DRAFT: Developmental Psychopathology 1

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering foundational concepts, theories, and research methodologies in Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychopathology.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

A landmark law mandating free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, requiring culturally appropriate assessment and an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each child.

Competence

The ability to successfully adapt in the environment, evaluated in child psychology by the degree of adaptive behavior, sociocultural context, and developmental milestones.

Developmental Pathways

The sequence and timing of behaviors, as well as the relationships between behaviors over time.

Multifinality

A developmental pathway concept in which various outcomes stem from similar early beginnings, such as early childhood maltreatment leading to eating, mood, or conduct disorders.

Equifinality

A developmental pathway concept in which similar final outcomes stem from different early experiences and genetic or environmental combinations.

Risk Factors

Variables that precede a negative outcome and increase the probability that a disorder will occur.

Protective Factors

Personal or situational variables that precede an outcome and reduce the chances of developing a disorder or increase the ability to avoid negative outcomes.

Resilience

The ability to fight off or recover from misfortune, adversity, and stress, supported by a protective triad of child, family, and school/community strengths.

Internalizing Problems

Overcontrolled behavioral dimensions where distress and impact are experienced internally, including anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms.

Externalizing Problems

Undercontrolled behavioral dimensions where distress and impact are directed outward, including acting-out behaviors and aggression.

Etiology

The study of the causes of a disease or condition, examining how biological, psychological, and sociocultural processes interact to produce outcomes over time.

Continuity

A perspective holding that developmental changes are gradual and quantitative, making early patterns predictive of future behaviors.

Discontinuity

A perspective holding that developmental changes are abrupt and qualitative, making early patterns non-predictive of future behaviors.

Adaptational Failure

Unsuccessful progress in achieving expected developmental milestones relative to peers.

Developmental Cascade

A process where a child's previous interactions and experiences alter other systems and spread across the course of development over time.

Sensitive Periods

Windows of time during development when environmental influences on development are heightened.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory

A theoretical model proposing that child development unfolds over time within nested context layers ranging from microsystem to macrosystem and chronosystem.

Behavioral Genetics

A subfield of research that investigates the direct connections between genetic predispositions and observed behavior.

Emotional Reactivity

Individual differences in the threshold and intensity of emotional experience.

Emotion Regulation

The process of enhancing, maintaining, or inhibiting emotional arousal.

Emotion Socialization

The developmental process through which children learn to understand, express, and self-regulate emotions within social contexts.

Temperament

An organized style of behavior appearing early in development that shapes and is shaped by interactions with the environment.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

An operant conditioning approach explaining behavior as a direct function of its antecedents and consequences.

Positive Reinforcement

The addition of a pleasant stimulus following a behavior to increase or maintain that behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of an aversive stimulus following a behavior to increase or maintain that behavior.

Positive Punishment

The addition of an aversive stimulus following a behavior to decrease that behavior.

Negative Punishment

The removal of a pleasant stimulus following a behavior to decrease that behavior.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process involving paired associations where a neutral stimulus becomes conditioned upon pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.

Social Cognition

The ways in which children think about themselves and others, leading to mental representations of relationships.

Internal Working Model

An internalized framework of relationships established through early primary attachments (starting between 6 to 12 months) that influences later relationships.

Epidemiological Research

The study of the incidence, prevalence, and co-occurrence of health disorders within specified populations.

Incidence Rates

The rate at which new cases of a disorder emerge within a specified period of time.

Prevalence Rates

The total proportion of all cases (both new and existing) observed in a population during a specified period.

Correlates

Variables that are statistically associated at a given point in time without clear evidence that one preceded the other.

Moderating Variable

A variable that influences the direction or strength of the relationship between two other variables of interest.

Mediating Variable

A variable that accounts for the underlying mechanism or process through which one variable produces an outcome.

Standardization

A process establishing explicit standards or norms for a measurement method to ensure consistent application.

Internal Consistency

A measure of reliability evaluating whether different items within a single test produce consistent results.

Interrater Reliability

The degree of agreement among independent observers recording data using the same measure.

Test-Retest Reliability

The stability of measurement results over time across repeated administrations.

Construct Validity

The degree to which scores on a measurement instrument perform as predicted by theoretical models.

Criterion-Related Validity

The degree to which a measure accurately predicts specific behavioral outcomes in real-world settings.

Internal Validity

The extent to which an experiment's findings can be attributed directly to the manipulated independent variable rather than confounding factors.

External Validity

The degree to which study results can be generalized across other populations, contexts, measures, and times.

Selection Bias

A methodological error occurring when study participants are selected non-randomly and fail to represent the larger population.

Analogue Research

An experimental strategy that evaluates a specific variable under highly controlled conditions designed to approximate real-life conditions.

Assent

The explicit agreement of a child (typically around age 7 or older) to participate in research, alongside formal parental consent.