Course Description
How do we become the people we are? How does our earliest development shape who we become, and how do we continue to change throughout our lives? What influences our relationships, personality, emotions, and sense of self?
Lifespan Development explores how people grow and change from before birth through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and the end of life. You’ll discover how biological, cognitive, emotional, and social factors interact to shape development across the lifespan.
You’ll explore prenatal development, brain and physical development, sensation and perception, memory, language, and cognition, as well as the ways education, work, and major life transitions influence us. You’ll investigate how we form attachments and relationships, how families shape development, and how our personality, emotions, and sense of self evolve over time.
The course also examines how people navigate some of life’s most meaningful experiences—from forming relationships and building careers to aging, death, dying, and bereavement.
Throughout the course, you’ll use psychological research to explore a fundamental question: What shapes who we become—and how do we continue to change throughout our lives.
Benefits of taking the course
- Build a foundation for majors and careers in psychology, education, healthcare, social work, and counseling
- Prepare for advanced coursework in developmental psychology and related fields
- Explore careers working with children, families, adults, and older adults
- Understand how people change physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially across the lifespan
- Gain insight into relationships, families, and human behavior across different stages of life
- Apply developmental science to real-world settings including education, healthcare, work, and family life
Learning objectives
- Examine age-related changes in human’s physical characteristics, social behaviors, and cognition
- Explore alternative explanations for these changes
- Develop skills in reading, evaluating, and synthesizing research in developmental psychology
- Consider applications of lifespan development research to contexts such as parenting, education, and the development of learning materials.
- Effectively communicate in writing and speaking
Summary of topics covered
Introduction to development, research in lifespan development, biological foundations of development, prenatal development, brain and physical development, sensation and perception, cognition, memory, language, education, work and vocation, attachment and relationships, the family, personality and the self, emotion and self-regulation, death, dying, and bereavement
