Abnormal Child and Adolescent psychology
Chapter 1: Introduction
Criteria for abnormality are primarily based on how a person is acting or what a person is
saying and rarely include a specific known marker for a disorder. Psychological problems
frequently are viewed as atypical, odd or abnormal, which all imply that they deviate from the
average. The deviations are assumed to be harmful in some way to the individual.
Disorder (APA): 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 is viewed as interfering with adaptation (with individuals fitting
the circumstances of their lives).
Developmental norms describe typical rates of growth, sequences of growth and forms of
physical skills, language, cognition, emotion and social behavior. They serve as
developmental standards from which to evaluate the possibility that something is wrong.
Several other signs are:
- Atypical frequency, intensity or duration of behavior
- Display of behavior in inappropriate situations.
- Behavior that appears qualitatively different from the norm.
Culture: groups of people are organized in specific ways, live in specific environmental niches
and share specific attitudes, beliefs, values, practices and behavioral standards. It is a way of
life transmitted from generation to generation.
Cultural analyses describe ways in which cultures shape normal and abnormal development
and conceptualize, explain and treat psychopathology.
Cultural norms have broad influence on expectations, judgments and beliefs about the
behavior of youth. Therefore, it is important to consider ethnicity or race when assessing
various aspects of abnormality.
Ethnicity: common customs, values, language or traits that are associated with national origin
or geographic area.
Race: distinction based on physical characteristics, can also be associated with shared
customs, values etc.
Gender norms influence development. They affect emotions, behaviors, opportunities and
choices. They play a role in judgments about normality. Judgments of deviance also take
situational norms into account (what is expected in specific settings or social situations).
Psychopathology: judgment that a person’s behavior, emotion or thinking is atypical,
dysfunctional and harmful in some way. A judgment involving knowledge about development
cultural and ethnic influences, social norms and the people making the judgment.
Rates of disorder vary with measures used and source of information. Characteristics of the
population can make a difference in prevalence. There is concern that societal change
resulted in increased risk of disorders for young. Due to variations in studies and
methodological issues, it is difficult to draw conclusions about historical (secular) trends.
Chronological age is correlated with developmental level, which makes some disorders more
likely. Information about developmental level and disorder is helpful in several ways.
- Knowing usual age of onset can point to etiology and serves as a guide to judging the
severity or outcome of a disorder.
- Parents, teachers and other adults who are aware of usual timing of a disorder may
be more sensitive to signs of specific problems in youth. This can lead to preventing
the disorder or facilitate early treatment.
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,Gender differences exist in rates of disorder and in developmental change for externalizing
problems (aggression, delinquency) and internalizing problems (anxiety, depression,
withdrawal and bodily complaints). Problems may also be expressed differently.
Demonology: belief that behavior results form a person’s being possessed or otherwise
influenced by evil spirits or demons.
Somatogenis: belief that mental disorder can be attributed to bodily malfunction or imbalance.
Kraepelin (late 19th century) recognized that particular symptoms tended to group together, to
occur in syndromes, and he thought they might have a common physical cause. He published
a classification system in which he tried to establish a biological bias for mental disorder.
Psychoanalytic theory (Freud): first theory that attempts to understand mental disorders in
psychological terms.
Psychogenesis: belief that mental problems are caused by psychological variables.
Freud proposed three structures of the mind whose goals and tasks made conflict inevitable:
- Id
- Ego
- Superego
Anxiety could be generated as a danger signal to ego, problem solving part of the mind, that
id impulses unacceptable to superego were seeking to gain consciousness. To protect itself
from awareness of unacceptable impulses, ego creates defense mechanisms that distort or
deny the impulses. Defense mechanisms can be adaptive but may also generate
psychological symptoms.
The psychoanalytic perspective rests on a psychosexual stage theory of development. As the
child develops the focus of psychological energy passes form one bodily zone to the next:
oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. The first three involve particular crisis that are crucial
for later development.
Behaviorism (Watson): drew on theories of learning to emphasize that most behavior,
adaptive or maladaptive, could be explained by learning experiences.
Law of effect (Thorndike): behavior is shaped by its consequences. If consequence is
satisfying, behavior will be strengthened in the future. If consequence is unpleasant, behavior
will be weakened.
Social learning or cognitive-behavioral perspectives emphasize combination of learning
principles and social context and or cognition.
Mental hygiene movement aimed to increase understanding, improve treatment and prevent
disorder from occurring at all.
Primary goals of abnormal child/adolescent psychology are to identify, describe and classify
psychological disorders; to reveal causes of disturbance and to treat and prevent disorder.
Therapeutic alliance: trusting personal bond and collaboration on treatment.
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,Chapter 2: The Developmental Psychopathology Perspective
When a perspective (a view, approach or cognitive set) is shared by investigators it can be
termed a paradigm. They typically include assumptions and concepts and ways to evaluate
them. A perspective helps make sense of the puzzling and complex unaversive, it guides the
kinds of questions we ask, what we select for investigation, what we decide to observe and
how, interpret and make sense of the information. it influences how a problem is approached,
investigated and interpreted. However, acting on a certain view imposes some limitations.
Theory: formal, integrated set of principles or propositions that explains phenomena.
Model: representation or description of the phenomenon of study. Assumption of
interactional models is that variables interrelate to produce an outcome. For example, the
vulnerability-stress model conceptualizes multiple causes of psychopathology as working
together (vulnerability and stress factor(s)). Both vulnerability and stress are necessary.
Assumption transactional models: development is result of ongoing, reciprocal transactions
between individual and environmental context. They fall into domain of system models, in
that they incorporate several levels/systems of functioning in which development is viewed as
occurring over time as systems interact or enter into ongoing transactions with each other.
Developmental psychopathology perspective integrates understanding and study of
normal developmental processes with those of child and adolescent psychopathology. It is
interested in origins and developmental course of disorder behavior and individual adaptation
and competence. It assumes that abnormal behavior does not appear out of the blue, but it
emerges gradually as child and environmental influences transact. Development involves
progressive adaptations or maladaptation’s to changing circumstances.
Development: change over lifespan that results from ongoing transactions of an individual
with biological, psychological and sociocultural variables, which themselves are changing.
Qualitative change is more salient than quantitative change. Early development of biological,
motor, physical, cognitive, emotional and social systems follows a general course. Within each
system, structures and functions become more finely differentiated and integrated. Integration
occurs across systems as well (enhancing organization and complexity). Development
proceeds in a coherent pattern (current functioning is connection to past and future
functioning). Change is not inevitably positive.
Medical model: concerns disorders to be discrete entities that results from specific and limited
biological causes within the individual.
Direct effect: variable X leads straight to outcome.
Indirect effect: variable X influences one or more other variables that in turn lead to outcome.
Mediator: factor or variable that explains or brings about an outcome by indirect means.
Moderator: variable that influences the direction or strength of relationship between an
independent (predictor) variable and a dependent (criterion) variable.
Necessary cause must be present in order for the disorder to occur.
Sufficient cause can, in and of itself, be responsible for the disorder.
Contributing cause can be operating, they are not
necessary or sufficient.
Five developmental pathways during adolescence:
1. Stable adaptation: few environmental
adversities/behavior problems, good self-worth.
2. Stable maladaptation: chronic environmental
adversities.
3. Reversal of maladaptation: important life changes
creates new opportunity.
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, 4. Decline of adaptation: environmental or biological shift bring adversity.
5. Temporal maladaptation: can reflect transient experimental risk taking.
Equifinality: diverse factors can be associated with the same outcome.
Multifinality: experience may function differently leading on a host of other influences that
may lead to different outcomes.
Risks: variables that precede and increase chance of psychological impairments. Aspects:
1. A single risk can have an impact, multiple risks are particularly harmful.
2. Risks tend to cluster.
3. Intensity, duration and timing make a difference.
4. The effects of many risk factors appear nonspecific, but this is not always the case.
5. Risk factors may be different for the onset of a disorder than for the persistence.
6. A risk may increase likelihood of future risks by increasing child’s susceptibility for
problems or adversely affecting the environmental context.
7. They are associated with biological, cognitive, psychosocial and other domains.
Vulnerability: tendency to respond maladaptively to circumstances. May be inborn or
acquired and can be modified.
Model of the relation between adversities and psychopathology.
Resilience: relative positive outcomes in face of significant adverse or traumatic experiences.
Speaks to individual differences in response to risk, ability to resist or overcome life’s
adversities.
Heterotypic continuity: expression of a problem may change in form with development.
Homotypic continuity: how a problem is expressed may be relatively stable over time.
Factors carrying problems forward in time:
1. Continuity of environmental variables
2. Genetic predisposition
3. Effects of early experience on brain
4. Mental representation
5. Chains of negative events or behaviors
Bowlby viewed attachment as part of ongoing transactions between child and major
caregivers, which help shape developmental pathways to adaptive or less adaptive outcomes.
Ainsworth’s procedure, Strange situation, has shown that attachment could be categorized in:
- Secure attachment: seek contact with caregiver, react positively and use caregiver
as a secure base from which they venture forth to explore the environment.
- Insecure attachment: fail to use caregiver as a resource to cope with stress. They
tend either to give fewer signals of distress and ignore caregiver (avoidant type) or
display distress and make ineffective attempts to seek contact with caregiver (resistant
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