PSY341 2023 with 100% correct questions and answers

Sandy Hook Case Study - 20 yr old Adam Lanza killed 20 children + 6 teachers - Was introduced to firearms at local firing ranges by his mom - Adam had several emotional and behavioural issues, along with disorders including the inability to feel pain - Showed evidence of developmental abnormalities by the age of 3 (repetitive behaviours, rigid thought processes, communication issues, low eye contact, low empathy, hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli) - Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at age 13 - Had obsessions and compulsions and was eventually diagnosed with OCD at age 14 - Environmental factors included parental divorce - High anxiety during middle school, so was homeschooled during high school How many people with mental illness are victims of violence? 1 in 4 How much more likely are people with severe mental illness to be victims of violence? 10x What does research in this field aim to do? Define normal and abnormal behaviour, identify cases and correlates, make predictions, and develop and evaluate treatment/prevention methods. What are some features that distinguish child and adolescent disorders? 1. A failure to show expected developmental progress. 2. Behaviours aren't entirely abnormal. Historical Views on Children: Ancient Greek and Roman Times - Children were considered servants - Children were subjected to selection (fit to survive or not?) - Children and others with a disability or any sort of difference were considered an economic burden and social embarrassment - Undesirable children were either abandoned or put to death Historical Views on Children: Prior to the 18th Century - Children mental health problems were not a focus, rather abnormal adult disorders took precedence Historical Views on Children: End of the 18th Century - Earliest interest in abnormal children and mental health emerged - Church provided the dominant view on explaining children's unusual behaviours - Blamed children's uncivilized or 'demonic' behaviour on possession by the devil What two ingredients were needed for real change in the treatment of children? 1. Humane beliefs (philosophy of humane understanding for addressing special needs, social consciousness) 2. Methods to recognize and protect the rights of children The Emergence of Social Conscience: John Locke (17th c.) - Contributed to "Humane Beliefs" ingredient - Physician concerned with the practices of childbirth and child rearing - Believed in individual rights - Believed children are emotionally sensitive and should be treated w thought and care - Believed in education opportunities and helped in enforcing universal education The Emergence of Social Conscience: Jean Marc Itard (19th c.) - Contributed to "Methods" ingredient - Researched Victor of Aveyron (boy found in the woods with severe developmental differences including inability to speak) - Attempted to socialize Victor and teach him language - Victor showed substantial progress initially, but then eventually slowed down to the point where Itard had to abandon it - Victor failed to learn language, but had a breakthrough in emotions (consoled housekeeper) What distinguishes a human from an animal? Language and empathy. The Emergence of Social Conscience: Benjamin Rush (18th/19th c.) - Believed that children were not capable of true adult-like insanities bc their brain was not yet developed - Proposed one of the first notions that developmental stages can inform our understanding of abnormal development The Emergence of Social Conscience: Leta Hollingworth (20th c.) - Believed that mentally delayed children were showing abnormal behaviours not due to there being smth inherently wrong with the child, but rather due to inadequate treatment or mental challenges proposed by adults - Proposed the underlying impact of the environment on abnormal behaviour Moral Insanity - Previously, differences btwn 'normal' and 'abnormal' behaviour were based on religious views - Children who had normal or high cognitive abilities AND were mentally disturbed (problems in personality/character) = morally insane - 'Treatment' included increased focus on teachings and moral guidance and support - Increased concern w moral education and health practices Early Biological Attributes: Biological Disease Model - Emerged in the late 19th century - Belief was that disease is progressive and irreversible - Emphasis on the idea that mental health issues are a disease inside the person, and therefore is the individual's fault - Resulted in great stigma - Singular, simplistic, inaccurate understanding of the causes of mental illness that often leads to neglecting the role of the environment - Major limitation was that intervention efforts were often limited to those with the most visible and severe disorders Clifford Beers - Biological Disease Model - Suffered from psychosis and apparently healed - Spearheaded efforts to treat those with mental illnesses - Increased protection and intervention efforts Early Biological Attributes: Eugenics and Sterilization - Emerged in the early 20th century - Society reverted to a belief that disorders could not be influenced by treatment or learning - Mental disorders were viewed as "diseases", which led to a fear of contamination - Resulted in segregation, prevention of procreation - Eugenics = 'perfecting' human beings by getting rid of those with social ills Early Psychological Attributes: Psychoanalytic Theory - Emerged in the early 20th century - Presented by Freud - Linked mental disorders to childhood experiences - Formative experiences and insights affect us regardless of whether or not we remember them - Many of our experiences that influence us occur before we are even able to form lasting conscious memories - Moments of challenge or trauma often continue to grow within and emerge as morphed forms of emotions/behaviours later in life - Emphasizes that personality and mental health outcomes have multiple roots - Emphasizes the interconnection btwn children's typical and atypical development - Not a lot of empirical evidence Early Psychological Attributes: Behaviourism - Presented by Watson - Believed that you could shape a child into anything, regardless of background, genetic predispositions, or any other factors, using reinforcement and punishment - Believed that intelligence, temperament, and personality was determined by the environment - Experimented this using his own children, which went sour (one died early w headaches, two had drinking problems and attempted suicide, another succeeded) - Little Albert experiment hypothesized, like Pavlov, that we can instill new behaviours that were not inherited (it classically conditioned a boy to show (new) distress towards any furry animal) - Thought of psychology as objective science - Published book on psychological care of infants and children (which suggested not touching your children, not playing with your children, not spoiling your children, engaging in sleep training), which he later rejected after he realized he didn't know what he was talking about Evolving Forms of Treatment: Psychodynamic Approaches - Prevailed from - Saw that children raised in institutions w/o adult contact showed harmful impacts - Institutionalization rapidly decreased from , and children were instead placed into foster homes Evolving Forms of Treatment: Behavioural Approaches - Behavioural therapy became a systematic approach in the 1950s and early 1960s - Focused on children w intellectual disabilities bc psychodynamic approaches were ineffective - Is still a popular form of therapy Progressive legislation: IDEA - Individuals w Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) protects the rights of children w special needs in the US - UN General Assembly (2007) adopted a new convention to protect the rights of persons w disabilities - An important shift from addressing special needs of children to removing barriers for them What are psychological disorders? - Patterns of behavioural, cognitive, emotional, or physical symptoms linked with one or more of the following: distress, disability, increased risk for further suffering/harm - Culture and circumstances matter Stigmatization and Labels - A challenge - The media fosters many misconceptions btwn mental health and violence - Patients often suffer from fear and hopelessness, which results in avoidance of treatment (therefore a vicious cycle) - DSM-5 guidelines propose a deficit-based perspective Competence - The ability to successfully adapt in the environment - Our definitions of psychological disorders must take into account the child's competence - Definition of competence influenced by many factors What does child psychology consider when determining abnormality? 1. The degree of maladaptive behaviour 2. The extent to which normal developmental milestones are met Developmental tasks that define different developmental periods - Conduct is one of the main fundamental domains throughout childhood and adolescence that indicates how well a child will function in society, control their behaviour, and comply as needed - Considering these can help us paint a picture where deviances and abnormalities emerge and where those competencies remain Developmental tasks that define different developmental periods: Infancy to preschool - Attachment to caregiver(s) - Language - Differentiation of self from environment Developmental tasks that define different developmental periods: Middle childhood - Self-control and compliance - School adjustment - Academic achievement - Getting along w peers - Rule-governed conduct (moral behaviour, prosocial conduct) Developmental tasks that define different developmental periods: Adolescence - Successful transition to secondary schooling - Academic achievement - Involvement in extracurricular activities - Forming close friendships within and across gender - Forming a cohesive sense of self-identity Developmental pathways The sequence and timing of particular behaviours as well as the relationships btwn behaviours over time. Developmental pathways: Multifinality - Refers to the idea that various outcomes can come from similar beginnings - E.g., early childhood maltreatment is a correlate of future disorders Developmental pathways: Equifinality - Refers to the idea that similar outcomes can come from very different experiences or genetic pathways Developmental pathways: Considerations - There are many contributors to disordered outcomes in each child - Contributors vary among children who have the same disorder - Children express features of their disturbances in different ways - Pathways leading to particular disorders are numerous and interactive Risk Factors Variables that precede a negative outcome and increase the chances that the outcome will occur. - e.g., parental mental illness, parental death, divorce, maltreatment, chronic poverty, violence, discrimination Protective Factors Personal or situational variables that mitigate a child's chances of developing a disorder. Resilience - The ability to avoid negative outcomes despite being at risk for psychopathology - Children with resilience show sustained competence under stress - Not necessarily a universal or categorical fixed attribute as it depends on the child, stress type, context, etc. Characteristics of those who display resilience: Individual child - Good intellectual functioning - Appealing, sociable, easygoing disposition - Self-efficacy, self-confidence, high self-esteem - Talents - Faith Characteristics of those who display resilience: Family - Close, caring relationship with parent figure - Authoritative parenting (warmth, structure, high expectations) - SES advantages - Connections to extended supportive family network Characteristics of those who display resilience: School and community - Adults outside the family who take an interest in promoting child's welfare - Connections to social organizations - Attendance at effective schools What is the significance of mental health problems among children and youth? - 1 in 8 children with psychiatric disorders have high risk of problems in adolescence (highly predictive) - Majority of children needing mental health services do not receive them (caregiver hesitancy, missing early signs, stigma, cost of resources, etc.) - Demand for children's mental health services is expected to double over the next decade How do we understand and approach children's mental health now? - We're better able to distinguish among disorders, and therefore make better diagnoses - There's greater awareness of younger children's/teens' unique mental health issues - Evidence-based prevention and treatment programs are more prominent (e.g., in schools) What are some factors that affect the prevalence of mental health issues? Poverty, sex, racial and ethnic minorities Factors that affect the prevalence of mental health issues: Poverty - 1 in 5 children in the US, and 1 in 7 children in Canada live in poverty - Greater risk for conduct problems, chronic illness, school problems, emotional disorders, and cognitive and learning problems - Children who experience poverty often experience other challenges as well (e.g., single parent, lower education, exposure to violence, lack of healthcare, etc.) Factors that affect the prevalence of mental health issues: Sex - Sex differences are pretty negligible before the age of 3 but increase with age - Externalizing problems (acting out behaviours like aggression, delinquency) are higher in males and may present as physical violence rather than emotional violence - Internalizing problems (internal behaviours like anxiety, depression, withdrawal, eating disorders, emotional disorders) are higher in females Factors that affect the prevalence of mental health issues: Racial and ethnic minorities - Minority children in the US are overrepresented in rates of disorders like substance abuse, delinquency, teen suicide - These effects may disappear when controlling for SES, gender, age, and other stats, which may suggest that they are more responsible - Minority children often experience other issues such as racism - Barriers to access remain a significant factor for treatment and outcomes - Values, beliefs, and practices that characterize a particular ethnocultural group contribute to development and expression of children's disorders Child maltreatment and non-accidental trauma - 1 in 3 ten to sixteen year olds report experiencing physical and/or sexual assault - 1 mil of child abuse/neglect cases occur in the US every year - Associated w greater risk for PTSD, depression, substance abuse - Iceberg analogy (unreported instances) LGBTQS+ Youth - Display higher rates of depression, suicidal behaviour, substance abuse, and risky sexual behaviour - Many report verbal abuse, physical attacks - Early- to mid-adolescence is an important transitional period for healthy adjustment, during which some of the vulnerabilities they face include substance use, risky sexual behaviour, violence, accidental injuries, and mental health problems Lifespan Implications - Impact is most severe when problems go untreated for extended periods of time - Ab 20% of children with the most chronic and serious disorders face lifelong difficulties - Lifelong consequences associated w child psychopathology are costly to both the individual and to society - Solutions may include major initiatives for prevention and intervention, including efforts to change harmful policies and investing in greater research Emotional vs Cognitive Empathy - Empathy involves both an emotional (emotion contagion, emotion recognition, emotion mimicking) and cognitive (understanding the cognition/causes behind the other's emotions) component - Emotional component develops in infancy, earlier than the cognitive component, and is largely inherently biological - Victor of Aveyron certainly got the emotional component, but we don't know about the cognition component What is a theory? A language of science that allows us to assemble and communicate existing knowledge effectively, and to make educated guesses and predictions ab behaviour and its causes. What is etiology? The study of the causes of childhood disorders. What is developmental psychopathology? It informs our understanding of how we form theories and conceptualize disorders. What does developmental psychopathology emphasize? 1. Developmental processes 2. Developmental milestones and sequences 3. Using normative development to help us understand abnormal development, and vice versa What are 3 guiding assumptions about abnormal development according to developmental psychopathology? 1. Abnormal development is multiply determined 2. Child and environment are interdependent-transactional (bidirectional) 3. Abnormal development can be continuous or discontinuous Developmental psychopathology: Abnormal development can be continuous - Development is gradual, continual, quantified (nature) - E.g., biological development/growth - Positive and negative factors may play a role Developmental psychopathology: Abnormal development can be discontinuous - Development occurs across steps and stages, thus change can be more abrupt and qualitative (nurture) - E.g., development of ToM - Positive and negative factors may play a role Developmental psychopathology: Developmental Cascades - Used to understand why some problems that show up early in life become major problems later on, and why some don't - Used to understand why some with the upper hand early in life may end up with problems later on, and why some don't - Used to understand how previous interactions may spread across domains of development to affect behaviour - Waterfall analogy How is abnormal child behaviour best studied? Via an integrative, multi-theoretical approach. What is an adaptational failure? The failure to meet a developmental milestone in one or more areas of development. What are some pros and cons of considering adaptational failures? Pros: objective, measurable Cons: can create stigma, doesn't take environmental or cultural factors into account, doesn't take individual variability into account Is development organized? - Yes - Early patterns of adaptation evolve with structure over time - Difficulties/challenges along the path may result in a changed developmental trajectory - E.g., language learning goes from acquiring basic to more complex skills What are sensitive periods of development? Windows of time during which development is particularly sensitive to environmental influence, and we are primed towards learning/developing something. What is an example of a sensitive period of development? - Language learning is heightened between ages 3-7, and it steeply tapers down soon after - Toddlers are sensitive to the distinct sounds of their language - Greater language exposure during this period can be very beneficial, while lack of language exposure can be detrimental How are developmental periods characterized by age? - Involves evaluating the expected developmental achievement, commonly observed abnormal behaviours during this time, and potential clinical disorders that are more at risk of emerging at that time - E.g., those with speech/language disorders during that developmental window (2-5 yrs) may exhibit conduct disorders due to their lack of ability to communicate effectively What are the 3 major perspectives on abnormal child development? 1. Biological 2. Psychological 3. Contextual Biological perspectives: Causes 1. Brain damage and dysfunction 2. Neurotransmitter imbalances 3. Genetic influences Biological perspectives: Brain damage and dysfunction - Forebrain (basal ganglia): involved in regulation of cognition, mood, and motor functions; disorders may include ADHD, motor problems, OCD - Frontal lobes: involved in memory, decision-making, emotional regulation; disorders may include depression, OCD - HPA axis: is the stress-response (fight or flight) system; disorders may include anxiety and mood disorders Biological perspectives: Neurotransmitter imbalances - Neurotransmitters create biochemical currents in our brain by carrying signals across neurons and synapses to different parts of the brain - Benzodiazepine GABA: involved in reducing arousal, modulating emotional responses (anger, aggression), and is linked to anxiety/discomfort; implicated in anxiety disorder - Dopamine: involved in allowing other NTs to inhibit/facilitate emotions/behaviour, is linked to extroverted, exploratory, pleasure-seeking behaviour; implicated in ADHD, schizophrenia, mood disorders - Psychoactive drugs work by increasing/decreasing the flow of different NTs Biological perspectives: Genetic influences - Involved in all childhood disorders to some extent - There is rarely one single gene to blame for a disorder - Gene expression is malleable and responsive to the environment (GxE; bidirectional) - Genes do not determine. behaviour, but rather produce proteins that influence how we respond to our environment Psychological perspectives: Causes 1. Emotional influences 2. Behavioural and cognitive influences Psychological perspectives: Emotional influences - Used from an early age to organize our understanding of information and avoid potential harm - Evolutionary perspective: gives significance to particular events, informs future action What are the 2 dimensions of emotional processes? 1. Emotional reactivity: the threshold and intensity of the emotional experience 2. Emotional regulation: the enhancement, maintenance, or inhibition of emotional arousal to serve a goal What are the 3 primary dimensions of temperament? 1. Positive Affect and Approach (easy): approachable, adaptable, can self-regulate 2. Fearful and Inhibited (slow to warm): fearful, cautious, high self-control, more variability in ability to self-regulate 3. Negative Affect / Irritability (difficult): negative/intense mood, irritable, rigid, high stress/distress - Want balance between temperament and self-control What was the Marshmallow Task and what did it measure? - Gave children 1 marshmallow and told them that if they wait, they would get 2 marshmallows - Measure of self-control, temperament What was the Art Supply follow-up to the Marshmallow Task and what made it differ from the original? - Differs from the original because it added the element of the environment - Children were promised better art supplies if they wait, but were in either the reliable (actually got it) or unreliable group (did not get it) - Children were then presented with the original Marshmallow Task - Found that children in the unreliable condition were more likely to not wait and just eat the 1 marshmallow - Found that children in the reliable condition would wait up to 4x longer than the unreliable group for the 2nd marshmallow - Therefore, if placed in an environment where long-term gain is unlikely, children will act more impulsively - Measure of self-control, environment Psychological perspectives: Behavioural and cognitive influences - Abnormal behaviour develops as a function of learning and children's interpretations of the behaviours around them - There are differing degrees of how much cognition is involved in the process What is applied behavioural analysis? - Relies on observable behaviour - Cognition has little to no effect on behaviour, merely explains how thought patterns develop over time - Behaviour is a function of its antecedents and consequents - Behavioural learning occurs either via classical conditioning or operant conditioning What is classical conditioning? - Pairs a neutral stimulus with a natural response - Explains how some deviant behaviours are associated with what are considered neutral or unrelated stimuli What is operant conditioning? - Strengthens or reduces a response via reinforcement (positive; adds smth) or punishment (negative; rids of smth) What is the Social Learning Theory? - Introduced by Albert Bandura - Relies on integrating cognitive processes to help explain behaviour (cognitions influence behaviour) - Refers to cognitive mediators - Involves observational learning and social cognition What is observational learning? Learning that occurs through observing and imitating others' behaviour. What is social cognition? Refers to how one thinks of themselves and others, and results in mental representations being formed about one's emotional and social world. What did Bandura's research find? - Before Bandura, people believed that watching violence purged you of the urge to commit violence - Study involved a model aggressively hitting a Bobo doll, who was then either rewarded, punished, or got neither - Children's behaviour was influenced by what they saw - Boys were initially more aggressive, but girls started mimicking the aggression more as the rewards continued - Closest mimicry occurred when experimenter and participant were the same sex - Same results found when study involved a film of aggression towards the doll, rather than it being in real life Contextual perspectives - Causes include familial, social, environmental, cultural factors - Involve proximal (direct) and distal (indirect) events (e.g., parent-child relationship vs. parental employment) - Involve shared (behavioural similarities in siblings of the same family) and nonshared (behavioural differences in siblings of the same family) environments (e.g., same/different treatment by parents, same/different schools) What is Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model? - Core model system of contextual perspectives - The child's environment is a series of nested and interconnected structures with the child at the center - Child - microsystem (proximate) - exosystem (distal) - macrosystem (social, cultural factors) - An adaptation of this model is catered towards Black youth, involving the chronosystem (history factors across time e.g., racism, trauma, spirituality) What is the Theory of Attachment? The process of establishing or maintaining an emotional bond with the caregiver and/or other significant adults. - From a contextual perspective, a lot of abnormal behaviour can be linked back to this attachment What is the Infant Attachment Cycle? Baby explores new environment - baby gets scared - baby seeks comfort from caregiver (need) - baby is comforted (need is met) - trust is established - baby continues exploring environment John Bowlby - Believed that babies are programmed to engage in relationship-building behaviours - Evolutionary perspective: being hardwired to develop an attachment to your caregiver increases your chance of survival - Thought that adults find babies cute, which makes them more likely to engage in caregiving behaviours - As a result, unhealthy behaviours may emerge as a result of an abnormal relationship btwn child and caregiver Baby Schema Experiment (Glocker et al., 2009) - Baby schema = positive (cute) incentive for caregiver to engage in caregiving behaviours regardless of whether baby is biologically theirs or not - Desired features include round face, big eyes, small nose, large head - Glocker et al. manipulated baby schema features to form two groups: high baby schema (cute) vs low baby schema (not cute) - People instructed to rate baby's cuteness and their motivation to take care of it - Cuter babies elicited more motivation for caregiving - Follow-up experiment: women's NaC showed greater activation for high baby schema babies What are Bowlby's four phases of attachment? 1. Preattachment (birth to 6 wks): preference towards humans but no attachment to a specific individual (evolutionarily advantageous), social, attention-seeking 2. Attachment in the making (6 wks to 6-8 mo): preference towards caregiver vs strangers, highly influenced by primary caregiver 3. Clear cut attachment (6-8 mo to 1.5-2 yrs): strong preference for caregiver and dislike for strangers, clear attachment bond, distress when separated from caregiver 4. Formation of reciprocal relationships (2 yrs+): internalization of working models of relationships, may form other attachments, higher cognition, better communication Mary Ainsworth - Developed The Strange Situation paradigm: a procedure through which an infant's attachment style to its caregiver may be assessed - Determined 4 patterns of attachment: Secure, Insecure Anxious Avoidant, Insecure Anxious Resistant, Insecure Disorganized Disoriented What is the secure attachment style? ...