Human Development

Program Office
Schulz Information Center, 2nd Floor
(707) 664-2181
hd.sonoma.edu

Human Development Coordinator
Karin Enstam Jaffe / Biological Anthropology
(707) 664-2944 / email: karin.jaffe@sonoma.edu

For faculty information, please see Faculty or the Human Development faculty web page.

Program Offered

The Bachelor of Arts in Human Development is a multidisciplinary liberal arts program that focuses on growth and development across the human life course, the underlying processes and structures that support that growth, and the relationship between the individual and the complex familial, social, and cultural environments in which growth is situated.

The Human Development major is designed to provide students with a comprehensive grounding in complementary theoretical approaches to human development across the life course. Students gain expertise in how the life course varies across species, cultures, and social positions such as gender, sexuality, class, and race. Students must earn a C or better in all courses applied to the major.

Program Learning Objectives

Students who graduate with a B.A. in Human Development from Sonoma State University will:

be able to recognize the way in which the life course comes to be culturally shaped as well as inflected by social positions such as gender, race, sexuality and class.
be able to evaluate the variety of concepts and theories that shape scholarship and practice in human development, including from biological, social, cultural, and psychological perspectives.
gain experience designing, undertaking, and presenting research that is empirically rigorous and methodologically sound.
be able to identify the way that human development knowledge informs practices in applied settings focused on issues such as learning and education, health and wellness, social justice and community advocacy, and the social contexts of disability.
be able to critically reflect on how human development knowledge can be used to facilitate positive change in the life course, especially in contexts of inequality and structural violence.

Careers in Human Development

A Bachelor of Arts in Human Development will help prepare students for professional, managerial, service, and educational careers in human development and human services serving infants, children, adolescents, families, and elders. This degree will complement students’ preparation for graduate studies in traditional fields such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, counseling and human development. The Human Development faculty are committed to providing accurate and useful information to our majors. Please go to http://hd.sonoma.edu/career-outlook for more information on career and graduate school opportunities for Human Development graduates.

Programs

Human Development, B.A.