3 credits
Spring 2026 Lecture
This course will focus on the scientific foundations of designing and conducting interventions for improving the human condition across diverse developmental and family contexts. A particular emphasis in this course will be on experimental and quasi-experimental designs for making causal inferences and understanding mechanisms of intervention effects. Students will gain specific knowledge of intervention design, implementation and fidelity, and scale-up of interventions, as well as how to evaluate proposed or existing interventions. Co-design processes with intervention users and qualitative methods for understanding intervention needs and implementation will also be examined. Prerequisite: none.
Learning Outcomes1Read and critique the literature on interventions across developmental and family topical areas.
2Acquire skills in understanding culture, diversity, equity, and bias as they apply to intervention design, implementation, and evaluation.
3Identify, critique, and communicate about methods to design, implement, evaluate, and scale up interventions.
4Understand strengths and limitations of interventions relative to the mechanisms of change, implementation processes, fidelity of implementation, and contextual (both setting and population) factors that may affect intervention success.
5Demonstrate understanding of methods and limits of causal inference using interventions.
6Acquire skills to obtain external funding by practicing grant writing and reviewing.
Restrictions
made by Purdue students.