Chapter 1: Basic
Concepts of Child
and Adolescent
Development
Developmental Psychology A Study Notes
Session 1
Louw, D. A. & Louw, A. E. (2022). Child and adolescent development (3rd
ed. Ch. 1). Psychology Publications.
1.1 Orientation
The chapter opens with two real-life case studies that frame the field's central question:
1. Is a person's development driven mainly by nature (inborn characteristics) or nurture (the
environment), or by an interaction of both
2. Does the answer change across different behaviours and developmental stages?
Case study: The Wild Boy of KwaZulu-Natal
In the 1980s, a boy of about five was found living with wild monkeys in KwaZulu-Natal,
apparently abandoned in infancy and raised among them; he raided villages for food with the
troop.
Captured with police help and taken to a school for the disabled, he was named “Saturday
Mthiyane” (Saturday = the day he was caught; Mthiyane = the school's founder).
For years he remained non-verbal, moved and behaved in monkey-like ways, preferred raw
meat and vegetables, disliked clothing and blankets, and reacted with aggression when
prevented from meeting his needs.
He died in October 2005 (about age 17), along with three others, when the orphanage where
he lived caught fire (it had no electricity) (Hlongwa, 1997; Hlonga, 2005; Okonofua, 2005).
Case study: The Boy who Became a Girl (the “John/Joan” case)
In the mid-1960s in Canada, eight-month-old David Reimer's circumcision was botched
during a routine procedure, and on medical advice his parents raised him as a girl (“Brenda”),
with surgery at 21 months to create female genitalia and encouragement toward girl-typical
play; his twin brother was raised typically as a boy.
At school other children were cruel to her, and she experienced deep, unexplained distress; by
age 13 she was considering suicide. The truth was then revealed to her, and she resumed a
male identity, later undergoing reconstructive surgery, marrying, and becoming a stepfather.
In 2004, at age 38, David died by suicide (his twin brother, who had schizophrenia, had also
died by suicide two years earlier). At his funeral his mother called him “the most generous,
, loving soul who ever lived” and “a worldwide hero.”
Both cases sit squarely within child psychology: they raise questions about nature versus nurture,
about which behaviours are more nature- or nurture-driven, about whether the timing
(developmental stage) of an influence matters, and about which factors help or harm a child's
development. The rest of the chapter lays the groundwork for exploring these questions: the goals
of child psychology, a historical overview of attitudes to children, developmental stages and
domains, key developmental debates, major theories, and research methods.
Box 1.1 — The Child Population in South Africa (Hall, 2019; Stats SA, 2020)
• South Africa's total population is roughly 60 million; about 20 million (roughly a third) are
children under 18.
• Children are concentrated more heavily in provinces with large rural populations, such as
KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and Limpopo.
• Children are fairly evenly spread across ages (just over 1 million per age-year under 18), and
the gender split is roughly equal.
• By the (politically used) racial categories: 85% of children are Black, 8% Coloured, 5%
White, 2% Indian.
1.2 The Goals of Child Psychology
Child psychology's goals mirror the goals of general psychology. Four goals, each illustrated with
the chapter's own examples:
Describe:
the typical changes occurring from conception to about age 18 (e.g., how the unborn child
develops; how 2-, 7-, 12- and 16-year-olds differ; how sexuality develops through puberty
and adolescence).
Explain:
the causes of developmental changes (e.g., what influences prenatal development; what
causes delays in language or cognitive development; how peer pressure and bullying
affect self-image).
Predict:
future behaviour from past and present characteristics (e.g., effects of prenatal
alcohol/smoking; whether early walking predicts athletic ability; whether an aggressive
infant becomes an aggressive teenager).
Improve well-being:
using research findings to make positive changes or prevent problems — e.g., warning
pregnant women about environmental risks, teaching teachers about bullying's effects, or
educating parents about the effects of harsh punishment.
, 1.3 Views on Children: An Historical Overview
Ancient cultures
Children were widely regarded as parental property, so mistreatment carried no
consequences for parents;
infanticide (deliberately killing infants) was common and often unpunished, especially of
girls and twins.
The earliest reliable African evidence of infanticide comes from Egypt, though archaeological
evidence spans the continent;
in South Africa, infanticide is documented back roughly 5,000 years (Pfeiffer et al., 2004),
and was recorded officially from the 1650s onward (e.g., an enslaved woman was
executed in Cape Town in 1669 for killing her child).
The Middle Ages (± 500–1500 AD)
The concept of “childhood” was largely absent:
from about age three or four, children were treated as “miniature adults” given increasing
chores and responsibilities (reflected in period European paintings showing children
dressed and occupied like adults)
The 17th century onward: a shift begins, but slowly
British philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) argued that a child's environment shapes who
they become, famously describing the child's mind as a tabula rasa (“blank slate”) on which
experience writes (Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021).
The shift in attitude was limited in practice:
the growth of the European factory system created demand for cheap labour, and
children effectively became machine-slaves;
under-5 mortality exceeded 50% due to disease and infection, and abandonment
remained a major problem.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Comparable hardships are indicated for sub-Saharan Africa, though less is documented in
writing (Diptee et al., 2010; South African History Online, 2020).
Slavery is one of the oldest and most persistent atrocities against children:
capture during inter-tribal raids/wars and trafficking were common;
the slave trade peaked in the 15th–17th centuries (mainly shipping people to the USA)
and, though officially abolished in most countries by the late 19th century, continues
today — an estimated 10 million people are in “modern slavery,” about 25% of them
children, most prevalent in Africa, then Asia and the Pacific (International Labour
Organization and Walk Free Foundation, 2017).
The 20th century
Children were still largely seen as property;
Concepts of Child
and Adolescent
Development
Developmental Psychology A Study Notes
Session 1
Louw, D. A. & Louw, A. E. (2022). Child and adolescent development (3rd
ed. Ch. 1). Psychology Publications.
1.1 Orientation
The chapter opens with two real-life case studies that frame the field's central question:
1. Is a person's development driven mainly by nature (inborn characteristics) or nurture (the
environment), or by an interaction of both
2. Does the answer change across different behaviours and developmental stages?
Case study: The Wild Boy of KwaZulu-Natal
In the 1980s, a boy of about five was found living with wild monkeys in KwaZulu-Natal,
apparently abandoned in infancy and raised among them; he raided villages for food with the
troop.
Captured with police help and taken to a school for the disabled, he was named “Saturday
Mthiyane” (Saturday = the day he was caught; Mthiyane = the school's founder).
For years he remained non-verbal, moved and behaved in monkey-like ways, preferred raw
meat and vegetables, disliked clothing and blankets, and reacted with aggression when
prevented from meeting his needs.
He died in October 2005 (about age 17), along with three others, when the orphanage where
he lived caught fire (it had no electricity) (Hlongwa, 1997; Hlonga, 2005; Okonofua, 2005).
Case study: The Boy who Became a Girl (the “John/Joan” case)
In the mid-1960s in Canada, eight-month-old David Reimer's circumcision was botched
during a routine procedure, and on medical advice his parents raised him as a girl (“Brenda”),
with surgery at 21 months to create female genitalia and encouragement toward girl-typical
play; his twin brother was raised typically as a boy.
At school other children were cruel to her, and she experienced deep, unexplained distress; by
age 13 she was considering suicide. The truth was then revealed to her, and she resumed a
male identity, later undergoing reconstructive surgery, marrying, and becoming a stepfather.
In 2004, at age 38, David died by suicide (his twin brother, who had schizophrenia, had also
died by suicide two years earlier). At his funeral his mother called him “the most generous,
, loving soul who ever lived” and “a worldwide hero.”
Both cases sit squarely within child psychology: they raise questions about nature versus nurture,
about which behaviours are more nature- or nurture-driven, about whether the timing
(developmental stage) of an influence matters, and about which factors help or harm a child's
development. The rest of the chapter lays the groundwork for exploring these questions: the goals
of child psychology, a historical overview of attitudes to children, developmental stages and
domains, key developmental debates, major theories, and research methods.
Box 1.1 — The Child Population in South Africa (Hall, 2019; Stats SA, 2020)
• South Africa's total population is roughly 60 million; about 20 million (roughly a third) are
children under 18.
• Children are concentrated more heavily in provinces with large rural populations, such as
KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and Limpopo.
• Children are fairly evenly spread across ages (just over 1 million per age-year under 18), and
the gender split is roughly equal.
• By the (politically used) racial categories: 85% of children are Black, 8% Coloured, 5%
White, 2% Indian.
1.2 The Goals of Child Psychology
Child psychology's goals mirror the goals of general psychology. Four goals, each illustrated with
the chapter's own examples:
Describe:
the typical changes occurring from conception to about age 18 (e.g., how the unborn child
develops; how 2-, 7-, 12- and 16-year-olds differ; how sexuality develops through puberty
and adolescence).
Explain:
the causes of developmental changes (e.g., what influences prenatal development; what
causes delays in language or cognitive development; how peer pressure and bullying
affect self-image).
Predict:
future behaviour from past and present characteristics (e.g., effects of prenatal
alcohol/smoking; whether early walking predicts athletic ability; whether an aggressive
infant becomes an aggressive teenager).
Improve well-being:
using research findings to make positive changes or prevent problems — e.g., warning
pregnant women about environmental risks, teaching teachers about bullying's effects, or
educating parents about the effects of harsh punishment.
, 1.3 Views on Children: An Historical Overview
Ancient cultures
Children were widely regarded as parental property, so mistreatment carried no
consequences for parents;
infanticide (deliberately killing infants) was common and often unpunished, especially of
girls and twins.
The earliest reliable African evidence of infanticide comes from Egypt, though archaeological
evidence spans the continent;
in South Africa, infanticide is documented back roughly 5,000 years (Pfeiffer et al., 2004),
and was recorded officially from the 1650s onward (e.g., an enslaved woman was
executed in Cape Town in 1669 for killing her child).
The Middle Ages (± 500–1500 AD)
The concept of “childhood” was largely absent:
from about age three or four, children were treated as “miniature adults” given increasing
chores and responsibilities (reflected in period European paintings showing children
dressed and occupied like adults)
The 17th century onward: a shift begins, but slowly
British philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) argued that a child's environment shapes who
they become, famously describing the child's mind as a tabula rasa (“blank slate”) on which
experience writes (Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021).
The shift in attitude was limited in practice:
the growth of the European factory system created demand for cheap labour, and
children effectively became machine-slaves;
under-5 mortality exceeded 50% due to disease and infection, and abandonment
remained a major problem.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Comparable hardships are indicated for sub-Saharan Africa, though less is documented in
writing (Diptee et al., 2010; South African History Online, 2020).
Slavery is one of the oldest and most persistent atrocities against children:
capture during inter-tribal raids/wars and trafficking were common;
the slave trade peaked in the 15th–17th centuries (mainly shipping people to the USA)
and, though officially abolished in most countries by the late 19th century, continues
today — an estimated 10 million people are in “modern slavery,” about 25% of them
children, most prevalent in Africa, then Asia and the Pacific (International Labour
Organization and Walk Free Foundation, 2017).
The 20th century
Children were still largely seen as property;
