Child Psychopathology

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Child Psychopathology

• Environmental causes
• Family factors
• Working with children
• Reading for today Chapter 2

2
Biological approaches What is going on in this
picture?

• Evoked Response Potentials (ERPs)
• Polygraphs
• HR
• BP

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Differentiation of emotions
Excitement
Positive emotions
Negative Emotions
surprise
sad
pain
joy
anger
interest
4
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?

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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 childs emotions shapes this

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Behavioral and cognitive approaches

• Applied behavioral analysis (ABCs) involves an
  operant approach (e.g., fighting is reinforced by
  parents)
• Classical conditioning (CRs, CSs) approaches
  (e.g., fighting whenever intoxicated)
• Social learning, modeling (fighting because of
  television violence)

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Social learning, cognitive mediators, and
observational learning

• Cognitive structures and content make up a
  childs 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)

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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

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Family and society

• What is the family context of a child?
• The broader social context is also important
• Bronfenbrenners 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

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

• Children like to draw pictures
• Children like to please and agree with you, so
  you need to emphasize any answeris okay
• Children have less power than adults
• Children do not always understand the meaning of
  adult behavior
• Childrens relationships are less stable, but
  seem very important to them