#comparative human development

The Comparative Human Development major at UChicago is highly interdisciplinary. Students in this major take an introductory sequence, courses in statistics/methods, and classes within four specialized areas: comparative behavioral biology, life course development, culture and community, and mental health and personality. Course offerings within in this major include social psychology, medicinal anthropology, language and communication, and animal behavior. Many students in this major pursue research positions at the several child developmental labs we have on campus. To learn more about CHDV, check out the department website. 

“ This course is designed to examine the field of child mental health from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating anthropological, sociological and psychological insights to look at some of the significant questions and controversies present in considerations of children’s health today. Students will also spend significant time on developing individual research papers. We will begin in the first two weeks with an overview of the field of child psychopathology and the diagnostic systems most commonly used in the practice of child psychiatry. We will then spend the next three weeks looking at two of the most common and controversial diagnoses applied to children in the United States: Autism-spectrum disorders and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. In examining these categories we will consider the cultural and historical contexts that have lead to the emergence of these diagnoses and the variety of experiences of those identified as being afflicted with these disorders. The highly public controversy over giving children psychiatric medication and the implications of exporting Western psychiatric knowledge about children to other cultural contexts will also be considered. In the second half of the class we will move away from examinations of psychiatric nosology to think more broadly about the ways in which concepts of the normative treatment and behavior of children vary across time and place, looking particularly at the effects of aggression on children. “

"Creating Order Out of Chaos: Reconciling Narratives in Non-Profit Housing Management"