Transcript Chapter 2 - Cengage Learning

Chapter 2
Explanations of Child Behavior
Disturbance
Brain and Behavior: The Neuroscience
of Disorders
• Four types of abnormality in normal gene
replication that can cause physical or mental
problems
– A single defective gene
– Recessive genes
– Disarranged or excessively replicated gene
sequences
– Incompletely divided chromosomes
Some Basic Concepts of Genetics
• Polygenic Model: Multiple genetic abnormalities
are usually required for a person to develop a
disorder
• A few serious and progressive neurological
disorders (Huntington’s Chorea), and some types
of mental retardation (Down syndrome) have
genetic basis
• However, little or no accepted evidence of a
genetic basis for behavior disorders
Behavioral Genetics
• Aims to discover the contributions of genes
to many human behaviors
• Behavioral geneticists study similarities in
the most closed related individuals
(identical twins)
– Adoption studies examine what disorders are
genetic versus developmental
– Studies reveal that genes underlie family
similarities in many skills and behaviors
Evaluation of Genetic Models of
Abnormality
• Critics charge environment can account for
many similarities in twins
• Studying identical and fraternal twins reared
apart should be a stronger test
– U. of Minnesota study reported personality
similarities among adult identical twins
separated at birth
• But researchers did not report lists of dissimilarities
Evaluation of Genetic Models of
Abnormality
• Effect of genes may be indirect
• Reciprocal gene-environment model: genetic
endowment increases a person’s chances of
entering or creating particular types of social
situations
– Genetic vulnerabilities can increase a person’s exposure
to the very situations that create problems for that
person
• Perils of Genetics Research
Perils of Behavioral Genetics Research
• Very difficult to connect specific genes with
specific psychological disorders
– Complex and subtle contributions of many
genes more difficult to trace
– Many psychological disorders difficult to
diagnose
– Many of the presumed causal paths cannot be
traced
• No perfect correspondence between brain
structure, genes or biochemistry and
behavior disorder
• Genetic endowment most often creates
predispositions to develop certain disorders,
given a particular set of biological and
environmental conditions
Structure and Functions of the Brain
• (CNS) Central Nervous System – brain and spinal
cord
• (PNS) Peripheral Nervous System – somatic and
autonomic nervous systems
• Brain – contains billions of neurons (nerve cells)
– Neurotransmitters: chemicals that cross gap between
neurons to transmit or inhibit nerve impulses.
– An excess or deficiency of various neurotransmitters is
thought to be involved in many mental disorders
Structure and Function of the Brain
• Some Neurotransmitters
– Serotonin: Acts on information processing and
modes. Low activity levels in suicide,
aggression, sexual excesses, impulsive
overeating
– GABA: Reduces anxiety, inhibits behaviors and
emotions, reduces overall arousal, reduces
emotional responses
Structure and Function of the Brain
– Norepinephrine: May act to generally regulate
or moderate behavioral tendencies
– Dopamine: Activates other neurotransmitters to
inhibit or facilitate emotions and behavior.
Associated with Parkinson’s disease and
possibly with schizophrenia
Links between Brain, Behavior and
Psychopathology
• Cerebral Cortex: contains most of the neurons of
the CNS and has 4 lobes (frontal, parietal,
temporal, and occipital) that have different
functions
• HYPAC: hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenalcortical
axis is made up of the hypothalamus and
endocrine system
• Brain sites below cerebral cortex (midbrain,
cerebellum, pons, medulla oblongata and spinal
cord) associated with more automatic functions
A Psychodynamic Explanation:
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
• Four main themes of Freud’s personality
theory
– Irrationality of humans
– Unconscious aggression, sexual jealousy,
anxiety
– Formation of personality in early childhood
– Need to recognize and overcome early
irrational feelings about parents
Structure of Personality
• Composed of three systems (not anatomical
locations, but constructs to explain irrational and
conflicted human behavior
– Id: first and most primitive component, seeks
immediate gratification
– Ego: operates more realistically, decision making
executive branch of personality
– Superego represents the harsh moral code derived from
what child believes strict, unforgiving parents want,
drives person to try to meet impossibly high standards
Stages of Psychosexual Personality
Development
• Freud thought most of adult personality
formed in first 5 years
– Oral stage: too much or too little oral
gratification can produced oral fixation
– Anal stage: over eagerness to please others with
tangible creations, compulsivity about
cleanliness
– Phallic stage: resolution of Oedipal Complex
Evaluation of Freud’s Theory
• Demolished general beliefs that children
lack sexual interests and adults behave
rationally
• Psychoanalysis: an intervention for
psychologically disturbed people that
guided psychiatric assessment and treatment
for decades
Evaluation of Freud’s Theories
• Criticisms
– Psychoanalytic theories more selfcontradictory, more complex, and less
parsimonious than competing theories
– Lack of rigorous research
– Lack of empirical evidence to support
effectiveness
– Dated
Freud’s Heritage: Erikson’s Ego
Theory
• Ego Identity – individuals healthy solution
to a sequence of identity crises associated
with each psychological stage
Ego Theory: Stages
•
•
•
•
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (infant)
Initiative vs. guilt (3-5)
Industry vs. inferiority (before puberty)
Identity versus isolation (adolescence)
Ego Theory: Stages
• Intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood)
• Generativity versus stagnation (maturity)
• Integrity versus despair (old age)
Ego Theory: Evaluation
• Not much more focused or scientifically
verifiable than Freud’s theory
Freud’s Heritage: Attachment Theory
• One of the most influential explanations of
early social and emotional adjustment
• Normal social development throughout
formative years based on infant’s
developing trust in “attachment figure”
Attachment Theory: Evaluation
• Difficult distinguish between effects of
early attachment quality and later
relationships with parents
• Insufficient evidence that early troubled
attachment strongly predicts later
psychopathology
Freud’s Heritage: Object Relations
Theory
• Object relations refers not to physical
objects but to human social and emotional
relations
• Theory stresses lasting influence of early
relationships with important others
• Child forms stable internalized beliefs about
himself and other people
Freud’s Heritage: Object Relations
Theory
• Introjection – child imitates and identifies
with the mother and others, viewing herself
as others do
• Internalization – child thinks of herself as
dumb or bright, good or bad, reacting as
though person who was the original
attachment object was still present
Conditioning, Learning, and Cognitive
Psychology Explanations
Skinner’s Operant Learning Model
• Two basic types of learning – operant and
respondent
• Operant conditioning involves voluntary
and purposeful behaviors
Skinner’s Operant Learning Model
• Operant behavior alters or operates on the
physical or social environment and is cued
by situations that precede it
– Discriminative stimuli – stimuli that certain
behaviors can be reinforced
– Reinforcing consequences – any event that
strengthens a preceding operant response or
makes it more likely to occur
Skinner’s Operant Learning Model
• Operant Behavior can be eliminated through
extinction
– Extinction – when usual reinforcement is
completely withheld for a prolonged period
Punishment and Negative
Reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement increases the rate of
behavior it follows exactly as positive
reinforcement does
– Operant behavior is repeated because it
removes an aversive stimulus
• Punishment – delivery of an aversive
stimulus following some action, which
reduces future probability of that behavior
Evaluation of Skinner
• Skinner provided focused, general, easily
understood and parsimonious explanation of
human behavior
• Some say he is too grounded in animal
research to explain complex human
activities
• Behavioral geneticists argue that some
behavior is hereditary and not learned
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
• Humans can exert great control over our
own conduct regardless of external
influences
• A person’s interpretation of an event is the
chief determinant of that person’s reaction.
• Humans adept at observational learning
(imitation, modeling)
Sources of children’s abnormal
behavior
• Exposure to socially
deviant models
• Insufficient
reinforcement
• Inappropriate
reinforcement or
reinforcement of
undesirable behavior
• Faulty learning
• Fictional
reinforcement
contingencies
• Faulty selfreinforcement
Self-Efficacy and Behavior
• Theory attempts to explain the mutual
interacting influences of people’s selfperceptions and their behavior
• Self-Efficacy – Your belief in your own
ability
– Self-efficacy convictions can be self-fulfilling