PSYC 208: Contemporary Topics in Social, Developmental, Personality, and Clinical Psychology

A focus on the interpretation of contemporary research in social, developmental, personality, and clinical psychology.

Course Description

The topic of this course is “The Developing Brain.” We will cover methods for studying neurodevelopment, how early neurodevelopment unfolds, the development of a variety of psychological processes, select psychological and neurodevelopmental disorders, and briefly some changes near the end of the lifespan.

Learning Goals:

• gained knowledge about how the development of neural structures are linked to the genesis of various cognitive processes;
• practiced applying how a variety of tools can be used to explore and track neurodevelopment;
• worked to synthesize how functioning in one domain (e.g.,attention) is closely tied to functioning other domains (e.g., memory), and how this functioning has psychosocial effects on a person’s well-being;
• improved your ability to locate and comprehend primary research in developmental cognitive neuroscience;
• enhanced your ability to work effectively with others, and to speak publically in a scientific context

Project: MORAL DEVELOPMENT

[Transcript]
Synopsis:
The focus of our research is to analyze the cognitive and behavioral patterns and occurrences during typical moral development in adolescents, and what happens when this development does not happen or is disrupted – in which we consider it as “atypical.”

Typical Moral Development

Overview Summary

According to Glenn & Raine, they suggest that moral development is a result of evolution through history. Although it is the human’s natural instinct to perform actions that only benefit themselves to ensure their personal survival. There are instances of people helping others, which slowly began to set in, and eventually people transition from a selfish mindset to a selfless mindset. This ‘moral’ behavior may have emerged from a person’s emotions and desire to help others.

This development of selfless behavior promotes a good feeling, in addition to gaining more friends, approval of others, and forming harmonious relationships with the people around them. And thus, this positive reaction of helping others may have further reinforced the desire to conform to society and perform more good deeds for others. This ensures that the behavior of cooperation and moral actions will continue to be carried out through operant conditioning. Therefore, the development of moral behavior can be seen as an evolutionary strategy for the one’s survival. Hence, survival of the fittest.

[…]

Evolution of Immoral Development

On the contrary, although most people participate in helpful, cooperative behavior and likewise expect others to do the same, there are some individuals in society who do not conform. Glenn & Raine also suggests that immoral behavior is also an evolutionary strategy–gaining others’ trust and manipulating them to get the most out of the situations, which allows them to survive and pass on their qualities to later offspring.

In a world where people are generous and giving, to take advantage of that and participate in immoral behavior gives these individuals a head start in promoting their personal survival. However, these individuals also face the challenge of possibly being ostracized by society