Developmental Psychology

Code:

E106

Acronym:

PDES

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Psychology of Education

Instance: 2025/2026 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Education Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	First degree in Educational Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LCED	80	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	6	57	162

Teaching language

Portuguese
Obs.: Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

1. 
   
   Contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the development of children, young people, adults and older people as a historical and social process resulting from the interaction between the individual and his/her life contexts.
   
   


2. 
   
   Understand the patterns of change in psychological functioning throughout the various stages of development with particular emphasis on the cognitive, social and emotional domains.
   
   


3. 
   
   Promote competences for the analysis of the main developmental tasks and transitions throughout the life cycle.
   
   


4. 
   
   Develop competences to apply knowledge about developmental processes in the analysis of human functioning in real formal and non-formal education contexts.
   
   


5. 
   
   Acquire skills to search, select and organize information to enable deepen, in a self-directed or autonomous way, specific contents of knowledge related to human psychological development.
   
   

Learning outcomes and competences

1. 
   
   To know the key factors which regulate fundamental processes of human psychological development.
   
   


2. 
   
   To use knowledge on psychological development as one of the fundamental basis for understanding human behavior in context.
   
   


3. 
   
   To reflect on the implications of developmental tasks and transitions across the life cycle.
   
   


4. 
   
   To acquire completences for analyzying human behavior in real formal and non-formal education contexts.
   
   

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Not applicable

Program

1. 
   
   An ecological and situated perspetive of psychogical development across the lifespan. Normative and non-normative influences and the place of human diversity and plasticity.
   
   


2. 
   
   A typology of psychological change: regarding oneself, regarding the others and the world 
   
   


3. 
   
   An overview of conceptual models on human development across the life span, considering changes a) in the sense of self (cognition, identity), in the relationship with others (emotions, attachment, family, peers, romantic relationships, sexuality) and in the relationship with the world (moral, political).
   
   


4. 
   
   Education and psychological development: what are the implications for educational action?
   
   

Mandatory literature

Feldman, R. S.; Development across the life span (7th Ed.), Pearson Education Limited, 2014
Flavell John H.; Cognitive development. ISBN: 0-13-139783-4
Papalia Diane E.; Desenvolvimento humano. ISBN: 978-85-7726-024-9
Carol Magai; Handbook of emotion, adult development, and aging. ISBN: 0-12-464995-5
Wim Meeus; Adolescent development. ISBN: 978-1-138-61151-1

Complementary Bibliography

DeHart, G. B., Sroufe, L. A., & Cooper, R. B.; Child development: Its nature and course (5th Ed.), McGraw-Hill, 2008

Teaching methods and learning activities

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	20,00
Trabalho escrito	40,00
Teste	40,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Frequência das aulas	36,00
Trabalho de investigação	26,00
Estudo autónomo	36,00
Trabalho escrito	12,00
Total:	110,00

Eligibility for exams

Presence in at least 75% of the taught classes.

Calculation formula of final grade

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable

Internship work/project

Not applicable

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

According to the regulations of the Pedagogical Council.
Student workers who do not attend classes will have additional test questions to replace the class questions (4 points). However, they must also develop, in small groups, an eportfolio that will be supervised by the professors. If they cannot be involved in a group eportfolio they will do a final exam only.

Classification improvement

Students have to make a new exam.