2023

PSY211: Lecture 10
Social development
(Chapter 5 pp. 278 - 352)
 Self study
Dear PSY211 students, these slides are meant to guide you on key concepts that
you should familiarize yourself with. This is a very dense chapter. Please take
your time to familiarize yourself with the key concepts mentioned in the slides. I
will then present narrated slides for Lecture 11 where we can go a bit more in
depth of some of these concepts and add relatable examples for the sake of
clarity.
All the best,
Anton
 Key areas to focus
• What does social development refer to?
• In which context does social development typically occur and what influences
it?
• What is the characteristics of adult interpersonal development?
• Define intimacy and how does it develop and what is the implications of not
meeting this developmental task?
• Why is intimacy difficult to establish during early adulthood?
• What is genital relationship – what is the implications of this?
 Key areas to focus
• Describe the concept of love.
• What is believed to influence ‘love’?
• Does love have a biological component?
• What is the biochemical response of/to love?
• Understand Sternberg’s triangular model of love, i.e. passion, and intimacy,
commitment.
• Types of love.
• The equity theory.
• The assortative mating theory.
 Key areas to focus
• Attachment theory, define, including internal working models.
• Four different attachment relationships.
• The research findings by Peterson, 2006 regarding adults in securely attached
relationships.
• Criticisms of attachment theory.
• Social networks, define, including pros and cons.
• The social convoy model – understand it.
• The social exchange theory – understand it i.e. reciprocity (direct, indirect, generalized).
• Impact of reciprocity on a relationship.
 Key areas to focus
• Socio-emotional selectivity theory – two main goals.
• Social capital theory – what is the main tenet(s).
• Social networks in South Arica – short read.
• Social networks in cyberspace – interesting read, see if you can identify with what is
said – how has this changed?
• Lifestyle choices – define.
• Understand the different concepts around marriage - nderstand law/constitution around
same-sex marriages in South Africa.
• Read (a) status of marriage in South Africa and (b) marriage trends in South Africa, (c)
the effects of marriage on adult development, (d) marital satisfaction, (e) divorce, (f)
remarriage, (g) widowhood.
 Key areas to focus
• Advantages and benefits of being married.
• Criticism to the advantages and benefits of being married.
• Seven types of marital relationships
• Factors that promote successful marriage
• Upswing hypothesis of marital satisfaction
• Communications styles
• Factors that influence divorce probability
• Interesting, read Box 5.8 on young black people’s perception of divorce
• Consequences of divorce or the divorsees
• Factors influencing adjusting to divorce
 Key areas to focus
• Stages in adjustment to divorce
• Resilience factors related to remarriage
• Read through cohabitation, singlehood.
• Family lifestyles and relationships – understand the family, types of family etc.
• Read through the psycho-social and biological functions of the family system
• Characteristics/qualities of psychologically in healthy families
• Characteristics/qualities of psychologically in dysfunctional families
 Key areas to focus
• Define parenthood – what are the different forms of parenthood and parenting?
• KNOW authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, permissive parenting, and
uninvolved parenting styles.
• Variations of parenting in the South African context
• Read through adoptive and foster parents
• Interesting section around adoption according to race – understand the reasons for this
phenomenon
• Understand interracial/transracial/cross-racial adoption.
 For next week
• We will discuss to topics highlighted for your self-study.
• Attend tutorials and answer worksheets.
• Please reach out if things are starting to get unclear, we are
now moving towards exam material.
• Have a good week!