Chapter 2. Causes Flashcards
Adaptive behavior
Thoughts, feelings, and actions
that allow children to develop social, emotional, and
behavioral competence over time and meet the changing demands of the environment
Alleles
Alternative forms of a gene that are inherited or
arise by mutation
Attachment
The affective bond between caregiver and
child that serves to protect and reassure the child in times of danger or uncertainty
Basal ganglia
Brain regions located under the cortex; they
help to control movement, filter incoming information,
relay information to other regions, and regulate attention and emotions
Behavioral epigenetics
A scientific field of study that
examines the ways environmental experiences can affect genetic expression and be passed from one generation to the next
Behavioral genetics
An area of scientific study that
examines the relationship between genes and behavior; chiefly interested in determining the heritability of traits or disorders
Brain stem
An evolutionarily old region of the brain
responsible for many basic life-sustaining functions;
consists of the medulla, pons, and midbrain
Cerebellum
A brain region located posteriorly (in the
back); chiefly responsible for balance and coordination
Cerebral cortex
The outermost layer of the brain,
consisting of the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes
Chromosomes
Threadlike strands of genes organized in 23
pairs in typically developing humans
Classical conditioning
A type of learning in which two
stimuli are paired together in time, and a previously
neutral stimulus comes to elicit an automatic,
unconditioned response
Cognitive development
Changes in a person’s capacity for perception, thought, language, and problem-solving
Concordance
Used by behavioral geneticists to describe
the probability that two people will both have a certain
characteristic or disorder given that one has the
characteristic
Developmental pathways
Possible courses or trajectories of children’s behavioral, cognitive, or social–emotional
development over time, ranging from adaptation to
maladaptation
Developmental psychopathology
A multidisciplinary approach to studying adaptive and maladaptive development across the lifespan. According to this perspective, development is shaped by the complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social–cultural factors over time
Developmental tasks
Behavioral, cognitive, or social–emotional challenges that children face at each age or developmental level
Diathesis-stress model
A broad theory that posits that a child will exhibit a disorder when she has both (1) an underlying genetic risk for the disorder and (2) an environmental experience or life event that triggers its onset
Ecological systems theory
A theory of child development that consists of concentric nested systems, each progressively more distal from the child: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem
Emotional development
The emergence and refinement of
a person’s experience, expression, understanding, and regulation of feelings
Emotion regulation
The processes that people use
to recognize, label, and control our feelings and our
expression of these feelings
Equifinality
Describes the phenomenon in which children
with different developmental histories show a similar
developmental outcome
Gene
Thousands of nucleotides that form part of a
chromosome; they are transferred from parent to
offspring and influence the characteristics of those
offspring
Gene-environment correlation
The idea that our environments are partially influenced by our genotypes; there are three types of correlations: (1) passive, (2) evocative, and (3) active
Genotype
The genetic code that we inherit from our
parents
Goodness-of-fit
The compatibility of a child’s temperament
with the features of his or her environment, especially
parenting behavior
Heterotypic continuity
The phenomenon in which symptoms change over time, but their underlying pattern remains the same (e.g., a boy’s ADHD symptoms change from childhood to adulthood, but he still has underlying problems with inhibition)
Histones
Proteins found in cells; they act as spools
around which DNA winds; they regulate the expression of genes, turning them “on” or “off”
Homotypic continuity
The phenomenon in which disorders
persist over time relatively unchanged (e.g., a boy with
intellectual disability continues to have this disorder as
an adult)
Internal working model
In attachment theory, a mental representation of a caregiver that helps an individual cope with psychosocial stress
Learning theory
A broad explanation for the causes of
behavior that relies on classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, and modeling
Limbic system
Located deep within the brain, responsible
for emotional processing and memory; consists of the
amygdala, hippocampus, and several other structures
Maladaptive behavior
Thoughts, feelings, and actions that
interfere with children’s social, emotional, and behavioral competence or do not meet the changing demands of the environment
Molecular genetics
An area of scientific study that examines the relationship between specific genes and the presence or absence of characteristics and disorders
Multifinality
Describes the phenomenon in which children
with similar early experiences show different social,
emotional, and behavioral outcomes
Neural plasticity
A term used to describe the brain’s
capacity to change its structure or functioning in
response to environmental experience
Neurons
Nerve cells; consist of dendrites, a cell body
(soma), an axon, and terminal endings; relay information within themselves using electrical signals
Neurotransmitters
Chemical messengers that allow
neurons to communicate with each other; examples are dopamine and serotonin
Nonshared environmental factors
Experiences that differ between siblings (e.g., different age, gender, friends, sports, or hobbies)
Operant conditioning
A type of learning in which an action is associated with an environmental consequence, either reinforcement or punishment
Parenting types
A four-part classification of parenting behavior based on its degree of responsiveness and demandingness: authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, uninvolved
Phenotype
The observable expression of our genetic endowment
Probabilistic epigenesis
A principle of developmental psychopathology; refers to the manner in which genetic, biological, and social–cultural factors interact over time to influence (but not absolutely determine) development
Protective factors
Influences that buffer the negative effects of risks on children’s development and promote adaptive functioning
Punishment (learning theory)
In operant conditioning, an environmental consequence that decreases the likelihood of future behavior
Reinforcement (learning theory)
In operant conditioning, an environmental consequence that increases the likelihood of future behavior
Resilience
The tendency of some children to develop social, emotional, and behavioral competence despite the presence of multiple risk factors
Risk factors
Influences on development that interfere with the acquisition of competencies or compromise children’s ability to adapt to their environments
Shared environmental factors
Environmental experiences common to siblings (e.g., same parents, house, school)
Social cognition
Refers to a person’s capacity to think about social situations and to perceive, interpret, and solve interpersonal problems
Social learning theory
The idea that people learn
from one another through observation, imitation, and modeling
Strange situation
A laboratory-based test of infant–caregiver attachment; can be used to determine attachment security
Synaptogenesis
An increase in the number of neurons and connections between neurons; arises from maturation and experience
Temperament
An inborn tendency to organize and react to behavior in response to environmental stimuli
