Developmental Psychology (C8546)

15 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

This module gives students the opportunity to explore child development and gain insight into the psychological processes that made us who we are today. This module has three main aims:

• 1. To give students an overview of child development from birth through adolescence in five overarching areas: perinatal and physical (e.g., newborns and reflexes), emotional (e.g., regulating affect), communicative (e.g., language acquisition), cognitive (e.g., intelligence) and socio-cognitive (e.g., gender development), and social (e.g., the family).
• 2. To explore these areas with reference to underpinning themes that permeate developmental psychology, including unpacking the influences of nature and nurture, and understanding why there are individual differences in child development.
• 3. To apply developmental psychology theory and research to societal problems such as psychopathology, sexual behaviour in young people and bullying in schools.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 140 hours of work. This breaks down into about 28 hours of contact time and about 112 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.