Unit 1 Flashcards
Developmental Pathway
A concept to describe the sequence and timing of particular behaviors, and to highlight the known and suspected relationships of behaviors over time.
Competence
The ability to adapt to one’s environment. Children’s competence involves their performance relative to their same-age peers as well as their individual course of development
Developmental Tasks
Psychosocial tasks of childhood that reflect broad domains of competence and tell us how children typically progress within each of these domains as they grow.
Equifinality
The concept that similar outcomes may stem from different early experiences.
Externalizing problems
Problem behaviors that begin during childhood and encompass acting-out behaviors such as aggression and delinquent behaviors
Internalizing problems
Problem behaviors that begin during childhood and include anxiety, depression, somatic complaints, and withdrawn behavior.
Multifinality
The concept that various outcomes may stem from similar beginnings.
Nosologies
Efforts to classify psychiatric disorders into descriptive categories
Protective Factors
A variable that precedes a negative outcome a interest and decreases the changes that the outcome will occur.
Psychological disorder
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; and (c) an increased risk of suffering, death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom.
Resilience
The ability to avoid negative outcomes despite being at risk for psychopathology.
Risk Factor
A variable that precedes a negative outcome of interest and increases the chances that the outcome will occur.
Stigma
A cluster of negative attitudes and beliefs that motivates fear, rejection, avoidance, and discrimination against people with mental illnesses.
Adaptational Failure
Failure to master or progress in accomplishing developmental milestones
Attachment
The process of establishing and maintaining an emotional bond with parents or other significant caregivers. This process is ongoing, typically beginning between 6 and 12 months of age, and provides infants with a secure, consistent base from which to explore and learn about their worlds
Behavioral Genetics
A branch of genetics that investigates possible connections between a genetic predisposition and observed behavior.
Brain Circuits
Paths made up of clustered neurons that connect on part of the brain to another.
Continuity
A theoretical position for explaining development which proposes that normal and abnormal developmental changes are gradual and quantitative. Continuity theorists argue that development is an additive process that is ongoing rather than occurring in distinct stages.
Cortisol
A stress hormone produced by the adrenal glands
Developmental Cascades
The process by which a child’s previous interactions and experiences may spread across other systems and alter his or her course of development (somewhat like a chain reaction)
Developmental Psychopathology
An approach to describing and studying disorders of childhood and adolescence in a manner that emphasizes the importance of developmental processes and tasks. This approach uses abnormal development to inform normal development to inform normal development and vice versa
Discontinuity of Development
A theoretical position for explaining development proposing that normal and abnormal developmental changes are abrupt and qualitative. Discontinuity theorists, such as Piaget ad Erikson, argue that children pass through developmental stages that are qualitatively different from each other.
Emotion Reactivity
A dimension of emotional processes associated with individual differences in the threshold and intensity of emotional experiences
Emotion Regulation
The process by which emotional arousal is redirected, controlled, or modified to facilitate adaptive functioning
Epigenetic
The underlying biological changes to genetic structure resulting from environmental factors, such as toxins, diet, stress, and many others.
Epinephrine
A hormone produced by the adrenal glands that is released into the bloodstream in response to stress in order to energize and prepare the body for a possible threat. This hormone is also known as adrenaline
Etiology
The study of the causes of disorders. With respect to childhood disorders, etiology considers how biological, psychological, and environmental processes interact
Family Systems
Theory that the behavior of an individual can be most accurately understood the context of the dynamics of his or her family.
Frontal Lobes
Area of the brain located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere; responsible for the functions underlying much of our thinking and reasoning abilities, including memory.
Gene-environment interactions (GxE)
Complex interplay of nature and nurture to account for genetic and environmental influences and their timing.
Health Promotion
An approach to the prevention of disease that involves education, public policy, and similar actions to promote health
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) Axis
A regulatory system of the brain made up of the hypothalamus control center and the pituitary and adrenal glands; it influences a person’s response to stress and his or her ability to regulate emotions.
Interdependent
Applies to the assumption that abnormal child behavior is determined by both the child and his or her environment, and that these two factors are interconnected (see transaction)
Molecular Genetics
The methods of genetics that directly assess the association between variations in DNA sequences and variations in particular traits. More than an association, variations in genetic sequences are thought to cause the variations in the trait(s). These methods offer more direct support for genetic influences on child psychopathology.
Neural Plasticity
The malleable nature of the brain, evidenced throughout the course of development (use-dependent). Although infants are born with basic brain differentiation.. That is, certain synapses of the brain are strengthened and stabilized, while others regress and disappear
Nonshared Environment
A subtype of environmental influences that refers to the environmental factors that produce behavioral differences among siblings living in the same household. Nonshared environmental influence can be estimated and is calculated by subtracting the MZ twin correlation from 1.0
Organization of Development
The assumption that early patterns of adaptation evolve over time and transform into higher-order functions in a structured manner. For instance, infant eye contact and speech sounds evolve and transform into speech and language.
Sensitive Periods
Windows of time during which environmental influences on development (both good and bad) are heightened, thus providing enhanced opportunities to learn.
Shared Environment
A subtype of environmental influences that refers to the environmental factors that produce similarities in developmental outcomes among siblings living in the same household. If siblings are more similar than expected from only their shared genetics, this implies an effect of the environment both siblings share, such as being exposed to marital conflict or poverty, or being parented in a similar manner.
Social Cognition
A construct to describe how people think about themselves in relation to others, and how they interpret ambiguous events and solve problems
Social Learning
A theoretical approach to the study of behavior that is interested in both overt behaviors and the role of possible cognitive mediators that may influence such behaviors directly or indirectly
Temperament
The child’s innate reactivity and self-regulation with respect to the domains of emotins, activity level, and attention; the child’s organized style of behavior that appears early in development, such as fussiness or fearfulness, that shapes the child’s approach to his or her environment and vice versa
Transaction
The process by which the subject and environment interact in a dynamic fashion to contribute to the expression of a disorder (also see interdependence)
A-B-A-B Reversal Design
A type of single-case experimental design in which a baseline of behavior is first taken (A), followed by an intervention phase (B), then a return to baseline phase where the intervention is removed (A), and a final phase in which the intervention is reintroduced (B). When changes in behavior are due to the intervention.