Human Development & the Family

Catalog description

This course studies human development and family through a cultural lens from pre-birth, infancy, to old age and dying. Historical influential theories of development from Piaget, Erikson, Bowlby, Winnicott, Bronfenbrenner and Kohlberg to more current theorists such as Arnett, Jensen, Waddell, Tatum, Lieberman, and Walker provide students foundational grounding. Through defining adverse childhood experiences, the role of family in areas of trauma, and the influences of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, adoption, neurodivergence and religion on human development, the course explores multiple, often compounded factors that apply to an individual's development as a result of social systems rather than considering each factor in isolation. Cognitive and moral development as well as attachment, object relations, experiences of education, parenting, creativity, and spiritual awakening affect human behavior and family within socio-economic conditions. These intersections are synthesized via student aesthetic art responses in this course, leading to student research writing, informing future clinical assessment skills, and learning objectives required by the BBS. RESTRICTED TO EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY STUDENTS