Discussion #1

Ordinarily, I spend a week discussing how the philosophy of science impacts the field of developmental psychology.

You will need to read some notes of mine, and maybe do some looking around at Google or Wikipedia. I encourage exploration and questions.

Begin by reading Section 5 of my lecture notes on Change versus Development.

You may find it helpful to read the notes from the beginning.

Updated 9/23/2008 items underlined:

So, here is the discussion assignment:

Due Friday, Sept 26: First, send a WEBCT email to me defining, in your own words, Epistemology, Instrumental-Communicative behavior and Expressive-Constitutive behavior. Don't worry, I grade easy on this one. Give it your best shot.

Due Sunday, Sept 28: As a team, identify and describe a human behavior from both an Instrumental-Communicative Point of view as well as an Expressive-Constitutive Point of view. Keep the behavior simple--really simple, otherwise, it get's confusing because behavior can be very complex..

When your team has come up with an example, post this as a last post your group discussion thread.

This may be a difficult question to answer. In a classroom we can where I can gauge what people are learning. I encourage you to post questions and email one another. Try to help each other out. I will comment too and point you in the right direction. Disagreements and debate are welcome!

Professor Brian