Human Development & the Family

Catalog description

This course covers family relationships, the psychological, psychotherapeutic, and health implications of developmental issues and their effects, aging and its biological, social, cognitive, and psychological aspects. This coursework shall include instruction on the assessment and reporting of, as well as treatment related to, elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect, a variety of cultural understandings of human development, the understanding of human behavior within the social context of socioeconomic status and other contextual issues affecting social position, the understanding of human behavior within the social context of a representative variety of the cultures found within California, and the understanding of the impact that personal and social insecurity, social stress, low educational levels, inadequate housing, and malnutrition have on human development. The conceptual frame is organized around a dynamic and integral living systems model of development. We will study the works and ideas of developmental theorists and discuss chronological developmental milestones. Course also reviews the dialectical dynamics of the formative process and the organizing field. The development of the self-organizing activity of the person and the formation of biological/nervous system capacities will be discussed within the context of the relational and social-cultural environment. RESTRICTED TO MA SOMATIC PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS