UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
DEPARTMENT OF INTEGRATED PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT & FAMILY STUDIES PROGRAM
 
HDFS 005                                HUMAN DEVELOPMENT                          Summer 2007
 
Lawrence G. Shelton        Living/Learning Center C-150     656-2008        
9:00 - 12:15  MWF
21 May – 20 June
    Lafayette L-207
Code 60018
    www.uvm.edu/~lshelton
DESCRIPTION:
 
HDFS 5 is a survey of normal development from conception through death.  We will look at physical, intellectual, and interpersonal changes across the life cycle.  We will examine the major influences on development as well as relationships among the several aspects of development.
 
TEXT:  Papalia, D. E., Olds, S. W., & Feldman, R. D. [2007].  Human development, [10th ed.].  New York: McGraw-Hill.            .             
 
REQUIREMENTS:
 
Attendance and Participation:            
    Each student is expected to attend all class sessions and to participate appropriately in discussions and exercises.
 
EVALUATION:
 
Grades will be based on points accumulated by completing a number of quizzes, essays, observations, interviews, and other exercises from a list of options.  The minimum point totals required are:
 
        A      130
        A-     120
        B+    110              
        B      100
        B-       90
        C+      80
        C        70
        D        60
 
Please note that attendance is required to complete and get credit for the course, even if you accumulate sufficient points for the grade you desire before the end of the session.
 
OFFICE HOURS:  
 
I do not post regular office hours, in recognition that we all have different schedules and value flexibility.  If you want to make an appointment with me, please e-mail me or call my office and speak with me [I make my own appointments] or leave a clear message on my phone-mail.  
 
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.
 
RESOURCES:      
 
I am available to help you figure out how to learn the material of the course.  Please don't hesitate to ask me for whatever assistance you may need.  I may not be able to provide everything, but I will do what is possible.
 
There is a study guide for the text on reserve in Bailey/Howe Library.  It is: Skinner, P. [2007].  Study guide for Use with Human Development [10th edition]. New York:  McGraw Hill.   I have no idea whether it is useful or not, but there it is.  If you consult it, let me know what you think of it.  The call number is ZZZ 145.
 
Your text also comes with two useful resources:  [1] a CD-ROM, “LifeMap”, which includes practice quizzes, resources, video illustrations, and links to websites that supplement the text, and [2] an access code for the publisher’s web site, which includes study guides, video clips, quizzes, and more. Be sure to access the Web site, register, save your username and password in a safe place, and use the site to explore Human Development.
 
There is also a web site for the course, which will include the syllabus, outline, overheads, study questions and other information.  Materials will be posted on the site periodically through the summer, so you will want to bookmark it and log on regularly at             http://www.uvm.edu/~lshelton/
 
OTHER NEEDS:
 
If you have any special needs to optimize your learning or performance in this class, please let me know, so we can try to implement them.  If you need to sit up front, use a tape recorder, or have other students take notes for you, please do so.  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/.  Tutors for this course can be found through the Learning Coop as well.
 
 
ENGAGING THE COURSE:  Think, Ask Questions, Take Notes, and Study
 
I believe that every exercise in this course, even the multiple-choice quizzes, should be an opportunity to learn.  I encourage active engagement with the material of this course, and hope you will apply it to your own lives.  I invite active participation in class sessions, and will often respond at length to your questions.  So don't tune out when another student asks a question; my response may be the lecture material for the day.  If you are unsure whether your question or observation may be of interest to the rest of the class, please feel free to consult me before or after class, or at any other mutually agreeable time.  I invite you to submit questions about the text or previous lectures, and thoughts about how to apply the material to real life, in writing at the beginning or end of each class, or by e-mail.  Having questions written helps me organize my thoughts and respond to you more helpfully.  
 
Bring your text to class each day.
 
Many of you have brand new notebooks in which to take notes during class.  This is a good practice.  You might find it helpful to consider using your notebook as a journal for the course.  To do this, you might divide the pages in half [vertically], take notes in one column, and then as you study your notes, use the other column to fill in details, ask questions, record personal observations about the material, and so forth.  Some students find it helpful to take lecture notes on one side of each page, and then use the back of the previous page [the side facing the notes, of course] to record reactions, notes, examples from the text, etc.
 
Since most overheads are available on my web site, it is not necessary to try to copy all of them as I talk from them.  I won’t always post overheads before class, but when I do, some students find it helpful to print them before class and make notes directly on them as we discuss them in class.
 
I fear this course may be impossible to teach.  There is too much detail about development to learn in five weeks, even with very long classes.  But the detail is necessary if you are to understand the general principles.  And there will be much desire to discuss applications of the material to real lives, especially our own.  I will try to balance the competing interests, and I look forward to sharing this session and our learning together.
 
 Picking up papers:
 
As soon as I have graded papers you submit, I will bring them to class to return.  If you have to miss class, or after the course has ended, you may pick up graded papers in the HDFS office, Living/Learning C-150.  As you enter C-150, there is a two-drawer file cabinet on the right.  Papers to be returned are in the top drawer, in a folder labeled HDFS 5 Shelton.  If they are in alphabetical order, please try to keep them in alphabetical order.
 
To submit papers, give them to the staff person in the office or put them in my mailbox, which is in the first room on the right after you enter C-150.  Don’t put incoming papers in the pick-up file drawer.  When submitting a revised paper, please submit the original version with my comments along with your revision.
 
OBJECTIVES, etc.:                    
 
The purpose of this course is to examine ways of understanding individual development.  Human beings and human development are complex and multifaceted.  We will attempt to focus primarily on what is universal, while understanding that there are many sources of variation among people.  We will attempt to understand the processes of development, to understand how and why people develop.  We will consider the major domains of human existence:  
physical, cognitive, personal, and social.  We will examine
 
    •  the major features, stages, and transitions in each domain;
    •  the major influences on development in each domain;                                                                     •  the possible interrelationships of the domains,
and explore the relationships of transitions in each domain to developments in the others.

The major theoretical perspectives employed in this course are constructivist and transactional.  I will attempt to convince you that

    •  we are active participants in our own lives,
    •  we attempt to make sense of our experiences,
    •  we construct our understandings using the mental processes available to us,               
                 and these mental processes change over the course of development,
    •  we attempt to make those understandings consistent with our previous understanding,
    •  experiences with other people are central to our development, and
    •  experiences with us change the people we relate to in our lives, and
     •  what we can experience depends on where we are in time and place.
 
 
 
HDFS 005                            APPROXIMATE SCHEDULE                            Summer  2007
 
            
DATE    __
    TOPIC_________________
    TEXT READING--pages______
May   21
Introduction & Overview
 
Biological Development
1 – 57      [Prologue & Chapters 1 & 2]
Website: www.pbs.wgbh/nova/miracle
          23
Prenatal
58 – 105     [Chapter 3]
          25
Infant & Toddler
106 – 149      [Chapter 4]
           30
Child & Adolescent
232 – 248, 312 – 324, 392 – 415
 
Adult & Elder
468 – 487, 544 – 571, 622 – 653
June    01
Quiz On Biological Development
Review chapter summaries & key terms
 
Cognitive Development
Review Pp. 29 - 43
 
Infant & Toddler
150 – 189         [Chapter 5]
           04
Child
248 - 275, 324 - 353
           06
Adolescent
416 – 433
           08
Adult & Elder
487 – 507, 571 – 583, 653 - 667
           11
Quiz On Cognitive Development
 
Personal & Social Development
 
Infant & Toddler
Review chapter summaries & key terms
Review Pp. 29 - 43
 
190 – 231         [Chapter 6]
          13
Child
276 – 311, 354 – 390  [Chaps 8 & 10]
          15
Adolescent
434 – 467         [Chapter 12]
          18
Adult
508 – 542     [Chapter 14]
585 – 621  [Chapter 16]
          20
Elder
Quiz on Personal & Social Development
 
Wrap-Up & Overview
668 – 738    [Chapters 18 & 19]
 
    22    LAST DAY TO SUBMIT ORIGINAL ASSIGNMENTS
 
June    28        LAST DAY TO SUBMIT REVISED ASSIGNMENTS


HDFS 005                                   HUMAN DEVELOPMENT                          Summer 2007
 
POINTS
 
You may accumulate points by completing any combination of these assignments.  The maximum points that can be earned for each assignment are listed.
 
A.   Quizzes.  Each quiz will consist of 15 Multiple Choice questions and two short essays, and will be given in class on the dates to be determined.  Each quiz may be taken only once.
 
    Quiz on Biological Development        25 points
    Quiz on Cognitive Development        25 points
    Quiz on Personal and Social Development    25 points
 
Each of the following options will be worth a possible 10 points.  Specific instructions will be provided separately.  After it is graded, each exercise may be revised and resubmitted once.  [Submit the original version with your revision.]  When you revise an assignment be sure to
    •  address the specific comments I have made on the original and
    •  correct all the technical problems.  And then
    •  improve the paper’s content and presentation in any way that seems appropriate.  
Revisions should be substantially better than the originals.
 
B.   Essays.  Several essay questions will be posed.  
 
C.   Observations and Interviews:
 
1.  Infant Observation.
 
2.  Second Infant Observation, with Comparison to first infant
 
3.  Take Me Out to the Ballgame
 
4.  Piaget Interview  [Submit during Unit Two]
 
5.  Second Piaget Interview, with Comparison to first interview
 
6.  Adolescent Interview
 
7.  Young Adult Interview
 
8.  Middle Adult Interview
 
9.  Older Adult Interview
 
10.  Comparison of Two Interviews, Different Stages
 
11.  Comparison of Two Interviews, Same Stage, Different Gender, Race, or Sexual Orientation
 
12.  Personal Timeline  [Submit draft during third week]
 

HDFS 005                                 Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
ESSAYS
 
Each essay is worth up to 10 points.  Your essays should be typed, double spaced, and approximately three pages in length.  Each essay must be specific to the question asked, well-documented, reflective of the course material, logically coherent, well-written and organized.
Essays will be evaluated on content, logic, and presentation.
 
Content is the specific factual information relevant to the question.  Content should be accurate, appropriate, and comprehensive, with adequate explanation.  
Logic refers to the organization of your essay.  The content should be integrated and build to a clear, well-supported conclusion.  
The presentation of your essay includes the clarity of your writing.  Your essays should be literate, grammatically correct, and neat.
 
I suggest you first work out what an answer to an essay requires, based on an analysis of the question.  Then outline your essay.  Then draft, revise, and revise again.  Certainly you will rely on and incorporate material from the text, but try to put the ideas and concepts into your own words.  If you quote, be sure to reference the source.
 
1.  What is the most useful way to describe the roles that genes and experience play in regulating the course of development across the life-span?  Is it reasonable to argue that the relative influence of heredity and environment changes across the life-span?  Is it truly possible to talk about the influence of one independent of the influence of the other?
 
2.  What are the factors that contribute to longevity and good health across the adult years?  Is there much a person can do to influence her or his life span?  If so, at what ages can the individual be most effective in doing so?
 
3.  How do the physical changes of puberty affect or cause development in the cognitive and personal domains?  Would it be accurate to say that without puberty, there can be no adolescence?
 
4.  What causes development to happen?  Why don't infants and children or anybody else just stay the same?  To what extent are people active agents of their own development?
 
5.  What are the three most important differences between a typical 3 year old and an 8 year old?  Why are these differences important in the child’s life?  [Cite and describe specific differences, not just general ones.]
 
6.  In what significant ways is the development of women different from that of men during the years after adolescence?  Is it reasonable to assert that women and men follow different paths of development?
 
7.  What, if any, changes occur in cognitive abilities across the middle and later years of adulthood?  Are these changes positive or negative in nature?  How are they related to the interpersonal and psychosocial domains?
 
8.  Do the interpersonal relationships one experiences have any impact on one's physical or cognitive development?
 
9.  What is temperament?  Does it influence parent-child relationships?  Does infant temperament have any value in predicting later behavior?
 
10.  Developmentalists say that parents and children participate in "mutual regulation", or "reciprocal development", or that development is "transactional".  What do we mean, and why are these concepts helpful in understanding the process of development?
 
11.  How do people become emotionally connected, or "attached" to each other?  Does the nature of attachments change across the life span?
 
12.  What does it mean to say that biological, cognitive, and personal/social development are interrelated?  How does interrelatedness differ from juxtaposition?  Describe and explain one example of the interrelatedness, from any part of the life span.
 
13.  Views of development often rely on the process of differentiation and integration.  Explain and illustrate the notions of differentiation and integration and their relationship to each other.   [Note that the definitions of differentiation and integration in the text are limited to a single phenomenon.]
 
14.   Shelton asserts that development can be viewed as a life-long series of bidirectional transactions with people and events (including events within one's own body), transactions which one interprets, adapts to, and sometimes initiates.  Describe two ways you might use this view in your own personal and/or professional life.  Then explain how applying it would make a difference to you or to your work in the future.
 
15.  Can development be speeded up or slowed down?  How?  Describe and explain examples to illustrate how the rate of development can be affected.
 
16.  What are the three most important differences between a typical 8 year old and a 15 year old?  Why are these differences important in the lives of people?  
 
17.  What are the three most important differences between a typical 35 year old and a 60 year old?  Why are these differences important in the lives of people?  
 
18.  Across adulthood, what important changes occur in a person’s relation to family?  Consider the different families a person participates in:  origin, affiliation, and procreation.
 
19.  How are changes in the brain related to changes in behavior, across the life span?
 
20. Use it or lose it.  Explain and illustrate with examples from each domain.

 
HDFS 005                                 Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
OBSERVATION AND INTERVIEW ASSIGNMENTS
 
 
You may work in pairs for any of these assignments.  You must each write your own individual report of the exercise.  You may work with a different partner for each exercise.
 
1.  Infant Observation.  The upper age limit for this exercise is about 24 months.  Choose an infant and observe for at least 30 minutes, taking notes as suggested by the Observation Outline.  The observation assignment is designed to expose you to real infants and encourage close attention to their behavior.  I will look for completeness of description, clarity of presentation, attempts to reflect concepts and relationships from the reading, and congruity between data presented and interpretations offered.
 
2.  Second Infant Observation, with Comparison.  If you choose to do a second infant observation, the second infant should be at least 8 months older or younger than the first.  Your comparison should focus on the similarities and differences between them.
 
3.  Take Me Out to the Ballgame.  You may adapt this exercise to soccer or lacrosse.
 
4.  Piaget Interview.  The lower age limit for this exercise is about three and a half years.  The upper limit would be about 15 years.
 
5.  Second Piaget Interview, with Comparison.  For this assignment, the child should be at least three years older or younger than the child used in the first Piaget Interview.  For the compare and contrast analysis, you will consider how the children approached the tasks and how they explained their answers.  What do the differences reveal about differences in their understanding and in their thinking?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
HDFS 005                                 Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME
 
Each weekday evening and on Saturdays third through sixth grade children participate in Little League and Farm League baseball games.  Farm League games usually involve children who are younger and/or less skilled.  A comparison between the two groups provides a good opportunity to observe age-related developmental differences since the two age groups are involved in an identical task.
 
The assignment is to observe two groups of children of different ages playing the same game.  As you observe each group, focus on three aspects of development:  physical/motor; cognitive; and social.  In your written analysis, compare the younger and older players in terms of the specific behavior observed.
 
 
PHYSICAL/MOTOR.   Focus on each child's movements both with and without the ball.  Note how coordinated the running movements are and how easily the child can stop or change directions.  To what degree are the child's movements directed by the anticipated path of the ball in flight or the anticipated target of the throw?  When the child has the ball, how well is it caught or thrown?  When at bat, how coordinated is the movement, how well is the pitch anticipated?  Is the entire body used to catch, throw, or hit, or only the arms?
 
COGNITIVE.    Your interest is the child's ability to play the game and to see her/himself as part of a team rather than simply one person on the field.  To get this information, you will observe how well each child stays in position and how well each child anticipates the movement of the ball.  From the child's behavior, try to determine how well the child understands the purpose of the game and how well the child sees himself or herself in relationship to that general purpose.
 
SOCIAL.   Observe how the children get along with each other, how they handle praise or criticism, either from adults [parents, coaches, umpires, spectators] or peers [teammates, opposing team members, spectators].  How well does the child play as a member of the team?  There may be some who play very well but don't seem able or willing to acknowledge that there is anyone else on their team.  For example, there may be a player who, rather than throwing the ball, tries to make the out by running after the batter.
 
 
In your report, consider the differences between the two age groups on each of these topics.  Within each age group, did you observe differences in skill levels of girls and boys?  Based on your observations, did the children seem to benefit from, be hurt by, or be unaffected by participation in highly supervised and directed, highly competitive, adult-initiated activities?
 
To successfully complete this analysis, you need to have first read the text material on middle childhood.  The format for your report is up to you.  You might make a chart of the specific behavior comparisons you are making and then follow with a more general discussion of the differences that were highlighted in your chart.
 
 
ADAPTED FROM GOLDHABER   5/91


 
HDFS 005                                 Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
 INFANT OBSERVATION  OUTLINE
 
1.    BASIC INFORMATION
 
        Observer's name.
        Infant's name, date of birth, sex, and age.
        Time of day and setting; others present.
        Infant's state.  Note changes in state during observation.
        
2.    PERCEPTUAL/MOTOR BEHAVIOR
 
        What did the child do with its hands?  How did it hold or manipulate objects?
        What large and small motor skills does the child demonstrate?
        How did the child move from one place to another?
        How far away was the farthest stimulus the child responded to?
What was the most sophisticated instance of coordination of different senses the child displayed?
What was the most sophisticated instance of coordination of sensory skills and motor skills the child displayed?   [“Coordination” means putting together.]
 
3.    COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR
 
        What problems did the child confront during the observation?
        How did the child solve them, if it did?
        What knowledge did the child demonstrate, if any?
        What Piagetian sensori-motor sub-stage does the child's behavior represent?
            Describe the evidence for your diagnosis.
            Why does the child NOT represent the previous or subsequent stages?
 
4.    SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
 
        What sounds did the child make?
        How did the child respond when people talked to him/her?
        What activities did the child engage in with other people?
        What activities did the child initiate?  How?
        How did the child communicate wants or needs?
            Was the communication successful?
        What emotions did the child express?  How?
        Does this child appear to be attached emotionally to others?
    
5.    OTHER
 
        What are your general impressions of this infant and its activities?
        Did you note any characteristics that would identify the child's temperament?
 
In your report of the observation, address each question as completely as possible.  A caution:  don’t declare the child “normal” unless you have specific norms to go by.
 
LGS   



HDFS 005                                      Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
 Developmental Interviews    
 
 
The interview assignment is designed to provide an opportunity to connect the course material to the lives of real people.  The task is to find out if and how the concepts and principles described in the text are manifest in the lives of people who may not have read it.
 
Choose a person who fits into one of the stages of the life span.  You may choose friends or family members.  There are both disadvantages and advantages to interviewing people you know.  We will discuss these in class.  You may interview yourself, for an autobiographical essay.
 
Create a set of questions based on the text.  The questions should reflect the concepts and principles used in the text, but should be phrased in plain English, so your interviewee can respond based on his or her own life and experience.  Questions should be open-ended.  We will discuss question structure and interview techniques in class.
 
Schedule time for the interview, at least an hour and a half.  You may not need the time, but it is better to end when you have run out of questions, rather than when you have run out of time.
 
Interviews should be conducted in private, in comfortable, quiet surroundings away from distractions and intrusions.  You should take notes; tape recording is preferable, if possible.
 
You may work in pairs if you choose.  In this case, the interview should be designed together and conducted together.  The analysis may be discussed together, but each of you is to write your own analysis.
 
The written analysis is the essence of the assignment, and should include highlights of the person's current life, significant past events, illustrations of or reflections on the pertinent concepts from the text, and your personal reaction to the interviewee.   Consider how the person’s current life illustrates themes in the section of the text that covers the stage of life the person is in.  What would each theorist we discuss [Sullivan, Erikson, Schaie, etc.] say about the person?  Focus on the subject’s current life and how it represents the person’s stage in the life cycle.  Be sure to cover each of the three major domains.
 
 
 
LGSHELTON 5/96, 5/05



HDFS 005                                      Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
 Comparison Interviews    
 
 
 
COMPARISON ESSAYS:  If you do two [or more] interview assignments, you may then do a third exercise based on them:
 
DIFFERENT STAGES:
 
For this essay, you will need to interview two people of the same gender who are in different stages of the life span.  Your essay should compare and contrast their current lives, using pertinent concepts from the course.
 
DIFFERENT GENDERS, RACES, OR SEXUAL ORIENTATIONS:
 
For this essay, you will have interviewed two people in the same stage of the life span, but either a male and a female, two people of different races, or two people of the same gender, but different sexual orientations.  Your essay should compare and contrast their current lives, using pertinent concepts from the course.
 
 
 
 
 LGSHELTON 5/96, 5/05



HDFS 005                                 Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
 
DEVELOPMENTAL TIMELINE
 
The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to connect the concepts in the course to the realities of your own life.  You will create a graphic representation of your life span, including the major events, milestones, relationships, locations, etc.  To these events, etc. you will connect the concepts we cover in the course, to see if your experience provides examples of development, as you are learning to understand it.
 
The first step in creating your timeline is to brainstorm, listing in no particular order:
 
a.  the significant events of your life so far, from conception to the present, and from the present to your death, as you anticipate they might be;
    b.  the significant relationships in your life, from conception to death;
    c.  important milestones;
    d.  places important to you;
    e.  significant influences on you;
    f.  anything else you think might be pertinent.
 
This list will expand as the course progresses, reflecting your associations to the readings, lectures and films.  Please share ideas with other students, so everyone's lists are as comprehensive as possible.
 
The next step will be to determine dates for each item on your list.  When did it happen?  Over what period did the relationship or influence exist?  When might it happen?
 
The third step in the process will be to consider the course material as we discuss it, and to see if you can think of examples in your own life.  For example, what events reflect Erikson's psychosocial stages?  Or Sullivan's description of interpersonal needs?  Or Piaget's stages?  What other major themes from the text or class are illustrated by the events in your life?
 
Finally, you will record the items in your list and the concepts they illustrate, in chronological order.  [You may want to put your timeline on a long sheet of paper, such as computer printout paper.]
 
I will evaluate the timelines on the bases of comprehensiveness, pertinence to the concepts of the course, and thoughtfulness.  Artistic ability or creative inventiveness may impress and entertain me, but are not required.
 
For this assignment, you will submit a draft during the third week of the course, so I can provide some feedback.  The most common problem is simply listing major milestones or events, without explaining how they illustrate concepts in the course.
 
 
 
 
L. SHELTON  5/99, 5/05

 
 HDFS 005                                 Human Development                                L. G. Shelton
 
 
Where are we going?
 
Human lives are constructed by biological organisms making sense out of their experiences in a very social context.
 
We will look at biological development across the life span:
 
Orderly sequence, genetically directed
Both structure and function develop, and transact with each other
From undifferentiated state to differentiated to integrated
Effects of experience, practice, exercise, use
Adaptation to opportunities and demands in context
Major transitions
Effects of disuse, abuse
 
We will examine cognitive development across the lifespan:
 
Construction of knowledge from experience
Based on biological structures and functions
Understanding proceeds from undifferentiated state to differentiated to integrated
Effects of experience, practice, exercise, use
Adaptation to opportunities and demands in context
Individual differences in how we think
Context includes the biological “apparatus” and “container” -- as disease or aging affects the brain and sensory systems, intellectual performance suffers.
 
We will explore personality and social development across the lifespan:
 
A biological organism transacting with other people
A thinking organism transacting with other people, making sense out of experience
Relationships proceed from very specific but undifferentiated to differentiated to integrated.
Biology and cognition affect the transactions we have with others, including their reactions
    to us.
Effects of experience, practice, exercise, and use of interpersonal skills
Adaptation to opportunities and demands in context
Constructing a sense of identity and a place for oneself in one's social context
 
As you encounter a person, ask
 
How are the biological, cognitive, personal and social intertwined to form this specific person?
What transactions/experiences have been given meaning by this person, to construct how this person views, reacts to, and relates to you and the rest of the world?
What social and historical contexts have determined the opportunities and demands to which this person has adapted?
What challenges are current, and what challenges lie ahead for this person?
What can you do to help this person have useful transactions and construct a life that makes sense?
 


HDFS 005                             Biological Development             Study Questions
 
Focus Questions:
 
1.  Where did you come from and what did you bring with you?
2.  What do genes do and how do they do it?
3.  How do we get from a single cell of just one specific type [the zygote] to the billions and billions of cells of so many different types that we are now?
4.  Why do you have a belly button and what is it connected to?
5.  How did you know what to do when you were born?
6.  How did you learn to walk?
7.  How are boys and girls different and when do the differences become important?
8.  When are you at your physical peak and what happens after that?
9.  How can you manage to live a long and healthy life?
10.  Why does menopause happen?
11.  When and why will you die?
 
Study Questions:
 
  1. 1.What changes are included in biological development?
  2. 2.What is the role of genes in human development?
  3. 3.How do heredity and experience relate to each other in the course of development?
  4. 4.What factors influence a person's biological development?
  5. 5.Can biological development be speeded up or slowed down?
  6. 6.How does the environment of the mother's body affect one's development before birth?
  7. 7.What adaptations do we have to make at birth?
  8. 8.Define, explain, and illustrate the process of differentiation.
  9. 9.Define, explain, and illustrate the process of integration.
  10. 10.What determines a person's health and fitness?
  11. 11.What is the role of exercise in physical development?
  12. 12.Explain the process of developing motor coordination.
  13. 13.How are changes in the brain related to motor learning?
  14. 14.Define and describe puberty.
  15. 15.How are the two sexes different, biologically?  
  16. 16.When does biological development stop?
  17. 17.What is aging?  Why does it occur?  Can it be delayed?
  18. 18.How long can people live?  Why?
  19. 19.When does exercise stop benefiting a person?
  20. 20.What can one do to ensure the best possible health in later adulthood?
  21. 21.What is death?  Why do people die?
  22. 22.Define and explain menopause.  
  23. 23.Do men experience menopause?
  24. 24.Why do people live longer today than in previous generations?
  25. 25.Can you make a person taller than her genetic potential would allow?  
  26. 26.Can you speed up motor development?  How?
  27. 27.What motor skills are required to play soccer well?
  28. 28.Is there any advantage to being a fast or early developer?



HDFS 005                   Cognitive Development                   Study Questions
 
Focus Questions:
 
  1. 1.How do we think?
  2. 2.How do we acquire knowledge and understanding?
  3. 3.How do we change our knowledge and understanding?
  4. 4.How does thinking change across the life span?
  5. 5.How does the process change?    Process = How
  6. 6.How does the content change?    Content = What
  7. 7.Is there a relationship between content and process?
  8. 8.Do we use different processes to think about different content?
  9. 9.What are the important differences among us?
 
Study Questions:
  1. 1.How do biological changes and cognitive changes affect each other?
  2. 2.What develops, in intellectual development?
  3. 3.How do the concepts of differentiation and integration apply to intellectual development?
  4. 4.How do the concepts of differentiation and integration apply to language development?
  5. 5.What is the relationship between language and thought?
  6. 6.How are biological and cognitive development similar?  Different?  Related?
  7. 7.What is the role of genetics in intellectual development?
  8. 8.What is the role of the environment in intellectual development?
  9. 9.What do IQ tests measure?
  10. 10.What does using language do for a child?
  11. 11.What does the child's use of language do to the parent-child relationship?
  12. 12.What is conservation?  
  13. 13.What does not being able to conserve do to a child's performance or behavior?
  14. 14.How are concrete and formal operational thinking different?
  15. 15.How does use of formal operational reasoning change adolescents' real, everyday lives?
  16. 16.Describe the major changes in intellectual performance in middle adulthood.
  17. 17.How are crystallized and fluid intelligence different?
  18. 18.When and why and for whom does intellectual performance decline in later adulthood?
  19. 19.How are health and intellectual performance related?
  20. 20.How does intelligence develop, according to Piaget?
  21. 21.What is the relationship between work and intellectual development?
  22. 22.Describe the stages of cognitive development according to K. W. Schaie.
  23. 23.What is Robert Sternberg's view of intelligence?
  24. 24.Are there sex differences in intelligence?  What?  When?  Why?
  25. 25.What is the relationship of intellectual development to moral development?
  26. 26.What is the role of information processing in intellectual development?
  27. 27.What does Piaget mean by "sensori-motor intelligence?"
  28. 28.What is a constructivist view of intellectual development?
  29. 29.How are stages related to each other in Piaget's theory of development?
  30. 30.Can you make a person smarter than her genetic potential would allow?
  31. 31.How did you learn to talk?
  32. 32.Can you speed up intellectual development?  How?
  33. 33.What cognitive skills are required to play soccer well?
  34. 34.Do we have more than one intelligence?




HDFS 005                Psychosocial Development               Study Questions
 
Focus Questions:
  1. 1.What is temperament?
  2. 2.How do we become emotionally connected to other people?
  3. 3.What differences do parents make in a person’s development?
  4. 4.How do peer relationships change across the life span?
  5. 5.How does physical development affect psychosocial development?
  6. 6.How does cognitive development affect psychosocial development?
  7. 7.How does psychosocial development affect physical and cognitive development?
  8. 8.What is maturity and how does it develop?
  9. 9.How do family relationships change across the life span, and how do they affect development?
  10. 10.How does the work one does affect and reflect development?
  11. 11.How do we construct a life?
 
Study Questions:
  1. 1.What is included in psychosocial development?
  2. 2.What are the types of attachment?
  3. 3.What is the relation between parenting and attachment type?
  4. 4.What are the major types of parenting styles and how are they related to children's behavior and development?
  5. 5.What aspects of peer relationships are important at different points of the life cycle?
  6. 6.What is the relationship between how one is parented and how one parents?  Partners?
  7. 7.What are the effects of peers on one's development?
  8. 8.How does Sullivan describe interpersonal relationships?
  9. 9.What is Erikson trying to explain?
  10. 10.What is the relationship of one stage to the next in Erikson's theory?
  11. 11.What important changes take place, and why, in the developmental descriptions provided by Levinson, Gilligan, Kohlberg, Vaillant, Peck, Helson?
  12. 12.What is death?  What is its importance to people?
  13. 13.How do people cope with bereavement at different ages?
  14. 14.What is the "normative-crisis" model?
  15. 15.What is intimacy?
  16. 16.What does parenting do to parents?
  17. 17.What is a sense of identity?  How does a person get one?
  18. 18.How does a constructivist theory approach interpersonal development?
  19. 19.How are males and females different?  Why?
  20. 20.How are biological development and personal/social development related?
  21. 21.What is the role of genetics in personal/social development?
  22. 22.What are the characteristics of a good relationship?
  23. 23.Can you make a person more sociable than her genetic potential would allow?
  24. 24.Can you make a person more emotionally competent than her genetic potential would allow?
  25. 25.How did you learn to love?
  26. 26.How did you learn to get along with other people?
  27. 27.What interpersonal skills are needed to play soccer well?