Psych E 1025: Developmental Psychology

Fall 2018
Harvard University Extension School

Professor Jesse Snedeker

Office: WJH 1070
Email: snedeker@wjh.harvard.edu
Office hours: by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Kailee Zhu

Office: TBA
Email: tonghui_zhu@gse.harvard.edu
Office hours: by appointment

Aims of the Course

 Learn about the central questions and findings of developmental psychology, with
an emphasis on early childhood.
 Explore the ways in which psychologists go about studying these questions.
 Learn about important theories of cognitive and social development
 Explore the relationship between theory and empirical research
 Hone your ability to critically evaluate media reports of psychological studies
 Learn to read primary psychological literature (journal articles, monographs etc)
 Become familiar with research that is directly relevant to decisions that you might
make as a parent, teacher, policy-maker, or voter.
Course Format
Lectures will be held twice per week. In addition to lectures, students will participate in
virtual sections. This will involve turning in section assignments (by Wednesday of that
week) and then watching the response video posted by your TF (on Friday).

Readings
The required text is available at the Coop (and in a variety of formats online)
 Siegler, R. S., Saffran, J., Eisenberg, N., DeLoache, J. S., Gershoff, E., & Leaper,
C., (2017). How Children Develop, 5th edition. New York: Worth. (HCD)

I will also be drawing on chapters from the book below which you may want to buy.
 Miller, P. H. (2016) Theories of developmental psychology (6th edition). New
York: Worth
You can order the books here: https://tinyurl.com/300-PSYC-E-1025-F18
Additional readings are available on the course webpage as pdfs. The schedule on the
syllabus lists the readings. It will be updated as changes are made.
Grading for Undergraduate Credit
 Section Participation Assignments 25%
 Experiments 5%
 Midterm 30%
 Final Exam 30%
 Final Reflection 10%

Grading for Graduate Credit

 Section Participation Assignments 15%
 Experiments 3%
 Midterm 29%
 Final Exam 29%
 Final Reflection 9%
 Final Paper 15%

Section
The sections will give you opportunities to integrate and apply the material that you have
read. Sections will begin in the second week and participation will occur via the website.
Some sections will involve additional readings, some will involve watching movies, and
others will involve applying course concepts to new materials.

Prior to the section, students will have a short assignment to complete that asks them to
apply what they have learned and generate topics for discussion. The TF will then review
these assignments. During the section the TF will provide feedback on these assignments,
expand the discussion and address student questions. Sections will be recorded and
available on the website, but we also hope to be able to live stream them for folks who
can participate in real time. After the section, you will typically complete the assignment
by making a final comment on the discussion board.
Experimental Credit
Throughout the course we will be discussing the results of many psychological
experiments. To help improve your understanding of research in experimental
psychology, we encourage you to participate 2 hours of psychological studies conducted
by Department of Psychology during the semester. If you live outside of Cambridge, you
should only sign up for studies that take place online (so that you do not need to travel to
campus). A list studies and information on how to schedule your participation are
available at this website: http://studypool.wjh.harvard.edu/. The two hours of study
credit will fulfill the experiment grade (5% above).
However, participation in experiments is not required. Instead you may choose to write
an optional fourth paper (3-5 pages) analyzing the experimental methods of a published
research paper. Please write to your TF if you would prefer to do this assignment.
Midterm
The midterm exam will cover material from the lectures, sections, and readings assigned
up to October 11. It will include both short answer and essay questions. This exam will
be offered online using the extension school's automated proctoring system.
Final
The final will cover the second half of the course and will be similar in format to the
midterm. This exam will be offered online using the extension school's automated
proctoring system.

Final Reflection
The final reflection will be a writing assignment that asks you to reflect on your learning
and apply what you have learned to new questions. It will be placed online at the same
time as the final and should be completed in a single 90 minute session.

Graduate Student Paper

In addition to the assignments above, graduate students will write a final paper (9-12
pages) on a research topic related to developmental psychology.

Course Schedule:
This schedule is subject to change. Updates will be posted on the class webpage and
announced during lecture. HCD and Miller readings can be found in the texts. All other
readings will be posted in the “Readings” section of the webpage.
Readings that are listed for a section should be read before and brought to that section.
Occasionally a reading is listed under both the lecture and the section because it is
relevant to both. Optional readings are truly optional.

Date Topic Required Reading Optional Reading

Sept 4 Introduction HCD Ch 1 (1-23) Miller Chapter 1

Sept 6 Developmental approaches

HCD Ch 1 (24-42)
and methods

Sept 11 Prenatal Development and

HCD Ch 2
Birth

Sept 13 Genetic & Environmental HCD CH 3 (91-113)

Influences on Development Sapolsky, 2004
Scarr & McCartney,1983

Section 1 Research Methods Campos, Bertenthal &

Kermoian (1992)
Sept 18 Brain Development Gernsbacher, Dawson &
HCD Ch 3 (113-140)
Goldsmith, 2005;

Sept 20 Theories of Cognitive

Development 1: Piaget HCD Ch 4 (141-157) Miller Ch.2 (29-79; 89-94)

Section 2 Brain and Education Bruer, 1997

Scarr & McCartney, 1983

Sept 25 Theories of Cognitive

Development 2: Information HCD 157-167, 178-183 Miller Ch. 7
Processing

Sept 27 Theories of Cognitive Vygotsky: HCD 172-178

Development 3: Vygotsky & Core: HCD 167-172 Vygotsky, 1978; Miller Ch
Core Knowledge Spelke & Kinzler, 2007 4; Miller Ch. 5 (211-248)
Summary: 183-188

Section 3 Object Permanence after

Piaget Baillargeon et al., 1985

Oct 2

Oct 4

Section 4 Infantile Amnesia Rovee-Collier, 1999

Simcock & Haine, 2002

Oct 9

Oct 11 Infant Perception and

HCD Ch. 5
Cognition
Spelke, 1994

Section 5 Movie: Preschool in 3

Cultures

Oct 16 Movie: Preschool in 3 selections from Raising a

Cultures World of Babies,
DeLoache & Gottleib, 2000

Oct 18 MIDTERM

No Section

Oct 23 Language Development Gleitman & Newport, 1995

HCD Ch. 6;

Oct 25 Language Development Werker, 1989 Markman,

1990
Section 6 Review Midterm. Speech Transcripts
Analyzing Children's Speech (Assignments); HCD 252-
259

Oct 30 Conceptual Development: HCD Ch 7 (287-305) Avis & Harris, 1991;

Minds and Biology Leslie & Thaiss, 1992 Johnson & Carey, 1998

Nov 1 Conceptual Development:

Causation and Number HCD Ch 7 (306-324) Johnson & Carey, 1998

Section 7 Cognitive Change Carey,2000; Carey 2001

Nov 6 Intelligence and Academic

Achievement HCD Ch. 8; Ceci & Roazzi, 1994
Neisser, et al., 1996 Stigler & Stevenson, 1992

Nov 8 Theories of Social Dev 1: Miller Ch. 3 (read for gist),

Psychoanalytic & Learning HCD Ch 9 (371-384) Miller Ch. 6 (continued
below)

Section 8 Discussion: Do Parents

Matter? Harris, 1995 (458-462,
Harris, 2000
Submit Topic for Final 474-483); Vandell, 2000
Paper. Discuss Proposal

Nov 13 Theories of Social Dev 2: Bronfenbrenner, 1994; Miller

Social Cognitive and HCD 384-412 Ch 6 (continued), Review
Evolutionary ethology from Miller Ch 5

Nov 15 Attachment & Identity HCD Ch 11 Sagi, 1990

Kamins & Dweck, 1999 Dweck & Leggett, 1988

Section 9 Theories of Social

Development Review

Nov 20 Family as Context for

Development HCD Ch 12 Newcombe, 2003
Proposal for final paper NICHD, 2006 NICHD, 2002
due

Nov 22 NO CLASS
THANKSGIVING

NO
SECTION

Nov 27 Peer Relationships HCD Ch 13, HCD Ch 14 Crick & Ladd, 1993
Moral Development Bushman & Anderson, Jobson et al., 2002
2001 Anderson & Dill, 2000

Nov 29 Gender Development HCD Ch 15

Maccoby, 1998

Section 10 Movie 42up (90 minutes)

 Dec 5 Conclusions HCD Ch. 16 Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998;
Schellenberg, 2004 Wolraich et al., 1994

Dec 10 Final Paper Due

Final Exam
Dec 19
(scheduled by registrar)

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