Abnormal Child Psychology Prof. Fishman
Book of Notes:
Lesson 1:
Research in abnormal child psych seeks to address:
· Defining what constitutes normal and abnormal behavior
· Identifying the causes and correlates of abnormal child behavior
· Making predictions about long term outcomes
· Developing and evaluating methods for treatment (p.3)
Features that distinguish child and adult disorders:
· When adults seek services for children, its often unclear whose problem it is
· Many problems fail to show expected developmental progress
· Many behaviors are not entirely abnormal
· Interventions for children are intended to promote further development, rather than restore level of functioning
Questions to ask:
At what age did this begin?
At what age was this noticed?
Is this a psychological disorder?
Is this developmental? Is the child meeting milestones?
What level of competence do we see?
What are the symptoms?
X Historical views and breakthroughs
X Emergence of social conscience
X Evolving forms of treatment
Early Biological, Psychological, and Behavioral theorists:
Biological-
Freudian-
Pavlov- classical conditioning
Watson- theory of emotion
“Give me a dozen children….”
Progressive Legislation- IDEA act
Defining psychological disorders:
Competence:
Developmental tasks: (p.13)
Developmental pathways: multifinality, equifinality
Risk and Resilience: (p.16)
Poverty/ SES/ Race/ Culture:
Child Maltreatment/ Trauma
Chapter 2:
Causes of behavior (to be explored in this chapter):
*Biological influences
*Emotional influences
*Behavioral and cognitive influences
*Family, cultural and ethnic influences
Theoretical foundations (intro to chapter):
Etiology- study of causes of childhood disorders
*considers how biological, psychological, and environmental processes interact to produce the outcomes observed over time.
Developmental Psychopathology perspective:
Approach to describing and studying disorders of childhood adolescence and beyond emphasizing importance of developmental tasks
*Abnormal development is multiply determined.
*Child and environment are interdependent. This dynamic interaction is referred to as a transaction- child and environment both contribute to the expression, and can not be separated.
Continuity- i.e. 10 year old aggression -> conduct disorder
Discontinuity-
Developmental cascades-
Developmental overview (p. 34)
Developmental considerations:
Adaptational failure- failure to master or progress in accomplishing developmental milestones
Sensitive periods
Biological perspectives:
Neural plasticity- brain is malleable, use dependent
Nature provides the process, nurture provides the experience
Genes contain 23 sets (46) chromosomes.
xx- female
xy-male
GxE interaction- such as epigenetics, a change in gene activity based on environment
Molecular genetics-research methods using molecular genetics assess variations in DNA sequences causing variations in traits i.e. what causes Alzheimers, ADHD? If we can identify mutations that is one pi...
