Child Psychopathology

Environmental causesFamily factors

Working with childrenReading for today: Chapter 2

Biological approaches: What is going on in this picture?

• Evoked Response Potentials (ERP’s)• Polygraphs• HR• BP

Differentiation of emotions

Excitement

Positive emotions Negative Emotions

joy anger sadinterest

surprisepain

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• Table 2.2 from text links three attachment styles to

specific outcomes

Family and society

• What is the family context of a child?• The broader social context is also important• Bronfenbrenner’s model Figure 2.6 of text• Group activity: Using this model, describe

exactly how poverty may have a negative impact on child development and psychopathology

You are conducting an assessment of this girl. What do you want to know about her?

Working With Children

• Children like to draw pictures• Children like to please and agree with you,

so you need to emphasize “any answer”is okay

• Children have less power than adults• Children do not always understand the

meaning of adult behavior• Children’s relationships are less stable, but

seem very important to them