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Social Exclusion and Inclusion in Childhood and Adolescence

Module description

Social exclusion and inclusion are pervasive aspects of social life for children and adolescents. Being excluded socially in early life is related to many negative psychological and social outcomes in later life (e.g., depression, lack of motivation to achieve). Understanding when and why social exclusion happens, how children think about it, and how it relates to their social and moral development is important. In diverse contexts they often have to decide whether to include or exclude peers from their own or another social group. They also have to decide whether to exclude or include peers within their own social group who deviate from or conform to the norms of their group. These intergroup and intragroup decisions are challenging for children and adolescents, and their responses are influenced by their developing social and moral understanding from early childhood onwards. In this module you will learn how children’s developing thinking about social categories, morality, intentionality, group identity and prejudice underlie their judgements and reasoning about social exclusion within intergroup contexts. We will also consider how theories in developmental and social psychology can inform interventions involving children and adolescents, which aim to reduce social exclusion based upon prejudiced beliefs that emerge in childhood.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module will allow you to study of the social, developmental and moral dimensions to children’s judgments and reasoning around social exclusion in everyday peer relationships. The module will aim to further your understanding of how morality, social cognition and group identity develops in early childhood. Then the lectures will begin to examine how social, moral and cognitive development in childhood relates to the emergence of prejudice and social exclusion. The final part of the module will concentrate on developmentally-informed intervention strategies aimed at promoting social inclusion and positive peer relations. The aim will be to examine the contribution that developmental psychological theory and research can make to understanding how children and adolescents understand social exclusion. Finally, the module will encourage you to devise theoretically and practically informed ways of tackling social exclusion and promoting social inclusion in childhood and adolescence. As such, the module will be relevant to those of you who hope to develop expertise in influence processes and attitude change which you can then use in educational settings.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Evaluate current theories, methods and empirical approaches to developmental psychology
• 2. Evaluate traditional and contemporary approaches to the study of social exclusion in psychology and education

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Explain how psychological theory and practice can inform an understanding of how children and adolescents judge, reason about and respond to social exclusion in peer groups and educational settings
• 4. Understand and apply theoretical ideas to the development of practical strategies for tackling social exclusion based upon prejudice in childhood and adolescence

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Use communication skills, numeracy, information technology, and solve problems
• 6. Develop your reading and writing skills, critical reflection and written analysis and interpretation of theory and evidence, involving the evaluation and selection of appropriate frameworks and methodologies for exploring issues in developmental psychology

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Moral development from childhood to adolescence
• Early emergence of social categorisation
• Development of explicit and implicit biases
• Prejudice development
• Children’s evaluations and reasoning about social exclusion
• Social exclusion and deviance from group norms
• Social exclusion and resource allocation
• Social exclusion and bystander responses
• How to promote social exclusion among children and adolescents: Empathy and social-cognitive skills
• How to promote social exclusion among children and adolescents: Intergroup contact
• Summary and synthesis

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Two assessments are required for this module. Where you have been referred/deferred in the examination you will have the opportunity to take a second examination in the August/September re-assessment period. Where you have been referred/deferred in the essay you will be required to resubmit the essay. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%; deferred marks are not capped.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Killen, M. & Rutland, A. (2011). Children and Social exclusion: Morality, Prejudice and Group Identity. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Banaji, M. R. & Gelman. S. A. (2013) (Eds.), Navigating the Social World: What Infants, Children, and other Species Can Teach Us. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Levy, S. R. & Killen, M. (2008). Intergroup attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Brown, R. J. (2010). Prejudice: Its Social Psychology. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page:

Key words search

Psychology, developmental psychology, social exclusion, children, adolescence