This course provides a comparative analysis of the life course and stages from infancy through adolescence and adulthood, to old age and death. Various developmental processes are addressed, including socio-emotional, cognitive, and physical. Various perspectives are explored from the social scientific including an analysis of rituals and rites of passage and roles at various life states, to the biological where students study predictors of menarche, fertility, brain development as well as stages of physical and mental decline. Special emphasis on cross-cultural differences in human development are explored throughout the course.