Overview
Welcome to Psychology 251/3.0, a course designed to give you a general introduction to the field of Developmental Psychology. This course will cover both theories and research concerning infancy, childhood, and adolescence. It has three major learning objectives. First, by the end of the course you are expected to be able to describe the onset and changes in various behaviors. This is the "what" question in developmental research. Second, you are expected to examine and critically evaluate theories that have been developed to explain children’s behavior and age-related changes in that behavior. This is the "why" question in developmental research. Third, you are expected to learn how developmental psychologists actually conduct experiments as they attempt to describe developmental trends and assess developmental theories. This is the "how" question of developmental research.
Most developmental psychologists study infants, children, or adolescents. Our course reflects this bias. It also reflects the influence of biology, anthropology, computer science, sociology, and medicine in the field of developmental psychology. This will become apparent as you work your way through the textbook. I hope that you will find the course intellectually fascinating as well as useful to examine both your own assumptions and those of our culture about children and their development.
Learning Outcomes
After completing PSYC 251, students should be able to:
- Describe the general course of typical development from conception to late adolescence in the cognitive, linguistic, emotional and social domains to recognize their effect on one another.
- Compare and contrast the major developmental theories and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each theory.
- Discuss the different methods used in developmental psychology research and evaluate how these research methods are dependent upon the theoretical approach of researcher, developmental age of the participants and research question being asked.
- Recommend ways to promote children’s well-being and successful development, based on developmental research and theory.
- Critically discuss a variety of materials related to child development and effectively communicate ideas to different audiences.
- Collaborate with peers through problem-based learning activities to explore concepts and research related to child development.
Terms
Evaluation
TBA
**Evaluation Subject to Change**
Proctored Exams
Exam Centre Location, Eligibility, and Fees
Students enrolled exclusively in online courses may choose one of two options to write this course’s proctored assessments:
- You may choose to write the assessments online under supervision of Examity proctoring services. A $100 fee will be charged to your SOLUS account. This fee is known as the Off Campus Exam Admin Fee and is applied in SOLUS at the earlier of: term tuition posting date, or the date at which exam writing method is changed to online. The fee is assessed once per ASO course with proctored assessments.
- You may choose to write the assessments in-person on Queen’s campus in Kingston at no additional charge.
Students enrolled in at least one on-campus course are expected to write this course’s proctored assessments on-campus during the scheduled exam time. They will not be permitted to write this course’s proctored assessments online.
Students were prompted to indicate their preferred exam writing method when enrolling in the course in SOLUS. The exam writing method may be changed by contacting the ASO Exams Team at aso.exams@queensu.ca.
Information for students writing online assessments using Examity
Selected assessments in this course will be administered in onQ using online proctoring provided by Examity, a third-party, cloud-based service. This proctoring solution was chosen to support our efforts in maintaining academic integrity when online proctoring is required. Queen’s has conducted an extensive privacy and security review of Examity and has entered into a binding agreement with terms that address the appropriate collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with Ontario’s privacy legislation. To learn more about online proctoring, please see the information provided by the Office of the University Registrar.
If you registered to write online with Examity, all information pertaining to the technical requirements and preparation for writing online will be posted in onQ well in advance of your exam. 
The use of Examity as described is unique to courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science Online. Other Faculties use online proctoring solutions in different ways under different regulations. Students should contact the appropriate Faculty examination team if they have questions.
Timing of Final Examinations
The exam period dates for each Term are listed on the Faculty of Arts and Science webpage under "Important Dates". Student exam schedules for the Fall Term are posted to SOLUS immediately prior to the Thanksgiving holiday; for the Winter Term they are posted on the Friday before Reading Week, and for the Summer Term they are individually noted on the Arts and Science Online syllabi. Students should not make any travel plans until after the examination schedule has been posted. Exams will not be moved or deferred to accommodate employment, travel/holiday plans or flight reservations. Students experiencing extenuating circumstances preventing them from writing their exams as scheduled should review the information about the Academic Consideration process.
Textbook and Materials
ASO reserves the right to make changes to the required material list as received by the instructor before the course starts. Please refer to the Campus Bookstore website at to obtain the most up-to-date list of required materials for this course before purchasing them.
Required Textbooks
Siegler, R. S., Saffran, J., Eisenberg, N., Gershoff, E., Graham, S. (2020). How Children Develop, Canadian Edition, 6th edition. Macmillan Learning.
Time Commitment
Students can expect to spend approximately 10 hours a week (120 hours per term) in study, listening and online activity for this course.
Evaluation
TBA
**Evaluation Subject to Change**
Proctored Exams
Exam Centre Location, Eligibility, and Fees
Students enrolled exclusively in online courses may choose one of two options to write this course’s proctored assessments:
- You may choose to write the assessments online under supervision of Examity proctoring services. A $100 fee will be charged to your SOLUS account. This fee is known as the Off Campus Exam Admin Fee and is applied in SOLUS at the earlier of: term tuition posting date, or the date at which exam writing method is changed to online. The fee is assessed once per ASO course with proctored assessments.
- You may choose to write the assessments in-person on Queen’s campus in Kingston at no additional charge.
Students enrolled in at least one on-campus course are expected to write this course’s proctored assessments on-campus during the scheduled exam time. They will not be permitted to write this course’s proctored assessments online.
Students were prompted to indicate their preferred exam writing method when enrolling in the course in SOLUS. The exam writing method may be changed by contacting the ASO Exams Team at aso.exams@queensu.ca.
Information for students writing online assessments using Examity
Selected assessments in this course will be administered in onQ using online proctoring provided by Examity, a third-party, cloud-based service. This proctoring solution was chosen to support our efforts in maintaining academic integrity when online proctoring is required. Queen’s has conducted an extensive privacy and security review of Examity and has entered into a binding agreement with terms that address the appropriate collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with Ontario’s privacy legislation. To learn more about online proctoring, please see the information provided by the Office of the University Registrar.
If you registered to write online with Examity, all information pertaining to the technical requirements and preparation for writing online will be posted in onQ well in advance of your exam. 
The use of Examity as described is unique to courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science Online. Other Faculties use online proctoring solutions in different ways under different regulations. Students should contact the appropriate Faculty examination team if they have questions.
Timing of Final Examinations
The exam period dates for each Term are listed on the Faculty of Arts and Science webpage under "Important Dates". Student exam schedules for the Fall Term are posted to SOLUS immediately prior to the Thanksgiving holiday; for the Winter Term they are posted on the Friday before Reading Week, and for the Summer Term they are individually noted on the Arts and Science Online syllabi. Students should not make any travel plans until after the examination schedule has been posted. Exams will not be moved or deferred to accommodate employment, travel/holiday plans or flight reservations. Students experiencing extenuating circumstances preventing them from writing their exams as scheduled should review the information about the Academic Consideration process.
Textbook and Materials
ASO reserves the right to make changes to the required material list as received by the instructor before the course starts. Please refer to the Campus Bookstore website at to obtain the most up-to-date list of required materials for this course before purchasing them.
Required Textbooks
Siegler, R. S, Saffran, J.R., Graham, S., Eisenberg, N., DeLoache, J. S., Gershoff, E. How Children Develop, 6th edition. New York: Worth.
Time Commitment
Students can expect to spend approximately 10 hours a week (120 hours per term) in study, listening and online activity for this course.