3 statistics/facts about children's health

12% (1 in 8) of children have a psychological disorder

by age 21, 60% have met criteria for a diagnosable psychological disorder

only 10% of children who need psychological treatment are recieving treatment

3 dates to know

1800's - Dorthea Dix founded humane mental health centers for children

1895 - Freud developed his psychoanylytic theory

1905 - Binet developed the first IQ test

Multifinality

the concept that various outcomes may stem from similar beginnings

example: for physical/sexual abuse

33% of children do fine

33% of children do okay

33% of children have a poor outcome

Risk Factor

charactersitics/events that significantly increase the chance that a child will develop psychological, behavioral, or emotional problems

3 intrinsic risk factors

low birth weight (<5 lbs) has a risk of MR and LDs

low IQ or having a LD has a risk of academic difficulty

difficult temperament

3 family risk factors

death of a parent (especially before age 11) has a risk for depression

parent divorce

alcohol/drug abuse

3 school/community risk factors

peer rejection/bullying has a risk for homicide (if aggressive) or suicide (if has depression) 

academic failure

community violence

resilience factor

personal/situational factors that protect a child even when experiencing risk factors

3 individual resilience factors

good intellectual function

sociable

good self-esteem

3 family resilience factors

supportive family member(s)

positive 1 on 1 time with parent 

effective parenting skills

2 school/community resilience factors

good school

involvement in prosocial activity/activities

biological views of psychological difficulties

genes/chromosomes:

molecular genetics- Autism, ADHD, LDs

behavioral genetics- anxiety, depression, aggression

pre/post natal influences:

pre- maternal drug/alcohol abuse - MR, LDs

during- oxygen deprivation via umbilical cord- MR, LDs

post- lead poisoning - MR, LDs, malnutrition

Temperament

easy- high positive emotionality, pleasant, sociable

slow to warm up- shy, withdrawn, anxiety prone

difficult- high negative emotionality/reactivity, agression

Parenting Styles

Permissive Indulgent- high warmth, low control

Authoritarian- low warmth, high control

Neglectful- low warmth, low control

Authoritative- high warmth, high control

Neuroplasticity

Nature vs. Nurture

nature- impacts of physical development of the brain 

nurture- early experiences and interactions with parents and environment

impacts of early harsh physical/verbal abuse

amygdala is overstimulated, too many neurons fire causing too many strong connections and the amygdala to overfunction 

long term result: aggression is more easily and frequently triggered, over responsive to situations

impact of low levels of early language stimulation

not enough neurons fire in the left hemisphere of the brain causing it to underfunction

long term result: mild MR, reading disabilities

3 behavioral contributions to psychological difficulty

operant conditioning

classical conditioning

observational learning

Operant Conditioning

a problem behavior can be caused/strengthened by positive reinforcement and/or negative reinforcement by parents, teachers, etc. 

Positive Reinforcement

increasing a good or bad behavior by adding something after the behavior occurs

Negative Reinforcement

increasing a good or bad behavior by removing something unpleasant after the behavior occurs

Observational Learning

Bandura's BoBo doll

aggression, copy-cat suicide

2 types of cognitive causes of psychological dificulty

automatic negative thoughts about self/others/world

poor problem solving skills

Evidence-based treatment

supported by 2 or more independent research groups done in a randomized control trial

2 NOT evidence-based treatments

rebirthing therapy

boot camps

Case Study

intensive observation and analysis of an individual subject

weakness: low generalizability, testimonials

strengths: for rare disorders

Open Trial

all knowing/not blind

weakness: often no control group, expectancy effect

Randomized Control Trial

double-blind, child/parent and researcher, in which experimental and control groups are randomly assigned

often done for medication in order to see its effectiveness

Treatment Efficacy

goal: does the treatment work optimally under well controlled conditions?

carefully selected/trained therapists use evidence-based treatment manuals written by experts on selected clients. (university grant funded)

Treatment Efficiency

how well the treatment works when done by average therpist in a community

Comorbidity

having more than one disorder

certain disorders occur together more frequently
(depression + anxiety, ADHD + LD) 

Interrater Reliability

consistency between different psychologists

goal: would 2 or more psychologists come up with the same diagnoses for  patient as well as the same treatment plan

high IRR- OCD, Anorexia
low IRR- bipolar disorder 

developmental psychopathology

have to understand what is normal/typical at different ages in order to determine if the behavior is abnormal

Analogue Research

when conducting an experiment in 'real life' is either impossible or unethical, it is conducted in  a carefully set up lab that mimicks the real life  situation/environment.

unable to randomly assign experimental and control groups

 risk of low external validity

External Validity

do the findings apply/generalize to real life

Incidence Rates

rate at which new cases of a disorder appear over a specified period of time

ABAB Design

single-subject design in which the subject is his/her own control

used to study behavior modification treatment

A1= baseline, no treatment

B1= treatment

A2= stop treament

B2= resume treatment

behavior is measured during each interval

Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)

most widely used behavior checklist

parents and teachers are to fill out while child is off of his/her medication in order to get their full behavior effect

can be used for: Autism, ADHD, ODD, CD

Self-report rating scales can be given to children/adolescents for testing which disorders?

depression

anxiety

OCD

some eating disorders

IQ/Achievment Test

should be taken while child is on his/her meds in order to see the full potential during his/her optimal functioning

MR </= 70

Social Cognition

thoughts and mental interpretations of situations

Psychological Assessment/Evaluation Process

1. parent calls mental health benefits number for health insurance's approved provider list

2. calls psychologist

-therpist gets approved parents consent and release of information forms

-clinical interview with parent(s) 1.5 hours

-clinical interview with child

goals: possible diagnoses/comorbidities, presence of risk/resilience factors, possible contriubting causes