Abnormal Child Psychology 3 Flashcards
What are some Potential Behavioral outcomes to early exposure of stress?
Emotion regulation difficulties and future psychopathology
What are some Biological outcomes to early exposure of stress?
Volumetric differences in the amygdala, hippocampus, and Prefrontal cortex
The severity of early exposure to toxic stress is dependent on what variables?
- Timing of the stress during development
- Length of exposure
- Intensity of the stress
- The child’s biological constitution
- Supports in the environment/Parents
How do emotionally regulated Parents Buffer Stress Responses in Children?
In the presence of maternal stimuli, children’s connectivity was more mature, resembling adolescents’ connectivity.
How do emotionally unregulated Parents Buffer Stress Responses in Children?
In the absence of maternal stimuli, children exhibited immature amygdala-prefrontal connectivity.
Childhood poverty increases the chances that a child is…
- Less likely to earn a high school diploma or GED
- Significantly at risk for low SES
- Less likely to be working as a young adult
True or False: Children age 7-12 from families with income below the PL scored lower on measures of prefrontal functioning, especially with respect to working memory, visual attention, and language, compared to children from middle-income homes
True
What is Heritability?
Likelihood that you inherit
a trait from your parents
What is Behavioral Genetics?
- How genes and environment produce
behavioral outcomes. - Researchers investigate the magnitude of influence each have in a variety of behaviors
True or False: Aggressive and antisocial behavior in
humans is universal and Runs in families within and across generations
True
What are some statistics on Adoption and twin studies?
- Indicate 50% or more of variance in antisocial
behavior is hereditary - Suggest contribution of genetic and
environmental factors
What is Gene -Environment Correlation?
Occurs when there are genetically influenced differences in exposure to environmental risk factors.
What are the 3 types of Gene -Environment Correlation?
- Passive
- Active
- Evocative
What is Passive Gene -Environment Correlation?
Child passively inherit the genes AND are exposed to the environment their parent/s provide.
What is Active Gene -Environment Correlation?
Child selects environments based on genetically influenced traits. Niche picking.
What is Evocative Gene -Environment Correlation?
Genetically influenced traits evoke environmental responses from others.
What are Emotional Influences?
The role of emotions in establishing an infant’s ability to adapt to new environments.
What are emotions and affective expression core elements of?
The human psychological experiences
Emotions tell us what to pay attention to, what to avoid, and are powered by what?
stress regulating hormones and our amygdala
What is Emotion regulation?
Enhancing, maintaining or inhibiting emotional arousal for a specific purpose or goal.
What are some facts about Emotion regulation?
- Develops over long period of time.
- Early experiences have a great deal of influence. (Nurture)
- Shaped by the early experiences of the child.
How do Personality Disorders affect Emotion Regulation?
- A hypersensitivity to threat and a negative bias in social situations and interpersonal appraisals.
- Hyposensitivity to positive social cues that signal a willingness to affiliate.
What is the role of the Amygdala
Responds to threats in the environment
What is the role of the PFC?
Helps regulate overarousal of the amygdala
What are some facts about the Amygdala and PFC?
- strongly connected to one another
- The younger the child, the more reactive the amygdala in fearful situations.
- Very sensitive about learning about threat in the environment.
- Doesn’t have the PFC to attenuate its response.
- Not a regulatory relationship.
- The PFC is still developing.
True or False: Children do not regulate behavior to avoid making adults angry
False: they do regulate behavior
What 2 terms in emotion regulation or dysregulation is thought to derive from?
- socialization and
- innate predisposition or temperament.
What are attachment behaviors?
- those that primarily promote nearness to a specific person
-
What is Signaling
Crying, smiling or vocalizing
What is Orienting?
Looking
What is Movements related to another person?
following or approaching
What is Attempts at physical contact?
embracing or clinging
What is Contact Comfort?
the need for physical closeness or touching and is stronger when distressed
What is Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment?
“the infant attachment bond is an instinctually guided behavioral system that has functioned throughout human evolution to protect the infant from danger”
What is the strange situation?
- The general procedure involves the mother leaving the baby with a stranger in a room with toys.
- The behaviors of interest are how the child responds when the mother leaves and when she returns
In the Strange Situation, 66% of children were found to be Securely attached, what does this mean?
Distressed by parent leaving but seeks parent and can easily be consoled on return
In the Strange Situation, 21% of children were found to be Insecure Avoidant, what does this mean?
Little bond with mother, not too upset by separation, but hates being alone so comforted by stranger, actively avoids seeking contact with parent
In the Strange Situation, 13% of children were found to be Insecure Ambivalent, what does this mean?
Little security in bond initially, less exploration in room, when separated becomes very distressed, difficulty being soothed on reunion, showed ambivalent behaviors such as kicking and arching back away from mother, but wanting to be held
What are some facts about securely attached children?
- Are better prepared to undertake later developmental tasks
- Securely attached 3-year-olds tend to be better liked by their peers
