Syllabus
Theoretical Perspectives on Social Development
Biological Foundations of Social-Emotional Development
Family context: Parent-infant interaction, Parent-Child Relationships and Influences, Bonding and Attachment, Sibling Relations
Extra-familial influences on Social-Emotional Development; Toddler’s Peer Interactions
Prosocial Behavior, Social Cognition and Understanding
Play, Cooperation, Competition
Conflict and Aggression
Emergence of Self; Control and Self-control
Development of Emotions in Early Childhood
Emotions and Social Development
Temperament, Personality and Social-Emotional Development
Sex Differences in Social Behavior
Contextual Factors in Social-Emotional Development: Cultural Psychological Perspectives, Role of Ethnicity and Race
Atypical Development and Its Prevention
Methodological Issues in Research on Social-Emotional Development
Annotation
The seminar is focused on social-emotional development in early childhood (from birth to pre-school age). The students will become familiar with the basic issues in this field: biological foundations of social-emotional development, the impact of the early interactions between child and mother/parents, child and siblings/peers, emotion development and the link between emotions and social development, prosocial behaviour, social cognition, cooperation/competition, play, aggression, emerging Self.
The seminar will also address the question how social-emotional development is affected by temperament/personality and culture. Apart from presenting the current state of the art, particular attention will be paid to research in the field of social-emotional development and related methodological issues in order to help the students develop the ability to identify strengths and weaknesses of different research designs and methods and to systematically search and review scientific articles.