Overview
PSYC 426: Psychology of Families and Parenting, is an in-depth study of the issues surrounding parenting and family relationships, incorporating both theories and empirical research. It encourages critical analysis and awareness of the complexities of issues surrounding families. This online course explores many variations of families including nuclear families, families with same-sex parents, adoptive families, child-free families, and families that have adjusted to divorce. From a parenting perspective, the course looks at the influences of culture, genes versus environment, religion and spirituality, and parental age. The course also explores arranged marriages and polygamy.
Outline
PSYC 426 consists of twelve units:
- Unit 1: What Is a Family?
- Unit 2: Culture
- Unit 3: Families: Genes vs. Environment
- Unit 4: Religion and Spirituality
- Unit 5: Adjusting to Divorce
- Unit 6: Families with Same-Sex Parents
- Unit 7: Adoptive Families
- Unit 8: Parental Age I: Adolescent Parents
- Unit 9: Parental Age II: Older Parents
- Unit 10: To Have or Not to Have? Childfree Families
- Unit 11: Arranged Marriages
- Unit 12: Polygamy
Evaluation
To receive credit for PSYC 426, you must achieve a grade of at least 50 percent on the final exam, and an overall course grade of at least D (50 percent). In addition, all course assignments must be completed to pass the course. The weighting of assignments is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Biased Assimilation | 10% |
| Information Retrieval | 10% |
| Annotated Bibliography | 10% |
| Debate Paper | 40% |
| Final Exam | 30% |
| Total | 100% |
The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.
All course materials are available online.