Child Psychopathology Study Guide Exam 1 Chapter 1 Competence The ability to adapt to one s environment Involves their performance relative to their same age peers as well as their individual course of development o Must take into account culture ethnicities minorities traditions beliefs languages etc Developmental pathway The sequence and timing of particular behaviors Highlights the known and suspected relationships of behaviors over time makes us look at development as an active dynamic process that can have very different beginnings and outcomes Multifinality and Equifinality Developmental tasks Psychosocial tasks of childhood that reflect broad domains of competence and tell us how children typically progress within each of these domains as they grow conduct academic achievement etc Equifinality Concept that similar outcomes may stem from different early experiences Multifinality Concept that various outcomes may stem from similar beginnings Nosologies The effects to classify psychiatric disorders into descriptive categories like the DSM they try to find common denominators that describe the manifestations of the disorder Protective factor Variable that precedes negative outcome of interest decreases the chances that the outcome will occur Psychological disorder Pattern of behavioral cognitive or physical symptoms that includes one or more of o Some degree of distress in the subject o Behavior indicating some degree of disability o An increased risk of suffering death pain disability or an important loss of freedom Resilience Ability to avoid negative outcomes despite being at risk for psychopathology o Associated with self confidence coping skills ability to avoid risk o Not universal fixed varies across time o Connected to protective triad strength of child school community family Risk factor Variable that precedes negative outcome of interest increases chances that the outcome will occur Chapter 1 Concepts 1 Historically how have conceptualizations of child psychopathology evolved a Early Greece children were seen as slaves of the state b Ancient Greek and Roman people with a disorder were seen as burden and should be scorned abandoned or put to death c The Church children s unusual behaviors were attributed to their inherently uncivilized nature possession of the devil or another evil force masturbatory insanity 17th and 18th centuries children were the exclusive property and responsibility of their parents d i MA Stubborn child act of 1654 can put a child to death for misbehaving ii Mid 1800s allowed children with severe developmental disabilities to be kept in cages and cellars 2 How did beliefs about children change e g social conscience and how did this relate to beliefs about child psychopathology and treatment a 17th century John Locke i Children should be raised with thought kindness education and care instead of indifference and harsh treatment children are emotionally sensitive beings b Early 19th century Jean Marc Itard i Helping children with developmental problems mental defectives focused on care treatment ii The wild boy of Aveyron showed that a special child can be treated through appropriate training and training of children c Late 19th century i Leta Hollingworth 1 Said problems were due to emotional and behavioral problems not innate 2 Led to a distinction between mental retardation and people with psychiatric or mental disorders ii Moral Insanity view nonintellectual forms of abnormal child behavior iii Organic Disease model more humane forms of treatment 1 Led by Dorothea Dix who established many mental health hospitals iv Mental Hygeine Movement Clifford Beers 1 Led to changing attitudes and beliefs about people with mental disorders v EARLY BIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTIONS 1 Treatment of infectious disease strengthened belief that diseases are biological problems 2 3 Belief that developmental disorders can t be treated or influenced by learning return to Interventions were limited to most visible disorders custodial care and punishment of behaviors led to fear of spreading diseases a Eugenics sterilization b Segregation institutionalization 4 Early biological explanations for abnormal behavior favored locating the cause of the problem within the individual led to simplistic or inaccurate beliefs about causes d Early 20th century i EARLY PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTIONS 1 Rooted in early 20th century formulating taxonomy of illnesses 2 Psychoanalytic theory a Linked mental disorders to childhood experiences and explored their development b Freud i Believed that children have inborn drives and predispositions that strongly affect development AND that experiences have STRONG role ii Emphasized that personality and mental health outcomes have many roots Equifinality iii Thought of children as in turmoil struggling to achieve biological needs 3 Behaviorism a Foundation for empirical study of how abnormal behavior develops and can be treated through conditioning b Pavlov Watson father of behaviorism little Albert 4 Early psychological approaches wanted to integrate basic knowledge of inborn processes with environmental conditions that shape behavior emotions and cognition Multifinality environment and genes ii 1940s Rene Spitz Children raised in institutions without adult physical contact severe physical and emotional problems 3 What techniques were used in early treatment efforts e g Itard Freud Itard Hot baths massages tickling emotional excitement electric shocks a b Freud Psychoanalytic treatments i Stressed resolution of internal conflicts and unconscious motives ii Thought that treatment for children with severe disturbances or mental retardation was ineffective inappropriate c Behavior therapy 1950s 1960s i Based on operant and classical conditioning ii Modify undesirable behaviors and shape adaptive abilities iii Focused initially on children with severe disturbances or mental retardation 4 How do we choose to define abnormal behavior in childhood a Defining i Must be sensitive to each child s stage of development adaption and development ii Consider each child s way of coping and compensating for difficulties iii Look at most probable cause of problems Ocaam s Razor parsimony iv Do the children accomplish normal developmental milestones 5 What issues complicate our definition a Many individual differences there s no cookie cutter developmental pattern context of environment family life social life genes all relate to abnormal behavior b Children are going