10
Dr. Idalia Montañez
Human Development – DEP 2004
VALENCIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE – OSCEOLA CAMPUS
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY – DEP 2004
COURSE SYLLABUS
Spring 2008
INSTRUCTOR: Idalia Montañez, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Puerto Rico
Member, Puerto Rico Psychological Association
2007 APA Public Education Campaign Coordinator for Puerto Rico
OFFICE: N/A
OFFICE HOURS: By appointment.
PHONE: Dept. Office – x. 4107
E-MAIL:
TEXT WEB PAGE: http://www.wadsworth.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&flag=student&product_isbn_issn=9780495093046&disciplinenumber=24
WELCOME AND PURPOSE:
Welcome to Human Development, an introduction to the study of the human life cycle. This course covers the basic psychological and physiological concepts and major life stages of the human life span from conception to the end of the life cycle. Emphasis is placed on theory and data relating to the developmental aspects of cognition, language, and personality. The course examines developmental processes and the various forces that influence human change and development.
COURSE MATERIALS:
Textbook:
Kail, R.V. & Cavanaugh, J.C. Human Development: A Life-Span View (4th ed.).
A study guide available in the bookstore is recommended.
PREREQUISITES: None.
REQUIRED TECHNOLOGY:
Students must have access to a computer with printing capacity and access to the Internet, the VCC network system, and Microsoft WORD software. Students must be able to access and navigate the VCC ATLAS website in order to access the course web page and related information. Thus, students are required to attend an ATLAS training session during the first week of the semester to become familiar with the program and recent updates. Students must call 407-582-5444 to sign up for an orientation session. You will find the ATLAS website at http://atlas.valencia.cc.fl.us.
INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS:
This course is organized around classroom lectures, demonstrations and activities, discussion groups, oral reports, debates, discussion of selected DVD/video tape programs, text-reading assignments, written assignments, and course examinations.
OUTCOMES:
Upon successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:
1. Identify the major perspectives and theories of human development.
2. Understand research methods used in human development.
3. Explain basic psychological and physiological concepts of human development.
4. Understand major stages of the human life-span.
REQUIREMENTS:
1. Class attendance (total points: 65; maximum possible points: 80): Your attendance in class is required. You are responsible for signing an attendance sheet at the beginning of every class. If your name is not signed on the sheet, you are counted absent.
Students will be counted absent for ½ day if they are late, leave after the break or come in to class during the class break. Students will also be counted absent ½ day if they leave after an exam. Students who are absent on exam days, and therefore miss the second half of class, are also counted absent ½ day.
I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. If you are not here, you are absent.
Students will also be counted a full absence each time they aren’t mentally present. That is, students who are sleeping, talking, working on material that is not a part of lecture or for another class or generally inattentive are considered ABSENT! Not only is this kind of behavior unacceptable in a college classroom, it sends the wrong message to your fellow classmates, and to me.
Students who are late to an exam will be penalized 5 points on the exam, in addition to the regular penalty for being tardy.
If you have perfect attendance (no absences or tardies) you will earn a grade of 80 points for attendance, out of a possible 65. If you miss one day (or one or two half days), you will receive a grade of 65 points for attendance. Therefore, you are essentially not penalized for missing one week of class. For every absence thereafter, your attendance grade is reduced by 20 points (10 points for half day absences and tardies). Anyone with 4 or more absences will automatically receive an “F” for the course, regardless of your final average.
2. Autobiography (100 points): This course requires the completion of a autobiographical assignment, which will be developed throughout the duration of the course. Be creative!
Content: The autobiography must contain:
§ Cover page – Page with title, name, student number.
§ Introduction – Brief and concise description of the project’s content.
§ Description – Full self-description. For example: Gender, age, number of siblings, position occupied among them, family composition, with whom do you live, who cared for you, who raised you, description of the way you were raised, description of how you were disciplined, environment, dominant figure in rearing, place of rearing (urban, rural), house or apartment. Significant people in your rearing and in your development in general. For example, you can describe a typical summer day in which all of the above is included.
§ Personal experiences – Describe your relationship with your siblings, with whom did you best get along, type of games, relationship with your peers and neighbors.
§ Academic, intellectual experiences – Describe your first day in school and/or child nursery. How did you feel? Describe your experience with events and feelings.
§ Describe your relationship with your teachers, with your peers, types of academic and/or extracurricular activities. Write about your academic achievements at all levels.
§ Experiences related to physical development – Describe your development process integrating personality and social aspects. How would you describe your temperament? How would you describe yourself in terms of your positive and negative qualities? What do you like about yourself? What would you change? Do you look like someone in your family? Describe your interpersonal relationships (family, friends, special people). Write about your emotions when you fell in love for the first time, as well as when you stopped feeling in love.
§ A vision toward the future – Use your imagination and ambition, describe how do you see yourself in the future, say, five years from now.
§ Conclusion – Describe your internal processes as you were preparing the assignment: How did you feel? Did you like it, or did you not? Which feelings arose during this process? Within the conclusion, include an analysis of the assignment: Would you say it was useful? Would you recommend it to other people? What would you have included, what would you have left out?
§ Bibliography – Format
o Alphabetical order.
o Minimum of 3 references (must be cited within the text).
o Newspaper articles or articles from non-specialized magazines are not accepted.
o Neither encyclopedias nor dictionaries will be accepted as part of the references.
o Must follow APA format: Last names, first name, year, title of article, place of publication, and publishing house.
o When using articles from edited books, each article counts as an individual reference. This would not be the case if using multiple articles from the same book by the same author.
§ The rubric for grading this assignment is available on ATLAS (“Rubric for Written Assignments”).
NOTES:
§ Be assured that ANYTHING YOU INCLUDE IN YOUR JOURNAL WILL BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL. I WILL NOT DIVULGE THE CONTENT OF YOUR JOURNAL WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION. I am, however, legally obligated to report any intentions you make or imply about harming yourself or another person(s). If you are uncomfortable about writing about a particular event in your journal, choose something else.
§ Once the semester has concluded and a grade has been adjudicated, you can ask the professor to provide you with a copy of your graded assignment.
§ Remember that as part of the exercise, you must integrate and apply the theories discussed in class and/or mentioned within the text.
§ You must critically analyze each of the stages you worked on.
§ The assignment must be typed (computer or typewriter), with a font size of 12 and a spacing of 1.5 Please do not use elaborate fonts. Completed assignments not meeting these requirements will not be accepted.
§ Keep a copy of your completed assignment before submitting it.
§ The text should have length of 5-10 pages.
§ Please submit the completed assignment stapled and without any folders.
§ The assignment will be submitted on April 18, 2008 in the classroom or via e-mail (). Assignments submitted after this date will not be accepted.
3. Oral Reports (20 points): Students will form small groups and make an oral report on certain textbook chapters assigned by the professor. Group members will be graded individually. The rubric for grading this assignment is available on ATLAS (“Oral Report Rubric”).
4. “Show and Tell” Days: (maximum possible points: 15): At five different times during the semester, you are asked to bring something to class that relates to different phases of life. Students will be asked to share the items with their classmates, as well as a short description and explanation about the object. The quality of each contribution is worth 3 points of your journal grade (for a total of 15 points to be determined by “Show and Tell”). If you are absent on one of these days, you may bring something to the next class.
5. Teratogens Brochure (20 points): This project will increase your knowledge of teratogens and asks you to find ways to convey this information to the general public. You will choose three different teratogens that could affect pre-natal development. At least one of the chosen teratogens should be from a source outside of the textbook (in other words, only two of the three teratogens may coincide with those discussed in the text).
You will outline the known effects of each teratogen (this should involve information from the text as well as other, reputable sources) in a paper and pay particular attention to how these teratogens may influence pre-natal development in sensitive periods of development and should highlight any connection/similarities or disparities between the chosen teratogens (e.g., does cocaine have similar effects to heroin?, how are they different?).
Finally, you should use the information you have found to design a single pamphlet that alerts the public to the hazards of your ‘chosen” teratogens. The pamphlet should be concise, informative, accurate, and attractive. Keep in mind that the pamphlet will be for the “general public,” so it is not necessary (and probably not appropriate) to discuss sensitive periods and similarities/differences in the pamphlet (remember that pamphlets should catch readers’ attention and be informative –too much or too detailed information may turn readers away). The rubric for grading this assignment is available on ATLAS (“Teratogens Brochure Rubric”).
6. Nutrition Chart (20 points): To see how well your eating habits are meeting your nutritional needs, you will complete a chart (available on ATLAS) for a typical 24-hour period. You will also note the calories and macronutrient breakdown (grams of fat, protein, and carbohydrates) consumed in each food serving. Most packaged foods have all the nutritional information you need right on the label, in the Nutrition Facts box. For foods that don’t have such labels, consult a nutritional reference guide such as The NutriBase Nutrition Facts Desk reference.
When you have entered all the macronutrient data, determine the ratio of fat to protein to
carbohydrates by dividing the number of calories in each macronutrient category by the total calories consumed. Fats are the densest sources of food energy: one gram provides nine calories of food energy, compared with four calories for each gram of carbohydrate or protein. For example, suppose your total of 2,500 calories breaks down as follows: 156.0 grams (624 calories) protein, 344.0 grams (1,376 calories) carbohydrates, and 56.0 grams (504 calories) fat. This results in a macronutrient ratio of 20:25:55, or 20% fat (500/2,500), 25% protein (625/2,500), and 55% carbohydrates (1,375/2,500).
7. Assessment of a Preoperational and a Concrete Operational Thinker (20 points): This exercise shows you an example of a preoperational and a concrete operational thinker. Pair up with another class member and test two children, a 4- to 5-year-old child and an 8- to 9-year-old child, using several of Piaget’s tasks. Administer two conservation and two classification tasks to each child, and then compare the children’s responses with each other and attempt to interpret those responses in view of Piaget’s theory. In order to test the two children, you will need to get a signed informed consent form from the children’s parents. A description of the tasks, the data sheet for recording the observations, the consent form, and a list of questions to answer are available on ATLAS.
8. Field Trip to a Hospice (20 points): We will visit a hospice and learn about its philosophy of death, and the services it provides. During the class period after the field trip, you will get into small groups and discuss what you have learned, and how you felt about the experience. You will write a one-page (1.5-spaced, Times New Roman font, size 12) report about your impressions of the visit, and what you learned. The rubric for grading the written report is available on ATLAS (“Rubric for Written Assignments”).
9. Toy Analysis (20 points): In this assignment you will examine various toys marketed for infants (see recommended ages on toy’s package label). You will determine how the toy’s design takes into consideration the infant’s security and stimulation of his/her development, especially sensory development. You must find a good toy and another one that isn’t as good. The toy description and rating sheet is available on D2L. Also, the rubric for grading this assignment is available on ATLAS (“Toy Analysis Rubric”).
10. Quizzes (total points for each quiz: 10): Each student will complete 3 quizzes throughout the semester. Each quiz consists of 10 possible points. ALL material presented in lecture and all assigned reading are potential sources for quiz questions. If you miss a class, you are recommended to get notes from a classmate.
11. Partial exams (total points for each exam: 100; maximum possible points for each exam: 110): Each student will complete 4 partial exams throughout the semester. Each exam will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions. Each exam consists of 100 possible points, with 10 of these being bonus points. ALL material presented in lecture and all assigned reading are potential sources for exam questions. If you miss a class, you are recommended to get notes from a classmate.