1 - Intro Flashcards
What are the rapid developmental changes seen in children compared to adults?
Children undergo rapid changes in:
* Emotions
* Language
* Relationships
* Cognitive functions
Adults experience developmental changes, but they occur at a slower rate compared to children.
Why are children considered a ‘moving target’ in terms of development?
Children are a ‘moving target’ because they exhibit different characteristics every time you see them, unlike adults who show more stability.
This variability is due to the rapid and dynamic nature of child development.
What is a significant dependency that children have in their development?
Children depend on adults for support and guidance.
This dependency can be beneficial when working with children, as it allows for structured learning and development.
True or False: Patterns of development are the same for every child.
False: Each child has unique developmental patterns, influenced by various factors
–> p.ex: the timing of when speaking begins is variable; there’s a window where we still call it normal development
What are the stages of normative development?
- Infancy
- Toddlerhood
- Preschoolers (3-5)
- School age (6-10)
- Preadolescence (11-12)
- Adolescence (13-17)
- Emerging adulthood (18-29)
What occurs during the first stage of normative development (infancy)?
- looks to grab attention, makes sounds as well – lots of reciprocity happening at that age
- emotionally: roller coaster ride
→ crying, happy, screaming, etc.
→ if we saw this level of emotional change in someone older than an infant, it would be concerning
What occurs during the second stage of normative development (toddlerhood)?
- walking, talking, lots of feelings, lots of tantrums
- need a lot of support from other people to regulate strong feelings
→ if we saw that many tantrums in someone a little bit older, we would consider it a psychopathology, it would be concerning -
social development: kids start to notice each other and have some interactions
→ making judgements about who to trust when given information, can differentiate between family and non-family
What occurs during the third stage of normative development (preschoolers)?
→ they go along with what adults say very often but also have wild imaginations and curiosity
→ they have immense trust for others
→ huge function development, ability to inhibit strong feelings starts to increase
→ being able to solve tasks where you would know what another person knows (perspective tasks)
→ this age span is very diverse though
What occurs during the fourth stage of normative development (school age)?
- lots of development, exploring hobbies, new friendships
→ developing schemas of what a good friend is, who is their best friend
→ start to have more intimate friendships with peers
→ peers are more important at the later end of this age range, BUT parents are still important (huge amount of support given) - learning a HUGE amount (reading, writing, math, etc.)
Within the school age stage, there can be a great variability between ages. How can psychologists make a comparison between age 6 and age 9?
- one way that psychologists assess people is with standardized tests of cognitive ability; a frequent one is the WISC
- different subtests to give; we then compare the child’s test score with the average for their age
→ p.ex: vocabulary: might ask a child what is a garage?
→ if a 9yo scored at the same score of an average 6yo (where you expect them to for their age), the 9yo would be considered to have a deficit and would be at the 2nd percentile for their age - digit span is another example of a test that looks at working memory
→ the average digit span score at age 6 is at the 5th percentile by age 9
→ if a 9yo got the same score as an average 6yo, they would be at the bottom 5% of 9yos
What occurs during the fifth stage of normative development (preadolescence)?
- puberty + explosion of cognitive abilities; able to consider things in more complex ways
→ relationships and social world becomes more complicated - appearance starts to matter a lot more, bodies continue to change
- distance from parents, relating and depending more to peers
- constantly doing things for the first time
- romantic interests start to emerge more at this age; starts to be integrated into the bodies as they become more sexually mature
- around this age and beyond, people are often more hesitant to answer “what are you the best at?”
→ lots of identity formation, hesitation, humility, etc.
What is the RCADS?
Self-report anxiety scale
Compare the average RCADS anxiety score at grade 3 vs at grade 11.
- the average RCADS anxiety score at grade 3 would be at the 81st percentile by grade 11
→ there’s a big difference in anxiety between these ages
What occurs during the sixth stage of normative development (adolescence)?
- puberty comes in a lot stronger now
- more intimacy and peer relationships, more emphasis on peers than adults
→ very easily influenced - more responsibilities, freedoms, independence
- thinking more about future (not in all cases), finalizing identity
→ they might not think of the potential complexities of their future because there’s lots of novelty to be experienced – it’s often important when working with adolescents to explain to them what the future might look like if they persist in certain behaviours - higher sensation seeking
→ if you feel a strong emotion and are trying to change it, sometimes people will induce vomiting because it might make them feel better after (not specific to adolescents but is seen here)
→ just because you know what the behaviour is, doesn’t mean you know the function of the behaviour
What occurs during the seventh stage of normative development (emerging adulthood)?
- exploring identities, deciding what values are, what to do for work
- on the road to becoming independent from parents
What are some factors influencing child psychopathology?
→ role of peers, biological factors, role of parents, etc.
→ any one individual, it’s tough to say what the main reason is
What does it mean when a behaviour is statistically uncommon when looking at abnormal behaviour?
- looking through standardized tests; if you score at the 98th percentile for a test on anxiety, then you have an anxiety disorder
- how common smt is is relevant, but it isn’t sufficient to determine if a behaviour is abnormal
What does it mean when a behaviour causes significant distress when looking at abnormal behaviour?
- if there’s a death in the family, this is a normative event that would cause significant distress that wouldn’t be abnormal
- academic stress, a medical emergency
- a lack of distress can also be concerning
→ the alarm system doesn’t go off when it should’ve
→ sometimes because of a lack of experience, you might not recognize that the experience requires a certain response of stress (you might not know it’s an emergency)
→ in disorders that have ego syntonic factors
___, ___, and ___ ___ are important in determining whether a behaviour, cognition, emotion, or physical symptom is abnormal.
Age, development and social situation
→ we have to take these factors in combination, they are inadequate judgements on their own
True or false: Abnormality is not dependent on cause.
True: according to the DSM which is atheoretical regarding etiology
What does it mean to say that the DSM is atheoretical?
The DSM contains ideas that are more psychoanalytic in their origin, but trying not to stick to only one theory for disorders
Differentiate multifinality from equifinality.
→ Multifinality: same cause, multiple final outcomes
→ Equifinality: different causes, same final outcome
Define etiology.
Factors that contribute to development of psychological disorder
→ Psychopathology researchers and clinicians use theories of etiology to help explain disorders and allow treatments to be rationally derived
→ etiology helps us see what might be maintaining a problem
Causes of disorders are ___ and ___
Multiple; obscure
