Midterm Flashcards
What is nosologies?
The efforts to classify psychiatric disorders into descriptive categories
What is stigma in this context?
A cluster of negative attitudes & beliefs which motivates fear, rejection, avoidance, & discrimination with respect to people with mental illnesses
What is competence?
the ability to successfully adapt in the environment
What is developmental competence?
A child’s ability to use internal & external resources to achieve successful adaptation
What are developmental tasks?
Broad domains of competence such as conduct, & academic achievement, tell how children typically progress within each domain as they grow
What is a developmental pathway?
The sequence & timing of particular behaviors & possible relationships between behaviors over time
What is multifinality?
The concept that various outcomes may stem from similar beginnings
What is equifinality?
The concept that similar outcomes stem from different early experiences & developmental pathways
What is a protective factor?
A personal or situational variable that reduces the chances for a child to develop a disorder
Internalizing problems:
include anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms, & withdrawn behaviors
Externalizing problems:
Encompass more acting-out behaviors (ex: aggression & delinquent behaviors)
What are the protective triad resources & health-promoting events that are connected to a resilient child?
- individual opportunities
- close family ties
- opportunities for indv. & family support from community resources
What does defining a psychological disorder involve?
Agreement about particular patterns of behavioral, cognitive, & physical symptoms shown by an individual
What is resiliency?
the ability to avoid negative outcomes despite being at risk for psychopathology
What is a risk factor?
variable that precedes a negative outcome of interest & increases the chances that the outcome will occur
What is the study of the causes of childhood disorders?
etiology
What is developmental psychopathology?
- An approach to describing & studying disorders of childhood, adolescence, & beyond in a manner that emphasizes the importance of developmental processes & tasks.
- It also emphasizes the role of developmental processes, the importance of context, & the influence of multiple interactions in shaping adaptive/maladaptive dev.
Interdependent:
how the child & the environment influence eachother
What is a transaction?
The dynamic interaction between a child & the environment
What is continuity?
implies that developmental changes are gradual & quantitative (ex: height & weight) & that future behavior patterns can be predicted from earlier patterns
What is discontinuity?
Developmental changes are abrupt & qualitative (ex: changes in mood or expression) & that future behavior is poorly predicted by earlier patterns
Developmental cascades:
the process a child’s previous interactions & experiences may spread across other systems & alter his/her course of development (like a chain reaction)
What is adaptational failure?
failure to master or progress in accomplishments of dev. milestones
What is organization of development?
early patterns of adaptation, (ex: infant eye contact), evolve with structure over time & transform into higher-order functions such as speech & language
What are sensitive periods?
windows of time during which environmental influences on development, both good & bad, are enhanced
What is pruning?
reduces the number of connections in a way that gradually shapes & differentiates important brain functions
Epigenetics:
underlying biological changes to genetic structure
What are behavioral genetics?
investigates possible connections between genetic predisposition & observed behavior, taking env. into account
What are molecular genetics?
research methods that directly assess the association between variations in DNA sequences & variations
What is epidemiological research?
study of the incidence, prevalence, & co-occurrence of childhood disorders & competencies in clinic-referred & community samples
Incidence rates:
new cases of a disorder appear over a specified time
Prevalence rates:
all cases, whether new or previously existing, observed during a specified amount of time
The scientific approach is an ____ way of investigating claims?
organized
Mediatior variables:
process, mechanism, or means through which a variable produces a particular outcome
Moderator variables:
influence the direction or strength of the relationship of variables of interest
Reliability:
consistency, or repeatability, of results obtained using a specific method of measurement
Validity:
it measures the dimension/construct that the researcher set out to measure
Define Psychological Disorders?
a pattern of behavioral, cognitive, or physical symptoms that includes one or more of the following prominent features: (a) some degree of distress in the subject; (b) behavior indicating some degree of disability; (c) increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom
Which behaviors are more commonly found in boys?
Hyperactivity, autism, childhood disruptive behavior disorders, learning & communication disorders
Which behaviors are more commonly found in girls?
Anxiety disorders, adolescent depression, & eating disorders
Gene-Environment Interaction (GxE):
complex interchanges between nature & nurture & are affected by genetic, environment influences, & the timing of when they meet
What do the frontal lobes contain?
contain the functions underlying most of our thinking & reasoning abilities
What is the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis?
hypothalamus control center, with the pituitary & adrenal glands, make up a regulatory system in the brain (has implications for several disorders)
What is emotional reactivity?
Individual differences in the threshold and intensity of the emotional experience, which can provide clues to a person’s distress and sensitivity to the environment
What is emotional regulation?
Enhancing, maintaining, or inhibiting emotional arousal for a specific purpose or goal
What is temperament?
a child’s organized style of behavior that appears early in life and shapes a child’s approach to their environment. Maybe linked to psychopathology or risk conditions
What is self-regulation?
balance between emotional reactivity and self-control, best for normal and healthy adjustment
What is Applied Behavioral Analysis?
Examines the relationships between behavior and its antecedents and consequences
What is social cognition?
how children think about themselves and others which forms mental representations of themselves, relationships and their social world
The Scientific Approach:
way of thinking about how best to understand & answer questions on interest, not just an accumulation of specific methods, practices, or procedures
Does one single study advance the field?
False. An accumulation of findings help to advance the field.
What is Facilitated Communication (FC)?
a facilitator provides manual assistance by lightly holding a child’s hand, wrist, or arm, while the child supposedly communicates by typing on a keyboard or pointing to letters on an alphabet board
What is pseudoscience?
demonstrations of benefit are based on anecdotes or testimonials, the child’s baseline abilities & the possibility of spontaneous improvement are ignored
What is treatment efficacy?
whether the treatment can produce changes under well-controlled conditions
What is treatment effectiveness?
whether the treatment can be shown to work in clinical practice, not just well-controlled research settings
What are the ways we study behavior?
- Interviews
- Questionnaires
- Checklists
- Imaging
- Performance measures
- Direct observations of behavior
What does an electroencephalonogram (EEG) do?
biomarker to link the brain’s measurable electrical activity with ongoing thinking, emotion, or state of arousal
What does neuroimaging examine?
the structure, connections, and/or functions of the living brain
What is the independent variable?
based on the hypothesis, expected to cause change in another variable. Manipulated by the researcher
What is the dependent variable?
influenced by the independent variable
What is measured in qualitative research?
focuses on narrative accounts, description, interpretation, context and meaning.
What is assent?
means that the child shows some form of agreement to participate without necessarily understanding the full significance of the research
What are clinical assessments?
systematic problem-solving strategies to understand children with disturbances in their family & school
What is idiographic case formulation?
detailed understanding of the individual child or family as a unique entity
What is nomothetic formulation?
emphasizes broad general inferences that apply to large groups of individuals
Who is at greater risk for being misdiagnosed, a norm child or a child from an ethnic minority?
ethnic minority children
What are the 3 purposes of assessment?
- ) description/diagnosis to determine possible causes of the problem
- ) prognosis
- ) treatment planning/evaluation
What is a diagnosis?
analyzing information & drawing conclusions about the nature or cause of the problem
What is a prognosis?
formulation of predictions about future behavior under specified conditions
What are the ABC’s of assessment?
A=Antecedents, events that immediately precede a behavior
B=Behavior(s) of interest
C=Consequences, the events that follow a behavior
What is a neuropsychological assessment?
attempts to link brain functioning with objective measures of behavior known to depend on an intact CNS
What is classification?
system for representing the major categories of child psychopathology, & the boundaries & relations among them
What is the cultural compatibility hypothesis?
states that treatment is more likely to be effective when it is compatible with the cultural patterns of the child and family
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by abnormalities in social communication & unusual behaviors & interests
What is preservation of sameness in ASD?
anxious/obsessive insistence on the maintenance of sameness in daily routines & activities, which no one BUT the child may disrupt
What are the 2 symptom domains for ASD?
- ) social communication & interaction
2. ) restricted/repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities
Social Communication & Interaction (DSM-5) lists 3 symptoms with all 3 required for ASD diagnosis:
- ) deficits in social-emotional reciprocity
- ) deficits in nonverbal communication behaviors used for social interaction
- ) deficits in developing, maintaining, & understanding relationships
DSM-5 eliminated all previous subtypes of ASD, including:
- Autistic Disorder
- Asperger’s Disorder
- Pervasive Dev Disorder
Why is ASD considered a spectrum disorder?
Because its symptoms, abilities, & characteristics are expressed in many different combos & in any degree of severity
What are the 3 critical factors that differentiate children with ASD?
- ) Level of Intellectual Ability
- ) Severity of their language problems
- ) Behavior changes with age
What are the social deficits shown early on in children with ASD?
- Lack of monitoring of the social activities of others
- Lack of social/emotional reciprocity
- Unusual nonverbal behaviors (ex: atypical facial expressions, eye-to-eye gaze, body postures, & gestures to regulate social interaction
- Lack of interest/difficulty relating to others, especially w/ children
- Failure to share enjoyment & interests with others
What is the joint attention impairment associated with ASD?
the ability to coordinate attention to a social partner & an object or event of mutual interest
What are Protoimperative Gestures?
gestures or vocalizations that are used to express needs (ex: pointing to a stuffed animal that is out of reach)
What are Protodeclarative Gestures?
gestures or vocalizations that direct visual attention of other people to objects of shared interest
What are pragmatics?
the appropriate use of language in social & communicative contexts
What is echolalia?
a child’s parrot-like repetition of words or word combos that she/he has heard, either immediately after hearing them or later on
What are repetitive/restrictive behaviors characterized by?
by their high frequency, repetition in a fixed manner, & desire for sameness in their environment
What are self-stimulatory behaviors associated with ASD?
stereotyped as well as repetitive body movements of objects (ex: hand flapping or pencil spinning)
What is a strong predictor of later functioning in ASD?
Intellectual Disability (ID)
What is Mentalization or Theory of Mind (ToM)?
development of such an awareness of mental states in themselves & others
When is the diagnosis of ASD usually made?
preschool
Around what age period do ASD children show subtle/gradual loss in specific social skills?
between 6-18 mos
What is etiology?
- the study of the causes of childhood disorders
- considers how biological, env, & psychological processes interact
