Human Development, BA

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The Human Development (HD) Program offers an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree that focuses on human growth and development across the life course, the underlying processes and structures that support that development, and the relationships between the individual and the complex familial, social, and cultural environments in which development is situated.

Program Learning Outcomes

Human Development Majors will master the following learning outcomes by the time they graduate:

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, disability and class.
Evaluate the concepts and theories that shape scholarship and practice in human development, including from biological, social, cultural and psychological perspectives.
Experience designing, undertaking, and presenting research that is empirically rigorous as well as ethically and methodologically sound.
Through service-learning, identify and experience some of the ethical and political concerns that characterize the provision of service in the “helping professions.”
Critically reflect on how human development knowledge can be used to facilitate positive change in the life course in contexts of inequity and structural violence.
Critically evaluate the ways that health, well-being and ability can be used as frameworks for understanding processes of development in the life course.

Degree Requirements

See the “Degree Requirements ” in the University Catalog for complete details on general degree requirements.

General Education Requirements (48 units)

See the “General Education Program ” requirements in the University Catalog for information on General Education requirements. Some major requirements may double count for GE requirements.

Major Core Requirements (21 units)

Applicants to the Human Development major should expect it to take three (3) semesters to complete the Major Core Requirements.

ANTH 200 - Introduction to Language Studies Unit(s): 3 OR
ANTH 203 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Unit(s): 3
ANTH 318 - Human Development in Evolutionary Perspective Unit(s): 3
HD 200 - Introduction to Human Aging Unit(s): 3
HD 321 - Social Science Theory and the Life Course Unit(s): 4
HD 322 - Politics and Ethics of Service in the Helping Professions Unit(s): 4
HD 450 - Producing Research on the Life Course Unit(s): 4

Topical Areas (12-16 units)

Four courses, one from each topical area, taken from at least three different departments. EDXX count as one department and crosslisted courses count as the same department.