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Cursus: 200500313
200500313
Relationships, personality and adjustment in adolescence
Cursus informatie
Cursuscode200500313
Studiepunten (EC)7,5
Cursusdoelen
The aims of the course are:
- to develop an understanding of the main theories of development of individual characteristics and relationships in adolescence and the way the development of individual characteristics, relationships and psychosocial adjustment are related.
- to develop the capacity to design and evaluate studies aimed at investigating issues in adolescent development.
After the course, students are able:
- to apply theoretical perspectives on the relevant issues in adolescent development.
- to evaluate advanced research methods used in studies on adolescent development.
- to write a research grant proposal.

Relation between Tests and Learning Goals
The test consists of different parts: Active participation and assignments.
The active participation and discussion will test whether students are able to critically discuss theories and the way empirical studies test these theories. The assignments will test whether students have knowledge of theories on adolescent development, whether they can critically evaluate those theories, and whether they can critically evaluate the associations of findings from empirical studies with those theories. It will also test whether students can design empirical studies that allow to test these theories. The assignments also test whether students can develop innovative research questions in the field of adolescent development that build upon and extend earlier work, and whether they can design state-of-the-art empirical studies that allow to test these research questions.
Inhoud
Adolescence is a developmental period in which rapid changes take place within dynamically changing multi-layered contexts. The development and reorganization of biological, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning provides ample opportunities for growth and positive development. Most adolescents adapt to these developmental changes, but for some adolescents this period can carry high and long term risks. This course will focus on recent theoretical perspectives on important developmental tasks for adolescents. Topics include biological development, the development of identity and autonomy, and development of prosocial behavior. Adolescent development takes place in the context of relationships with others. Family relationships are regarded as the most important relationships during adolescence, but the developmental changes of adolescents necessitate family members to redefine their mutual relationships and establish a balance between independence and connectedness. Relationships with friends and peers become increasingly important during adolescence, and intimate relationships with romantic partners are emerging. We will study the development of various relationships in adolescence and the influence of these relationships on teenagers’ psychosocial adjustment. We will discuss several theoretical models explaining differential developmental pathways leading to adaptive developmental outcomes and to internalizing, externalizing, and delinquent behavior.

In this course, the focus will be on research applying recent theoretical insights and advanced methods to analyze developmental processes and the influence of various contexts on these processes. We will discuss studies using different methodologies, such as longitudinal studies, questionnaire data, observations, experimental designs, and diary studies. We will cover advanced analytical techniques for longitudinal mediation and moderation analysis, latent growth models and transition models, and both between-person and within-person analyses.
 
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