This course aims to provide an overview of human development from conception through adolescence. You will be introduced to current research and methodology in the field of child psychology through learning about experiments and reading empirical articles. You will learn the major theories and empirical findings on topics such as normative cognitive, language, social and emotional development. The course forms part of the foundational training on psychological knowledge, research capability, theoretical reasoning, and critical thinking.
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Year Taken: AY17/18, Sem 2
Lecturer: Setoh Pei Pei
Assessments: Letter (5%), online questionnaires (5%), group presentation (10%), 2 quizzes (30%), final exam (50%)
Workload/difficulty: Like caring for a child/MediumYour first lesson from this module might be on how to politely draft an email to an academic superior. It’s a running joke in my cohort. This module covers early development up to around adolescence across multiple dimensions – physical, mental, emotional, and moral. The content is extensive; the notes from this module (along with statistics) take up the most space in the organising file I keep them in.
One aspect of this module that differentiates it from the other junior-level cores is its emphasis on primary research. Prof PP’s slides are frequently interspersed with journal articles, many of which include groundbreaking discoveries. The tutorials serve the function of contextualising what we learnt in lecture, usually by providing real-life examples (e.g. the case of Genie, feral child) or further expanding upon said journal articles. Two assessments – the letter and the group presentation – each involve examining a research paper and explaining it to an audience. Free marks for participating in Prof’s most recent studies (smart move).
This is all to say: pay attention to the studies highlighted every tutorial. Hell, pay attention to every single study that’s name-dropped in the course. If you can find the original papers online, even better: read the abstracts and summarise their key findings. It goes without saying that you should peruse the tutorial papers throughly. The module is heavy in content, but is not difficult – you just have to figure out how to connect the little dots to form the bigger picture. It will ultimately contribute to your skills in critiquing papers, which is another quality expected of a psychology major.
This review was reposted with the kind permission of Gwyneth. Originally published at https://gwynethtyt.com/2021/06/01/ntu-psych-mods/
June 11, 2021
