Child Psychology Course Code BPS104 Fee Code S2 Number of Assignments 12 Duration (approx) 100 hours
Learn how children develop psychologically as they grow, and what factors (such as learning, parenting styles, einforcement, and genetic makeup) influence their behaviour and thinking. Anyone who lives or works with children will gain valuable insights into child behaviour. Students of counselling or pscyhology will be better prepared to understand childhood influences on later adult behaviour.COURSE CONTENT
1. Introduction to Child Psychology
Levels of development, nature or nurture, isolating hereditary characteristics, cause versus correlation, continuity versus discontinuity, cross sectional and longitudinal studies, reliability of verbal reports
2. The Newborn Infant
The Interactionist approach, range of reaction, niche picking, temperament stimulus seeking, emotional disturbances during pregnancy
3. States and Senses of the Infant
Sensory discrimination, infant states (sleep, inactivity, waking, crying etc), why psychologists are concerned with defining and describing infant states, habituation, crying, soothing a distressed baby, sensory discrimination, depth perception, oral sensitivity
4. Learning
Habituation, vicarious learning, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, reinforcement, the importance of learning control, etc
5. Emotions and Socialisation
Producing and recognising emotional expression, smiling, biological explanation, perceptual recognition, mother-child Attachment, Freudian approach, Bowlby's approach, Social Learning approach, Harlow's approach, role of cognition in attachment formation, day care
6. Cognitive Development
Developing the ability to reason.
7. Language Development
Is language ability learned or innate? Social Learning Approach, Hypothesis testing approach, under extending
8. Intelligence
Measuring Intelligence, Cultural Bias, IQ, Testing Intelligence as a tool.
9. Socialisation – Part A
Social Cognition, self awareness, awareness of others, development of empathy, taking turns, having a point of view/perspective, social scripts, pretend play
10. Morality
Moral development, aggression and altruism, Freud, Piaget and Kohlberg on moral development
11.Sexuality
Freud's phases (oral phase, anal phase, phallic phase, latent phase, genital phase), gender and role Identity, psycho-social development
12. Socialisation – Part B
Family influence, discipline, siblings, family structures, school influence, peer ifluence, acceptance and rejection, modelling, reinforcement.
WHAT YOU MAY DO IN THIS COURSE
Identify environmental and social aspects required for the “ideal” environment for a developing child.
Explain how genetic and environmental factors operate together in influencing the child's personality development.
Provide evidence that a particular personality characteristic may be genetically determined.
Explain how genetic and environmental factors operate together in influencing the child's personality development.
Name the kind of learning in which a stimulus which usually produces an unconditioned response is manipulated to produce a conditioned response, and give an example.
Discuss exactly how you would use operant conditioning to encourage a child to socialise.
Use the perceptual recognition approach to explain smiling and fear in infants.
Evaluate Freud’s, Harlow’s and Bowlby’s explanations of the formation of mother-child attachments different.
Explain reflection-impulsivity and its significance in cognitive development.
Explain the strengths and weakness of social learning theory in explaining language acquisition.
Explain why you think that intelligence is or is not overall genetically determined.
Some Sample Course Notes -
Temperament - Nature or Nurture
Most adults have witnessed the considerable differences in temperament between different new born babies. Some babies seem to cry or become irritable at the slightest provocation, causing many sleepless nights for parents. Others seem much more amiable, always smiling and hardly ever crying. Many mothers tell you that they have raised both types. Is this evidence of an inborn hereditary personality trait; or is it merely coincidence?
If such personality tendencies are stable - that is, they continue to exist throughout the child's development - then it is often assumed that the characteristic is hereditary. Investigations have found that 70 per cent of adults with behaviour disorders were described as difficult babies by their parents. This can be interpreted in two ways:
· A difficult temperament is inborn and remains stable throughout life, eventually leading to behavioural problems (nature).
· Difficult babies are treated differently by their parents, who perhaps elicit negative responses, which cause these to children have socially related difficulties later. The later behavioural disorders are a response to negative treatments which in turn resulted from the difficulty they caused as babies.
It has been found that mothers do not generally rear difficult babies very differently to others, but as children get older, parents do often respond more with negative behaviours such as shame, anxiety, or guilt, if these difficulties persist. The temperament of difficult babies has been found to be relatively easy to modify under appeasing parental care and conditions. Children’s temperaments moreover, were found to often change considerably during their early years. It can be concluded that while temperament may be genetically influenced, it is easily modified by environmental factors.
There has been evidence however that certain personality traits may be largely influenced by genetic factors. These are sociability, stimulus seeking and activity.
Interested in working with children? Have a look at these other courses –
Adolescent Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Adolescent-Psychology-451.aspx
Developmental Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Developmental-Psychology-372.aspx
Educational Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Educational-Psychology-308.aspx
Sports Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Sports-Psychology-292.aspx
Certificate in Applied Developmental Psychology http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/Certificate-In-Applied-Developmental-Psychology-398.aspx
Or if you are not sure if psychology is for you, why not try our Introduction to Psychology - http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/product.aspx?id=359
If you would like to see our range of psychology books, please visit - http://www.acsbookshop.com/books_productcategory.aspx?id=14
For more information on the range of careers available in psychology, have a look at - http://www.thecareersguide.com/articles.aspx?category=14
We have some interesting articles on psychology and counseling at - http://www.acs.edu.au/psychol/
Child psychology is concerned with the development of a person over the course of their childhood. This involves the development of a child's mental processes (ie. cognitive development); emotional and social behaviour. It is important to state that development does not end at adulthood. Adults continue to experience changes in their mental, emotional and social behaviours. Some characteristics are however more easily developed and changed during childhood.
For convenience, a distinction is made between the cognitive, emotional and social aspects of behaviour. However, this distinction is purely theoretical. It is made simply to help us learn and understand. In reality, the different aspects of behaviour interact with each other. When problems develop in any area of development, they usually become rapidly evident in other areas as well. The study of child psychology is partly concerned with identifying such interrelationships.
What are the key influences on children's behaviour and attitudes? How can parents, teachers, and child care workers provide the kind of environment that nurtures children's emotional, cognitive and moral development?
Learn how children develop psychologically as they grow, and what factors (such as learning, parenting styles, einforcement, and genetic makeup) influence their behaviour and thinking. Anyone who lives or works with children will gain valuable insights into child behaviour. Students of counselling or pscyhology will be better prepared to understand childhood influences on later adult behaviour.
