relationships and related influences). Describe influences on adolescent sexual behavior (family, media, peers, and educators). List benefits and risks of internet technology use by adolescents. Differentiate between internalizing problems and externalizing problems that affect the health and well-being of adolescents. Describe how adolescents experience depression and delinquency. List risks of drug use for adolescents and effective ways reduce drug use by adolescents. List qualities that promote positive development in adolescents. Describe influences on adolescent-parent relationships and conflict.	In-class discussions.
69		Readings: Lifespan Development (OpenStax) Chapter 10 and sections from Chapter 14 of Understanding Human Development (OpenOregon).
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73		Full Reading References	Link
74	Main	Lifespan Development, 2024 (OpenStax) ISBN-13: 978-1-961584-53-2	https://openstax.org/details/books/lifespan-development/
75	Supplemental	Understanding Human Development, 2024 (OpenOregon)	https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/devpre2ad1e
76	Supplemental	The Development of Children by Lightfoot, Cole, & Cole, 8E 2018 (Worth Publishers)
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