Aims

- to understand and compare the contribution of various research theories and methodologies in child and adolescent psychology.
- to draw the implications of the main theories for education or therapy
- to understand the importance of the assessment of the development level in the psychodiagnostic approaches.

Main themes

The course relates and deepens the development of competences and human conducts in childhood and in adolescence. Their bases are enlightened by the reference to the conditions and beginnings of the development in the following fields: psychomotricity, perception and cognition, affectivity and socialisation, importance of playing, language and communication, construction of identity.
The presentation of theses bases and of the later developments (infancy, childhood, adolescence) is supported by the analysis and comparison of what various research theories and methodologies bring to the child psychology. Some consequences for educative or therapeutic action will then be analysed, namely with the emphasis on the importance of the assessment of the development level in the psychodiagnostic approaches.

Content and teaching methods

Various representations of the child and of the adolescent in western history will be presented in order to contextualise their representation in our contemporary society and in psychology. Various themes will be tackled: psychomotricity, perception and cognition, affectivity and socialisation, importance of playing, language and communication, construction of identity.
Some of these themes will be worked on through psychoanalytic authors, some others in the "constructivist" tradition of the psychology of human development (Piaget, Kohlberg). The adolescence and the problem of identity are particularly treated with reference to the model of Erikson and its developments. The working-out of this model will allow to draw the links between the themes of attachment, social and moral development, and language in relation with the notion of continuous construction of identity.
Presentation of the places and practices where the child and adolescent psychology is brought into play.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Written exam + complementary written work.
Course outline and complementary readings
Lectures illustrated by audio-visual material. Personal work on complementary readings.