Psychological & Brain Sciences

• CAS PS 541: Social Development
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPS241) - An examination of the development of social cognition and competence. Topics include: innate and early-emerging social knowledge, attachment, moral development and cooperation, theory of mind, group biases, and social learning.
• CAS PS 542: Child Development and Public Policy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPS241) - Impact of law and government institutions on the development of children in the United States. Federal and state policy toward social services, education, and welfare; laws concerning the family, custody, child abuse, delinquency, and the rights and disabilities of minors.
• CAS PS 544: Developmental Neuropsychology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPS241) or consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Study of the neural mechanisms underlying behavioral development. Topics include the plasticity of the developing brain in response to deprivation or damage and mechanisms underlying specific syndromes (e.g., aphasia, dyslexia, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, autism, and Tourette's syndrome). Also offered as CAS NE 544.
• CAS PS 546: Cognitive Development
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPS241) - Cognitive development from birth through early adolescence. Relationship of cognition to other traditional areas of psychology (e.g., perception, language, learning, memory, physiology, and psychopathology).
• CAS PS 549: Developmental Psychopathology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPS241 & CASPS371) - Developmental deviations and psychological disorders of childhood. Examination of assessment techniques, treatment theories, and prevention methods. Developmental etiologies of neurotic and psychotic disturbances, effects of family patterns on the character of parent-child pathology, influence of childhood pathology on adult functioning.
• CAS PS 550: Childhood Adversity: Risk and Resilience
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPS241) - Consideration of why some children overcome adversity while others have maladaptive outcomes. Concepts of risk and resilience are applied to contexts of childhood adversity: poverty, maltreatment, homelessness, orphanages, and natural disasters. Discussion of implications for prevention, intervention, and policy.
• CAS PS 560: Cross-Cultural Psychology
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASPS 101 and PS senior standing. - Comparative study of psychological variables under different cultural conditions in order to identify universal aspects of human behavior, and to identify cultural influences on behavior. Applications to psychotherapy, public health, child development, education, business, and foreign relations.
• CAS PS 561: The Psychology of Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: PS senior standing. - Explores the impact of poverty, wealth, and economic inequality on individuals, families, and communities and considers how individuals think about, explain, and experience poverty, wealth, and economic inequality. Experimental, survey, interview, and epidemiological research considered.