Course: Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Bennett
Module: Week 11 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 7 — Describe physical, cognitive, and social development across the lifespan (the lifespan-development half).

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 11 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday session pattern with Week 11 meeting Tue Nov 10 and Thu Nov 12, and end-of-week work due Sunday Nov 15, 11:59 p.m. (Heads-up: Veterans Day, Wed Nov 11, is a campus holiday that falls between the two sessions — no class is missed, but plan around the closure.) Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 11 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 11: Development Across the Lifespan

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This week we zoom out to the biggest picture in psychology: an entire human life. How does a newborn become a toddler, a teenager, an adult, and finally an elder — in body, in thinking, and in relationships? You've lived part of this story already and you're watching others live the rest of it: a baby who thinks a hidden toy vanished, a four-year-old who insists the taller glass "has more," a teenager asking "who am I really?", a grandparent who's slower at puzzles but wiser about people. Developmental psychology gives all of those changes names — and shows they follow patterns you can predict.

The week's big question

"How do we grow — in body, mind, and relationships — from a newborn to old age, and is that growth one smooth ramp or a series of stages?"

By Friday you'll be able to take any age and describe what's happening in their thinking (Piaget), their bonds (attachment), and their sense of self (Erikson) — and explain why "nature vs. nurture" is the wrong question.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] State developmental psychology's three big questions — nature & nurture (they interact, not compete), continuity vs. stages, and stability vs. change.
• [ ] Order and recognize Piaget's four stages — sensorimotor (object permanence), preoperational (egocentrism, no conservation), concrete operational (conservation, concrete logic), formal operational (abstract reasoning) — plus Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and scaffolding.
• [ ] Explain attachment — Harlow's monkeys (contact comfort over food) and Ainsworth's Strange Situation (secure vs. insecure) — and place 2–3 of Erikson's psychosocial stages on the lifespan.
• [ ] Describe key changes of adolescence and aging — identity formation, and fluid vs. crystallized intelligence — and explain why development is lifelong.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tutorial: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, and then you judge its work against what we cover in class. Chatbots routinely mis-order Piaget's stages or misplace a hallmark — they'll put object permanence in the wrong stage, or claim abstract reasoning starts before the formal operational stage. Catching the model is the point.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Lead with the idea, not the jargon. Every term this week is a plain-English idea first (a schema is a mental file folder; conservation is just knowing pouring juice into a taller glass doesn't make more juice). The vocabulary comes after the idea clicks.
• Memorize two tiny hooks. Piaget's order: "Senses, Pretend, Concrete logic, Formal abstraction" (Sensorimotor → Preoperational → Concrete → Formal). And the lifespan arc: "Trust as a baby, Identity as a teen, Integrity at the end."
• Practice the "place the age" move. Pick a real person by age and say one line each about their body, mind, and relationships/self using this week's names. Doing it for three different ages is the whole skill.
• Remember the headline lesson: development is lifelong, and it's nature and nurture. Erikson runs to the last stage of life; crystallized intelligence keeps rising; and every trait is genes and experience, woven together.
• Treat the chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. It drafts; you check — especially the stage order. That habit is the whole semester in miniature.

You don't need any special background for this week — just your own life and the people in it as examples. Come ready to argue about how much of "who you are" you were born with. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 11

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Mon Nov 9, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Mon Nov 9."

Subject: Week 11 — the science of growing up (and growing old) 🌱

Hi everyone,

Quick thought experiment: a four-year-old watches you pour the same juice from a short, fat cup into a tall, skinny one — nothing added, nothing spilled — and you ask, "Did the amount change?" The four-year-old says, confidently, "Yes, now there's more!" A nine-year-old watching the same thing rolls their eyes: "It's obviously the same." Neither is smarter than the other. Their minds are built differently — and this week you'll learn exactly why, and what to call it.

This week — Development Across the Lifespan — we tackle the big question: How do we grow, in body, mind, and relationships, from a newborn to old age — one smooth ramp, or a series of stages? By Friday you'll be able to take any age — a baby, a toddler, a teenager, your grandparent — and describe their thinking (Piaget), their bonds (attachment), and their sense of self (Erikson).

Three things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 11 — work through the three big questions, Piaget's four stages, attachment, and Erikson with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. You'll catch the model's stage-ordering mistakes, not just trust it. Due Sun Nov 15.
2. Quiz 11, Discussion 11, and Assignment 11 also close Sun Nov 15 — the discussion ("Nature, Nurture, and Who You Became") is a quick AI dialogue you summarize and post, so start early and leave time to reply to classmates.
3. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates. (One scheduling note: Veterans Day, Wed Nov 11, is a campus holiday between our two class days — no class is missed, but plan around it.)

One promise: this is the week the whole course gets personal. Every concept — object permanence, conservation, attachment, identity — is something you can see in a real child, a real teenager, or yourself. We lead with plain-language ideas, then give them their proper names. By Friday, the next time someone says a behavior is "just a phase," you'll know whether the science agrees.

Bring your own life (and maybe a strong opinion about how much of "who you are" you were born with) to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Bennett