Office: 234
Phone: 248-2571
E-Mail: ldixon@catfish bbc.peachnet.edu
Hours: 9:15 - 12:00 TR, 10:55 - 12:00 MW, and 2:00 - 4:40 T

MIDTERM

March 3, 1999 (Last Day to Drop Class Without Penalty)

Santrock, J.W. (1998). Life-span development (7th ed.) New York; McGraw Hill.

American Psychological Association, (1995). Publication Manual of American Psychological Association (4th ed.). Washington, D.C.:APA.

Computer disks: 3.5"

This course is an introductory, non-laboratory based examination of human development across the lifespan with an emphasis on normal patterns of physical, cognitive, and social development.

Course objectives for introduction to human development include the following:

• introduce the life-span development perspective, periods of development, and theories in developmental psychology.
• introduce research methods used in the study of life-span development
• introduce students to researchers, psychologists, and others who have made significant contributions to development psychology.
• increase awareness of the application of psychological principles and theories in human growth and development.
• examine hereditary and environmental influences on development.
• examine prenatal development, childbirth, and characteristics of the neonate.
• examine physical, cognitive, emotional, and social perspectives on development across the lifespan.
• examine individual differences and cultural influences in development.
• examine gender related issues involved in development.
• lay a foundation for more advanced study in psychology and/or other social sciences.
• help students to understand the complexity of human development.
• examine topics related to death, dying, and bereavement.
• provide opportunities for students to use their oral, written, and computational skills.

Exams: Three multiple choice exams will be administered during the semester. Each exam will include between 50 and 100 items. Eleven points will be deducted from exams taken late.

Class Participation: Class participation will consist of points earned in class on certain group, written, and oral activities. Credit will range from 5 - 15 points per activity. If you miss class participation activities due to absence or tardies for any reason, I suggest you take advantage of the extra credit activity, as make-up class participation activities will not be administered. If for some reason I do not get to offer 100 class participation points, the class participation grade will be curved based on the highest number of points earned.

Project: Select one of the following as a term project

Age Trends in Development of Artistic Ability

This project requires you to conduct sessions with children between ages 3 and 13. Select at least three different ages and I suggest at least three children for each age you choose. You may also include older teen-agers and adults, if it contributes to the illustration of developmental trends. I suggest you provide the paper and colors that you want your subjects to use. Ask each subject to do a drawing of a person. Let your subjects draw a picture of anyone they would like to. You may ask them to do other drawings also, but drawings of a person are required. Label the back of each drawing with the child’s age. After collecting the drawings, your job is to categorize the drawings according to the way the children represent the head, body, and limbs of the person in the drawing.

The purpose of this project is to look for cognitive and structural differences in artistic development. Look for similarities in drawings based on age and cognitive level. Culture, environment, or training should not be the focus of this research, but a brief discussion of these variables may be included in the review of literature. The focus of the review of literature for this project, however, should be cognition and structural differences in children’s art.

This project must be written as an empirical paper using appropriate APA levels of headings. The introduction to the paper, which includes the review of literature, should be at least seven pages. The text of the paper should be at least 10 pages. The paper should have a title page, abstract, and list of references. Note: The text of the paper does not include the title page, abstract, nor the reference list and these will not be counted in the page requirements. Failure to meet page requirements for the project will result in an 11-point deduction. The drawings should be attached to the back of your project. Students doing this project may want to locate the following sources:

Golomb, C (1974). Young children’s sculpture and drawing: A study in representational development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kellogg, R. (1969).Analyzing children’s art. Palo Alto, CA: Natimal Press Books.

Option # 2 requires students who select this project to do a review of literature on any topic related to human development. The paper should consist of at least 10 pages of text. The paper should have a title page, abstract, and list of references. Again, these will not be counted in the number of required pages.

Your course grade will be based on your performance in the following categories:

Exam 1	100
Exam 2	100
Exam 3 (final)	100
Project	100
Class Participation	100
	500

Scale

90 - 100% = A, 80 - 89% = B, 70 - 79% = C, 60 - 69% = D, 59 and below = F

Students may earn 30 points extra credit by critiquing either an empirical article, a review of literature article or a theoretical article related to human development. The article may come from either a psychology journal or an education journal. To earn the extra credit, a presentation must be made to the class. Visual or auditory aides should accompany your presentation. In addition, your typed critique attached to the full article must be turned in for grading. No credit will be given for critiques turned in without doing a presentation.

Regular class attendance is important for you to understand the material in this class. The responsibility for regular attendance is entirely yours. Things like illness, or death or illness in your family are understandable reasons for missing class. In any event, the following procedures apply:

1. Absence from a lecture session: The student is responsible for material covered in class.
2. Absence from scheduled examination: The student is responsible for the decision to be absent on the day of a scheduled examination. Eleven (11) points will be deducted from the exams which are taken late. The 11 points will be waived only when the instructor judges the absence to be justifiable and the make-up exam is taken within a reasonable time.

Repeatedly coming to class late without prior notification and acceptable excuses will be taken as disruptive behavior. After attempting to talk with the student concerning such a problem or any other behavior considered disruptive, if the behavior continues, the student will be asked to leave the class and go speak with the Dean of Students. The student will not be permitted to return to class until she or he has either spoken to the Dean of Students or the student lets me know she or he is ready to return to class without the disruptive behavior.

Tape recordings of class lectures or discussions will not be permitted. Students are encouraged to speak freely and state their opposition to topics and issues involved in the content of this course. On some occasions, personal information is revealed during class discussions in psychology classes; therefore, I feel tape recordings are inappropriate.

Withdrawal from class after Midterm (see date on cover page) produces an automatic "F" grade. Students facing a non-academic emergency can withdraw from school after midterm with the permission of the Dean.

The college catalog states that the "I" is available only for non-academic reasons and that an "I" must be removed during the following academic semester or the "I" will be changed to the grade "F" by the Records Office.

If you use the words of someone else without citing them, you are committing plagiarism and will be penalized on assignments where plagiarism occurs. A paper will be assigned the "F" grade if there is extensive plagiarism.

Eleven (11) points will be deducted from paper where there is failure to meet the page requirement.

Eleven (11) points will be deducted from scheduled tests that are taken late.

Double spacing is a simple and basic APA requirement. Therefore, up to eleven (11) points will be deducted from papers that are not double spaced.

APA is the required writing style for all typed assignments and papers for this course.

Encyclopedia Sources (this includes on-line encyclopedias) are not acceptable as major sources of information and will be accepted only when used to support information from professional articles and books. Standard dictionaries should also not be used for defining psychological terms. Encyclopedias nor dictionaries will be counted in the required number of entries in your reference page.

When students disagree with the keyed response to a test item, they should put their complaints in writing explaining why they think their answer, instead of the keyed response, is correct. Students must back up their assertion with fact from the textbook or some other reputable source and provide at least two sources along with the written complaint.

The date stated on the from of your syllabus is the deadline for all assignments and other work to be completed and turned in. No assignments will be accepted after this date and students will not be permitted to make up exams they missed during the semester.

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