Professor: Jenny Saffran

Office: Room 528 Psychology

Office Hours: Tuesday 4:30-6:00 and by appt.

Phone: 262-9942

Email: jsaffran@facstaff.wisc.edu

Teaching Assistant: Elizabeth Leigh

Office: 534 Psychology

Office Hours: Monday 4:00-4:30, Wednesday 1:00-2:00

Phone Number: 262-7583

Email: edleigh@students.wisc.edu

Is the infant's world a "blooming, buzzing, confusion" (as per William James), or do infants enter the world prepared to organize and make sense of their physical and social environments? How can we disentangle the contributions of nature and nurture, and then understand how they interact during development? What changes over development, and what remains constant? What are the implications of early development for later adaptation or dysfunction? These and many other questions will be addressed as we venture into the minds of children.

Required Textbook: Shaffer, D. R. (1997). Developmental Psychology (5th Ed).

Grading for Psychology 560 will be based on two midterms (25% each) and the final exam (50%).

______________________________________________________________________________

January 20: Overview of the semester

______________________________________________________________________________

January 25: What is development?

Shaffer Ch. 2

______________________________________________________________________________

January 27: Research methods for developmental psychology

Shaffer Ch. 1

______________________________________________________________________________

February 1, 3, 8: Biological foundations & prenatal development

Shaffer Ch. 3, 4, 5 (p. 167-186 optional)

______________________________________________________________________________

February 10, 15, 17: Infant sensation and perception

Shaffer Ch. 6

______________________________________________________________________________

February 22: Midterm Exam 1

______________________________________________________________________________

February 24, March 1, 3: Cognitive development

Shaffer Ch. 7, 8

______________________________________________________________________________

March 8, 10: Spring Break

______________________________________________________________________________

March 15, 17, 22, & 24: Language development

Shaffer Ch. 10

______________________________________________________________________________

March 29, 31, April 5: Emotional development

Shaffer Ch. 11

______________________________________________________________________________

April 7: Midterm Exam 2

______________________________________________________________________________

April 12, 14: Self and social cognition

Shaffer Ch. 12

______________________________________________________________________________

April 19, 21: Gender-role and moral development

Shaffer Ch. 13, 14 (p. 587-593 optional)

______________________________________________________________________________

April 26, 28, May 3: Atypical development

Readings TBA

______________________________________________________________________________

May 5: Concluding issues

Review Shaffer

______________________________________________________________________________

May 9 7:25 pm: Final Exam_____________________________________________

Contacting us: In general, if you have a procedural question (e.g., missed classes, exam questions), your TA is your best bet. For questions of content, you can choose either of us to contact. For Professor Saffran, email is by far the preferred method of contact.

Conflicts and special testing conditions:

Any student with a conflict between an academic requirement in this course and any religious observance will be given an alternative means of meeting the academic requirement, with two qualifications: (1) students must make requests to the instructor in writing by February 5, 1999; (2) reasonable limits will be set on the total number of days claimed by any one student. Students who will require special testing conditions this semester because of a learning or physical disability must notify the instructor and provide written documentation -- a McBurney center VISA -- by February 5, 1999.

Make-up exams: The only acceptable reasons for missing an exam are illness or family emergencies. You must provide us with a written note from the dean in order to be eligible for a make-up exam. All make-up exams will be essay exams.

Final exam: Because of this size of the class, requests for alternative test dates cannot be accomodated. After the final exam is scored, you may retrieve your grade through the WWW or UW touch-tone system. To protect everyone's privacy, grades will not be posted, given over the phone, or distributed by email.

Grading: Unless a majority of students object, grading will not be on a curve. Grades will be as follows (all numbers are percentiles): A (92 - 100)

AB (88 - 91)

B (82 - 87)

BC (78 - 81)

C (70 - 77)

D (60 - 69)

F (0 - 59)

More news you can use:

(1) Please note the Class Box in the back of the room. After any lecture, please feel free to write a short note telling me about anything: (a) you found particularly interesting or exciting about the day's lecture; (b) you found unclear or confusing about the lecture; (c) you would have liked to ask, but didn't get a chance to. You may also comment upon aspects of how the class is going. These notes may be anonymous; because you are a large group, it's my way of checking in with you to see how things are going.

(2) If we make a mistake on an exam question and you correct the mistake (with documentation or a citation from the text or a scientific article), you will receive double credit for that test item.

(3) The College and Psychology Department require that the following statement be included on all syllabi: "Occasionally a student may have a complaint about a TA or course instructor. If that happens you should feel free to discuss the matter directly with the TA or instructor. If the complaint is about the TA and you do not feel comfortable discussing it with him/her, you should discuss it with the course instructor. If you do not feel the instructor has resolved the matter to your satisfaction, thenyou should speak to the Psychology Undergraduate Advisor, Ms. Arlene Davenport (room 225 Psychology) or the Psychology Department Chair, Professor Janet Hyde (room 238 Psychology). You should speak to either of these individuals if the complaint is about the instructor and you do not feel comfortable discussing it directly with her/him. If you believe the TA or course instructor has discriminated against you because of your religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic background, you may also take your complaint to the Affirmative Action Office (room 175 Bascom Hall). If your complaint has to do with sexual harassment, you may take your complaint to Ms. Davenport, the Psychology Department sexual harassment contact person."

(4) Minority Student Liason:

The College of Letters and Sciences is initiating a new program to facilitate the information flow between students of color and the university. Professor Sumie Okazaki has been appointed as the psychology department's Faculty Minority Liaison. She will be the "point person" who will collect and distribute information to minority students in psychology about departmental and university opportunities and resources concerning diversity and multicultural issues (e.g., support services, academic internships, and grants/fellowships), inform faculty and advisors on multicultural programming and resources, field minority students' concerns about psychology courses, and facilitate minority student contacts with faculty whose area of specialty dovetails with the student's interest. Professor Okazaki can be reached at 262-0387 or through E-mail at sokazaki@facstaff.wisc.edu and looks forward to meeting and helping psychology students of color.