All Rights Reserved.
This work has been summarised from the prescribed readings for PSY2013F
Developmental Psychology.
It includes notes taken based on lecture slides from relevant topic lecturers, all of
whom are named in the appropriate section. These notes are elaborations based on
the author’s own understanding.
This document, including all content and materials contained within, is the
intellectual property of Arièlle Denis, with thanks to Kayla Paul for her
contributions on the reading notes and further summaries.
No part of these notes may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or
mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in
the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
non-commercial uses permitted by the copyright law.
For permission requests, please contact the author at
© 2026 Arièlle Denis,
University of Cape Town. All rights reserved.
, (SOCIAL &) DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSY2013F | Semester 1
Understanding Human Development | The study of human development (Kail,
Cavanaugh and Muller, 2019:2-35)
by Associate Professor Lauren Wild
→ Development: The systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between
conception and death.
Goals of Studying Human Development:
● Description
● Prediction
● Explanation (and comparison)
● Optimisation (to improve, prevent and overcome difficulties)
3 Themes of Development
1. Nature VS Nurture
Is development determined by biological factors (heredity) or environmental factors (social
influence and culture)? Or, do these factors contribute to development equally?
Relative contributions of BOTH of these factors affect child practices.
CONTEXT: Prior to World War II, there was immense bias in South African developmental
psychology, “finding” that African children were 50% as intelligent as white children, and
therefore schooling was designed to fit their mentality in 1923. YET: Poor white children
under-achieved due to poor nutrition and education, and their access to schooling and school
feeding was improved in 1932.
2. Continuity VS Discontinuity
→ Continuity: Changes undergone over an individual’s lifespan
● Are they gradual (quantitative) or abrupt (qualitative) or sometimes one, sometimes the
other?
→ Discontinuous development: Totally new ways of understanding appear at different times in
development. The “stages” of life each differ immensely and individuals “jump” to each stage
suddenly.
● Is early development closely connected to later development OR are they largely
unrelated?
EXAMPLES (often not just either/or!)
● Long hair → Short hair is DISCONTINUOUS development
● Reading a lot → Reading very little is CONTINUOUS development
, 3. Universal VS Context-specific
Do different people follow the same developmental path or do they do so in unique ways?
As a stage theorist, Piaget believed all the stages of development were “universal”, but we know
these differ according to the individual’s social context!
NOTE: Epigenetics may also play a role here, where “nature” refers to the genotype and
“nurture” refers to the experiences and expression of an individual’s genes.
LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE
Assumptions:
● Development is lifelong
● Development is multiply influenced
● Understanding development requires multiple disciplines
● Development is multidirectional, with both gains and losses, and plastic, meaning it can
change at any time, with new experiences possible whenever
● Development is embedded in multiple contexts
NOTE: WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic) countries maintain the
application of much of developmental psychology’s theories!
Research by African scholars trying to understand African children on their own terms is limited.
Culture is also not the only thing that matters – it is curious to apply generalisability while also
struggling with limited WEIRD application. Research, and its findings and application, can only
become GLOBAL if not dominated by a singular culture.
DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES
→ An organised set of ideas designed to explain and make predictions about development.
1. Psychodynamic perspective
Children move through a series of stages in which they experience conflicts between their
biological drives and social expectations e.g. Freud’s five psychosexual stages & Erikson’s eight
psychosocial stages.
These theories are no longer widely accepted but they have contributed important ideas about the
development from infancy to adulthood.
2. Learning theory
Developmental change is mainly caused by the environment, and shaped by learning and
conditioning by parents, friends, and other individuals.
e.g. Behaviourism – classical conditioning based on learning and experience (John Watson) and
operant conditioning based on consequences of a behaviour through reinforcement and
punishment (BF Skinner)
, ● Frequency of behaviour can be increased by reinforcement, punishment decreases
frequency.
● Positive reinforcement = addition of pleasant thing
● Negative reinforcement = removal of unpleasant thing
● Positive punishment = addition of unpleasant
● Negative punishment = removal/withholding pleasant thing
● Reinforcement results in quicker & longer-lasting learning
e.g. Social Learning Theory (Alfred Bandura) – observational learning/modelling,
self-efficacy/belief about one’s own ability, which helps determine when people will imitate
other
BUT perhaps not having enough emphasis on biological contributions
3. Cognitive-developmental perspective
→ Cognition: The activity of knowing, which involves thinking, remembering and learning
among other processes.
e.g. Constructivism (Piaget)
Stages of cognitive development:
Cognitive processes:
→ Assimilation: New information is understood in terms of existing schemas.
→ Accommodation: Existing schemas are changed or new schemas are developed in response to
new information.
Both of these processes allow movement from disequilibrium into equilibrium!
Critiques:
● Underestimates the abilities of infants
● Does not emphasise sociocultural context
● Does not focus on attention or memory
This work has been summarised from the prescribed readings for PSY2013F
Developmental Psychology.
It includes notes taken based on lecture slides from relevant topic lecturers, all of
whom are named in the appropriate section. These notes are elaborations based on
the author’s own understanding.
This document, including all content and materials contained within, is the
intellectual property of Arièlle Denis, with thanks to Kayla Paul for her
contributions on the reading notes and further summaries.
No part of these notes may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or
mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in
the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
non-commercial uses permitted by the copyright law.
For permission requests, please contact the author at
© 2026 Arièlle Denis,
University of Cape Town. All rights reserved.
, (SOCIAL &) DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSY2013F | Semester 1
Understanding Human Development | The study of human development (Kail,
Cavanaugh and Muller, 2019:2-35)
by Associate Professor Lauren Wild
→ Development: The systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between
conception and death.
Goals of Studying Human Development:
● Description
● Prediction
● Explanation (and comparison)
● Optimisation (to improve, prevent and overcome difficulties)
3 Themes of Development
1. Nature VS Nurture
Is development determined by biological factors (heredity) or environmental factors (social
influence and culture)? Or, do these factors contribute to development equally?
Relative contributions of BOTH of these factors affect child practices.
CONTEXT: Prior to World War II, there was immense bias in South African developmental
psychology, “finding” that African children were 50% as intelligent as white children, and
therefore schooling was designed to fit their mentality in 1923. YET: Poor white children
under-achieved due to poor nutrition and education, and their access to schooling and school
feeding was improved in 1932.
2. Continuity VS Discontinuity
→ Continuity: Changes undergone over an individual’s lifespan
● Are they gradual (quantitative) or abrupt (qualitative) or sometimes one, sometimes the
other?
→ Discontinuous development: Totally new ways of understanding appear at different times in
development. The “stages” of life each differ immensely and individuals “jump” to each stage
suddenly.
● Is early development closely connected to later development OR are they largely
unrelated?
EXAMPLES (often not just either/or!)
● Long hair → Short hair is DISCONTINUOUS development
● Reading a lot → Reading very little is CONTINUOUS development
, 3. Universal VS Context-specific
Do different people follow the same developmental path or do they do so in unique ways?
As a stage theorist, Piaget believed all the stages of development were “universal”, but we know
these differ according to the individual’s social context!
NOTE: Epigenetics may also play a role here, where “nature” refers to the genotype and
“nurture” refers to the experiences and expression of an individual’s genes.
LIFESPAN PERSPECTIVE
Assumptions:
● Development is lifelong
● Development is multiply influenced
● Understanding development requires multiple disciplines
● Development is multidirectional, with both gains and losses, and plastic, meaning it can
change at any time, with new experiences possible whenever
● Development is embedded in multiple contexts
NOTE: WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic) countries maintain the
application of much of developmental psychology’s theories!
Research by African scholars trying to understand African children on their own terms is limited.
Culture is also not the only thing that matters – it is curious to apply generalisability while also
struggling with limited WEIRD application. Research, and its findings and application, can only
become GLOBAL if not dominated by a singular culture.
DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES
→ An organised set of ideas designed to explain and make predictions about development.
1. Psychodynamic perspective
Children move through a series of stages in which they experience conflicts between their
biological drives and social expectations e.g. Freud’s five psychosexual stages & Erikson’s eight
psychosocial stages.
These theories are no longer widely accepted but they have contributed important ideas about the
development from infancy to adulthood.
2. Learning theory
Developmental change is mainly caused by the environment, and shaped by learning and
conditioning by parents, friends, and other individuals.
e.g. Behaviourism – classical conditioning based on learning and experience (John Watson) and
operant conditioning based on consequences of a behaviour through reinforcement and
punishment (BF Skinner)
, ● Frequency of behaviour can be increased by reinforcement, punishment decreases
frequency.
● Positive reinforcement = addition of pleasant thing
● Negative reinforcement = removal of unpleasant thing
● Positive punishment = addition of unpleasant
● Negative punishment = removal/withholding pleasant thing
● Reinforcement results in quicker & longer-lasting learning
e.g. Social Learning Theory (Alfred Bandura) – observational learning/modelling,
self-efficacy/belief about one’s own ability, which helps determine when people will imitate
other
BUT perhaps not having enough emphasis on biological contributions
3. Cognitive-developmental perspective
→ Cognition: The activity of knowing, which involves thinking, remembering and learning
among other processes.
e.g. Constructivism (Piaget)
Stages of cognitive development:
Cognitive processes:
→ Assimilation: New information is understood in terms of existing schemas.
→ Accommodation: Existing schemas are changed or new schemas are developed in response to
new information.
Both of these processes allow movement from disequilibrium into equilibrium!
Critiques:
● Underestimates the abilities of infants
● Does not emphasise sociocultural context
● Does not focus on attention or memory
