Transcript 4053X1 1999 Sept21

Child Psychopathology
Environmental causes
Behavior, emotion, and cognition
Family factors
Reading for today: Chapter 2
Biological approaches: What is going on in
this picture?
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Evoked Response Potentials (ERP’s)
Polygraphs
HR
BP
Differentiation of emotions
Excitement
Positive emotions
Negative Emotions
surprise
interest
joy
anger
sad
pain
Emotional regulation in children
• What is emotional regulation?
• Is emotional regulation a “normal” developmental
goal?
• Why is it important that children learn to regulate
their emotions?
• What are the biological and environmental
influences in ER?
• What problems may emerge for children who do
not learn ER?
Child temperament and ER
• Temperament = tendency to behave in
certain ways
• Influenced by ER and how environment
responds to a child
• Three primary temperament dimensions:
– Positive affect and approach (Easy)
– fearful or inhibited (Slow-to-warm-up)
– Negative affect or irritability (Difficult)
• Response to child’s emotions shapes this
Behavioral and cognitive
approaches
• Applied behavioral analysis (ABC’s)
involves an operant approach (e.g., fighting
is reinforced by parents)
• Classical conditioning (CR’s, CS’s)
approaches (e.g., fighting whenever
intoxicated)
• Social learning, modeling (fighting because
of television violence)
Social learning, cognitive mediators,
and observational learning
• Cognitive structures and content make up a
child’s schema, which is a guideline that
affects expectations and information
processing from the environment
• Cognitive deficts and distortions are present
in various childhood disorders (e.g. ADHD)
• Social information processing: How do
children adapt to unfamiliar situations (e.g.,
frosh week)
Interpersonal processes in
psychopathology: Attachment
theory
• Early interactions with caregivers gives rise
to expectations about self and other
• Later personality, self-reliance, and success
in relationships affected by early
attachments
• Interpersonal problems contribute to child
psychopathology
• Evolutionary theory
• Figure 2.4 from text
Attachment in context
• Parental work status does not predict
attachment
• Emotional adjustment of the parent (e.g.,
family stress and conflict) is important
• Quality of non-parental care is important
• Relationship quality becomes internalizes
and influences later adult and romantic
relationships
– AAI: Dismissing, Autonomous, Preoccupied
Family and society
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What is the family context of a child?
The broader social context is also important
Bronfenbrenner’s model Figure 2.7 of text
Group activity: Using this model, describe
exactly how poverty may have a negative
impact on child development and
psychopathology