Developmental and Social Psychology (P01644)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : PPL-P-P01644

The course aims to provide an overview of psychological research in the areas of developmental psychology and social psychology. The course comprises five lectures:
1. The paradigm crisis in social psychology
2. Introduction to discourse analysis (workshop based)
3. Group Decision Making & Performance
4. Children's lexical development
5. Research methods for assessing typical and atypical
cognitive development
There will also be a one-hour seminar associated with each lecture, representing a total of five seminars in addition to course lectures.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Psychology, (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Schedule I)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 5 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 1 hour(s) per week for 5 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
10/01/2007	10:00	11:00	Room G13, Adam Ferguson Building	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of some of the contemporary issues related to research in developmental psychology and social psychology. In particular, the course will enable students: to appreciate some of the underlying epistemological issues that inform experimental social psychology and the ways in which these are addressed through the discourse analytic approach; to understand the potential pitfalls of group decision making and how these might be averted, as well as the circumstances under which a group context improves vs. degrades performance; to describe and evaluate theories and findings regarding how children learn new words, with respect to both typical and atypical language development; to understand the difference between test and learning based methodologies for assessing cognitive development, and to be aware of problems in applying them to children with severe learning difficulties.