The Department of Developmental Psychology and Children's Literature/Culture focuses on children’s psychological development and the cultural environments of children of which stories and literature for children are central. Two courses are provided by the department: Children’s Literature and Culture, and Developmental Psychology.
The Children’s Literature and Culture Course offers seminars and lectures on the histories of children’s books, folk cultures of children, creative writing, dramas for children, story-telling, poetry, and variety of other subjects.
The Developmental Psychology Course stresses child and adolescent development from a life-span developmental perspective. Besides lectures, training is offered in observation, testing, experiment and data analysis.
Graduate School
Developmental Psychology （Master's Program 2 Years, Doctral Program 3 years）
Research and studies of the developmental mind, including the infant-toddler, juvenile and youth stages, in particular, to old age are conducted from a lifetime and culturally comparative viewpoint.
Diagnosis of developmentally disabled children, advising and counseling, and treatment are taught at the attached Developmental and Clinical Center. The graduate school also offers necessary courses for basic training for those preparing to become professionals in the field of clinical psychology (counselors and educational advisors, etc.).
Children's Literature (Master's Program 2 Years, Doctral Program 3 years)
Research is conducted into discovering what influences children’s literature has in the long term on child development and what position it holds in the domain of literature in general. In order to establish a critique of children’s literature and research methodologies, research into drama, comics, animation and other media, is indispensable. Lectures and seminars cover German, English, American and Japanese modern and contemporary literature.
