Welcome to Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Dr. Geoff Goodman x4277 What are your expectations for this course? Did you get a syllabus?

Historical Overview of Course Perspective: Developmental Psychopathology Nineteenth Century Conceptions of Child Psychopathology— Cicchetti(1984)  Medical model= “main-effects” model used by clinicians (Freud) Pathological internal agent disturbing homeostasis of organism (e.g., weak constitution) Pathological external agent disturbing homeostasis of organism (e.g., early childhood trauma)  Academic psychology= empiricism and associationism Behavior following mechanistically from the action of external determinants in here and now (behaviorism) Twentieth Century Adherents to These Two Models  Medical model—Freud, clinical psychiatry  Behaviorism—Watson, Pavlov, Hull, Skinner

Contrasts between these two models  While medical model focuses on emotions, behaviorism focuses on cognition  Medical model focuses on pathology, not on development of personality; behaviorism focuses on normal development or immediate stimulus-response, not on pathology. Developmental psychopathology today—convergence  Clinicians becoming aware of Piagetian and other organismic models of behavior, taking into account more factors  Academic behaviorists abandoning simple theories of classical learning theory in favor of more reality-based model that reflects clinical problems Implications of Convergence  Collaborative, multidomain, longitudinal studies  Use of control groups to establish baseline, normal behavior  Use of ethology in evaluation of developmental psychopathology—influence of Lorenz (ducks), Tinbergen, Harlow, and others

Contemporary Approaches to Developmental Psychopathology (Cicchetti, 1990)  Psychoanalytic Developmental Approach Maternal deprivation and problematic mother-child relationships  psychopathology (Bowlby) Early life events  later behavior through concept of “representational models” (Bowlby) Fixations in stages of differentiation from mother from infantile autism to object-libidinal cathexis of mother (Mahler) Multiple determinations of psychopathalogical symptoms such as temper tantrum (A. Freud) Abnormal behavior caused by regression, arrest, or developmental delay (A. Freud)

 Organismic developmental approach Use of normal psychology for understanding abnormal behavior (Werner/Kaplan)  Early levels of normal symbolic functioning and language development parallel to symbolic fuctioning and language development in psychiatric patients (“disintegration”)  Functioning in psychiatric population not hierachically organized or differentiated or integrated Organism achieves higher levels of organization, differentiation, and integration before regression or disintegration occurs

Piagetian developmental approach  Thinking processes of mentally retarded children demonstrate traces of previous thinking (“viscosity”)  Understanding transitions between stages of development and the meaning of fluctuations (“decalage”) Psychobiological developmental approach (Meyer)  Constitutional factors modifying individual’s responses to life events  Effects of life events modifying individuals  Use example of temperamentally irritable infant; Nathaniel

Michael Lewis’s contemporary approaches to developmental psychopathology (Lewis, 1990)  Trait or status model ( medical model) A trait at T 1 predicts a trait at T 2 No environmental input Examples include temperament, particular genetic codes Attachment construct M t1 C t1 C t2

Secure attachment can buffer against stress (still trait) E t1 E t2 E t3 C t1 C t1 C t1 Introduce idea of critical or sensitive period When does trait model break down, and environment affect trait (thresholds)?  Duration of stressor  Intensity of stressor  Frequency of stressor  Earlier rather than later in life Problems with trait model  Situation-specific (secure attachment to mom rather than dad)  No room for environment to affect trait past first few years of life

Environmental model (behaviorism)  Normal or maladaptive behavior is function of environmental forces acting on individual at that time  Individual responds to rewards and punishments  Passive child, active environment  Memories of previous rewards or punishments can affect current behavior (development of representational models)  Different kinds of environments Dyadic family interactions Family systems Peers Neighborhood effects Community effects Gender,ethnicity, cohort, SES effects Cultural effects

 Creation of victim culture (e.g., “murders may be due more to the culture’s non-punishment or nonrestriction of handguns,” p. 19) Are Americans more violent by nature, or do we just permit handguns?  Environmental model E t1 E t2 E t3 C t1 C t2 C t3 assuming homeostatic environment  Effects of attachment (↓ peer relations, ↓ school performance) could be function of homeostatic environment) Foster care study, changes in mothers’ level of depression

 Compare trait and environmental models Poor parenting  insecure attachment  poor peer relationships (mediated model) Poor parenting  insecure attachment poor peer relationships Poor parenting + insecure attachment  poor peer relationships (additive model) Poor parenting * insecure attachment  poor peer relationships (moderated model)  Affects of prior experience t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 t 5 t 1 t 2 t 3 E C ? + + ?

Interactional model  Stability and change in child a function of child and environment  Trait and environment may act to produce new set of behaviors -Aπ x +E  + O  not affected OR  Transformational model (transactional model) -Aπ x +E  +Aπ  + O Goodness-of-Fit Model  Discord arises when child characteristics do not match environmental demand (e.g., temperament, sex role attitudes) C play x  (+) school adjustment C play x  (-) school adjustment M (+) attitude toward play M (-) attitude toward play