Developmental Psychology

The module covers human development from foetus to the end of adolescence, covering changes in cognitive, social, language and emotional abilities over this time span, as well as how these changes can be explained: it is important to ask not just what changes, but also why such changes occur and how the course of development is shaped by multiple interacting factors.

The course provides a foundation for understanding developmental psychology as a discipline from different theoretical and methodological perspectives. The lectures cover a variety of key topics in developmental science, from prenatal to later childhood development and adolescence, spanning motor, perceptual, cognitive, communicative, social, emotional and cultural aspects.

The fundamental questions of development: what capacities make infants able to learn so much about the world, by what mechanisms are capacities acquired, and how development can take an atypical trajectory, are addressed on the course together with the theoretical debates that have surrounded these questions.