An examination of the growth and transformation of basic psychological processes across the span of life. Topics will include behavior genetics, development of the nervous system, sensorimotor and perceptual development, cognitive and emotional development, socialization, remediation of clinical and educational problems, and the physiology and psychology of normal and abnormal aging. Drugs and Behavior A survey of human physiological and behavioral responses to commonly used drugs. Open to majors and others with permission of the instructor. Statistics and Experimental Design Consideration of sampling theory, the design of experiments, and the analysis and presentation of data with emphasis on correlation, t-test, chi square, and the analysis of variance.
Attention is given to parametric and non-parametric procedures.
Students learn both to hand calculate and use a simple computer analysis package to analyze data. The study of the biological bases of human and non-human behavior. The emphasis is on the hierarchical organization of the nervous system and behavior. The ways in which psychology has been both influenced by society and has altered society will also be discussed. The latter portion of the course focuses on contemporary trends in psychology.