Week 9 Conduct Disorders

Question 1

What is ODD characterized by?

Answer 1

Age-inappropriate recurrent pattern of stubborn, hostile, disobedient and defiant behaviors

Question 2

When does ODD usually appear by? Why?

Answer 2

age 8

included in the DSM to capture early displays of antisocial and aggressive behavior by preschool and school-age children

Question 3

What are the 3 clusters of symptoms of ODD in the DSM-5?

Answer 3

1. negative affect (angry/irritable mood)
2. defiance (defiant/headstrong behavior)
3. hurtful behavior (vindictiveness)

Question 4

What are some symptoms of negative affect?

Answer 4

1. Often loses temper
2. Is often touchy or easily annoyed
3. Is often angry/resentful

Question 5

What are some symptoms of argumentative/defiant defect?

Answer 5

1. Often argues with authority figures, or for children and adolescents, with adults
2. Often actively defies and refuses to comply with requests from authority figures or with rules
3. Often deliberately annoys others
4. Often blames others for their mistakes or misbehavior

Question 6

How many of the symptoms listed must be present for a diagnosis of ODD?

Answer 6

4

Question 7

What is conduct disorder characterized by?

Answer 7

Repetitive and persistent pattern of severely aggressive and antisocial acts that involve inflicting pain on others or interfering with the rights of others through physical and verbal aggression, stealing or vandalism.

Question 8

DSM-5 groups symptoms of CD into 4 dimensions: 
a) 
b)
c)
d)

Answer 8

aggression to people and animals
destruction of property
deceitfulness or theft
serious violation of rules

Question 9

How many symptoms must be present, and for how long, before a diagnosis of CD can be made?

Answer 9

3 symptoms

1 year, at least 1 in the past 6 months

Question 10

What is ASPD characterized by?

Answer 10

Pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others, including repeated illegal behaviors, deceitfulness, failure to plan ahead, repeated physical fights or assaults, reckless disregard for the safety of self or others, repeated failure to sustain work behavior or honor financial obligations, and a lack of remorse

Question 11

Symptoms of ODD typically emerge () - () years before CD symptoms

Answer 11

2 - 3 years old

Question 12

When do ODD symptoms appear?

Answer 12

6 yrs old

Question 13

When do CD symptoms appear?

Answer 13

9 years old

Question 14

When do signs of a lack of conscience occur in some children?

Answer 14

3 - 5 years old

Question 15

What is a callous-unemotional interpersonal style?

Answer 15

Characterized by an absence of guilt, lack of empathy, uncaring attitudes, shallow or deficient emotional responses and related traits of narcissism and impulsivity

Question 16

Given the importance of CU traits in children with conduct problems, DSM-5 uses the specifier _____________ to describe youths with CD who display a persistent and typical pattern of interpersonal and emotional functioning involving at least 2 of the following characteristics:
a)
b)
c)

Answer 16

limited prosocial emotions

a) lack of remorse/guilt
b) callous-lack of empathy
c) unconcerned about emotions

Question 17

Earliest indications of conduct problems may be a ___________ in the first few years of life, expressed as?

Answer 17

difficult temperament

fussiness, irritability, irregular sleeping and eating patterns, fearfulness in response to novel events

Question 18

Genetic risks for antisocial behavior operate via several pathways. Describe these pathways (3).

Answer 18

1. Genetic factors may be related to a difficult temperament, lack of response to distress in others, impulsivity, a tendency to seek rewards, or an insensitivity to punishment that combine to create an antisocial “propensity” or “personality”
2. Genetic factors can also increase the likelihood that a child will be exposed to environmental risk factors, such as prenatal stress, parental maltreatment, divorce or other negative life events that are associated with an increased risk of antisocial behavior
3. Children’s genotype and neurobiology may moderate their susceptibility to these environmental insults in determining whether they later develop antisocial behavior.

Question 19

Provide an example of a possible gene-environment interaction that contributes to conduct disorder.

Answer 19

MAOA gene: Related to neural systems involved in aggression

Research has found that maltreated children with a low-active MAOA genotype are much more likely to develop antisocial behavior that maltreated children who do not have this genotype.

Brain imaging studies have also found that individuals with the low-active MAOA genotype show patterns of arousal in areas of the brain that are associated with aggression in response to emotion-provoking stimuli.

Question 20

Adolescents with variants in the ___________ () may be more vulnerable for low parental support, and develop more delinquent behavior as a result.

Answer 20

dopamine receptor gene (DRD2)

Question 21

List some prenatal factors that could lead to conduct problems.

Answer 21

1. malnutrition during pregnancy
2. exposure to lead before and after birth and the mother’s use of nicotine, marijuana, and other substances during pregnancy are also associated with later conduct problems
3. maternal alcohol use during pregnancy

Question 22

It has been proposed that antisocial patterns of behavior result from an overactive _____ and an underactive ______ - a pattern determined primarily by genetic predisposition.

Answer 22

behavioral activation system

behavioral inhibition system

Question 23

How do an overactive BAS and underactive BIS result in conduct disorder?

Answer 23

Consistent with an overactive BAS, children with conduct problems show a heightened sensitivity to rewards.

However, an underactive BIS means that they fail to respond to punishment and continue to respond under conditions of no reward. Patterns that are consistent with an underactive BIS.

Question 24

Individual differences in antisocial behavior have been related to variations in stress-regulating mechanisms including ______________ (3).

Answer 24

1. hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system
2. serotonergic functioning
3. structural and functional deficits in the prefrontal cortex of the brain

Question 25

With regard to the HPA axis and autonomic nervous system, what is observed in children with CD that show an early onset of aggressive symptoms?

What are the consequences of this?

Answer 25

Low psychophysiological/cortical arousal and low reactivity of the autonomic system

Diminished avoidance learning
antisocial behavior
no reduction in antisocial behavior to reduce the punishment they receive

Question 26

List some brain regions that are associated with conduct disorder.

Answer 26

amygdala
prefrontal cortex
posterior and anterior cingulate and insula and interconnected regions

Question 27

What do deficits in PFC lead to, in the context of CD?

Answer 27

Affects decision-making circuits and socio-emotional information processing circuits

Might be less able to assess social cues and evaluate consequences of aggressing or not aggressing

Question 28

What social cognitive deficiencies do children with CD have that lead to their condition? (4)

Answer 28

immature forms of thinking
cognitive deficiencies - cannot use verbal mediators to regulate behavior or cognitive distortions (e.g viewing a neutral event as a hostile one)
antisocial decision making
deficits in facial expression recognition and eye contact in children

Question 29

How does physical abuse lead to conduct disorder?

Answer 29

Physical abuse –> deficits in social information processing –> CD

Question 30

How does reciprocal influence result in CD?

Answer 30

Child’s behavior influenced by and influences the behavior of others

Negative parenting practices and parent-child conflict may lead to antisocial behavior, but they may also be a reaction to the oppositional and aggressive behavior of their children

Question 31

What does the coercion theory propose about conduct disorder?

How does the 4-step conditioning process look like?

Answer 31

Parent-child interactions provide a training ground for the development of antisocial behavior.

1. why never do homework >:(
2. because school is SUX
3. english class still boring/ (she withdraws demand –> reinforces paul’s arguing)
4. ya u cfm sleep (paul stop being a lil bij and reinforces mom’s giving in)

Coercive parent-child interactions are made up of well-practiced actions and reactions, which may occur with little awareness.

Process is called a reinforcement trap

Question 32

What do theories of social disorganization propose about conduct disorder? Provide an example

Answer 32

Community structures impact family processes that then affect the child’s adjustment

E.g Adverse contextual factors are associated with poor parenting, particularly coercive and inconsistent discipline and poor parental monitoring

Question 33

What does the social selection hypothesis state about conduct disorder?

Answer 33

people who move into different neighbourhood differ from one another before they arrive, and those who remain differ from those who leave.

the neighbourhood they choose will be populated by other who are like them. this creates a community organization that minimizes productive social relations and effective social norms, leading to antisocial behavior becoming a norm.