Course in Human Growth and Personality Development

This course portrays the different socio-psychological aspects of human behaviour, human
growth and personality development.
Goals:
To facilitate the students to learn the various socio-psychological aspects of human growth
and personality development including mental illness / health.
Objectives:
On successful completion of the course the students should enrich their knowledge about (i)
the socio-psychological of human growth and development and (ii) personality development.
Contents:
Unit I Introduction
Social Psychology: Definition, nature and scope, a brief idea on various
schools of psychology, relevance of psychology for social work profession;
Human growth and development: Concept, nature and importance, physical
and psychological aspects of various stages of human growth and
development: infancy, early and late childhood, adolescence, early and middle
adulthood and old age.
Unit II Personality Development
Personality: Nature and theories of personality - a brief overview of
psychodynamic and humanistic theories, factors influencing personality
development, heredity and environment; Intelligence: Concept, theories and
assessment; Emotions: Development of emotions - individual and group
emotions,
Unit III Socio-psychological bases of Human Growth and Development - I
Learning: Concept, types, theories of learning; Motivation: Concept and
nature, types of motives with special reference to social motives, basic
theories of motivation
Unit IV Socio-psychological bases of Human Growth and Development - II
Perception: Concept and nature, types, errors in perception, factors
influencing perception; Attitudes: Concept and nature, formation of attitudes
and attitudes change in individuals and groups, collective / crowd behaviour
Unit V Psychological bases of Human Growth and Development
Stress: Meaning, causes and effects; Conflict: Meaning, types, coping drives,
defense mechanism; Mental Illness / Health: Concept and definition, types,
role of social workers in promoting mental health