Psychology (PSYC) 426

Overview

PSYC 426: Psychology of Families and Parenting is an in-depth study of the issues surrounding parenting and family relationships, incorporating both theories and empirical research. It encourages critical analysis and awareness of the complexities of issues surrounding families. This online course explores many variations of families including nuclear families, families with same-sex parents, adoptive families, dual-income families, childfree families, and families that have adjusted to divorce. From a parenting perspective, the course looks at the influences of culture and immigration, genes versus environment, religion and spirituality, gender roles, and parental age.

Outline

PSYC 426 consists of thirteen units:

Unit 1: What Is a Family?

Unit 2: Culture and Immigration

Unit 3: Families: Genes vs. Environment

Unit 4: Religion and Spirituality

Unit 5: Dual-Income Families

Unit 6: Gender Roles

Unit 7: Predicting Marital Outcomes

Unit 8: Adjusting to Divorce

Unit 9: Families with Same-Sex Parents

Unit 10: Adoptive Families

Unit 11: Parental Age I: Adolescent Parents

Unit 12: Parental Age II: Older Parents

Unit 13: Childfree Families

Evaluation

To receive credit for PSYC 426, you must achieve a grade of at least 50 percent on the final exam, and an overall course grade of at least “D” (50 percent).  In addition, all course assignments must be completed to pass the course. The weighting of assignments is as follows:

Information Retrieval	Annotated Bibliography	Debate Paper	Final Exam	Total
10%	15%	40%	35%	100%

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.