Introduction to Child Psychopathology

• How have conceptualizations of child psychopathology and its treatment changed over time? • What are the main features of Developmental Psychopathology? What is used by this approach in order to understand child abnormal behavior? • What are the 3 features in the definition of a mental disorder? What makes defining abnormal behavior challenging? • What are common developmental tasks that children must master at different ages? • What is a developmental pathway? Define and give examples of multifinality and equifinality. • What are the issues that research studies in Abnormal Child psychology seek to address? • What is the problem associated with the fact that it is the adult who seeks services for a child? • To what extent do most children commonly show certain problem behaviors? • What are risk and protective factors? How are they related to resilience? Give examples. • What is a theory and how does it differ from a risk factor? • What is a gene-environment interaction? Give an example of how a gene-environment interaction may give rise to the development of psychopathology. • What is the notion of continuity and discontinuity in the development of abnormality? Give examples. • What is neural plasticity? • What is role of the endocrine system in the stress reaction (note the HPA axis)? • What roles are the major neurotransmitters thought to play in psychopathology? • Describe emotion reactivity and emotion regulation. How do they relate to the development of child psychopathology?