Focus on Florida International

In each issue, the SSHD Networker will focus on a different academic department that pursues scholarship pertinent to the vision and goals of SSHD. In this issue we have elected to describe the Life Span Developmental Science Program at Florida International University. William Kurtines, of the SSHD Membership Committee, is the Chairperson of the Doctoral Program in Life-Span Developmental Science in the Department of Psychology at Florida International University. Dr. Kurtines is also the Director of the Youth Development Project, Adolescent and Adult Development Lab in the Child and Family Psychosocial Research Center.

Dr. William Kurtines

The Life Span Developmental Science (LSDS) Program
The Life Span Developmental Science (LSDS) Program at FIU is unique in the field of developmental psychology. It integrates a life-span orientation with a focus on both basic and applied developmental science in an international and interdisciplinary multicultural urban context. Moreover, within the context of this integrated framework, the LSDS program has an outstanding faculty well positioned to capitalize on emerging issues and lead the field in new directions. Their research productivity is exemplary and they attract substantial amounts of external funding to address emerging scientific issues and pressing social problems.

The Life Span Developmental Science Program at FIU provides an unprecedented opportunity for students to participate in knowledge development in basic and applied developmental science in a multicultural environment. All students in the program are expected to master a series of core course requirements designed to facilitate a thorough grounding in theory, methodology, and content in both basic and applied research in developmental science. These core courses are delivered in lecture/seminar format by faculty thoroughly versed in the relevant areas. A number of seminars reflecting the specialized foci of our program are also offered, including advanced seminars in developmental theory and methods; cognition; emotional, intellectual, and social development; learning and problems in child development; care giving; and gerontological psychology. Moreover, the program offers students the opportunity to specialize in Basic Developmental Science (BDS) or Applied Developmental Science (ADS).

The Basic Developmental Science specialization (BDS) embraces research as its central focus for the training of scholars and professors of developmental science. The primary goal of the program is to equip students with the skills necessary to function as academic and/or research psychologists. The BDS specialization is based on a life span developmental perspective emphasizing the systematic description and explanation of changes that organisms undergo as they develop. This approach to developmental inquiry emphasizes the dynamic interplay of processes across time frames, levels of analysis, and contexts. As such, it is a comprehensive and integrative program that encompasses multiple approaches to the study of development (i.e., biopsychology, cognitive, cultural, experimental, family/intergenerational dynamics, genetics, perception, personality, social). BDS students have the opportunity to specialize on any phase of the life span or on any issues or topics that span phases of the life span (see link below for opportunities to work with individual faculty).

The BDS specialization emphasizes the development of conceptual and methodological skills needed to conduct research, to apply developmental psychology to the solution of developmental problems, and to teach the subject matter of developmental psychology at the university level. Students benefit from the diversity of BDS faculty’s areas of interest and expertise that converge to provide a well-rounded training program in life span developmental psychology (see link below for sample course curricula for the BDS specialization). The BDS faculty are unified in their commitment to provide students diverse and comprehensive training in developmental science. Students are encouraged to become involved in research at an early point in their graduate training by participating in faculty research projects and by carrying out individual research under the guidance of one or several faculty members. Students are also guided and encouraged to publish their individual research projects, present their work at professional conferences, and are provided opportunities for teaching as part of their graduate training.

The Applied Developmental Science specialization (ADS) is on the use of research and application to promote positive development across the lifespan. Applied developmental scientists adopt the view that positive individual development and family functioning is a combined and interactive product of biology and the physical and social environments that continuously evolve and change over time. The applied developmental science orientation emphasizes a focus on systematic and successive changes within human systems that occur across the lifespan. This assumption stresses the importance of understanding normative and atypical processes as they emerge within different developmental periods and across diverse physical and cultural settings. Drawing on the conceptual base provided by the emerging field of Applied Developmental Science, the applied developmental science orientation is committed to the use of descriptive and explanatory knowledge about changes within human systems that occur across the lifespan in developing, implementing and evaluating preventive, treatment, and/or enhancing interventions. Such interventions are intended to prevent negative developmental outcomes and/or restore and promote positive developmental outcomes.


Further information about the Life Span Developmental Science Program at FIU can be found at:

http://www.fiu.edu/choice.html
http://w3.fiu.edu/lifespan/BDS.htm
http://w3.fiu.edu/lifespan/ADS.htmm

Further information about the Youth Development Project can be found at:

http://w3.fiu.edu/ydp/