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PYC2602 full lecturers notes
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1SUMMARY and REVISION STUDY NOTES
Child and Adolescent Development 2602
LECTURER: Carey Bremridge
Please note that these notes are not sufficient for study purposes. You are encouraged to first work
through chapter by chapter together with your UNISA study guide and then make your own
summary. These notes simply serve as an indication of what is important to know. It might be
helpful to fill in more information on these notes after you have studied as a revision exercise
before the exam.
Remember to work through ALL your assignment and test questions together with the correct
answers sent to you by UNISA as there is a VERY strong possibility that you will get exactly the
same questions in eth final exam.
Chapter 1 The study of child Development: Basic Concepts
GO to the glossary in your text book and study the definitions of the following concepts – after
reading the definition in the textbook write in the definition next to each word below. All words
highlighted in BOLD font are very important for you to know:
Child development =
quantitative change =
qualitative change=
individual differences=
heredity =
environment=
maturation=
nuclear family=
extended family=
socio-economic status=
risk factors=
culture=
ethnic group=
ethnic gloss=
cohort=
, 2
critical period=
sensitive period=
plasticity=
Summary of chapter in the textbook:
Human development is a continuous process that takes place throughout the human life cycle.
Human development is a complex process of changes and the establishment of stability in terms of
skills that are mastered and tasks that are completed as one grows older. Although there are no
clear distinct boundaries between the different developmental stages. There are certain
developmental stages or periods that occur across all diverse communities in the world. Even
though all humans are unique these developmental stages are common for all human beings
across all cultures. All the stages of development are equally important. Psychology is generally
divided into two categories 1. child and adolescent development and adult development. This
course is the study of child and adolescent development. The ways in which child development is
studied and researched is also still developing and evolving and our knowledge about child
development is improving and increasing with the development of advanced technology.
Child development = scientific study of the processes of change and stability from conception
through adolescence.
When we study child development we study two types of developmental change: qualitative
and quantitative change. Despite the fact that we are continually changing throughout or lifespan
most people show an underlying stability or constancy of personality or behaviour. For example
although we know that “John” is changing and growing and developing everyday we still know who
“John” is and that he is pretty much the same person everyday and we know who and what to
expect when we see him in class. There are some things that stay the same about “John” and that
will stay the same for the rest of his life. EG “John” will generally remain curious person throughout
his life.
Quantitative change = change in number eg height, age, weight, size of vocabulary.
Qualitative change = change in kind, structure or organization eg when baby changes from non-
verbal to verbal communication.
There are three areas or domains of study that are studied in developmental psychology:
1. Physical eg growth of the body, size, physical motor skills eg walking , running
2. Cognitive eg learning ability, memory, language, thinking, speech, reading
3. Psychosocial eg emotions eg aggression, loneliness, how we make friends, peer pressure
if family support us, impact of poverty, divorce parents working
Although these three domains are separated into different categories when we study the theory of
child development, however in practice they all have an influence on each other and are very
interrelated. Eg if you have a hearing problem (physical domain) and cannot read properly as a
result of poor hearing (cognitive domain) you will feel shy in class (psychosocial domain).
, 3
Child development studies also divided into different key developmental stages. See Table 1.1 on
page 11 and complete the table below…remember to think back to your own development or any
children you know of these ages if you answering exam questions and do not know the answer you
can probably work it out if you think back to what you were doing at that age.
STAGE AGE PHYSICAL COGNITIVE PSYCHOSOCIAL
Pre-natal and Conception – birth
conception
Infancy and 0–3
toddlerhood
Early 3-6
Childhood
Middle 6-11
childhood (remember this stage is
6 years compared to
the others that are
three years long and
remember we divided
this into 6-9 and 9-11
when we discussed this
stage in class)
Adolescence 11 - 20
As you work through the different chapters you will see that your textbook is divided into different
parts for each stage and then each stage is discussed and divided into three chapters for
each of these three different domains:
Infancy and toddlerhood:
Ch 6 = physical development
Ch 7 = cognitive development
Ch 8 = psychosocial development
Early childhood:
Ch 9 = physical development
Ch 10 = cognitive development
Ch 11 = psychosocial development
Middle Childhood:
Ch 12 = physical development
Ch 13 = cognitive development
Ch 14 = psychosocial development
Adolescence:
Ch 15 = physical development
Ch 16 = cognitive development
Ch 17 = psychosocial development
Influences on development:
There are three categories of things that influence development:
, 4
1. heredity = inborn influences and genetic traits inherited from biological parents
2. environment = totality of nonhereditary or experiential influences on development ( family,
socio-economic status, culture and ethnicity, historical context
3. maturation = unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioural changes,
including readiness to master new abilities eg you naturally grow taller, learn to walk , get
periods etc as you move through different stages
We are all unique because we have a unique combination of all these different influences.
Individual differences = differences among children in characteristics, influences or
developmental outcomes.
Examples of things that can have a big influence on us and make us different are:
Family: whether we grow up in nuclear family or extended family.
Socio-economic status: kind of home, flat, shack, house, mansion, safe secure neighborhood,
poor, rich, nutrition, education, parents working, parents educated to teach us
Culture – customs, traditions, values, language eg Sotho culture compared to American compared
to Italian culture compared to Afrikaans culture
Ethnicity = ancestry, race, religion, shared national origin
Historical context – if grew up in the sixties (free love hippies in USA, contraceptive pill invented
in the 1960’s so feminist revolution so women could have sex without worrying about falling
pregnant…but 1980’s HIV discovered so suddenly condoms and people encouraged to have one
partner form 1980’s), 1970’s and 1980’s in South Africa compared to growing up in the 90’s would
be big difference due to apartheid times etc or 1940’s = World war two, 9/11 in New York
Cohort = group of people who are born at the same time eg if you are the post-apartheid
babies.Mandela Generation if you were born from 1990 - 1995
Some influences are such that children are at risk of poor development eg poor nutrition due to
poverty could have negative outcome
Risk factors = conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome (eg
you don’t know 100% if will have negative outcome but there is an increased risk)
Ethnic gloss is when we make an overgeneralization about an ethnic or cultural group that
obscures differences within the group eg we say that all black people are good dancers but actually
“Oprah” can’t dance at all ( example of discrimination)
The timing of these influences is very important for example if something bad happens at a certain
time it could have very negative impact but if it happens later in your life not so bad.eg if you hit
your head on floor at two days old….very high risk for brain damage but if you hit your head on
floor at five years old not as bad.
Critical period = specific time when a given event or its absence has the greatest impact o
development
Because some scientists say that even biological development has shown plasticity = the
modifiability of performance (eg you can learn, develop it later or improve it later). They argue that
it would be better to call it a sensitive period rather than a critical period. However not all scientists
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