Programme/Approved Electives for 2025/26
None
Available as a Free Standing Elective
No
Everything is connected. Your childhood is influenced by your environment, and your adulthood is influenced by your childhood. In this class you will study developmental and social topics that include how certain cognitive and behavioural faculties emerge throughout childhood and the role they serve, and then integrate this into how we understand the social psychology of adulthood. Children must navigate a different world from adults: they must learn how to read the intentions and states of others (Theory of Mind), learn about family and non-family in a range of settings, and master a range of increasingly complex cognitive problems (including language, literacy, and numeracy). We then integrate these topics into concerns of adulthood, such as the formation of personal and social identities, group belonging, and complex social dilemmas (including conceptions of fairness and morality).
Aims
To develop an advanced understanding of key areas in development and social psychology, and to critically evaluate theories and research in each field. Importantly, in this module, we will expand upon material from first year, and integrate new topics in developmental psychology into the social psychology of adulthood. For example, children's peer relationships, gender development, social identities, and motor/sensory development.Students will learn through weekly classroom sessions supplemented with four specialist workshops exploring key topics in greater detail, all of this will be underpinned by weekly asynchronous activities.
Talis Aspire Reading ListAny reading lists will be provided by the start of the course.http://lists.lib.keele.ac.uk/modules/psy-20012/lists
Intended Learning Outcomes
critically evaluate theory and research in developmental and social psychology: 1demonstrate the application of empirical research to real-world situations: 2write concisely and disseminate research to a lay audience: 1,2
Topics in Developmental and Social Psychology will be introduced via 10 taught classes (2 hours each) = 20 hoursTotal synchronous = 20 hours10 hours of guided, asynchronous learning activities120 hours spread across independent literature searching, reading, preparing for and extending knowledge from classes, and working on the assessments.Total asynchronous = 130 hours
Description of Module Assessment
1: Assignment weighted 30%Blog post- Students will be asked to create a 1000 word blog post critiquing and discussing a provided paper, presenting it to a psychologically literate audience (those who have an understanding and some background knowledge of psychology but may not necessarily be practitioners or researchers in the field).
- Several papers will be made available by the module team for the topics covered prior to the assignment release. Students can choose which they use.
- The background is that the audience has already read the paper; thus describing or summarising it is not required. Instead, the students focus on commentary, providing fresh insights and a deeper understanding of the paper, rather than re-stating its contents.
- The post should have a suitable title, reflecting the topic but also the readership.
The post will be in two sections:
- In the first section, students will use three questions asked by a hypothetical “reader” to frame a discussion of the paper. These questions will be provided by the module team.
- These will involve critical evaluation and more in-depth thought about the paper. Evidence will need to be cited to support claims. Writing must be appropriate to the audience.
- These are not intended to be short-answer questions, but rather “jumping-off” points to structure the writing.
- In the second section, students will suggest “further reading” for the reader, in the form of another relevant paper, giving a full reference. Students will need to give a justification for why they have chosen this paper. This is a reflective choice, so evidence is not required to support it.
- This must not be research already cited in the supplied paper.
- It will be emphasised to students that any writing that the title, in-text citations, and the full reference for their chosen paper in the second section do not contribute to the word count.
2: Assignment weighted 70%Applied problem solvingStudents will be provided with a list of real-world issues, and be asked to come up with psychologically informed solution to them.
The problems will be provided by the module team.
The assignment will have three key sections. Word counts in brackets are only as a guide to length and are not strictly enforced. Overall length must be 1500 words. In text citations, sub-headings, and references do not contribute to the word count.
1) Significance of issue and why you chose it
Students will give an overview of why the problem being examined is important. They are encouraged to use non-academic sources for this where appropriate to indicate prevalence.
They should also include some reflection on why they have chosen this problem – this does not require evidence to support it. (200 words)
2) Literature review
This is an overview of the key literature relating to the topic being discussed. Students summarise the key ideas or models being discussed. Citations are essential to support arguments. Students should include:
- independent study
- at least some research from the last 5 years
- research on this specific issue
to achieve a higher level mark. Critical evaluation is not required. (600 words)
3) Advice
Students present their key pieces of advice to the audience to solve their problem. These should be in bullet points, and of appropriate length. Advice must be specific to the audience, actionable, ethical, economically feasible, and written in appropriate language. Students must include between 3 and 5 bullet points.
Underneath each idea, students should briefly summarise the reasoning behind this piece of advice. Students should link with the literature review section – no new literature should be introduced. (400 words)
