Child Psychology –Spring 2004

Psychology 20651, Section 001, Call# 00133

M,W,F 12:05-12:55, 133 Bowman Hall

Instructor:       Nicole Nugent, M.A.                                      Office Hours:   

                        210 Franklin Hall                                                                      (Or by appointment)

                        (330) 672-8888 (*80956)

                        www.personal.kent.edu/~nnugent

                        nnugent@kent.edu             

Required Text:             Santrock , J.W. (2004). Child Development, 10th Edition. McGraw Hill.

Purpose of the Course:          In this class you will learn about many different aspects of child psychology including developmental milestones, theory, learning, emotion, psychopathology, and much more. You will be encouraged to think about childhood as it is shaped by and reciprocally shapes our culture and to consider child development as it has influenced your own life.

Course Requirements:

Class Sessions:  Class attendance is not required, although it is a very good idea to come to every class. If you do not come to class, you remain responsible for all material covered in class and for any announcements made in class.

Lectures cannot possibly cover everything contained in a textbook. Therefore, some of the material in the text will not be dealt with in class. This does NOT mean that this material will not be used on an exam. Also, there may be things covered in lecture that are not in the textbook. In other words, you should pay attention to both the text material AND your lecture notes in your studying.

Grading: Grades will be based on performance on exams.  Specifically, a total of four exams will be given over the course of the semester.  Out of the first three exams, the lowest score will be dropped in calculating your overall grade.  However, you MUST take the last exam and your last exam grade WILL count towards your final grade in the course.  Thus, your grade will be based on your two highest semester exam grades and your last exam grade.

Thus, you may calculate your grade by: (1) dropping the lowest grade of your first 3 exams, and then (2) averaging your remaining 2 exam grades and your final exam grade.

                        A = 90 – 100%                        D = 60 – 69%

                        B = 80 – 89%                          F = below 60%

                        C = 70 - 79%                         

Exams: Exams will be multiple choice. There will be four exams altogether—three during the term plus a final; the final will not be cumulative. Each of the exams will have 50 questions. Exam questions will come from the lectures, the textbook, and any films/presentations from class. Each exam will also include an additional 5 extra credit short answer questions that will pertain to the supplemental readings available through the library reserve page.

Students must bring their KSU ID to exams and arrive on time. A student is not allowed to begin an exam once another student has completed it and left the classroom. Additionally, students may not retain exams. Students caught cheating on exams will be dealt with severely, according to University regulations.  Cheating has no place in a university.  

 Make-up Exams:  Should an exam be missed, the grade will be a zero. Because the lowest of the first three exams is dropped, this means that one of these three exams can be missed without it affecting your grade. It is strongly recommended, however, that you take every exam. An unforeseen circumstance may lead to a poor grade or a missed exam later on.

If a student misses an exam and has an adequate written excuse, he or she may take the make-up exam. Make-up exams will be all essays. The instructor reserves the right to decide on the adequacy of excuses. Contact me at once if you miss an exam for any reason, or anticipate missing more than one exam or the final. You must see me in person within 2 weeks of a missed exam to be eligible for a make-up exam.

A special test session will be used for giving make-up exams but you must arrange to take the make-up exam within 2 weeks of a missed exam—do not assume that you can take the make-up unless you have spoken with me. The make-up will probably be on Saturday, May 8^th, at 9:00am. Details (such as room) will be announced in class.  

 Extra Credit:  Extra credit may be earned in two ways: 1. by completing the supplemental readings and correctly answering supplemental reading items on exams, or 2. by attending class on a day when an extra-credit pop-quiz is offered.  Specifically, five supplemental readings will be available for each test section; the readings will be made available through the library reserves (http://reserves.library.kent.edu/coursepage.asp?cid=484) or in the psychology advising office.  Extra-credit pop-quizzes will be offered intermittently throughout the semester to reward students for attendance and for in-class attentiveness.

Points earned through supplemental readings or through pop quizzes will be added to your exam grade for the corresponding exam section.  Thus, if you earned a 40/50 on an exam (an 80%) and you correctly answered all supplemental reading questions, your grade for the exam would be 45/50 (90%).  Clearly, these points add up fast and can make a very real difference in your grade!  My unsolicited advice—do the extra credit!

Class Discussion:  Class discussions can be one of the most enriching aspects of college and can provide an arena for a deeper understanding and exploration of the material.  Subsequently, I would like to encourage student questions and comments; however, given the class size, discussion will likely be somewhat limited by the curriculum agenda.  I would like to encourage students who have questions that cannot be addressed during class to remain after class to speak with myself or to come to my office hours. 

Resources:  

Teaching Assistant:  Amanda Lipko will maintain course grades so please contact her with any questions you may have about your grade during the semester. She will also be able to answer questions about book-based course material, although she will not be at each class so she will not be able to respond to questions about material covered solely in class.  

Advising Office:  The psychology advising office is in Room 111 Kent Hall (phone: 672-2912). The advising office can provide certain types of information and help (and will have copies of the supplemental readings). The graduate students and psychology majors in the Advising Office may be able to help you with questions about material in your text and help you get general information on the Psychology Department.  

Students with Disabilities: In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this course, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester or when given an assignment for which an accommodation is required. Students with disabilities must verify their eligibility through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) in the Michael Schwartz Student Services Center (672-2972).  

Tentative Schedule:

Please Note: This outline is an approximate guide, since dates for a specific lecture topic may change. If changes affecting exams are made, they will be announced in class as soon as possible. You are responsible for the chapters listed in this outline, as well as lecture notes, unless otherwise specified by the instructor.

Guide to Supplemental Readings:  (Please note, these are EXTRA CREDIT—not required! Also, please see my website for a more detailed guide of supplemental readings.)

EXAM I:

Gibbs, N. (2003). Making time for a baby. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 7-12). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Morelli, G.A. (1992). Cultural variation in infants’ sleeping arrangements: Questions of independence. Developmental Psychology, 28, 604-613.

Sameroff, A.J. & Chandler, M.J. (2003). Keep the Baby and the Bathwater. In W.E. Dixon (Ed.), Twenty Studies that Revolutionized Child Psychology (pp. 220-232). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Shandler, S. (1999). Ophelia speaks: Adolescent girls write about their search for self (pp. 19-22). New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

Teicher, M.H. (2003). Scars that won’t heal: The neurobiology of child abuse. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 203-208). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

EXAM II:

Baillargeon, R. (1998). How Do Infants Learn About the Physical World? In J.S. DeLoache, S.C. Mangelsdorf, & E. Pomerantz (Eds.), Current Readings in Child Development (pp.56-63). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Bentacourt, J. (1993).  Chapter 4: Brian: 2 points + 1 big point. My Name is Brain Brian (pp. 29-41). NY: Scholastic, Inc..

Finton, L. (2004). Living in a bilingual-bicultural family. In C.M. Shore (Ed.) The many faces of childhood: Diversity in development (pp. 43-51). Boston: Pearson Education Inc..

Winner, E. (2003). Giftedness: Current Theory and Research. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.),, Child Growth and Development (pp. 51-54). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Wuethrich, B. (2003). Getting Stupid: Teens and Alcohol Use. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 171-175). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

EXAM III:

Berman, H. (2004). Children and war: Current understandings and future directions. In C.M. Shore (Ed.) The many faces of childhood: Diversity in development (pp. 172-184). Boston: Pearson Education Inc..

Geary, D.C. (2004). Evolution and Developmental Sex Differences. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 37-41). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Harlow, H.F. & Harlow, M.K. (2003). She loves me, but she loves me not. In W.E. Dixon (Ed.), Twenty Studies that Revolutionized Child Psychology (pp. 116-126). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Olweus, D. (2004). A Profile of Bullying at School. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 94-99). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Worden, J.W. (2003). Children and grief: When a parent dies. (pp. 55-73). Guilford Press.

EXAM IV:

Barnett, W.S. & Hustedt, J.T. (2004). Preschool: The Most Important Grade. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 56-59). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Berndt, T.J. (2004). Friendship Quality and Social Development. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 75-78). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Kazdin, A.E. & Benjet, C. (2004). Spanking Children: Evidence and Issues. In E.N. Junn & C.J. Boyatzis (Eds.), Child Growth and Development (pp. 134-137). Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.

Levenkron, S. (1998). Chapter 10: The family system. In Cutting (pp. 125-137). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc..

Simmons, R. (2002). Odd girl out: The hidden aggression of girls. Orlando: Harcourt Inc.