Psych 131/140: Developmental Psychology on

Principles of Developmental Psychopathology

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Impact of Mental Disorders #

The prevalence of mental disorder in US youth #

Bitsko RH, Claussen AH, Lichstein J, et al. Mental Health Surveillance Among
Children —United States, 2013–2019.

A difficult number to measure: while it is very likely that the rate of mental illness is increasing, our ability to diagnose larger numbers of individuals is also improving
Current estimate: 1 in 5 children/adolescents experience a mental disorder each year
- 2 in 5 will meet criteria for a mental disorder by 18
- Half have onset before age 14 (onset = first noticeable difference in behavior; diagnosable)
Significant difference of prevalence rates depending on sociodemographic characteristics (sex, race, ethnicity, urban vs rural, socioeconomic status)

The burden of mental illness #

(Vigo, Thornicroft, Atun 2016)

Methods and Assessment of Mental Health Problems

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Scientific method #

Determine an interesting and answerable question
Formulate hypothesis regarding the question
Develop method for testing the hypothesis
Use resulting data to draw a conclusion

For the statistical machinery behind step 4 (null vs. alternative hypotheses, p-values, false-positive control), see [[data102/hypothesis testing]].

Example: humans typically have a fear of public speaking.

Question: Is concern for reputation something that is unique to humans?
Hypothesis: Young children have concern for reputation, but chimpanzees do not.
Method: conduct stealing task and helping task with two conditions: observed (someone watching) and unobserved
Conclusion: observed vs unobserved didn’t matter for chimps: they stole/helped at high levels independent of the condition. However, human children stole less and helped more when an observer was present.

Reliability #

Reliability is the degree to which independent measurements of a behavior under study are consistent.

Nature and Nurture

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What influences our development?

Nature: innate characteristics and genes inherited biologically
Nurture: acquired characteristics and environment

Almost any characteristic is influenced by a mix of both nature and nurture. Even something seemingly innate like walking bipedally is only enabled by social influence (a completely isolated human might walk quadripedally).

However, some characteristics are more influenced by nurture, and others more by nature.

Some scientists argue that culture is a third influential factor that combines with both nature and nurture to further influence our development. (The biocultural framing of this third factor, with case studies like lactose tolerance and sickle-cell, is developed in [[anthro1/biocultural-evolution]].)

Genetics

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Genotype: the physical structure of the gene

Allele: two or more forms of a gene for a specific trait (see [[anthro1/traits]] for the dominant/recessive Mendelian basics in an anthropology context)
Polymorphism: presence of two or more variants of a sequence (important because expressions of mental disorders often come in multiple forms) Phenotype: any assessable characteristic Endophenotype: A heritable intermediate phenotype associated with a disease. Biological and behavioral markers of genetic vulnerability

Example: schizophrenia

Ontogeny

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Ontogeny refers to the development of an individual from life to death. The study of ontogeny is also known as life history theory or the cycle of life, which describes the stages of growth and reproduction within one’s lifespan.

Within the animal kingdom, there is extreme diversity between life histories of different species. However, no animal grows and reproduces at the same time. The reproductive period can only begin after growth ends.

Temperament

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What is temperament? #

Temperament is defined as the constitutionally-based individual differences in emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation. See [[psych150/Temperament and Birth Order]] for the personality-psych treatment of the same construct, and [[psych150/Trait Theory]] for how temperament relates to adult personality.

Biologically based and influenced by maturation, heredity, experience
Consistent across situations
Becomes more stable across time and development (adults are generally calmer than young children - rank order stability)
- Temperament as a child is related to temperament as an adult
Related to personality
- More biologically based than personality, and detectable in early life

Temperament and behavior #

When individuals react to unfamiliar or unexpected events, two main categories of temperamental biases in infants (Kagan):

Theories of Cognitive Development

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Mental Representation #

Types of Representations #

There are four main types of representation:

Primary representation creates a model that is as close to reality as possible.
- equivalent to mind to world fit, also known as epistemic mental states (seeing, knowing, believing): we’re trying to match our mental models to the real world
Secondary representation allows us to relate models with the past, future, nonexistent entities, and hypotheticals. We can create fictitious worlds in our mind and play around with them.
- world to mind fit, also known as conative mental states (wants, desires, goals): we’re trying to alter the state of the world to look more like what we envision in our mind
Misrepresentation occurs when you create an inaccurate model of reality.
Metarepresentation is the ability to represent another individual’s representation.

Belief-Desire Psychology #

Also known as folk psychology, we often represent what other people think and desire to make inferences about the behaviors of others.

Emotional Development

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Definitions #

An emotion is a state of feeling that has physiological, situational, subjective, and cognitive components and desire to take action.

Emotions are:

contagious
highly complex (many ways of describing the same emotion)
feelings that make us experience the world in different ways
evaluations that make us determine whether objects, events, and other people are worthy of reacting in a certain way towards
motivations that prompt us to act
neural responses that change our thought processes
physiological responses that affect heart rate, breathing, and hormone levels
emotional and bodily expressions
subjective
a desire to take action (escape, approach, or change people or the environment)

In terms of theory of mind, emotional states both have mind-to-world fit (evaluating the world as we see it) and world-to-mind fit (desiring the world to be a certain way). Additionally, emotions are an expression of how we represent the world; as such, they can be seen as appropriate/inappropriate in certain contexts.

Theory of Mind

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![[cross cultural psychology#Theory of Mind]]

Theory of mind is the ability to separate our own mental states from the (possibly conflicting) mental states of others. Specifically, theory of mind involves understanding how mental processes such as intentions, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behavior.

Three mountain task- child sits on opposite side of table with a mountain model as a puppet, and is asked to describe what the puppet sees.
- Before developing theory of mind, instead of describing the correct image, they will just repeat what they personally can see (egocentrism- perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view). ([[theories of cognitive development#Piaget’s Theory]])

Theory of mind is incredibly important for human interaction, and we use it all the time to understand others, resolve conflicts, and accommodate differing needs.

Metacognition

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Metacognition is cognition about cognition: a collection of related skills that allow us to reflect upon our own thinking

knowledge about how the mind works
monitoring the quality of our own thoughts
controlling behavior through good strategies
ability to introspect (Descartes- I think therefore I am)

Metacognition in Children #

Children experience and communicate confidence (in tone of voice, quickness in answers, etc)
Confidence may not always match the true state of the world (miscalibration)

How do we measure metacognition in children if they are not always honest about their thoughts?

Inference

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Inference is the act or process of reaching a conclusion about something from known facts or evidence.

For example, based on perceiving that the ground is wet, one can infer that it likely rained that day.

Logical Inferences #

Logical inferences relate two or more mental representations with structure and reasoning.

Disjunctive Syllogism #

If $A \lor B$, and $\lnot A$, then $B$ must necessarily be true. (This is the same rule formalized in [[cs70/discrete-math/propositional-logic]].)

Culture

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How do human-unique psychological capacities develop? #

Three methods to answering this question:

Comparative psychology: how do humans compare to our primate relatives?
Developmental psychology: how humans grow as we age from birth to 16 years
Cross-cultural psychology: how human behavior differs between cultures and groups around the world, not just WEIRD individuals

What makes humans unique? #

General intelligence hypothesis: humans are simply smarter than all other animals, and are thus capable of creating technology and society.
- Incorrect: other animals are more intelligent than us in specific areas: for instance, chimpanzees have superior short-term memory.
Social intelligence hypothesis: humans may not be more intelligent in other domains, but our social abilities (language, communication, theory of mind) surpass those of other animals and enable complex societies to develop.
- Supported by Herrmann et al (2007): humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans have very similar performance in the physical domain (ability to visualize space, quantity…), but humans have superior performance in the social domain.
- Humans are very good at imitation (copying the process), whereas other animals are better at emulation (getting to the same end result).

Culture and Human Success #

One definition of success for species is how widespread the species is across the globe. By this metric, humans and ants are similarly successful (as both live in nearly every environment).

Cross-Cultural Psychology

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Why is cross-cultural research important? #

As a species, humans are unique in the following:

We have very complex culture.
We are extremely social and are able to support communities of hundreds.
We develop very slowly compared to other animals. Unlike chimpanzees and other apes, we have a dedicated period of childhood (where we are unable to survive independently) and a long post-reproductive period (about as long as reproductive period itself).
We have a remarkable amount of flexibility and plasticity due to a high investment in learning. 65% of glucose entering our bodies goes to the brain during childhood.
We live in practically every habitat in the world, despite only being one species.

The last point brings up an important aspect of human psychology: we have a vast variety of experiences depending on where we live in the world.

Anxiety Disorders

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Separation Anxiety: overwhelming fear of losing or becoming separated from major attachment figures through catastrophic means

Social anxiety: fear of social situations (especially where one is exposed to judgement)

Anxiety, fear, panic #

Anxiety is a future-oriented emotion characterized by feelings of apprehension and lack of control over upcoming events that might be threatening.

may be non-specific: general sense of dread about something unknown that might happen

Fear is a present-oriented reaction to current danger.

Depression and Bipolar

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Depression #

Depression as a symptom:

depressed mood (sad, empty, hopeless), irritable
loss of interest/pleasure (anhedonia)

Depression as a disorder (major depressive disorder): 5 or more of the below symptoms in a 2 week period

weight loss/gain
sleep problems
psychomotor agitation/retardation
fatigue
feeling worthless or excessive guilt (such that it affects others negatively)
decreased concentration
thoughts of death and suicide

Only 50% of adolescents with depression are diagnosed before adulthood.

Autism

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Symptoms #

Deficits in social communication and interaction
- avoids social contact
- does not respond to name calling
- difficulties with engagement and following social cues such as pointing, gaze
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activity

Clinical Assessment #

Diagnosing ASD is a complex process that requires multiple perspectives, including:

Developmental approach
Multi-informant and multi-method approaches
Assessment from multiple disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, neurology, language specialist)
Initial screening by pediatricians including questionnaires
Intellectual development tests

Typically, American children are diagnosed with ASD at around 4 years of age. In high-risk populations, diagnoses have been made as early as 18 months of age, with early signs being identified at 12 months.

ADHD

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DSM Criteria #

Age of onset: <= 12 years Pervasiveness: symptoms present in >=2 settings

6 symptoms per category for children up to 16 years old, 5 symptoms for 17+

Core Symptoms #

Inattention:

failure to pay attention to details

Hyperactivity and impulsivity

Variability #

ADHD is best thought of dimensionally, since symptoms can present very differently:

types of symptoms
severity of symptoms
nature and degree of impairment
settings that symptoms present
- example: only have inattention during school, but can focus when playing video games

Diagnosing ADHD #

typically done using parent and teacher rating scales combined with a clinical interview to assess onset
observation is valid but not practical due to cost
evaluate functioning in key developmental domains such as interpersonal relationships, academic progress, family dynamic
treatment planning: collect context and impact of symptoms

Gene Environment Interactions #

Genetic liability: heritability is .6-.9 (highly heritable)

Conduct Problems

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Conduct problems cause age-inappropriate actions and attitudes in children that violate family/social norms and result in physical/personal damage to others.

General Criteria #

Harm:

violates social values
causes functional impairment
cultural and context dependent Dysfunction:
break down in a mechanism
interferes with natural function

ODD #

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

symptoms #

Angry/irritable mood: loses temper, easily annoyed, angry, resentful Argumentative/defiant behavior: argues with authority figures/adults, defies rules and requirements, deliberately annoys others, blames others for personal mistakes Vindictiveness: revengeful, spiteful

Eating Disorders

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Types of Disorders #

Anorexia Nervosa (AN):

Restriction of energy intake: significantly lower body weight than expected
Intense fear of gaining weight
Distorted self-evaluation of body weight and shape

Bulimia Nervosa (BN):

Recurrent episodes of binge eating
Lack of control over eating during binge eating
Compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain, such as induced vomiting, use of laxatives, fasting, excessive exercise
Self-evaluation is highly influenced by body shape and weight
Disturbance is not exclusive to episodes of anorexia

Binge Eating Disorder (BED):

Substance Use Disorder

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Symptoms #

Impaired control:

Using more of a substance than intended, or for longer than intended
Trying to cut down but are unable to

Physical dependence:

Cravings or urges to use substance
Need more to get desired effect (builds up tolerance)
Withdrawal symptoms when not using substance

Social problems:

Spends significant time obtaining and using substances, and recovering
Neglects responsibilities due to substance use
Continuing to use substances when they cause relationship issues
Gives up important social/recreational activities

Risk use:

Schizophrenia

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Symptoms #

Delusions (beliefs that are false, and not amenable to change)
Hallucinations (perceptions that are not associated with an external stimulus, and cannot be experienced by others)
Disorganized speech (frequent derailment, incoherence)
Grossly disorganized or catatonic (unresponsive) behavior
Negative symptoms (normal behaviors are reduced)
- Avolition: decreased motivation
- Alogia: decreased speech
- Anhedonia: decreased pleasure
- Lack of sociality

Prevalence #

Childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) is defined as onset before 13th birthday. This is relatively rare (1 in 10000).

Reading Summaries

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