Home Study

Parent/Child Psychology

Parenting is often one of our most important and valuable roles in life – and yet one for which we are not trained and are often unprepared. We can make it up as we go along, following our parent’s example; changing the bits we didn’t like; adapting it to a changing society; tailoring it to our individual child’s needs, our needs, our experience; and usually doing a ‘good enough’ job.

There are questions that need to be asked, and for which we need answers:

These questions are challenging to parents, to educators, to anybody involved with children.

Parents bring their own conflicts, anxieties, attitudes, and emotions into their experience of raising children. Their personal psychology and the social conditions surrounding them get entangled with each other to make successful parenting a Herculean task done against great odds. Nobody seems to be clear about whether we want strong-minded individuals or co-operative team players for our next generation. And nobody seems to be clear about how to achieve either one – through gentle love or tough love, freedom or structure, rewards or punishments.

We are not psychologists when we care for children. We barely have a moment to take a look inside at our own psychology, emotions, and inner thoughts and fantasies. We are often not even aware of our vacillations between over-indulgence and self-involvement. The swings operate at an unconscious level. Often we have little time for introspection and it is enough of a struggle just to get through the day.

ATI - Training & Education offers a 6-month home study course in Parent/Child Psychology.

This is not a ‘how-to course’, you will not find directives or rules at the end of each unit. It will be practical in that, by examples and case studies, Parent/Child Psychology will illustrate how theories may be applied. For those of you who have children or those who work with children, the course will invite you to think in new and more conscious ways about your experience, and will offer alternative ways to understand and relate to children and to yourselves as parents – or adults with care for children.

The course in Parent/Child Psychology covers:

The course offers an opportunity to increase your knowledge, understanding and personal development so that you will have more insight to face the changing challenges of parenting. It will be relevant for parents of all ages; for anybody working with children; or for anybody interested in what has influenced them to be the person they are today.

The cost of the course is E650, payable at course commencement. This cost covers administration, all reading/study material (there will be no need to buy any additional books) and a Certificate in Parent/Child Psychology on successful completion of the course.

Course Outline

Attachment & Separation

• What is attachment? / Secure & insecure attachments
• The parent’s bond / The infant’s bond / Failure of bonding
• Effects of parental practices, Maternal employment
• Separation anxiety – the dependent child
• Transitional objects
• Parents’ separation fears, Who is losing whom?

Sense of Self & Self-Esteem

• The objective self, Infant’s self-understanding, Children’s self-concept

• Self-esteem, Importance of self-esteem in the parents, Encouraging a positive self-
  image

• The fragile self & how children protect it
• Adolescence – the toddler in the teen, Identity formation
• Erikson’s theory of development
• Balance between baby & me

Gender & Sexuality

• Gender similarities & differences, Development of the sex role
• Gender stereotyping, Gender & the media
• Sexuality in childhood, Changing sexual attitudes & behaviours
• Socio-biology
• Sons & daughters, Co-education/single sex schools

• Defence mechanisms including: repression, suppression, denial, sublimation, projection, reaction-formation, displacement, identification, compensation

• Sex & drugs & rock & roll

Discipline & Moral Development

• Definitions & components of discipline, Discipline or punishment? Self discipline
• Smacking – the debate: the case for an against, Use the rod, lose the child
• Specific problem behaviours: tantrums, lying, stealing, cheating, swearing
• Jean Piaget’s developmental model, Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory
• Moral education, Poisonous pedagogy

Temperament & Personality

• The role of temperament, Temperament & environment, Adult’s temperament
• ‘Easy’ kids, ‘Difficult’ kids, ‘Quiet’ kids
• Impact of the family – styles of parenting, Becoming an authoritative parent
• Stress, Optimism, pessimism & resilience
• Heredity – environment interaction

Family Relationships

• Family structure, The family as a system
• Divorce & separation, Step-parent/Step-child relationships
• Sibling relationships, Birth order, Only children
• The family life cycle – a 6-stage model
• Family therapy
• Caring for yourself as a parent, Exploring childhood as an adult