11/23/2024 6:06:46 PM	PSYC 56 Course Outline as of Summer 2025	Changed Course
CATALOG INFORMATION
Discipline and Nbr:  PSYC 56	Title:  AGING, DYING & DEATH
Full Title:  Aging, Dying and Death
Last Reviewed:12/9/2019

Units		Course Hours per Week			Nbr of Weeks	Course Hours Total
Maximum	3.00	Lecture Scheduled	3.00		17.5 max.	Lecture Scheduled	52.50
Minimum	3.00	Lab Scheduled	0		4 min.	Lab Scheduled	0
		Contact DHR	0			Contact DHR	0
		Contact Total	3.00			Contact Total	52.50
		Non-contact DHR	0			Non-contact DHR Total	0

Total Out of Class Hours:  105.00

Total Student Learning Hours: 157.50

Title 5 Category:  AA Degree Applicable
Grading:  Grade or P/NP
Repeatability:  00 - Two Repeats if Grade was D, F, NC, or NP
Also Listed As: 
Formerly:  PSYCH 56

Catalog Description:

Examination of aging, dying, death, and bereavement process in contemporary society.

Prerequisites/Corequisites:

Recommended Preparation:
Eligibility for ENGL 1A or equivalent

Limits on Enrollment:

Schedule of Classes Information
Description:

Examination of aging, dying, death, and bereavement process in contemporary society.

(Grade or P/NP)
Prerequisites:
Recommended:Eligibility for ENGL 1A or equivalent
Limits on Enrollment:
Transfer Credit:CSU;UC.
Repeatability:00 - Two Repeats if Grade was D, F, NC, or NP

ARTICULATION, MAJOR, and CERTIFICATION INFORMATION

Associate Degree:		Effective:		Inactive:
Area:
CSU GE:	Transfer Area			Effective:	Inactive:
	E	Lifelong Learning and Self Development		Fall 1981
IGETC:	Transfer Area			Effective:	Inactive:
CSU Transfer:	Transferable	Effective:	Fall 1981	Inactive:
UC Transfer:	Transferable	Effective:	Fall 2025	Inactive:
C-ID:

Certificate/Major Applicable: Both Certificate and Major Applicable

COURSE CONTENT

Student Learning Outcomes:
At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1.  Describe major theories, principles, and trends that address the process of aging, dying, death, and bereavement from cross-cultural, historical, and contemporary perspectives.

2.  Examine the role of ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and historical circumstances when dealing with loss, aging, dying, and death.

 

Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1.   Describe current trends in life expectancies, demographics, and attitudes toward adulthood,

      "old age," death and dying.

2.   Compare and contrast prominent theories on adult development and aging.

3.   Summarize age-related physical diseases and psychological problems.

4.   Examine how the process of aging affects intelligence, memory, creativity,

       problem-solving and decision-making skills.

5.   Describe different types of intimate partnerships in adulthood.

6.   Examine the role of gender, socioeconomic status, personality, and health

       on choice of work and retirement.

7.   Provide a list of stressors encountered by the aging person and generate ways

       to ameliorate the stress.

8.   Discriminate among concepts of suicide, assisted-suicide, and euthanasia; and summarize

       death/burial rituals and the grieving process following death.

9.   Identify a variety of modes/types of death and review the bereavement, grief and

       mourning process of the survivor.

10. Describe the funeral system, with emphasis in death notification, funeral service

       selection and  cost, and body disposition.

Topics and Scope

I. Defining the Journey

    A. Some Assumptions

    B. Definitions

    C. Methods

II.    Sociocultural Adult Development and Learning Theory of Death

III.   Physical Changes

IV.   Health, Health Habits, and Health Care

V.    Changes in Cognitive Abilities

VI.   Social Roles

VII.  Development of Relationships

VIII. Work and Retirement

IX.   Personality Stability and Change

X.    Stress and Resistance

XI.   Death, Dying and Bereavement

XII.  Facing Death: Living with Life-Threatening Illness

XIII. Medical Ethics: Euthanasia and Dying in a Technological Age

XIV. Survivors: Understanding the Experience of Loss

XV.  Late Rites

    A. Funerals

    B. Body Disposition

XVI.  The Law and Death

XVII.  Death in the Lives of Children and Adolescents

XVIII. Suicide

XIX.   Risks of Death in the Modern World

XX.    Beyond Death/After Life

Assignments:

1. Read approximately 35 pages per week

2. Writing assignment that may include research, experiential, response, or project for

     a minimum of 1, 250 words

3. Quizzes, exams, and a final

4. Oral presentation and/or group project may be assigned

Methods of Evaluation/Basis of Grade.

Writing: Assessment tools that demonstrate writing skill and/or require students to select, organize and explain ideas in writing.		Writing 30 - 60%
Research, experiential, response, or project paper
Problem solving: Assessment tools, other than exams, that demonstrate competence in computational or non-computational problem solving skills.		Problem Solving 0 - 0%
None
Skill Demonstrations: All skill-based and physical demonstrations used for assessment purposes including skill performance exams.		Skill Demonstrations 0 - 0%
None
Exams: All forms of formal testing, other than skill performance exams.		Exams 40 - 60%
Quizzes, Exams, and a Final
Other: Includes any assessment tools that do not logically fit into the above categories.		Other Category 0 - 10%
Oral presentation and/or group project

Representative Textbooks and Materials:

Death and Dying, Life and Living. 8th ed. Corr, Charles and Corr, Donna and Doka, Kenneth. Cengage. 2019

 

The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, 10th ed. DeSpelder, Lynne Ann and Strickland, Albert Lee. McGraw-Hill. 2015 (classic)

 

Understanding Dying, Death, and Bereavement. 8th ed. Leming, Michael and Dickinson, George. Cengage. 2016

 

Death, Society, and Human Experience. 12th ed. Kastenbaum, Robert. Pearson. 2016

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