UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
DEPARTMENT OF INTEGRATED PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT & FAMILY STUDIES PROGRAM
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT OF
SPRING
2007
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
2:30 - 3:45 Mon & Wed
Marsh Life Sciences 235
Code # 11923
INSTRUCTOR:
GRADUATE TEACHING FELLOW:
Lawrence G. Shelton
Talia Glesner
Living/Learning Center C-150
Talia.Glesner@uvm.edu
656-2008
656-9112
Lawrence.Shelton@uvm.edu
http://www.uvm.edu/~lshelton/
DESCRIPTION:
This course teaches a developmental ecological approach to analysis of
the family as a system in which individuals
develop.
Prerequisites: None.
TEXTS:
Galinsky, E. [1987]. The six stages of parenthood.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. [Originally published as
Between Generations.]
Shelton, L. G. [2007]. Develecology:
An introduction to Bronfenbrenner. Unpublished manuscript,
University of Vermont.
Additional readings will be on reserve through Bailey/Howe Library.
REQUIREMENTS:
Regular attendance and participation in class
discussion.
Reading in preparation for class.
Completion of occasional exercises in and out of
class.
An objective examination on ecological concepts--
the Eco-Exam-- on March 5.
Several writing assignments will be offered for
points. Some will be required, some optional.
A course evaluation.
A final examination [ at 11:45 a.m., Friday, May 4th
].
EVALUATION:
Points will be assigned to each exercise and exam. The course
grades will be based on total points accumulated across the semester.
Office Hours: Living/Learning C-150
Monday: 1:00 –
2:00
And by appointment:
Talia.Glesner@uvm.edu
Tuesday: 2:00 – 3:00
Or 656-9112 [e-mail is faster]
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY
CONTEXT
SPRING 2007
OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Our purpose in this course is
to develop an understanding of how families participate in the
processes of human development. We assume that all students have
at least a rudimentary understanding of how individual development
occurs, including the major stages, transitions, and domains. If
you have not had a course in human development and are not taking one
concurrently, you may need to do some additional reading to more fully
appreciate the complexity and implications of the material of this
course.
Our objectives include:
-- to learn Urie Bronfenbrenner's language for describing and analyzing
the relationships between a person's context and the person's
development;
-- to develop a framework of develecological principles to explain
changes in family structure and function;
-- to apply that language and those principles to our understanding of
--ourselves and our own development,
--development of other people in our culture, and
--current topics of interest in the world of
families;
-- to improve our abilities to think, discuss, and write about
the processes of development.
I assume that most students want to learn as much as possible. If
you want to earn an A in this
course, it will help if you:
-- Learn to think like Urie
Bronfenbrenner, as his ideas are presented in this course;
-- Apply his scheme to each exercise,
essay, and exam in the course;
-- Try to interpret all the readings
according to his scheme;
-- Write and revise with close
attention to what you are doing, and proofread all work;
-- Challenge yourself to think, to
apply the concepts, and to question them;
-- Eat well, stay healthy, keep up,
live an orderly life, and get a good night's sleep every night, but
especially before the exams.
In-class informal writing exercises
will be given randomly. They will be tied to the topic and the
readings for the day. Each will be worth a small number of points
and you must be present to do them. No make-up opportunities will
be provided.
Several formal writing assignments
will be offered, each worth a specific possible number of points.
These must be submitted on or before their due dates, and will not be
accepted after the due dates. All formal writing assignments must
be typed.
The Eco-Exam is an objective
exam on Bronfenbrenner's concepts. I will ask you to demonstrate
that you know his scheme and that you can apply it to interpret simple
case illustrations and examples. You must pass it with no more
than 5 mistakes, and you may take it as often as necessary to pass
it. The maximum number of points that can be earned by passing
the Eco-Exam will be 50 the first time, and decrease by 10 each time
you take it. Study for it and pass it early, so you won't have to
worry about it, and so you will understand ecological analysis and be
able to apply it as we proceed through the semester. You must
pass the eco-exam by April 25 to pass the course.
The Final Exam is a combination
of multiple choice, short answer and short essay questions. It
covers everything in the course. It will be worth approximately
100 points. The Final Examination is on Friday, May 4 at 11:45
p.m., in MLS 235. It will not be given earlier.
Grades for the semester will be
assigned by totaling all the points earned on all the
assignments. A minimum of 100 points will be required to pass the
course with a D. Beyond that, the distribution of total points
will be divided to determine specific grades. Students who earn
the highest number of points in the class will receive A’s, those in
the next group, B’s, and so forth. The class distribution of
points earned will be provided periodically, but it will not be
possible to predict semester grades until the end of the
semester. Clearly, regular attendance and doing the best possible
work on every assignment are the best strategy for earning a high
grade. Please note that some assignments are “optional”.
That means you do not have to do them. Just be aware that if you
don’t do them, you don’t get points for them, while students who do
them will earn points.
My job is to help you learn.
I welcome your suggestions about how to do that. I welcome your
questions at any time—before and after class, by e-mail, campus mail,
snail mail, phone-mail, or mental telepathy. Consult with me
after class. Make an appointment with me and ask your questions
in person. I make my own appointments, so leave a clear phone
message or send me an e-mail with some suggested times, and I’ll get
back to you as soon as I can.
If you have any special needs,
such as sitting up front, taping lectures, having other students share
notes with you, or opportunities to study overheads at greater length,
please let me know. I encourage all students to use the resources
of The Learning Cooperative to help with assignments. The Learning Coop
in Living/Learning offers workshops on study skills and taking
multiple-choice exams. Check their schedule now, and take
advantage of their opportunities. Check out
http://www.uvm.edu/~learnco/. The Writing Center is available to
help you with the writing assignments for this course. Tutors for
this course can be found through the Learning Coop as well. You
may also find it useful to join with a small group of other students in
the course to study together, discuss the readings, and share drafts of
your written work.
Talia Glesner is our Graduate
Teaching Fellow. Her job is to help me with the mechanics of the
course and to help you in any way she can. She will be happy to
answer questions, provide consultation, review drafts of assignments,
and schedule review sessions if you want. She will have office
hours as above, or you can call or e-mail her to schedule another time.
There is a web site for the
course, which will include the syllabus, outline, some of the
overheads, study questions, MP3 recordings of most lectures, and other
information. Materials will be posted on the site periodically
through the semester, so you will want to bookmark it and log on
regularly at http://www.uvm.edu/~lshelton/
.
Special Note about your e-mail:
When I e-mail the class, which I will do occasionally, I will use the
Registrar’s list of enrolled students. Messages sent by faculty
go automatically to your uvm.edu address. You are responsible for
all messages sent to this address, so be sure to check it
regularly. If you prefer to use another e-mail address, you must
forward your uvm.edu address to the preferred one. You may do
that through the UVM CIT web site. If you forward to Yahoo or
AOL, you must make sure to keep below your volume limit, or messages
will not get to your account.
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT SPRING 2007
APPROXIMATE SCHEDULE AND OUTLINE
DATE
TOPIC
ASSIGNMENT
Jan 17 INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Syllabus
Development
Context
Ecology,
System, and Ecosystem
Family
22 UNIT 1: ECO-ANALYSIS
The Person
& Development
Shelton, Sections 1 - 5
Activities
24 Relations
& Dyads
Shelton, Sections 6 - 7
29
Roles
Shelton, Section 8
Exercise One Due
31 Settings
& Transitions
Shelton, Sections 9 - 10
Feb 05 Systems
& Microsystem
Shelton, Sections 11 - 13
07
Mesosystem
Shelton, Section 14
Exercise Two Due
Garbarino, pp. 11 - 33
12
Developmental Trajectory
Shelton, Section 15
14
Exosystem
Shelton, Section 16
Exercise Three Due
19 Holiday, No
class
21
Macrosystem
Shelton, Section 17
26
Chronosystem
Shelton, Sections 18 - 22
28 Review
Mar 05 ECO-EXAM
07 Assignment 4 Due
Unit 2:
Families
DATE
TOPIC
ASSIGNMENT
Mar 07 UNIT 2:
FAMILIES
Definition of
Family
Garbarino & Abramowitz pp. 71 - 98
Spring Break
19
Dating and Relationships
Coontz; Hodder
21
Cohabitation
Schwartz; Slater; Devita-Raeburn
26
Marriage
Carrere & Gottman; Marano
28
Childbearing
Galinsky pp. xv - 118
Apr 02
Parenthood
Pierce
04 Parenting
Styles
Galinsky pp. 119 - 177
Chess & Thomas; Strauss
09 The Family
Microsystem
Bronfenbrenner 1985 & 1990
11
Discipline
Galinsky pp. 178- 282
16 Family
Values
Honig
18 Family
Constellation
Galinsky pp. 283-320
Assignment 5 Due
Renkl
23
Diversity
Robbins
25 Case illustration:
Divorce
Underwood; Hetherington; Hetherington & Kelly
Last day
to pass Eco-Exam: 20 points maximum
30
Illustrations and Extensions
Nance-Nash; DeAngelis
May 02 Review
and Wrap-up
May 03 Review
Session TBA
MAY 04
11:45 pm MLS 235
FINAL EXAMINATION
Friday
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT
SPRING 2007
OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
UNIT ONE: ECO-ANALYSIS
READINGS:
Shelton, L. G. [2007]. Develecology: An introduction to
Bronfenbrenner. Unpublished manuscript, University of
Vermont. [All]
Garbarino, J. [1992]. Children and families in the social
environment [2nd ed.]. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Pp. 11 - 33.
REQUIRED
EXERCISES
EXERCISE ONE: Due
29 January
Describe two very important molar activities you engage in.
Explain how these two activities satisfy the criteria in
Bronfenbrenner’s definition of molar activity. Your explanation
should convince us you understand the concept of molar activity
Maximum points: 5. [ This should take 1 or 2 pages. ]
EXERCISE TWO: Due
07 February
Do either a. or b.
a. Describe two important dyads you participate in with different
people. Then explain for each the properties of affect, power,
and reciprocity the relations exhibit.
b. Describe one important setting in your ecosystem. Then
describe the microsystem that exists in it.
Maximum points: 5
[ This should take 2 or 3 pages. ]
EXERCISE THREE:
Due 14 February
Pick three important settings in your mesosystem. Describe the
links between each pair of settings. How do the relationships in
Hypotheses 28, 34, 35, 36, 38, and 40 apply to these settings in your
mesosystem? Convince us you understand each hypothesis.
Maximum points: 5
[ This should take 2 to 4 pages. ]
Assignment 4:
1. Describe an important event or series of related events in
your life.
2. Explain the influence the experiences described had on your
life/development.
3. Translate your description into Bronfenbrennerian terms.
See if you can find within your description illustrations of each of
these:
an ecological transition
a molar activity
a change in developmental status
a change in a dyad
a change in a relation
a change in a role
support for proposition C or F
a change in a mesosystem
support for four of the Hypotheses.
Elaborate on the illustrations you find, to explain them.
Convince us you understand each concept. If you don’t find
illustrations, try choosing a different event to analyze.
This exercise should take you three to five pages, at least.
Maximum Points: 25
Due 7 March
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
SPRING 2007
Expectations For The ECO-EXAM
Remember:
the purpose of this unit is
to learn a set of concepts
and relationships among those concepts
that will help us understand
the relation between
a person's transactions in the environment
and
that person's development.
You should know:
• Definitions
• Hypotheses, as they relate to reality--not verbatim, but uses
or applications
• Connections between activities and development
• Types of dyads.
You should be able to answer these
questions:
What characteristics of dyadic interactions affect a person's
development?
If you wanted to make a relationship more [or less] developmentally
facilitating, how would you change it?
What characteristics of roles affect a person's development?
How do settings affect development?
If you wanted to make a setting more [or less] developmentally
facilitating, how would you change it?
What are the relationships between the mesosystem and development?
Between the exosystem and development?
The macrosystem and development?
How do each of these change over time?:
• a person •
activities • relations
• roles •
settings
•
microsystems • the
mesosystem • the exosystem
What experiences create a developmental trajectory?
You should be able:
to use the whole system to
<> interpret a brief news
story;
<> interpret articles about development; and
<> interpret your own
development.
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
SPRING 2007
Unit 1: Ecological
Analysis
Lecture Preparation Questions
These questions will help you enter the framework for the
lecture/discussion for the day.
Jan 17 What’s
this course about and what do I have to do?
22
What is a person, and what do people do that’s
important?
24
How do we describe relationships between
people? What is love?
29
How do we know what to do? Who does what?
31
Where are we? What are we doing
here? And how did we get here?
Feb 05 What
makes a system a system? How do people fit in systems?
07
How do my favorite places fit together?
12
What is a Developmental Trajectory and am I on
one?
14
Does what I don’t know about affect me?
19
Holiday, No class
21
What is culture? How do you know?
26
When time flies, what does it leave
behind? What does it take with it?
28
What do I not understand yet?
Mar 05 ECO-EXAM
07
Assignment 4 Due
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
SPRING 2007
UNIT TWO: FAMILIES
READINGS:
Bronfenbrenner, U. [1985]. The parent/child relationship and our
changing society. In L. E. Arnold [Ed.], Parents, children, and
change [Pp. 45-57]. Lexington,
MA: Heath.
Bronfenbrenner, U. [1990]. Discovering what families
do. In D. Blankenhorn, S. Bayme, & J. B. Elshtain
[Eds.], Rebuilding the nest [pp 27 – 38]. Milwaukee,
WI: Family Service America.
Carrere, S. & Gottman, J. M. [1999]. Predicting the future of
marriages. In E. M. Hetherington [Ed.], Coping with
divorce, single parenting, and remarriage [pp. 3-22].
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Chess, S. & Thomas, A. [1987]. Goodness of fit: The key to
healthy development. In Know your child [Pp. 54 – 70]. New
York: Basic
Coontz, S. [2004]. The world historical transformation of
marriage. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 974-979.
DeAngelis, T. [2005, December]. Stepfamily success depends on
ingredients. Psychology Today. 58-61.
Devita-Raeburn, E. [2006, February]. Lust for the long
haul. Psychology Today, pp. 41-42, 44, 47-48.
Galinsky, E. [1987]. The six stages of parenthood.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. [Originally published as
Between Generations.]
Garbarino, J. & Abramowitz, R. H. [1992]. The family as a
social system. In Garbarino, J. Children and families in
the social environment [2nd ed.]. [Pp. 71 – 98]. New York:
Aldine de Gruyter.
Hetherington, E. M. [2002, April 8]. Marriage and divorce
American style. The American Prospect, 62-63.
Hetherington, E. M. & Kelly, J. [2002]. Lessons learned in
forty-five years of studying families. In For better or for
worse: Divorce reconsidered. Pp. 275-280. New York:
Norton.
Hodder, H. F. [2004, November-December]. The future
of marriage. Harvard Magazine. Pp. 38-45, 98-99.
Honig, A. S. [2000]. Raising happy achieving children in
the new millennium. Early Child Development and Care, 163, 79-106.
Marano, H. E. [2000, March/April]. Divorced? Don’t even
think of remarrying until you read this. Psychology Today,
56-62.
Nance-Nash, S. [2004, February]. Managing a blended family.
Black Enterprise, Pp.
Pierce, A. R. [2002, February]. Who’s raising
baby? The World & I, 306-317.
Renkl, M. [2002, June/July]. Oldest, youngest, or in
between. Parenting. Pp. 82-86.
Robbins, R., Scherman, A., Holman, H. & Wilson, J. [2005,
Summer]. Roles of American Indian grandparents in times of
cultural crisis. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 12, no. 2, 62-68.
Schwartz, P. [2002, July/August]. Love is not all you need.
Psychology Today, 52-59.
Slater, L. [2006, February]. This thing called love.
National Geographic, Vol. 209, pp. 34-35, 38-39, 44-45, 48-49.
Strauss, M. A. [2001, Sept./Oct.] New evidence for the
benefits of never spanking. Society, Pp. 52 – 60.
Underwood, N. [2002, January 21]. The happy divorce: How to
break up and make up. Maclean’s. Pp. 25-29.
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT SPRING 2007
Assignment Five:
Preparation:
If you accepted and conscientiously applied Bronfenbrenner's
propositions and hypotheses, how would you raise children? What
would you do? How would you relate? What would you do to
create and maintain a developmentally facilitating microsystem for the
children you were raising? What would you do to make their
mesosystem as supportive of their development as possible?
Assignment:
Write six [6] rules for raising children, drawing on your understanding
of the role of the family setting and its context in children’s
development. Explain the significance of each rule and support
each rule with your understanding of Bronfenbrenner’s scheme.
Be specific and clear and support your rules. It may help to give
an example of what one would do in following each rule.
This assignment should be no more than 5 pages in length, typed,
double-spaced.
Clarity, organization, and literacy will be assumed.
Assignments will be evaluated for application of a Bronfenbrennerian
ecological analysis.
Talia and Larry are willing to read and respond to drafts as time
permits, up to April 13.
Maximum Points: 40
DUE: April 18.
HDFS
60
THE FAMILY CONTEXT OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
SPRING 2007
Unit 2:
Families
Lecture Preparation Questions
March
07 What
is a family? Who is in your family? Why?
19 What is
love? What kind of romantic dyadic relationship do you want?
21 What
changes when people move in together?
26 What
changes when people get married? What does marriage mean?
28 What is
different about long happy marriages? How can people stay married?
April
02 What
happens to relationships when people have children?
04 How are
fathers and mothers different?
09 How does
the microsystem reflect differences among people, such as gender and
temperament?
11 Why does it
matter how parents treat their children?
16 When and
how did your parents teach you to think?
18 Why are
oldest and only and middle and youngest children different?
Assignment
5 Due
23 How do
ethnicity and social class influence family transactions?
25 What
happens to the ecosystem of each family member when parents
divorce? Remarry?
30 Does
Develecology apply to every aspect of family?
May
02 What
haven't we understood yet?
03 Review
Session What should I ask?
MAY 04
11:45
pm
MLS 235 FINAL EXAMINATION
Friday
[Not included in the original
syllabus]
HDFS 60 THE
FAMILY CONTEXT OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
SPRING 2007
STUDY QUESTIONS
In all your reading, use develecological concepts to interpret the
author’s main ideas.
1. According to Bronfenbrenner, how do families affect the
development of children?
2. Translate "goodness of fit" into Bronfenbrennerian
terms. How and why would a "bad fit" affect a child's development?
3. How does the number of siblings in a family affect the pattern
of the microsystem?
4. Why, in Bronfenbrennerian terms, would older and younger
siblings be different?
5. How are African-American family values different from
European-American family values? What aspect of the ecosystem do
the differences relate to?
6. What factors in the mesosystem and the macrosystem affect
African-American families' ability to live according to their values?
7. How do the relationships between generations differ across
common ethnic groups? How do such differences illustrate the
influence of the macrosystem?
8. Translate Strauss’s view on spanking into develecological
terms.
9. How does the microsystem reflect differences among people,
such as gender, temperament, ethnicity, and social class?
10. How do fathers and mothers participate differently in the
family microsystem? What difference do fathers make in children's
development? Explain the difference in Bronfenbrennerian terms.
11. How would Bronfenbrenner describe the relationship changes
Carrere and Gottman suggest lead to divorce?
12. Use ecosystem concepts to explain what Galinsky's book is
about.
13. What kind of romantic dyadic relationship do you want?
14. What changes when people move in together? Get
married?
15. What is different about long happy marriages?
16. What happens to relationships when people have
children?
17. Why does it matter how parents treat their children?
18. Why are oldest and only and middle and youngest children
different?
19. What happens to the family when a child becomes an adolescent?
20. What happens to the ecosystem of each family member when
parents divorce? Remarry?
UNIT ONE: ECO-ANALYSIS
These are some activities [not assignments—no points attached]
that may help you study and understand develecological
principles. Think of your activities as helping you create a
personal Eco-autobiography—an interpretation of your own development
and life in ecological terms.
1. Make a list of the important concepts, definitions,
propositions, and hypotheses in Bronfenbrenner's scheme. As you
read the handout material on it, free associate to possible examples in
your own life. If you do this as an ongoing journal [perhaps on
your word processor], you may find your understanding growing, and your
eco-autobiography evolving.
2. Pick a significant episode in your life--summer camp, coming
to college, your parents' divorce or remarriage, your first real job,
etc.--and write a narrative account of it. Try to explain what
effect this episode had on your development, and why. Then go
back and connect Bronfenbrenner's concepts to your story. Find an
example of an ecological transition, for example. Figure out
which of his Hypotheses apply to your experience. You will be
translating your experience into his concepts, and that may serve as
the foundation for your eco-autobiography.
3. Pick a place where you regularly spend time. Describe
its physical characteristics. What activities are possible in
that place? What activities are likely to happen? What
activities cannot happen there? What relationships exist in that
place? How are they shaped by the physical space and the
activities that happen in it? What roles can people take on in
that space? How do those roles relate to the types of
relationships people experience in the space?
Can you describe the pattern of all three--activities, relationships
and roles--that happen in that space in a typical day?
4. Make a list of the most important activities you engage
in. Then for a couple of them, try to describe how they
developed. When did you start doing them, how have they changed
over time? Why have they changed?
5. Describe the development of a relationship that is or has been
significant to you. How did you meet? What did you do
together? How did the relationship change over time, and why?
6. Draw a representation of your current mesosystem, including
the ways different settings are linked to each other.
7. Write a brief statement including 5 beliefs that are very
important to you. How did those beliefs come to be part of your
view of the world? Who else shares those beliefs?
8. Share what you write with someone else in the class, and make
suggestions for improving each other's work.
9. Add your own activities to these, and share them with the
class and with me.