LEARNING UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY &

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Unit 1.1: Introduction to psychology

Unit 1.2: Introduction to basic concepts and principles in developmental psychology

ASU200T
By: Tshiamo Ramalepa
Date: February 2019
 UNIT 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY AND
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
What is Psychology?
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its

functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given
context.
 RELEVANCE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN NURSING
-The relevance of psychology in nursing - the mind and the body are interwoven, so
in order to treat a person's physical health, a person's mental health must also be
treated. Nursing training involves psychology training so that nurses can have a
foundation and a working knowledge of human behaviour.

-When nurses understand the basics of human behaviour, they are better able to
manage and treat their patients.

-Nurses need to be able to understand motives, attitudes, perceptions, personality

characteristics and emotional reactions from patients and be able to treat their
patient's emotional needs as well as their physical needs for optimal health.
 RELEVANCE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN NURSING
-Psychology is also needed to gain the trust of the patient. When patients trust nurses that are treating
them, they are more likely to be open with their symptoms and problems.

-Regardless of which field a nurse goes into, she will need to use psychology while practicing nursing.

-Psychology is relevant not only in physical health care, but also highly relevant in the field of mental health.

-Nurses working in mental health hospitals need the full knowledge of general, abnormal, clinical and
counselling psychology.

-Community health nurses and midwives have to recognize mental illness in the early stages and ensure
patients are put on appropriate treatment. They can also prevent mental illness by providing appropriate
guidance to deal with stress, anxiety and other life problems.
 MODELS OF HEALTH

-Biomedical model
-Biopsychosocial model
 MODELS OF HEALTH
BIOMEDICAL MODEL
This model assumes that all physical and mental illness is caused by biological and/or physical
disturbances.

eg. -genetic abnormalities, infection, physical diseases, injuries and biochemical malfunctions

-The physiological disturbances lead to a set of symptoms like tiredness or pain which a patient
can describe.

-As well as physiological signs which can be measured such as, blood pressure, temperature, pulse
and so on.

-This model has been successful in fighting diseases.

 MODELS OF HEALTH
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL
-This model takes a more holistic approach, focusing not only on the biological aspects or illness or
disease, but also on psychological and social aspects.

-Factors such as lifestyle, compliance with medical treatment, social support and ways of coping
with stress are all considered.

-Research has shown that there is a strong link between the body and emotions, thoughts and
feelings influence physical health.

Eg. People who are depressed are more likely to develop heart disease.
The holistic perspective to health and illness in reference to:

-Brain
-Nervous system
-Personality
-Stage of life
-Emotions and intellect
-Social relationships,
-Environment, etc.
PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE BRAIN
THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM
 OTHER BRAIN STRUCTURES
Cerebral cortex – The outer wrinkled-looking layer of tissue which covers the brain, it contains 7o%
of the neurons of the central nervous system.
-It is responsible for communication and language, creativity, thinking and social skills.
-It allows us to experience pain, touch and temperature and to perform voluntary muscular
movements.

The cerebrum – Has two large hemispheres which cover the upper part of the brain
- They are connected by a thick band of fibres called the corpus callosum.
-The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right side controls the left side.
THE BRAINSTEM
 CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHOLOGY
Group presentations/Debate (01/03/2019)

Explain one contemporary perspective in Psychology and DEBATE against other

perspectives in class.
Group 1: Psychoanalytic perspective (Freud)
Group 2: Behavioural perspective (Pavlov, Skinner & Bandura)
Group 3: Cognitive perspective (Piaget)
Group 4: Humanist perspective (Frank, Maslow, Rogers)
Group 5: Sociocultural perspective
Group 6: Community Psychological perspective
 UNIT 1.2 INTRODUCTION TO BASIC CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES
IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Objectives of learning unit 1.2:
•The concept of development psychology is discussed and its relevance to nursing
•Development psychology is discussed and debated with reference to:
- Stability vs chance
- The life-span perspective
- Nature vs nurture
- Continuity vs discontinuity
- Critical periods
- Normative and non-normative influences
The contexts within which development occurs are described
UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGY
 WHAT IS DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
•Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain growth, change and
consistency though the lifespan. Developmental psychology looks at how thinking, feeling, and
behavior change throughout a person’s life.
•Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on how people grow and
change over the course of a lifetime. Those who specialize in this field are not just concerned with
the physical changes that occur as people grow; they also look at the social, emotional, and
cognitive development that occurs throughout life.

- Significant proportion of theories within this discipline focus upon development during childhood,
as this is the period during an individual's lifespan when the most change occurs.
- Developmental psychologists study a wide range of theoretical areas, such as biological, social,
emotion, and cognitive processes.
 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
•People go through many changes over the course of their lives.
•Development describes the growth of humans throughout their lifespan, from conception to death.
Psychologists strive to understand and explain how and why people change throughout life.
•While many of these changes are normal and expected, they can still pose challenges that people
sometimes need extra assistance to manage.
 STABILITY VS CHANGE
Stability - implies personality traits present during present during infancy endure throughout
the lifespan.
Change - In contrast, change theorists argue that personalities are modified by
interactions with family, experiences at school, and acculturation.
•Earlier psychological theories suggested that personality was fundamentally shaped during the early
childhood years and remained the same thereafter.
•The modern approach in development psychology differs from this view that the first five years of
childhood influence people permanently.
•Children are no longer seen as passive recipients of environmental influences, but as active protagonist in
influencing and moderating these environmental factors.
•Although this debate has lost much of its importance since the arrival and dominance of the life-span
perspective.
THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
 THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
•The lifespan perspective is one the basic approaches of current developmental psychology.
 THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
•Lifespan can be defined as the period that extends from conception to death.
•Thus, lifespan development is a process that begins at conception and continuous to death. Lifespan
development can therefore be defined as a methodical, intra-individual transformation that is attributed to
progressions corresponding to age.
•The development advances in a way that implicates the level of functioning. As a child grows he exhibits
transformations that progresses with time. These may include physical growth, cognitive advancement, and
psychological advancement that may entail emotional and social development.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
•Development is a distinctive feature that largely varies from individual to individual.
• Life expectancy has been greatly boosted by progress made in nutrition, health and medical knowledge.
Development is life-long and thus is not dominated by any age period, it is multi-dimensional.
•This is because it is concerned with the biological, cognitive, socio-emotional and spiritual aspects.
Development can also be said to be multidirectional as some features of development increase while others
are decreasing.
•Another characteristic of development is that it is plastic. It is able to assume different paths depending on
the living conditions of an individual. It has the capacity to change. For example, the condition of a child
experiencing intellectual retardation may be reversed by the administration of proper diet and positive
experience.
 NATURE VS NURTURE
The debate between Nature vs Narture- Nature implies that our characteristics and abilities are mostly
determined by heredity (inborn characteristics), which is known as nativism or genetic determinism.
Nurture on the other hand implies that the environmental factors are predominant in development, which is
know as “environmental determinism”
 NATURE VS NURTURE
•The nature versus nurture debate involves the extent to which particular aspects of behavior are a product
of either inherited (i.e., genetic) or acquired (i.e., learned) influences.
•Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception, e.g., the product of
exposure, life experiences and learning on an individual.
•The nature-nurture debate is concerned with the relative contribution that both influences make to human
behavior, such as personality, cognitive traits, temperament and psychopathology.
 NATURE VS NURTURE
Nature - It has long been known that certain physical characteristics are biologically determined by genetic
inheritance. Color of eyes, straight or curly hair, pigmentation of the skin and certain diseases (such as
Huntingdon’s chorea) are all a function of the genes we inherit.
- These facts have led many to speculate as to whether psychological characteristics such as behavioral
tendencies, personality attributes, and mental abilities are also “wired in” before we are even born.

Nurture - Their basic assumption is that at birth the human mind is a tabula rasa (a blank slate) and that
this is gradually “filled” as a result of experience.
- From this point of view, psychological characteristics and behavioral differences that emerge through
infancy and childhood are the results of learning.
- It is how you are brought up (nurture) that governs the psychologically significant aspects of child
development and the concept of maturation applies only to the biological.
 EXAMPLES OF NATURE VS NURTURE
•A few examples of biologically determined characteristics (nature) include certain genetic diseases, eye
color, hair color, and skin color. Other things like life expectancy and height have a strong biological
component, but they are also influenced by environmental factors and lifestyle

a) When a person achieves tremendous academic success, did they do so because they are genetically
predisposed to be successful or is it a result of an enriched environment?
https://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html

b)If a man abuses his wife and kids, is it because he was born with violent tendencies or is it something he
learned by observing his own parent's behavior?
 CONTINUITY VS DISCONTINUITY
Is human development a gradual and continuous process in which individuals build on previously
acquired knowledge and skills or is it a discontinuous process, involving a series of discrete stages
in which new knowledge and behaviours emerge abruptly?
 CONTINUITY VS DISCONTINUITY
•Think about how children become adults. Is there a predictable pattern they follow regarding thought and
language and social development? Do children go through gradual changes or are they abrupt changes?
•Normative development is typically viewed as a continual and cumulative process.

The continuity view says that change is gradual. Children become more skillful in thinking, talking or acting
much the same way as they get taller.
- Children stay on the same path throughout development

The discontinuity view - sees development as more abrupt-a succession of changes that produce different
behaviors in different age-specific life periods called stages. Biological changes provide the potential for
these changes.
- Children can change paths at any point in development is not completely rigid, nor completely flexible.
 CONTINUITY VS DISCONTINUITY
•We often hear people taking about children going through “stages” in life (i.e. “sensori-motor stage.”).
These are called developmental stages-periods of life initiated by distinct transitions in physical or
psychological functioning.
•Psychologists of the discontinuity view believe that people go through the same stages, in the same order,
but not necessarily at the same rate.
 CRITICAL PERIODS
•A critical period is specific time during development when a given event has its greatest impact.
•Critical and sensitive periods are times when development of a particular area may be most influenced by
environmental factors.
 CRITICAL PERIODS
•critical periods are relatively brief and discrete times when particular experiences have irreversible effects
regardless of subsequent experience.
•Effects may be due to the absence of normal, or presence of abnormal, experience. They have been
applied to numerous areas of human development, including socialization, personality, language, and
cognition.
•The concept is closely related to claims that early experience, as opposed to merely prior experience, has
lasting impact on the organism. Critical/sensitive periods are often viewed as “windows of opportunity.”
Only when the windows are open can environmental factors influence development.
• For example Lenneberg proposed a critical period, before puberty – for language development.
•Some ethologists believe that the first three years of life are the critical period for the development of
emotional and social responsiveness in humans.
•The concept of the critical period expresses the crucial nature of timing, and specifies a timespan when and
only when a particular environmental factor can have an effect.
 CRITICAL PERIODS
•Although evidence for critical periods of physical development is undeniable, for other aspects of human
development, the concept seems less relevant.
•While the human organism may be particularly sensitive to certain psychological experiences at certain
times of life, later events can often reverse the effects of early ones.
•What may be more important is the concept of “readiness”, of the point at which an individual can be said
to have matured sufficiently to be capable of a particular behavior.

•Eg. Some 11 year old children are obviously in the concrete operational stage of development, as evidence
by their thinking, while other children of the same age may have matured cognitively to a point where they
are “ready” to understand and use the qualities of thinking that define the formal operational stage of
development.
 NORMATIVE AND NON-NORMATIVE INFLUENCES
Normative - An event is normative when it occurs is a similar way for most people in a given group.
Non-normative – Non-normative life events are unusual events that have a major impact on individual lives.
 NORMATIVE AND NON-NORMATIVE INFLUENCES
Normative influences
Normative History-Graded Influences
•The impact of these events on the individual varies depending on the age at which they are experienced.
Examples: depressions, wars, natural disasters, famines, droughts, acts of terrorism, riots, assassination of a
national leader.
Non-normative influences
Non Normative Life Events
•Experiences that most people do not have, but if they do they have a profound impact on them.
Examples: the death of a parent when a child is young, life-threatening illnesses, birth defects, job
promotion, divorce, loss of employment, early widowhood, study abroad, something joyous or adventurous.
 NORMATIVE AND NON-NORMATIVE INFLUENCES
Context of influence

•Urie Bronfenbrenner identifies 4 different levels of environmental influence, extending from the most
intimate environment to the most global. Thus, to understand individual development, we must understand
each person within the context of multiple environments.
-Micro-system
-Meso-system
-Exo-system
-Macro-system
-The Chrono-system
 NORMATIVE AND NON-NORMATIVE INFLUENCES
Context of influence
•Micro-system is the everyday environment to home, school, or work, including relationships with parents,
sibling, caregivers, classmates and teachers.
•Meso-system is the interlocking of various systems a person is involved with – the linkages between home
and school, home and work, work and community.
•Exo-system is to the larger environment of institutions, like school, church, media, and government agencies.
•Macro-system is the overarching cultural patterns of government, religion, education, and the economy.
•The Chrono-system adds the dimension of time. The influence of normative or non-normative change or
constancy in the person and the environment.
Examples include: Changes in family structure, place of residence, employment, or economic cycles.
 THE CONTEXT WITH WHICH DEVELOPMENT OCCURS
The contextual approach holds that development must be understood in terms of the total setting or context
in which it occurs. Behavior cannot be understood outside of contexts. The individual cannot be understood in
isolation from her or his environment, and development must be seen as a dynamic and changing process in
which the individual and the environment continuously interact.
 THE CONTEXT WITH WHICH DEVELOPMENT OCCURS
-Biological context: Health and physical status
-Social context: Family network, friends, peers and colleagues
-Cultural context: The dominant culture in which the subject grows up
-Historical context: The times in which the subject grows up
-Economic context: The subject’s financial and work environment
-Intellectual context: The subject’s ability to deal with new challenges

Thank you