Sophie Reijman

Abstract

Learning about Diversity in Developmental Psychology

KU’s 2022-2025 aims for educating psychology students include preparing them to be ”culturally sensitive and aware of the diverse populations they might come to work with after graduation”. In this project I did a content analysis of the undergraduate Developmental Psychology curriculum in order to assess the presence and emphasis of diversity content in the course. Diversity content was operationalized as content explicitly focusing on psychological processes or phenomena in specific minoritized groups (e.g., based on sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity). Lecture slides and assigned readings suggested that diversity content (knowledge about specific groups) was emphasized in 17% of lectures, while it was not explicitly mentioned in 72% of lectures. This indicates that diversity content is addressed sparsely in Developmental Psychology and can be consolidated more. Active learning strategies may be particularly effective for increasing awareness and learning about diverse populations. Literature on multicultural counseling courses have proposed active learning exercises such as a cultural self-examination paper (to enhance awareness), case presentation (knowledge about specific groups), and interviewing someone with a different social identity than your own (skill development). These are exercises that can be implemented in Developmental Psychology, and if successful, diversity-oriented active learning strategies could also be integrated in other psychology courses where needed.