Bachelor's Degree

The Bachelor of Arts in Human Development is a multidisciplinary program that focuses on human growth and development throughout the life span, and on the familial, social, cultural, and political networks in which individuals develop. The human development major is designed to prepare undergraduates to succeed in an increasingly diverse cultural, ethnic, economic, and political environment. Respect for those differences in the context of human service settings is an integral part of our program.

Major Concentrations

• Counseling Services
  Courses within the Counseling Services Concentration have been selected to provide an educational foundation for students wishing to pursue careers in counseling fields. Through these courses students learn about effective counseling interventions, acquire interpersonal interviewing and interaction skills, and learn about the importance of diversity and social justice as it relates to children, youth, adults, families, communities, and society.
• Health Services
  The Health Services Concentration prepares students for work in the healthcare field by teaching students to mobilize developmental and social science concepts, theories and methods to examine how social and environmental factors impact health across the life course from infancy to later life. This concentration particularly helps students understand how individual characteristics, such as gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation, but also genetic vulnerabilities, interact with social-structural, institutional, and cultural realities – particularly in healthcare institutions and beyond – to shape an individual’s physical and mental health.
• General
  The General Concentration allows students to create their own concentration area selected from the list of electives taken with faculty advisor permission. For example, students wishing to pursue a career as a teacher may want to select courses that reflect their interest in teaching. In this case, students may choose a focus for their General Concentration and may informally decide to call it, “Education Focus” or “Teaching Focus.” Students wishing to work with youth may choose courses that focus on youth for their concentration and may informally call it “Youth Prevention Focus.” This concentration allows students to create their own focused area of knowledge, which they can convey to future employers or graduate programs and justify it based on the courses they took for the concentration.
• Early Childhood Education

  The Early Childhood Education (ECE) concentration (to be offered in Fall 2027) lays a foundation of content knowledge and practical skills relevant to working with young children (from conception through age eight). Through instruction and applied learning experiences, this concentration prepares students for advanced study and/or child-related careers in our diverse and changing world.

  By completing 25 units of ECE-specific coursework, students develop the expertise needed for various early education and child development professions.

How to Apply

For detailed information about how to apply to the human development major, please see our How to Apply webpage.

Special Conditions for the Bachelor of Arts in Human Development

All courses counted toward the major, including Preparation for the Major courses, must be completed with a grade of C (2.0) or better. A minimum of eighteen (18) units counted toward the human development major must have been completed at CSUSM.