Developmental Psychopathy

Important of Developmental framework

understanding what’s normal developmental allos us to judge whether behavior is appropriate

some problem behavior is normal (children lying)

the medical model of child psychopathology

behavioral problems analogous to physical illnesses

DSM

• diorders grouped categorically

• operates as if conditions are all enduring

Developmental perspective of child psychopathology

Child is inseparable from context

5 principles

• developmental deviation over time

  • behavioral/emotional problems are adaptations that evolve over time (just like normal development)

  • Need to understand the development of both ‘normal’ functioning and psychopathology

• Multiple pathways to similar outcomes

  • “Equifinality” - multiple paths lead to same outcome

  • What we call the same thing might have very different:

    • Causes

    • Interventions

• same pathway to different outcomes

  • “Multifinality” - the same initial event/pathway can lead to different outcomes

    • May need to classify problem behaviors based on pathway instead of outcome

• change is possible at many point

  • Disorder is a process, not something static that a child just “has”

  • Change is possible throughout development, due to many internal and external factors

• change is constrained by prior adaptation

  • The longer a child is on a maladaptive pathway, the less likely it is that they will get back on an adaptive pathway

  • The child plays an active role in their development. Bad choices could make positive change less likely

risk factors for dev. psychopathology

characteristics or situations associated with psecific negative outcomes for all children exposed to them

negative outcome more likely when there are multiple risk factors

risk factors tend to occur together

develomental resilience

successful develomental in the face of multiple risk fators

protective factors

associated with good outcomes

child factors

• cognitive abilities

• responsiveness to others

environmental factors

• loving, dependable parents (drops rate of problem behavior from 75% to 25%)

reslience does not mean invulnerability

• developmentally resilient children show signs of internalizing disorders

• as adults, they have more stress-related health problems, dissatisfaction, and burden of taking care of others who are less resilient