The goal of this section is to give
students a basic introduction to
research and theories in the field
of developmental psychology.

The course focuses on understanding
the developmental changes from
conception to adolescence, and on
understanding the major influences
on those developmental changes.

We cover topics in physical, perceptual, cognitive, language, social-emotional, and personality development. Students learn how developmental researchers ask questions, how their theoretical perspective influences their interpretation of findings, and how they apply experimental methods to discover how children develop.

This section is also designed to provide students with an overview of research and theories about the development of children's thinking. We look at a number of topics including theories of cognitive development, origins of cognitive skills, relations between cognition and language, understanding of concepts, and memory development. We focus not only on what kinds of changes in children's thinking occur, but also on why these changes in children's thinking occur.