COURSE STRUCTURE Number of Assignments:  12 Duration:  100 hours There are 12 lessons in this course: Introduction to Child Psychology The Newborn Infant States & Senses of the Infant Learning Emotions and Socialisation Cognitive Development Language Development Intelligence Socialisation Part A Morality Sexuality Socialisation Part B Aims Identify key concepts and issues in child psychology. Understand theories on the psychology of the newborn infant. Explain the different types of sense discrimination that babies develop. Identify how children learn and influences on learning. Discuss theories of emotion and their basis in child behaviour. Explain how children develop cognitively Explain how children develop language. Explain influences on the development of intelligence in a child Explain personal aspects of socialisation Explain factors affecting the development of morality in children Explain the development of sexuality within children. Explain the impact of schooling and family structures on personality development. Examples of Questions You May Answer in This Course: Discuss what environmental and social aspects you think are required for the ideal environment for a developing child in your country. Genetic and environmental factors operate together in influencing the child's personality development" Discuss the above statement. Name and describe one personality characteristic which may be genetically determined. What evidence supports the possibility that it may be hereditary? Genetic and environmental factors operate together in influencing the child's personality development"Discuss the above statement. Name and describe one personality characteristic which may be genetically determined. What evidence supports the possibility that it may be hereditary? Name the kind of learning in which a stimulus which usually produces an unconditioned response is manipulated to produce a conditioned response. Give an example of this kind of learning. Discuss exactly how you would use operant conditioning to encourage a child to socialise. Use the perceptual recognition approach to explain smiling and fear in infants. How are Freuds, Harlows and Bowlbys explanations of the formation of mother-child attachments different? Which do you think is more credible and why? Explain reflection-impulsivity, and its significance in cognitive development. Explain the strengths and weakness of social learning theory in explaining language acquisition. "Intelligence is overall genetically determined". Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Develop an understanding of how children think, and how their psychology changes as they develop. This course will be of value to anyone who works OR lives with children (e.g. parents, play leaders, teachers, etc).
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Some notes from our Child Psychology course:

Temperament - Nature or Nurture:  Most adults have witnessed the considerable differences in temperament between different new born babies. Some babies seem to cry or become irritable at the slightest provocation, causing many sleepless nights for parents. Others seem much more amiable, always smiling and hardly ever crying. Many mothers tell you that they have raised both types. Is this evidence of an inborn hereditary personality trait; or is it merely coincidence?

If such personality tendencies are stable - that is, they continue to exist throughout the child's development - then it is often assumed that the characteristic is hereditary. Investigations have found that 70 per cent of adults with behaviour disorders were described as difficult babies by their parents. This can be interpreted in two ways:

• A difficult temperament is inborn and remains stable throughout life, eventually leading to behavioural problems (nature).
• Difficult babies are treated differently by their parents, who perhaps elicit negative responses, which cause these to children have socially related difficulties later. The later behavioural disorders are a response to negative treatments which in turn resulted from the difficulty they caused as babies.

It has been found that mothers do not generally rear difficult babies very differently to others, but as children get older, parents do often respond more with negative behaviours such as shame, anxiety, or guilt, if these difficulties persist. The temperament of difficult babies has been found to be relatively easy to modify under appeasing parental care and conditions. Childrens temperaments moreover, were found to often change considerably during their early years. It can be concluded that while temperament may be genetically influenced, it is easily modified by environmental factors.

There has been evidence however that certain personality traits may be largely influenced by genetic factors. These are sociability, stimulus seeking and activity.

Sociability
Degrees of sociability vary amongst people, ranging from inhibited and withdrawn behaviours to outgoing and gregarious behaviour. The terms "introvert" and "extrovert" are familiar to most people, as a short and convenient way of categorising friends and acquaintances. The extrovert seeks out social interaction, is happy and jovial amongst most people; while the introvert prefers their own quiet company, and is often ill at ease in social situations.

Research studies of sociability in mono- and dizygotic twins indicate that sociability may be hereditary. Monozygotic twins (identical twins), whether they are reared together or apart, show more similarities in their social behaviour, than dizygotic twins reared together. The fact that the monozygotic twins were reared apart allows researchers to eliminate the influence of environmental factors.

Behaviours such as smiling and fear of strangers have been measured in twin studies, with the conclusion that monozygotic twins have very similar patterns of such behaviour, while dizygotic twins patterns are not correlated. Furthermore, longitudinal studies show that these social characteristics are reliable predictors of sociability in adolescence: that is, the child's degree of sociability is stable throughout his/her development.

If you are interested in this course, you might also be interested in some of our other psychology courses, such as:
 
Abnormal psychology
Adolescent psychology
Child Development Certificate
Developmental Psychology

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