Students' zone - How much do I need to know about a topic?

This is a ‘billion-dollar’ question. There is so very much research on every topic in Psychology that no-one can read it all – not even your professor! Luckily, this doesn’t really matter. Very little research is actually seminal (that is to say, ground-breaking or crucial). Quite a lot does no more than provide ‘interesting twiddles’ on the mainstream.

What matters is that you gain a critical understanding of the core issues for a given topic, and a familiarity with the key research addressing those issues. It’s the job of a textbook to tell you what the core issues are in any topic, and to summarise the key research – and Understanding Human Development will give you an authoritative guide.

Just between you and me, if you can thoroughly understand all the issues discussed in this book and can master the research it describes, you’ll know enough to pass most undergraduate exams, and more importantly, you’ll know enough to have an educated opinion. But you should try to read some of the key research papers indicated in the book, to get a more detailed view and to get a more ‘hands on’ feel for how research is done.

How much should you read beyond what it says in the textbook? That depends:

• On the guidance given by your particular lecturer and the reading lists he or she provides. Extend your reading to match the requirements of the particular course you’re taking

• On your own enthusiasm for a given topic: read what sparks your curiosity rather than just for exams

But however enthusiastic you are, however ambitious the reading list on your course, you’re going to have to be selective in what you read – because no-one can read it all. The art of selectivity is to:

• Pick the research papers or books the textbook or your lecturer indicate to be the most important or the most interesting

• Don’t waste time reading papers which just repeat what you’ve already read

• Look for detailed reviews of the topic in prestigious journals such as Child Development or the Annual Review of Psychology.

• And for the special essay: Do a psycinfo search on the topic: look for recurrent themes and controversies in the titles of articles – then read the abstracts of those articles to refine your search for what’s worth reading.