Child Psychology Home Study Course

Qualification

The Child Psychology home study course leads to the award Diploma in Child Psychology - ASET Level 3. ASET is a leading UK awarding body recognised by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Course Syllabus

The course is divided up into two modules, containing twenty units, as follows:

Module One Major Developmental Issues

Unit One The First Year of Life

• Infant reflexes; Social development during the first year of life including the social smile and onset of fear of strangers.

Unit Two The Formation of Attachments

• Imprinting; Attachment (Bowlby) including cross-cultural studies; Harlow and surrogate mothers; Relevance of animal studies in child development.

Unit Three Consequences of Breakdowns in Attachments

• Maternal deprivation; Implications of theories of attachment and maternal deprivation when placing children with surrogates.

Unit Four The Home, Family and School

• Group vs family care and studies of effects of maternal employment and father absent families; Importance of peers and siblings.

Unit Five Basic Principles of Research Methods

• Nature and purpose of research, what is an experiment, supporting and refuting hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, control of variables, standardised instructions and procedures, methods of sampling, design of investigations.

Unit Six The Development of Visual Perception

• Introduction to the nature/nurture debate on visual perception; Fantz – form perception; Gibson and Walk – depth perception; how the physiology of the human visual system helps us judge depth and distance; Bower – size constancy; animal experiments on early sensory deprivation. Tutor-marked Assignment A

Unit Seven The Development of Language and Communication

• Development of non-verbal communication in humans, gestures etc; comparisons with non-human primates; outline of language development in humans; including naturalistic observational in humans; including naturalistic observational studies and criticisms of these; Innate and reinforcement theories.

Unit Eight Intelligence and Intelligence Testing

• Definitions of intelligence; mental age and IQ; Tests of intelligence; Advantages and disadvantages of IQ testing.

Unit Nine The Nature/Nurture Debate in the Study of Intelligence

• Twins studies; stability of IQ; Are early experiences decisive for later development?

Unit Ten Data Collection and Interpretation

• Tables and histograms, correlation and scattergrams; Mean; Range; Drawing conclusions from data.

Module Two The Child as an Individual

Unit Eleven How Children Think

• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development; including studies of egocentrism and criticisms of his work. Tutor-marked Assignment B

Unit Twelve Learning Theory – How Behaviour is Acquired

• Learning and conditioning – classical conditioning and operant conditioning; including explanations of extinction, discrimination and generalisation; positive and negative reinforcement; Social Learning Theory and criticisms.

Unit Thirteen Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory – An Alternative Approach

• Personality structure, 5 stage theory, criticisms.

Unit Fourteen Moral Development

• Definition in psychological terms; investigation of moral behaviour, moral feelings and moral judgement.

Unit Fifteen The Development of Gender Roles

• Sex-typing; Gender identity; Biological, social and cultural theories.

Unit Sixteen Aggression in Children

• Biological basis of aggression; Psychological theory and aggression; Aggression as a learned response; Imitation of aggression; viewing violence; Punishment for aggression; sex differences in aggression.

Unit Seventeen Methods Used in Child Development Research

• Observational, Survey, Correlational, Experimental – advantages and disadvantages. Tutor-marked Assignment C

Unit Eighteen Play

• The importance of play to learning; Piaget’s theory of play; forms of play; Relevance of psychological theories to pre-school education; Play and learning in nursery schools; Play therapy.

Unit Nineteen Learning in School

• Programmed learning and its relationship to learning theory – advantages and disadvantages; Discovery learning and its effectiveness.

Unit Twenty Behaviour Modification

• Explanation and examples; Relationship to learning theory; Points systems, Advantages and disadvantages. Tutor-marked Assignment D: Extended Essay

Duration

You may register at any time and have a full year to complete your studies, with extensions being granted at our discretion. The Child Psychology Home Study Course will take around 120 hours of study to complete.

Tutor Support and Assessment

The course is designed for you to study at home or work. You will receive a course manual, assignments and studyguide plus tutor support by mail and email. You will also have access to a dedicated student support line during working hours.

Each unit is followed by a written assignment, which is submitted and marked by your tutor. There is no external examination required.

What's included in the Child Psychology Home Study Course?

• Studyguide
• Comprehensive study notes for each unit of the course
• Self-assessment activities
• Assignments
• Tutor support
• Assignment marking & feedback
• ASET registration and accreditation

Your investment

£ 245.00

Methods of payment: Credit/Debit card online (using Paypal).

You can pay the course fees in full or by instalments.

If paying by instalments you will pay a deposit of £125, followed by 4 monthly instalments at £37.50 (credit card only). To pay by instalments please call 0845 094 5889 .

Pay full fee: £245.00

Check if delivery address is outside the UK (£30 for P+P)

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