Infancy, encompassing the first two years of life, is a period of tremendous and exciting change. The child - or baby - is father to the man. But infants are also profoundly different than older folks. In this class, you will learn about contemporary theory, research, and methodology regarding infant psychological development. We will do this by asking and answering some critical questions about infancy. We will do this in two main ways.

1) Every week, we will address one or two critical questions related to topics such as infant prenatal development, prematurity, the origins of individual differences, cognitive development, early interaction, emotional development, the origins and consequences of secure attachment, physical growth, the origins of intentional communication, and language development. These critical questions are contained in the syllabus.  My lectures - most of which will be available on-line - will focus on these critical questions, as will your readings. Using these resources, you will, each week, hand in a 200-300 word answer to one of the week's critical questions. 

Readings on these critical questions come from our textbook, Development in infancy: An introduction (4th Ed.) (Lamb, Bornstein, & Teti, 2002), as well as original research articles (typically available on-line from the syllabus) . We will also discuss and debate critical questions these issues, watch videotaped examples, do small group exercises, in-class projects and quizzes to deepen our understanding of what babies are all about. Attendance is mandatory. 

2) FINAL PROJECT. This course has a large research component in which you will be reading original empirical articles. You will also conduct a small empirical study as part of the class. For your final project, you will choose one of the course critical questions - or one of your own choosing that you ok with me. The basis of your final project will be a critical reading the scientific literature. This will culminate in a 2,000 word critical literature review summarizing and synthesizing five or more articles and/or reviews on a topic of your choosing in infant development. (It is a good idea to use readings from the class syllabus for your final project, but these do not count for your five readings.) I will provide several of these articles/reviews and you will provide several that you ok with me. The basis of this project will be writing summary/critiques of these individual articles/reviews that you will turn in throughout the semester. I will help you with the selection of articles and with instruction on how to summarize and critique them. Assigned articles for summaries will often be important to your projects but will not count as one of your five articles. 

Sources for papers for the final projects. Unless ok'd by me, every empirical paper that you review should focus primarily on infants and be published in one of the following journals: Child Development, Infant Behavior and Development (through 1999), Infancy, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Review, Developmental Psychopathology, Pediatrics,  Social Development, or the International Journal of Behavioral Development. If you know what journal an article is in, you can also go to specific journals at http://www.library.miami.edu/ejournals/psychology.html (some of these links may not work off campus). Most of the PowerPoint lectures contain a list of helpful references as the final slide. Also, see the "References" section (p. 415) of Development for finding specific articles and chapters on a particular topic. To search for literature on a particular topic, go to http://www.library.miami.edu/research/psychology.html and selecting Databases->Psychology->Psychinfo . More references for final projects are on the syllabi of my graduate student courses which you can find here). (You can go to http://www.library.miami.edu/remote.html to learn more about doing it from off-campus.)

As part of your final project, you will conduct an empirical investigation to get a sense of what the topic is really about. You will be responsible for conducting a small scientific investigation. Depending on the topic, I will help provide resources for this empirical investigation. (A final project which is a formal empirical investigation is also a possibility, particularly for those of you conducting infancy research with psychologists in the department.) 

Different people learn differently and excel in different areas. You will present your final project as a brief PowerPoint lecture to the class as a poster at a class poster session, and as a traditional paper. At the end of the course, you will know how to investigate an interesting subject in psychology by reviewing the scientific literature and will have experience in presenting your work in different forms. You will have an opportunity to read studies and make observations that are of special interest to you.

You can expect that this will be a difficult class (honors credit is available). You can also expect that I will word hard to help you learn as much as you can, to be available to meet and to respond to your emails, to return your assignments in a timely fashion, and to help you tackle the new material you will be encountering.

Grading. Assignments will typically be assigned a percentage grade from 1 to 100. Occasional assignments will be graded pass/fail. You will receive feedback on your writing assignments. Your final grade is based on 3 components. In addition to turning in your assignments when they are due, you are responsible for collecting all your written work in an individual portfolio.
 

I. Being in class on time, participating in large and small group discussions, in-class assignments, and participation in the class listserve. Quizzes and final.	25%
II. Weekly writing assignments.	35%
III. Written, oral, and poster presentation of your final project (including empirical project).	40%

This course will abide by the UM Honor Code: "On my honor, I have neither given nor received any aid on this paper."

Nitty-Gritty

Writing. All written assignments should be in complete sentences and use a terse style in which every word helps make your point. You should use the stylistic guidelines found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th or 5th ed.) which is in the library and the bookstore. These will be particularly important for citing references and preparing bibliographies when you are writing your article summary/critiques and your empirical research reports. How to cite articles for your final projects and writing in general.

Lateness Policy. Assignments must be submitted before the start of the class period in which they are due by both submitting on BlackBoard and bringing a hard copy to class. All papers received before the start of the class period in which they are due but before the start of the next class will receive a maximum of 50% credit. After this point, no credit will be given for a late paper. If an emergency prevents you from handing in an assignment, please provide me with documentation from a relevant professional (Dr., ER, therapist, etc) to have the lateness of the assignment excused.

Email (BlackBoard). We will use BlackBoard to email all students in the class, myself, and the Teaching Assistant simultaneously. In general, use BlackBoard to ask and respond to questions about the reading, assignments, whatever is relevant to what we are studying. WHEN YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR ME THAT MIGHT BE HELPFUL TO OTHERS, EMAIL IT TO THE LISTSERVE AND I WILL RESPOND. If you send me an email which does not contain personal information, I will forward it to the class. Participation in this class-wise email exchange is a form of class participation and will count toward that segment of your grade. You will need to be able to both send and receive emails from me (check MyUM/EASY to make sure your email is current). I will not be able to accept any documents that contain computer viruses.