Chapter 1 Introduction
Developmental psychopathology: Intense, frequent, and persistent maladaptive patterns
of emotion, cognition, and behavior considered within the context of normal development,
resulting in the current and potential impairment of infants, children, and adolescents
Statistical deviance: Compared to the distribution in a particular sample, statistical
deviance refers to the relative infrequency of certain emotions, cognitions, and/or behaviors.
Sociocultural norms: The beliefs and expectations of certain groups about what kinds of
emotions, cognitions, and/or behaviors are undesirable or unacceptable.
Mental health perspective: The perspective that if children have a negative quality of life,
who function poorly with distress and dysfunction, or have symptoms might have a disorder
Developmental epidemiology: Frequencies and paadtterns of distributions of disorders in
infants, children, and adolescents.
Prevalence: All current cases of a type (or types) of disorder.
Incidence: New cases of a type (or types) of disorder in a given time period.
Barriers to care: Factors that impede access to mental health services, including structural
barriers such as lack of provider availability, inconveniently located services, transportation
difficulties, inability to pay, inadequate insurance coverage, or both; individual barriers such
as denial of problems or lack of trust in the system; and sociocultural barriers such as the
stigma of psychopathology or mental illness.
Stigmatization: Negative attitudes (such as blaming or overconcern with dangerousness),
emotions (such as shame, fear, or pity), and behaviors (such as ridicule or isolation) related
to psychopathology and mental illness.
Chapter 2 Models of Child development
Dimensional models of psychopathology: Models that emphasize the ways in which
typical feelings, thoughts, and behaviors gradually become more serious problems, which
then may intensify and become clinically diagnosable disorders.
Categorical models of psychopathology: Models that emphasize discrete and qualitative
differences in individual patterns of emotion, cognition, and behavior.
Physiological models: Models of psychopathology that emphasize biological processes,
such as genes and neurological systems, as being at the core of human experience;
physiological models explain the development of psychopathology, its course, and its
treatment in terms of biological factors.
Connectome: The diagram of the brain’s neural connections.
Neural plasticity: The ability of the brain to flexibly respond to physiological and
environmental challenges and insults.
Genotype: The genetic make-up of a cell, an organism, or an individual.
Phenotype: The observable characteristics of an individual.
,Behavior genetics: The study of the joint effects of genes and environments.
Molecular genetics: Studies of the effects of specific genes at the DNA level.
Heritability: The proportion of phenotypic differences among individuals that can be
attributed to genetic differences in a particular population.
Gene-by-environment effects/interactions: Correlations between genes and
environments that involve differential exposure to environments or experiences. There are
three types of gene-by-environment effects: passive correlations, active correlations, and
evocative correlations.
Epigenetics: The effect of experience and environment on the regulation of gene
expression. The resultant changes in gene expression can be transmitted across
generations.
Methylation: A epigenetic mechanism, more of methylation means less gene expression
Risk alleles: Genetic variants that impair general processes (e.g., cognitive or emotion
functions) across many disorders.
Polygenic models: An etiological model of disorders based on the cumulative and additive
effect of multiple genes.
Diathesis–stress model: A model that emphasizes the combination of underlying
predispositions (risk factors related to, for example, structural abnormalities or early
occurring trauma) and additional factors (such as further physiological or environmental
events) that lead to the development of psychopathology.
Psychodynamic models: Psychological models that emphasize unconscious cognitive,
affective, and motivational processes; mental representations of self, others, and
relationships; the subjectivity of experience; and a developmental perspective on individual
adjustment and maladjustment.
Behavioral models: Psychological models that emphasize the individual’s observable
behavior within a specific environment. + conditioning of behaviors
Classical conditioning: A form of associative learning in which certain stimuli become
paired with other stimuli resulting in the reliable elicitation of a response.
Operant conditioning: A form of learning in which consequences (negative or positive)
lead to changes (decreases or increases) in behavior.
Observational learning: A form of learning that occurs by watching, remembering, and/or
imitating others.
Reinforcement: The idea that positive and negative consequences lead to changes in
behavior; a critical component of all learning processes.
Cognitive models: A psychological model that focuses on the components and processes
of the mind and mental development.
Neoconstructivist approach: An emphasis on evolutionary contexts, experience–
expectant learning, and both qualitative and quantitative change across development.
, Humanistic models: Psychological models that emphasize personally meaningful
experiences, innate motivations for healthy growth, and the child’s purposeful creation of a
self.
Positive psychology: A field of psychology focusing on positive subjective experience,
positive individual traits, and positive institutions that seeks to promote individual, family,
social, and community well-being.
Broaden and build model of positive emotions: positive emotional experiences lay the
groundwork for resilience and well being
Family models: A model that emphasizes that the best way to understand the personality
and psychopathology of a particular child is to understand the dynamics of a particular
family, family being the first setting for children’s experiences.
Shared environment: The aspects of family life and function that are shared by all children
in the family.
Nonshared environment: The aspects of family life and function that are specific and
distinct for each child.
Sociocultural models: Models that emphasize the importance of the social context,
including gender, culture, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, in the development,
course, and treatment of psychopathology.
Ecological models: A model that emphasizes the immediate environments, or “behavior
settings,” in which children grow and make sense of their lives, including their homes,
classrooms, neighborhoods, and communities.
Birth cohort: Individuals born in a particular historical period who share key experiences
and events.
Chapter 3 Principles and Practices of Developmental Psychopathology
Psychopathology: Intense, frequent, and persistent maladaptive patterns of emotion,
cognition, and behavior that are associated with significant distress and impairment in
functioning. ‘’Delay, fixation, deviance’’
Developmental psychopathology: The study of the development of psychological
disorders with a life course perspective
Developmental pathways: Trajectories that reflect children’s adjustment, maladjustment,
or both in the context of growth and change over a lifetime; cumulative and probabilistic
Narrow: smaller short term goals and pathways. Broad: long term-pathways over life
Equifinality: Refers to developmental pathways in which differing beginnings and
circumstances lead to similar outcomes.
Multifinality: Refers to developmental pathways in which similar beginnings and
circumstances lead to different outcomes.
Coherence: From a developmental perspective, reflects the logical and meaningful links
between early developmental variables and later outcomes.
