Lecture 1: From Normality to Pathology Flashcards
Historical Perspective
Prior to the 18th century, children’s mental health problems rarely mentioned
Virtually all etiologies for disordered behavior in children based on religious estimations
No real separation between medicine, science, religion and magic
Victor: the wild boy of Aveyron
Jean-Marc Itard (1775-1838)
Victor was found in the woods at age 12
He was nonverbal, inattentive, and insensitive to basic sensations; never fully socialized through Itard’s belief in “humanization”
He was possibly abandoned due to cognitive impairment, therefore it’s unclear how much of a role environment played
Bringing Analytic Theory to Children
Anna Freud
Melanie Klein – children’s play could be interpreted in terms of unconscious fantasy
Their combined work led to the development of child psychoanalysis and a recognition of the importance of nonverbal communication
Emergence Of Behavioral Theory
Experimental research establish the foundations of conditioning
With increasing evidence, existing treatments were questioned, including the use of orphanages.
By the 1970s behavioral treatments had become predominant
Current Status of Children’s Mental Health Problems
1 in 5 children has significant mental health problem
severity of the problem might be a function of parents’ psychopathology
10 to 20% meet the criteria for specific psychological disorder
75% of children her requirements of services do not receive them
Developmental Psychopathology
Understanding the range of processes and mechanisms underlying how and when psychopathology and children emerges, and how it changes over time
How it is influenced by child’s development of capacities and by the context in which development occurs
Employs many theories to understand development of disordered and non-disordered behaviors
Stresses the value of understanding both risk and protective factors
Multifinality
Many outcomes can be influenced by a common experience
Equifinality
Many experiences can influence a common outcome
Common Risk factors
Community violence and disasters
divorce/family breakup
chronic poverty
homelessness
parental inadequacies
parental psychopathology
perinatal stress
Biological risk: genes, neurotransmitters, blood flow, brain damage, toxins, hormones, temperament, illness or infection
Theoretical Integration
Bronfenbrenner
Bandura: Reciprocal Determinism
Child and parent mutually influence each other
Sameroff & Chandler: Transactional Model
Ongoing and interactional nature of developmental change between child and environment
Cichetti & Toth: Ecological Transactional
Understanding diverse and multiple influences of psychopathology-developmental psychopathology
Chronicity as a factor in psychopathology
duration
frequency
intensity
pervasiveness
number
Passive Gene-Environment Interaction
Genetic factors common to both parent and child influence parenting behaviors
Active Gene-Environment Interaction
When a child’s heritable vulnerabilities influence selection of environments
e.g. child who likes risk and danger is drawn to others who share the same proclivities–> which may amplify tendencies to seek at risk
Evocative Gene-Environment Interaction
Genetically influenced behaviors elicit reactions from others that interact with, and exacerbate, existing vulnerabilities
Child Temperament
Temperament – biologically-based individual differences in behavioral style reflected in child’s interaction with the environment
e.g.sensitive to temperature changes, react strongly to diaper change, bath etc., but they need to learn to adapt at some point
Thomas and Chess (1960)
Differentiated children as “easy, difficult, or slow to warm up” among the following dimensions:
rhythmicity– is behavior predictable?
approach/withdrawal – response to new stimuli
adaptability
mood
intensity of response
distractibility, persistence
