Class notes

PSY2013F Social and Developmental Psychology: Developmental Psychology Notes

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Course
PSY2013F (PSY2013F)

Institution
University Of Cape Town (UCT)

This document provides lecture notes on the following topics: • • Introduction to Developmental Psychology and its main theories • Genes, Environment and Development • Prenatal development and birth • Postnatal environment • Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory • The development ...

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Uploaded on June 5, 2023
Number of pages 67
Written in 2022/2023
Type Class notes
Professor(s) Lauren wild
Contains All classes

lecture notes

Institution
University of Cape Town (UCT)
Course
PSY2013F (PSY2013F)

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Covers the following topics:
 Introduction to Developmental
Psychology and its main theories
 Genes, Environment and
Development
 Prenatal development and birth
PSY2013F: DEVELOPMENTAL 

Postnatal environment
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
 The development of language
PSYCHOLOGY CLASS NOTES  The development of self-
understanding
 Social Cognition
 Moral Development
 Gender Development
 The Family
 Peer relationships
 Risk and resilience

, PSY2013F
Developmental Psychology:
Section 1: Understanding Human Development:
Section outline
 Introducing developmental psychology
 Developmental theories
 Doing developmental research
Lecture 1: Introducing Developmental Psychology:
Lecture outline
 What is development?
 Goals of studying development
 Central issues in developmental psychology
What is development?
 Systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between
conception and death
 Developmental psych uses scientific method to study development – not just
changes but also continuities
 Continuities – the ways that we stay the same, not just about how we change
Goals of studying human development:
 Description – describe development- what kinds of behaviours people show and how
these change
 Prediction – predict how they will change
 Explanation – why people change? Why some people different from others
 Optimisation – how to help people fulfil their potential and develop in best ways
possible
Central issues in developmental psychology:
 Nature and nurture
 Continuity and discontinuity
 Universal and context-specific development

1. Nature and Nurture

, - Sheep picture: Dolly was a sheep that was cloned - first mammal to be successfully
cloned from adult cell
Is development determined by:
 biological factors (heredity),- we inherit many of our psychological characteristics in
the same way that we inherit physical characteristics
 environmental factors (e.g., social influences, culture), or – influenced of our family,
schools, etc
 from nurture perspective: clone would look like me, but would be very different
because of different socialisation characteristics
 the equally important contributions of both?
Example: Bias in South African Developmental Psychology pre WW2:
 “African children only 50% as mentally efficient as whites …. Their schooling should
be designed to suit their mentality.” (Loram,1923) – black intelligence attributed to
nature, whereas poor white intelligence attributed to nurture
 “School under-achievement in poor white children is a result of poor nutrition and
education… improve access to education, and implement school feeding.” (Carnegie
Commission, 1932)
 Most developmental psychologists agree to both nature and nurture and look at the
interaction between the two.
2. Continuity and discontinuity
- how we describe developmental changes
(a) Are the changes we undergo over the life span:
 gradual and quantitative, - like steady gradual growth of tree
 abrupt, qualitative, and stage-like, or – like the ay a caterpillar changes int a butterfly
 sometimes gradual, and sometimes stage-like?
Example of continuous development:
- changing the amount of something that exists
- infants, school children, adults are just the same – just more complex versions of
each
- gradual slope – gradual change
- continuous development is like the growth of a plant – it happens gradually over
time

, Example of discontinuous development:
- totally different ways that new forms of info are brought about – completely
different from the previous stage
- an example of this is having gone through puberty – completely different from
previous stage – not just a degree/ amount of something
- changes in kind – makes individual different from how they were.
- change in stages – each stage being completely different
- series of steps

How have I changed since 10
- short hair- discontinuity – less shy – continuous – not in school - continuous
(b) Is early development:
 closely connected to later development, or
 largely unrelated to later behaviour?
3. Universal and context-specific development
Do different people:
 follow the same developmental path, or
 develop in unique ways?
Today’s lifespan perspective:

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