chapter 2 (causes of childhood disorders)

Question 1

adaptive behaviour

Answer 1

thoughts, feelings, and actions that allow children to develop social, emotional, and behavioural competence over time and meet the changing demands of the environment.

Question 2

alleles

Answer 2

alternative forms of a gene that are inherited or arise by mutation.

Question 3

attachment

Answer 3

the affective bond between caregiver ad child that serves to protect and reassure the child in times of danger or uncertainty.

Question 4

basal ganglia

Answer 4

brain region located under the cortex; they help to control movement, filter incoming information, relay information to other regions, and regulate attention and emotions.

Question 5

behavioural epigenetics

Answer 5

a scientific field of study that examines the ways environmental experiences can affect genetic expression and be passed from one generation to the next.

Question 6

behavioural genetics

Answer 6

an area of study that examines the relationship between genes and behaviour; chiefly interested in determining the heritability of traits or disorders.

Question 7

brain stem

Answer 7

an evolutionarily old region of the brain responsible for many basic life-sustaining functions; consists of the medulla, pons, and midbrain.

Question 8

cerebellum

Answer 8

a brain region located posteriorly (in the back); chiefly responsible for balance and coordination.

Question 9

cerebral cortex

Answer 9

the outermost layer of the brain, consisting of the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes.

Question 10

chromosomes

Answer 10

threadlike strands of genes organized in 23 pairs in typically developing humans.

Question 11

classical conditioning

Answer 11

type of learning in which two stimuli are paired together in time, and a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit an automatic, unconditioned response.

Question 12

cognitive development

Answer 12

changes in a person’s capacity for perception, thought, language. and problem-solving.

Question 13

concordance

Answer 13

used by behavioural geneticists to describe the probability that two people will both have a certain characteristic or disorder given that one has the characteristic.

Question 14

developmental pathways

Answer 14

possible courses or trajectories of children’s behavioural, cognitive, or social-emotional development over time, ranging from adaptation to maladaptation.

Question 15

developmental psychopathology

Answer 15

a multidisciplinary approach to studying adaptive and maladaptive development across the lifespan. according to this perspective, development is shaped by the complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors over time.

Question 16

developmental tasks

Answer 16

behavioural, cognitive, or social-emotional challenges that children face at each age or developmental level.

Question 17

diathesis-stress model

Answer 17

a broad theory that posits that a child will exhibit a disorder when she has both:
1. an underlying genetic risk for the disorder
2. an environmental experiences or life event that triggers its onset

Question 18

ecological systems theory

Answer 18

a theory of child development that consists of concentric nested systems, each progressively more distal from the child: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem.

Question 19

emotional development

Answer 19

the emergence and refinement of a person’s experience, expression, understanding, and regulation of feelings.

Question 20

emotion regulation

Answer 20

the processes that people use to recognize, label, and control our feelings and our expression of these feelings.

Question 21

equifinality

Answer 21

describes the phenomenon in which children with different developmental histories show a similar developmental outcome.

Question 22

gene

Answer 22

thousands of nucleotides that form part of a chromosome; they are transferred from parent to offspring and influence the characteristics of those offspring.

Question 23

gene-environment correlation model

Answer 23

the idea that our environments are partially influenced by our genotypes; there are three types of correlations:
1. passive
2. evocative
3. active

Question 24

genotype

Answer 24

the genetic code that we inherit from our parents.

Question 25

goodness-of-fit

Answer 25

the compatibility of a child’s temperament with the features of their environment, especially parenting behaviour.

Question 26

heterotypic continuity

Answer 26

the phenomenon in which symptoms change over time, but their underlying pattern remains the same (ex; a boy’s ADHD symptoms change from childhood to adulthood, but he still has underlying problems with inhibition).

Question 27

histones

Answer 27

proteins found in cells; they act as spools around which DNA winds; they regulate the expression of genes turning them “on” or “off.”

Question 28

homotypic continuity

Answer 28

the phenomenon in which disorder persist over time relatively unchanged (ex: a boy with intellectual disability continues to have this disorder as an adult).

Question 29

internal working model

Answer 29

in attachment theory, a mental representation of a caregiver that helps an individual cope with psychosocial stress.

Question 30

learning theory

Answer 30

a broad explanation for the causes of behaviour that relies on classical conditioning, operant conditioning and modeling.

Question 31

limbic system

Answer 31

located deep within the brain, responsible for emotional processing and memory; consists of the amygdala, hippocampus, and several other structures.

Question 32

maladaptive behaviours

Answer 32

thoughts, feelings, and actions that interfere with children’s social, emotional, and behavioural competence or do not meet the changing demands of the environment.

Question 33

molecular genetics

Answer 33

an area of scientific study that examines the relationship between genes and the presence or absence of characteristics and disorders.

Question 34

multifinality

Answer 34

describes the phenomenon in which children with similar early experiences show different social, emotional, and behavioural outcomes.

Question 35

neural plasticity

Answer 35

term used to describe the brain’s capacity to change its structure or functioning in response to environmental experience.

Question 36

neurons

Answer 36

nerve cells; consist of dendrites, a cell body (soma), an axon, and terminal endings; relay information within themselves using electrical signals.

Question 37

neurotransmitters

Answer 37

chemical messengers that allow neurons to communicate with each other; examples are dopamine and serotonin.

Question 38

nonshared environmental factors

Answer 38

experiences that differ between siblings (ex: different age, gender, friends, sports, or hobbies).

Question 39

operant conditioning

Answer 39

a type of learning in which an action is associated with an environmental consequence, either reinforcement or punishment.

Question 40

parenting types

Answer 40

a four-part classification of parenting behaviour based on its degree of responsiveness and demandingness: 1. authoritative 2. authoritarian 3. indulgent 4. uninvolved

Question 41

phenotype

Answer 41

the observable expression of our genetic endowment.

Question 42

probabilistic epigenesis

Answer 42

a principle of developmental psychology; refers to the manner in which genetic, biological, and social-cultural factors interact over time to influence (but not absolutely determine) development

Question 43

protective factors

Answer 43

influences that buffer the negative effects of risks on children’s development and promote adaptive functioning.

Question 44

punishment

Answer 44

inopérant conditioning, an environmental consequence that decreases the likelihood of future behaviour

Question 45

reinforcement

Answer 45

in operant conditioning, an environmental consequence that increases the likelihood of future behaviour.

Question 46

resilience

Answer 46

the tendency of some children to develop social, emotional, and behavioural competence despite the presence of multiple risk factors.

Question 47

risk factors

Answer 47

influences on development that interfere with the acquisition of competencies or compromise children’s ability to adapt to their environments.

Question 48

shared environment factors

Answer 48

environmental experiences common to siblings (ex: same parents, house, school).

Question 49

social cognition

Answer 49

refers to a person’s capacity to think about social situations and to perceive, interpret, and solve interpersonal problems.

Question 50

social learning theory

Answer 50

the idea that people learn from one another through observation, imitation, and modeling

Question 51

strange situation

Answer 51

a laboratory-based test of infant-caregiver attachment; can be used to determine attachment security.

Question 52

synaptogensis

Answer 52

an increase in the number of neurons and connections between neurons; arises from maturation and experience.

Question 53

temperament

Answer 53

an inborn tendency to organize and react to behaviour in response to environmental stimuli.