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Summary Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology, ISBN: 9781138091016 Developmental Disorders
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Abnormal Child and Adolescent PsychologyChapter 1 Introduction
Defining and Identifying Abnormal
If you want to know whether behavior is normal, you often look at norms. To ID problems of youth,
you look at:
- Developmental norms
- Cultural norms
- Gender norms
- Situational norms
- Role of adults in creating norms
- Changing views of abnormality
Normality can be relative. Abnormality is primarily based on how a person is acting or what someone
is saying. Ab – normal (away from the average). However, being atypical alone doesn’t describe
psychopathology. Here, we talk about harmful behavior.
- APA: a disorder is a syndrome of clinically significant behavioral, cognitive, or emotional
disturbances that reflect dysfunction in underlying mental processes, and that is associated
with distress or disability in important areas of functioning.
Abnormality/ psychopathology interfere with adaptation. Psychopathology is behavior that once was,
but no longer can be, considered appropriate to the child’s level of development. A developmental
disorder is psychopathology for a kid. A disorder can be seen as something that resides within a
person, or the person’s reaction to circumstances.
Age is important in judging behavior. This judgment relies on developmental norms (=describe
typical rates of growth, sequences of growth). Behavioral indicators of Disorder:
- Developmental delay
- Regression or deterioration
- Extremely high or low frequency
- Extremely high or low intensity
- Behavior difficulty persists over time
- Behavior is inappropriate to the situation
- Abrupt changes in behaviors
- Behavior qualitatively different from normal
Other norms that are significant:
- Culture/ ethnicity
o Culture= the idea that groups of people are organized in specific ways, live in
specific environmental niches and share specific attitudes/ beliefs/ practices.
There are cross-cultural differences.
o Cultural norms shape development. They have broad influence on expectations,
judgments and beliefs. They lead to different standards and different explanations.
o Ethnicity= common customs, values, language, traits associated with national origin
o Race= distinction based on physical characteristics
- Gender (male: externalizing/ more disorders ; female: internalizing, eating disorders)
o Gender norms (= expectations based on gender) also influence development.
Stereotypes influence judgments.
o Situational norms also matter. About what’s expected in a specific setting.
- Lifestyle changes (focus on body size, more drug abuse). Related to age
- Other people also play an important role. Younger people don’t refer themselves: others see a
problem and become worried. Therefore, characteristics of others also matter.
- Views and judgments about abnormality are changing
How Common are Psychological Problems
Prevalence in youths:
- 15 – 20% in APA
- 10% serious, 10% mild
Research findings are mixed. However, no doubt that young people have substantial needs. Problems
often go unnoticed or they don’t get adequate treatment.
, Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology
How are Developmental Level and Disorder Related?
Specific problems – ages at which they usually appear:
- Birth – Autism ; Language disorders ; Asperger’s
- 6 years – ADHD
- 12 years – Learning disorders ; CD ;
Schizophrenia ; Drug abuse ; Bulimia ; Anorexia
- 18 years
Reasons for the links:
- Chronological age – developmental level
- However, actual onset can occur gradually
- Can also depend on gender and extraneous circumstances
Knowing the usual age of onset can point to etiology:
- Early occurrence – genetic and/or prenatal etiology
- Later onset – additional developmental influences
How are Gender and Disorder Related?
Higher for males Higher for females
Autism spectrum disorder Anxieties and fears
Oppositional disorder Depression
Drug abuse Eating disorder
Intellectual disability
ADHD ; CD
Reading disability
Language disorder
Men Women
More often affected Less often affected
Disorders that occur early in life Problems that occur at adolescence
Externalizing problems Internalizing problems
Overt physical aggression Relational aggression
These differences may be due to biases and an emphasis on men and to exposure.
Historical Influences
At first, most interest in adults. Children weren’t seen as different from adults. 19 th century:
- Efforts to record growth and abilities of the young
- Progress in understanding disturbed development and behavior
- 2 explanations of adult mental illness:
o Demonology – person is possessed
o Somatogenesis – mental disorders can be attributed to bodily malfunction/ imbalance
- Kraepelin - classification system to establish a biological basis for mental disorder
o Noticed certain symptoms tend to group together syndromes.
Therefore, they might have a common physical cause.
- Eventually, some records of childhood disorders.
Freud and his Psychoanalytic Theory was a big development:
- First modern systematic attempt to understand mental disorders
- Critical to psychogenesis= belief that mental problems are caused by psychological variables.
- Belief: unconscious childhood conflicts and crises were the key to understand
- Three structures:
o Id – impulses
o Ego – problem-solving part
Creates defense mechanisms that distort or deny Id’s impulses.
o Superego
- Rests on a psychosexual stage theory of development. There are five fixed stages in the
development of a child. First three matter most for personality and development:
, Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology
o Oral – child must be weaned
o Anal – child must be toilet trained
o Phallic – child must resolve the crisis brought on by the desire to possess the opposite-
sex parent (Oedipal conflict for boys, and Electra conflict for the girls)
o Latency
o Genital
Another important view is Behaviorism (Watson) and Social Learning Theory:
- Most behavior could be explained by learning experiences
- Classical conditioning – Pavlov
- Law of Effect – Thorndike: behavior is shaped by its consequences
Operant learning – Skinner: reinforcement
- Behavior modification/ behavior therapy: application of learning principles to the assessment
and treatment of behavioral problems
- Social learning or cognitive-behavioral perspectives
Emphasize the combi of learning principles and the social context
Another important thread is the Mental Hygiene Movement:
- Wanted to increase understanding, improve treatment and prevent disorder from occurring
Child guidance movement: it became obvious that childhood experiences influence adult
mental health, so children became the focus.
Finally, scientific study of the youth became more regular:
- Stanley Hall – problems in youth were used to understand mental disorder, crime
- Binet and Simon – design a test to ID kids in need of special education
- Gesell – developmental norms and a lot of data on child behavior
Current Study and Practice
Primary goals:
- ID, describe and classify psychological disorder
- Reveal the causes of disturbance
- Treat and prevent disorder
You work with the youths, but also their families:
- Interdisciplinary Efforts
There are more than 1 professional involved. Social workers, psychologists, but also teachers
or physicians
- The role of the parents
You communicate with them a lot. All families need something else.
They have info on their child. But the info they have on mental health and their motivation or
abilities to help, can differ.
- Working with young clients
It requires special considerations.
One’s efforts to create a therapeutic alliance (= trusting personal bond and collaboration),
may increase the chance of a successful outcome.
Informed consent: kids must consent, but parental consent is also needed.
, Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology
Chapter 3 Biological and Environmental Contexts of Psychopathology
Brain and Nervous System
First, talk about the brain development:
1. Conception nervous system begins to develop:
a. Group of cells (= neural plate) thickens, folds inward and forms the neural tube
b. Rapidly developing cells migrate to fixed locations
Brain contains multifunctioning cells:
- Glial cells
- Neurons – Chemically transmit impulses within nervous system, to and from other body parts
2. These cells become more interconnected and functional.
3. Nerve fibers become sheathed in myelin (= white substance that increases efficiency of
communication in the brain)
4. Before and after birth, a lot of neurons and connections are produced for flexibility
Adolescence – brain maturation:
- Changes in brain chemistry
- Connections between brain regions proliferate
- Amount of gray matter (cell bodies) decreases in the front part of the brain
- Amount of white matter increases. This reflects continuing myelination
Pruning in a mechanism whereby unneeded cells and connections are eliminated. Brain structure:
- Brain + spinal cord= Central Nervous System
- Nerves outside the CNS that transmit messages to and from it= Peripheral Nervous System:2
o Somatic System= sensory organs and muscles.
Engaged in sensing & voluntary movements
o Autonomic System: involuntary regulation of arousal and emotions:
Sympathetic system: branches increase arousal
Parasympathetic system: branches slow arousal + maintain bodily functioning
- The entire nervous system communicates within itself and with the endocrine system:
Collection of glands intricately involved in bodily functions through the release of hormones
- Brain has three interconnection divisions:
o Hindbrain=
Pons: relays info
Medulla: regulates heart function and breathing
Cerebellum: movement and cognitive processing
o Midbrain= fibers that connect the hindbrain and upper brain regions.
Influences arousal states (sleeping and waking). Together with hindbrain= brain stem
o Forebrain= two cerebral hemispheres
Outer surface= The Cortex
The corpus callosum connects them
Each hemisphere has 4 lobes
o Subcortical structures below the hemispheres:
Thalamus: processing and relaying info
Hypothalamus: basic urges (hunger, thirst)
Limbic system= hippocampus + amygdala – memory and emotions
Neurotransmission is an important process:
- All neurons, even though they vary, have three major parts:
o Cell body
o Dendrites – receive chemical messages from other neurons impulse
o Axon – electric impulse goes down this
- Communication between neurons occurs across a synapse (= small gap between cells)
- Electric impulse reaches end of axon neurotransmitters (= packets of chemicals) are
released cross synaptic gap taken up by receptor sites on dendrites receiving neuron
- Some major neurotransmitters:
o Dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, glutamate and GABA
- Neurotransmitters can excite or inhibit neurons: make them more/ less likely to fire an impulse
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