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5801 South Ellis Ave. Chicago, IL 60637
773.702.1234
Catalog Home › The College › Programs of Study › Comparative Human Development
Contacts | Program of Study | Program Requirements | Summary of Requirements* | | | Grading | Courses
The program in Comparative Human Development (CHDV) focuses on the study of persons over the course of life; on the social, cultural, biological, and psychological processes that jointly influence development; and on growth over time in different social and cultural settings. The study of human development also offers a unique lens through which we consider broad questions of the social sciences, like the processes and impacts of social change, and the interactions of biology and culture. Faculty members in Comparative Human Development with diverse backgrounds in anthropology, biology, psychology, and sociology conduct research on topics that include (but are not limited to): the social and phenomenological experience of mental illness; the impact of socioeconomic context on growth and development; the influence of social interaction on biological functioning; the tensions inherent in living in multicultural societies; the experience and development of psychotherapists in Western and non-Western countries; and the ways in which youth in developing countries are forging new conceptions of adulthood. Given this interdisciplinary scope, the program in Comparative Human Development provides an excellent preparation for students interested in advanced postgraduate study at the frontiers of several social science disciplines, or in careers and professions that require a broad and integrated understanding of human experience and behavior—e.g., mental health, education, social work, health care, or human resource and organizational work in community or corporate settings.
The first point of contact for undergraduates is the preceptor, so students should contact the preceptor before contacting the undergraduate program chair.
Upon declaring a Comparative Human Development major, undergraduates should promptly join the department undergraduate email listserv to receive important announcements. Students request to join the listserv by logging in with their CNet ID at https://lists.uchicago.edu and subscribing to humdev-undergrad@listhost.uchicago.edu.
The undergraduate program in Comparative Human Development has the following components:
A two-quarter introductory sequence in Comparative Human Development should be completed prior to the Spring Quarter of a student’s third year. CHDV 20000 Introduction to Human Development focuses on theories of development, with particular reference to the development of the self in a social and cultural context. CHDV 20100 Human Development Research Designs in Social Sciences focuses on modes of research and inquiry in human development, including basic concepts of research design and different methods used in studying human development (e.g., ethnography, experiments, surveys, discourse analysis, narrative inquiry, and animal models). Consideration is given to the advantages and limitations of each approach in answering particular questions concerning person and culture.
Students must register for one quantitative or one qualitative Methods course (designated in the list of Courses with the letter “M”) or one research methods (or statistics) course in a related department (with the consent of the CHDV program chair; the Methods petition is required for courses outside of Comparative Human Development with the exception of STAT 20000 and PSYC 20100, which do not need a petition to count for a Methods requirement).
The following are courses that will fulfill the Methods requirement:
STAT 20000 Elementary Statistics
PSYC 20100 Psychological Statistics
CHDV 20101 Applied Statistics in Human Development Research
CHDV 29301 Qualitative Research Methods
CHDV 30102 Causal Inference
CHDV 37802 Challenging Legends and Other Received Truths: A Socratic Practicum
CHDV 42214 Ethnographic Writing
Students must take one course in each of three of the four areas below. These three courses must be taught within the Department of Comparative Human Development and must be designated as fulfilling the particular distribution requirement.
Students must take three additional courses in one of the three areas they have chosen in their distribution requirement (for a total of four courses in one area). Two of the four courses in one's specialization must be offered within the Department of Comparative Human Development. A student must petition for a course to count toward his or her specialization if the course is not already designated as fulfilling that specialization, or for any course offered outside the Department of Comparative Human Development.
A. Comparative Behavioral Biology: includes courses on the biopsychology of attachment, evolutionary social psychology, evolution of parenting, biological psychology, primate behavior and ecology, behavioral endocrinology
Courses from academic years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 in area A:
CHDV 21500 Darwinian Health
CHDV 21800 Primate Behavior and Ecology
CHDV 22201 Developmental Biopsychology
CHDV 23249 Animal Behavior
CHDV Neuroscience and the Social Sciences
CHDV 26232 Comparative Cognitive Development
CHDV 26660 Genes and Behavior
CHDV 30901 Biopsychology of Sex Differences
CHDV 34800 Kinship and Social Systems
CHDV 37850 Evolutionary Psychology
B. Life Course Development: includes courses on developmental psychology; introduction to language development; psychoanalysis and child development; development through the life-course; the role of early experience in development; sexual identity; life-course and life story; adolescence, adulthood, and aging; the study of lives
Courses from academic years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 in area B:
CHDV 20207 Race, Ethnicity, and Human Development
CHDV 20209 Adolescent Development
CHDV 21000 Cultural Psychology
CHDV 21901 Language, Culture, and Thought
CHDV 23900 Introduction to Language Development
CHDV 25900 Developmental Psychology
CHDV 26226 Becoming Adult in Postmodern Context(s)
CHDV 26233 Critical Approaches to Child Mental Health
CHDV 30405 Anthropology of Disability
CHDV 41160 New Perspectives on Vulnerability
CHDV 41601 Seminar in Language Development
CHDV 45501 Cognition and Education
CHDV 45601 Moral Development and Comparative Ethics
C. Culture and Community: includes courses on cultural psychology; psychological anthropology; social psychology; cross-cultural child development; language, culture, and thought; language socialization; psychiatric and psychodynamic anthropology; memory and culture
Courses from academic years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 in area C:
CHDV 20207 Race, Ethnicity, and Human Development
CHDV 21000 Cultural Psychology
CHDV 21401 Introduction to African Civilization II
CHDV 21901 Language, Culture, and Thought
CHDV 23301 Culture, Mental Health, and Psychiatry
CHDV 23909 Producing Home: The Remaking of Place and Space in Diaspora
CHDV 26000 Social Psychology
CHDV 26233 Critical Approaches to Child Mental Health
CHDV 27501 Local Bodies, Global Capital
CHDV 27821 Urban Schools and Communities
CHDV 30302 Problems of Public Policy Implementation
CHDV 30405 Anthropology of Disability
CHDV 32101 Culture and Power, Part II: Discourse and Performativity CHDV 41160 New Perspectives on Vulnerability
CHDV 42212 Love, Conjugality and Capital in Africa and India CHDV 45601 Moral Development and Comparative Ethics CHDV 48415 Displaced nations and the politics of belonging
D. Mental Health and Personality: includes courses on personality theory and research; social and cultural foundations of mental health; modern psychotherapies; psychology of well-being; conflict understanding and resolution; core concepts and current directions in psychopathology; emotion, mind, and rationality; body image in health and disorder; advanced concepts in psychoanalysis Courses from academic years 2012-3 and 2013-4 in area D: CHDV 20209 Adolescent Development CHDV 23301 Culture, Mental Health, and Psychiatry
CHDV 23800 Theories of Emotion and the Psychology of Well Being
CHDV 26233 Critical Approaches to Child Mental Health CHDV 27700 Modern Psychotherapies CHDV 30405 Anthropology of Disability CHDV 40110 Color, Ethnicity, Cultural Context, and Human Vulnerability CHDV 41160 New Perspectives on Vulnerability
A student must choose three additional courses in Comparative Human Development, or in a related discipline with prior approval of the CHDV program chair (petition required). Students may petition for non-CHDV courses to count toward the Methods, Specialization, and Electives requirements. Petitions are not allowed for the Core Courses or Distribution requirements. A maximum of four petitions is allowed, unless one of these is for the Methods requirement, in which case a maximum of five petitions will be allowed. Only university courses at the University of Chicago or study abroad may be petitioned for CHDV requirements; no other form of credit (including Advanced Placement) is allowed. Petitions should be turned in before the quarter in which the student would like to take the course. At the latest, the petitions must be turned in by end of the first week of the quarter in which the student is taking the course. All petitions must have a copy of the course syllabus attached. Students with qualifying GPAs may seek to graduate with honors by successfully completing a BA honors paper that reflects scholarly proficiency in an area of study within Comparative Human Development. To receive departmental honors upon graduation, students (1) must have attained a cumulative overall GPA of 3.25 or higher and a major GPA higher than 3.5 by the end of the quarter prior to the quarter of graduation, and (2) must have completed a meritorious BA honors paper under the supervision of a CHDV faculty member and received a high grade. Students who seek departmental honors must complete CHDV 29800 BA Honors Seminar and then must register for CHDV 29900 Honors Paper Preparation with a CHDV faculty member who agrees to supervise their honors paper.
The paper should be 30 to 40 pages in length, reflect original research of an empirical, scholarly, or theoretical nature, and must be rated as worthy of honors by the student’s CHDV faculty supervisor and a qualified second reader (typically another faculty member). Permission to undertake a BA honors paper will be granted by the CHDV undergraduate chair to students who (1) have successfully completed the BA Honors Seminar and (2) have filed a properly completed BA Honors Paper Proposal Form with the departmental secretary in HD S 102 no later than tenth week of Spring Quarter of the third year. The CHDV 29800 BA Honors Seminar aims to help qualified students formulate a suitable proposal and find a CHDV faculty supervisor. Qualified students who wish to seek departmental honors must register for the CHDV 29800 BA Honors Seminar during their third year.
Permission to register for CHDV 29800 BA Honors Seminar will be granted to students with a GPA that, at the end of Winter Quarter of the third year, shows promise of meeting the standards set for honors by the end of Winter Quarter of the fourth year. This course is always offered during Spring Quarter and may be offered Winter Quarter as well (this is not guaranteed). This course must be taken for a quality grade and may be counted as one of the required electives. This tutorial course, CHDV 29900 Honors Paper Preparation, aims to help students successfully complete work on their BA honors paper. Students must register for the course with their CHDV faculty supervisor either in the Autumn or Winter Quarter of their fourth year, as a 13th required course. Students who have already undertaken a BA honors project who plan to study elsewhere during their fourth year must have prior approval from their CHDV faculty BA project supervisor and the CHDV undergraduate chair. The grade the BA honors paper receives will become the grade of record for CHDV 29900 Honors Paper Preparation. In very special circumstances, students may be able to write a longer BA honors paper that meets the requirements for a dual major (with prior approval from the undergraduate program chairs in both departments). Students should consult with both chairs before the end of Spring Quarter of their third year. A consent form, available from the student’s College adviser, must be signed by both chairs and returned to the College adviser, with copies filed in both departmental offices, by the end of Autumn Quarter of the student’s graduation year. Honors papers are due by the end of fifth week of the quarter in which a student plans to graduate (typically in Spring Quarter). Students applying for departmental honors must also register for CHDV 29900 Honors Paper Preparation for a total of 1300 units (13 courses), but may count CHDV 29800 BA Honors Seminar as one of their three required program electives. All courses required for the major in Comparative Human Development must be taken for quality grades. The courses below are a guide. For up-to-date course plans, please visit the University Time Schedules
or the Planned Courses
page on the department website.
Electives
Petitions
BA Honors Guidelines
BA Honors Seminar
Honors Paper Preparation Course
BA Honors Paper for Dual Majors
Honors Paper Due Date
Summary of Requirements*
CHDV 20000 Introduction to Human Development 100 CHDV 20100 Human Development Research Designs in Social Sciences 100 1 methods course 100 3 distribution courses 300 3 additional courses as a specialization in one of the student's distribution areas 300 3 electives 300 Total Units 1200
*
Grading
CHDV 20000. Introduction to Human Development. 100 Units.
This course introduces the study of lives in context. The nature of human development from infancy through old age is explored through theory and empirical findings from various disciplines. Readings and discussions emphasize the interrelations of biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces at different points of the life cycle. (R)
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): For CHD majors or intended majors.
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 20850
CHDV 20100. Human Development Research Designs in Social Sciences. 100 Units.
This course aims to expose students to a variety of examples of well-designed social research addressing questions of great interest and importance. One goal is clarify what it means to do"interesting" research. A second goal is to appreciate the features of good research design. A third goal is to examine the variety of research methodologies in the social sciences, including ethnography, clinical case interviewing, survey research, experimental studies of cognition and social behavior, behavior observations, longitudinal research, and model building. The general emphasis is on what might be called the aesthetics of well-designed research.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Required course for Comparative Human Development majors.
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 21100
CHDV 20101. Applied Statistics in Human Development Research. 100 Units.
This course provides an introduction to quantitative methods of inquiry and a foundation for more advanced courses in applied statistics for students in social sciences with a focus on human development research. The course covers univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics, an introduction to statistical inference, t test, two-way contingency table, analysis of variance, and regression. All statistical concepts and methods will be illustrated with application studies in which we will consider the research questions, study design, analytical choices, validity of inferences, and reports of findings. The examples include (1) examining the relationship between home environment and child development and (2) evaluating the effectiveness of class size reduction for promoting student learning. At the end of the course, students should be able to define and use the descriptive and inferential statistics taught in this course to analyze data and to interpret the analytical results. Students will learn to use the SPSS software. No prior knowledge in statistics is assumed. (M)
Instructor(s): G. Hong Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): High school algebra and probability are the only mathematical prerequisites.
Note(s): Not offered 2012-13
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 30101,HDCP 56050
CHDV 20129. Economic Development in the Inner City. 100 Units.
This course will explore conceptually what the issues are around the economic position of cities in the early 21st century, and how to think creatively about strategies to generate economic growth that would have positive consequences for low-income residents. Community Development Corporations, empowerment zones, housing projects, and business development plans through credit and technical assistance will all be considered.
Instructor(s): R. Taub Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 30129,SOCI 30129
CHDV 20206. Anthropology of Language. 100 Units.
The course is about how language both shapes our social relationships and is shaped by them. It covers basic linguistic concepts in the study of language (such as phoneme, morpheme, syntax), but it focuses on the concepts and methods that anthropologists and philosophers have devised to understand the often overlooked or misunderstood role that language plays in our day-to-day lives. The course provides an introduction to the history of linguistic anthropology and to the differences between “structuralist” and “post-structuralist” understandings of language. It concludes with an extended consideration of hate speech: what it is, what is does and how it might best be contested.
Instructor(s): D. Kulick Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14
CHDV 20207. Race, Ethnicity, and Human Development. 100 Units.
Twenty-first century practices of relevance to education, social services, health care and public policy deserve buttressing by cultural and context linked perspectives about human development as experienced by diverse groups. Although generally unacknowledged as such post-Brown v. 1954, the conditions purported to support human development for diverse citizens remain problematic. The consequent interpretative shortcomings serve to increase human vulnerability. Specifically, given the problem of evident unacknowledged privilege for some as well as the insufficient access to resources experienced by others, the dilemma skews our interpretation of behavior, design of research, choice of theory, and determination of policy and practice. The course is based upon the premise that the study of human development is enhanced by examining the experiences of diverse groups, without one group standing as the “standard” against which others are compared and evaluated. Accordingly, the course provides an encompassing theoretical framework for examining the processes of human development for diverse humans while also highlighting the critical role of context and culture. (B*, C*)
Instructor(s): M. Spencer Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students should have one course in either Human Development or Psychology.
Equivalent Course(s): CRES 20207
CHDV 20209. Adolescent Development. 100 Units.
Adolescence represents a period of unusually rapid growth and development. At the same time, under the best of social circumstances and contextual conditions, the teenage years represent a challenging period. The period also affords unparalleled opportunities with appropriate levels of support. Thus, the approach taken acknowledges the challenges and untoward outcomes, while also speculates about the predictors of resiliency and the sources of positive youth development. (B, D)
Instructor(s): M. Spencer Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 20209
CHDV 20300. Biological Psychology. 100 Units.
What are the relations between mind and brain? How do brains regulate mental, behavioral, and hormonal processes; and how do these influence brain organization and activity? This course introduces the anatomy, physiology, and chemistry of the brain; their changes in response to the experiential and sociocultural environment; and their relation to perception, attention, behavioral action, motivation, and emotion.
Instructor(s): L. Kay, B. Prendergast Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Some background in biology and psychology.
Note(s): This course does not meet requirements for the biological sciences major.
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 20300,BIOS 29300
CHDV 20304. Urban Neighborhoods & Urban Schools: Community Economic Opportunity and the Schools. 100 Units.
This course explores the interplay between schools and neighborhoods and how this plays out in shaping life chances. (B; 2)
Instructor(s): M. Keels Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14
Equivalent Course(s): PUBL 29304,SOCI 30314
CHDV 20400. Intensive Study of a Culture: Lowland Maya History and Ethnography. 100 Units.
The survey encompasses the dynamics of first contact; long-term cultural accommodations achieved during colonial rule; disruptions introduced by state and market forces during the early postcolonial period; the status of indigenous communities in the twentieth century; and new social, economic, and political challenges being faced by the contemporary peoples of the area. We stress a variety of traditional theoretical concerns of the broader Mesoamerican region stressed (e.g., the validity of reconstructive ethnography; theories of agrarian community structure; religious revitalization movements; the constitution of such identity categories as indigenous, Mayan, and Yucatecan). In this respect, the course can serve as a general introduction to the anthropology of the region. The relevance of these area patterns for general anthropological debates about the nature of culture, history, identity, and social change are considered.
Instructor(s): J. Lucy Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14
CHDV 20405. Pornography and Language. 100 Units.
The course explores the place and role of language in pornographic films. Why does language occur in filmed pornography at all? What kind of language occurs? What role does it play? How is it gendered? How does it frame the narrative or drive it forward? How does language subvert or undermine the visual representation of sex? What does any of this tell us about gender, sexuality and erotics in non-pornographic contexts? Course readings focus on theories of pornographic representation, theories of language, gender and erotics, and methods of transcribing and analyzing dialogue. The course requires students to watch a wide range of pornography, including different varieties of straight, gay and trans porn, so anyone enrolling in the course must be interested in pornography as a social and cultural phenomenon and must also have experience watching porn and thinking about it. (M, C)
Instructor(s): D. Kulick Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Upper-level undergrad course.
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14.
Equivalent Course(s): LING 29405,ANTH 27305
CHDV 21000. Cultural Psychology. 100 Units.
There is a substantial portion of the psychological nature of human beings that is neither homogeneous nor fixed across time and space. At the heart of the discipline of cultural psychology is the tenet of psychological pluralism, which states that the study of "normal" psychology is the study of multiple psychologies and not just the study of a single or uniform fundamental psychology for all peoples of the world. Research findings in cultural psychology thus raise provocative questions about the integrity and value of alternative forms of subjectivity across cultural groups. In this course we analyze the concept of "culture" and examine ethnic and cross-cultural variations in mental functioning with special attention to the cultural psychology of emotions, self, moral judgment, categorization, and reasoning. (B*, C*; 2*, 3*)
Instructor(s): R. Shweder Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing. Instructor consent required.
Equivalent Course(s): CHVD 31000,PSYC 23000,PSYC 33000,ANTH 24320,ANTH 35110,HDCP 41050,GNSE 21001,GNSE 31000,AMER 33000
CHDV 21401. Introduction to African Civilization II. 100 Units.
Part Two takes a more anthropological focus, concentrating on Eastern and Southern Africa, including Madagascar. We explore various aspects of colonial and postcolonial society. Topics covered include the institution of colonial rule, ethnicity and interethnic violence, ritual and the body, love, marriage, money, youth and popular culture.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 10102,AFAM 20702,ANTH 20702,CRES 20702
CHDV 21500. Darwinian Health. 100 Units.
This course will use an evolutionary, rather than clinical, approach to understanding why we get sick. In particular, we will consider how health issues such as menstruation, senescence, pregnancy sickness, menopause, and diseases can be considered adaptations rather than pathologies. We will also discuss how our rapidly changing environments can reduce the benefits of these adaptations. (A)
Instructor(s): J. Mateo Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor only.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 21500,HIPS 22401
CHDV 21800. Primate Behavior and Ecology. 100 Units.
This course explores the behavior and ecology of nonhuman primates with emphasis on their natural history and evolution. Specific topics include methods for the study of primate behavior, history of primate behavior research, socioecology, foraging, predation, affiliation, aggression, mating, parenting, development, communication, cognition, and evolution of human behavior. (A, 1)
Instructor(s): D. Maestripieri Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14.
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 34300
CHDV 21901. Language, Culture, and Thought. 100 Units.
Survey of research on the interrelation of language, culture, and thought from the evolutionary, developmental, historical, and culture-comparative perspectives with special emphasis on the mediating methodological implications for the social sciences.(B*, C*; 2*, 3*, 5*)
Instructor(s): J. Lucy Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 27605,ANTH 37605,CHDV 31901,HDCP 41950,PSYC 21950,PSYC 31900
CHDV 22212. Love, Conjugality, and Capital: Intimacy in the Modern World. 100 Units.
A look at societies in other parts of the world demonstrates that modernity in the realm of love, intimacy, and family often had a different trajectory from the European one. This course surveys ideas and practices surrounding love, marriage, and capital in the modern world. Using a range of theoretical, historical, and anthropological readings, as well as films, the course explores such topics as the emergence of companionate marriage in Europe and the connections between arranged marriage, dowry, love, and money. Case studies are drawn primarily from Europe, India, and Africa.
Instructor(s): J. Cole, R. Majumdar Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Prerequisite(s): Any 10000-level music course or consent of instructor
Note(s): This course typically is offered in alternate years.
CHDV 23204. Medical Anthropology. 100 Units.
This course introduces students to the central concepts and methods of medical anthropology. Drawing on a number of classic and contemporary texts, we will consider both the specificity of local medical cultures and the processes which increasingly link these systems of knowledge and practice. We will study the social and political economic shaping of illness and suffering and will examine medical and healing systems – including biomedicine – as social institutions and as sources of epistemological authority. Topics covered will include the problem of belief; local theories of disease causation and healing efficacy; the placebo effect and contextual healing; theories of embodiment; medicalization; structural violence; modernity and the distribution of risk; the meanings and effects of new medical technologies; and global health. (C*, D*; 3, 4)
Instructor(s): E. Raikhel Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Sosc sequence
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 43204
CHDV 23249. Animal Behavior. 100 Units.
This course introduces the mechanism, ecology, and evolution of behavior, primarily in nonhuman species, at the individual and group level. Topics include the genetic basis of behavior, developmental pathways, communication, physiology and behavior, foraging behavior, kin selection, mating systems and sexual selection, and the ecological and social context of behavior. A major emphasis is placed on understanding and evaluating scientific studies and their field and lab techniques.
Instructor(s): S. Pruett-Jones (even years), J. Mateo (odd years) Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Completion of the general education requirement in the biological sciences
Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 23249,PSYC 23249
CHDV 23301. Culture, Mental Health, and Psychiatry. 100 Units.
This course examines mental health and illness as a set of subjective experience, social processes and objects of knowledge and intervention. On a conceptual level, the course will invite students to think through the complex relationships between categories of knowledge and clinical technologies (in this case, mainly psychiatric ones) and the subjectivities of persons living with mental illness. Put in slightly different terms, we will look at the multiple links between psychiatrists' professional accounts of mental illness and patients' experiences of it. Readings will be drawn primarily from medical and psychological anthropology, cultural psychiatry, and science studies, but will include some "primary texts" from the memoiristic and psychiatric literatures. (C*, D*; 3*, 4*)
Instructor(s): E. Raikhel Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Not offered 2013-14
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 35115,ANTH 24315,HIPS 27302,CHDV 33301
CHDV 23900. Introduction to Language Development. 100 Units.
This course addresses the major issues involved in first-language acquisition. We deal with the child’s production and perception of speech sounds (phonology), the acquisition of the lexicon (semantics), the comprehension and production of structured word combinations (syntax), and the ability to use language to communicate (pragmatics).
Instructor(s): S. Goldin-Meadow Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 23200,LING 21600
CHDV 24402. Psychological Research Methods in Human Development. 100 Units.
The goal of this course is to guide students in acquiring the skills necessary for designing meaningful research that clearly communicates our cultural and psychological knowledge about the human mind and behavior to professional audiences. The course accomblishes this by combining practical and theoretical readings drawn from text books and articles about qualitative and quantitative research methods with student exercises designed to develop a well-crafted research proposal. The course thus has a two-part sructure: discussion of the theoretical and technical aspects of each week’s methodological focus; workshop time allowing students to give and receive constructive feedback on their emerging research design. These workshopped pieces will culminate in a research proposal that meets the methodological and presentation criteria required for a BA thesis, Trial Research, or a Grant Proposal. Alternatively, students may design a small pilot study that will lay the foundation for research proposals to be further developed in the course of their academic work. This course counts towards the Methods requirement.
Instructor(s): S. Van Deusen Phillips Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Advanced Undergraduate or Graduate Students Only
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 34402,MAPS 34400
CHDV 25116. Magic Matters. 100 Units.
The course explores the lively presence of magic in the contemporary, presumably disenchanted world. It approaches the problem of magic historically—examining how magic became an object of social scientific inquiry—and anthropologically, attending to the magic in practice on the margins of the industrial, rational, cosmopolitan, and technological societies and economies. Furthermore, this course reads classic and contemporary ethnographies of magic together with studies of science and technology to critically examine questions of agency, practice, experience, experiment, and efficacy. The course reads widely across sites, disciplines, and theories, attending to eventful objects and alien agents, stepping into post-socialist, post-colonial, and post-secular magic markets and medical clinics, and reading for the political energies of the emergent communities that effectively mix science, magic, and technology.
Instructor(s): L. Jasarevic Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 25116,INST 27701
CHDV 25900. Developmental Psychology. 100 Units.
This is an introductory course in developmental psychology, with a focus on cognitive and social development in infancy through early childhood. Example topics include children's early thinking about number, morality, and social relationships, as well as how early environments inform children's social and cognitive development. Where appropriate, we make links to both philosophical inquiries into the nature of the human mind, and to practical inquiries concerning education and public policy.
Instructor(s): K. Kinzler, L. Richland Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 20500
CHDV 26000. Social Psychology. 100 Units.
This course examines social psychological theory and research that is based on both classic and contemporary contributions. Topics include conformity and deviance, the attitude-change process, social role and personality, social cognition, and political psychology.
Instructor(s): W. Goldstein Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 20000 recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 20600
CHDV 26232. Comparative Cognitive Development. 100 Units.
This course explores the relatively new field of comparative cognitive development, a field which investigates the origin and nature of cognitive skills in humans by comparing these skills across species and across development. We will examine how social and physical cognition develop in relation to species specific social and environmental demands, students will learn behavioral and experimental methods for investigating cognitive development in verbal and non/pre-verbal individuals. Each student will prepare a research proposal to address one of the main questions in the field and present his or her research project and expected findings in a final paper and class presentation. Counts for Comparative Behavioral Biology area. (A)
Instructor(s): T. Mandalaywala Terms Offered: Winter 2014
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 26232
CHDV 26233. Critical Approaches to Child Mental Health. 100 Units.
This course is designed to examine the field of child mental health from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating anthropological, sociological and psychological insights to look at some of the significant questions and controversies present in considerations of children’s health today. Students will also spend significant time on developing individual research papers. We will begin in the first two weeks with an overview of the field of child psychopathology and the diagnostic systems most commonly used in the practice of child psychiatry. We will then spend the next three weeks looking at two of the most common and controversial diagnoses applied to children in the United States: Autism-spectrum disorders and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. In examining these categories we will consider the cultural and historical contexts that have lead to the emergence of these diagnoses and the variety of experiences of those identified as being afflicted with these disorders. The highly public controversy over giving children psychiatric medication and the implications of exporting Western psychiatric knowledge about children to other cultural contexts will also be considered. In the second half of the class we will move away from examinations of psychiatric nosology to think more broadly about the ways in which concepts of the normative treatment and behavior of children vary across time and place, looking particularly at the effects of aggression on children.
Instructor(s): C. El Ouardani Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 26219
CHDV 26234. Life Course and Generation in the Arab World. 100 Units.
In this course we will consider the ways in which processes of globalization are affecting families, age groups, and intergenerational relationships across the Arab world. We will consider not only how discrete age categories such as childhood, youth, or old age have been transformed in the contemporary moment by socio-political and economic trends in the region, but also how these factors shape the dynamic between generations. In doing so we will examine a wide-range of anthropological, sociological, religious, and historical texts, as well as a selection of novels and films. Counts for Life Course Development and Culture and Community areas.
Instructor(s): C. Nutter el Ouardani Terms Offered: Winter
CHDV 26235. Life Course Development. 100 Units.
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive background in the study of human development across the life span by exploring the influences of culture, environment, social setting, heredity, and physiology on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes. Materials will cover the biological/genetic, attachment relations, social, economic, environmental, and neurobiological influences on the developing individual from prenatal development until death. The main focus will be on “normal” development or group averages rather than the development of a single individual, although differences among individuals will be discussed. The primary objective of this course is for the student to gain an understanding and appreciation of human development through the lifespan via readings of theory and research, class lectures, class discussion, and films. The goal of the class is to expose students to a range of current research in the areas of development, attachment, and neurobiological and social processes across the lifespan in order to develop new ways of conceptualizing development based upon the new information available via this research. Counts for Life Course Development area.
Instructor(s): S. Van Duesen Phillips Terms Offered: Winter
CHDV 26236. Schooling in a Multicultural Society. 100 Units.
This course focuses on schooling in the multicultural society of the United States. From the founding of common schools in the nineteenth century, and the drive to provide mass public schooling, the purposes of education in this country have been conflicting and the outcomes of schooling complicated. Diversity has been at the center of the American educational story, as society has continued to struggle with competing goals of assimilation and differentiation, opportunity and competition. In this course, we will examine representations of education in policy documents, popular culture, and scholarly work. Adopting an historical perspective, we will look at the origins of public schooling in the U.S., considering how the ideals upon which it was founded have (or have not) been realized and for whom. We will probe the different experience of schooling across racial, ethnic, class, and gender lines. We will interrogate theories of learning and their manifestations both inside and outside the classroom.
Instructor(s): E. Flynn Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 36236
CHDV 26237. Global Girlhood. 100 Units.
During the 20th century, American psychology determined that adolescent girls undergo a “crisis of self,” department stores demarcated teenage girls as a specific marketing category, and young women’s reproductive and sexual autonomy oscillated under degrees of ideological, moral and legal control. This course draws together seminal American psychological texts that helped to invent the idea of the adolescent crisis with ethnographic and historical accounts of girlhood around the globe to raise questions about the universality of life-stage categories, the circulation of gendered and age-specific psychological and psychiatric symptoms, and how young people around the world take up and/or resist the notion of an adolescence in crisis. It also explores the emergence of the “adolescent girl” as both a topic of interdisciplinary scholarly concern and as it is represented in film, philanthropic propaganda, best-selling 20th century psychological texts and global advertising images. In drawing from these sources, the course will examine constructions of youth, adolescence, and young femininity as delinquent, public health, consumer, and charitable categories. It will also draw on readings from sociology, psychology, anthropology and history to consider how the idea that adolescent girls undergo a crisis of self became, essentially, hegemonic, how it circulates, and how young women both take up and challenge this notion. The first section, “Querying Adolescence,” covers seminal texts about the invention of adolescence including G. Stanley Hall, Freud’s essays on sexuality, and Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa. The second section, “Age, Identity, Crisis,” explores both adolescent identity crises and the public crises adolescents precipitate. The third section, “Girls, Global Circulations and Temporality” surveys ethnographic and historical challenges universalizing notions of age, adolescence and growing up.
Instructor(s): E Moore Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 26237
CHDV 26238. Animal Ethics, Environmental Conflict: Social/Cultural Perspectives. 100 Units.
This course critically examines different social and cultural perspectives on the nonhuman, including ideas about animals, "nature," "wilderness," and "environment." The perspectives we examine will include environmentalism, animal rights and animal welfare movements, ecology, governmental institutions, and "cultural" perspectives. We'll pay special attention to the moral dimension of ideas about human-animal and human-environment interaction, including points where debates about social justice and environmental justice intersect. We will also analyze how plants, animals, and the products derived from them are assigned value in human communities, especially as commodities. Whales and whale hunting--including especially American and Canadian "aboriginal" whaling--will serve as our primary case study; but our discussions and analysis will range over a diverse set of topics related to animals and the nonhuman environment. This course counts towards the Culture and Community area.
Instructor(s): L. Beldo Terms Offered: Spring
CHDV 26240. Storytelling Across the Lifespan. 100 Units.
In this course we will explore the development of storytelling across the lifespan, conceptualizing story as a core communicative competency critical for success across contexts. We will read and analyze the stories of diverse storytellers in terms of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or expression, as well as members of other groups bonded by interest or mutual affiliation. Throughout the course, we will consider different analytic methods as well as ways to use story as a research tool for gaining insight on individuals, groups, practices, or problems of interest.
Instructor(s): E. Flynn Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 36240
CHDV 26241. Culturally Shaped Conceptions of Childhood and Development. 100 Units.
In this course we will focus on early development (primarily birth to age eight) with an emphasis on understanding culturally shaped interpretations of the interplay between biological, psychological, and social development. In addition to exploring diverse cultural interpretations of development, we will read developmental theories and consider moments of cultural clash, mismatch, or misunderstanding that occur in everyday settings like schools and hospitals. This course will proceed as a combination of lecture and discussion with considerable emphasis on students’ insights and contributions.
Instructor(s): E. Flynn Terms Offered: Spring
CHDV 26303. Child, Adolescent, & Adult Development in Socio-Cultural Context. 100 Units.
In this course, students are introduced to the profound impact that socio-cultural context has on the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development of children, adolescents and adults. In short, the course argues that we cannot separate human biology (e.g., heredity, brain development, physiology), from social experience and culture, which are viewed as necessary for the proper unfolding of developmental processes. Through course readings, students will engage with developmental theories, themes and concepts from psychology, cultural psychology, and linguistics that will allow them to explore their own development and the development of others. The main focus will be on “normal” development, or group averages, although differences among individuals will also be discussed. The course structure incorporates lectures based on text book readings and seminar-style discussions of current research in the field. This course counts towards the Life Course Development and Society, Institutions, Culture and the Life Course areas.
Instructor(s): S. Van Deusen Phillips Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 36303,MAPS 36300
CHDV 26310. Vulnerability and Human Rights. 100 Units.
The course discusses current theories of vulnerability and passivity in relation to human rights. It pays particular attention how human rights and social justice can be thought of in relation to people with severe disabilities, animals, and others who are not traditionally thought of as subjects of justice. We will discuss philosophical texts by Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas, John Rawls, Martha Nussbaum and others, and sociological texts by scholars like Bryan Turner and Tom Shakespeare.
Instructor(s): D. Kulick Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 28310,HMRT 38310
CHDV 26321. Clinical, Critical and Cultural Perspectives on Mental Health. 100 Units.
How do communities and individuals make sense of mental and emotional suffering, and of behavior that breaches social norms and expectations? What does it mean to define these experiences as illnesses? Why do different societies come to understand these phenomena in significantly different ways? And how do we best help those who are troubled by them? This undergraduate course will provide students with an overview of the major categories of mental illness recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, focusing in particular on five major categories: anxiety disorders (including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), mood disorders, psychotic disorders, developmental disorders, and eating disorders. Each week will compare and contrast multiple perspectives on these conditions, drawn from mainstream psychiatry, cross-cultural mental health research, cultural anthropology, and autobiography. The final week will address the emerging field of global mental health and humanitarian psychiatry. Counts for Mental Health and Personality area.
Instructor(s): E. Fein Terms Offered: Winter
CHDV 26660. Genes and Behavior. 100 Units.
There are complex interactions between the genome and behavior. This course will examine how behavior can be understood by investigating the sequence and structure of genes, especially those expressed in the brain. It will consider behaviors in several species (including human), and present various molecular, genetic, and genomic approaches used to uncover how genes contribute to behavior and how behavior alters the genome. Lectures will provide background for gene-behavior interactions that will be further discussed using primary literature readings.
Instructor(s): S. London Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 26660
CHDV 27317. America's White Ethnics: Contemporary Italian- and Jewish-American Ethnic Identities. 100 Units.
Using American Italians and Jews as case studies, this course investigates what it means to be a white “ethnic” in the contemporary American context and examines what constitutes an ethnic identity. In the mid-20th century, the long-standing ideal of an American melting-pot began to recede. The rise of racial pride, ushered in by the Civil Rights era, made way for the emergence of ethnic identity/pride movements, and multiculturalisms, more broadly, became privileged. To some extent, in the latter half of the 20th century America became a post-assimilationist society and culture, where many still strived to “fit-in,” but it was no longer necessarily the ideal to “blend-in” or lose one’s ethnic trappings. In this context, it has become not only possible, but often desirable, to be at the same time American, white, and an ethnic. Through the investigation of the Jewish and Italian examples, this discussion-style course will look at how ethnicity is manifested in, for example, class, religion, gender, nostalgia, and place, as well as how each of these categories is in turn constitutive of ethnic identity. The course will illustrate that there is no fixed endpoint of assimilation or acculturation, after which a given individual is fully “American,” but that ethnic identity, and its various constituent elements, persists and perpetually evolves, impacting individual identities and experience, and both local/group specific and larger cultural narratives even many generations after immigration.
Instructor(s): L. Shapiro Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 24500,CRES 27317
CHDV 27501. Local Bodies, Global Capital. 100 Units.
The project of this course is to closely examine the relationship between global capital and local bodies or, put differently, to look at the implications of economic forms for particular people's experience and collective forms of existence. The course will read divergently critical theories of capitalism and some historically-situated field materials, focusing on interplays between speculative, scientific, and spectral qualities of economic practice. We will examine some local sites of multinational capital investment, production, and circulation: from factory floors to marketplaces, from transnational scientific research to pharmaceutical marketing. In order to better grasp local bodies, the course will pay special attention to biomedical, genomic, and pharmaceutical industries that emerged as a major locus of global capital investment, as well as read for the existential, bodily, and political complaints about shared market conditions voiced around the globe. By examining comparatively some particular health disorders, incidents, and interventions, the course will ask: How are the ways of being, feeling, and thinking determined by the abstract global power of capital? How do bodies and economies intersect? How do local bodies and subjectivities negotiate temporalities, materialities, and epistemologies associated with the speculative and spectral features of global capital? Can we grasp a shared global condition, which is capitalism, from the vantage point of some embodied local lives?
Instructor(s): L. Jasarevic Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): INST 27501,ANTH 25102
CHDV 27700. Modern Psychotherapies. 100 Units.
This course introduces students to the nature and varieties of modern psychotherapies by extensive viewing and discussion of videotaped demonstration sessions. Diverse therapeutic approaches will be examined, including psychodynamic, interpersonal, client-centered, gestalt, and cognitive-behavioral orientations. Couple and family therapy sessions, and sessions with younger clients, may also be viewed. Historical and conceptual models will be presented to deepen students' understandings of what is being viewed, but the main emphasis will be on experiential learning through observation and discussion. (D*, 4*)
Instructor(s): D. Orlinsky Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 31800
CHDV 27821. Urban Schools and Communities. 100 Units.
This course explores the intersection of urban schools and community, with a focus on the evolution of urban communities, families, and the organization of schools. It emphasizes historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives as we explore questions about the purpose and history of public schools, and factors that influence the character of school structure and organization in urban contexts, such as poverty, segregation, student mobility, etc. The topics covered provide essential intellectual perspectives on the history, work, and complexities of urban schools with a particular focus on the communities that surround them.
Instructor(s): S. Stoelinga Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 20226,PBPL 27821
CHDV 27901-27902-27903. Beginning Modern Spoken Yucatec Maya I-II-III.
This course is a basic introduction to the modern Yucatec Maya language, an indigenous American language spoken by about 750,000 people in southeastern Mexico. Three consecutive quarters of instruction are intended for students aiming to achieve basic and intermediate proficiency. Students receiving FLAS support must take all three quarters. Others may elect to take only the first quarter or first two quarters. Students wishing to enter the course midyear (e.g., those with prior experience with the language) must obtain consent of instructor. Materials exist for a second year of the course; interested students should consult the instructor. Students wishing to continue their training with native speakers in Mexico may apply for FLAS funding in the summer.
CHDV 27901. Beginning Modern Spoken Yucatec Maya I. 100 Units.
Instructor(s): John Lucy
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 47901,CHDV 47901,LACS 27901
CHDV 27902. Beginning Modern Spoken Yucatec Maya II. 100 Units.
Instructor(s): J. Lucy Terms Offered: Not offered 2012-13; will be offered 2013-14
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 47902,LACS 27902
CHDV 27903. Beginning Modern Spoken Yucatec Maya III. 100 Units.
Instructor(s): J. Lucy
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 47903,CHDV 47903,LACS 27903
CHDV 29301. Qualitative Research Methods. 100 Units.
The goal of this course is for students to learn a range of qualitative research methods, understand the uses and limitations of each of these methods, and gain hands-on experience designing, completing, and writing up a project using one or more of these methods. The first three weeks focus on developing a research plan: reviewing the literature, formulating a research question, and evaluating available methods to investigate that question. The remaining weeks will focus on research ethics, data collection, data analysis, and writeup. Throughout the course, we will be reading and discussing both texts that explicitly teach method and examples of different qualitative approaches, including ethnography, person-centered interviewing, Grounded Theory, narrative analysis, and cultural models. All students will complete a small-scale research project using one or more of the methods covered in this course. (M)
Instructor(s): E. Fein Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 39301
CHDV 29700. Undergraduate Reading and Research. 100 Units.
Select section from faculty list on web.
Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.
Note(s): Must be taken for a quality grade.
CHDV 29800. BA Honors Seminar. 100 Units.
Required for students seeking departmental honors, this seminar is designed to help develop an honors paper project that will be approved and supervised by a HD faculty member. A course preceptor will guide students through the process of research design and proposal writing.
Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of the undergraduate program chair.
Note(s): Eligible students should plan to take the BA Honors Seminar in the Spring quarter of their third year.
CHDV 29900. Honors Paper Preparation. 100 Units.
The grade assigned to the BA honors paper becomes the grade of record for this course. (R)
Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter
Prerequisite(s): CHDV 29800 and an approved honors paper. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.
Note(s): To complete work on their BA honors paper, students must register for this course with their faculty supervisor in Autumn or Winter of their fourth year.