A A Personal Skill of Caring for Oneself ▶Self-care Development
ABC ▶Autism Behavior Checklist
Abecedarian Project TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
Synonyms Early intervention; Prevention of mental retardation
Definition The Abecedarian Project was an early intervention project conducted by Craig Ramey and Francis Campbell on a mostly African-American sample of children at-risk for academic failure. The children have been followed from preschool into early adulthood with positive intellectual results.
Description Ramey and Campbell conducted a prospective longitudinal study on approximately 50 children born between 1972 and 1977 [1]. The children were considered to be at risk for intellectual delays and academic problems because they were born to mostly young single mothers living in poverty. Children were screened for inclusion based on the number of risk factors they faced, including low parental education, father absence, receiving welfare, etc. The researchers randomly assigned 50+ matched children to a no-intervention control group as well. The goal of the
preventive intervention was to prevent cognitive delay or non-biologically based mental retardation. Additional areas of interest included academic and social outcomes ranging from preventing grade retention to preventing teen crime. Interventions for the preschool group included intensive pre-literacy work on language, learning, self-help, and motor skills. The children were also provided medical care at the intervention preschool site. Treatment children were exposed to high quality preschool with low adult/child ratios for the first 5 years of life. Interestingly, at kindergarten, both the intervention and control children were then randomly assigned to a school age (SA) intervention plan. This SA intervention consisted of assigning children to a home/school teacher who helped children with school work at home and at school. They also advocated on behalf of the families for social services, medical care, etc. The SA intervention continued for 3 years. This study design resulted in four groups that could be compared at the study’s end: Preschool + School Age Interventions (PSA), Preschool + No School Age (PNSA), No Preschool + School Age (NPSA), and No Preschool + No School Age (NPNSA) intervention. During preschool, children were assessed on language, cognitive, perceptual-motor and social developmental tasks from 6 to 54 months of age. By 18 months of age, the intervention group had reached national averages on all tests and far surpassed the control group, which declined by 18 months of age to below national averages. When assessed at 12 and 15 years of age [2], the PSNSA group still showed academic and intellectual advantages over groups that had not received early preschool intervention. For example, IQ scores for PNSA were average 95 points while the NPNSA group averaged 90. The NPSA group had advantages over the NPNSA group, but overall, later school age interventions were inferior to those conducted during the preschool years. The children were assessed again between ages 16–21 [3] in order to determine whether they had a better quality of life, including fewer criminal behaviors. However, there were no significant differences found between the groups in numbers, types, or severity of crimes committed. The authors suggest that to prevent crime, interventions must
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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involve systematic work with families, not just their children. The most recent assessment was in 2002 and examined the children at age 21 [4] to examine overall life outcomes. They found that the preschool intervention group versus the control group experienced fewer grade retentions (31 vs. 54% were retained) and was assigned to special education less frequently (24 vs. 47%). The preschool intervention group obtained more total years of education, attended college more, had fewer teenage pregnancies, and were better at reading and math. The NPSA group had better results than the NPNSA group, but weaker than those for children who had received the earliest intervention services. There were no differences between groups for violence and law breaking behavior. The Abecedarian Project is considered by many to be an exemplary human experiment illustrating the power of brain plasticity in the early years. Their early work set the foundation for current movements like Zero to Three (www.zerotothree.org), and First Five (http://www.ccfc. ca.gov/default.asp), which provide resources, education, and materials about early brain development and emphasize the need for early stimulation to enhance developmental outcomes.
References 1.
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Campbell, F. A., Ramey, C. T., Pungello, E., Sparling, J., & MillerJohnson, S. (2002). Early childhood education: Young adult outcomes from the Abecedarian Project. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 42–57. Clarke, S. H., & Campbell, F. A. (1998). Can intervention early prevent crime later? The Abecedarian project compared with other programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13, 319–343. Ramey, C. T., & Campbell, F. A. (1984). Preventive education for high-risk children: Cognitive consequences of the Carolina Abecedarian Project. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 88, 515–523. Ramey, C. T., Campbell, F. A., & Blair, C. (1998). Enhancing the life course for high-risk children: Results from the Abecedarian project. In J. Crane (Ed.), Social programs that work (pp. 163–183). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Abilify JEFFREY S. TROTTER, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Aripiprazole (generic name); Atypical antipsychotics; Partial dopamine agonist
Definition Abilify (Abilify) is an atypical antipsychotic medication indicated for acute and maintenance treatment of adult as well as adolescent (13–17 years of age) patients with Schizophrenia. The medication also is indicated for acute and maintenance treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with Bipolar I Disorder with or without psychotic features in adult and pediatric (10–17 years of age) patients [1].
Description Abilify was developed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical in Japan and jointly marketed in the United States with Bristol-Myers Squibb [1]. Clinical trials sponsored by the manufacturer have resulted in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approving the use of Abilify as an atypical antipsychotic [1–3]. The FDA first approved Abilify for the treatment of adult Schizophrenia in November, 2002. The medication received additional approval by the FDA for the acute and maintenance treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with Bipolar I Disorder, with or without psychotic features in adults September 2004 and March 2005, respectively. All of the adult trials were double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of 4–6 weeks’ duration. Abilify also was approved by the FDA in November, 2007 for treating adolescents (13–17 years old) with a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia. The efficacy and safety of Abilify for use with this population was based on a manufacturer-sponsored 6-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, multi-center study, with 302 ethnically diverse pediatric patients. Patients met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia and had a positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) 70 at baseline. In this trial, two fixed doses of Abilify (10 mg/day or 30 mg/day) were superior to placebo in the PANSS total score, the primary outcome measure of the study. The 30 mg/day dosage was not shown to be more efficacious than the 10 mg/day dose. Maintenance efficacy in pediatric patients with Schizophrenia has not been systematically evaluated. In February 2008, following a 4-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study with 296 pediatric patients from multiple sites, the medication received approval for the acute treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with Bipolar I Disorder in patients 10–17 years old. Participants in the trial met DSM-IV criteria for Bipolar I Disorder manic or mixed episodes with or without psychotic features and had a young mania rating scale (YMRS) score 20 at baseline. Both fixed dosages of Abilify (10 mg/day or 30 mg/day) were superior to placebo in change from baseline on the Y-MRS total score. Based on a similarly designed clinical trial (n ¼ 197 pediatric
Ability Grouping
patients) the FDA approved Abilify in May, 2008 for the maintenance treatment of pediatric Bipolar I Disorder. The most common side effects exhibited in pediatric clinical trials included somnolence, extrapyramidal problems, fatigue, nausea, akathisia, tremors, and headache [4]. In addition, pediatric patients with Major Depressive Disorder who receive Abilify as an adjunctive treatment may experience initial worsening of their symptoms of depression and/or the emergence of suicidal ideation and behavior [1, 5]. This is particularly problematic with the early use of the medication or during changes in dosage. Abilify is available in 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 mg tablets and also may be administered as an intramuscular injection or as an orodispersible tablet [1]. The recommended target dose for pediatric patients is 10 mg/day with subsequent increases at 5 mg increments [1]. The medication may be administered without regard to meals and is primarily metabolized by the liver [4]. Similar to other atypical antipsychotic medications (e.g., clozapine, risperidone), Abilify’s exact mechanism of action is not fully understood [6, 7]. However, the receptor interactions due to Abilify are understood to be unique and dissimilar to other atypical antipsychotic medications [6, 7]. It has been proposed that the antipsychotic efficacy of Abilify appears to be mediated through either dopamineserotonin partial agonists and/or by working through the mechanism of “functional selectivity” [8]. Abilify likely exerts its effect by combining a partial agonist of dopamine D2 and serotonin 5-HT1A receptors and a potent antagonist at serotonin 5-HT2A receptors [6, 7, 9]. Two biochemical responses are likely the results of Abilify’s partial agonism [10]. First, when postsynaptic dopamine levels are too high, Abilify competes as an agonist thereby dulling positive psychotic symptoms while at the same time avoiding the movement disorders typically associated with nonspecific dopamine antagonism. Simultaneously, Abilify reduces dopamine release and synthesis which produces a neurotransmitter stabilizing effect which blunts excess activity until neurotransmission can be returned to preferred levels. It is hypothesized Abilify’s partial agonist activity at 5-HT1A receptors and antagonist activity at 5-HT2A receptors contributes to lowered risk for extra pyramidal signs as well as improvements in cognition and negative symptoms [9]. Further reported benefits of Abilify compared to other atypical antipsychotics include a lower incidence of weight gain and sedation, and an absence of elevation in levels of serum prolactin [7].
References 1. Bowles, T. M., & Levin, G. M. (2003). Aripiprazole: A new atypical antipsychotic drug. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 37, 187–194.
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2. Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company. (2008). Abilify prescribing information. Princeton, NJ: Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company. 3. DeLeon, A. (2004). Aripiprazole: A comprehensive review of its pharmacology, clinical efficacy, and tolerability. Clinical Therapeutics, 26(5), 649–666. 4. Hammad, T. A., Laughren, T. P., & Racoosin, J. A. (2006). Suicidality in pediatric patients treated with antidepressant drugs. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(3), 332–339. 5. Lawler, C. P., Prioleau, C., Lewis, M. M., Mak, C., Jiang, D., Schetz, J. A., et al. (1999). Interactions of the novel antipsychotic aripiprazole (OPC-14597) with dopamine and serotonin receptor subtypes. Neuropsychopharmacology, 20(6), 612–627. 6. Mottola, D. M., Kilts, J. D., Lewis, M. M., Connery, J. S., Walker, Q. D., & Jones, S. R. (2002). Functional selectivity of dopamine receptor agonists. I. selective activation of postsynaptic dopamine D2 receptors linked to adenylate cyclase. The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 301(3), 1166–1178. 7. Rugino, T. A., & Janvier, Y. M. (2005). Aripiprazole in children and adolescents: Clinical experience. Journal of Child Neurology, 20(7), 603–610. 8. Seifert, S. A., Schwartz, M. D., & Thomas, J. D. (2005). Aripiprazole (Abilify) overdose in a child. Clinical Toxicology, 43, 193–195. 9. Shapiro, D. A., Renock, S., Arrington, E., Louis, A. C., Li-Xin, L., Sibley, D. R., et al. (2003). Abilify, a novel atypical antipsychotic drug with a unique and robust pharmacology. Neuropsychopharmacology, 28, 1400–1411. 10. Stark, A. D., Jordan, S., Allers, K. A., Bertekap, R. L., Chen, R., & Kannan, T. M. (2007). Interaction of the novel antipsychotic Abilify with 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors: Functional receptor-binding and in vivo electrophysiological studies. Psychopharmacology, 190, 373–382.
Ability Grouping JANET WARD SCHOFIELD University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Synonyms Setting (Great Britain); Streaming (Great Britain); Tracking
Definition Ability grouping is a term referring to a wide variety of school practices that group students for instruction according to one or more measures of academic ability or achievement including their grades, teachers’ recommendations, measured IQ, standardized or locally developed achievement tests, etc.
Description Ability grouping is intended to foster homogeneity in academic ability within educational environments. Ability
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grouping can occur within classrooms, between different classrooms or educational programs within schools, or even between schools, as is exemplified in countries like Germany. Sometimes students in different ability groups receive basically the same curriculum, with those in higher-ability groups just moving somewhat faster or covering topics in greater depth. In other situations, classes of different ability levels are presented with very different subject matter, such as math classes covering general math or calculus [5]. In the United States, as well as in many other countries, the nature and extent of ability grouping typically varies with students’ age. Specifically, in the U.S. within-class ability grouping is quite common in the early elementary grades. So, for example, students are often placed in small within-class groups, based on their existing skills, to learn how to read. However, as students get older, and most strikingly in high school, between-class ability grouping becomes typical. In the last century, it was quite common for high schools in the U.S. to track students, that is to divide them into completely separate tracks explicitly designed to provide a strong academic focus to academically-talented students, a “general education” for less academicallyoriented students, and vocational training for students heading into the workforce immediately after graduation. Now, high school students are more likely to enroll in individual classes that are more or less challenging with other students who are more or less advanced academically, rather than in completely separate tracks or programs, allowing them to match their classes to their individual academic interests and strengths. However, often scheduling and other considerations seriously constrain such choices, creating a situation in which high- and low-ability students are not typically found in the same classrooms. Although various forms of ability grouping are extremely widespread, ability grouping, especially in its stronger forms, is very controversial. Those favoring ability grouping argue that it allows teachers to target instruction more precisely to students’ existing skills than do heterogeneous grouping practices. It is also sometimes argued that students will learn better in academicallyhomogeneous environments. Specifically, one major concern is that low-ability students in an instructional group will not only limit the kinds of material that can be presented but will slow other students’ progress. Arguments favoring ability grouping also sometimes suggest that it will protect the self-esteem of low-achieving students by sparing them constant direct comparison with their academically stronger peers. In addition, ability grouping, combined with the provision of a different curriculum for higher- and lower-achieving students, is
sometimes seen as helpful in preparing students who will begin work immediately after school to do so effectively. In contrast, those opposing ability grouping point out its many disadvantages [2, 3]. For example, they argue that it is not easy to accurately and fairly assess achievement and/or ability and that research shows that factors like socioeconomic background and/or minority group membership sometimes influence placement in ability groups. In addition, they highlight research showing that teacher quality, instructional processes, and the classroom climate are often more favorable to learning in classes containing high-achieving students than in those containing mainly low-achieving students, which means that ability grouping is likely to further impede the progress of initially low-achieving students. They also point out that ability grouping in schools generally increases racial, ethnic, and socio-economic segregation there, due to the consistently found co-variation between socio-economic status, minority group membership and common measures of academic ability and achievement. Thus, they argue that ability grouping undermines the potential of schools to serve a constructive role in preparing students to function effectively in the diverse societies in which many of them will live as adults. Generally speaking, reviews of the research on ability grouping conclude that within-class ability grouping has a modest positive impact on achievement compared to both within-class heterogeneous grouping and wholeclass instruction [6]. However, reviews of the research on between class ability grouping come to conflicting conclusions. Those focusing on experimental studies, which typically do not involve situations in which higher-achieving groups are presented with very different subject matter than lower-achieving groups, suggest that this practice has no clear overall effect on academic achievement, although one review concludes that it may have a small positive impact on the achievement of initially high-achieving students. In contrast, reviews emphasizing correlational studies, which often are conducted in situations involving some degree of curriculum differentiation, generally suggest that ability grouping at the class or school level has a clear and sometimes substantial negative impact on the achievement of initially lower-achieving students. Some also suggest a modest positive impact of ability grouping on the achievement of initially higher-achieving students. The fact that many studies of between-class ability grouping suggest either no achievement advantage to it and/or negative effects on initially low-achieving students led to strong calls to abolish such practices, and quite a number of schools and school districts in the U.S. moved in this direction during and after the 1990s.
Abortion
However, such efforts often meet strong resistance from both teachers and from parents, especially the parents of relatively high-achieving students. Some studies have documented very good results from de-tracking efforts, with markedly improved achievement for many students and no negative impact on initially high-achieving students. On the other hand, it is also clear that such efforts often cause a great deal of strife and they sometimes have unintended negative consequences, such as when the detracking of Japanese schools led many high-achieving students to leave the public school system for private schools.
References
Relevance to Childhood Development
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Ability grouping influences students’ social and academic experiences. Ability grouping influences their social development by commonly undercutting the potential for students to interact with and develop friendships in school with those from other racial, ethnic, and social class backgrounds. Such a consequence is important because the formation of such friendships appears to have a positive impact on students’ intergroup attitudes. Whether or not ability grouping is practiced also impacts students’ academic experiences in predictable ways. Specifically, the research literature strongly suggests that classes with high-ability students tend to be better learning environments than those with large concentrations of low-ability students for a wide variety of reasons related both to the individual characteristics students bring with them and to the kinds of learning environments schools are likely to provide to initially higherand lower-achieving students [1, 4]. The policy problem posed by ability grouping for those concerned with child development is twofold. First, some forms of ability grouping, such as withinclass grouping, appear likely to have modest positive academic effects but negative social effects, because they are likely to reinforce students’ predisposition to interact more with those similar to them than with peers from different racial, ethnic or social class backgrounds. Second, some forms of ability grouping, specifically ability grouping with curriculum differentiation, appear to undercut the achievement of some students while possibly enhancing that of others. Even if the negative impact of such forms of ability grouping on lower-achieving students is somewhat stronger than their positive impact on highachieving students, as sometimes appears to be the case, decisions about whether to adopt such practices are difficult because they often involve trade-offs between losses and gains in different realms and/or for different kinds of students.
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Gamoran, A., Nystrand, M., Berends, M., & LePore, P. C. (1995). An organizational analysis of the effects of ability grouping. American Educational Research Journal, 32(4), 687–715. Lucas, S. R. (1999). Tracking inequality: Stratification and mobility in American high schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Oakes, J. (2005). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Oakes, J., Gamoran, A., & Page, R. N. (1992). Curriculum differentiation opportunities, outcomes, and meanings. In P. Jackson (Ed.), Handbook of research on curriculum (pp. 570–608). New York: MacMillan. Schofield, J. W. (2010). International evidence on ability grouping with curriculum differentiation and the achievement gap in secondary schools. Teachers College Record, 112(5), 8–18. Slavin, R. E. (1987). Ability grouping and student achievement in elementary schools: A best-evidence synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 57(3), 293–336.
Abnormal Presentation ▶Birth Complications
Abort ▶Abortion
Abortion LACY ALLEN Floride Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
Synonyms Abort; Dilation and Evacuation (D&E); Miscarriage; Termination
Definition (1) The spontaneous or induced termination of pregnancy after conception. (2) To miscarry a nonviable fetus [1].
Description An abortion is a legal, safe, and effective medical method to stop or interrupt the growth and development of a fetus. Even though abortion is a legal medical procedure,
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the availability of services has been under political and ethical debate for quite some time [5]. In fact, the availability of abortion services depends on federal and state policies. However, in the United States, abortion has not always been under ethical and political debate. As a matter of fact, up until the second half of the nineteenth century, abortion was not viewed as morally wrong if it was performed before 4–5 months of pregnancy. During the second half of the nineteenth century, abortion was preformed quite frequently using drugs, special potions, and techniques espoused by popular medical guides. Additionally, abortion procedures were often preformed by mid-wives and physicians. The first laws governing abortion were enacted in 1821 and 1841; however, these laws were specifically put in place to prevent women from using unsafe abortion procedures, not to punish women for having abortions [3]. During middle nineteenth century, abortion was a growing trend among white, married, and protestant women. During this time, abortion became commercialized, which worried the new emerging class of predominately male physicians. These new medical professionals expressed concern that the number of abortion procedures in the middle and upper class, protestant, white population would eventually wipe out Catholics, which would ultimately result in whites being outnumbered by the African American and immigrant population. The created an uproar within the medical community. In addition to mid-wives being banned from giving abortions, physicians began to create laws and policies to control abortions. Between the period of 1860 and 1960, stringent laws against abortion and contraceptives were enacted. Women who sought abortions were guilty of murder and were sent to jail. It wasn’t until January 22, 1973, that the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Roe v. Wade that women have a right to terminate pregnancy based on the constitutional right to privacy established in the 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut [2]. There are two types of abortion procedures that can be used legally, safely, and effectively. The most common procedure is done in a medical center and is referred to as an aspiration procedure. Another procedure, which is less commonly used, is the D&E procedure (dilation and evacuation). An Aspiration is usually used up to 16 weeks after a woman’s last period and a D&E is generally used after the 16th week of pregnancy. An abortion that is carried out beyond the 24th week of pregnancy is likely due to serious health reasons [4]. The following information outlines the specific steps generally covered during an abortion procedure. The following was adapted from [4].
During an aspiration abortion: ● Your health care provider will examine your uterus. ● You will get medicine for pain. You may be offered sedation — a medicine that allows you to be awake but deeply relaxed. ● A speculum will be inserted into your vagina. ● Your health care provider may inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix. ● The opening of your cervix may be stretched with dilators — a series of increasingly thick rods. Or you may have absorbent dilators inserted a day or a few hours before the procedure. They will absorb fluid and get bigger. This slowly stretches open your cervix. Medication may also be used with or without the dilators to help open your cervix. ● You will be given antibiotics to prevent infection. ● A tube is inserted through the cervix into the uterus. ● Either a hand-held suction device or a suction machine gently empties your uterus. ● Sometimes, an instrument called a curette is used to remove any remaining tissue that lines the uterus. It may also be used to check that the uterus is empty. When a curette is used, people often call the abortion a D&C — dilation and curettage. An aspiration procedure takes about 5–10 min. But more time may be needed to prepare your cervix. Time is also needed for talking with your provider about the procedure, a physical exam, reading and signing forms, and a recovery period of about 1 h.
D&E During a D&E ● Your health care provider will examine you and check your uterus. ● You will get medication for pain. You may be offered sedation or i.v. medication to make you more comfortable. ● A speculum will be inserted into your vagina. ● Your cervix will be prepared for the procedure. You may be given medication or have absorbent dilators inserted a day or a few hours before the procedure. They will absorb fluid and grow bigger. This slowly stretches open your cervix. ● You will be given antibiotics to prevent infection. ● In later second-trimester procedures, you may also need a shot through your abdomen to make sure there is fetal demise before the procedure begins. ● Your health care provider will inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix.
Abstract Mapping
● Medical instruments and a suction machine gently empty your uterus. A D&E usually takes between 10 and 20 min. But more time is needed to prepare your cervix. Time is also needed for talking with your provider about the procedure, a physical exam, reading and signing forms, and a recovery period of about 1 h. In addition to the two aforementioned abortion procedures, a medical abortion method is also available. A medical abortion is an abortion induced by taking a medication that ends a pregnancy. Mifepristone and methotrexate are the two FDA approved abortion pills available. Mifepristone works by blocking the hormone progesterone, which causes the lining of the uterus to shed (menses). Methotrexate was FDA approved for treating a cancer, but can also be used to end a pregnancy. It can be injected with a hypodermic needle or it can be taken orally. Methotrexate stops the implantation process that takes place during the early weeks of pregnancy. A third drug is indicated and is to be taken in conjunction with one of the above medications. It is called Misoprostol and causes the uterus to contract and empty, which ultimately ends the pregnancy. ● The abortion pill, unlike the aspiration procedure, takes much more time to complete termination. Women who choose the abortion pill will generally have to wait 2–3 weeks before termination is complete. Mifepristone is a quicker method for completing abortion compared to methotrexate. There are several symptoms that are likely to occur after taking the abortion pill that users should be aware of. They include vaginal bleeding after taking the first drug, which may be light or heavy, cramping, which may be light or heavy, and both bleeding and cramping may be more than what a woman may experience on her period. Complication from taking the aforementioned medications include dizziness, strong cramping, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, temporary fever or chills, and temporary abdominal pain.
References 1. 2. 3.
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Abortion. (1998). In Mosby’s medical, nursing, & allied health dictionary (5th ed.). Anderson, M. L. (2003). Thinking about women: Sociological perspectives on sex and gender (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. National Abortion Federation. (2008). Abortion facts. http:// www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/facts/medical_abortion.html. Accessed July 15, 2008. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. (2008). Abortion. http:// www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion-4260.htm. Accessed July 12, 2008.
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Women’s Health Policy Program. (2008). Abortion in the U.S.: Utilization, financing and access. http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/ 3269-02.cfm. Accessed July 10, 2008.
Abstract Mapping MOLLY MILLIANS Marcus Autism Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Synonyms Concept formation; Mental mapping
Definition Abstract mapping refers to the process of linking the essential conceptual elements from two sets of information to form new knowledge.
Description Abstract mapping is a psycholinguistic model that attempts to explain the processes needed to form concepts as well as to organize and to integrate information to support memory, reasoning, and learning [1, 2]. Abstract mapping is an extension of models used to describe young children’s acquisition of new vocabulary, syntax, and expressive language skills [1, 3, 5, 7]. Mapping refers to the connecting of the underlying elements (abstract) from two sets of information to form a new concept. The connections or correspondences are made between a familiar knowledge base (source) with new stimuli (target). The correspondences are based upon similarities of perceptual features, functions, relationships, and meanings. The process of forming and altering connections contribute to the increase and expansion of knowledge [1, 3, 4, 5, 7]. Correspondences can be created across linguistic and spatial domains [1, 3, 4]. These correspondences influence the development of schema or a framework to organize knowledge domains. Language is used to divide domains into smaller categories to facilitate storage and retrieval of information from memory [1, 3, 4, 6]. Abstract mapping is a model used to depict the intricate network of concept development and learning.
References 1. 2.
Fauconnier, G. (1997). Mappings in thought and language. Cambridge: Cambridge, UK. Feld, J. (2004). Psycholinguistics: The key concepts. New York: Rutledge.
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Abused Children Forbus, K. (2001). Exploring analogy in the large. In D. Gentner, K. Holyoak, & B. Kokinov (Eds.), The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science (pp. 24–58). Cambridge, MA: MIT. Gattis, M. (2001). Space as a basis for abstract thought. In M. Gattis (Ed.), Spatial schemas and abstract thought (pp. 1–12). Cambridge, MA: MIT. Karmiloff, K., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Pathways to language: From fetus to adolescent. Cambridge, MA: Harvard. Piaget, J., Henriques, G., & Ascher, E. (1992). Morphisms and categories: Comparing and transforming (T. Brown, Ed. & Trans.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard.
Abused Children ▶Battered Child Syndrome
Academic Ability ▶Mental Age
Academic Achievement NICHOLAS BOLT Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA
Synonyms Educational; Scholastic; School performance/achievement
Definition Academic Achievement is the progress made towards the goal of acquiring educational skills, materials, and knowledge, usually spanning a variety of disciplines. It refers to achievement in academic settings rather than general acquisition of knowledge in non-academic settings.
Description Unlike typical forms of achievement, academic achievement is usually viewed without a definitive endpoint. Rather, the concept is understood as a spectrum along which one can “achieve” certain skills and knowledge, always with the possibility of further developing those skills and increasing the depth, breadth, and specificity of knowledge.
Academic achievement revolves around the central goal of improving the educational knowledge of the students. Because of this goal, the measurement of achievement is often criticized for maintaining a focus on content knowledge rather than problem-solving or product-fashioning skills across a range of materials, which many argue are equally crucial to the definition and measurement. As a result, academic achievement inevitably corresponds with what was taught; students would be unlikely to “achieve” an understanding of material that was not taught, and in this respect, academic achievement is very dependent on teachers and curriculum. With the overall goal of content evaluation, academic achievement is considered a measure of the educational material that was learned or acquired, with the effort, attitude, motivation, intelligence, or potential of a student having no bearing on the final academic achievement score. While these characteristics may be highly related to the outcome measure, academic achievement itself does not provide a measure of these characteristics. Rather it measures the progress students have made towards the goals set forth by the academic institution and the state-wide or national standards. Academic achievement may measure how well these characteristics have been applied towards acquiring skills and knowledge, but the assessment does not directly factor any of these characteristics into the measure. Academic achievement is typically measured through two common methods: subject grades given by teachers or professors and standardized test scores, either state-wide or national. While these measures are widely used and may be the best available measures of this concept, obvious criticisms arise in using subject grades and large-scale test scores as a standardized measure of academic achievement. Grades for the same level of achievement may fluctuate widely between teachers and schools based on curriculum and standards, and standardized testing may include a measurement of a student’s test-taking ability rather than only measuring the underlying content knowledge. In addition to these common measures, other assessments have been developed in an attempt to eliminate confounds of subject grades and standardized tests. Various adaptations and revisions of the Woodcock-Johnson psychoeducational battery and the wide range achievement test (WRAT) are two of the more commonly used assessments in this area. However, these tests are administered on an individual basis and can become timeconsuming, making them difficult to administer on a large scale.
Academic Delay of Gratification
Relevance to Childhood Development Academic achievement is widely used as a common outcome measure in the field of child development. Schoolbased and developmental interventions very often target improvement in academic achievement as a main indicator of success, as academic achievement is widely suggested to be an indicator for future success, both academic and otherwise. Research has outlined the direct correlation between academic achievement and many other outcomes of positive development, such as likelihood of college enrollment, quality of future education, prospective careers, and even a decrease in delinquent behavior. In sum, research suggests that academic achievement is strongly related to overall positive development. In establishing a need for intervention, a student’s individual academic achievement scores are compared to the standard scores, both within the school and state or nation-wide, to determine if a student has acquired the academic skills typical of their developmental cohort. In addition, academic achievement scores are often used in conjunction with intelligence testing to determine the presence of a learning disability.
References 1. 2.
Nitko, A. J. (2001). Educational assessment of students (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Welsh, M., Parke, R. D., Widaman, K., & O’Neil, R. (2001). Linkages between children’s social and academic competence: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of School Psychology, 39(6), 463–481.
Academic Delay of Gratification HE´FER BEMBENUTTY The City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA
Synonyms Delay of gratification; Reward discounting; Self-control; Self-regulation
Definition Academic delay of gratification refers to students’ postponement of immediately available opportunities to satisfy impulses in favor of pursuing important academic rewards or goals that are temporally remote but ostensibly more valuable.
Description Bembenutty and Karabenick [4, 5] develop the concept of academic delay of gratification to apply the general
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construct of delay of gratification to learning contexts. This theoretical approach extends the work of Mischel [6] on delay gratification. Bembenutty and Karabenick [4] demonstrated extensive associations between academic delay of gratification and students’ achievement motivation tendencies and use of learning strategies with a scale specifically designed to assess students’ tendencies to delay gratification in an academic context (academic delay of gratification scale – ADOGS; [4]). Students reporting greater preference to delay of gratification in an academic context reported also high academic motivation (e.g., higher in self-efficacy and intrinsic interest in learning). They are more likely to use cognitive (e.g., critical thinking, elaboration, organization, and rehearsal), metacognitive, and resource management strategies (e.g., effort management, time and study environmental control, and help seeking). Students’ amount of time dedicated to study and the effective structuring of their study environment, as well as their efforts to persist on tasks are directly related to academic delay of gratification. Further, students more likely to delay gratification also reported higher levels of persistence when tasks were less interesting or more difficult [1]. Students’ preferences for academic delay gratification are related to self-regulatory processes considered essential to academic success [7]. Self-regulation is an essential component of development. Individuals use diverse strategies to facilitate the implementation of intentions and goals. These strategies may be especially important when alternatives to studying become available. When individuals experience internal or external distraction from enacting intentions, such self-regulatory strategies as selective attention and the control of encoding, motivation, emotion, the environment, and information processing are assumed to help them remain task focused. An example of the relevance of control strategies for delay of gratification is the selective attention that children employ to avoid visual contact with attractive alternatives to the delayed reward [6]. Similarly, the studying student could avoid thinking about the positive consequences of attending the party and, using motivational control, focus on the negative consequences of not studying for the impending exam. Students who delay are also more likely to have available and use self-regulated learning strategies. Motivational analyses of academic delay of gratification include such factors as the relevance, value, and expectancy for immediate reward versus delayed reward options. Bembenutty [3] found that willingness to delay gratification depends on an individual’s expectancies, beliefs, goals, and values. Expectancy and value influence the decisions that learners will make regarding stay home
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studying for a test or going out to have fun with their friend even when the homework may not be completed. The expectancy and value placed on the delay task as well as on the nondelay alternative will determine the feasibility of attaining a delayed reward. Students’ preference for academic delay of gratification is a function of their expected value of alternative courses of action. Whether the student delays gratification (in order to study) would depend on the likelihood of successful exam performance given that she studies, compared to that of attending the party, and the degree of interest, utility, importance and cost of these alternatives [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development Children’s preference for academic delay of gratification is an essential component of their development and maturity. To be responsible members of the society, children need to acquire the skills and willingness to postpone immediate available reward that are temporarily available but which are less desirable. Learning to prioritize between what is more valuable and conducive to reach long-term goals is a desirable social element that parents and teachers could instill on children. Children needs to learn the necessary self-regulatory skills to learn academic materials, but they also need to develop the ability to engage in goal setting, selecting strategies, monitor goal attainment, engage in effort regulation, time management, and self-evaluation in order to reach their academic potentials. Longitudinal studies have shown that children’s ability to delay gratification positively predict adult’s self-regulatory competencies.
References 1.
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3. 4. 5.
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Bembenutty, H. (1999). Sustaining motivation and academic goals: The role of academic delay of gratification. Learning and Individual Differences, 11(3), 233–257. Bembenutty, H. (2007). Self-regulation of learning and academic delay of gratification: Individual differences among college students. Journal of Advanced Academics, 18(4), 586–617. Bembenutty, H. (2008). Academic delay of gratification and expectancy-value. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(1), 193–202. Bembenutty, H., & Karabenick, S. A. (1998). Academic delay of gratification. Learning and Individual Differences, 10(4), 329–346. Bembenutty, H., & Karabenick, S. A. (2004). Inherent association between academic delay of gratification, future time perspective, and self-regulated learning: Effects of time perspective on student motivation. Educational Psychology Review, 16(1), 35–57. Mischel, W. (1996). From good intentions to willpower. In P. M. Gollwitzer & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognitions and motivation to behavior (pp. 197–218). New York: Guilford. Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Academic Problem-Solving Skills ▶Analytic Intelligence
Academic Readiness JORDAN LUTHER Niagara University Academic Complex, Niagara, NY, USA
Synonyms Learning readiness; School readiness
Definition Academic readiness is an estimate, based on qualitative and/or quantitative information, about whether a preschool child is ready to handle the various demands of the structured educational environment.
Description There is no universal definition for academic readiness. Many kindergarten teachers, parents, and early childcare providers believe that academic readiness involves being “healthy, well-fed, and well rested; being able to express their needs, wants, and thoughts; and being enthusiastic and curious about new activities” [10, p. 23]. According to Buntaine and Costenbader [4], developmental age, which is the rate through which a child progresses through developmental stages, is the most commonly used method of assessing academic readiness. Still others believe a more effective way of predicting later academic success is through using psychometrically sound empirical tests which measure specific cognitive, pre-academic, and emotional regulation skills [1]. The Phelps Kindergarten Readiness Scale (PKRS, [9]), for example, measures domain-specific areas which are predictive of later academic achievement [1]. Specifically, the PKRS measures Verbal Processing, Perceptual Reasoning, and Auditory Processing. The Brigance Inventory of Early Development-II (IED-II) is a measure of school readiness which measures skills in motor, language, academic, daily living, and social-emotional domains [3]. The motor section consists of fine motor and gross motor functioning, the language section consists of receptive and expressive language areas, the academic section has a general/cognitive section as well as a prereading/reading section, and the daily living section consists of a self-help and
Academic Readiness
a prevocational section. All these skills are considered important in terms of success in academic learning environments. Some believe academic readiness is an ecological construct dependent on a complex combination of a child’s skills, their kindergarten teacher, the relationship between the child’s family and the school, and the school system [1]. Johnson-Fedoruk [6] believes that even among school readiness assessment tools which are empirically validated, these tools do not consider the various complex “interactions and peculiarities” which occur inside the actual classroom, and therefore even these empirically driven tests may lack validity (p. 2). According to Johnson-Fedoruk, the child’s behaviors inside the classroom, and their relationship with their teacher, are the “most obvious attributes” which make a child most prone to academic failure (p. 2). Therefore, although empirically driven tests measure specific skills within domains which are known to be predictive of later academic success, these tests may not have actual predictive validity when it comes to the real classroom. Rather, Johnson-Fedoruk believes school readiness tests should consider variables such as “student behavior, familiar structure, ESL status, age, and personality,” which are more predictive of academic success (p. 4). McClelland and colleagues [8] believe that behavioral functioning is an important factor to consider in school readiness. Children are expected to master specific behaviors before they enter kindergarten, as commonly outlined by early learning standards [7]. For example, when going from preschool to kindergarten, children must be able pay attention, follow instructions, and refrain from engaging in inappropriate behaviors [8, p. 947]. When children control their impulsive behaviors and pay attention, they are better able to perform classroom appropriate behaviors, such as following instructions and completing tasks. According to McClelland and colleagues [8], children in prekindergarten who display higher levels of behavioral regulation also display higher levels of “emergent literacy, vocabulary, and math” (p. 955). Moreover, attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and social-emotional competence were predictive of literacy and math skills from Kindergarten to Grade 6 and predictive of growth in literacy and math skills from Kindergarten to Grade 2. On the other hand, kindergarten children who are rated by their teachers as being disruptive and aggressive are also more likely to be considered at risk for academic failure [7]. Not only are these disruptive children more likely to underachieve academically and score lower on standardized cognitive achievement tests, but they are also more likely to be rejected by their peers [8]. Evidently, students who
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lack these learning-related skills are at risk for performing poorly in all areas of school performance. Competence in the use of language is an indicator of academic readiness as well [5]. The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development: Third Edition [2] as well as the Brigance IED-II [3] both measure expressive and receptive language. Children’s success in school depends on their child’s ability to verbally communicate with their teachers and peers. Receptive language, which is the ability to comprehend verbal information, is related to the ability to understand directions from teachers. Even the ability to tell stories, which is a form of expressive language, can be used as a measure of school readiness [5]. Narratives reflect how the child conceptualizes their current situation, which is indicative of their level of cognitive and language development. Children who are unable to tell stories in a clear and coherent manner are at risk for development difficulties. These deficiencies in language and intellectual functioning may be exposed in the classroom as difficulties in following and participating in routines, poor early academic performance, and poor social interactions with peers and/or teachers. Furthermore, children who engage in numerous literacy activities in preschool produce higher quality narratives than children who did not engage in such activities [5]. Kindergarten curricula have become increasingly academic, with stronger emphases on literacy skills. Due to this trend, more preschool children are being labeled as academically “unready” to enter the educational world, and are being placed in prekindergarten transitional programs. As a result of this dilemma, some experts argue that kindergarten should be less focused on global academic goals instruction, and instead provide individualized developmental programs within the regular classrooms [4]. Social-emotional skills, such as “self-control, selfconcept, social competence, initiative and curiosity, and persistence and reflection” are also important for academic readiness and later academic success [7, p. 38]. According to Logue [7] preschool children should demonstrate the ability to contribute to the overall effort of the group, demonstrate respect and fairness to others, and display effective interpersonal communication skills (p. 40). Many states now have preschool curriculums which teach these social and emotional skills in addition to the academic skills which are taught. For example, the Maine Early Childhood Learning Guidelines are based on the assumption that children will do better academically when they have the “social skills and behavior that enable them to develop meaningful relationships with adults and peers” [7, p. 38]. Without having these appropriate social skills, children miss out on the academic skills being
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taught, especially if these children are being removed from the classroom for behavior problems. Preschool children who come from impoverished home and neighborhood environments are often labeled “unready” for preschool and/or kindergarten. Often these children present with health, behavior, and social problems, which subsequently lead to academic difficulties. In terms of behavior regulation, children who come from chaotic and disorganized home environments have difficulty matching their behavior and temperament to the highly structured environment of the classroom [5]. Children with low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are also less likely to receive adequate verbal stimulation and/or proper materials to play with than their more affluent peers. Children who do not receive adequate verbal stimulation in the home tend to have difficulties functioning at age appropriate levels in “receptive and expressive language, reading ability, and math achievement,” which are all important skills later on in school [5, p. 281]. Children who face these multiple risk factors also show lower levels of executive functioning skills, as indicated by lower scores on standardized cognitive achievement tests which purport to measure aspects of executive functioning, such as working memory [8]. These low scores on intelligence tests can be attributed back to the fact that children with low SES are less likely to have quality verbal interactions with their primary caregivers and/or less likely to have intellectually stimulating toys to play with, as mentioned earlier. For example, lack of verbal stimulation from their parent(s) may affect the child’s performance on tests measuring Verbal Processing and lack of exposure to proper play materials, such as puzzles, may affect performance on tests measuring Perceptual Reasoning. Parents have the choice of sending their child to daycare and/or preschool. Day cares tend to focus more on social and behavioral development, as they provide activities such as art, singing, cooking, and gardening; preschools tend to focus more on pre-academic skills. The multiple risk factors which low income children experience are compounded when they receive poor quality daycare. In fact, research has proven that poor quality day care leads to lower intellectual levels and higher behavioral problems, at early and middle childhood, among children from lower socioeconomic groups [5]. According to Logue [7], poor quality preschool programs not only neglect to teach appropriate preacademic, social/emotional, and behavior skills, but actually reinforce negative social behaviors which lead to poor social adjustment and poor academic performance. Conversely, higher quality
day care has been shown to lead to higher levels of intellectual functioning and social-emotional development, and lower levels of behavior problems amongst its students [5]. This is especially true for at-risk children who come from impoverished home environments and attend high quality day care facilities [7]. In fact, high quality daycare has been shown to be a protective factor which contributes to the resilience of at-risk children. Unfortunately, disadvantaged children are far less likely to receive quality child care than children from higher SES groups as their parents cannot afford to send them to such programs. In light of the fact that high quality day cares produce positive results and poor quality day care produces negative results amongst at-risk preschoolers, many states are adopting standards for early education [7]. Early child care programs should attempt to increase the overall competence of the child, and increase the amount of support in their lives. For example, the Maine Early Childhood Learning Guidelines requires preschools to address skills related to social development, the learning of literacy, math, science, social studies, health, physical education, and creative arts. The quality of preschool child care is dependent upon the training the child’s educator receives and the quality of social interactions the child and educator have with each other [5]. In fact, early childhood teachers should be trained to foster social and emotional development in their students [7]. According to Buntaine and Costenbader [4], nearly half of all children entering kindergarten are at risk of future academic failure because they are not developmentally mature enough for structured classroom instruction. Members of the Gesell Institute believe that learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, and underachievement are due to developmentally immature children being expected to perform at levels outside of their abilities (p. 41). Children in kindergarten or preschool who are believed to be unready for the next level of instruction either stay home an additional year before entering kindergarten, attend a prekindergarten program, spend 2 years in kindergarten, or attend a prefirst grade class after kindergarten. Those who advocate for holding children back a year argue that doing so is a preventive technique aimed at avoiding academic failure before it can occur. They believe that spending an additional year in a learning environment which is less demanding allows a child to become ready for the next level of education. This hypothesis, however, has not been supported by research. In fact, the majority of “prefirst” programs have not been shown to produce significant
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
advantages in the later academic performance. Studies have found that children who attended “prefirst” programs did not outperform their non-retained counterparts in Grade 1 in areas such as math achievement, social maturity, self-concept, and attention. Additionally, it has been shown that students who waited an extra year between kindergarten and first grade did not perform better academically in Grade 3 compared to their peers who were not held back a year. Students who have been held back a grade also have higher rates of social/emotional problems and significantly higher drop rates compared to their non-retained peers [4]. Plevyak and Morris [10] stress that students who are older than the majority of their peers are more likely to engage in high risk sexual behaviors and use alcohol and cigarettes (p. 24). Therefore, the practice of holding preschool children back a year before entering kindergarten is questionable.
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7. Logue, M. E. (2007). Early childhood learning standards: Tools for promoting social and academic success in kindergarten. Children and Schools, 29(1), 35–43. 8. McClelland, M. M., Connor, C. M., Jewkes, A. M., Cameron, C. E., Farris, C. L., & Morrison, F. J. (2007). Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers’ literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. Developmental Psychology, 43(4), 947–959. 9. Phelps, L. (1997). Phelps kindergarten readiness scale: Manual. Buffalo, NY: Psychology Press. 10. Plevyak, L. H., & Morris, K. (2002). Why is kindergarten an endangered species? The Education Digest, 67(1), 23–26.
Acceptability ▶Social Validity
Relevance to Childhood Development Academic readiness depends on a multitude of child characteristics including pre-academic skills, language competency, behavior regulation, social-emotional development, and the level of development enrichment in earlier home and other care environments. A child’s level of functioning in any of these areas will contribute significantly to their later achievement in the actual classroom. Unfortunately, children who come from impoverished environments are at-risk for being underdeveloped in one or more of these areas. Research indicates children who seem to be developmentally unready for the next level of education should not be held back a year, but rather, they should have individualized plans which cater to their strengths and needs.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy R. TRENT CODD III1, STEVEN C. HAYES2 1 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Center of WNC, P.A., Asheville, NC, USA 2 University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
Synonyms ACT (pronounced as one word rather than as individual letters (e.g., “ACT” not “A-C-T”))
Definition References 1. Augustyniak, K. M., Cook-Cottone, C. P., & Calabrese, N. (2004). The predictive validity of the Phelps kindergarten readiness scale. Psychology in the Schools, 41(5), 509–516. 2. Bayley, N. (2006). Bayley scales of infant and toddler development (3rd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Corporation. 3. Brigance, A. H. (2004). Brigance diagnostic inventories IED-II: Inventory of early development. North Billerica, MA: Curriculum Associates, Inc. 4. Buntaine, R. L., & Costenbader, V. K. (1997). The effectiveness of a transitional prekindergarten program on later academic achievement. Psychology in the Schools, 34(1), 41–49. 5. Fiorentino, L., & Howe, N. (2004). Language competence, narrative ability, and school readiness in low-income preschool children. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 36(4), 280–294. 6. Johnson-Fedoruk, G. M. (1991). Student characteristics implicated in early school achievement: Kindergarten teacher validated. Child Study Journal, 21(4), 235–249.
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a third-wave behavioral psychotherapy based on relational frame theory (RFT), a comprehensive behavioral account of language and cognition, whose primary treatment goal is to increase psychological flexibility.
Description Relational Frame Theory A comprehensive account of language and cognition from a behavior analytic perspective has emerged: RFT [6]. Several dozen studies have tested the tenants of the theory (see [6] for a comprehensive review), which in brief claims that human beings learn at an early age to derive bidirectional relations among events in certain contexts and
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to alter the functions of events due to these relations. For example, a young child may learn that “cat” is the same as “C-A-T” and a small furry animal. With these two trained relations, (a) all bidirectional relations among these three events will probably be derived without explicit training (e.g., “C-A-T”=a small furry animal), and (b) the functions of each related event will alter those of the others. For example, if that child is now scratched by this small furry animal, fear may be shown when the child hears “oh, there’s a cat,” even though the oral name and aversive events have never occurred together. RFT leads to important implications for the understanding of language and cognition and thus for psychotherapy. It helps explain why core beliefs or “schemas” tend to be resistant to change, for example, or why suppression and avoidance of thoughts, feelings, memories, bodily states and other private events are both likely to be counterproductive. It also suggests a number of alternatives to currently popular psychotherapy methods: instead of trying to alter negative thoughts, for example, and thus elaborating an already troublesome cognitive network, one might alter the contexts in which these thoughts have behavior regulatory functions. Empirical RFT literature suggests that direct attempts to challenge cognitions may be ineffective or counterproductive [6].
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Overview The Acceptance and Commitment Therapist’s main goal is to alter the social/verbal context in which negative private experiences relate to destructive forms of overt behavior [9]. Altering the context is effective because the disruption of the context shows the client that such relationships between stimuli are just talk rather than prescribed realities. In addition, adding more constructive relations to problematic relational networks is more effective than trying to eliminate existing relations. The goal of altering the context is accomplished in three ways: (a) by reducing experiential avoidance; (b) by reducing excessive literality; and (c) by helping people make and keep commitments to behavior change. Experiential avoidance is the tendency to attempt to alter the form, frequency, or situational sensitivity of private events (e.g., painful thoughts) even when doing so interferes with valued actions. A vast literature (see [10]) shows that experiential avoidance is among the more pathological psychological processes known to psychology. Yet this process seems virtually ubiquitous [9]. In ACT, the agenda of attempting to control or eliminate negative private events are not viewed as the solution to
psychological suffering, but rather they are viewed as a core feature of psychological suffering. They are the problem because attempts to control private events are often unsuccessful, counterproductive, and invalidating [9]. They are also unnecessary. Instead of altering the form of private events (e.g., changing an irrational thought to a more rational alternative), ACT therapists seek to alter the social/verbal context. This is preferred because attempting to control private events is often ineffective and because altering the context is effective in allowing clients to embrace their fear. Thoughts and feelings emerge from a person’s unique history. When a deliberate attempt is made to control these events as a means of behavior regulation, one’s history immediately becomes “the enemy.” Histories do not change, however, except by the addition of new features. For example, a history of sexual abuse may lead to feelings of vulnerability and a fear of intimacy. A person desiring close, committed relationships may attempt to reduce these feelings so that relationships are possible, but some degree of vulnerability and fear is a natural result of such a history. Unable to make time go backwards, the person may dissociate, drink, or use drugs to “get through” the fear, but this only makes the fear more important, and more linked to overt behavior, while it also reduces closeness – the very goal of relating with others. Furthermore, if fear is something one must not have then fear is something to be afraid of and to focus on – as a result the fear only increases. This provides a concrete example of the reasons why emotional avoidance is likely to be unsuccessful, counterproductive, and invalidating. In ACT, clients are taught instead to embrace their fear, to defuse from their thoughts, and to focus instead on valued actions that will create a meaningful human life. Scores of techniques are used, but a few examples can be given. Clients may be asked to say fearsome words (e.g., “I’m bad”) out loud rapidly until all verbal meaning is momentarily lost and only the sounds remain. Clients may be asked to watch their own thoughts float by like leaves on a stream, leaving a psychological distance between the person who is aware of these thoughts and the literal thoughts themselves. Clients may be asked to deliberately produce painful emotions in a context of dispassionate observation of their experiential features: where they begin and end in one’s body, what words are triggered by them, what memories pop up in association with them, what behavioral urges emerge when they are contacted, and so on. Clients may be asked to label their own ongoing behavioral streams with such phrases as “now I am having the feeling of anger” rather than “I am angry” or “now
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
I am having the thought that I am bad” rather than “I’m bad.” The client may be asked to say negative thoughts very, very slowly, or to sing them, or to say them in a funny voice (see [8] and [9] for more therapeutic techniques). The purpose of such methods is to reduce the literal importance of thought, but without a direct, literal challenge to thought, and to replace emotional avoidance with acceptance and open exploration. In so doing, the automatic effects of one’s history are an interesting focus of observation, not a focus of deliberate change needed in order to produce new behavior. Metaphorically, private events are the exhaust of life, not the engine or steering wheel. Once this shift has occurred, the focus of ACT shifts to values and overt action. Once one need not accomplish the difficult job of first altering one’s insides before beginning to live a valued life, clinical attention can turn to living a valued life itself. Values clarification exercises help focus the client on the life he or she would choose to live if they had a choice. Specific behavioral commitments and exercises then create new behaviors that move in that valued direction, all the while watching for thoughts and feelings that heretofore would have been barriers to movement and now are instead to be accepted and experienced. ACT is not unique in promoting acceptance. Several traditional methods (e.g., Gestalt therapy) have done so. What is unique is that (a) a scientifically viable theory of language and cognition is now driving and coordinating acceptance based interventions into a new and more coherent whole, and (b) these methods are entering into empirical clinical work, based on clinical manuals and careful experimental research. The impact of these methods can be significant as controlled empirical work shows that ACT can have a significant impact on many forms of psychopathology (see [7] for a recent review).
The Hexaflex The ACT therapist directly targets empirically supported processes of change that are grouped into two general categories: mindfulness and acceptance processes and commitment and behavior-change processes. Together, these two groups of processes foster psychological flexibility. The mindfulness and acceptance processes consist of contact with the present moment, acceptance, defusion, and self-as-context. Contact with the present moment is defined as consciously experiencing internal and external events as they are occurring. Acceptance refers to a behavior, rather than an attitude, of actively embracing feared private events. Acceptance does not mean “white
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knuckling” or resignation, but rather truly opening up to experiencing what one experiences when one experiences it. Defusion involves experiencing one’s thoughts simply as thoughts rather than their referents. Finally, self-ascontext is perhaps best understood in contrast to two other common senses of self: the conceptualized self and the self as process of ongoing self-awareness. The conceptualized self is the sense of self one experiences when one experiences oneself as a collection of verbal categorizations (e.g., I’m shy, tall, Caucasian, nice, smart, etc.) whereas the self as process of ongoing self-awareness is conscious awareness of present experiences with mere description and explicitly without judgment (e.g., I’m having the thought that I’m nice). Self-as-context involves ongoing self-awareness with the added awareness of the locus from which one observes one’s private experiences (i.e., I/here/now). The behavior-change processes also consist of contact with the present moment and self-as-context, but include the additional processes of values and committed action. Values are life domains we choose to pursue on a moment by moment basis. They are more like directions in that one can never achieve a value in the way that one can achieve a goal. For example, one may value being a loving spouse, and no matter where one is with respect to this value one can always be more loving. Values are also not feelings. Committed action involves acting toward concrete goals, which are generated based on idiosyncratic valued directions, while simultaneously attending to the other processes of change. Committed action is aimed at achieving larger and larger patterns of effective behavior.
ACT with Children Empirical work on ACT with children is still in it’s infancy, and although several are underway no randomized trials of ACT have yet appeared with children or adolescents. A book-length description of acceptance-based methods for child and adolescent psychopathology recently appeared [4] which summarizes some of this early work. One empirical reason to believe that the extension of this work to children is warranted is that measures of ACT processes in child and adolescent populations operate very similarly to those in the adult population. For example, age appropriate measures of psychological inflexibility have found positive correlations with measures of child internalizing symptoms and externalizing behavior problems, and a negative correlation with quality of life [5]. A second reason is that early trials have been quite supportive. For example, in an open trial with a group of 14 adolescents with idiopathic chronic pain Wicksell, Melin, and Olsson [13] found improvements follow ACT
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in functional ability, school attendance, catastrophizing, pain intensity, and pain interference. These gains were retained at a 3- and 6-month follow-up. Additionally, a small randomized controlled trial [12] compared a brief ACT intervention to multidisciplinary treatment plus amitriptyline for chronic pediatric pain. The ACT group showed substantial and enduring improvement and when follow-up assessments were included the ACT group performed significantly better on perceived functional ability in relation to pain, pain intensity and pain related discomfort. Parental experiential avoidance has also been examined. The impact of parental experiential avoidance on children’s emotional development and behavior has been demonstrated [3] as has it’s impact on parenting effectiveness [1]. Parental and child outcomes have been improved as changes in parental mindfulness processes occur [2, 11].
11. Singh, N. N., Lancioni, G. E., Winton, A. S. W., Fisher, B. C., Wahler, R. G., McAleavey, K., et al. (2006). Mindful parenting decreases aggression, noncompliance, and self-injury in children with autism. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 14, 169–177. 12. Wicksell, R. K., Melin, L., Lekander, M., & Olsson, G. L. (2009). Evaluating the effectiveness of exposure and acceptance strategies to improve functioning and quality of life in longstanding pediatric pain – a randomized controlled trial. Pain, 141(3), 248–257. 13. Wicksell, R. K., Melin, L., & Olsson, G. L. (2007). Exposure and acceptance in the rehabilitation of adolescents with idiopathic chronic pain – a pilot study. European Journal of Pain, 11, 267–274.
Suggested Readings Greco, L. A., & Hayes, S. C. (Eds.). (2008). Acceptance and mindfulness treatments for children and adolescents: A practitioners guide. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford Press. Hayes, S. C., & Strosahl, K. D. (Eds.). (2004). A practical guide to acceptance and commitment therapy. New York: Springer.
References 1. Berlin, K. S., Sato, A. F., Jastrowski, K. E., Woods, D. W., & Davies, W. H. (2006, November). Effects of experiential avoidance on parenting practices and adolescent outcomes. Paper presented at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Annual Convention, Chicago. 2. Blackledge, J. T., & Hayes, S. C. (2006). Using acceptance and commitment training in the support of parents of children diagnosed with autism. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 28(1), 1–18. 3. Cheron, D. M. (2006, November). Assessing parental experiential avoidance: Preliminary psychometric data from the Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ). In panel discussion, “Experiential Avoidance and Mindfulness in Parenting,” Cheron, D. M., & Ehrenreich, J. T. (Moderators). Presented at the 40th Annual Convention of the Association for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, Chicago. 4. Greco, L. A., & Hayes, S. C. (Eds.). (2008). Acceptance and mindfulness treatments for children and adolescents: A practitioners guide. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 5. Greco, L. A., Lambert, W., & Baer, R. A. (2008). Psychological inflexibility in childhood and adolescence: Development and evaluation of the avoidance and fusion questionnaire for youth. Psychological Assessment, 20(2), 93–102. 6. Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (Eds.). (2001). Relational frame theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York: Plenum Press. 7. Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J., Bond, F., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes, and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 1–25. 8. Hayes, S. C., & Strosahl, K. D. (Eds.). (2004). A practical guide to acceptance and commitment therapy. New York: Springer. 9. Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford Press. 10. Hayes, S. C., Wilson, K. W., Gifford, E. V., Follette, V. M., & Strosahl, K. (1996). Emotional avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 1152–1168.
Suggested Resources Association for Contextual Behavioral Science www.contextualpsychology.org
Accommodation ▶Adjustment
Accommodations, Classroom ELISHEVA KONSTAM, DEVORAH NEUHAUS Pace University, NY, USA
Synonyms Classroom modifications
Definition Classroom accommodations are adjustments made in the classroom that allow students with special needs to participate in regular education. These accommodations remove the barriers that would otherwise impede a child’s ability to participate due to the nature of the disability. Accommodations and modifications are often used interchangeably. However, they have slightly different connotations. Modifications alter the nature of the
Accommodations, Piagetian
classroom including standards and expectations. Accommodations remove barriers without altering what is expected and being measured.
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Description 4.
Who are These Accommodations for? For students who have disabilities and meet criteria for an individualized education plan (IEP) under The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA) typically have accommodations written in the IEP. These are individualized accommodations that have been identified as being essential in educating the particular student. For students who do not meet the requirements for classification but still have a disability are covered by Federal law under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and can have classroom accommodations written into their 504 plan. Classroom accommodations are individualized based upon the specific disability and needs of the student [3].
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Horvath, L. S., Kampfer-Bohach, S., & Kearns, J. F. (2005). The use of accommodations among students with deafblindness in large-scale assessment systems. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 16, 177–187. Ketterlin-Geller, L. R., Alonzo, J., Braun-Monegan, J., & Tindal, G. (2007). Recommendations for accommodations: Implications of (in) consistency. Remedial and Special Education, 24, 194–206. Soukup, J. H., Wehmeyer, M. L., Bashinski, S. M., & Bovaird, J. A. (2007). Classroom variables and access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities. Exceptional Children, 74, 101–120.
Additional Resources Bateman, B., & Herr, C. (2006). Writing measureable IEP goals and objectives. Verona, WI: Attainment Publication. Siegel, L. M. (2007). The complete IEP guide: How to advocate for your special ed child (5th ed.). San Francisco: Nolo Publication. Classroom interventions for children with ADD & learning disabilities. http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/teacher.shtml
Learning Disabilities Resource www.ldonline.org Accommodations and Modifications Law http://www.wrightslaw.com/links/free_pubs.htm
What are some of the more Typical Accommodations and how do they Look? There are accommodations used for making the classroom and school environment accessible for those with physical disabilities. Computers, technology, ramps, and elevators are some accommodations used to allow these students equal access to education. For example, voice recognition software may be used for a student with limited use of his hands. Accommodations for students with visual or hearing impairments can include Braille, sign language interpreter, computer software, or large print [2]. Accommodations for students with learning disabilities often include testing accommodations such as extra time, the use of a computer, the use of a word processor, the use of a calculator, being allowed to record answers, and having directions and questions read [1]. Accommodations for students with health impairments may include being allowed to eat and drink during class and frequent rest breaks. Other accommodations that can be used for students with various disabilities include being allowed extended time to complete assignments, breaking down assignments into manageable parts, and giving a student a second set of textbooks to keep at home [4].
References 1.
Brady, K. P. (2004). Section 504 student eligibility for students with reading disabilities: A primer for advocates. Reading and Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 20, 305–329.
Accommodations, Piagetian JACKIE KIBLER University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
Synonyms Adaptation; Adjustment; Change; Modification
Definition A term coined by Jean Piaget; a cognitive process that involves developing or changing a schema (i.e., mental representation) to fit information encountered in the environment [1].
Description Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development includes the concept of accommodation. This cognitive process involves the development and alteration of mental representations, schemas, as individuals encounter new situations. It is the process by which we learn and develop our cognitive abilities. Accommodation, unlike the process of assimilation, requires a great deal of mental energy, thus individuals typically prefer to assimilate (i.e., a cognitive process that involves encountering something in the
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environment that fits into an existing mental representation, or schema) more than they accommodate [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development Children prefer routine in their environment so that they are able to assimilate information that they encounter. When put into a new situation, some children take longer to accommodate to the new environment. For example, when taking young children to a restaurant for the first time, they may have to accommodate their behavior (e.g., lowered voice, staying in their seat, etc.) to fit the expectations of the environment. They are accommodating the information, and as caregivers will attest, some children do it more quickly than others. Another example of accommodation involves family separation. Some children face separation from family members (due to divorce, military service, relocation, etc.) and are forced to accommodate this information into their schema for daily life. The accommodation process may take children awhile as they seek to understand the change in their environment. Experts typically recommend that caregivers keep children’s routine as normal as possible as they deal with this type of separation. Piaget would explain that by keeping their routine normal, you are providing more opportunities for assimilation, so that they are able to use some of their mental energy to accommodate the separation.
References 1.
Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Educational psychology: Developing learners (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Acculturation KAI KOK “ZEB” LIM University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
Synonyms Adaptation; Assimilation; Cultural transmission
Definition The term acculturation, used in social science research, was first proposed and defined as a “phenomena which results when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups” by anthropologists Redfield et al. [9].
Description Acculturation refers to the process whereby the attitudes and behaviors of people from one culture changes when they interact with the people of another culture, typically the dominant or host culture. It is generally accepted that there will be mingling of both cultures as each culture interact and changes one another to a certain degree. Assimilation on the other hand refers to the process where the minority culture will be absorbed into the dominant culture until people of the minority culture adopts the dominant culture completely. Acculturation focuses on the group level rather than at the individual level. Another term – psychological acculturation, which is termed by Graves [3], refers to the effects of acculturation at the individual level of study. Two dimensions exist at the individual level – behaviors and values. Behavioral dimensions of acculturation involves the choice of language use and participation in cultural activities while values dimensions involves the relational style, person-nature relationships, beliefs about human nature, and time orientation. It is common to observe faster behavioral changes to fit in with the dominant culture within one generation while values changes are slower and occurs across different generational level. Two model of acculturation exists to explain how groups acculturate. The linear or unidimensional model suggests that acculturation occurs on a continuum where the group either holds strongly to the original culture or adopts the dominant (host) culture. The bidimensional model on the other hand suggests that groups can vary on the continuum of how strongly they hold on to the original culture and simultaneously vary on the continuum of how strongly they adopt the dominant (host) culture. Berry [1] suggests that there are four possible outcomes of the bidimensional acculturation model – assimilation (involves the adoption of the dominant culture completely), integration (involves the synthesis of both cultures), rejection (involves the rejection of the dominant culture), and marginalization (involves the rejection of both original and new culture). While this fourfold model of possible outcomes of acculturation are appealing, other researchers have call this into question (see Rudmin [10] for further reading). Psychological acculturation is an important construct for physical and mental health professionals because it allows researchers and providers alike to understand the extent to which the minority individual may be receptive to the treatment goals and plan that may be developed for the dominant culture (White, middle class Americans for the most part). To this end, researchers, to understand
Acetylcholine
better the acculturation process of the ethnic minority individuals, have developed many psychological acculturation measures. Most of these measures were developed with specific ethnic groups in mind, which limit the generalizability of any one instrument across different cultural groups.
Relevance to Childhood Development The large number of first generation Asian American and Hispanic/Latino/Latina population that are in the United States currently suggests that they may experience psychological acculturation that may influence their mental and physical well-being. First generation ethnic minorities that were born in America or at an early age, came to America would have an easier time acculturating to the dominant (host) culture easier and faster compared to those who immigrate here in their adolescence or at a later age. At the same time, the parents of the child who immigrate to the United States may have a harder time adjusting to the local culture, custom and norms after they had strongly socialized to the original culture, customs and norms of their place of origin. This may results in conflict between the parents and the child whereby the parents may want the child to hold on to their ethnic/ racial, country of origin values, and custom while the child may choose to follow the dominant culture values and customs. The pressure of fitting in with their peers, especially for ethnic minority adolescents, to escape ridicule from peers and be more American is a strong motivator to acculturate quickly. Depending on the resolution of the conflict between the parent and child, professional helpers may need to be recruited to help mediate and educate the family about this struggle to fit in with the dominant culture. A positive resolution of this conflict between holding on to the values and customs of the country of origin or ethnic background and adapting to the dominant culture values and customs will result in an individual who is biculturally competent in negotiating the intricacies of both cultures. Children who are have the opportunity to learn about their own cultural history and values by their parents and community while at home and to be allowed to learn the dominant culture at school will have a better chance to be a biculturally competent individual than their peers who are forced or choose to adopt one culture over the other.
References 1. Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5–33.
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2. Chun, K. M., Organista, P. B., & Marı´n, G. (Eds.). (2003). Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 3. Graves, T. D. (1967). Psychological acculturation in a tri-ethnic community. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 23, 337–350. 4. Jensen, L. A. (2003). Coming of age in a multicultural world: Globalization and adolescent cultural identity formation. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 189–196. 5. Kim, B. S. K. (2007). Acculturation and enculturation. In F. T. L. Leong, A. Inman, A. Ebreo, L. H. Yang, L. Kinoshita, & M. Fu (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American psychology (2nd ed., pp. 141–158). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 6. Kim, B. S. K., & Abreu, J. M. (2001). Acculturation measurement: Theory, current instruments, and future directions. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling (2nd ed., pp. 394–424). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 7. Matsudaira, T. (2006). Measures of psychological acculturation: A review. Transcultural Psychiatry, 43, 462–487. 8. Phinney, J. S., Ong, A., & Madden, T. (2000). Cultural values and intergenerational value discrepancies in immigrant and nonimmigrant families. Child Development, 71, 528–539. 9. Redfield, R., Linton, R., & Herskovits, M. (1936). Memorandum on the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist, 38, 149–152. 10. Rudmin, F. W. (2003). Critical history of the acculturation psychology of assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization. Review of General Psychology, 7, 3–37. 11. Ryder, A. G., Alden, L. E., & Paulhus, D. L. (2000). Is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? A head-to-head comparison in the prediction of personality, self-identity, and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 49–65. 12. Szapocznik, J., Scopetta, M. A., Kurtines, W., & Aranalde, M. A. (1978). Theory and measurement of acculturation. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 12, 113–120. 13. Yu, S. M., Huang, Z., Schwalberg, R., Overpeck, M., & Kogan, M. D. (2003). Acculturation and the health and wellbeing of U.S. immigrant adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 33, 479–488.
Accuracy ▶Validity
Acetylcholine TONY WU Walden University, Diamond Bar, CA, USA
Synonyms Chemical compound; Neurotransmitters
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Definition
References
A neurotransmitter, C7H17NO3, that is released at the neuromuscular junctions. It has been associated with learning and memory.
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Description Acetylcholine (ACh) is one of the first identified neurotransmitter in the nervous system. Similar to electrical signals, neurotransmitters are the means by which neurons communicate with each other in biological processes, including sleeping, cognition, emotion, memory, hunger, and movement. Neurotransmitter communication is mediated by several mechanisms that either accelerate or decelerate release of neurotransmitter. It has been documented that coexistence of more than one neurotransmitter in a neuron makes it possible to exert multiple effects simultaneously [4]. Acetylcholine is the most studied neurotransmitter because it is released at the readily observable neuromuscular junctions. Typically, ACh is synthesized and stored in synaptic vesicles that are catalyzed by choline acetyltransferase. Once ACh is released, it is binds to receptors, then is degraded and re-synthesized. Acetylcholine is associated various systems in the body, such as with neurons that excite skeletal muscles, neurons in the autonomic nervous system, and the central nervous system [4]. In addition to stimulating muscle-skeletal movement, researchers have documented that Acetylcholine is linked to brain regions that carry out memory and learning. Injections of cholinergic agent enhance the performance of learning and memory in animal and human experiments. For example, it has been observed that the presence of ACh in the hippocampus increases when rats engage in hippocampus-dependent tasks [8]. Furthermore, the release of ACh has a positive correlation with improved task performances [2]. Studies have provided additional evidence that the release of ACh in the amygdale may enhance memory formation. Studies also suggested that decreased ACh might affect learning. For example, intra-amygdala injections of histamine H3 receptor antagonists not only reduce ACh release but also impede learning [7]. Finally, studies in Dementia of the Alzheimer type offer further verification that Acetylcholine is related to memory. It is observed that there is a massive depletion of ACh and loss of cholinergic projections in the brain [9]. It is hypothesized that ACh boosts the magnitude of visual search and reduce interference [6]. At the neuronal level, ACh has differential effects on the firing of cortical and thalamic neurons [5], as well as inhibition of distracted variables [1].
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Callaway, E., Halliday, R., & Naylor, H. (1992). Cholinergic activity and constraints on information processing. Biological Psychology, 33, 1–22. Hironaka, N., Tanaka, K., Izaki, Y., Hori, K., & Nomura, M. (2001). Memory-related acetylcholine efflux from rat prefrontal cortex and hippocampus: A microdialysis study. Brain Research, 901, 143–150. Levin, E. D., & Simon, B. B. (1998). Nicotinic acetylcholine involvement in cognitive function in animals. Psychopharmacology (Berlin), 138, 217–230. Marieb, E. N., & Hoehn, K. (2007). Human anatomy and physiology. San Francisco: Pearson Benjamin Cummings. McCormick, D. A. (1993). Actions of acetylcholine in the cerebral cortex and thalamus and implications for function. Progress in Brain Research, 98, 303–308. Panicker, S., & Parasuraman, R. (1998). The neurochemical basis of attention. In I. L. Singh & R. Parasuraman (Eds.), Human cognition: A multidisciplinary perspective (pp. 79–98). New Delhi: Sage. Passani, M. B., Cangioli, I., Baldi, E., Bucherelli, C., Mannaioni, P. F., & Blandina, P. (2001). Histamine H3 receptor-mediated impairment of contextual fear conditioning and in-vivo inhibition of cholinergic transmission in the rat basolateral amygdale. European Journal of Neuroscience, 14, 1522–1532. Ragozzino, M. E., Unick, K. E., & Gold, P. E. (1996). Hippocampal acetylcholine release during memory testing in rats: Augmentation by glucose. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 93, 4693–4698. Whitehouse, P. J., Price, D. L., Struble, R. G., Clark, A. W., Coyle, J. T., & DeLong, M. R. (1982). Alzheimer’s disease and senile dementia: Loss of neurons in the basal forebrain. Science, 215, 1237–1239.
Achievement Motivation PEI-HSUAN HSIEH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Need for achievement
Definition Achievement motivation is the need for excellence and significant accomplishment, despite what rewards may be offered after the achievement has been met.
Description Atkinson and his colleagues formed the concept that achievement motivation stems from two separate needs. One is the motivation to achieve and is related to one’s desire to accomplish successful goals and the other is the motive to avoid failure. Some people may be hesitant to take on the responsibilities of having to accomplish goals or employ in activities
Achievement Testing
because they are afraid to fail. The motive to avoid failure includes worries about the consequences of failing, self-criticism, and diversion of attention, accelerated heart rate or nervousness, which can all lead to poor performance. In contrasts, those who feel the need to achieve successful goals are more motivated to persist at goals they know they can accomplish. By doing this, individuals are more likely to avoid running into failure. Most people develop both forms of motivation for achievement. However, achievement behavior is dependent on which need is more dominant. Individuals high in motive for success are characterized by a tendency to tackle challenging tasks because they have a relatively low motive to avoid failure.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children can develop high achievement motivation when parents encourage independence in childhood, praise success, and associate achievement with the child’s ability and effort. Recent literature shows that specific tasks, environments, and contexts, influence the development of achievement motivation. In addition, children’s need to outperform other students or to avoid negative feedback also influences achievement motivation. As students move up from middle to high school they are expected to accomplish more difficult work while keeping up with their peers. With these expectations, children need to be able to develop the appropriate form of motivation in order to achieve normative success with their peers.
References 1. 2. 3.
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Atkinson, J. W. (1957). Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychological Review, 64, 359–372. Atkinson, J. W., & Feather, N. T. (Eds.). (1966). A theory of achievement motivation. New York: Wiley. Bong, M. (2001). Between- and within-domain relations of academic motivation among middle and high school students: Self-efficacy, task-value, and achievement goals. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 23–34. Wine, J. (1971). Test anxiety and direction of attention. Psychological Bulletin, 76, 92–104.
Achievement Testing MEI Y. CHANG, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Definition Achievement testing refers to the practice of using achievement tests to efficiently measure the amount of knowledge
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and/or level of academic skills an individual has acquired or mastered through the planned instruction that typically occurs in educational settings [1]. The practice of administering achievement tests may take place in the fields of school psychology, clinical psychology, and special education to assist in assessing academic proficiency or diagnosing learning disabilities, as well as in the field of clinical neuropsychology to assist in detecting individual strengths and deficits in patients with neuropsychological disorders affecting reading, computation, or writing skills [4].
Description Achievement testing is a procedure of utilizing standardized achievement test batteries to assess the academic skills and abilities acquired from the process of direct educational instruction or intervention. Standardized achievement tests are characterized by being available from large publishers that have sufficient resources to employ professionals and test developers, by including a fixed set of test items designed to measure a clearly defined subject area across a wide span of age and/or grade levels, and by following specific directions for administering and scoring the tests [2]. The procedure of administering and scoring the tests in a consistent manner to nationally representative groups produces a statistical profile composed of data (test scores) that form norms, which enable comparisons between an individual’s test score and a large group of individuals at the same age or grade level who have also taken the test [2, 3]. A useful standardized achievement test battery must actually measure what it claims to measure (validity) and give consistent results over time (reliability). Achievement tests may be designed to comprehensively assess skills in reading (e.g., decoding, fluency, and comprehension), mathematics (e.g., reasoning and computation), writing (e.g., fluency, spelling, and prose writing), and language (e.g., receptive and expressive) within one battery, such as two widely used comprehensive norm-referenced achievement test batteries, the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ III ACH) and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – Second Edition (WIAT-II) [3, 4]. Achievement tests also may be developed to assess knowledge/skills only in a specific subject area, such as the Gray Oral Reading Tests – Fourth Edition (GORT-4), or to be used as a limited screening battery, such as the Wide Range Achievement Test-3 (WRAT-3) [4]. Norm-referenced, standardized achievement tests can be designed for individual or group administration. Individually administered standardized achievement tests are used primarily for evaluating individual students who demonstrate learning difficulty in school, as well as students suspected of needing additional support or special
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education services [2]. The tests can be administered by a trained school psychologist, clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, resource teacher, or psychometrician to an individual student in a quiet, confidential setting. Group administered standardized achievement tests can be developed by large national test publishers or state-level testing programs that are typically administered at least once a year to a large group of students, an entire classroom, or across grade level(s) to assess what students are able to do in specific subject areas including reading, mathematics, written expression, and scholastic subjects such as science and history [2, 5]. Student performance that is less than expected of a specific grade/age level is usually characterized as academic underachievement which may indicate a need for additional instruction and/or intervention. Individually administered tests tend to be more comprehensive, reliable, and valid than group-administered tests. Nonetheless, individually administered tests require more monetary costs to administer because of the limitation of working with just one subject at a time by a trained school psychologist or other professionals.
References 1.
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Dowd, L. R. (1993). Glossary of terminology for vocational assessment, evaluation and work adjustment. Menomonie, WI: Materials Development Center. Frisby, C. L. (2001). Academic achievement. In L. A. Suzuki, J. G. Ponterotto, & P. J. Meller (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural assessment – clinical, psychological, and educational applications (2nd ed., pp. 541–568). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (4th ed.). La Mesa, CA: Jerome M. Sattler. Strauss, E., Sherman, E. M. S., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological tests. New York: Oxford University Press. Venn, J. J. (2006). Assessing students with special needs (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Description The built-up oil than acts as a host to bacteria; thus, creating inflammation of the skin. Types of skin inflammation vary depending on the depth of the blockage. Blockage close to the surface of the skin is a pustule. A papule, commonly known as a pimple, is also near the surface of the skin by a little deeper than a pustule. Cyst is the deepest type of blockage of oil secretion. Skin inflammation can also occur when the oil breaks through the surface of the skin, commonly known as a “whitehead.” And, if the “whitehead” becomes oxidized, oil changes from white to black, the result is a “blackhead.” The exact cause of the condition is unknown. However, the increase of hormonal levels and heredity are two factors researchers associate to the over activity of oil glands. The condition begins at the age of puberty and decreases or disappears after the early twenties; however, occurrence is not restricted to any specific age range. Areas of the body commonly effected are the face, neck, back, shoulders, and scalp.
References 1.
Simpson, N. B., & Cunliffe, W. J. (2004). Disorders of the sebaceous glands. In T. Burns, S. Breathnach, N. Cox, & C. Griffiths (Eds.), Rook’s textbook of dermatology (7th ed., pp. 43.1–43.75). Malden, MS: Blackwell Science.
Acquired Autism JUDAH B. AXE Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
Synonyms
Acne JOY JANSEN Neurology, Learning, and Behavior Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Autism; Autism spectrum disorders; Autistic; Autistic disorder; Enterocolitis; Regression; Regressive autism
Definition The sudden presence of autism at 18 months of age following typical development.
Description Synonyms Blackheads; Pimples; Pustules; Skin inflammation; Whiteheads; Zits
Definition A skin disease caused by the over activity of the oil (sebaceous) glands resulting in a localized, irritation of the skin at the base of the hair follicles.
Acquired autism is distinguished from autistic disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder present at birth and detected through the observation of delays in language, social, and vestibular development. Acquired autism is observed when a child develops normally and then “regresses” or appears to develop autism around 18 months of age. Children receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine around this age and a small body of
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
research suggests the disorder is related to the MMR vaccine. However, a larger set of data suggests no correlation between autism and the MMR vaccine. Many factors, such as bowel problems, are thought to contribute to acquired autism, but the specific mechanisms remain unknown. The prevalence of acquired autism has been found to be between 22 and 50% of autism cases.
References 1.
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Ozonoff, S., Williams, B. J., & Landa, R. (2005). Parental report of the early development of children with regressive autism: The delaysplus-regression phenotype. Autism, 9(5), 461–486. Taylor, B., Miller, E., Lingam, R., Andrews, N., Simmons, A., & Stowe, J. (2002). Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and bowel problems or developmental regression in children with autism: Population study. British Medical Journal, 324, 393–396.
Acquired Epileptic Aphasia ▶Childhood Aphasia
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) ▶Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome BRIAN P. DALY1, CINDY BUCHANAN2 1 Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA 2 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Synonyms Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; AIDS; Immunodeficiency syndrome acquired; Immunologic deficiency syndrome acquired
Definition AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. AIDS is a viral disease that destroys the body’s ability to fight infection.
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Description AIDS is the final stage of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. HIV finds and destroys white blood cells (T cells or CD4 cells) that the immune system needs to fight disease. HIV disease is transmitted through blood or semen and occurs in three major ways: through sexual activity if the body fluids become exposed to each other, in intravenous drug use if contaminated needles are shared, and from an infected mother to her baby. The diagnosis of AIDS is made when an individual is infected by the HIV, has a CD4-positive T-lymphocyte count under 200 cells/ microliter or less than 14% of total lymphocytes, and increased susceptibility to opportunistic infections and malignant neoplasms [1]. Opportunistic infections are common in individuals with AIDS, targeting areas that include the brain, intestinal tract, lungs, eyes, and other organs [2]. Additional health complications include debilitating weight loss, diarrhea, neurologic conditions, and chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancers like Kaposi’s sarcoma and certain types of lymphomas [2]. In the absence of treatment, data from large epidemiological studies in Western countries indicate that the median time from infection with HIV to the development of AIDS-related symptoms is approximately 10–12 years [3]. However, there can be a wide variation in disease progression. The most efficacious treatment for HIV/ AIDS is with antiretroviral drugs that fall into four major classes: Reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors; protease inhibitors; entry and fusion inhibitors; and, integrase inhibitors. Combinations of these drugs also are employed and can significantly reduce the presence of the virus. Specifically, using a combination of antiretroviral medications and protease inhibitors commonly referred to as highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has been found to be effective in prolonging the lives of children and adolescents with HIV. Currently, drug treatment does not cure HIV infection or AIDS. Retroviral drugs can effectively suppress the virus, even to undetectable levels, but the drugs cannot eliminate HIV from the body. Medical advances in the prevention of mother-tochild transmission are particularly encouraging given that fewer than 300 children annually are born infected with HIV in the United States [6]. However, there are still more than 8,500 previously infected children and youth less than 19 years old living with HIV or AIDS [6]. In addition, over 50% of all new HIV infections occur in individuals under the age of 25 [4]. Almost all HIV-infected young children in the United States get the virus from their mothers before or during birth when proper prenatal care is not obtained.
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Adolescents become behaviorally infected with HIV through either sexual activity or drug use. Similar to adults, the most effective treatment for HIV-positive children and adolescents is antiretroviral therapy. Antiretroviral treatment reduces illness and mortality among children living with HIV in much the same way that it does among adults. In the United States, all infants with HIV are started on treatment, regardless of CD4 percentage, clinical status or viral load [5]. Adolescents that are behaviorally infected are monitored and generally begin antiretroviral treatment when they present with a history of an AIDS-defining illness or with a CD4 T-cell count 9) and (3) the 95th percentile of the total score of the aggressive and the delinquent behaviour scale (score >19). In the second stage, structured interviews were performed with 399 parents representing both screen positive and control children. DSM-III-R diagnoses were derived by using the
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German version (6) of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Parent Version (DISC-P 2.3).
The Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth The main aim of The Great Smoky Mountains Study (GSMS) was to examine the development of, need for, and use of mental health services in children and adolescents in an area of the southeastern United States [4]. It used a multistage, overlapping cohorts design, in which 4,500 of the 11,758 children aged 9, 11, and 13 years in an 11-county area of the southeastern United States. Children who scored in the top 25% on the screening questionnaire, together with a one in ten random sample of the rest, were recruited for four waves of intensive, annual interviews (n=1,015 at wave 1). In addition to this sample, all American Indian children aged 9, 11, and 13 years who attended reservation and public schools. The screening measure consisted of the “externalizing” broad-band scale items from the child behavior checklist. The following constructs were measured in the study: Risk for mental health service use; service use, access, and barriers to care; family resources, family functioning; psychiatric symptoms, and family burden; Child’s physical health and development; adversity and traumatic events; and community resources. Children were screened and interviewed close to their 9th, 11th or 13th birthday. Families recruited for the interview stage of the study were visited at home by two interviewers. Following the wave 1 interviews, families were contacted by telephone every 3 months, in which they were asked about any service use during the intervening period, and any change of address, school, or family structure.
The Quebec Study [16] The main aims of this study are to examine: (1) the prevalence of DSM-III-R diagnoses among adolescents, (2) differences in the reporting of psychiatric diagnoses across informants, and to (3) examine the impact of including an impairment criterion on the prevalence of adolescent psychiatric disorders. During 1986 and 1987, 1,201 mothers and teachers of 4,488 French-speaking kindergarten children in the province of Quebec, Canada completed a set of questionnaires. Two thousands of these children were randomly selected for annual assessments throughout childhood and into adolescence. Between 1995 and 1997, mothers and their children (ranged in age from 14 to 17 years) were interviewed using the French translation of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children to obtain the prevalence of DSM-III-R disorders and perceived impairment associated with these disorders.
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References 1. Bird, H. R., Gould, M. S., & Staghezza, B. M. (1993). Patterns of diagnostic comorbidity in a community sample of children aged 9 through 16 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 361–368. 2. Cohen, P., Cohen, J., Kasen, S., Velez, C. N., Hartmark, C., Johnson, J., et al. (1993). An epidemiological study of disorders in late childhood and adolescence – I: Age- and gender-specific prevalence. Journal Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 851–866. 3. Cooper, P. J., & Goodyer, I. M. (1993). A community study of depression in adolescent girls. I. Estimates of symptom and syndrome prevalence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 369–374. 4. Costello, E. J., Angold, A., Burns, B. J., Stangl, D. K., Tweed, D. L., Erkanli, A., et al. (1996). The Great smoky mountains study of youth: Goals, design, methods, and the prevalence of DSM-III-R disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 1129–1136. 5. Essau, C. A. (2008). Comorbidity of depressive disorders among adolescents in community and clinical settings. Psychiatry Research, 158, 35–42. 6. Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Lynskey, M. T. (1993). Prevalence and comorbidity of DSM-III-R diagnoses in a birth cohort of 15 year olds. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 1127–1134. 7. Fleming, J. E., Offord, D. R., & Boyle, M. H. (1989). Prevalence of childhood and adolescent depression in the community: Ontario child health study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 647–654. 8. Graham, P., & Rutter, M. (1973). Psychiatric disorders in the young adolescent: A follow-up study. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 66, 1226–1229. 9. Kashani, J. H., Carlson, G. A., Beck, N. C., Hoeper, E. W., Corcoran, C. M., McAllister, J. A., et al. (1987). Depression, depressive symptoms, and depressed mood among a community sample of adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 931–934. 10. Lahey, B. B., Flagg, E. W., Bird, H. R., et al. (1996). The NIMH methods for the epidiology of child and adolescent mental disorders (MECA) study: Background and methodology. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 855–864. 11. Lewinsohn, P. M., Hops, H., Roberts, R. E., Seeley, J. R., & Andrews, J. A. (1993). Adolescent psychopathology: I Prevalence and incidence of depression and other DSM-III-R disorders in high school students. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 133–144. 12. McGee, R., Feehan, M., Williams, S., Partridge, F., Silva, P. A., & Kelly, J. (1990). DSM-III disorders in a large sample of adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 611–619. 13. McGee, R., Williams, S., & Feehan, M. (1994). Behavior problems in New Zealand children. In P. R. Joyce, R. T. Mulder, M. A. OakleyBrowne, I. D. Sellman, & W. G. A. Watkins (Eds.), Development, personality and psychopathology (pp. 15–22). Christchurch: Christchurch School of Medicine. 14. Offord, D. R., Boyle, M. H., Racine, Y. A., Fleming, J. E., Cadman, D. T., Blum, H. M., et al. (1992). Outcome, prognosis, and risk in a longitudinal follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 31, 916–923. 15. Reinherz, H. Z., Giaconia, R. M., Lefkowitz, E. S., Pakiz, B., & Frost, A. K. (1993). Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in a community population of older adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 369–377. 16. Romano, E., Tremblay, R. E., Vitaro, F., Zoccolillo, M., & Pagani, L. (2001). Prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses and the role of perceived
impairment: Findings from an adolescent community sample. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 451–461. 17. Von Korff, M., & Eaton, W. W. (1989). Epidemiologic findings on panic. In R. Baker (Ed.), Panic disorder: Theory, research, and therapy (pp. 35–50). New York: Wiley. 18. Whitaker, A., Johnson, J., Shaffer, D., Rapoport, J. L., Kalikow, K., Walsh, B. T., et al. (1990). Uncommon troubles in young people: Prevalence estimates of selected psychiatric disorders in a nonreferred population. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 487–496. 19. Wittchen, H.-U., & Essau, C. A. (1993). Epidemiology of anxiety disorders. In P. J. Wilner (Ed.), Psychiatry (pp. 1–25). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company.
Epinephrine EDALMARYS SANTOS1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springerfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Adrenalin
Definition Epinephrine is a neurotransmitter and hormone that is most strongly linked with the chemical triggering of the “fight or flight” response of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
Description Epinephrine represents one of a class of neurotransmitters referred to as the catecholamines [1]. Also known as adrenalin, functionally epinephrine’s primary role is in the activation of the “fight or flight” response [2]. As such, epinephrine exerts its influence on the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, which itself is one division of the peripheral nervous system. Originating in the adrenal glands, epinephrine is synthesized from norepinephrine [1]. When released by the adrenal glands, in a period of stress, epinephrine serves to activate the system to respond by increasing blood flow, heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure [3]. Once the system perceives the threatening situation has been negotiated to some extent, Epinephrine levels decrease, in turn, deactivating the sympathetic division and activating the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
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References 1. 2. 3.
Kaufman, D. M. (2007). Clinical neurology for psychiatrists (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
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Erikson, Erik H. JOHN SNAREY, SARAH POOLE Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Life Dates 1902–1994
Episodic Memory ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Autobiographical memory
Definition Memory for specific events and episodes, connected to a particular context such as time, date, location, etc. including autobiographical memory.
Description Episodic memory is differentiated from semantic memory (the knowledge of facts) as it includes “calling back into consciousness a. . .lost state that is then immediately recognized as something formerly experienced [1],” it allows for reliving of the original experience or for reexperiencing of the remembered event [2],” and can be “distinguished from knowledge of the past [2].”
References 1. 2.
Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. New York: Oxford University Press. Perner, J., Kloo, D., & Gornik, E. (2007). Memory development: theory of mind is part of re-experiencing experienced events. Infant and Child Development, 16, 471–490.
Epistemic Behavior ▶Active Exploration
Equity ▶Multicultural Education
Introduction Erik Erikson stands as the most renowned psychologist of child and adolescent development of the twentieth century. His theory of eight psychosocial stages of human development provides a framework for understanding both the physical and psychological needs of humans as well as the social factors that contribute to personality development. Identity is at the core of Erikson’s developmental model. He coined the term “identity crisis,” which involves a “renegotiating of one’s values, as they are oriented around other individuals and society at large” [16, p. 150]. The chronology of his research interests, to a significant degree, parallels Erikson’s own life history and personal struggle for identity.
Biography Erikson was born June 15, 1902, in Frankfurt, Germany, to an unnamed father, who was a Protestant Dane, and to Karla Abrahamsen Salomonsen, a Jewish native of Denmark. Karla was not married to Erikson’s Father, and she raised Erik as a single parent for 3 years in Buehl, Germany [13]. She then married Theodor Homburger, a German pediatrician and president of the local synagogue, who adopted Erik and changed his surname to Homburger. Erikson’s distinct appearance – tall with blue eyes and blond hair – provoked ridicule from his Jewish peers [16, pp. 146–151]. Erikson was not told that Theodor was not his birth father until he was an adolescent, although he had his own suspicions. Growing up in Germany, Erikson attended the Karlsruhe Vorschule, or primary school, from ages six to ten, and the Karlsruhe Gymnasium from ages ten to eighteen. He received an Abitur, a certificate that gave him permission to enroll in a university [13, 18]. Immediately after graduation, Erikson hiked in the Black Forest. In 1921, 1year later, Erikson enrolled in Badische Landeskunstschule (Baden State Art School) in Karlsruhe to receive formal training in art [2, 14, 19]. Before completing his training, Erikson left Baden to attend Kunst-Akademie, a famous art school in Munich. Two years later, Erikson moved to
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Florence, and for the next few years of his life, Erikson “wandered through Europe sketching, making woodcuts, painting and visiting museums” [17, p. 147]. In 1927, at the age of 25, Erikson left Florence and returned home to Karlsruhe to study and teach art. Erikson referred to the 7-year period of his life after the Gymnasium as a Wanderschaft, in which he had the opportunity to wander and reflect. This un-rooted period continued until Erikson received an invitation from his good friend Peter Blos to help him run a small school in Vienna [2, 14, 19]. In 1927, Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud’s daughter, hired Erikson for a job as an art teacher at the Hietzing School in Vienna, Austria. While teaching there, he earned a diploma in 1932 from the local Montessori teacher training school. This was the only formal degree Erikson earned after receiving his Abitur [14, p. 67], although he also took liberal arts and teaching classes at the University of Vienna. Erikson’s observations and analysis of child behavior during his experience as a teacher sparked some of his initial insights into child psychology. After being psychoanalyzed by Anna Freud and receiving encouragement from his peers, Erikson pursued psychoanalytic study with Sigmund Freud and other psychologists at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute, graduating in 1933 [14, 17]. In 1930, Erikson married Joan M. Serson, a Canadian dance teacher at Hietzing School who had completed her master’s degree in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She was in Europe investigating various schools of dance in anticipation of pursuing a doctorate in education at Columbia University and, when Erikson and Joan met, she was visiting Vienna to research new European dance movements for a possible doctoral thesis [2, 19]. Joan and Erik influenced one another to such an extent that their relationship “wedded their two fields of psychology and sociology, therein giving birth to psychosocial theory” [17, p. 147]. In addition to these professional influences, Joan’s Protestantism and support of religiosity helped Erikson to steer clear of the antireligious persuasions of Freud. In 1933, as the Nazi regime began to threaten Austria, Erikson and his family left Vienna and eventually moved to the United States. He accepted a position with the Boston Psychoanalytic Society, and became the first child analyst in Boston. During this time he also became a research assistant at the Harvard Psychological Clinic, where his work focused on issues related to personal identity. In 1936, Erikson moved to Yale University where he worked on his developmental theory [17]. Three years later Erikson relocated once again, accepting a position at the Institute of Child Welfare at
the University of California, Berkeley. Shortly thereafter, he began teaching graduate seminars and opened a private practice in the San Francisco area. Also in 1939, he formally changed his last name from Homburger to Erikson. Throughout this time, his ideas about ego development started to crystallize as he developed the concepts of ego identity and identity crisis. In 1949, he became a full professor at Berkeley. The security of a tenured position was, however, short lived. The turbulence of the McCarthy era affected all spheres of American life, and academia was not immune to the “red scare.” After World War II and the fall of Chiang Kai-shek’s regime to Chinese Communists, the Cold War fight against communism grew more intense [2, 14]. Anxiety about communism permeated the academy, with universities in California requiring their employees to take an oath of loyalty. Having affirmed his allegiance by signing a constitutional oath and an oath to the state of California, Erikson saw no legitimate reason to sign another pledge at Berkeley. In his view, these measures reflected a growing madness over communism [19]. Erikson believed the role of a professor was to encourage students to examine all sides of an argument rather than simply acquiesce to the “official truth.” Erikson studied similar instances of hysteria with his students, and his conscience would not allow him to participate in this frenzy without a protest. Erikson understood that his students watched their professors’ responses in historical moments like this [2, 19]. Erikson wrote a resignation statement in June 1950 explaining his refusal to sign the oath, and this statement was eventually read to the American Psychoanalytic Association. He wrote, “I would find it difficult to ask my subject of investigation (people) and my students to work with me, if I were to participate without protest in a vague, fearful, and somewhat vindictive gesture devised to ban evil in some magic way – an evil that must be met with much more searching and concerted effort” [2, p. 158]. In essence, Erikson would not sign an oath that he believed reflected hysteria about the growing fear of communism, and his unwillingness to sign the pledge led to his resignation from his tenured position. This protest not only confirmed his American identity, but it brought to the surface “the conflictual nature of a discordant identity struggling to see itself as whole,” which set the framework for further exploration of the identity crisis in his later works [19, p. 67]. From the 1930s through the 1950s, the Eriksons watched their first three children, Kai (b. 1931), Jon (b. 1933), and Susan (b. 1938) develop through the first stages of the life cycle. Their last child, Neil, was born with Down syndrome and was institutionalized immediately after his birth in 1944. The Eriksons initially told the
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other children that the baby had died. The subsequent revelation of the truth regarding Neil’s birth provoked a crisis in the Erikson family, causing strife between the parents and children, while bringing Erik and Joan together to collaborate on the development of the life cycle. While Erik’s parenting experiences had contributed to his ideas about human development, Neil’s birth and abnormalities may have precipitated the completion of the life cycle model. Creating a model that highlighted the “normal” process of human development, one biographer has suggested, provided an escape from the family crisis of having an “abnormal” child [14]. In 1951, Erikson accepted a position at the Austin Riggs Center, a mental health facility in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1960. During these years Erikson became more vocal regarding the positive role of “religious traditions as a transmitter of values and psychological well being across the life span” [17, pp. 147–148]. After a brief stint as a part-time teacher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958, Erikson was offered a professorship at Harvard University. Drawn to opportunities to work with researchers across various disciplines, Erikson accepted the challenge and joined the faculty in 1960. The students admired him, and many of his new colleagues hoped that his interdisciplinary approach would bring together many scholars from various fields [2, 14].
Childhood and Society: Erikson’s Exploration of Childhood and Youth Development Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Erikson published his theories of human development, paying special attention to childhood and adolescence. Childhood and Society, published in 1950, is the first text that outlines Erikson’s model of the life cycle. Stemming from his training in Freudian psychoanalytic theory, Erikson created a model of human development that extended Freud’s psychosexual stages of development, integrating “both psychobiological and sociocultural factors” [17, p. 146]. Unlike Freud’s theory, Erikson’s model of eight psychosocial stages of development encompassed the entire life span, demonstrating his belief that people moved through stages at particular times in their lives. Erikson posited that ego strength comes from the mastery of earlier developmental stages [13] (see ▶Erikson’s Stages of the Life Cycle). In the 1960s, Erikson published two other texts, Youth: Change and Challenge (1963) and Identity: Youth and Crisis (1968), which extended his research on childhood to adolescence, the stage at which youth must master the crisis of identity. In Youth: Change and Challenge, Erikson
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emphasized the strength of fidelity found in adolescence. The paradox of openness and focus, or the adolescent’s desire to find trustworthy and reliable people, coupled with the ability to narrow and focus their commitments, provides a source of strength for adolescents as they gain perspective on their own lives and the world [2, 6]. Identity: Youth and Crisis examined the intersection between social reality and ego identity. Ego identity, in part, deals with the ability to accomplish what society deems important for future success, and, thus, one must be able to feel good about the future in the context of the current social reality [8, pp. 48–49]. Ultimately, Erikson integrated the importance of social context into his outline of the various crises a person faces from childhood to adolescence.
Beyond Childhood and Adolescence Erikson’s work extended beyond issues of childhood and adolescence. For example, between 1957 and 1962, Erikson wrote five essays that were eventually published under the title Insight and Responsibility [7]. This volume emphasized ethical, political, and historical concerns. “[H]e spoke as a psychoanalyst first – but one who also insisted on being an ethically concerned citizen, and a professional man very much involved with contemporary and historical events as well as clinical problems” [2, p. 267]. This work demonstrates Erikson’s continued commitment to interdisciplinary study, which enabled him to engage ideas outside of psychoanalysis. In 1957, Erikson took a year-long sabbatical from teaching during which he and Joan went to Mexico so that he could write what he called a “study in psychoanalysis and history” [5]. Erikson attempted to study the actions and words of Protestant reformer Martin Luther through a psychoanalytic lens in order to illustrate and expand concepts such as identity, identity crisis, and moratorium. Erikson’s examination of Luther centered on the years prior to his notoriety, exploring trends and patterns in his life that would explain how he was able to accomplish such sweeping historical reforms. He also sought to investigate the ways Luther resolved inner conflicts in search of his own identity [2, 14, 18]. Finally, Erikson’s text on Luther demonstrated “the power of psychoanalytic approach and its concepts to integrate a wide diversity of information and make sense of it” [18, pp. 93–94]. Young Man Luther was published in 1958 as Erikson’s first psychobiography, a literary form in which the author incorporated psychoanalysis with a person’s life story [14]. The 1960s marked a ripe period for society to discover Erikson’s work. The intense social, cultural, and political realities of the era opened the door for concepts that explored the intersections between self and society.
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Erikson’s diverse and broadening interests drew historians, theologians, biologists, sociologists, and philosophers to his research. At a time when the nation was at war, both the domestic war for civil rights and the global war in Vietnam, Erikson began a new book, Gandhi’s Truth [2, 14]. Sparked by a trip to Ahmadabad, India, in 1962, Erikson [9] began to examine a strike led by Mohandas Gandhi three decades earlier. Summoned by mill workers in 1918, Gandhi went to Ahmadabad to organize a strike against mill owners. The mill hands suffered low wages and were willing to participate in a strike under the leadership of Gandhi, and they agreed to the conditions he asked them to follow during the protest. However, fearing that the mill hands would break their agreement to nonviolence, Gandhi decided to fast from food until the strike was over. Gandhi’s fast affected both the mill workers and the mill owners. Erikson, drawn to Gandhi’s ability to mobilize groups of people, wanted to search for the truth that inspired Gandhi’s political and spiritual leadership. Gandhi’s Truth was Erikson’s second attempt at psychobiography. Although Erikson began the book in 1965, Gandhi’s Truth was not published until 1969. Making little reference to the life cycle, Erikson chronicled Gandhi’s life experiences in order to explore the ways he negotiated identity amidst great crisis. Erikson sought to discover Gandhi’s truth by exploring the various sites he frequented when he was alive. Ambalal, Gandhi’s benefactor and opponent in the strike at Ahmadabad, welcomed Erikson into his house as a guest as he constructed the psychobiography. Erikson also tried to understand pertinent concepts such as dharma, Satyagraha, Artha, and Moksha. As Erikson attempted to understand Hindu principles, cultural sensitivity guided his research. Lectures at Cape Town University in 1968 and Harvard University in 1972 underscored the didactic nature of Gandhi’s Truth. Erikson challenged what he termed “pseudospecies” by highlighting Gandhi’s response to crisis in his later years. Erikson [8] defined pseudospeciation as “man’s deepseated conviction that some providence has made his tribe or race or caste, and, yes even his religion ‘naturally’ superior to others” (p. 298). As Gandhi confronted these attitudes, he responded to social circumstances by drawing on inner virtues that stressed mutual respect, honesty, and the humanity of all people. Gandhi’s Truth won Erikson his first Pulitzer Prize on May 4, 1970, as well as a National Book Award [2, 14]. Not only did Erikson look favorably on Gandhi’s campaigns in India, he also “found some salutary effect in the Black Muslims’ effort to restore African American identity; he would not dismiss black nationalism out of hand” [14, p. 399]. As a result, Erikson was open to his son Kai’s
insistence on a meeting with Huey P. Newton, leader of the Black Panther Party. In January 1971, Kai arranged for Newton to conduct a seminar for Trumbell College students, with his father in attendance. Due to the exaggerated national media coverage, the seminar did not go well. Therefore, Newton arranged for Erikson to meet him at a friend’s apartment in Oakland, California. During the dialog, they discussed American racism, and while they disagreed on several points, Erikson and Newton respected each other. In Search of Common Ground records the dialog between Newton and Erikson [12]. Erikson, nevertheless, ended the friendship with Newton when he learned of his involvement in violence against civil authorities [14, pp. 399–401]. After he retired from Harvard in 1970, Erik and Joan moved back to Stockbridge, but spent summers at a home in the Cape Cod town of Cotuit [14]. Three years later, they moved back to California, living a short time in Belvedere and then Tiburon. “Old Tiburon” afforded them both an opportunity to write while living in a serene community of professionals and artists. However, during this period the Eriksons encountered financial difficulties. Erikson’s work also received scathing critiques from feminists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and a variety of other sources, and he attempted to respond to his critics through journal articles. At the same time, he continued to receive invitations to give lectures and engage in research. Nevertheless, health problems made it difficult for him to write or travel. Joan became involved in a nearby Episcopalian parish and Erik met with local clinicians to assist them in reviewing case files on schizophrenic patients [14, 18].
The Life Cycle Completed: Erikson’s Encounter with Old Age Although a major portion of Erikson’s work focused on child and adolescent development, he also emphasized adulthood and old age in his description of the life cycle. Perhaps Erikson’s examination of such issues was a sign of his own development as he entered the later years of his life [15, pp. 928–930]. In 1982, at age 80, he published The Life Cycle Completed: A Review, which summarized his most salient concepts [10]. This book demonstrated Erikson’s personal need to reconsider old age and the death that he would eventually face. The text extended Erikson’s understanding of the concepts of wisdom and integrity to include a rich holistic inner and outer vitality. Erikson emphasized the connections between early infancy and old age. In addition, the book demonstrated a distinct shift to historicism. Even after publishing the first edition of The Life
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Cycle Completed, Erikson continued to gain new insights about the later stages of development; he scribbled notes on the pages of his own copy with the hope of eventually writing a new edition. Erikson collaborated with Joan Erikson and Helen Kivnick to engage in further research on what sustained elderly people’s involvement in their own lives. Their research centered on interviews from 29 octogenarians who, as children, had participated in an earlier study in 1928. By revisiting these research participants, the Eriksons and Kivnick were able to investigate people who had experienced most stages of the life cycle. This new research was published in Vital Involvement in Old Age in 1986 [11]. When it became apparent that Erikson could not write an updated edition of The Life Cycle Completed: A Review, Joan Erikson updated the book by writing new chapters to add to the original version. The new chapters included a ninth stage of development that focused on the life cycle of individuals in their eighties and nineties as well as a focus on caring for the elderly and gerotranscendence [13]. Overall, both Vital Involvement in Old Age and The Life Cycle Completed reflected the thoughts that Erikson reconsidered and reformulated about the later stages of life as he himself encountered old age [14, 19] (see ▶Erikson’s Stages of the Life Cycle). In the 1980s, Erikson received various honors for his contributions to the field of psychotherapy. The founding of the Erik H. and Joan M. Erikson Center in conjunction with Cambridge Hospital psychiatry department and Harvard Medical School prompted the Eriksons’ move from Tiburon back to Cambridge in 1987. Dorothy Austin, director of the Erikson center, offered the Eriksons an “intergenerational home,” where she and Diana Eck, a young Harvard professor, would serve as caregivers should Erikson’s health deteriorate [19, pp. 463–464]. Excessive sleep and loss of hearing signaled a decline in Erikson’s health. As the interest in services offered by the Erikson center declined, and Austin and Eck pursued other career interests, Joan found herself overwhelmed with providing care for her husband. Erikson, nevertheless, continued to engage in intellectual activity as he experienced the integration between old age and infancy, in which he had to depend on the consistent care of others. One of Erikson’s final tasks was the clinical supervision of Harvard doctoral student David Wilcox, to whom Erikson passed on the significant lessons he had learned during his own training. This supervision ended in 1990, and marked a shift in Erikson’s accessibility to the outside world and the outside world’s access to Erikson [14]. Erikson conceded to Joan’s control over their lives, specifically her role as an intermediary with those seeking access. Often, Joan would make presentations for him and limit his contact
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with persons with whom she felt uncomfortable [14]. In 1992, Erikson fractured his hip and underwent surgery, after which he found it difficult to walk. After this fall, his health continued to decline. Stevens [18] speculates that Erikson may have been experiencing the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (p. 13). In 1993, Joan placed Erikson in a nursing care facility in Harwich, Massachusetts, and purchased a nearby home to remain close to him. Erik could only move with a wheel chair and his health continued to fail. Erikson’s final transition came in 1994 when he caught an infection that led to his death. On May 11–12, Joan held Erikson’s hand and sang to him through the night. At four o’clock in the morning, Erikson died at the age of 91. Erikson’s created ashes were interned and a funeral service was held on June 15, 1994, at First Congregational Church of Harwich. Several commemorative services and forums followed the memorial [14, pp. 471–473]. Ultimately, his accomplishments and contributions to the field of child development have left a legacy that will endure for generations.
Accomplishments Erik Erikson was considered a “cultural hero” during his lifetime [18, p. 13; 14, p. 396]. In 1970, he occupied the cover of the New York Times Magazine. Presidents Johnson and Nixon invited Erikson to the White House. Various universities awarded him honorary doctorates, including Yale and the University of California, Berkeley. The University College of London appointed him to the first Freud Memorial Chair. The San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute renamed its reading room after Erikson. The American Psychiatric Association invited Erikson to speak in 1984. In 1987, the Psychiatric Clinic of Karlsruhe (Germany) dedicated an adolescent unit in his honor [2, 13, 17]. These accomplishments highlight Erikson’s ability to touch many arenas of society. Erikson’s research proved relevant to the public, private, and academic arenas of life. His theory gained such wide acclaim because it emphasized the human person in all aspects of life, from childhood to old age. Not only did his theory touch the intrapsychic development of persons, it also included the ways society informs, promotes, and hinders identity formation.
Contribution to Child Development In Erikson’s theory, childhood stages are an essential aspect of the life cycle. Childhood builds the foundation for adulthood, and the formation of values begins in these early stages. For example, Erikson’s theory about child’s play introduces a new outlook to psychology. To Erikson,
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the activity of child play is valuable for the child because it represents a space where the child can make sense of the world, and it incorporates both problem-solving and meaning-making. It also reveals what children prioritize [2, pp. 129–131, 4, 6]. Unlike adults who view play as vacation from work, play is work for a child. Recognizing play as worthwhile challenges families and academic institutions to not only value play, but to provide space where children can engage in play as a means for development. Erikson’s studies on childhood influenced DeMause [3], Arie`s [1], and Hunt [15] in their own studies of the history of childhood [19]. Erikson [9] also makes explicit connections with the “relationship of childhood play to political imagination” (p. 11). These connections enhance the understanding of the contributions of social institutions to childhood development. Erikson [4] emphasized that unless a child experiences proper development in the earlier stages, the person experiences the conflicts at later stages as more and more difficult to overcome. In many ways, the health of a person depends upon the successful integration of earlier childhood stages. Furthermore, Erikson’s life-cycle model creates a framework for researchers to interpret and analyze children’s behavior and development. Using his model as a lens enhances one’s understanding of contemporary issues such as juvenile delinquency. For example, Erikson’s “triple book-keeping” method of looking at physiological needs, social context, and psychological processes has many implications for understanding the behaviors and attitudes of dispossessed, disenfranchised, and underprivileged youth. Erikson acknowledged that external circumstances influence the emotional states and overall health of children. In addition, society plays an integral role in Erikson’s theory because society provides the conditions in which children develop. This acknowledgement yields responsibility and moral accountability to parents and society as a whole for the development of children. In essence, Erikson’s model provides a foundational framework with which to analyze the behaviors and attitudes of children while simultaneously acknowledging the parental and societal contributions to childhood development. Erikson’s contributions to childhood development have affected a wide range of issues related to the formation and growth of children. Not only did Erikson add to the content pool of research; he also contributed his own research method. As Stevens [18] explains, Erikson’s sensitivity to the way his clients felt revealed a concern for people that prevented a myopic focus on research. Erikson became “not just an interpreter but a medium through
which they can work through what conflicts they feel” (p. 107). He demonstrated that the subjectivity and social contexts between client and therapist are valuable and relevant to analysis [18]. In essence, Erikson attempted to exemplify some of his own concepts in the way he conducted research, concepts that stressed the societal role of child development.
References 1. Arie`s, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood: A social history of family life. New York: Vintage. 2. Coles, R. (1970). Erik H. Erikson: The growth of his work (1st ed.). Boston: Little, Brown. 3. DeMause, L. (1974). The history of childhood. New York: Psychohistory Press. 4. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. 5. Erikson, E. H. (1958). Young man Luther; a study in psychoanalysis and history (1st ed.). New York: Norton. 6. Erikson, E. H. (1963). Youth, change and challenge. New York: Basic Books. 7. Erikson, E. H. (1964). Insight and responsibility: Lectures on the ethical implications of psychoanalytic insight (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. 8. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. 9. Erikson, E. H. (1969). Gandhi’s truth: On the origins of militant nonviolence. New York: Norton. 10. Erikson, E. H. (1982). The life cycle completed: A review (1st ed.). New York: Norton. [Extended edition issued in 1997]. 11. Erikson, E. H., Erikson, J. M., & Kivnick, H. Q. (1986). Vital involvement in old age (1st ed.). New York: Norton. 12. Erikson, E. H., & Newton, H. P. (1973). In search of common ground; conversations with Erik H. Erikson and Huey P. Newton (1st ed.). New York: Norton. 13. Evans, R. I., & Erikson, E. H. (1967). Dialogue with Erik Erikson. New York: Harper and Row. 14. Friedman, L. J. (1999). Identity’s architect: A biography of Erik H. Erikson. New York: Scribner. 15. Hunt, D. (1970). Parents and children in history: The psychology of family life in early modern France. New York: Basic Books. 16. Snarey, J. (1987). The vital aging of Eriksonian theory and of Erik H. Erikson. Contemporary Psychology, 32(11), 928–930. 17. Snarey, J., & Bell, D. (2006). Erikson, Erik H. Encyclopedia of spiritual and religious development (pp. 146–151). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 18. Stevens, R. (2008). Erik H. Erikson: Explorer of identity and the life cycle. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 19. Welchman, K. (2000). Erik Erikson: His life, work and significance. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Erikson’s Preschool Stage of Social-Emotional Development ▶Initiative Versus Guilt
Erikson’s Stages of the Life Cycle
Erikson’s Stages of the Life Cycle SARAH POOLE, JOHN SNAREY Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Ego development stages; Stage sequence of ego epigenesis; Stages of identity development; Stages of psychosocial development
Description Developmental psychologist Erik H. Erikson constructed a theory of the human life cycle composed of eight stages, each of which represents a particular period in human development. Erikson theorized that an individual’s development relies on three processes: “the biological process of the hierarchic organization of organ systems constituting a body (soma); . . . the psychic process of organizing individual experience by ego synthesis (psyche); and. . . the communal process of the cultural organization of the interdependence of persons (ethos)” ([8], pp. 25–26). A developing body, a developing mind, and dynamic sociocultural milieu are the three primary processes underlying a person’s identity formation and psychosocial development. Erikson based his developmental theory on the biological logic of “epigenesis,” which refers to the prenatal process by which, through a sequence of structurally elaborated stages, a fertilized egg cell develops into a fetus. Erikson saw a parallel between Freud’s understanding of the biologically-based development of psychosexual modalities (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital) and the development of more general psychosocial modalities (trust, autonomy, initiative) but, with new insight, Erikson proposed that the epigenetic process continues throughout the entire life cycle. The structure of biological growth and psychosocial development, that is, follow analogous, interactive patterns across the lifespan. In Erikson’s theory, a time of ascendancy in each stage of development affects the whole hierarchy of development. Ascendancy refers to the gradual, sequential way a child naturally grows in accordance with both outer (biological) and inner (psyche) laws of development in relation to persons and institutions (ethos) [5]. Erikson theorized that every person would encounter each of the eight stages in the same sequential order, although the chronological age and cultural content could vary due to maturational differences in biological growth and cultural differences in the content and timing of social expectations.
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Each new stage is characterized by a period of development during which the child must resolve a psychosocial “crisis” (turning point) in order for him or her to mature in terms of ego identity and related ego strengths or virtues. A psychosocial crisis results from the organic pressures on the psyche of a person, which arise from physiological changes, coupled with new age-related social expectations that stem from the larger sociocultural system. These pressures create the conditions necessary, but not sufficient for, the next stage of personality development, including the attitudes that individuals have about themselves and the world [8]. Character dimensions, such as trust and mistrust, emerge throughout the life cycle, and Erikson [6] recognized that the task of each stage is to integrate the dimensions in a ratio that favors positive character virtues over negative (e.g., trust over mistrust). The ratio of dual character dimensions associated with each new stage influences a person’s ego identity. Ego identity refers to the process whereby “the accrued confidence that one’s ability to maintain inner sameness and continuity (one’s ego in the psychological sense) is matched by the sameness and continuity of one’s meaning for others” ([2], p. 95). Erikson extended his theory of the life cycle to relate each stage to institutions in the larger society [5]. The character dimensions and virtues produced within the stages, in some sense, prepare or teach people how to live in and contribute to society as a whole. (See Chapters, Psychosexual Development and Erik H. Erikson for more information.)
Psychosocial Stages Stage 1: Basic Trust Versus Basic Mistrust The infant relies on others to provide basic nourishment needs. At this “oral stage,” the infant learns how to get and take in using the mouth and other senses. The infant’s apparent query, “Can I trust again?” builds on the infant’s biological preoccupation with, “Will I be fed again?” [12]. Having sensations fulfilled faithfully by familiar people engenders trust. Trust implies the attitude of reliance on primary caregivers as well as confidence in one’s self. Consistent care and nurture enable the baby to gain a sense of confidence in the future. A baby internalizes the continuity of experience and begins to form attitudes of the world based on having his or her needs met. Erikson tends to emphasize the mother’s role during this stage of development. Indications of trust include a sense of ease when feeding that the breast or bottle will provide sufficient milk, and a sense of assurance when sleeping that the nipple will be there again. The balancing character
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dimension, mistrust, is a “readiness for danger and an anticipation of discomfort” ([10], p. 15). A sense of mistrust leaves a child feeling deprived, divided, and abandoned; symptoms of mistrust include withdrawal or isolation [5, 6]. Attaining a favorable ratio of trust over mistrust gives rise to the ego strength, or virtue, of hope, which is an abiding trust and confidence in others (e.g., caretakers), the self (e.g., trustworthiness), and the future. Hope also entails “the enduring belief in the attainability of fervent wishes, in spite of the dark urges and rages which mark the beginning of existence” [14]. According to Erikson, trust and hope have a natural affinity with the social institution of religion. (See Chapter Trust versus Mistrust for more information.)
Stage 2: Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt During the toddler age period, psychosocial autonomy relies on muscular maturation, verbalization, and locomotion. Muscular growth expands a child’s development and prompts the psychosocial modality of letting go and holding on. During this period the child develops a new sense of self and the word “No!” — an affirmation of this new sense of relative autonomy — becomes the child’s favorite expression. Children develop “from oral sensory dependence to some anal-muscular self-will” and a certain sense of self-control ([8], p. 78). However, if the process of toilet training makes the child overly selfconscious, the child may experience shame and low selfesteem. Shame leaves a child with feelings of restraint, selfdoubt, and compulsion; a symptom of shame includes an inability to share. However, a favorable balance of autonomy, or self-governance, over shame and self-doubt leads to a healthy personality. This favorable balance produces the virtue of will, which allows the child to exercise willpower, or free choice, as well as self-restraint [6, 8]. Erikson states that “the human being must try early to will what can be, to renounce (as not worth willing) what cannot be, and to believe he [or she] willed what is inevitable by necessity and law” ([8], p. 78). In this stage, parents are the child’s strongest social influence; the child internalizes the parental voice, which helps to delineate between his privileges and his limitations in the social order. While the child develops self-will, the child also forms a conscience and the rudimentary ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Law-and-order ethics safeguard the child’s developing autonomy. Ultimately, the adolescent and adult’s participation in legal and political institutions reflects the ongoing psychosocial task of attaining autonomy on a societal level [2, 6]. (See Chapter Autonomy for more information.)
Stage 3: Initiative Versus Guilt For children in the period that many societies consider the “play age,” Stage 3 is characterized by the psychosocial conflict of initiative versus guilt. After becoming conscious of his or her personhood in Stage 2, the child attempts to make sense of what type of person he or she is going to be. As children at Stage 3 indulge in exploration, they embrace the favorite phrase “Why?” Initiative adds to autonomy the dexterity to plan a task. They move into psychosocial modalities that enable them to make things. Children are eager to collaborate with other children to construct things. Children imitate and idealize adults who play a role in their lives. Working adults replace the heroes of books and fairytales. While the family remains the child’s primary social influence, the child’s curiosity sparks an initiative to explore beyond the family into the new world [2, 4, 12, 13]. Guilt comes when adults constantly correct or discipline children for exercising their developing locomotor skills and mental power. Symptoms of guilt include inhibition, over-obedience, and repressed hopes and fantasies. The attainment of a favorable ratio of initiative over guilt produces the ego virtue of purpose, which is “the courage to envisage and pursue valued and tangible goals guided by conscience but not paralyzed by guilt and by the fear of punishment” ([6], p. 289). Children gain an economic ethos, whereby they recognize adults by their uniform and occupational duties. Because of adults’ ability to relate their own childhood dreams to active adult life, Erikson suggests that the realization and support of a favorable ratio of initiative over guilt have a natural affinity with the economic order and political institutions [2]. (See Chapters Initiative versus Guilt and Oedipus Complex for more information.)
Stage 4: Industry Versus Inferiority Industry versus inferiority marks the psychosocial conflict of Stage 4, which Western societies often think of as the “school age.” At this stage, a child loves to learn as well as play – “and to learn most eagerly those techniques which are in line with the ethos of production” ([8], p. 75). Industry centers on productivity and specialization in learning. Erikson [2] says the personality crystallizes around the conviction, “I am what I learn” (p. 87). Provoked by curiosity and a desire to learn, the child’s questions at this stage are “What is this?,” “What is that?,” and “How can I do?” [10]. The child’s school and neighborhood become the social spheres in which to form friendships and experience other social exchanges. Children make positive associations with people who are knowledgeable and skill-oriented. Inhibition threatens a child’s ability to master this stage. Children need to feel free to
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explore through play while also facing and overcoming the challenge to learn something new. An unfavorable ratio of industry leads to a sense of inferiority or inadequacy. A symptom of a sense of inferiority is finding one’s sole sense of identity and worth in industriousness, or worklike activities. The child who masters this stage, however, gains the ego virtue of competence, which is the child’s belief that he or she can both begin and complete a project at an acceptable level. Emphasizing a child’s abilities can create the type of affirmation needed to gain competence. Children need to find a space in which they acquire the sense that they can do at least one thing well. Erikson believed that psychosocial industry on the societal level and during adulthood was closely related to mastering new technology [5]. (See Chapter Industry versus Inferiority for more information.)
Stage 5: Identity Versus Identity Confusion The primary task of the adolescent is achieving a favorable balance of identity over identity confusion. In Western societies, identity formation is most often articulated by the question, “Who am I?” If individuals master this stage, they will have a sense of ego identity, in which a unity exists between what one sees inside of the self and their perceptions of what others think or expect them to be [2, 3, 12]. Friedman [11] argues that identity emerges from the intergenerational mutuality that occurs between children at earlier stages and parents or caretakers at the generative stage (which will be discussed under Stage 7). A child’s relationship with generative parents creates a framework from which the child can draw various identifications, which later converge with whom one senses himself or herself to be ([11], pp. 225–226). The primary social influence at this stage is the peer group. In this stage, individuals are able to embrace others with different values and ideas without fusing one another’s identities. An unfavorable balance leads to role confusion, symptoms of which are delinquency, cynicism, apathy, and inability to settle on an occupational identity. Mastery of the psychosocial conflict gives rise to the ego virtue of fidelity, which is a “sense of commitment to a self-chosen value system and the capacity to maintain loyalties freely made in spite of unavoidable contradictions of value systems” ([12], p. 150). In other words, the adolescent “learn(s) to be faithful to something” ([10], p. 12). Because of such faithfulness, he or she must eventually confront ideology. The grasp for identity is visible across the lifespan on the societal level and, according to Erikson [2], in the social stratification of society as well. (For more information, see Chapters on Identity Achievement, Identity Crisis, Identity Moratorium, and Ego Identity.)
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Stage 6: Intimacy Versus Isolation This stage marks the period of romance during “young adulthood,” in which the psychosocial crisis is intimacy versus isolation. The articulated question of this stage is “Who can I share my life with?” The conflict exists between one’s desire for intimacy in a long-term relationship, and one’s commitment to not losing one’s self in the process. The primary relational influences are intimate relationships and work connections. Although romance is a component, this stage extends beyond sexual attraction to the formulation of relationships in which inner resources are mutually shared. Erikson clarified that the capacity of young adults “to lose themselves so as to find one another in the meeting of bodies and minds, is apt to lead sooner or later to vigorous expansion of mutual interests and to a libidinal investment in that which is being generated and cared for together” ([8], p. 67). In some sense, this stage flows from the previous stage of gaining a sense of self and feeds into the next stage of generativity. When individuals do not master this stage, they feel isolated or seek to distance themselves from others. A symptom of such isolation is the avoidance of intimacy and exclusivity. If this crisis is mastered, the young adult realizes the ego virtue of love, understood as “mutual devotion” ([5], p. 137). Relationship patterns in the larger social world reflect the intimacy gained during this stage [5]. (See Chapter Intimacy versus Isolation for more information.)
Stage 7: Generativity Versus Stagnation The psychosocial preoccupation of the middle adulthood years is between generativity and stagnation. At this stage, the question “Whom or what can I care for?” correlates with the person’s need to be needed. The psychosocial tasks are to create, to take care of what has been created, and to contribute to the next generation. Generativity manifests itself in the desire to guide the next generation. While Erikson places a focus on parental generativity, he also clarifies that even those who are childless can become generative socially. Societal generativity comes in the form of shepherding, mentoring, guiding, or nurturing what society has produced. The social sphere of influence during this stage comes primarily from work and family. When people do not become generative, they tend to become stagnant and self-absorbed. Symptoms of stagnation include excessive self-love and possible stage-wide regression [4]. The ego strength that arises from the successful resolution of the crisis of generativity versus selfabsorption is care, which is “a widening commitment to take care of the persons, the products, and the ideas one has learned to care for” ([8], p. 67). Productivity and
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creativity characterize mastery of this stage. The psychosocial generativity that arises during this stage of the life cycle is reflected in the societal generativity produced by the social institutions of art, education, and science [5]. (See Chapter Generativity versus Stagnation for more information.)
Stage 8: Ego Integrity Versus Despair The older adult’s apparent question, “Has my life been meaningful?,” stems from the psychological preoccupation with facing death. Those who have a sense of personal integrity from the contributions they have offered during their life experience the rich depths of this stage. Only the one who has taken care of things and people, and has adapted himself or herself to the triumphs and disappointments of being, develops ego integrity. Persons in this stage value not only life, but their life within history. If a legacy can be established, there is no need to fear death. Integrity in this stage also manifests itself in guarding oneself against the experience of a diffused soma, psyche, and ethos. Despite numerous physical and psychological changes, a person must remain an integrated and whole individual, even as they come to understand the “integrative ways of human life” ([8], p. 65). In essence, integrity lends itself to creating order and meaning. The radius of social interaction extends to the cosmic world order. In contrast, the person who lacks ego integration expresses fear and despair at the thought of death. Regretting missed opportunities contributes to the level of despair one may feel, while embracing life as having been well-lived contributes to the level of felt integrity. One who dwells in regret of missed opportunities will feel high levels of despair, whereas one who reflects fondly on his or her life and legacy will feel high levels of integrity. With a new awareness of the transience of life, the person acknowledges their inability to have another chance to live life over again. Those who have not attained integrity may cover their despair with an attitude of cynicism [2]. Later, while experiencing old age himself, Erikson [8] reformulated the “antipathetic counterpart to wisdom” as disdain – “a reaction to feeling (and seeing others) in an increasing state of being finished, confused, helpless” (p. 61). Furthermore, in some sense, older adults connect with the infantile stage of trust again, bringing human development full circle. The ego strength or virtue associated with ego integrity is “wisdom,” which is “an informed detached concern with life itself in the face of death itself ” ([8], p. 61). On the societal level, Erikson saw integrity reflected in philosophy [5].
Ego Transcendence During their later years, Erikson and his wife, Joan, speculated about the possible existence of a “ninth stage” of ego transcendence. In some sense, elders revisit and confront the more challenging elements of each stage all over again. The negative and positive tendencies are reversed. The major crisis of this stage is overcoming the sense of loss elders eventually feel. Loss of physical functions produces decreasing levels of self-esteem and confidence. Weakened bodies lead elders to ask daunting questions: “What am I good at?” “What am I good for?” “Who do others think I am?” Despair may follow as they begin to mistrust their own capabilities. Loss of autonomy over their bodies and life choices may evoke shame and doubt. Without the enthusiasm of earlier years and the ability to initiate new and creative projects, feelings of guilt and inadequacy may arise as the individual grieves the sense of lost purpose and incompetence. Identity becomes vague because the role a person took when young no longer fits who the person is in the elder years. The awkwardness that others feel when relating with elders who are experiencing “incapacities and dependencies” may lead to isolation of the elder ([8], p. 111). Because society usually ascribes generativity to active adults, society releases elders from the role of caretaker; this “not being needed may be felt as a designation of uselessness,” which generates a feeling of stagnation in elders ([8], p. 112). What elders can or cannot physically and mentally engage in because of aging becomes a major concern when they look back over their lives. Healthy concerns and other forms of daily functioning may hinder thorough retrospection. Additionally, the loss of loved ones invokes sorrow and a sense of despair [8]. Joan Erikson [8] pointed out that when societies do not integrate the elderly into social life and ostracize and neglect them, the oldest adults may become “embodiments of shame” instead of “bearers of wisdom” ([8], p. 114). Nevertheless, despite the increasing sense of outer and inner loss, some elders welcome each new morning with a renewed sense of hope. Elders who adequately overcome the elements of mistrust, shame, doubt, guilt, inferiority, identity confusion, isolation, stagnation, despair, and disgust can experience “gerotranscendence,” in which elders shift their focus from physical aspects of life to more transcendent aspects, which in turn leads to a deeper level of satisfaction [1, 8, 9].
Relevance to Childhood Development Erikson’s life cycle model established that the early stages were just as valuable as later stages. Unless children master these early stages, they may never develop the types of
Errorless Learning
skills necessary to master crises later in life. Erikson emphasized what he believed were the critical sociocultural factors in child development. Caregivers’ consistent care and nurture, such as providing children with space for exploration, and caregivers’ self-awareness of their childrearing strategies, each contribute to development of a healthy sense of self in relation to the world. Erikson’s stages also give parents, teachers, and mentors insight into the types of conflicts that children engage in as they develop. Forming healthy bonds between teachers, parents, and community members is one way that society can work together to provide a healthy environment that will promote healthy development. Knowledge about human development allows parents and teachers to be intentional about the type of learning and home environments they create for children. For example, teachers who learn how to alternate between play and class-work create a balanced environment in which children of school age have the conditions necessary to master their psychosocial crisis. On the contrary, when a child is unable to participate fully in stage-appropriate development, he or she may regress instead of developing [8]. Additionally, the behavioral and psychological patterns that children engage in during their development mirror social institutions in the external world. Therefore, encouraging children to engage in appropriate activities during each developmental stage prepares them for entry into a social world that engages in similar activities. Prohibiting engagement of appropriate activities makes transitioning into the adult world an even more arduous task. Overall, healthy child development breeds competent individuals who can exhibit leadership in society. Erikson [2] wrote that to “assure continuity of tradition, society must early prepare for parenthood in its children; and it must take care of the unavoidable remnants of infantality in its adults” (p. 405). Additionally, Friedman [11] identified Erikson as creating a life cycle that “concerned the bonds of trust and sharing that facilitated adolescent identity (stage five) and old-age integrity (stage eight)” (p. 222). Erikson [2] argued that healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death. The intergenerationality of the cycle not only teaches an awareness of self in relation to others, but also teaches a person how to parent. Healthy personalities enable children to gain ego identity and to develop the virtues that lead to morally conscious citizens.
References 1. Capps, D. (2008). The decades of life: A guide to human development (1st ed.). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
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2. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. 3. Erikson, E. H. (1958). Young man Luther. New York: Norton. 4. Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press. 5. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. 6. Erikson, E. H. (1968). The human life cycle. In International encyclopedia of the social sciences (pp. 286–292). New York: CrowellCollier. 7. Erikson, E. H. (1977). Toys and reasons: Stages in the ritualization of experience. New York: Norton. 8. Erikson, E. H., & Erikson, J. M. (1997). The life cycle completed: Extended version. New York: Norton. 9. Erikson, E. H., Erikson, J. M., & Kivnick, H. Q. (1986). Vital involvement in old age. New York: Norton. 10. Evans, R. I., & Erikson, E. H. (1967). Dialogue with Erik Erikson. New York: Harper & Row. 11. Friedman, L. J. (1999). Identity’s architect: A biography of Erik H. Erikson. New York: Scribner. 12. Snarey, J., & Bell, D. (2006). Erikson, Erik H. In Encyclopedia of spiritual and religious development (pp. 146–151). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 13. Snarey, J., Kohlberg, L., & Noam, G. (1983). Ego development in perspective: Structural stage, functional phase and cultural ageperiod models. Developmental Review, 3, 303–338. 14. Welchman, K. (2000). Erik Erikson: His life, work and significance. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.
Errorless Learning JUDAH B. AXE Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
Synonyms Errorless teaching
Definition A teaching arrangement minimizing errors by initially providing and then fading cues and prompts to evoke a desired behavior or skill.
Description Errorless learning primarily comes from an operant psychology approach to teaching individuals to make discriminations [1, 2]. An example of a discrimination is teaching a child to identify a picture of a car when shown many pictures and told to “find the car.” Discrimination learning is a paradigm used to examine the ways organisms learn and has implications for teaching children and adults with developmental delays. Traditionally, discriminations were taught with trial-and-error learning. In this situation, a reward is given when a correct selection
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is made and no reward is given when an incorrect selection is made. Making errors is inherent in this approach to learning. Researchers have found that when children with developmental disabilities make errors, they occasionally exhibit aggression, emotional responses, and withdrawal from teaching. Errorless learning occurs when opportunities to make errors are reduced. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. In describing errorless learning strategies, it is useful to call the correct item the S+ and each incorrect item an S . Most errorless learning strategies involve the gradual fading of a stimulus or prompt. With stimulus fading, the S+ is originally presented more prominently than the S and the S is gradually faded in. For example, when presenting four pictures to a child and telling her to “find the car,” the car is first placed closer to the child. On successive trials, the three other pictures are placed closer and closer to the car. With stimulus shaping, the stimulus gradually changes shape from a known item to an unknown item. An example is gradually, upon successive trials, altering a stimulus from a car to the letter “c.” Superimposition is placing a known item with an unknown item and gradually fading out the known item. Superimposition with fading can be used to teach a child to find the “d” from among a few letters. A dog (previously known) can be placed behind the d and gradually faded out with correct selections. Two errorless strategies involve the movements of other people. A prompt is a cue to the S+. Delayed prompting is an errorless approach as the prompt is first provided immediately after the instruction and the time between the instruction and the prompt is gradually increased. Finally, response prevention is physically blocking a child from making an incorrect response.
References 1.
2.
McCartney, L. L. A., & LeBlanc, J. M. (1997). Errorless learning in educational environments: Using criterion-related cues to reduce errors. In D. M. Baer & E. M. Pinkston (Eds.), Environment and behavior (pp. 80–96). Boulder, CO: Westview. Mueller, M. M., & Palkovic, M. (2007). Errorless learning: Review and practical application for teaching children with pervasive developmental disorders. Psychology in the Schools, 44, 691–700.
Errorless Teaching ▶Errorless Learning
Escitalopram ▶Lexapro®
Eskalith ▶Cibalith-S
Eskalith® ▶Lithium
Eskalith-CR® ▶Lithium
Essential Amino Acids Definition An essential amino acid is an amino acid(building blocks for proteins) that cannot be manufactured in the body or are manufactured in insufficient quantities, and therefore must be supplied in the diet. Essential amino acids are usually supplied by dietary protein, and in humans include histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. A conditionally essential (not normally required in the diet, but must be supplied exogenously to specific populations) amino acid is arginine. arginine is required by infants and growing children. All essential amino acids are required for normal growth and development.
References 1.
Earl Mindell, RPH, PhD, Hester Mundis- 2004, Earl Mindell’s New Vitamin Bible,
Ethics
Establishing Operations ▶Motivating Operations
Estrogen CHRIS LEETH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
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Ethanol ▶Alcohol
Ethchlorvynol (Placidyl) ▶Depressants
Synonyms Hormones
Short Definition A female sex hormone found in people and animals.
Ethical Development ▶Ethics
Description Estrogen is a hormone found primarily in females and is the equivalent hormone of testosterone in men. For women, estrogen plays a role in puberty, menstruation, ovulation, and reproductive behaviors. Additionally, estrogen has a role in the development of female genitalia prior to birth, as well as secondary sex characteristics during puberty. When using birth control, the amount of estrogen in a woman is manipulated in order to prevent pregnancy.
References 1.
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Hatcher, R. A., Pluhar, E. I., Zieman, M., Nelson, A., Darney, P. D., Watt, A. P., et al. (2000). A personal guide to managing contraception for women and men. Dawsonville: Bridging the Gap. Nelson, R. J. (2000). An introduction to behavioral endocrinology (2nd ed.). Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.
Ethical Reasoning ▶Ethics
Ethics SHANNON STOVALL, CARRIE L. CASTAN˜EDA-SOUND Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Ethical development; Ethical reasoning; Moral development; Morals
Definition
Estrogen Breakthrough Bleeding
Ethics are a system of moral decision-making informed by a set of moral principles and standards of conduct.
▶Anovulatory Cycle
Description
Estrogen Withdrawal Bleeding ▶Anovulatory Cycle
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The broad field of ethics is a branch of philosophy that has been addressed within the discipline of psychology by theorists such as Piaget [6], Kohlberg [5], and Turiel [7]. A primary endeavor of these scholars was to come to an understanding of how a child develops ethics, also known as moral development.
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There are several fields of thought when it comes to ethical development and reasoning in children. Despite varying theories about how ethics develop in children, most theories recognize moral development as occurring in stages. Piaget identified moral development in children through observation, mostly while the child was at play. Piaget postulated this development occurs as a mixture of cognitive processing and environmental observation. He further reasoned children learn about ethics and morals as they relate in social context and surroundings. The basis of Piaget’s understanding of children’s behavior centered largely on naturalistic observation, therefore, later researchers suggested the added dimension of children’s reasoning was a missing component. John Dewey theorized a method by which science and ethics might merge into one solid perspective of the world. Dewey searched for a way in which individuals might allow themselves to grow by discovering not only the ethics, rules and morals of society but also continually searching for purpose in life. This system of testing and pressing limits is often seen in children as they learn expectations of society, family and of themselves. Dewey’s philosophy regarding moral development influenced the development of Kohlberg’s theory on stages of moral development [2]. Kohlberg built upon Piaget’s theory by including the impact of justice, equality, human rights and societal welfare. Kohlberg reasoned children are influenced by these factors as they grow older and develop a greater understanding of the “world” around them and their function in this society. Kohlberg outlined six stages of moral development which fall into three levels (preconventional morality, conventional morality, and postconventional morality). The two stages under preconventional morality are obedience and punishment orientation, and individualism and exchange. In this first level the child considers ways to escape punishment and how to benefit from a situation. The second level is conventional morality, which contains stage three, good interpersonal relationships, and stage four, maintaining social order. In this level the child begins to examine the labels applied based on actions (e.g., good vs. bad), and the rules of society. The third level, postconventional morality, is comprised of stage five, social contract and individual rights, and stage six, universal principles. In the third level moral development begins to become more insight oriented and socially conscious. The idea of social contracts and over arching ethical considerations and principles enters into the decision making process [1]. While Kohlberg’s theory is more holistic than Piaget’s theory,
it is not without criticism. One such criticism directed to Kohlberg’s research comes from Carol Gilligan [3]. Gilligan found Kohlberg’s research to be heavily weighted based on gender, as the participants in Kohlberg’s studies were predominately male. Conversely, subsequent theorists criticized Gilligan’s work for its feminist approach [4]. Gilligan suggested care, as opposed to justice, as the center of moral development and ethics in children. As a result, Gilligan labeled her theory stages of ethical care, rather than referring to them as stages of moral development. Unlike Kohlberg, Gilligan does not assign age brackets to the stages, and she added the dimension of transitions between stages. The stages are preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. The preconventional stage relates to a goal of surviving, and is followed by the transition from self serving to more awareness of a responsibility to others. Once the transition occurs, the individual enters the conventional stage and gains an understanding of the intrinsic value of self sacrifice. During the transition following the conventional stage, the child develops an understanding of who they are as a person and what they deserve from society and life. The final stage, postconventional, is best characterized as lack of nonviolence, and the child has internalized the importance of doing no harm and not being harmed. Gilligan argued that the concept justice did not receive enough attention in Kohlberg’s model. Gilligan contributed further to Kohlberg’s ideas of development by including the impact of history and roles. Another factor which set apart Gilligan’s work from Kohlberg’s lies in the basis of the theory. Kohlberg built upon the work of Piaget and his theory of development, whereas Gilligan recognized Erik Erikson’s stage model of development as an influence. A final criticism of Kohlberg’s work is the way in which the data is reported; the data is often cited as sounding too pristine or adult to be a direct response of a child. Elliot Turiel explored further into Kohlberg’s theory of moral development by focusing his research on anomalies found within the stage sequences. Turiel and his fellow researchers conceptualized their work as domain theory. Domain theory explored the impact of social experiences, social events, and observations which contradict reasoning. Turiel referred to conventional issues and moral issues and the reasoning which occurs when a child is presented with a circumstance which requires a verging of the two ideals. This varied from Kohlberg as Turiel postulated these two are parallel, as opposed to a single entity. Turiel adds that judgments and justice might vary in social situations.
Ethnocentrism
Relevance to Childhood Development The development of ethics in children is of particular interest to parents and professionals who work with children. Understanding a child’s ethical reasoning gives insight to the choices they make and their behavior. This is especially helpful to parents and guardians who are working to build strong ethics and morality in their children, as well as school personnel and mental health clinicians.
References 1.
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3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Bergman, R. (2006). Gibbs on Kohlberg on Dewey: An essay review of John C. Gibb’s moral development and reality. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3(3), 302–315. Ferrari, M., & Okamoto, C. M. (2003). Moral development as the personal education of feeling and reason from James to Piaget. Journal of Moral Education, 32, 341–355. Gilligan, C. (1977). In a different voice: Women’s conceptions of self and of morality. Harvard Educational Review, 47(4), 481–517. Jorgensen, G. (2006). Kohlberg and Gilligan: Duet or duel. Journal of Moral Education, 35(2), 179–196. Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays in moral development: Vol. 2. The psychology of moral development. New York: Harper and Row. Piaget, J. (1932). The moral judgment of the child. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company. Turiel, E. (1998). The development of morality. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (pp. 863–932). New York: Wiley.
Ethnic Identification ▶Bicultural Identity
Ethnic Tradition ▶Cultural Difference
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Ethnic identity consists of three distinct parts: ethnic behaviors, affirmation and belonging, and ethnic identity achievement. Positive Identification with one’s ethnic group tends to correlate with higher self-esteem, decreased depression, better mental health and decreased drug use.
Relevance to Race and Culture Ethnicity is often used interchangeably with culture and race. Culture constitutes values, tradition, and worldviews that have been transmitted over generations. In other words, any group that shares a theme or issue such as language, gender, ethnicity/race, spirituality, sexual preference, age, physical issues, socioeconomic status and survival after trauma. One can have multiple cultural or ethnic identities simultaneously.
References 1.
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Mio, J. S., Barker-Hackett, L., & Tumambing, J. (2006). Multicultural psychology: Understanding our diverse communities. New York: McGraw Hill. Negy, C. I. (Ed.). (2004). Cross-cultural psychotherapy: Toward a critical understanding of diverse clients. New York: Bent Tree Press.
Ethnocentrism NORISSA ATINGDUI Fordham University, NY, USA
Definition Ethnocentrism is the act of judging another culture from the perspective of one’s own. The other culture is viewed as inferior when compared to one’s own. One’s own perspective is judged as right while the other is judged as wrong or less than.
Description
Ethnicity FRANCIEN CHENOWETH DORLIAE Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Culture; Race
Definition Refers to a sense of self-based on cultural traditions and racial group membership.
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The term, ethnocentrism was first coined by William Graham Sumner in 1906 [4]. In this writing he discussed the concept of between group fighting. He believed that the evolution of warfare was due to ethnocentrism and xenophobia. He presented the notion that warfare is possible because one group sees itself as superior and better while viewing the other group contemptuously. Everyone is born into a particular culture and has learned ways of living that include language, customs, values, beliefs, religions, etc. It is inevitable that these attitudes be adopted as normal. When confronted with new and different ways of thinking, these new and different ways will be viewed as unusual; even odd.
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Ethnocentrism is when this view does not only entail a perception of it being different, unusual or odd, but wrong or inferior as well. Studies in the social sciences, especially anthropology, strive to rid itself of ethnocentric views through the practice of cultural relativism, a concept defined by Franz Boas. In this regard, aspects of your own culture are to be judged or understood only in regard to one’s own particular culture. Different ways of being are to be respected and valued, rather than judged. Cultural relativism suggests that is to be understood that there is no universal culture and/or way of doing things. Throughout history we can see many instances in which ethnocentrism served as a driving force to enslavement; even genocide. An extreme example would be how Nazi Germans under the leadership of Adolf Hitler were under the impression that Jewish people were inferior. This led to the Holocaust. In addition, Imperialism is a very real example of ethnocentrism in practice. When European countries first began to visit the African Continent, they termed it, “The Dark Continent.” This reference had many negative implications that are still believed today. From the ethnocentric standpoint, African countries were ransacked, people kidnapped, and sold into slavery. Those that remained were imperialized by European governments. Many were forced to stop wearing their traditional African clothes, using their native languages or using their traditional African names. This was all done because the people were seen as savages, because from the framework of the European culture and religion these differences made them appear to be inferior and judged to be unintelligent. Ethnocentrism is often a divisive force that can do harm.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bodnar, N. (1976). Toward the dissolution of ethnocentrism. Washington DC: Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Jahoda, G. (1998). Images of savages: Ancient roots of modern prejudice in Western culture. NY: Routledge. Levine, R. A. (1971). Ethnocentrism: Theories of conflict, ethnic attitudes and group behavior. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Sumner, W. G. (1906). Folkways: A study of the sociological importance of usages, manners, customs, mores, and morals. Boston: Ginn and Co. Sumner, W. G. (1911). Introduction. In A. G. Keller (Ed.), War, and other essays. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Etiological Attachment Theory STEVE FARNFIELD, CECILIA A. ESSAU Roehampton University, London, UK
Attachment can be defined as a strong affectionate bond that develops between the infant and the caregiver. From an etiological perspective, this attachment bond ensures that the infant maintain close proximity to the caregiver when she/he feels threatened in order to promote the chances to survive. According to the attachment theory, early experiences with their caregivers create the way in which children interpret and make sense of subsequent experiences (i.e., working models of attachment, or the internal representation of relationship). An attachment relationship also provides a sense of internal security and confidence in both self and others. However, this sense may not be stable over the life span and can be challenged by neurophysiological, hormonal, and cognitive changes which occur during development. Four patterns of adaptations have been identified, all of which result during early infant-parent relationships [1]. The “secure pattern of attachment” (B) is used to described an infant who uses the caregiver as a secure base of exploration. These infants readily separate from an attentive caregiver. As they grow older, they express their emotions directly to others and seek help from others. The “avoidant attachment” (A) is associated with an early experience of being rejected or ignored by their caregivers. Children with this attachment history learn to inhibit emotional signals and tend to avoid emotionally charged situations. Infants with “anxious-resistant” pattern (C) of attachment tend to become chronically vigilant toward their activities; they often show signs of distress in order to elicit caregiver’s attention. As they grow older, children with this attachment pattern are often overly anxious and impulsive. The C pattern of attachment occurs as a result of having caregiver who is not consistently available or responsive. Infants with disorganized patterns of attachment (D) have been described as having no clear organized attachment strategy. In the Strange Situation, they show old and contradictory behavior pattern.
Assessing Attachment in Children and Young People
Ethyl Alcohol ▶Alcohol
There are two approaches to the assessment of attachment, both of which are grounded in the original model proposed by Bowlby and Ainsworth but which differ in their development of the theory and hence their analysis of the
Etiological Attachment Theory
information gathered by using the available assessment procedures. The two systems are referred to here as the ABCD model (e.g., [7, 46, 63]) and the DynamicMaturational Model (DMM) of attachment and adaptation [9, 10, 13, 16, 19]. Both systems begin with the ABC classification of infant attachment behavior proposed by Ainsworth [1] but differ in the ways they explain the behavior of children from unsafe, sometimes dangerous, backgrounds. In particular, the ABCD approach employs a disorganized category (Type D) whereas the DMM expands the Type A and C categories to account for both the degree of threat and the maturation of the child. No elaboration of attachment theory is given here but these differences appear to be increasingly important in the light of recent criticism that the ABCD model should be expanded in order to account for both developmental and environmental changes [60]. Putting the differences in theory aside, there is general agreement about the form assessments should take for children of differing ages and this will be the focus of the remainder of this section. The issue of interpretation is not covered but such is the difference between the two systems that a comparison of their empirical results, even when using the same measures, can be extremely hard.
What is Being Assessed? Attachment is described in terms of those aspects of the relationship between infants and their main carers that function to protect the child from danger. Hence what is assessed is the child’s self protective strategy [18]. Bowlby and Ainsworth established that infants form attachment relationships with a select number of people, and that children prioritize these people in a hierarchical fashion with a primary attachment figure at the top. In the pre-school years the observational measures assess the self protective strategy of a particular child with a particular attachment figure. Children, like adults, can have different strategies with different people (e.g., comfortable and trusting with mother; anxious and defended with father). At some point in development attachment strategies become generalized to take in dangers encountered outside of the home so that by adulthood the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) provides a more global assessment of an adult’s state of mind with regard to their childhood attachments [17, 44]. Quite how and when this generalization takes place is not totally clear but assessments of children aged 6 years and beyond are increasingly likely to incorporate general as well as more person specific strategies.
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Who is an Attachment Figure? For young children, in particular, it is important to identify who among the adults in their life counts as an attachment figure. Howes [35] defined an attachment figure as follows: ● Provision of physical and emotional care ● Continuity or consistency in the child’s life ● An emotional investment in the child As a rule of thumb a good question to ask is: “who looks after the child at night?”
The Need to Assess People When They are Under Moderate Stress Attachment seeking behavior at any age is activated when we are anxious and feel unsafe. Hence an essential feature of any procedure is that it induces moderate stress in the subject; that is stress high enough to activate self protective behavior but not so high as to lead to panic. Of the procedures outlined below, the separation and reunion procedures with infants and children up to about 4 years of age do this extremely well. On the other hand some play based procedures may not always induce enough stress for the attachment behavioral system to be fully activated. The stressor in interviews, with children and adults, is produced by asking subjects questions about intimate and potentially threatening aspects of their relationships (e.g., “Tell me about the first time you slept away from, home”).
A Developmental Approach Bowlby delineated four phases in the development of attachment behavior; three occurring in the first year of life and the fourth beginning somewhere around the beginning of the fourth year [4]. While there is flexibility in these phases they do represent attachment milestones and have been updated in the light of more recent developmental research by Marvin and Britner [47]. As attachment behavior in humans, as in many other creatures, is a product of experience with specific carers over time, it does not become organized until around 9–11 months. There then follow significant shifts in children’s development at around 37 and 72 months and again at puberty and late adolescence. These changes determine both the ability of children to employ increasingly sophisticated ways of processing information about attachment relationships and, consequently, the types of assessment procedure available to professionals. These can be clustered as follows.
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Parent-Child Observation Used from Birth Onwards Assessment in the first 37 months of life is restricted to observation. In the period of attachment formation (roughly the first 9 months) there is a necessary focus on parent (typically mother) child interaction. Available procedures for assessing carer-child interaction include the CARE-Index for use with children aged 1 day to about 48 months and the Lausanne trilogue play paradigm [28]. The latter is of interest because, while it does not provide a direct assessment of attachment in its current form, it is focused on the mother-infant-father triangle and can be extended to include a second child. Both are play based assessments which means the level of stress on the child is too low to activate attachment behavior. However in the toddler period parents are faced with the problem of keeping mobile children safe, which means the parents and children have to establish who is in control. This is relevant to attachment behavior because it combines the child’s safety with conflict resolution and the management of anger [34]. Although Ainsworth began her pioneering work on assessment by using naturalistic, home based observation, the continuation of this tradition has been surprisingly patchy with the majority of efforts going into the laboratory based strange situation procedure (SSP; below). One exception is the attachment Q-set which is an itemized observational measure for use with preschoolers in their own homes consisting of 100 statements about the child’s attachment behavior. These are then sorted by a carer or observer into piles denoting characteristics that are least like and most like the subject child [62].
Validity The infant CARE-Index (0–15 months) is one of the most extensively validated of the DMM procedures with studies of both typically developing and at risk populations of children (e.g., [11, 12, 14, 20, 22, 49, 58]). When compared with results from the SSP, Q set ratings by parents showed a poor match but trained observers were able to distinguish insecure from secure children but not different types of insecurity ([61, 62]; see [54], for a review).
Separation and Reunion Procedures The classic measure of infant attachment is Ainsworth’s SSP which was originally devised to assess the attachment behavior of children aged 11–15 months [1]. The SSP requires a video suite with one way window, camera and three people (a manager, stranger and camera operator).
Mother or other carer and child proceed through eight 3 min episodes designed to increase the stress on the infant, culminating in episode 6 when the child is left entirely alone. Considerable attention is paid to the child’s behavior on reunion as this frequently lays bare what the child has learned to expect from his or her mother when he is anxious (the internal representational model of attachment). The SSP is also used to assess attachment in children up to the age of about 60 months although interpreting attachment behavior is particularly difficult in the transition from infancy to toddlerhood (15–20 months) and again at 48 months onwards where the procedure is not always stressful enough to elicit attachment seeking behavior. The available systems using the SSP are as follows: Ainsworth ABC for infants [1]; the addition of Type D for infants [46]; the pre-school ABCD system [6] which evolved from a system developed for 6-year olds [43]; for review see [56]; Crittenden’s DMM approach for infants [9, 10, 12] and for pre-school children [15].
Validity The original Ainsworth ABC approach for infants has been extensively validated and represents the gold standard against which all subsequent measures have been developed. There is less agreement concerning the extension of the SSP to older children and to those from at risk backgrounds (typically neglected and abused children) [55] although the DMM approach may be better able to discriminate between risk/ low risk populations [21, 52].
The Move to Re-Presentation: Doll Play A significant developmental shift is in train by about 37 months, described as the move to representation [45]. What this means is that children are able to re-present to themselves and other people how they think about their relationships with attachment figures using appropriate mediums such as doll play, drawing, story telling and so forth. This extends the range of procedures from the observation of behavior to approaches that try to tap into the world in a child’s head; both real and imaginary. A variety of approaches have been tried, some of which are given here. The separation anxiety test (SAT) was devised by Hansburg [33] for adolescents and then developed for use with children aged 4–7 by Klagsbrun and Bowlby [39]. Several studies have used this procedure with children aged between 6 and 12 years (e.g., [8, 45, 66]) and it has recently been extended for use with adults [30]. Related measures are the thematic apperception test (TAT) and tasks of emotional development (TED) (e.g., [38, 48, 64]).
Etiological Attachment Theory
A variation on this approach is the Narrative Story Stem technique; a doll play exercise in which the interview, using a few simple props, sets up the beginning of a story (the stem) and then asks the child to “show and/or tell me what happens next.” Story stems have been used by a number of investigators to assess children’s representations of attachment and are commonly used with children aged 37 to about 84 months (see [25]). Other procedures include showing 6 year old children a family photograph [45], asking school aged children to draw their family [8, 29, 41, 42], observing sibling groups in doll play (Mueller, 1989) and adapting the SSP for sibling groups [26].
Validity All but one [26] of the procedures outlined above use the ABCD classificatory system and, although they all have useful clinical applications, success in validating representational measures of children’s attachment to the standard of the SSP has been modest. In the school years, the SAT appears a relatively weak measure of attachment when compared with narrative story stems or interviews [37] and while most of the Story Stem procedures distinguish between secure and insecure attachment they do not, with the exception of The Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (MCAST), differentiate between types of insecurity (MCAST: [31, 32, 53, 65]) and largely fail to identify Type C [5].
The School Years and Introduction of the Interview The assessment of attachment in the school years has proved problematic. There are a number of reasons for this including gaps in understanding attachment in this developmental period, compared with infancy and adulthood, and the fact that a lack of comparable assessments has made validating new procedures very difficult. In terms of social development the child’s world expands to include peers, best friends, teachers and other significant adults and most procedures try to include these areas in assessment. Neurologically the ability to separate information co-constructed with attachment figures (typical in the preschool years) from information generated by the self begins at about 6–7 years of age and is complete at about 15 years. This shift means that assessments can make increasing use of an interview format that relies less and less on props until the procedure is very similar to the question-answer approach used with an adult. The interpretation and classification of interviews with this age group is basically derived from the system
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of discourse (styles of speech) analysis developed for use with adults and the AAI [17, 44]. Hence, coherence of speech is taken to correspond with coherence of mind so that analysis includes not just what interviewees say about attachment relationships but how they think about them (i.e., the mental processes by which the child or adult includes or excludes information). Unlike the speech patterns of speakers whose interviews are assessed in terms of insecure Types A and C, those in Type B (balanced or secure) attachment do not distort (by omission, exaggeration or manipulation) information about difficult or threatening experiences with attachment figures (In the ABCD model the Type D disorganized category drops out in the school years and is replaced in adulthood by the lack of resolution of loss and trauma (see [40, 51, 63]). Quite how this change occurs is not always clear. The DMM makes little use of disorganization at any stage of development, focusing instead on more complex forms of Types A and C organization which may be rendered more or less adaptive (self protective) by loss and/or trauma.). Child attachment interviews have been used by a number of groups using the ABCD model (e.g., [3, 59]) and clearly demonstrate the validity of applying AAI adapted discourse analysis to children. Crittenden has developed a School Age Assessment of attachment (SAA) derived from the SAT in which the interviewer shows a series of attachment related pictures (such as a child is bullied or the child’s mother is being taken to hospital) and asks the child to first tell a made up story and then to talk about a time “this has happened to you.”
Validity The application of discourse analysis to child attachment interviews produces the ABCD distributions similar to those of adults [3, 59]. However, as with narrative stems, the Type C strategy is less common than expected and it has proved difficult to agree on the coding of “disorganization” [2]. Crittenden’s SAA has one preliminary validation study in preparation [23]; see also [24].
Adolescence By adolescence most assessment procedures focus on an interview format which uses questions adapted from the AAI together with the AAI discourse analysis. Although there has been some experimentation with picture prompts, similar to the SAT and Crittenden’s SAA, to assess adult attachment (see the Adult Projective, [30]) this has not, as far as we know, been pursued with adolescents.
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A self report questionnaire for use with adults, designed by Hazan and Shaver (1987), has been adapted by an Israeli team and administered to children age 6–12 years [27] and a simplified version of the same questionnaire has been used in a series of studies by Muris and colleagues (see [50] for a review; see also [36]). Cassidy has produced an interview to assess a child’s self image [5]. Compared with other procedures self report scales offer a simplified means of assessment but the information they collect is necessarily limited to conscious representations of attachment and there is an ongoing debate about what they actually measure (see [57]).
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Summary Procedures to assess attachment in children and young people are necessarily determined by the developmental age of the child with the most progress having been made by the pioneering observational methods applied to infants and, to a lesser extent, pre-school children. The assessment of attachment in the school years is still under construction but the favored procedure appears to be a blend of the observational approaches used with the under fives together with the discourse analysis devised for use with adults. By mid adolescence satisfactory results can be obtained by minor modifications of the AAI. Hence attachment assessment might be said to be at it strongest at either end of development (infancy and early adulthood onwards) and weakest in the period from about 5 years to puberty. The need to adjust procedures to match the development of the child holds a mirror to a fundamental debate about how attachment should be construed in terms of both developmental maturity and the increase or decrease of risk in the environment. Of particular importance are the competing paradigms referred to here as the ABCD and DMM approaches. The former is more extensively used but may be less equipped to discriminate between types of insecurity and indeed differentiate between children from at risk compared with safe backgrounds. Comparing the results from studies using these different models is currently extremely difficult.
References 1. Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 2. Ammaniti, M., Speranza, A. M., & Fedele, S. (2005). Attachment in infancy and in early and late childhood: A longitudinal study. In K. Kerns & R. Richardson (Eds.), Attachment in middle childhood (pp. 115–136). New York: Guilford Press. 3. Ammaniti, M., Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Speranza, A. M., & Tambelli, R. (2000). Internal working models of attachment during late
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childhood and early adolescence: An exploration of stability and change. Attachment and Human Development, 2, 328–346. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment separation and loss volume 1: Attachment. London: The Hogarth Press. Cassidy, J. (1988). Child-mother attachment and the self in six-yearolds. Child Development, 59, 121–134. Cassidy, J., Marvin, R. S., and the MacArthur Attachment Working Group of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Network on the Transition from Infancy to Early Childhood. (1992). Attachment organization in preschool children: Procedures and coding manual. Unpublished coding manual, The Pennsylvania State University. Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Clarke, L., Ungerer, J., Chahoud, K., Johnson, S., & Stiefel, I. (2002). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is associated with attachment insecurity. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(2), 179–198. Crittenden, P. M. (1985a). Social networks, quality of child-rearing, and child development. Child Development, 56, 1299–1313. Crittenden, P. M. (1985b). Maltreated infants: Vulnerability and resilience. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 26, 85–96. Crittenden, P. M. (1988a). Relationships at risk. In J. Belsky & T. Nezworski (Eds.), The clinical implications of attachment (pp. 136–174). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; Crittenden, P. M. (1987). Non-organic failure-to-thrive: Deprivation or distortion? Infant Mental Health Journal, 8, 56–64. Crittenden, P. M. (1988b). Distorted patterns of relationship in maltreating families: The role of internal representational models. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 6, 183–199. Crittenden, P. M. (1992a). Quality of attachment in the preschool years. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 209–241. Crittenden, P. M. (1992b). Children’s strategies for coping with adverse home environments. International Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, 16, 329–343. Crittenden, P. M. (1994). The preschool assessment of attachment coding manual. Miami, FL: Family Relations Institute. Crittenden, P. M. (1995). Attachment and risk for psychopathology: The early years. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics: Supplemental Issue on Developmental Delay and Psychopathology in Young Children, 16, S12–S16. Crittenden, P. M. (2000–2006). Patterns of attachment in adulthood: A dynamic maturational approach to analyzing the adult attachment interview. Miami, FL: Family Relations Institute. Crittenden, P. M. (2006). A dynamic-maturational model of attachment. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 27, 105–115. Crittenden, P. M. (2008). Attachment. In G. J. Towl, D. P. Farrington, D. A. Brighton, & G. Hughes (Eds.), Dictionary of forensic psychology (pp. 11–13). Collumpton: Willan Publishing. Crittenden, P. M., & Bonvillian, J. D. (1984). The effect of maternal risk status on maternal sensitivity to infant cues. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 54, 250–262. Crittenden, P. M., Claussen, A. H., & Kozlowska, K. (2007). Choosing a valid assessment of attachment for clinical use: A comparative study. Australia New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 28, 78–87. Crittenden, P. M., & DiLalla, D. L. (1988). Compulsive compliance: The development of an inhibitory coping strategy in infancy. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 585–599. Crittenden, P. M., & Kozlowska, K. (in preparation). Assessing attachment in school-age children.
Etiological Attachment Theory 24. Crittenden, P. M., & Kulbotton, G. R. (2007). Familial contributions to ADHD: An attachment perspective. Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologorening, 10, 1220–1229. 25. Emde, R., Wolf, D. P., & Oppenheim, D. (Eds.). (2003). Revealing the inner worlds of young children: The MacArthur story stem battery and parent-child narratives. New York: Oxford University Press. 26. Farnfield, S. (2009). A modified strange situation procedure for use in assessing sibling relationships and their attachment to carers. Adoption and Fostering, 33, 4–17. 27. Finzi, R., Har-Even, D., Weizman, A., Tyano, S., & Shnit, D. (1996). The adaptation of the attachment styles questionnaire for latency aged children. Israel Journal of Psychology, 5(2), 167–177. 28. Fivaz-Depeursinge, E., Corboz-Warnery, A., & Keren, M. (2004). The primary triangle: Treating infants in their families. In A. J. Sameroff, S. C. McDonough, & K. L. Rosenblum (Eds.), Treating parent-infant relationship problems: Strategies for intervention (pp. 123–151). New York: The Guilford Press. 29. Fury, G., Carlson, E., & Sroufe, L. (1997). Children’s representations of attachment relationships in family drawings. Child Development, 68, 1154–1164. 30. George, C., & West, M. (2001). The development and preliminary validation of a new measure of attachment: The adult attachment projective. Attachment and Human Development, 3(1), 30–61. 31. Goldwyn, R., Stanley, C., Smith, V., & Green, J. (2000). The Manchester child attachment story task: relationship with parental AAI, SAT and child behaviour. Attachment and Human Development, 2, 71–84. 32. Green, J., Stanley, C., Smith, V., & Goldwyn, R. (2000). A new method of evaluating attachment representations in young schoolage children: The Manchester child attachment story task. Attachment and Human Development, 2, 48–70. 33. Hansburg, H. G. (1972). Adolescent separation and anxiety. Springfield IL: Charles C. Thomas. 34. Hinde, R. (2005). Ethology and attachment theory. In K. E. Grossman, K. Grossman, & E. Waters (Eds.), Attachment for infancy to adulthood: The major longitudinal studies (pp. 1–12). New York: The Guilford Press. 35. Howes, C. (1999). Attachment relationships in the context of multiple caregivers. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications (pp. 671–687). New York: The Guilford Press. 36. Kerns, K., Tomich, P., Aspelmeier, J., & Contreras, J. (2000). Attachment-based assessments of parent-child relationships in middle childhood. Developmental Psychology, 36(5), 614–626. 37. Kerns, K. A., Schlegelmilch, A., Morgan, T. A., & Abraham, M. M. (2005). Assessing attachment in middle childhood. In K. Kerns & R. Richardson (Eds.), Attachment in middle childhood (pp. 46–70). New York: Guilford Press. 38. Kinard, E. (1980). Emotional development in physically abused children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 50(4), 686–696. 39. Klagsbrun, M., & Bowlby, J. (1976). Responses to separation from parents: A clinical test for young children. British Journal of Projective Psychology and Personality Study, 21(2), 7–27. 40. Lyons-Ruth, K., Bronfman, E., & Atwood, G. (1999). A relational diathesis model of hostile-helpless states of mind: expressions in mother-infant interaction. In J. Solomon & C. George (Eds.), Attachment disorganisation. New York: The Guildford Press. 41. Madigan, S., Ladd, M., & Goldberg, S. (2003). A picture is worth a thousand words: Children’s representations of family as indicators of early attachment. Attachment and Human Development, 5(1), 19–37.
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42. Main, M. (1995). Recent studies in attachment: Overview, with selected implications for clinical work. In S. Goldberg, R. Muir, & J. Kerr (Eds.), Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives (pp. 407–474). Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press. 43. Main, M., & Cassidy, J. (1988). Categories of response to reunion with the parent at age 6: Predictable from infant attachment classifications and stable over a 1-month period. Developmental Psychology, 24, 415–442. 44. Main, M., Goldwyn, R., & Hesse, E. (2003). Adult attachment scoring and classification system. Unpublished, University of California, Berkley. 45. Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1–2, Serial No. 209, pp. 66–106). 46. Main, M., & Solomon, M. (1990). Procedures for identifying infants as disorganized/disoriented during the Ainsworth strange situation. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 121–160). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 47. Marvin, R., & Britner, P. (1999). Normative development: The ontogeny of attachment. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications (pp. 44–67). New York: The Guilford Press. 48. Mc Crone, E., Egeland, B., Kalkoske, M., & Carlson, E. (1994). Relations between early maltreatment and mental representations of relationships assessed with projective storytelling in middle childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 99–120. 49. Muller-Nix, C., Forcada-Guex, M., Pierrehumbert, B., Jaunin, L., Borghini, A., & Ansermet, F. (2004). Prematurity, maternal stress and mother-child interactions. Early Human Development, 79, 145–158. 50. Muris, P., Meesters, C., van Melick, M., & Zwambag, L. (2001). Selfreported attachment style, attachment quality, and symptoms of anxiety and depression in young adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 30(5), 809–818. 51. Ogawa, J. R., Sroufe, L. A., Weinfield, N. A., Carlson, E. A., & Egeland, B. (1997). Development and the fragmented self: Longitudinal study of dissociative symptomatology in a nonclinical sample. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 855–879. 52. Rauh, H., Ziegenhain, U., Muller, B., & Wijnroks, L. (2000). Stability and change in infant-mother attachment in the second year of life: Relations to parenting quality and varying degrees of day-care experience. In P. M. Crittenden & A. H. Claussen (Eds.), The organization of attachment relationships. Maturation, culture and context (pp. 251– 276). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 53. Solomon, J., & George, C. (1999a). The measurement of attachment security in Infancy and childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment (pp. 287–316). New York: Guilford Press. 54. Solomon, J., & George, C. (1999b). The place of disorganization in attachment theory: Linking classic observations with contemporary findings. In J. Solomon & C. George (Eds.), Attachment disorganisation (pp. 3–32). New York: The Guildford Press. 55. Solomon, J., & George, C. (1999c). The measurement of attachment security in infancy and early childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment (pp. 287–316). New York: Guilford. 56. Solomon, J., & George, C. (2008). The measurement of attachment security and related constructs in infancy and early childhood.
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In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment (2nd ed., pp. 383–416). New York: Guilford. Steele, H., Cassidy, J., & Fraley, R. (Eds.). (2002). The psychodynamics of adult attachment – bridging the gap between disparate research traditions [Special edition]. Attachment and Human Development, 4, 2. Svanberg, P. O., & Jennings, T. (2002). The Sunderland infant program (U.K.): Reflections on the first year. Signal, 9, 1–5. Target, M., Fonagy, P., & Shmueli-Goetz, Y. (2003). Attachment representations in school-age children: The development of the child attachment interview. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 29, 171–189. Thompson, R. A., & Raikes, H. A. (2003). Toward the next quartercentury: Conceptual and methodological challenges for attachment theory. Development and Psychopathology, 15(3), 691–718. Van Dam, M., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1988). Measuring attachment security: Concurrent and predictive validity of the parental attachment Q-set. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 149(4), 447–457. Waters, E., & Deane, K. E. (1985). Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment relationships: Q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early childhood. In I. Bretherton & E.Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(Nos. 1–2). Weinfield, N. S., Whaley, G. J., & Egeland, B. (2004). Continuity, discontinuity, and coherence in attachment from infancy to late adolescence: Sequelae of organization and disorganization. Attachment and Human Development, 6, 73–97. Westen, D., Klepser, J., Ruffins, S., Silverman, M., Boekamp, J., & Lifton, N. (1991). Object relations in childhood and adolescence: The development of working representations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59(3), 400–409. Woolgar, M. (1999). Projective doll play methodologies for preschool children. Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review, 4, 126–134. Wright, J., Binney, V., & Smith, P. (1995). Security of attachment in 8–12 year-olds: A revised version of the separation anxiety test, its psychometric properties and clinical interpretation. Journal Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36(5), 757–774.
Evacuation ▶Purging
Evolution ▶Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
Exceptional Education ▶Special Education
Excessive Shyness ▶Social Anxiety
Excretion ▶Purging
Executive Control ▶Working Memory
Executive Dysfunction ERIN K. AVIRETT, DENISE E. MARICLE Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA
Synonyms Executive function; Executive function difficulties; Executive function disorder; Executive function dysfunction
Definition
Evaluation ▶Assessment
Evaluation Anxiety ▶Test Anxiety
Executive dysfunction refers to the problems that stem from impairment to cognitive processes located in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the brain, known as executive functions. Impairment to this area may result in difficulties in advanced cognitive and behavioral abilities.
Description As the name implies, executive dysfunction indicates the difficulties that arise from the impairment of executive
Executive Dysfunction
functions. It is difficult to operationalize executive functions; however, they have been equated to both the executive of a company and the conductor of an orchestra because of the organizational and managerial skills that they utilize over constituents [6]. Although there is some disagreement in the literature regarding which cognitive and behavioral components actually make up executive functions, some of the generally agreed upon abilities are as follows: self-monitoring and regulating behavior, initiating and completing novel tasks, setting and achieving goals, planning, organizing, utilizing working memory, maintaining and shifting attention, flexibly changing tasks, inhibiting undesired behaviors, and controlling emotions [2, 3, 6, 9, 14]. Higher order components of language and the control of fine motor skills have also been attributed to executive functions [6]. Ironically, much of what science has learned about executive functions is through what is known of executive dysfunction. Executive dysfunction may materialize from congenital abnormalities or disorders, traumatic or acquired brain injury, or brain lesions [14]. Executive dysfunction may result if damage occurs in one of the frontal-subcortical areas of the anterior most regions of the brain, known as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) [4, 6]. The dorsolateral PFC controls cognitive and behavioral spontaneity, maintaining and shifting attention, organizing, performing multiple tasks simultaneously, retrieving memories, sustaining attention, and inhibiting responses. Damage to this area may result in inattentive behavior, the inability to quickly shift attention or tasks, impulsiveness, unorganized behavior, and difficulty with long-term memory [4, 15]. The lateral PFC controls processes such as selective attention, working memory, cognitive and behavioral monitoring, language, and processing novel experiences. Damage to the lateral PFC may result in inattentiveness, difficulty with working memory tasks, the inability to be self-aware, and resistance to new experiences [5, 6, 8]. The lateral orbitofrontal cortex is involved with social and emotional aspects of behavior such as tactfulness, sensitivity, attention, and activity level. Damage to this area may be related to increased levels of irritability, inappropriate responses to social cues, aggression, and the echoing of others’ behavior [4, 8].
Relevance to Childhood Development The development of frontal lobe activity begins to emerge as early as infancy and continues to develop throughout childhood and adolescence by the growth and pruning of synapses [3]. Neuropsychological assessments have been utilized to measure the components of executive functions in children; however, these tests are
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often developmentally too difficult to use with children [7]. Nevertheless, researchers have recently begun to realize that problems with the development of executive functions in children may significantly impact several childhood disorders [1]. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, marked by problems with inhibition and the processes of attention, has been linked to executive dysfunction in children [12]. Executive dysfunction has also been associated with children with learning disabilities because of difficulties with self-regulation, problem solving, cognitive flexibility, and organizing and prioritizing stimuli [10]. Executive dysfunction has also been implicated in nonverbal learning disabilities because of weaknesses in fluently shifting environments, adapting to novel situations, working memory, self-regulation, and attentional control [13]. In addition, executive dysfunction has been associated with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Children with ASD may have difficulties with: fluently shifting attention and tasks, planning, cognitive flexibility, novel situations, appropriately responding to social cues, regulating social interactions, and nonverbal behaviors [11]. In the future, further knowledge about executive dysfunction and its impact on child development is needed for the advancement of successful behavioral, psychological, and academic interventions.
References 1. Anderson, V. (2002). Executive functions in children: Introduction. Child Neuropsychology, 8, 69–70. 2. Anderson, V., Levin, H. S., & Jacobs, R. (2002). Executive functioning after frontal lobe injury: A developmental perspective. In D. T. Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 504–527). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 3. Beaver, K. M., Wright, J. P., & Delisi, M. (2007). Self-control as an executive function: Reformulating Goddfredson and Hirchi’s parental socialization thesis. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 1345–1361. 4. Bradshaw, J. L. (2001). Developmental disorders of the frontostriatal system: Neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric, and evolutionary perspectives. East Sussex, G. B.: Psychology Press, LTD. 5. Fuster, J. M. (2002). Physiology of executive functions: The perception-action cycle. In D. T. Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 96–107). New York: Oxford University Press. 6. Goldberg, E. (2002). The executive brain: Frontal lobes and the civilized mind. New York: Oxford University Press. 7. Hughes, C., & Graham, A. (2002). Measuring executive functions in childhood: Problems and solutions. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 7, 131–142. 8. Knight, R. T., & Stuss, D. T. (2002). Prefrontal cortex: The present and future. In D. T. Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 573–597). New York: Oxford University Press. 9. Lezak, M. D. (1995). Neuropsychological assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
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10. Meltzer, L., & Krishnan, K. (2007). Executive function difficulties and learning disabilities: Understandings and misunderstandings. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 77–105). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. 11. Ozonoff, S., & Schetter, P. (2007). Executive dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders: From research to practice. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 133–160). New York: The Guilford Press. 12. Shallice, T., Marzocchi, G. M., Coser, S., Del Savio, M., Meuter, R. F., & Rumiati, R. I. (2002). Executive function profile of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Developmental Neuropsychology, 21, 43–71. 13. Stein, J., & Krishnan, K. (2007). Nonverbal learning disabilities and executive function: The challenges of effective assessment and teaching. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 106–132). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. 14. Stuss, D. T., & Alexander, M. P. (2000). Executive functions and the frontal lobes: A conceptual view. Psychological Research, 63, 289–298. 15. Szameitat, A. J., Schubert, T., Muller, K., & Cramon, D. Y. (2002). Localization of executive functions in dual-task performance with fMRI. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 1184–1199.
Executive Function ERIN K. AVIRETT, DENISE E. MARICLE Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA
Synonyms Central executive; Cognitive control; Executive dysfunction; Executive system
Definition Executive functions refer to the array of cognitive processes that control and monitor specific cognitive capacities and behaviors. Located in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), executive functions are the processes that make the human brain a unique, organized, and sophisticated structure.
Description There is no global or overarching definition of executive functions due to the abstract and complex nature of the term. In addition, it can be difficult to directly measure executive functions since their role is to maintain more basic cognitive and behavioral skills, and they cannot be tied to any one measurable skill. Historically, most of the empirical information gained regarding executive functions has been obtained after traumatic and acquired brain injuries or brain lesions to the PFC, and the deficits that have resulted from that damage [15]. However, with the advent of various neuroimaging techniques in recent years, such as position emission tomography (PET),
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) a great deal has been learned about the responsibilities of the executive functions [4]. Due to their roles, the executive functions have been equated to both the executive of a company and the conductor of an orchestra because of the organizational and managerial skills that they utilize over constituents [10]. The executive functions can be considered metacognitive instead of cognitive since these functions do not refer to any single mental set, but rather impart an overlying organization for specific skills. There are several constructs that are purported components of executive functions. Brain imaging studies have determined that self-monitored, purposeful, and regulated behaviors, the ability to inhibit behaviors, and the control of emotions are located in the PFC [4, 13]. Similar constructs, such as goal setting and planning are also thought to be components of executive functioning [13]. Goal setting encompasses the following abilities: initiating and planning for novel objectives, modifying or changing behaviors due to unforeseen problems, and utilizing strategic behavior to accomplish goals [3]. Planning allows individuals to think of a solution to a novel problem and utilize working memory and the ability to inhibit extraneous stimuli to accomplish the plan. Attentional control is another component of executive functioning and refers to the constructs of selective attention, sustained attention, and response inhibition. These constructs allow individuals to focus on specific stimuli, keep that focus, and refrain from responding automatically or inappropriately [3]. Cognitive flexibility is another constituent that refers to the capacities of working memory, attentional flexibility, and self-monitoring and regulation. Cognitive flexibility allows individuals to temporarily store and manipulate information, easily switch focus among stimuli, and monitor and redirect one’s own behaviors [3, 13]. The ability to deem our actions as a success or failure in response to our intentions is also a role of the executive functions [3]. Higher order components of language and the control of fine motor skills have been attributed to the functions of the PFC [10]. In addition, traits of emotional inhibition and response, such as tactfulness, sensitivity, and emotional affect, are also under the control of the executive functions [10, 15]. Within the literature, several models have been proposed to describe the specific interactions of constructs maintained by the executive system [8]. Stuss and Benson [16] illustrated a model that consisted of three components: motivation, the sequencing of information, and the control of those processes. Welsh et al. [18] clustered the
Executive Function
components of executive functions into three different factors representing speeded responding, set maintenance, and planning. Lezak [13] conceptualized executive functions into the four components of volition, planning, purposeful behavior, and effective performance. Boone et al. [5] utilized factor analysis to also specify three components of executive functioning, namely cognitive flexibility, speeded processing, and divided attention/ short term memory. Brocki and Bohlin [7] identified three dimensions of executive functions that they interpreted as disinhibition, speed/arousal, and working memory/fluency. Busch and colleagues [8] established three factors of executive function including productive fluency/cognitive flexibility, mental control (working memory), and the self-monitoring of memories. Neurologically, the processes of executive functions are widely associated with the anterior most regions of the frontal lobes, known as the PFC. Currently, the PFC is considered to be the best connected region of the cortex, directly connected to every functional unit of the brain [10]. Because the frontal lobes are not coupled to any individualized or concrete process, early theorists of cognitive function denied the frontal lobes any real significance, often referring to them as the “silent lobes.” However, in recent years the frontal lobes, specifically the PFC, have received a wide array of attention [10]. The components of executive functioning are divided among several frontal-subcortical areas. The dorsolateral PFC, the last area to myelinate in the human cortex, is involved with spontaneity of thought and action, maintaining and shifting cognitive attention, organizing strategies, performing dual task activities, retrieving memories, sustaining attention, and inhibiting responses [6, 17]. The lateral PFC controls processes such as selective attention, working memory, monitoring, language, and novelty [9, 10, 12]. The lateral orbitofrontal cortex is involved with social and cognitive aspects of behavior such as tactfulness, sensitivity, attention, and activity level [6, 12].
Relevance to Childhood Development Historically, it was believed that executive functions emerged only during late adolescence, and therefore played no significant role in normal and abnormal brain development in infancy and early childhood. However, we now know that the development of frontal lobe activity begins to emerge as early as infancy and continues to develop throughout childhood through the development of new synapses and the pruning of old ones [4]. There are major growth periods within the PFC the first of which is birth to 2 years, followed by another growth spurt from 7 to 9 years, and a final growth period occurring from 16 to 19 years [1, 3]. With ongoing
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maturation, children tend to also obtain the capacity for efficient processing of information at specific growth periods in their development. Due to varying growth spurts of information processing and executive functioning skills, there is partial development of the components of executive functioning in young children that suggests a limited ability to utilize executive skills much earlier than had previously been considered [3]. Recently, researchers have begun to recognize that executive function difficulties, or executive dysfunction, may play an important role in early childhood disorders and normal brain development [2]. Deficits in executive functions are primary characteristics in numerous disorders of childhood, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, Tourette’s disorder, tic disorders, acquired and traumatic brain injury, and autism spectrum disorders [14]. As a result of this realization, researchers have started utilizing assessments of executive functioning during neuropsychological testing. However, many of these assessments are inappropriate and difficult to use with children. Many of the tasks touted to measure executive functioning were created to be difficult, and thus are developmentally inappropriate for use with children [11]. The emergence of executive functions in childhood does not appear to be a gradual progression, but rather appears to correlate with the age dependent growth spurts of the frontal lobes [2]. Different factors of executive functions appear to emerge at different stages of development. Welsh et al. [18] found peaks of executive functioning that correlated with adult-level performance, appearing at the ages of 6 years old, 10 years old, and adolescence. Organized, strategic, and planning behavior was detected by age 6. The functions of searching in an organized manner and behavioral and cognitive inhibition were seen to mature by age 10. The ability to fluently use language, operate a series of motor tasks in a sequential pattern, and complex planning skills were not identified as being to adult levels until adolescence. These spurts of prefrontal growth during childhood and adolescence make it especially difficult to measure various executive functioning abilities in children, even though deficits in these areas can be apparent [11].
References 1. Anderson, V. (1998). Assessing executive functions in children: Biological, psychological, and developmental considerations. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 8, 319–349. 2. Anderson, V. (2002). Executive functions in children: Introduction. Child Neuropsychology, 8, 69–70. 3. Anderson, V., Levin, H. S., & Jacobs, R. (2002). Executive functioning after frontal lobe injury: A developmental perspective. In D. T. Stuss &
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R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 504–527). New York: Oxford University Press. Beaver, K. M., Wright, J. P., & Delisi, M. (2007). Self-control as an executive function: Reformulating Goddfredson and Hirchi’s parental socialization thesis. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 1345–1361. Boone, K. B., Ponton, M. O., Gorsuch, R. L., Gonzalez, J. J., & Miller, B. L. (1998). Factor analysis of four measures of prefrontal lobe functioning. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 13, 585–595. Bradshaw, J. L. (2001). Developmental disorders of the frontostriatal system: Neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric, and evolutionary perspectives. East Sussex: Psychology Press. Brocki, K. C., & Bohlin, G. (2004). Executive functions in children aged 6 to 13: A dimensional and developmental study. Developmental Neuropsychology, 26, 571–593. Busch, R. M., McBride, A., Curtiss, G., & Vanderploeg, D. (2005). The components of executive functioning in traumatic brain injury. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 27, 1022–1032. Fuster, J. M. (2002). Physiology of executive functions: The perception-action cycle. In D. T. Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 96–107). New York: Oxford University Press. Goldberg, E. (2002). The executive brain: Frontal lobes and the civilized mind. New York: Oxford University Press. Hughes, C., & Graham, A. (2002). Measuring executive functions in childhood: Problems and solutions. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 7(3), 131–142. Knight, R. T., & Stuss, D. T. (2002). Prefrontal cortex: The present and future. In D. T. Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 573–597). New York: Oxford University Press. Lezak, M. D. (1995). Neuropsychological assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Meltzer, L., & Krishnan, K. (2007). Executive function difficulties and learning disabilities: Understandings and misunderstandings. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education (pp. 77–105). New York: The Guilford Press. Stuss, D. T., & Alexander, M. P. (2000). Executive functions and the frontal lobes: A conceptual view. Psychological Research, 63, 289–298. Stuss, D. T., & Benson, D. F. (1986). The frontal lobes. New York: Raven Press. Szameitat, A. J., Schubert, T., Muller, K., & Cramon, D. Y. (2002). Localization of executive functions in dual-task performance with fMRI. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 1184–1199. Welsh, M. C., Pennington, B. F., & Groisser, D. B. (1991). A normative-developmental study of executive function: A window of prefrontal function in children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 7, 131–149.
Executive Function Difficulties ▶Executive Dysfunction
Executive Function Disorder ▶Executive Dysfunction
Executive Function Dysfunction ▶Executive Dysfunction
Executive Functioning ▶Working Memory
Executive System ▶Executive Function
Existentialism ▶Humanistic Perspective
Expectancy Effect ▶Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Experimenter Bias ▶Pygmalion Effect
Explicit Memory ▶Declarative Memory
Exploration ▶Ainsworth’s Procedure
Expressive Dysphasia
Exposed ▶At Risk
Expressive Aphasia ▶Broca’s Aphasia
Expressive Aphasia, Fluent Aphasia, Infantile Acquired Aphasia ▶Childhood Aphasia
Expressive Dysphasia MEI Y. CHANG, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Agrammatic dysphasia; Broca’s dysphasia; Cortical motor dysphasia; Primary motor dysphasia
Definition Expressive dysphasia refers to impaired language production caused by some form of brain damage or dysfunction [4]. Nonfluent output or speech disturbance is the prominent feature of expressive dysphasia, which is characterized by scattered, slow, and hesitant speech with marked disturbances of rhythm, grammar, and articulation. Patients also present with difficulty in finding and/or choosing the right words. Impairment in reading also is exhibited with a halting and jerky flow; disturbances in writing are similar to those in speaking [2].
Description The original terms of aphasia and dysphasia have different meanings, but in modern usage they are often used interchangeable. In general, aphasia is the preferred term over dysphasia to avoid confusion with dysphagia. Expressive aphasia/dysphasia, commonly known as Broca’s dysphasia in the neuropsychology field, is seen as a type of language disorder impairing the ability to produce language. Language difficulties presented in expressive dysphasia are not
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caused by defects in speech or hearing organs or deficits in sensory or cognitive functioning, but due to brain lesions or developmental impairment in brain areas governing language production. These areas lie in the anterior regions of the brain, including the left inferior frontal region known as Broca’s area involved in language expression [2, 4], which is often referred to as Broca’s dysphasia. Expressive dysphasia involves the frontal lobe and underlying subcortical white matter [5]. In addition, lesions within the head of the caudate nucleus within the basal ganglia can produce Broca’s-like dysphasia [1]. Several common deficits are associated with expressive dysphasia, including poor programming of oromotor movements used to produce speech, agrammatism, anomia, and articulation difficulties [4]. Individuals with expressive dysphasia display impaired spontaneous speech, word finding difficulty, and poor automatic naming and repetition. Their language production is often brief with words omitted and changes in the grammatic function of words. Grammatical complexity is often lacking from their language, and their reading comprehension is inadequate for sentences that require processing of grammatical words [3]. In addition, their reading lacks a steady rhythm and is fragmentary with slurring and occasional mispronunciations. However, while patients with expressive dysphasia may have impaired comprehension of syntax, their comprehension of single words and short phrases is relatively preserved [3]. Their naming of objects is generally impaired but their performance may be improved by prompting with a context or phonemic cueing. Despite these difficulties with language production, individuals with expressive dysphasia are aware of their mistakes and often attempt to correct them. In addition, their comprehension of written and verbal instruction is intact, and their speech that does emerge is meaningful [2]. They are able to comprehend speech much better than they are able to produce it.
References 1.
2.
3. 4. 5.
Damasio, H., Eslinger, P., & Adams, H. P. (1984). Aphasia following basal ganglia lesions: New evidence. Seminar in Neurology, 4, 151–161. Gangat, A. E., & Cernochova, V. (1997). Expressive dysphasia presenting as psychiatric disorder – a case report. South African Medical Journal, 87, 1150–1150. Loring, D. W. (Ed.). (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Miller, D. C. (2007). Essentials of school neuropsychological assessment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Naeser, M. A., Palumbo, C. L., Helm-Estabrooks, N., Stiassny-Eder, D., & Albert, M. L. (1989). Severe nonfluency in aphasia: Role of the medial subcallosal fasiculus and other white matter pathways in recovery of spontaneous speech. Brain, 112, 1–38.
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Expressive Group Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
Expressive Language MYSTI S. FRAZIER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Expressive vocabulary test, second edition; Verbal skills
Definition Expressive language refers to the way a child expresses him/ herself for everyday wants, needs, and feelings. Spoken, written, and body language, including facial expressions and sign language, are all abilities considered to be expressive language skills.
Description Language and the expression of such is a difficult term to describe because it has a vast connection with children’s developmental skills, education, and experience. In essence it is about describing how one learns language and learns how to express him/herself through language, including body language and facial expressions. According to Wise et al. [3], “Expressive vocabulary knowledge includes accessing semantic knowledge in addition to phonological representations; expressive vocabulary knowledge may be more strongly related to word identification performance than is receptive vocabulary knowledge” (p. 1095). Expressive language difficulties include problems with word retrieval, limitations in knowledge, sentence formation, subject-verb agreement, and grammatical morphology. Also, genetics may be a predictor of expressive language problems [2]. Furthermore, students with minimal vocabulary could have a hard time understanding or identifying words that are not often used or words that they have not seen [3]. Additionally, there is not much evidence to suggest that problems with expressive language occur unaccompanied; in fact these problems can be associated with a lack of language comprehension and/or exposure to variations of words and phrases [2].
DSM-IV Disorders Expressive language disorder and receptive-expressive language disorder comprise categories in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [1]. Expressive language disorder includes impairment in development of expressive language as measured by scores on a language assessment, and this impairment interferes with academic, occupational, and/or social communication. Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder includes impairment in both types of development which are significantly below average as well as all of the other criteria that expressive language disorder requires. The difference is that children with this mixed type also have developmental delays in receptive language [1]. The severity of these disorders varies based on the child’s abilities and spectrum of understanding language. Due to the variations in children’s abilities, it is essential that all aspects of a child’s abilities be thoroughly tested and understood before making such a diagnosis.
Development The development of expressive language is as varied as the definition. Difficulties could begin as early as age one but are more substantially noticed by age 4. At this age children usually understand certain agreement morphemes through grammatical judgment skills [2]. However, these skills require a degree of metalinguistic abilities, which at peak levels require acute sensitivity and specificity to master and are not usually seen until age 6 [2]. Furthermore, research indicates that knowledge of vocabulary is related to reading comprehension [3], which develops around age 6. The variations in abilities make it difficult for researchers to accurately assess specific expressive language impairments, which indicate that more research is required to fully understand the scope of possible problems with expressive language. It appears that disruption to the development of any of a large collection of abilities (e.g., knowledge base, vocabulary, reading, phonemic recognition of spoken words, word identification) can lead to expressive language delays.
Assessment and Treatment The measures used to classify a child’s expressive language abilities have become more advanced over the years and have allowed researchers to better diagnose language disorders [2]. One of the biggest obstacles in using scores to categorize a child’s abilities is that testing expressive language impairments is not always as important as testing comprehension, in order to ensure that the child has the knowledge required to complete the test [2]. Treatment approaches often include instruction in word meaning, grammar, context of word use, and numerous opportunities for practice; another approach called “recasting” involves speaking to the child through mimicking his/her
Expressive Language Disorders
speech with similarly appropriate responses, which allows the child to gain contextual information and distinguish between his/her language and the new responses, thus allowing him/her to develop a greater language knowledge base [2]. Children with language difficulties often receive services from the school’s speech-language pathologist to work on specific goals and objectives.
References 1.
2.
3.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (text revision) (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Leonard, L. B. (2009). Is expressive language disorder an accurate diagnostic category? American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18, 115–123. Wise, J. C., Sevcik, R. A., Morris, R. D., Lovett, M. W., & Wolf, M. (2007). The relationship among receptive and expressive vocabulary, listening comprehension, pre-reading skills, word identification skills, and reading comprehension by children with reading disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 1093–1109.
Expressive Language Disorders CASSANDRA MEANS Capella University, Batesburg, SC, USA
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between words and meaning [4]. Due to this, individuals with expressive language disorder will become frustrated and may act out behaviorally due to this [5]. Thus, leaving individuals with expressive language disorder at risk of developing psychiatric disorders due to the emotional and behavioral issues that can stem from the frustration that they experience [2].
Signs and Symptoms The most common signs and symptoms of expressive language disorder, although each individual will present them differently, include: vocabulary below what is expected for age, difficulty in naming objects (i.e., cup, dog, etc.) or misnaming objects (dysnomia) due to difficulty in being able to retrieve words, inability to express ideas or thoughts, not talking much, often or at all, difficulty communicating and interacting with others, difficulty with pronouncing words, difficulty with overall expressive language tasks, particularly complex tasks, to include rules of grammar or syntax, change in verb tense or morphology and word meaning or semantics [2, 3, 5]. It is recommended that one refers back to his or her family physician or pediatrician due the symptoms can mimic those associated with serious medical conditions such as stroke [2].
Causes Synonyms Communication disorders
Definition A language disorder where there is difficulty in expressing one’s self verbally and/or in writing due to inability to retrieve and organize words.
Description Expressive language disorder, unlike speech disorders where the individual has difficulty pronouncing speech sounds, the difficulty lies with expressing one’s self due to the inability to retrieve or recall words and organizing them in a meaningful manner [1–6]. An individual with expressive language disorder is better able to understand what is being said to him or her than what he or she is able to express ideas or thoughts [5]. It is part of developmental language delay and can co-occur with receptive language disorder [1, 4, 5]. In expressive language disorder, the difficulty lies within the areas of the brain responsible for language processing thus the individual has difficulty processing and successfully making the connection
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Expressive language disorder can be developmental, acquired or genetically based [2, 5, 6]. Developmentally based expressive language disorder is commonly seen in children [5, 6]. Often the signs and symptoms can be picked upon early when the child is not meeting developmental language milestones (severe) or will be discovered once the child has started school and experiences problems with academics (mild) [5]. Acquired expressive language disorder is more commonly seen in the elderly [5, 6]. This is due to acquired expressive language disorder is the result of a medical condition such aphasia (the loss of language skills and abilities already acquired), stroke, brain injury or damage, exposures to toxins (i.e., substance abuse, lead, etc.) [2, 5, 6]. There are other cases where the cause is due to inherited conditions or genetics as seen in such disorders as Autism and Down Syndrome [1, 2]. Boys tend to be diagnosed more so than girls with expressive language disorder [2]. It should be noted that expressive language disorder can and does occur in an individual with normal intelligence as well as those with below normal intelligence as seen with mental retardation, congenital disorders (i.e., Cerebral Palsy) and pervasive developmental disorders (i.e., Autism) [5, 6].
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Diagnosis Expressive language disorder is diagnosed via a battery of evaluations and tests [2, 4]. These often include observations, assessment of cognitive abilities, or psychological testing as well as psychometric testing, diagnostic speech and language as well as writing tests, and occupational therapy evaluations [2, 4]. Due to the emotional and behavioral issues that can and often result from the frustrations that are experience with not being able to express one’s self, a psychiatrist may be consulted with in particular in the case of children and adolescents [2].
Treatment There are several factors that will determine the kind of treatment one with expressive disorder will receive. These factors include medical history in case there is a need for medication, severity and prognosis of the disorder, individual’s overall health status, age, and the individual’s preference and expectations regarding therapies [1, 2]. Treatments for expressive language disorder include speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and in some cases mental health treatment [1, 2, 4]. It should be noted that expressive language disorder does not go away with time, rather is a disorder that the individual will have to cope with for the rest of his or her life [5].
with expressive language disorders have a lot to say and want to share with others [5]. However, due to the nature of the disorder he or she may present worse off than what he or she may really be thus school personnel may develop misperceptions regarding the child’s true abilities [4, 5]. This can lead the child to not like school and may reject the idea of learning without assistance [5].
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2008). Speech and language disorders and diseases. Retrieved June 29, 2008, from ASHA Web site: http://www.asha.org/pulbic/speech/disorders/ Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. (2008). Communication disorders. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.chw.org/display/Print_page. asp?DocID=22124&ThisPage=undefined Kaufman Children’s Center. (2004). Signs and symptoms: Expressive language disorder. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.kidspeech. com/index.php?page=76 Logsdon, A. (2007). Learning disabilities in expressive languagedisorders of communication. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from About.com Web site: http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/learningdisabilitybasics/p/exprslangdisrdr.htm?p=1 Morales, S. (2006). Expressive language disorder. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from Children’s Speech Care Center Web site: http://www. childspeech.net/u_iv_h.html Speech Works. (2008). Speech and language disorders. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.speechsensory.com/speech-and-languagedisorders/
Relevance to Childhood Development For one to be successful socially and academically, one must be able to express him or herself. Children with expressive language disorder do not learn language as quickly as their peers thus have difficulty expressing themselves [4, 6]. Thus, they may display poor social skills, withdraw or isolate, present with acting out behaviors or difficulty with imaginative play and picking up on or expressing such social cues as manners or engaging in a conversation [4]. It is estimated that about seven percent school age children are found to present with notable language deficiencies [1]. Due to these deficiencies, a child with expressive language disorder may struggle academically as well. Although many are able to speak when they start school, in school the child will struggle with such tasks as formulating words which are imperative when presenting an oral report, spelling, writing well which is crucial for such tasks as sentence structure, being able to take adequate notes and written composition which entails one to express abstract ideas as seen with writing an essay [2, 5]. The older the child becomes, the harder the school work will become which means the more difficulties the child will experience [5]. Children
Expressive Therapy ▶Art Therapy
Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition JESSICA R. GURLEY Argosy University, Arlington, VA, USA
Synonyms Expressive language
Definition The expressive vocabulary test, second edition, is a brief measure of expressive language.
Extended Families
Description The Expressive Vocabulary Test, second edition (EVT-2) is a brief measure of expressive vocabulary and word retrieval abilities for ages 2 years, 6 months and above. The test can be administered in less than 20 minutes. There are two parallel forms of the EVT-2: Form A and Form B. The manual reports a number of uses for the EVT-2, including the evaluation of language impairments and assessing the knowledge of the English language in non-native speakers. It can also be used as a screening measure for Expressive Language Disorders and can be used with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, fourth edition (PPVT-4) to screen for mixed receptive-expressive language disorders [3]. The EVT-2 can be scored by hand or by using computer scoring software. The EVT-2 raw scores can be used to calculate standard scores, percentiles, normal curve equivalents, and stanines. In addition, the raw scores can be translated into age equivalents and grade equivalents. Standard scores can be based on either age-based or gradebased normative standards. The EVT-2 was standardized in 2005 and 2006 on 5,543 individuals in the United States. The standardization sample was stratified according to 2004 Census data and was representative of the population of the United States in relation to race/ethnicity. The EVT-2 has strong psychometric properties. The internal consistency (split half reliability) of the two parallel forms are 0.94 (Form A) and 0.93 (Form B). The testretest reliability is 0.95. Additionally, the EVT-2 correlates highly with the PPVT-4 (0.82) [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development The EVT-2 can be used to screen children and adolescents for language disorders and language delays.
References 1.
2.
3.
Restrepo, M. A., Schwanenflugel, P. J., Blake, J., Neuharth-Prichett, S., Cramer, S. E., & Ruston, H. P. (2006). Performance on the PPVTIII and the EVT: Applicability of the measures of African American and European American preschool children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 37, 17–27. Thomas-Tate, S., Washington, J., Craig, H., & Packard, M. (2006). Performance of African American preschool and kindergarten students on the Expressive Vocabulary Test. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 37, 143–149. Williams, K. T. (2007). The Expressive Vocabulary Test (2nd ed.). Circle Pines, MN: AGS Publishing.
Expulsion ▶Purging
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Extended Families STACY A. S. WILLIAMS State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY, USA
Synonyms Joint family; Kinship group; Multigenerational family
Definition An extended family is a family composition that includes in one household near relatives in addition to the nuclear family.
Description The extended family has been categorized as many things in the research literature. Early researchers defined this family structure as a constellation of nuclear families across two or more generations [1]. Furthermore, it has been operationally defined as a three-generation structure comprised of related relatives: grandparents, parents, grandchildren, and sometimes a fourth generation [5]. However, the aforementioned description defines extended families as a compilation of nuclear families across generations. It should be noted that there are many other variations of the extended family structure. Extended family structures may consist of grandmother/grandfather, aunt/uncle, cousins, one-parent extended families, divorced families, and other kin relations [1]. Each variation operates differently depending on cultural and socioeconomic factors. For example, a Black child growing up in the AfricanAmerican community may be surrounded by a kin organization including grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins [6]. In addition, the Black child may be a part of a matriarchal single-parent extended family. Extended family structures tend to be prevalent in non-Western societies and minority cultures (e.g., Hispanics, African-Americans, Caribbean-Americans, Asians). Although not the dominant familial structure in Western societies, this structure also plays a role in mainstream society. Many have argued that the formation of the extended family is indigenous to certain ethnic groups. However, the formation and sustainability of the extended family is often facilitated by historical, religious, socioeconomic, and marital factors [5, 6]. For example, people of Indian origin living in Durban, South Africa continue to live in extended family arrangements despite the government’s housing development policies that prevent large groups of individuals from sharing residency. Indian
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Extensor Plantar Reflex (Pathological) Toe Phenomenon
families in this community tend to follow the Mitakshara law which states that “joint families that constitute a coparcenary, who by virtue of association with their biological parents and grandparents, have the right to enjoy and hold the joint property, to restrain each others acts in respect thereof, not to burden it with debts and at their pleasure to enforce its partition” [5, p. 458]. Many families who continue to live within these households do so for familial obligations, safety, and financial reasons. It is often customary for newly married individuals to live within this setting for one or more years before branching out on their own. Interestingly, though couples may branch out on their own, they are often still connected with their extended families through proximity of residence [5]. In the Black community, the formation of the family is a byproduct of the interplay of historical factors such as slavery, marital and interpersonal factors such as divorces, single parenthood, and socioeconomic factors. The most important factor correlated with extended family formation is the persistent and high concentrated poverty of Black parents, especially single mothers [6]. In fact, the establishment of an extended family is one coping mechanism used extensively and disproportionally by Black households to respond to housing affordability and adverse economic circumstances [3]. Transitions in the life cycle may also affect the formation of an extended family. For example, the migration history and the socioeconomic status of the immigrant group may facilitate the formation and sustainability of this family structure. For example, the threegeneration families among Cuban Americans have often been seen as the retention of cultural patterns and norms; however, the nature and selectivity of the exodus from Cuba have largely determined the high incidence of three-generation families in the population [4]. Extended families play a pivotal role in the rearing of children whose biological parents are otherwise disposed. Additionally, they offer emotional and financial support [2]. Furthermore, the involvement of extended family members in one-parent families facilitates the biological mother’s participation in self-improvement activities (e.g., school and work), increases the quality of childcare, and reduces the negative effects of single parenting. Moreover, living within this family structure also offsets some of the negative effects of adolescent extramarital pregnancy. In addition, the presence of the sensitive grandmother in the home tends to buffer the infant against the influence of the insensitive mother. Extended families tend to be more effective when lines and boundaries are clearly defined. Confusion arises when this is not the case [2]. Although, household mergers can offset the cost of household
expenditures, extended families can also reduce the quality of the home environment, by increasing crowdedness and thus limiting privacy [3].
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Georgas, J., Mylonas, K., Bafiti, T., Poortinga, Y. H., Christakopoulou, S., Kagitcibasi, C., et al. (2001). Functional relationships in the nuclear and extended family: A 16-culture study. International Journal of Psychology, 36, 289–300. Knis-Matthews, L. (2007). The role of spouses and extended family members as primary caretakers of children during a parent’s drug addition: The parent perspective. Occupational Therapy in Mental Health, 23, 1–19. Macpherson, D., & Stewart, J. B. (1991). The effects of extended families and marital status on housing consumption by black femaleheaded households. Review of Black Political Economy, 19, 65–83. Perez, L. (1994). The household structure of second-generation children: An exploratory study of extended family arrangements. International Migration Review, 28, 736–747. Singh, A. (2008). A critical evaluation of attitudes towards nuclear, joint, and extended family structures among people of Indian origin in Durban, South Africa. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 39, 453–470. Wilson, M. N. (1989). Child development in the context of the black extended family. American Psychologist, 44, 380–385.
Extensor Plantar Reflex (Pathological) Toe Phenomenon ▶Babinski Reflex
Extensor Plantar Response or Extensor Response ▶Babinsky Response
External Motivation STEPHANIE A. GROTE-GARCIA1, FORREST D. MCDOWELL2 1 University of the Incarnate Word College of Education, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA 2 Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Synonyms Extrinsic motivation
Extinction
Definition Motivation is the activation of goal-oriented behavior. When motivation develops from a source other than the individual, then that individual is externally motivated. Examples of such sources are money, trophies, grades, and complements. Punishments or other negative consequences can also be sources of external motivation.
Description There are two types of motivation – external and internal. When individuals are motivated by outside sources, they are driven by external motivation. Outside sources may be tangible or intangible rewards. Tangible rewards may include stickers or toys. Intangible rewards may include complements or a round of applause from an audience. Individuals who are externally motivated may not be interested in the actual task. Instead they may be interested in receiving the tangible or intangible rewards earned by completing the tasks. For example, children who are given allowances for completing weekly household chores may complete their chores, not because they enjoy completing them, but because they are externally motivated by their allowance. Directly opposite of external motivation is internal motivation. Internal motivation accrues within an individual. An individual who is driven by internal motivation are motivated to complete a task without the incentive of receiving a reward. These individuals find satisfaction in completing the actual task. Theories that are often connected to motivation are the following: Social Theory [1], Transpersonal Theory [2, 4, 5], Achievement Motivation Theory [3, 6, 7], and Behavioral Theory [8].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Freud, S. (1990). Beyond the pleasure principle. New York: W.W. Norton. Herzberg, F. (1966). Work and the nature of man. Cleveland: Ward. Jung, C. G. (1960/1973). On the nature of the psyche. Hull, R.F.C. (Trans.). Bollingen Series XX. The Collected works of C.G. Jung, 8. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Maslow, A. (1954/1970). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper. McClelland, D. (1985). Human motivation. New York: Scott, Foresman. McGregor, D. (1960). The human side of enterprise. London: Penguin. Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Simon and Schuster. Stipek, D. J. (1993). Motivation to learn: from theory to practice. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon.
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Extinction BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Extinction burst
Definition In both Classical Conditioning (also known as respondent conditioning) and Operant Conditioning (also known as instrumental conditioning), the term extinction refers to both a procedure and a behavioral process. Simply put, in Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning, extinction refers to a procedure of presenting a CS, a conditioned stimulus alone, without a US, an unconditioned stimulus, after conditioning has transpired. In effect, this is a procedure of severing the CS–US association. An example would be that of the spoken word “constrict” as a neutral stimulus (NS) followed by a flash of light as a US presented to a person’s pupils. After several pairings, the pupillary constriction would occur as a CR, a conditioned response to the spoken word as the word comes to function as a CS. Extinction would then consist of the word “constrict” repeatedly presented in the absence of the flash of light. As a behavioral process, extinction denotes the decrease in measures of the CR, the conditioned response, when the aforementioned procedure is in effect. That is, as a result of the conditioning just described, some measurable degree of pupillary decrease would occur to the spoken word-CS but as the CS were presented alone, the conditioned response of the pupil to the word would show orderly decrements, as a function of each solitary CS presentation [1, 2]. In the operant conditioning of B.F. Skinner, extinction also encompasses both procedure and outcomeprocess. As a procedure, this term envelopes the breaking or discontinuation of the contingency between an operant response and its formerly contingent consequence. Other writers have described extinction as the removal or unavailability of the reinforcer. In terms of a behavioral process, extinction pertains to a decline in the frequency of the operant response being measured when the extinction procedure is in place. An example would be that of a rhesus monkey lever pressing for a sip of juice. The lever press would be the operant response and the juice would be the consequence, in this case, a positive reinforcer. This contingent relation between response and consequence would maintain some
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frequency of lever pressing by the monkey. If lever pressing no longer resulted in any juice, the discontinuation of the juice-reinforcer would be a procedure of extinction and the decline in the frequency of lever pressing that results would be the process of extinction. Under conditions of extinction, responding decreases and can eventually cease or merely return to its prereinforcement measures [2, 3]. In both classical and operant conditioning, extinction refers to a behavior weakening procedure and process for acquired or learned responses. Both a conditioned response and an operant that have reduced measures of magnitude or frequency as a result of extinction are said to be “extinguished.” Extinction is neither a procedure nor a process performed upon or observed with unlearned behavior. Compare with habituation. There are other similarities between the extinction process in classical and operant conditioning. In both, the extinguished response will typically display what is known as spontaneous recovery. In classical conditioning, if the CS is presented alone to the point that the CR no longer occurs to the CS and the extinction process is complete, if the animal or human goes through a period of time without any exposure to the CS, a subsequent presentation of the CS will again elicit a CR, albeit in somewhat weakened magnitude. If the CS is again presented alone, the CR will again extinguish but spontaneous recovery may reoccur in subsequent CS presentations following a recovery period in the absence of the CS. In these instances, the re-elicited CR is thought to be due to extraneous environmental events that were still functional as a CS and each subsequent extinction procedure extinguishes the CR to these other CSs. Spontaneous recovery is an expected outcome of the extinction procedure and process in classical conditioning. The boy who has acquired a fear of dogs from a bite can overcome his fear by having repeated exposures to dogs without any further trauma; gradually the fear response to dogs will diminish and no longer be problematic. Nevertheless, if the boy then sees a dog after being away from any dogs for some time, the boy will predictably feel afraid of dogs again as a result of spontaneous recovery [3]. A similar spontaneous recovery occurs with an operant response that has undergone extinction. Many children have the behavior of throwing bedtime tantrums when parents implement sleeping alone in the child’s own room; tantruming and crying can result in parental attention, the parents staying in the room, the bedroom lights being left on, etc. Parents who let the child tantrum and do not re-enter the child’s room after saying goodnight will eventually see the tantruming behavior subside as they withhold their attention to put the
behavior on extinction. Predictably, if the child sleeps at the grandparent’s house for a long weekend and subsequently returns to sleeping in their usual bedroom, the tantruming will show spontaneous recovery the first night the child is put to bed at home. If the parents do not reinforce the behavior, the spontaneous recovery of tantruming will be short lived [4]. This example of an operant response undergoing extinction raises the important point of one important distinction between the two processes of extinction. While the response undergoing extinction does weaken in both classical and operant conditioning, before the operant response does weaken due to the discontinued consequence, the response being measured will reliably increase in its frequency, intensity, and variability before weakening. This effect is known as an extinction burst and only occurs during the extinction process of operant conditioning. In the example just provided, the child’s tantrums would reliably become louder, last longer, display different forms of throwing a tantrum as the behavior was put on extinction; all of these increases in the behavior of tantruming would be observed before the behavior would decrease. The parents need to withhold any attention for the tantrums to see the desired decrease in the unwanted behavior [3, 4].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Bouton, M. E. (2007). Learning and behavior: A contemporary synthesis. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. Gluck, M. A., Mercado, E., & Myers, C. E. (2008). Learning and memory: From brain to behavior. New York: Worth. Pear, J. J. (2001). The science of learning. New York: Psychology Press. Pierce, D. W., & Cheney, C. D. (2008). Behavior analysis and learning (4th ed.). New York: Psychology Press.
Extinction Burst ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Extinction
Definition Extinction burst refers to the phenomenon of a previously reinforced or learned behavior temporarily increasing
Extrinsic Motivation
when the reinforcement for the behavior is removed. Learning theory suggests the organism is increasing the frequency of the behavior in an attempt to regain the original reinforcement for the behavior. In the absence of additional reinforcement, the behavior will diminish to lower (pre-extinction burst) levels and eventual cessation.
References 1.
Lerman, D. C., & Iwata, B. A. (1995). Prevalence of the extinction burst and it’s attenuation during treatment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 28, 93–94.
Extrafamilial Home ▶Group Homes
Extrinsic An extrinsic property depends on the relationship of one thing with other things. The term denotes a property of some thing or action which is essential and specific to that thing or action and which is completely independent of any other object, action or consequence.
Extrinsic Motivation PEI-HSUAN HSIEH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms External motivation
Definition Engaging in an activity with expectations to receive a reward separate from the activity it self, or to accomplish something to make an impression on others by showing one’s competency.
Description When individuals engage in activities that are not personally enjoyable to them but grant them money, prestige, or beauty they are exerting extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is present when the incentives to engage in an
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activity are outside the individual and the reinforcement is due to an outside source. For example, when a child is committed to an activity he takes no pleasure in but he receives a reward for his work, he is being motivated to do this task because of an outside source, the reward (either a sticker, a pencil or extra time on the computer). Researchers suggest that extrinsically motivated learners may process information at a superficial level, often performing to meet minimal classroom requirements.
Relevance to Childhood Development One’s development of motivation can be influenced by outside sources. When one is influenced solely from outside sources they are being motivated extrinsically. Extrinsic factors develop when a child focuses on a goal because it might make him popular or he feels pressure from his parents to do well. Extrinsic rewards may be detrimental to children if they are promised a reward every time they accomplish a task. Once the reward is stopped, the child may lose ambition to engage in that task again; he has no reason to initiate the activity on his own. Tangible rewards can be harmful for young children because they may become dependent on the rewards. Similar to Skinner’s theory on operant conditioning, when a behavior is reinforced with a reward it is more likely the behavior will continue. However, once the reward is taken away the behavior decreases or ceases to exist. Researchers also found that when children were rewarded for activities, their intrinsic motivation was undermined. They suggested that children notice patterns or develop schemas when other people, such as parents, use extrinsic incentives over and over. For example, when a parent offers a reward for a task, the child has the presumption that the task is probably something boring. Such as when a parent tells a child she can go outside and play, but only after she cleans her room. The extrinsic incentives are not always useful for younger children. In the context of a classroom, students may exert little effort on their work to complete a task if they are extrinsically motivated. If their motivation to do the work does not lie within themselves, meaning they have no interest in the topic, they will provide the minimum amount of effort until the task is complete. Other researchers found that verbal extrinsic motivators are not as detrimental to the college students as they are to younger children. When students enter college they are often motivated by verbal feedback such as “good work,” or “you are an excellent student,” which is a form of extrinsic motivation that has found to be helpful to college students. A student will sometimes work harder if he knows he will be recognized for his work.
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References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Brophy, J. (2004). Motivating students to learn (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627–668. Flink, C., Boggiano, A. K., Main, D. S., Barrett, M., & Katz, P. A. (1992). Children’s achievement related behaviors: The role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivational orientations. In A. K. Boggiano & T. S. Pittman (Eds.), Achievement and motivation: A social-development perspective. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54–67. Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan.
Extrinsically Motivated Behavior STEUART T. WATSON, DARRELL DAVIS Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH, USA
Synonyms Contingency-maintained maintained behavior
behavior;
Reinforcement-
Definition Extrinsically motivated behavior refers to behavior that is performed because of rewards that are external to a person.
viewed with less esteem than intrinsic motivation. A person who is intrinsically motivated is often described in more positive terms than a person who is extrinsically motivated. There is great debate about the effects of external rewards (extrinsic motivation) on internal motivation. This position is attributable to Edward Deci who, in the early 1970s, said that external rewards should not be used because they interfere with a person’s natural interest and enjoyment of a task [3]. Three decades and over 100 studies later, the research strongly suggests that external rewards do not harm internal motivation nor do they lead to decreases in performance, enjoyment of a task, or creativity [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development There is no evidence that providing external rewards for behavior is harmful to children, their development, or their performance in school or in athletics. In fact, genuine praise for performance, effort, or goal attainment enhances a child’s sense of competence and esteem, improves their level of satisfaction, and generally leads to other positive outcomes. Tangible rewards do not create a “dependency” on the tangible for the behavior to occur and result in the same positive effects as praise [4].
References 1. 2.
3.
Description Motivation speaks to the issue of why a behavior occurs, or the reasons why certain behaviors are performed in lieu of others. Extrinsic motivation ascribes these reasons to external forces or rewards. Thus, behavior that occurs because of the external rewards that are involved are said to be extrinsically motivated. Completing a task for money, recognition/praise, or to avoid punishment are common examples of extrinsically motivated behavior. In these cases, the behavior occurs because of the external rewards, not because of some unseen, unverifiable intrinsic value of the task [1]. Virtually everything that humans do is, in some way, related to the outcomes of their behavior. Even behaviors that seemingly have no immediate external consequence or reward may continue for long periods of time because they have been rewarded in the past. In such a case, an observer may mistakenly believe that the person is engaging in the behavior because they “like” doing it versus the behavior being an infrequently reinforced behavior. Unfortunately, extrinsic motivation is often
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Cameron, J., & Pierce, W. D. (2002). Rewards and intrinsic motivation. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey. Cameron, J., & Pierce, W. D. (1994). Reinforcement, reward, and intrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 64, 363–423. Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105–115. Weaver, A. D., & Watson, T. S. (2004). An idiographic investigation of the effects of ability- and effort-based praise on math performance and persistence. The Behavior Analyst Today, 5, 381–390.
Eye Fixations ▶Eye Movements
Eye Movements ALICIA MACKAY Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, OK, USA
Synonyms Eye fixations; Saccades
Eye–Hand Coordination
Definition The voluntary or involuntary movement of the eyes that can be controlled by the individual or the external environment.
Description There are four basic types of eye movements: pursuit, vergence, vestibular, and saccadic [3]. Pursuit eye movements occur when an individual attempts to track a moving object. Vergence eye movements occur when an individual moves their eyes from a distant object to a near object (or vice versa). Vestibular eye movements occur when an individual’s eyes move to compensate for head and body movements. Saccadic eye movements are rapid, ballistic movements that serve to position the eye for visual processing. Visual processing occurs when the eyes are not moving (i.e., fixating). Visual processing is suppressed when the eye is in motion [4].
Relevance to Childhood Development Researchers analyze eye movements in studies to investigate cognitive processing in adults as well as children and infants. Research with infants has shown that infants become bored with objects with which they are familiar, and they respond to them less and less over time. They spend less time looking at the object and make fewer eye movements to the object. The phenomenon is called habitation. By analyzing infants’ eye movements during the viewing of objects, researchers can infer whether the infant recognizes the stimulus. Habituation has been used to investigate visual perception of faces and objects, visual acuity, and contrast sensitivity [2]. A second technique in which infants’ eye movements are analyzed is the preferential looking paradigm. An infant is habituated to a stimulus over a number of trials. The infant is then shown a second stimulus that differs from the first stimulus and the looking time is compared for the two stimuli. If the infant looks longer at the second stimulus this suggests that the infant can discriminate
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between the stimuli. Preferential looking has been used to investigate memory, visual attention, and numbering in infants [1].
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (1996). The intermodal preferential looking paradigm: A window onto emerging language comprehension. In D. McDaniel, C. McKee, & H. S. Cairn’s (Eds.), Methods for assessing children’s syntax (pp. 105–124). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Miller, D. (1972). Visual habituation in the human infant. Child Development, 43, 481–493. Rayner, K., & Pollatsek, A. (1992). Eye movements and scene perception. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 46(3), 342–376. Rayner, K., & Pollatsek, A. (1994). Psychology of reading. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Eye–Hand Coordination JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Definition Coordinating the eyes and hands together to accomplish a task.
Description Eye-hand coordination is important in many aspects of life. When children are babies coordinating their vision with hand movements ensures that they are able to pick up items. As children grow older their visual acuity directs their hands to draw, paint, catch a ball or put a puzzle together.
References HEALTH BOOK. . .
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F Fabry Syndrome ANTHONY P. ODLAND, WILEY MITTENBERG Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Alpha-galactosidase A deficiency; Anderson-Fabry syndrome; Angiokeratoma corporis diffusum; Ceramide trihexosidase deficiency; GLA deficiency; Hereditary dystopic lipidosis; OMIM 301500
Definition An X-linked disorder affecting multiple organ systems characterized by an enzymatic defect due to a reduction in the catabolism of compounds comprising galactosyl, resulting in a deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme a-galactosidase A. This deficiency leads to pathology in multiple organs.
Description This deficiency results in the altered metabolism and an accumulation of globotriaosylceramide and other neutral glycolipids in various tissues throughout the body such as the heart, peripheral, and central nervous systems leading to pathology in multiple organs. Fabry syndrome (FS) is an X-linked disorder that manifests in males as well as females. Although symptom presentation in females is variable, some females experience symptoms characteristic of their male carriers. Fabry syndrome was once thought to be asymptomatic in all females due to an unaffected X-chromosome; however, more recent research suggests that symptom presentation may be similar to males [14, 18, 20]). The prevalence of FS may range from 1 in 40,000 to 1 in every 117,000 births and is more prevalent in males [4, 21]. Diagnosis may be aided by measuring the presence of a-galactosidase A activity in plasma or peripheral leukocytes [2]. The accumulation and altered metabolism of globotriaosylceramide may be associated with neuropathic pain, dermatological symptoms, renal and cardiac signs and symptoms, hearing
loss and tinnitus, gastrointestinal problems, ophthalmic manifestations, and fatigue. Specific signs and symptoms may include, but are not limited to, severe left ventricular hypertrophy, acute pain attacks, acroparesthesia, diarrhea, heart palpitations and pain, various ocular disorders or difficulties such as clouding of the cornea, corneal dystrophy, cornea verticillata, cardiomyopathies, angiokeratoma, cerebrovascular accidents, lymphoedema, kidney disorders, hypohydrosis, proteinuria, respiratory problems, and other symptoms associated with central nervous system pathology [17, 18, 20, 28]. Neurologic complications may be evident in the central and peripheral nervous systems, manifested in areas such as cognitive impairment, autonomic dysfunction, and ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. As many as 68% of individuals with FS may have white and gray matter lesions, with increased involvement approaching older age. Magnetic resonance imaging has identified the presence of cerebrovascular involvement in patients by 26 years of age. Cerebrovascular involvement is likely to increase and to encompass almost all patients by 54 years of age, suggesting increased susceptibility to cerebrovascular accidents with increasing age [1]. Damage to dorsal root ganglia neurons and axonal degeneration of small fibers may be responsible for the pain attacks that are often experienced with FS [5, 11]. Without treatment the presence of FS is associated with an average decrease in life span by 15 and 20 years in females and males respectively [17, 18]. Overall health-related quality-of-life in individuals with FS is considerably lower than that of unaffected individuals [22]. Greater than 70% of patients experience pain in the hands and feet, as well as in other areas of the body. Symptomatic pain appears to be more prevalent in males than in females [9]. Pain, tingling, and numbness of the skin may be induced or exacerbated by external changes in temperature [8]. Sensitivity to changes in temperature may make exercise or physical activities laborious [16]. With increasing age there is likely to be more cerebral and renal involvement. Onset of cardiomyopathy in males is up to 10 years earlier than in females. However, most individuals will eventually develop left ventricular hypertrophy [12].
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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Delayed symptom onset and nonspecific symptomatology contributes to misdiagnosis and under diagnosis of FS [20, 31]. Echocardiography may be useful in differential diagnosis between FS cardiomyopathy and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by a distinctive appearance of left ventricular endocardial border [23]. Left ventricular hypertrophy may be differentiated by features such as acroparesthesia, hypertension, and hypohydrosis [10]. Onset in childhood of early adolescence is most common, but may extend as late as early adulthood, with symptom presentation varying both with age and gender [9]. However, misdiagnoses are common and an accurate diagnosis may not be established for a mean 13–16 or more years after the first symptom presentation [20]. Hearing loss may be insidious and can occur across all frequency ranges, with the sensory threshold increasing with age [28]. Until recently, treatment for FS has been mainly palliative in nature. Studies using enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) have demonstrated improved long-term well-being of individuals with FS. ERT reduces the accumulation of globotriaosylceramide, and attenuates pain associated with FS. ERT has been associated with improved pain-related quality of life [9, 29]. The use of ERT may improve cold and heat thresholds to pain, the frequency of diarrhea, and may alleviate hypohydrosis [7]. ERT may also improve cardiac and renal functioning by reducing globotriaosylceramide and other glycolipid deposit levels. Improved renal functioning may be sustainable with ERT due to reduced glycolipid deposits in renal vascular endothelial cells. ERT is proving to be efficacious for the treatment of FS; however, more research needs to investigate long-term treatment outcomes [29, 30].
Relevance to Childhood Development Unlike adults with FS, children do not typically experience major organ dysfunction; however, children may experience extremely distressing symptoms related to the syndrome’s insidious progression [27]. Symptom presentation in children may appear by 6 and 7 years of age in males and females respectively, but symptoms have been observed as early as the first 3 years of life [24, 25]. Children and adolescents commonly experience hypohydrosis, cornea verticillata, and acroparaesthesias secondary to FS. Acroparesthesia may be elicited by emotional stress, exercise, or fatigue and be present by as early as 3 years of age or younger. Pain often occurs in the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands, which radiates proximally. This pain can produce extreme discomfort and range in duration from days to weeks. Other features of acroparesthesia and painful crises may also be experienced in other areas
of the body such as the abdomen. Discomfort is likely due to small nerve fiber neuropathy, which may be misinterpreted as malingering due to its subtle nature [3]. As many as 67% of children with FS may experience vertigo, fatigue, and tinnitus. Gastrointestinal problems are common, and cardiac and renal complications are less present than the aforementioned signs and symptoms. These problems may be present in an attenuated form and develop with increasing age. Presentation in females is similar to males, but may be less frequent [28]. Cerebrovascular complications, such as those associated with increased risk of stroke, have been noted in patients as young as 6 years of age. Cerebrovascular, renal, and cardiovascular signs and symptoms tend to progress with age and increase one’s susceptibility to future complications and morbidity [15, 19, 24, 25]. Similarly, white matter lesions may be present in children with FS and are likely to increase in incidence with age [6]. Ophthalmological features may be present in as many as 60% of children with FS. In addition, children with FS may be prone to more behavioral problems, anxiety, and depression [24, 25]. Mild hearing problems may be present and are likely to exacerbate with increasing age [13]. Although specific dosages and long-term effects of ERT have not been entirely established some have suggested treatment as early as possible after the first symptoms present, barring other complications. Since pathology related to the metabolic dysfunction in FS commences at birth, it is efficacious to begin ERT as soon as possible. In young children ERTmay prevent the development of future disease processes [2]. Specifically, agalsidase alfa may be well tolerated in both male and female children, and improve manifestations of FS such as pain, heart rate variability, and hypohydrosis. Agalsidase alfa may also reduce the need for antineuropathic analgesics [24–26].
References 1. Crutchfield, K. E., Patronas, N. J., Dambrosia, J. M., Frei, K. P., Banerjee, T. K., Barton, N. W., et al. (1998). Quantitative analysis of cerebral vasculopathy in patients with Fabry disease. Neurology, 50(6), 1746–1749. 2. Desnick, R. J., Brady, R., Barranger, J., Collins, A. J., Germain, D. P., Goldman, M., et al. (2003). Fabry disease, an under-recognized multisystemic disorder: Expert recommendations for diagnosis, management, and enzyme replacement therapy. Annals of Internal Medicine, 138, 338–346. 3. Desnick, R. J., & Brady, R. O. (2004). Fabry disease in childhood. The Journal of Pediatrics, 144, S20–S26. 4. Desnick, R. J., Ioannou, Y. A., & Eng, C. M. (2001). Alphagalactosidase A deficiency: Fabry disease. In C. R. Scriver, A. L. Beaudet, W. S. Sly, & D. Valle (Eds.), The metabolic and molecular bases of inherited disease (8th ed., pp. 3733–3774). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Facial Identification 5. Gadoth, N., & Sandbank, U. (1983). Involvement of dorsal root ganglia in Fabry’s disease. Journal of Medical Genetics, 20, 309–312. 6. Ginsberg, L., Manara, R., Valentine, A. R., Kendall, B., & Burlina, A. P. (2006). Magnetic resonance imaging changes in Fabry disease. Acta Paediatrica, 451, 57–62. 7. Hilz, M. J., Brys, M., Marthol, H., Stemper, B., & Du¨tsch, M. (2004). Enzyme replacement therapy improves function of C-, Ad-, and Ab-nerve fibers in Fabry neuropathy. Neurology, 62, 1066–1072. 8. Hilz, M. J., Stemper, B., & Kolodny, E. H. (2000). Lower limb cold exposure induces pain and prolonged small fiber dysfunction in Fabry patients. Pain, 84, 361–365. 9. Hoffmann, B., Beck, M., Sunder-Plassmann, G., Borsini, W., Ricci, R., & Mehta, A. (2007). Nature and prevalence of pain in Fabry disease and its response to enzyme replacement therapy-a retrospective analysis from the Fabry outcome survey. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 23(6), 535–542. 10. Hoigne, P., Attenhofer Jost, C. H., Duru, F., Oechslin, E. N., Seifert, B., Widmer, U., et al. (2006). Simple criteria for differentiation of Fabry disease from amyloid heart disease and other causes of left ventricular hypertrophy. International Journal of Cardiology, 111, 413–422. 11. Kahn, P. (1973). Anderson-Fabry disease: A histopathological study of three cases with observations on the mechanism of production of pain. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 36, 1053– 1062. 12. Kampmann, C., Linhart, A., Baehner, F., Palecek, T., Wiethoff, C. M., Miebach, E., et al. (2008). Onset and progression of the AndersonFabry disease related cardiomyopathy. International Journal of Cardiology, 130, 367–373. 13. Keilman, A. (2003). Inner ear function in children with Fabry disease. Acta Paediatrica, 92(Suppl.), 31–32. 14. Laaksonen, S. M., Roytta, M., Jaaskelainen, S. K., Kantola, I., Penttinen, M., & Falck, B. (2008). Neuropathic symptoms and findings in women with Fabry disease. Clinical Neurophysiology, 119, 1365–1372. 15. Linhart, A., & Elliot, P. M. (2007). The heart in AndersonFabry disease and other lysosomal storage disorders. Heart, 93, 528–535. 16. MacDermot, J., & MacDermot, K. D. (2001). Neuropathic pain in Anderson-Fabry disease: Pathology and therapeutic options. European Journal of Pharmacology, 429, 121–125. 17. MacDermot, K. D., Holmes, A., & Miners, A. H. (2001a). AndersonFabry disease: Clinical manifestations and impact of disease in a cohort of 98 hemizygous males. Journal of Medical Genetics, 38(11), 750–760. 18. MacDermot, K. D., Holmes, A., & Miners, A. H. (2001b). AndersonFabry disease: Clinical manifestations and impact of disease in a cohort of 60 obligate carrier females. Journal of Medical Genetics, 38(11), 769–775. 19. Mehta, A., & Ginsberg, L. (2005). Natural history of the cerebrovascular complications of Fabry disease. Acta Paediatrica, 94(Suppl. 447), 24–27. 20. Mehta, A., Ricci, R., Widmer, U., Dehout, F., Garcia de Lorenzo, A., Kampmann, C., et al. (2004). Fabry disease defined: Baseline clinical manifestations of 366 patients in the Fabry outcome survey. European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 34, 236–242. 21. Meikle, P. J., Hopwood, J. J., Clague, A. E., & Carey, W. F. (1999). Prevalence of lysosomal storage disorders. JAMA, 281, 249–254. 22. Miners, A. H., Holmes, A., Sherr, L., Jenkinson, C., & MacDermot, K. D. (2002). Assessment of health-related quality-of-life in males in
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Anderson Fabry disease before therapeutic intervention. Quality of Life Research, 11, 127–133. Pieroni, M., Chimenti, C., Cobelli, F., Morgante, E., Maschio, A., Gaudio, C., et al. (2006). Fabry’s disease cardiomyopathy: Echocardiographic detection of endomyocardial glycosphingolipid compartmentalization. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 47(8), 1663–1671. Ramaswami, U., Wendt, S., Pintos-Morell, G., Parini, R., Whybra, C., Leon Leal, J. A., et al. (2006a). Enzyme replacement therapy with agalsidase alfa in children with Fabry disease. Acta Paediatrica, 96, 122–127. Ramaswami, U., Whybra, C., Parini, R., Pintos-Morell, G., Mehta, A., Sunder-Plassmann, G., et al. (2006b). Clinical manifestations of Fabry disease in children: Data from the Fabry outcome survey. Acta Paediatrica, 95, 86–92. Ries, M., Clarke, J. T. R., Whybra, C., Timmons, M., Robinson, C., Schlaggar, B. L., et al. (2006). Enzyme-replacement therapy with agalsidase alfa in children with Fabry disease. Pediatrics, 118, 924–932. Ries, M., Gupta, S., Moore, D. F., Sachdev, V., Quirk, J. M., Murray, G. J., et al. (2005). Pediatric Fabry disease. Pediatrics, 115(3), e344– e355. Ries, M., Kim, H. J., Zalewski, C. K., Mastroianni, M. A., Moore, D. F., Brady, R. O., et al. (2007). Neuropathic and cerebrovascular correlates of hearing loss in Fabry disease. Brain, 130, 143–150. Schiffmann, R., Kopp, J. B., Austin, H. A., Sabnis, S., Moore, D. F., Weibel, T., et al. (2001). Enzyme replacement therapy in Fabry disease: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA, 285, 2743–2749. Spinelli, L., Pisani, A., Sabbatini, M., Petretta, M., Andreucci, M. V., Procaccini, D., et al. (2004). Enzyme replacement therapy with agalsidase b improves cardiac involvement in Fabry’s disease. Clinical Genetics, 66, 158–165. Zarate, Y. A., & Hopkin, R. J. (2008). Lysosomal storage disease 3: Fabry’s disease. Lancet, 372, 1427–1435.
Face Blindness or Facial Agnosia ▶Prosopagnosia
Face Perception ▶Facial Recognition
Facial Identification ▶Facial Recognition
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Face perception; Facial identification
differences in faces from the basic template of their configuration. Research has shown that faces which deviate from that common configuration are more easily and accurately distinguished [1]. It has also been shown using computer programs which can detect certain deviations from the normal face and enhance those differences to create a caricature, that those images of enhanced differences are actually more accurately recognized than the true picture of the person’s face [1].
Definition
Relevance to Childhood Development
Facial recognition is the human ability to recognize a certain face from other faces.
As children prefer to orient to facial stimuli, it is important to notice if the developing child does not show a preference for faces. This is a sign of abnormal development and could indicate an autism spectrum disorder. Persons with an autistic disorder show impaired abilities to recognize faces.
Facial Recognition MARK PENNICK University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms
Description Face recognition is especially interesting because human faces are remarkably similar and yet most typical individuals show considerable accuracy in identifying individual faces. The parts of the face, such as the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, are very similar from one individual to another. Furthermore, the proportions and configuration of parts of the face are also very similar. Such minute differences in the physical appearance of faces and the fact that humans are able to make precise judgments about the identity of faces despite their similarities has spawned considerable investigation of facial recognition. It has long been known that infants as young as 4 months of age demonstrate a preference for human faces over other stimuli that are not configured as faces [2]. It has also been demonstrated in brain imaging studies that the human face elicits different neural pathways in the brain than non-face stimuli [4]. This research identified a brain area in the extrastriate cortex which has come to be known as the fusiform face area. Another group of researchers also used brain imaging technology to show that this same area is used by persons who are experts in identifying certain objects [3]. These studies have suggested that face recognition is a highly specialized human skill. Vicki Bruce and Andy Young have contributed significantly to our understanding of facial recognition. They assert that our ability to identify one face from the other is dependent on the configural and holistic perception of the face. This is supported by studies that show a 95% accuracy rating for identifying familiar faces when viewed upright, but only 50–60% accuracy when viewed upsidedown [1]. They also describe the Thatcher Effect to support the idea that configuration of facial features are paramount when recognizing faces. Another important aspect of facial recognition seems to be distinctive characteristics. There are subtle
References 1. 2. 3.
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Bruce, V., & Young, A. (1998). In the eye of the beholder: The science of face perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fantz, R. L. (1961). The origin of form perception. Scientific American, 204, 66–72. Gauthier, I., Tarr, M. J., Anderson, A. W., Skudlarski, P., & Gore, J. C. (1999). Activation of the middle fusiform ‘face area’ increases with expertise in recognizing novel objects. Neuroscience, 2(6), 568–573. Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997). The fusiform face area: A module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. The Journal of Neuroscience, 17(11), 4302–4311.
Factor IX Deficiency ▶Hemophilia
Factor VIII Deficiency ▶Hemophilia
Failing a Grade ▶Grade Retention
Failure to Thrive ▶Feeding Disorder
Failure to Thrive Syndrome
Failure to Thrive Syndrome MICAH S. BROSBE Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Growth faltering; Inadequate growth; Malnutrition; Protein-energy malnutrition; Undernutrition; Weight faltering
Definition Failure to thrive syndrome (FTT) is a condition in infants and young children in which they do not grow at expected rates. It can be a sign of a general medical condition or can have other biopsychosocial causes.
Description Failure to thrive is the term generally used to describe a syndrome in which an infant or child does not grow at a rate considered to be healthy. It is generally diagnosed based on size ratio, whether it is weight-for-height, weight-for-age, or height-for-age [7]. Weight-for-age is the most common ratio used to assess FTT. Weights are plotted according to age along a normal distribution curve, and neonates who fall below a certain cutoff score are considered to be failing to thrive. Professionals are not entirely unanimous in what this cutoff score should be, but most of the literature describes cutoff scores as below the third or fifth percentile [1, 7]. It is also important to distinguish between pre and postnatal failure to gain weight because they may have different etiologies and sequelae. Given the diagnostic definition of falling below cutoff scores on the normal distribution curve of a growth ratio, it is not surprising that overall lifetime prevalence rates are approximately 5% [8]. Neonates younger than two months have higher prevalence rates, approximately 12% for having a low height-for-age ratio and 4.1% for having a low weight-for-height ratio [8]. FTT is categorized based on the etiology of the insufficient caloric intake: organic (OFTT), nonorganic (NFTT), or of mixed etiology (MFTT; 1). Specific associated risks of undernutrition depend on the type of FTT. Children with OFTT or MFTT, for example, may be more likely to have a lower birth weight, and children with NFTT may be more likely to live in poverty and less likely to live with both parents [8]. If the etiology is organic, there could be any of a number of different causes, such
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as prenatal (e.g., toxin exposure, premature birth, congenital anomalies) or an ongoing general medical condition such as a gastrointestinal or central nervous system disturbance [7]. If there is no medical or physical reason for the growth delay, then the FTT is likely due to low food intake [1]. This is frequently the case, since research has shown a low rate of being able to identify a specific medical illness as the sole cause; in the majority of cases, the FTT had mixed etiologies. Some researchers have found that children with FTT tend to show less of an interest in food, to be somewhat pickier eaters, and to have been weaned later than controls [1, 9]. Inadequate intake may also be caused by feeding problems such as dysphagia, a condition in which children have difficulty with swallowing mechanisms and behaviors [4, 5]. Complications with breast feeding can lead to inadequate growth in infants as well [8]. Other factors that have been associated with FTT include attachment style, presence of abuse or neglect, poverty, and psychopathology and age of the mother [1, 9]. These are controversial, however, and are being debated in the scientific literature. OFTT or inadequate growth can be caused by any of a variety of factors. The condition may be due to the direct effects of a general medical condition such as heart disease, cystic fibrosis, a persistent infectious disease (e.g., AIDS), or endocrine abnormalities. It could also be due to prenatal exposure to drugs or toxins, or to inadequate food intake secondary to a general medical condition [1, 2, 8]. Gastrointestinal problems that lead specifically to FTT can be divided into two categories: inadequate intake (not eating enough) and excessive losses of nutrients (not absorbing or retaining; 5). Inadequate intake may be caused by pain or discomfort in the esophagus or stomach. Gastrointestinal reflux, or spitting up, is different from vomiting. It is common in healthy children and not usually a problem; if it happens too frequently, however, it can possibly cause malnutrition [4]. For excessive losses, the causes are generally vomiting, diarrhea, or malabsorption. Actual vomiting may be more serious than reflux since it is more likely to be associated with an illness that could lead to poor weight gain. Diarrhea can be a sign that nutrients are not being absorbed properly by the digestive tract, and if severe, can lead to poor weight gain in infants. An example of a disease that has these signs, including poor growth and weight gain, is celiac disease [4]. Some neurological disorders that can cause FTT and poor growth are ▶cerebral palsy (CP), tumors of the central nervous system, and myopathy [3]. These can cause a low birth weight and/or motor problems with
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Fairbairn’s Psychoanalytic Theory
feeding behaviors that lead to lower food intake [1, 3]. CP, for example, can cause problems swallowing. Prenatal exposure to teratogens such as alcohol and other drugs can lead to OFTT. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) can lead to a low birth weight, height, and head circumference [2]. When FAS is not present, the scientific literature on the effects of alcohol exposure on size, growth, and weight is inconsistent. Prenatal exposure to tobacco can cause lower size, weight, and growth rates in infants. Exposure of infants to second hand smoke can lead to growth faltering secondary to respiratory infections [2]. Prenatal exposure to cocaine often causes low birth weight. The literature concerning how well these infants can catch up to normal weights is inconsistent, however. Prenatal exposure to opiates (e.g., heroin) can lead to smaller sizes of infants [2]. Furthermore, when infants are born dependent on opiates, they can have withdrawal symptoms which include vomiting, diarrhea, and disturbances in feeding behaviors. Since FTT is a heterogeneous condition, it is essential to determine the cause when considering treatment options. Prognosis of OFTT depends on the response to treatment of the underlying condition, as well as the severity of the malnutrition and the number and severity of its causes [7]. Unless there is a specific and identifiable medical condition identified as the cause, interventions tend to focus on parent training for feeding behaviors. In addition to establishing a theory of etiology, it is important to take into account the age and cognitive development of the children when assessing and formulating a treatment plan. With hospitalization and multi-disciplinary interventions, including nutritional rehabilitation, there can be a good chance for rapid growth catch-up.
Relevance to Childhood Development FTT can be associated with serious outcomes and developmental sequelae if it is not treated. These include medical conditions, delays in psychomotor development, and cognitive deficits. It also may be associated with cardiovascular disease and other heart problems later in life [1, 8]. Nutritionally at-risk infants tend to have lower scores on a psychomotor development index [6]. There is also some evidence to suggest that malnourished children have a lower activity level and are less active, possibly to conserve energy. Not all studies have come to this conclusion, however. Low birth weight has been associated with poorer intellectual development and cognitive functioning, although studies differ with regard to the extent of this
effect [1, 6]. FTT has been moderately associated with lower IQ, even after controlling for birth weight and time of gestation. FTT has also been associated with more cognitive decline in old age. The strength of these associations has not been consistent, however. Malnutrition can also lead to a condition called microcephaly, in which the infant has a small head circumference, as well as cognitive impairments [3]. With regard to social emotional functioning, individuals who had FTT as infants did not demonstrate emotional problems in adolescence, but did in adulthood [1]. These effects were possibly mediated through IQ and their associated physical health conditions.
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Drewett, R. (2007). The nutritional psychology of childhood. New York: Cambridge University Press. Frank, D. A., & Wong, F. (1999). Effects of prenatal exposures to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. In D. B. Kessler & P. Dawson (Eds.), Failure to thrive and pediatric undernutrition: A transdisciplinary approach (pp. 275–280). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Goldson, E. (1999). Neurological and genetic disorders. In D. B. Kessler & P. Dawson (Eds.), Failure to thrive and pediatric undernutrition: A transdisciplinary approach (pp. 245–253). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Krebs, N. F. (1999). Gastrointestinal problems and disorders. In D. B. Kessler & P. Dawson (Eds.), Failure to thrive and pediatric undernutrition: A transdisciplinary approach (pp. 215–225). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Lachenmeyer, J. R. (1998). Parent training for failure to thrive. In J. M. Briesmeister & C. E. Schaefer (Eds.), Handbook of parent training: Parents as co-therapists for children’s behavior problems (2nd ed., pp. 261–280). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Metallinos-Katsaras, E., & Gorman, K. S. (1999). Effects of undernutrition on growth and development. In D. B. Kessler & P. Dawson (Eds.), Failure to thrive and pediatric undernutrition: A transdisciplinary approach (pp. 37–63). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Peterson, K. E. (1993). Failure to thrive. In P. M. Queen & C. E. Lang (Eds.), Handbook of Pediatric Nutrition (pp. 366–383). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers. Sherry, B. (1999). Epidemiology of inadequate growth. In D. B. Kessler & P. Dawson (Eds.), Failure to thrive and pediatric undernutrition: A transdisciplinary approach (pp. 19–36). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Wright, C., & Birks, E. (2000). Risk factors for failure to thrive: A population-based survey. Child: Care, Health, and Development, 26(1), 5–16.
Fairbairn’s Psychoanalytic Theory ▶Object Relations Theory
False Belief Task
False Belief Task DOUGLAS K. SYMONS Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Appearance-reality task; Emotion false belief; Maxi task; Sally-Ann task; Theory of mind task; Unintended transfer task
Definition A false belief task is commonly used in child development research to assess social understanding or theory of mind. A wide variety of these have been developed using common play materials and story themes that children feel comfortable with. Their common goal is to determine whether children can distinguish between the thoughts and feelings they themselves currently have with those that can be possibly held by others.
Description False belief tasks have become widely known and used in child development research [2, 4], although there are many different versions of these tasks. They all have the common feature of creating a situation in which a child is led to believe something about a current set of circumstances, but this belief is different from a belief that should/could be held by others. There are various techniques used to deliver false belief tasks and many have formal scripts associated with them. Many involve the use of household items and toys as props for the task, and most recently, some of these tasks have been converted to a series of pictures so they can be delivered on a computer or without oral scripts or test questions. Typically there are a number of control questions that children are asked, in addition to the essential test question for false belief, and performance is judged on a pass/fail basis from the answers to these questions. Two common and well-known false belief tasks will be described to show how they work. The first is the “Smarties task” [5], in which a child is shown a closed box of Smarties, the box is rattled to generate interest, and the child is asked what they think is in the box. Children typically answer with the obvious, Smarties. But then the box is emptied out into the experimenter’s hand and it turns out to be rocks in the box. This is surprising to the child as the actual contents of the Smartie box are unexpected. The rocks are then returned to the box, and the
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child is then asked a number of test questions. These include what they think another child new to the scene would think is in the box when the other child first sees the box. In order to answer the question correctly (i.e., that the other child should think it is Smarties), the child participant needs to separate what they know is really in the box (rocks) from the false belief the new child should have (that the box contains Smarties). A whole series of these kinds of tasks have been developed in which a brick turns out to be a sponge that looks like a rock, an apple turns out to be a candle, an egg-carton contains forks and not eggs, and a pen turns out to be a flashlight. The common feature of these kinds of tasks is that an object is not what it appears to be or contain what it should contain, the deception is revealed, and the child is asked what another child would initially think. A second kind of task is called the Maxi-task, aka unintended transfer task. This kind of false belief task involves a script often acted out with props in which Maxi is playing with an object of some kind, puts it in a hidden place, and then has some reason to leave the situation. While Maxi is gone, a foil enters the room and moves the object from one location to another hidden location, all in the full view of the participant child but not Maxi. The foil leaves, Maxi returns, and the test questions revolve around where Maxi should look for his toy. The participant passes the task by answering that Maxi should look in the original location and not the new one, but to do so, children must separate what they know to be true (i.e., the object is in location 2) to what Maxi should know (the object should be in location 1 because that is where he left it and he was gone when the foil moved the object). If they make this distinction, then participants are said to have an understanding of the “self ” as a mental agent whose thoughts and feelings can either change over time or can be different from those of an “other.” Various versions of false belief tasks exist in which all kinds of objects and toys are relocated, the identity of the foil changes (e.g., monkey, clown), and Maxi is given a name more appropriate to the country where the research is conducted (e.g., Sally-Ann). Figure 1 shows the kinds of materials that could be used in conjunction with this kind of script [13]. Typically a whole series of false belief tasks are administered in what is often called a theory of mind battery, but this varies considerably from as few as one or two, to as many as a dozen or more. Tasks must differ from one another within a battery as many require the participant to be deceived. Each is scored on a pass/fail basis where chance performance is 0.50 (i.e., random response). Typically a false belief score is the average level of performance across these tasks [6].
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False Belief Task
False Belief Task. Fig. 1
Relevance to Childhood Development Initial use of false belief tasks took place in theory of mind research on children’s cognitive development. This research sought to determine when tasks were passed in an above-chance way, and this was seen as a developmental milestone that indicated a child had transitioned to a higher level of social understanding and “had” a theory of mind that allowed them to distinguish between thoughts of self and those of another. There is variability in when this occurs across studies and cultures, but typically this is around 5 years of age [15]. However, there is considerable variability in when children pass false belief tasks, and research has evolved from examining when children typically pass tasks to treating their performance as an individual difference variable. In other words, different children begin to pass tasks at different ages, and performance can be calculated and then related to other aspects of child development in longitudinal or correlational research. For example, there are a number of other cognitive factors that develop significantly around age five associated with passing false belief tasks, including the executive functions of attention, memory, and inhibitory control [10]. Some of this research has attempted to vary aspects of the false belief task to isolate specific cognitive factors that could affect performance. In addition, research has focused on experiential factors that are related to passing false belief tasks [8, 9]. Cognitive development in childhood occurs within family, peer, and school social environments, and it is important to consider social factors that relate to passing false belief tasks. Much of this research has focused on talking about thoughts and feelings, which has also been referred to as
discourse about mental states, inner state talk, and beliefdesire talk [12]. Some of this research has shown that mental state discourse predicts false belief task performance, and thus may contribute to the development of social understanding. Other research has focused on family factors including whether children have older siblings, what kind of disciplinary strategies are used in the home, what kind of language is used when interacting with children in common tasks like play and joint-reading, and cultural factors [14]. Parental factors have also been considered, such as whether a parent tend to describe their child in terms of mental states, that is, in a mind-minded fashion. There have also been a number of training studies in which children who have failed false belief tasks have been exposed to social discourse about competing beliefs and desires, and these children do better on false belief tasks compared to children who receive other kinds of training [7, 11]. There is thus considerable evidence that social talk about thoughts and feelings is related both longitudinally, cross-sectionally, and experimentally to children passing false belief tasks. Language development more generally has been examined as a factor in false belief task performance. Because language development can be used as an estimate of general developmental level, many studies use a measure of receptive language as a control variable in their analyses. Other research has focused on the grammatical structure of language [2], and how children’s development in this area is related to performance and comprehension of false belief tasks. Parental language which is sensitive to and elaborative of children’s own language is related to children’s social understanding. A final area of use of false belief tasks is in studies of children with atypical development. This is most wellknown in the area of autism [1] due to the serious social deficits and poor false belief performance of children in this clinical group. However, there have been many studies of children with other clinical problems of attention, behavior, and conduct, and false belief performance is also poorer in these children than typically developing children. Because false belief tasks are designed to test social understanding in young children, they are useful for either clinical problems that arise at this age or with older children whose developmental level is at this age. The false belief task is a tool that has become synonymous with what it is designed to study, that is, theory of mind and social understanding. Because research has spanned all areas of child development and been used with clinical samples, it has been used widely over the past 25 years in both basic and applied research.
Family Drawing
References 1. Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/MIT Press. 2. de Villiers, J., & de Villers, P. (2000). Linguistic determinism and understanding of false beliefs. In P. Mitchell & K. J. Riggs (Eds.), Children’s reasoning and the mind (pp. 191–228). Hove: Psychology Press. 3. Dunn, J. (2000). Mind-reading, emotion understanding, and relationships. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 142–144. 4. Flavell, J. H. (2000). Development of children’s knowledge about the mental world. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 15–23. 5. Gopnik, A., & Astington, J. W. (1988). Children’s understanding of representational change and its relation to the understanding of false belief and the appearance-reality distinction. Child Development, 59, 26–37. 6. Hughes, C., Adlam, A., Happe, F., Jackson, J., Taylor, A., & Caspi, A. (2000). Good test-retest reliability for standard and advanced falsebelief tasks across a wide range of abilities. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 41, 483–490. 7. Lohmann, H., & Tomasello, M. (2003). The role of language in the development of false belief understanding: A training study. Child Development, 74, 1130–1144. 8. Meins, E. (1997). Security of attachment and the development of social cognition. Hove: Psychology Press. 9. Nelson, K., Plesa Skwerer, D., Goldman, S., Henseler, S., Presler, N., & Walkenfeld, F. (2003). Entering a community of minds: An experiential approach to theory of mind. Human Development, 46, 24–46. 10. Perner, J., & Lang, B. (1999). Development of theory of mind and executive control. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 337–344. 11. Slaughter, V., & Gopnik, A. (1996). Conceptual coherence in the child’s theory of mind: Training children to understand belief. Child Development, 67, 2967–2988. 12. Symons, D. (2004). Mental state discourse and theory of mind: Internalisation of self – other understanding within a social – cognitive framework. Developmental Review, 24, 159–188. 13. Symons, D. K., McLaughlin, E., Moore, C., & Morine, S. (1997). Integrating relationship constructs and emotional experience into false belief tasks in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 67, 423–447. 14. Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 15. Wellman, H. M., Cross, D., & Watson, J. (2001). Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief. Child Development, 72, 655–684.
Falter ▶Stuttering
Family Constellation ▶Birth Order
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Family Dissolution ▶Divorce-Stress-Adjustment Perspective
Family Drawing REBEKAH R. PENDER San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Family drawing global rating scales; Kinetic family drawing
Definition Family Drawing is a widely used test in psychodiagnostic assessment that allows the clinician gain some understanding and awareness into the child’s perception of itself; the child’s perception of its parents; and “some indicators of the development of its mental organization” [1]. The family drawing is considered an optional tool for the investigation of the child’s mental representation of attachment to the parents synchronized with the developmental psychology concepts [1].
Description The family drawing “projects the image of the family as perceived by the child in its growth” [1]. The family drawing also provides insight into the child’s “fantasies that combine the child’s subjective life experiences and their meetings with the objective outside world [1].” There are several ways to analyze children’s family drawings. One of the most widely used projective drawing techniques is the Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD) devised by Burns and Kaufman in 1970 [2]. The Kinetic Family Drawing involves the therapist asking the test taker, usually a child, to draw a picture of his or her entire family [3]. With the Kinetic Family Drawing, children are asked to draw a picture of their family, including themselves, engaged in some activity [3]. The purpose of “this picture is meant to elicit the child’s attitudes toward his or her family and the overall family dynamics” [3]. “The examiner may then ask the child questions about the drawing, such as what is happening and who is in the picture. Certain characteristics of the drawing are noted upon analysis, such as the placement of family members; the absence of any members; whether the figures are relatively consistent with reality or altered by the child; the absence
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of particular body parts; erasures; elevated figures; and so on.” Another popular method less concerned with the placement or absence of figures is the Family Drawing Global Rating Scales [4]. The FDGRS is a set of eight scales with an assigned numerical rating for the overall pattern of drawing features [4]. These scales rate “the emotional tone and quality of the mother–child relationship portrayed in family drawings” [4]. The dimensions of the FDGRS are “two positive dimensions, vitality/creativity, family pride/ happiness, and six negative dimensions, vulnerability, emotional distance/isolation, tension/anger, role-reversal, bizarreness/dissociation, and global pathology” [4].
Relevance to Childhood Development The non-verbal nature of the family drawing allows the child a safe outlet to express those feelings he/she may not otherwise be able to express verbally, including those aspects of mental representations the child is not aware of on a conscious level [4].
Family Systems Theory ▶Systems Theory
Family Therapist BERNADETTE HASSAN SOLO´RZANO Our Lady of the Lake University Community Counseling Service, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Bowenians; Collaborative; Dyadic therapist; Milan therapist; Social constructionist; Social system; Strategist; Structuralist; Systems therapist; Triadic; Triangular
Definition References 1.
2.
3. 4.
Piperno, F., Di Biasi, S., & Levi, G. (2007). Evaluation of family drawings of physically and sexually abused children. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 16, 389–397. Burns, R. C., & Kaufman, S. H. (1970). Kinetic Family Drawings (K-FD): An introduction to understanding children through kinetic drawings. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Kinetic family drawing. (2008). Retrieved on January 3, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_family_drawing. Leon, K., Wallace, T., & Rudy, D. (2007). Representations of parentchild alliances in children’s family drawings. Social Development, 16(3), 440–459.
Family Drawing Global Rating Scales ▶Family Drawing
Family Relationships ▶Relationships
Family Structure ▶Baumrind’s Parenting Styles ▶Parenting Styles
A family therapist is a clinician who has received extensive training in working systemically with a group of individuals who live in an interdependent relationship with one another. The definition of family is open to many different interpretations in today’s world.
Description The family therapist assists families with improving communications, parent and child interactions and resolve challenges families confront including traumas, illnesses and normal developmental changes. Family membership normally remains intact even beyond the time the family lives together as a unit. Family therapist is a protected title and can only be used by those individuals who are certified by a marriage and family licensing board. Family therapists usually conduct evaluations and interviews with the entire family and any extended members who wish to work on the family’s identified problem. Family therapists are trained to work systemically and incorporate all aspects – developmental, cultural, socioeconomic, health, community, gender – which impact the family. Family therapists must also be clear about ethical challenges when working with more than one individual at a time. There are many different approaches utilized by family therapists. Among the most well known are the object relations therapists, experiential family therapists, Bowenians, structuralists, strategists, Milan therapists, solution focused therapists, narrative therapists and feminist family therapists. Different theories of change focus on different aspects. All family therapists focus on the interactional component of the system. Some models
Family Therapy
focus on the insight-action dichotomy while others say change comes when the cognitions change, while others collaborate with the system to find new solutions. Family therapists may work alone or with a team of therapists who will provide reflections to the family in helping them to introduce new perspectives which may lead to change. Many family therapists also believe that small change leads to big change and thus brief therapy approaches are successful in helping families reach their goals. All family therapists concentrate on helping the clients to see they have choices to handle their situations differently and reintroduce hope to the family. Family therapists may work as a part of crisis intervention, brief or long term. There is also outcome evidence being collected to show the utilization of single session, walk in therapy is a powerful way for family therapist to assist families.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy: www.aamft. org Becvar, D. S., & Becvar, R. J. (2008). Family therapy: A systemic integration (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Goldenberg, H., & Goldenberg, I. (2004). Family therapy: An overview. New York: Brook/Cole. Hoffman, L. (2002). Family therapy: An intimate history. New York: Norton. Miller, J. K., & Slive, A. B. (2004). Breaking down the barriers to clinical service delivery: The process and outcome of walk-in family therapy. Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy, 30(1), 95–103.
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Institute [1] studying communication patterns among schizophrenic and their families and with Bowen [2], in a more clinically oriented setting treating schizophrenic patients within the family group. Distinct schools of family therapy have evolved over time (see below), but most share the common aspects of therapists taking an active and sometime directive approach, maintaining a focus on the present, and the premise that all family members somehow play a role in the family dysfunction. The most influential models of family therapy are described below:
Family Systems Therapy Bowen’s [2] theory focuses on the degree of “differentiation” an individual is able to achieve from the family if origin and how t related to emotional and intellectual systems, which may become “used” if the person has difficulty differentiating themselves. Bowen used the term “triangles” to describe how individuals within a family system may deal with anxiety by members “fusing” together to exclude another. Birth order and transgenerational issues are considered important to understand the individual’s relationship tendencies. Therapy focuses on gaining insight through interacting in different ways with family of origin members to improve differentiation and “detriangulate.”
Strategic Family Therapy
Family Therapy ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms
Proposed primarily by Haley [3], strategic approaches to family therapy center around the family’s protective and dysfunctional interaction patterns that serve to hold the family together. Therapists provide directive and sometime provocative tasks to challenge the existing patterns and effect change. A family’s insight into their difficulties is not considered important and is not a goal of therapy.
Conjoint therapy
Structural Family Therapy
Definition Family therapy is the application of therapeutic techniques and theories to the family as client or patient. Family in this instance can be defined as any number of biologically or otherwise related (e.g., by marriage) individuals, including multi-generational relationships, who may or may not reside together.
Description Early work in family therapy in the 1950s centered on the work of Bateson and his colleagues at the Mental Research
Developed by Minuchin [5], the Structural approach focuses on bringing family interactional patterns into the session to allow the therapist opportunities to influence boundaries difficulties between family subsystems and thereby improve problem solving among family members. He uses terms such as “enmeshment” and “disengagement” to describe aspects of family structure that relate to boundaries and the connection or lack of connection among family members. Minuchin stressed the need for the therapist to “join” the family to help unbalance the dysfunctional system.
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Fantasy Play
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bateson, G., Jackson, D. D., Haley, J., & Weakland, J. H. (1956). Toward a theory of schizophrenia. Behavioral Science, 1, 251–264. Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: Jason Aronson. Haley, J. (1991). Problem solving therapy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hoffman, L. (1981). Foundations of family therapy. New York: Basic Books. Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
others. Together, children practice planning and negotiating how objects, people, and actions function in their make-believe world. This type of play also allows children to engage in affective role taking, which is necessary for their emotional development [2].
References 1.
2.
Fantasy Play NAYLA DAOU Nova Southeastern University, Nova Southeastern, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
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Synonyms
FAS
Dramatic play; Make-believe play; Pretend play
Definition
Ahn, J., & Filipenko, M. (2007). Narrative, imaginary play, art, and self: Intersecting worlds. Early Childhood Education Journal, 34, 279–289. Gayler, K. T., & Evans, I. M. (2001). Pretend play and the development of emotion regulation in preschool children. Early Childhood Development and Care, 166, 93–108. Russ, S. W., Robins, A. L., & Christiano, B. A. (1999). Pretend play: longitudinal prediction of creativity and affects in fantasy in children. Creativity Research Journal, 12, 129–139. Singer, D. G., & Singer, J. L. (1992). The house of make-believe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
▶Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Fantasy play is a type of non-realistic play in which children take on different roles and enact various situations.
Fascia
Description Fantasy play is nonliteral, meaning it is not realistic. It involves pretense and symbolism and greatly evokes a child’s imaginative capacity [3]. In this type of play, children take on different roles and are able to examine and understand various types of interpersonal interactions and social situations. Children may perform activities without the materials and the social context necessary for such activities in reality. Children may also create their own outcomes to the activity they are pretending to perform and may use inanimate objects as animate beings.
Relevance to Childhood Development Engaging in fantasy play has many benefits for the developing child. This type of play improves the child’s understanding of the world, contributes to the development of social understanding, improves emotional development, and exercises imaginative capacity. While engaging in fantasy play, children develop their own narratives and listen to other children’s narratives [1]. Through these narratives, they can make sense of the world and learn to guide their behaviors within different social roles. Children take on characters and explore different perspectives for themselves. Through their generated stories, children also learn to negotiate and see themselves in relation to
ARTHUR E. HERNANDEZ Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Definition A sheet or band of connective tissue which binds or covers soft structures of the body such as muscles or organs.
Description Fascia is a sheet of tissue often white and fibrous which acts as a connector, binder or cover for various internal organs and muscles. It is composed of a superficial and a deep layer and is responsible for structural integrity connecting the skin to the structures and organs underneath, serving as a suspension mechanism for internal organs capable of contraction and relaxation. Aponeurosis is generally a type which connects muscle to bone and resemble.
References 1.
A layman friendly reference is Webster’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary. (1993). New York: Black Dog and Leventhal. (ISBN: 0-9637056-0-1).
Fathers
Fatal Illness ▶Terminal Illness
Father Only Families ▶Single Parent Families
Fathers BADY QUINTAR Nova Southeastern University (CPS), Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA Literature concerning children’s emotional attachment and emotional development has dealt primarily with the mother–infant interactions. Indeed, prior to the 1970s research centering about the contributions of fathers to the psychosocial growth and development of infants has been rather limited. According to Gill [3], studies have reported that both father’s presence and absence can have serious affects on the personality development of a child. In our culture infants form more intense attachments to primary caregivers (usually mothers) and slightly less intense attachments to secondary caregivers (often fathers). Such differential reactions displayed by infants is understandable given that soon after birth the infant’s basic needs for feeding, physical comfort, touching, changing diapers, and other related activities are performed primarily by mothers. It may also be argued that infants are attached more to their mothers because of the role and expectation that society has assigned to them. What then are the roles of fathers? What does the phrase “to father a child” mean? Does it refer only to the act of insemination but not to the responsibility for raising a child? Is the father’s role limited to the sole biological contribution of the moment of conception? Do these questions suggest that what fathers contribute to their offspring after conception is largely a matter of cultural devising and definition? At this point, it may be helpful to make a distinction between two related concepts; namely father and fatherhood. The term father tends to emphasize the biological connection between the progenitor and his offspring, while the concept of fatherhood stresses the
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socio-cultural and psychological obligation that men have to their biological offsprings. At times, we observe a harmonious synergism between these two concepts, and when that happens, positive outcome invariably occurs. When a disjunction or a gap between father and fatherhood takes place, the risk of deleterious effect increases considerably. Psychoanalytic Object Relations theories are inclined to state that when a father dies, his fatherhood lives on, as a mental representation, in the child’s psyche. However, when the father deserts the family his fatherhood leaves with him and the child will be unfathered. Indeed, when a father dies, children grieve and mourn the loss, but when the father abandons the children, they feel anger, anxiety, resentment, guilt, and self-blame. Richard Gill’s book Posterity Lost (1997), a welldocument scholarly written document underscores the idea that the current structure of the American family life is deteriorating. The rapid rate of divorce, increasing domestic violence and child abuse, early teenage pregnancies, juvenile crimes, drugs, antisocial behavior, suicide, and poor attendance and increasing failures in schools are highly symptomatic of the breakdown observed in our current family life. At the core of this crisis in family life seems to be the roles and functions of fathers. The presence of fathers at home seems to serve as an important stabilizing factor. Gill [3], adds that the explosion of crime and violence among children and teenagers in recent years, is most attributed to the absence of a father in the household. He adds, “Fully 70% of all prison and reform school inmates come from fatherless homes. This is a dramatic finding that underlies the critical importance of a caring and competent father to serve both as a role model and disciplinarian during the often wild teenage years, particularly for young males” (p. 41). Hrdy [5], states, “No matter how Apollo-like the progenitor, how skilled a hunter, how good his genes, how viable his immune system, his absence puts his children at a disadvantage” (p. 235). She adds that in fatherless families one sees higher rates of delinquency for boys and early pregnancies for girls. Gill [3], in reflecting over current American families, suggests that fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation and that it is the engine driving our most urgent social problems. Despite the deleterious effects of fatherlessness in our society, it is a problem which is minimized, ignored, or denied. According to Blankenhorn [1], in 1990, 36.3% of American children were living apart from their biological fathers. . . Scholars estimate that before they reach age eighteen, more than half of all children in the nation will live apart from their fathers for at least a significant portion of their childhood (p. 18–19).
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Fatness
Relevance to Childhood Development Regardless of the changing economic and social condition and guided by the desire to stamp out the erosion of fatherlessness, it is incumbent on all of us to take all necessary measures to put an end to such a serious social problem. Efforts should be made to help growing children realize that both parents have equal responsibility in raising them to be trustworthy, honest, and responsible children. Parents should realize that children try to emulate their parents’ behavior and that when parents act in a mature, responsible, and a respectful manner children will try to model their behaviors after them. Grinker et al [4], in outlining a cluster of conditions he associates with mental health listed the followings: “satisfactory positive affectionate relationships with both parents, parental agreement and cooperation in child raising, definite and known limitations and boundaries placed on behavior, and strong identification with father and father figures” (p.146). Thus, rather than conveying the idea that fathers are breadwinners and disciplinarian, children should be help to view fathers and their presence in the family as crucial socializing agents who compliment the various maternal functions. Fathers, realizing that in the last few decades have gradually moved from the center to the periphery of family life, must by their actions and behaviors try to reclaim their original position, that of being central to family life. In his very moving statement, Blankenhorn [1], stated, “I pledge to live my life according to the principle that every child deserves a father; that marriage is the pathway to effective fatherhood; that part of being a good man means being a good father; and that America need more good men (p.226).”
FBA ▶Functional Behavioral Assessment
Fear ▶Anxiety
Fear of Strangers ▶Stranger Anxiety
Fecal Soiling ▶Encopresis
Feeding ▶Breastfeeding
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6.
Blankenhorn, D. (1995). Fatherless America: Confronting our most urgent social problems. New York: Basic Books. Dworetzky, J. (1981). Introduction to child development. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company. Gill, R. (1997). Posterity Lost. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Grinker, R. R., Sr. Grinker, R., Jr., & Timberlake. (1962). A study of “mentally healthy” young males (homoclites). A.M.A. Archives of General Psychiatry, 6(6), 146. Hrdy, S. B. (1999). Mother nature. New York, NY: The Ballutine Publishing Group. Offer, D., & Sabshin, M. (1966). Normality. Basic Book, Inc: New York, NY.
Feeding Disorder JESSICA SPARLING, IVY CHONG Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
Synonyms Failure to thrive; Food refusal/selectivity
Definition A feeding disorder is a disorder in which food intake is insufficient to maintain health.
Fatness ▶Obesity
Description A feeding disorder is diagnosed when the amount of food consumed or caloric intake is insufficient to maintain
Feingold Diet
appropriate weight or growth [1]. While the exact etiology, prevalence, and change due to maturation is relatively unknown, various social and biological factors appear to be involved. Feeding disorders tend to be categorized as structural abnormalities affecting ability to eat, neurological or developmental disorders affecting ability to eat, or as behavioral feeding disorders [2]. Feeding disorders are not specific to one population, however, are more prevalent in the developmentally disabled, and may pose a variety of health risks [7]. A variety or problematic behaviors may be associated with feeding disorders, such as vomiting, rumination, gagging, expulsion, negative affect, and tantrums. Often the first course of treatment is a medical approach, however, behavioral interventions have been shown to be effective [3, 5, 6].
References
Relevance to Childhood Development
4.
Feeding disorders are reportedly one of the most common disorders of childhood, and affect an estimated 25–35% of typically developing children, and 33–80% of children with developmental delays [4]. Evaluation for a feeding disorder often occurs when a child is developmentally delayed, presents with neurological or physical problems or defects, or behavioral issues. Causes may be due to medical disorders such as gastroesophageal reflux, disorders causing malabsorption of food, lactose intolerance, celiac disease, disorders causing persistent vomiting or diarrhea, and cystic fibrosis. Abnormalities affecting ability to swallow or delayed or insufficient oral motor skills may also contribute to the development of a feeding disorder. Social and environmental factors have also been identified, such as conditions unfavorable for eating, inadequate consequences for inappropriate or appropriate eating, parental beliefs regarding nutrition, maternal depression, and social isolation. Children diagnosed with a feeding disorder are at risk for a variety of health risks, such as malnutrition, lethargy, delayed growth, significant weight loss, failure to gain weight, developmental delays, and cognitive delays. Feeding disorders are often reported to cause parental stress, and are often associated with disrupted or difficult mealtimes. Further, feeding disorders may be linked to an increased risk of eating disorders later in life. Treatment is oftentimes medical, and involves force feeding, intravenous feeding, and tube feedings such as gastrostomy, oral-gastric, or naso-gastric tubes. Such treatments often serve as stabilizing procedures when lifethreatening risk of dehydration or malnutrition occurs. Behavioral treatment is also often effective, and may include components such as prompts to eat, punishment, extinction procedures, and differential reinforcement [5].
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Procedures such as manipulating the texture or portion of meals have been demonstrated to be effective in treating feeding disorders. While some issues related to feeding disorders tend to persist, behavioral interventions have shown success in increasing food intake in children with feeding disorders.
1. 2.
3.
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6.
7.
Bernard-Bonnin, A.-C. (2006). Feeding problems of infants and toddlers. Canadian Family Physician, 52, 1247–1251. Burklow, K. A., Phelps, A. N., Schultz, J. R., McConnell, K., & Rudolph, C. (1998). Classifying complex feeding disorders. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 27(2), 143–147. Cooper, L. J., Wacker, D. P., McComas, J. J., Brown, K., Peck, S. M., Richman, D., et al. (1984). Use of component analysis to identify active variables in treatment packages for children with feeding disorders. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 28(2), 139–153. Manikam, R., & Perman, J. A. (2000). Pediatric feeding disorders. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 30, 34–46. Piazza, C. C., Patel, M. R., Gulotta, C. S., Sevin, B. M., & Layer, S. A. (2003). On the relative contributions of positive reinforcement and escape extinction in the treatment of food refusal. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 36(3), 309–324. Riordan, M. M., Iwata, B. A., Finney, J. W., Wohl, M. K., & Stanley, A. E. (1984). Behavioral assessment and treatment of chronic food refusal in handicapped children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 17(3), 327–344. Werle, M. A., Murphy, T. B., & Budd, K. S. (1993). Treating chronic food refusal in young children: home-based parent training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26, 421–433.
Feelings ▶Affect
Feingold Diet JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Definition Feingold diet a controversial diet for hyperactive children which excludes artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives, and salicylates. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Fein gold+diet
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Description This diet requires the removal of any additives or chemicals thought to be the source of ADD or ADHD. Any type of artificial coloring is eliminated because it is derived from petroleum by-products and this is thought to cause hyperactivity. Thus, any food containing an artificial coloring is removed from the diet. In addition, any food containing artificial flavoring is removed from the diet. The Feingold Association is concerned that these additives may not have had the thorough study of the effects on the behavior of children. Of particular concern is the flavoring vanilla. This flavor is frequently made from the by-products of paper production. Further, Aspartame, the artificial sweetener, is also eliminated from the diet. No artificial preservatives are allowed in the diet when following the Feingold Diet. This includes BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole) and BHT (Butylated Hydroxtoluene). Both of them are derivatives of petroleum. Initially numerous salicylates are removed from the diet but are reintroduced later. Some salicylates occur naturally such as apples, berries, grapes, oranges, peaches, plums, tangerines, and tomatoes. The diet is divided into two stages. The first stage includes the removal of all foods thought to cause the disorders. Next, each food is added back into the diet, one food at a time to help determine if it causes the symptoms. This diet can be very difficult to follow and very time consuming. Sleep disturbances and constipation may occur. Therefore, it is recommended that before a child is put on the Feingold Diet their physician or pediatrician is contacted. In addition, The Feingold Association of the United States has an in-depth website concerning this diet. This association offers a free e-newsletter, materials as well as numerous resources pertaining to the diet. http://wellness.diet.com/encyclopedia-of-diets/dr-fein gold-diet
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Hershey, J. (1996). Why can’t my child behave? Alexandria: Pear Tree. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Feingold+diet http://wellness.diet.com/encyclopedia-of-diets/dr-feingold-diet http://www.feingold.org/ Willis, A. P. (Ed.). (2007). Diet therapy research trends. New York: Nova Science.
Female ▶Femininity
Female Gamete ▶Ovum
Female Germ Cell ▶Ovum
Femaleness ▶Femininity
Feminine ▶Femininity
Femininity ASHLEA SMITH Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Synonyms Effeminate; Effete; Female; Femaleness; Feminine; Fertile; Girlhood; Girly; Maternal; Womanhood; Womanly
Definition To possess a trait or characteristic that has been associated with the totality of being female or womanlike; most often influenced by socio-cultural norms and expectations.
Description The term femininity encompasses what people perceive as how to look, act, think, and feel to be considered or labeled female. These labels or as some may say constraints dictate how one achieves these feminine ideals set forth by our society, media, culture, and familial factors. Nakash et al. [2] defined femininity as a “concern for others and on connectedness, with attributes such as gentleness,
Femininity
submissiveness, dependency, and emotionality” being the primary focus of those identifying with the female gender (p. 4). The term takes on a more specific meaning then just the physicality of a female body, but defines personality traits and ways of relating to others for young girls and women to successfully subscribe to feminine ideologies. Typically, we associate femininity with females of all ages as a group. The perceived primary indicator of whether or not one is feminine relates to one’s sex. However, this way of acting female can go beyond the general scope of gender in that males can also adopt feminine traits and ways of being just as females adopt masculine traits. This belief stems from the biological roots in that males need the hormone estrogen and females need the hormone testosterone as survival mechanisms. Additionally, the media and social influences have even created a name for men who incorporate these feminine traits into their masculinity as “metrosexual.” Societal pressures and cultural demands most commonly illustrated in different forms of media can dictate how young women should embody these set of expectations to fit the mold of what it means to be a feminine girl or woman. From the moment that a child’s sex has been announced as, “It’s a girl!” the female roles and expectations begin to form from the abundance of pink-colored outfits to the sense of being more sensitive and fragile than their male counterparts. Young girls are even taught the correct expression of emotions or the socially accepted toys such as baby dolls and kitchen sets that they should be interested in as children to be considered female. Furthermore, when it comes to females selecting a chosen profession these roles and expectations surface in that it is more socially acceptable for women to enter professions in the helping field such as nurses, teachers, social workers, and secretaries to name a few; instead of becoming lawyers, physicians, engineers, or executives of companies. These ideals of what it means to be feminine and the ability to intertwine femininity into one’s sense of self are born. This concept develops as a child progresses into the different stages of development into adulthood. As a young girl progresses through puberty and becomes “a woman now” with the start of the menstrual cycle and the development of breasts new duties emerge upon entering adulthood such as being a caretaker, procreator, mother, and good wife [3]. In addition, this rite of passage fosters a new source of feminine identity “to create a sense of belonging within society,” which is typically “engrained during childhood and inevitably forges a source of connection with one’s body that is not necessarily positive or healthy” ([4], p. 41). For young girls, the
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ability to uphold these obligations upon entering adulthood and possess an identity outside of their physical bodily appearance may create struggles when it comes to embracing one’s feminine identity. The female breasts are one of the most represented symbols of femininity even referred to as the “crown jewels of femininity” ([5], p. 3). Not all young girls accept these bodily changes as part of their new identity by wearing baggy clothing to camouflage or hide the appearance of breasts. It has also been described as impacting one’s body, hair, clothing choice, voice, skin, movement, emotion, and ambition [1]. When it comes to the physical female body, femininity has been defined as the distance “between the nipples of the breasts, from the lower edge of the breast to the navel, and the distance from the naval to the crotch” all being units of equal length according to the classical Greeks ([1], p. 23).These specific formulas have even filtrated into the field of cosmetic surgery where asthetic plastic surgeons use particular measurements when creating the newly constructed ideal body part(s) for female consumers based on these standards of beauty. Moreover, when it comes to looking the part of an ideal female or the ability to possess an air of femininity one needs particular clothing to induce “the body to strut about in small, restrained yet show-offy ways” ([1], p. 79). This look can be achieved by wearing fitted yet but not revealing clothing paired with high stiletto heels, and the addition of accessories such as: bracelets, earrings, and necklaces. To complete the look of femininity we must add the use of make-up to accentuate and highlight facial features, and a spray of sweet smelling perfume to create the embodiment of what it means to look and dress female.
Relevance to Childhood Development Femininity is a term that is automatically associated with young girls and adolescents simply due to the fact of their sex. Young girls are taught at such a young age what it means to be feminine or a “girly girl.” It starts with the color pink being the signature color to girls should openly express their emotions; except for those society has labeled as “negative emotions” such as anger, hostility, and jealousy because it is considered impolite to express those in public. This idea of femininity is also woven within the future goals and expectations set forth for girls in part of the social roles or professions to venture into. Femininity is a form of self expression that young girls and women should be able incorporate into the sum total of whom they are based on their personal perception of what it means to be female. Although social and cultural constraints may paint a vivid picture of how
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one should look, act, think, and feel to be considered female it is the individuals choice to select which of those ideals they want to include in the personal worldview and identity.
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Brownmiller, S. (1985). Femininity. New York, NY: Fawcett Columbine. Nakash, O., Williams, L. M., & Jordan, J. V. (2004). Relationalcultural theory, body image, and physical health. Works in progress, No. 416. Wellesley, MA: Stone Center Working Paper series. Wooley, O. W. (1994). And man created “woman”. Representations of women’s bodies in western culture. In P. Fallon, M. A. Katzman, & S. C. Wooley (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on eating disorders (pp. 17– 52). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Worrell, A. R. (2008). An examination of women’s body image and sexual satisfaction following breast augmentation. Proquest Dissertations and Theses 2008. Section 1164, Part 0382 154 pages. PhD dissertation, St. Mary’s University, TX; 2008. Publication Number: AAT 3315326. Yalom, M. (1997). A history of the breast. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Fertile ▶Femininity
Festinger, Leon BERNADETTE HASSAN SOLO´RZANO Our Lady of the Lake University Community Counseling Service, San Antonio, TX, USA
He earned a Bachelor of Science from City College of New York in 1939. He pursued his graduate studies at the University of Iowa where he earned both his masters and doctoral degree in psychology in 1942. It was during this time he worked with the prominent social psychologist, Kurt Lewin.
Accomplishments After he completed his degree he stayed for 2 more years at the University of Iowa as a research assistant. During World War II, he worked as a senior statistician for the Committee on the Selection and Training of Aircraft Pilots at the University of Rochester. In 1945, he rejoined Lewin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor at the Research Center for Group Dynamics. When Lewin died in 1947, Festinger moved to the University of Michigan as an associate professor and became the director for the Group Dynamics Center. He next worked at the University of Minnesota in 1951 where he became a full professor of psychology. He moved to Stanford in 1955 and in 1968 made his final move to the New School for Social Research in New York where he was the Else and Hans Staudinger Professor of Psychology. He was awarded the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Psychological Association in 1959 and was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that same year. In 1972, he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Society of Experimental Psychology in 1973. In 1980, the University of Mannheim named Festinger the Einstein Visiting Fellow of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Also in 1980 he received the Distinguished Senior Scientist Award of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.
Contributions Life Dates (1919–1989)
Introduction Dr. Leon Festinger earned fame and recognition as a social psychologist. He developed the theory of cognitive dissonance, social comparison theory, and explored the role of propinquity in forming social relationships.
Educational Information Dr. Festinger was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 8, 1919. He attended Boys’ High School in New York City.
Festinger is most well known for the development of the theory of cognitive dissonance. Dissonance, according to Festinger, results when there is a conflict in an individual’s belief system. This conflict results in psychological tension which must be resolved. The conflict is resolved using either a rationalization or ignoring the situation. Festinger began his work on cognitive dissonance while he was at Stanford when he observed that people liked consistency in their lives. Festinger also developed the social comparison theory and how group norms exert pressure on an individual’s behavior. In association with Stanley Schacter and Kurt Backlund he developed the social network theory which studied that people form association based on their physical proximity.
Fetal Alcohol Effects
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (Eds.). (2002). Social psychology (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cohen, D. (1977). Psychologists on psychology. New York: Taplinger. Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson. Milite, G.A. (2001). Festinger, Leon (1919–1989). In Gale encyclopedia of psychology (2nd ed.). Retrieved December 17, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/articles/mi_2699/is_0004ai_2699000466print? tag=artBody;coll Schachter, S. (1994). Leon Festinger 1919–1989. In Office of the Home Secretary National Academy of Sciences (Eds.), Biographical memoirs (Vol. 64, pp. 98–110). Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
Fetal Alcohol Effects ASHLEY N. PETTONI Pediatric Psychology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Alcohol exposure; Alcohol related birth defects (ARBD); Alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND); Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS); Partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS); Prenatal alcohol exposure
Definitions Fetal alcohol effects (FAE), or ▶Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), is an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. These effects include physical, mental, behavioral, and/or learning disabilities with possible lifelong implications [1].
Description FAE is one of a spectrum of neurological impairments that can affect a child who has been exposed to alcohol prenatally [1, 3–5]. One of the most severe effects of drinking during pregnancy is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), which is one of the leading known preventable causes of mental retardation and birth defects [1, 6]. From a morphological perspective, children with FAE are not as impaired as children diagnosed with FAS, as they usually lack the distinctive FAS facial features and may have normal intellectual functioning. This is misleading as FAE is sometimes described as less serious. Unfortunately, children with FAE are in fact more likely to have negative outcomes such as trouble with school, trouble with the law, and teen pregnancy. Unrealistic expectations are frequently made with these
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children since more overt signs of impairments (i.e., facial features) are not present. Thus, children with FAE may be without adequate support and this can lead to detrimental ramifications for these children and their families [1]. Alcohol, which is able to cross the placental barrier, exerts its effects on the developing fetus through multiple actions at different sites. In the developing brain, alcohol interferes with nerve cell (i.e., the neuron) development in several ways, including cells not reaching the final destination and even premature cell death [4]. An embryo’s susceptibility to distinct FAE defects seems to be related to the timing of maternal alcohol consumption. Specifically, consumption during critical periods of development for various organ systems, regions, or cell types has been linked to particular defects [4, 5]. Duration of the prenatal alcohol exposure and quantity of alcohol has also been shown to factor into the expression of deficits [3, 4, 6]. Regardless, not all children exposed to alcohol will be affected in the same way [4, 6]. In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) replaced FAE with the terms ARND and ARBD. Children with ARND might have functional or mental problems linked to prenatal alcohol exposure. These include behavioral or cognitive abnormalities or a combination of both. These deficits are often more subtle than is observed in children with FAS and can include difficulties with mathematical skills, difficulties with memory or attention, poor school performance, and poor impulse control and/or judgment. Children with ARBD might have problems with the heart, kidneys, bones, and/or hearing. The term FASD is now being utilized to accentuate that alcohol can exert its effects in multiple ways on a developing child and that no particular set of impairments is “better” or “worse” and seeks to refer collectively to FAS, partial FAS, ARBD, and ARND [1, 2]. Neuroanatomical differences in children exposed to alcohol in utero have also been found. There is evidence to suggest that the basal ganglia, corpus callosum, cerebellum, and hippocampus have irreversible structural changes following alcohol exposure during development of the fetus. These findings indicate that the structural changes could account for several observed deficits and suggest that are global, rather than specific, developmental abnormalities [4, 6]. Children with FASDs might have the following characteristics or exhibit the following behaviors: growth deficiencies; facial abnormalities such as small eye openings (palpebral fissures), flat midface, thin upper lip, and a flat philtrum (groove between nose and upper lip) [1, 2]; poor coordination [1]; learning disabilities; developmental disabilities (e.g., speech and language and motor
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delays) [1, 4, 5]; mental retardation or low IQ; problems with daily living; poor reasoning and judgment skills; sleep and sucking disturbances in infancy [1]. In addition, other researchers have delineated that children with prenatal alcohol exposure demonstrate impairments in focused attention, executive functions [2–4, 6], and visual-spatial ability [4, 6]. Learning and memory is also impaired, as children with FASDs show deficits in immediate recall; however, retention and recognition is generally intact [2, 3]. Emotionally, increased levels of irritability have been observed during infancy [4], as well as hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli and self-soothing problems [5]. Children with FASDs also may display impaired social functioning and psychiatric disorders [4, 5], along with hyperactive behavior [1, 2] and impulsivity [5]. Collectively, these problems often lead to difficulties in school and problems getting along with others. FASD is a permanent condition and affects every aspect of an individual’s life and the lives of his or her family [1]. It is difficult to ascertain the exact prevalence rates of FAS and other alcohol related conditions, as it varies widely depending on the population studied and the surveillance methods used. Estimates of FAS prevalence rates vary from 0.5 to 3.0 per 1,000 live births in a majority of populations. ARND and ARBD are believed to occur approximately three times as often as FAS [1, 4].
Relevance to Childhood Development Unfortunately, there is no cure for FASDs. However, treatment is possible. Due to the range of CNS damage, symptoms, and secondary disabilities, treatment approaches vary depending on the individual needs of the child and family. Comprehensive models of treatment are the most effective, as several types of inventions, such as medical, behavioral, and developmental, are needed to ameliorate the negative effects [5]. While these conditions are serious and pervasive, there are protective factors that have been found to help individuals with FASDs. For example, a child who is diagnosed early in life is eligible to receive appropriate educational services and can have access to social services that can assist the child and his or her family. The children who obtain special education are more likely to achieve their developmental and educational potential. In addition, children with FASDs need a loving, nurturing, and stable home life to avoid disruptions, transient lifestyles, or harmful relationships. Children with FASDs who live in abusive or unstable homes or who develop anti-social behaviors are much more likely than those who do not have such negative experiences to develop secondary conditions [1].
Given that FASDs are preventable, several approaches are aimed at reducing the effects of alcohol on developing fetuses. More comprehensive approaches involve social, cognitive-behavioral, medical, and referral services. Public health models emphasizes three different levels of prevention: primary (attempt to cease maternal alcohol consumption before it begins), secondary (utilize early detection and treatment of problems), and tertiary (programs which attempt to change the pattern of behavior of high-risk women who already have a child with FASD). Universal and selective prevention strategies have also been developed. Universal programs attempt to reach all of society, through the utilization of media and policy and environmental change. An example includes warnings on alcoholic beverages. Selective prevention interventions are intended for those individuals who are at high risk for developing problems. Once these women are identified (usually through questionnaires at clinics); measures can be put in place to assist in change. This form of prevention is similar to secondary prevention [4].
References 1.
2.
3.
4. 5.
6.
Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2003). Fetal alcohol syndrome. Retrieved November 28, 2008, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fas/fasask. htm Jacobson, J. L., & Jacobson, S. W. (2002). Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on child development. Alcohol Research and Health, 26, 282–286. Korkman, M., Kettunen, S., & Autti-Ramo, I. (2003). Neurocognitive impairment in early adolescence following prenatal alcohol exposure to varying duration. Child Neuropsychology, 9, 117–128. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2001). Prenatal exposure to alcohol. Alcohol Research and Health, 24, 32–41. O’Leary, C. M. (2004). Fetal alcohol syndrome: Diagnosis, epidemiology, and developmental outcomes. Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health, 40, 2–7. Wacha, V. H., & Obrzut, J. E. (2007). Effects of fetal alcohol syndrome on neuropsychological function. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 19, 217–226.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder ▶Fetal Alcohol Effects
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) ▶Alcohol Exposure
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome JOHN JOSHUA HALL1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms
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also occur such as agenesis of the corpus callosum, cerebellar abnormalities, reduced volume of the basal ganglia, damage to the hippocampus, and enlarged ventricles (Randall, 1996). While factors such as amount of alcohol consumed, frequency of use, and timing of use during pregnancy have all been related to the nature and severity of FAS/FAE residuals, Olson et al. [1] found that a fetus of an alcoholic mother who engaged in “binge” drinking is more at risk for deficits associated with FAS.
FAS
Relevance to Childhood Development Definition Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a developmental disorder that results from a developing fetus being exposed to alcohol in utero. FAS is characterized by distinctive neurological, cognitive, and behavioral deficits [8]. In some cases distinct phenotypical traits may also be seen.
Description FAS is a developmental disorder that affects individuals throughout his or her life. Initially described in the United States by Jones and Smith [3], FAS commonly results in intrauterine growth retardation and physical and neurological deficits. Physical abnormalities may include widely spaced eyes, shortened eyelid length, elongated midface, flattened nose, and a thin upper lip [8]. However, in many children exposed to alcohol in utero, few actually demonstrate the growth and facial abnormalities [6]. Even though they do not have the characteristic growth deficits and other physical abnormalities of FAS, they often exhibit the same cognitive, neurological, and behavioral changes. These features are often referred to as fetal alcohol effects (FAE) or alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disabilities (ARND) [8]. In response to the variability of outcomes in response to prenatal alcohol exposure, many researchers have argued that children exposed to alcohol should be categorized on a continuum [5]. As with most teratogens, the point and magnitude of exposure plays a vital role in the nature of affliction. While the early stages of pregnancy are viewed as the most sensitive periods to adverse impacts of teratogens such as alcohol, exposure at any point prenatal may negatively impact development. As previously mentioned, children with FAS and FAE often experience neurological deficits. Neurological deficits often include microcephaly, seizures, poor coordination, reduced muscle tone, poor behavioral regulation, below average cognitive ability, inattention, hyperactivity, and learning disorders [2]. Neuroanatomical changes can
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Individuals afflicted with FAS often experience lifelong deficits in cognitive ability, behavioral functioning, and adaptive functioning [7]. Infants experience low birth weight, feeding problems, poor sleeping patterns, and irritability while children often experience attention, memory, learning, gross, and fine motor skill deficits. Enuresis (bed-wetting), language and other communication disorders, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), mental retardation, and learning disorders are also common [8]. Executive functioning also appears to be greatly affected with FAS indicating frontal/ prefrontal involvement. Children with FAS appear to perform less well than same-aged peers when matched for IQ on tasks of verbal fluency, design fluency, cognitive set shifting, and planning [2]. These executive deficits may also contribute to difficulties with proper socialization. This is seen in fact that as children with FAS grow older, poor social judgment, poor interpersonal skills, and antisocial behavior are commonly seen [2]. Recent studies have also found that children with FAS experience greater difficulty on certain tasks of memory and learning. Mattson et al. [4] found that children on a list learning task experienced more difficulty memorizing new information than retaining and retrieving what they had previously learned. Recognition memory and the ability to benefit from priming and cueing also appear to be relatively intact in children with FAS [2]. In sum, children with FAS and FAE experience a great deal of deficits in cognitive abilities such as language, memory, learning, and executive functioning that can contribute to learning difficulties in school. Social skill deficits may also occur which creates further difficulties in proper adjustment and education. It is a lifelong disorder that will continue to create difficulties into adolescence and adulthood. However, FAS is easily preventable with early intervention and education as well as treatment for pregnant mothers with alcohol dependence and/or alcohol abuse.
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References 1.
2.
3. 4.
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6.
7. 8.
Olson, C., Streissguth, A. P., Sampson, P. D., Barr, H. M., Bookstein, F. L., & Thiede, K. (1997). Association of prenatal alcohol exposure with behavioral and learning problems in early adolescence. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 1187–1194. Jacobson, J. L., & Jacobson, S. W. (2002). Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on child development. Alcohol Research and Health, 26, 282–286. Jones, K. L., & Smith, D. W. (1973). Recognition of fetal alcohol syndrome in early infancy. Lancet, 2, 999–1001. Mattson, S. N., Riley, E. P., & Gramling, L. (1998). Neuropsychological comparison of alcohol-exposed children with or without physical features of fetal alcohol syndrome. Neuropsychology, 12, 146–153. Rasmussen, C., Horne, K., & Witol, A. (2006). Neurobehavioral functioning in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Child Neuropsychology, 12, 453–468. Sampson, P., Streissguth, A. P., Bookstein, F., & Barr, H. (2000). On categorizations in analysis of alcohol teratogenesis. Environmental Health Perspectives, 108, 421–428. Streissguth, A. (1997). Fetal alcohol syndrome. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of Neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) ▶Alcohol Exposure ▶Fetal Alcohol Effects
Fetal Death ▶Stillbirths
Fetal Development JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
the fetus is extraordinarily large in comparison to the rest of the body. The eyes move to their proper location and the organs, muscles, and nervous system become more structured. The face is well formed and the eyelids close. The tooth buds also appear. In addition, male and female external genitalia appear. Fine hair, lanugo, begins to develop on the head and bones develop and become harder. Sucking motions are made. Muscle tissue develops and the fetus begins to move its feet, hands, arms, and toes. However, the movements are so slight they cannot be felt by the mother at this point ([2], p. 173, [3], p. 123, [1], p. 89). The fourth month brings rapid growth in length though, the weight of the fetus does not increase much. The fetus is able to hear and eye movement begins. At this point in the pregnancy, the mother may begin to feel slight movement of the fetus. ([3, 4], p. 124). During the fifth month fine, silky hair called lanugo cover the entire body of the fetus. Due to increased muscle development the fetus is more active and can be felt by the mother. The lungs develop but are not viable outside of the mother’s body ([3, 4], p. 124). In the sixth month of fetal development all parts of the eye have developed and are able to open and close. Footprints and fingerprints are developing and fingernails are present. The respiratory system is still developing and is able to exchange gas while the nervous system can now control some bodily functions. Toward the end of this month the brain develops rapidly ([3, 4], p. 124). The fetus begins to gain weight and fill out during the seventh month. The brain can support rhythmic breathing but the lungs are still immature. Eyelashes and toenails grow ([3, 4], p. 124). In the eighth month the fetus has gained fat under the skin. The lanugo begins to disappear and the fingernails reach the end of the fingertips ([3, 4], p. 124). During the final month of fetal development, the fetus steadily gains weight and weighs about 7 lb. The lunugo is almost gone with the exception of the upper arms and shoulders. Body structures are being refined and the brain expands during this time ([3, 4], p. 124).
References 1.
Definition
2.
Weeks 9–40 of gestation or weeks 11–41 of a pregnancy. 3.
Description The period known as the fetus ranges from week 9 of gestation until birth. During this period the developing fetus grows rapidly. During the third month the head of
4. 5.
Berk, L. E. (2006). Child development (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Charlesworth, R. (2011). Understanding child development. Belmont: Wadsworth. McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Child development and education (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River: Merrill. Retrieved April 25, 2010, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ ency/article/002398.htm Trawick-Smith, J. (1997). Early childhood development: a multicultural perspective. Upper Saddle River: Merrill Prentice Hall.
Fetus 3.
Fetal Distress JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Definition The fetus experiences some type of complication.
Description Fetal distress may be caused when the fetus does not get enough oxygen ([1], p. 80) and can be determined by the use of a fetal monitor. Fetal abruption (early separation of the placenta from the wall of the uterus), compression of the umbilical cord, infection of the fetus, or the mother is in a position which puts pressure on the major blood vessels and deprives the fetus of oxygen. In utero the healthy fetus will have a stable and strong heartbeat. In addition, the fetus will move. A fetus in distress will react by having a decreased heart beat, slow their movements or even stop moving. In addition, the stressed fetus may pass their first stool (meconuim) while still in utero. An oxygen deprived fetus is in immediate danger. If a mother suspects the fetus is in distress she should count the number of kicks in a 2-h period. If the fetus is not this active the obstetrician should be called. To take pressure off of the major blood vessels the mother can lie down on her left side. To determine if a fetus is in distress the mother will be put on a fetal monitor. This consists of a large belt like device being strapped around the mother’s abdomen. The fetal monitor will determine if the fetus’ heartbeat is sufficient. In addition, the mother may be given oxygen and an IV. In case these treatments do not eliminate the fetal distress, a speedy delivery is necessary. This may mean the obstetrician will use forceps in the delivery to extract the fetus. Another possibility is vacuum delivery. A vacuum delivery involves a small rounded cup that attaches to the fetus’ head. The cup is in turn attached to a hose that creates a vacuum that then pulls it out of the birth canal. Often an emergency cesarean section on the mother is performed in order to reduce the fetal distress.
References 1. 2.
Deiner, P. L. (2009). Infants and toddlers: development and curriculum planning. Clifton Park: Delmar Cengage Learning. Murkoff, H., & Mazel, L. (2008). What to expect when you’re expecting (4th ed.). New York: Workman.
4. 5.
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Retrieved April 3, 2010, http://dictionary.webmd.com/terms/fetaldistress. Retrieved April 3, 2010, http://www.obgyn.net/displayarticle.asp? page=/FM/articles/obgmgmt_fetaldistress. Retrieved April 4, 2010, http://maternity-newborn-nursing.blogspot. com/2008/12/fetal-distress.html.
Fetal Survival ▶Age of Viability
Fetus ELISHEVA KONSTAM, DEVORAH NEUHAUS Pace University, New York, NY, USA
Definition A fetus is defined as an unborn or unhatched vertebrate. The word fetus specifically refers to the unborn child during the time when all of the major structures and organs have been formed, typically after the eighth week of pregnancy. Prior to that point, the fetus is referred to as an embryo. The fetal stage continues until birth.
Description Fetus is the word used to describe unborn offspring in the uterus of vertebrate animals. This stage occurs between seven to eight weeks after the fertilization of the egg. At this time the embryo has taken the basic shape of a newborn and all major structures have been formed. It is also at this point in development that the risk of miscarriage decreases significantly. During this stage the fetus is surrounded by amniotic fluid that enables it to move. Oxygen and nutrients are provided through the placenta and umbilical cord. Nurtured in this protective environment, the body grows larger and more defined and organ development is completed. At the start of the fetal stage the fetus typically weighs about 8 g and measures 1.2 in. From that point until birth, the fetus continues to gain weight and refine the functionality of their organs. This growth allows the fetus to be less sensitive to damage from the environment than the embryo was. However, exposure to certain toxins can still cause physiological abnormalities or minor congenital malformations. Some of these fetal disorders may cause the birth of an infant before the complete gestational
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time period has passed. At the 20 or 22 week point, a fetus is considered developed enough to be viable outside of the womb. Another interesting phenomenon occurs at the beginning of the fetal stage. From 8 weeks postmenstrual age onward, the fetus begins to move in a distinct pattern. The pattern is identical to the movement patterns of infants immediately after birth. The pattern of these movements have been studied, as alternative patterns are a reliable indicator of brain dysfunction and has been used as a predictor of the development of cerebral palsy.
Fighting ▶Physical Aggression
Filial Family Therapy (FFT) ▶Filial Therapy
References 1.
2.
Einspieler, C., Marschik, P. B., & Prechtl, H. (2008). Human motor behavior: Prenatal origin and early postnatal development. Journal of Psychology: Germany, 216(3), 147–153. Spelt, D. K. (1948). The conditioning of the human fetus in utero. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38(3), 338–343.
Suggested Resources National Institute of Childhood Health and Human Development: http:// nichd.nih.gov/ Society for Research in Child Development: http://www.srcd.org/
Fidelity ▶Validity
Fidgety ▶Hyperactivity
Field Observation ▶Natural Observation
Filial Therapy JEFF L. COCHRAN, NANCY H. COCHRAN University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Synonyms Child-parent relationship (CPR) training; Child relationship enhancement family therapy (CREFT); Filial family therapy (FFT)
Definition Filial therapy is a method of enhancing family relationships in which mental health professionals (such as counselors, psychologists, or clinical social workers) teach and supervise parents use of key elements of child-centered play therapy (e.g., [1, 4, 12, 17]) to help their own children with behavioral, emotional, adjustment, attachment, and self-esteem difficulties. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “filial” as: of or pertaining to, or benefiting a son or daughter (American Heritage Dictionary, 1982, p. 503). Thus it is a parental therapy for the daughter or son, in which the counselor helps the parent to learn and implement skills for special play time in order to be a therapeutic agent for her or his child. While filial therapy employs the special emotional bond possible between parent and child to help the children with difficulties ranging from normal adjustment issues to trauma, it also improves parental self-efficacy and stress levels as it is an intervention in the parent-child relationship.
Description
Fight or Flight ▶Anxiety
Development History and Research Filial Therapy was introduced and developed by Bernard and Louise Guerney (see [10, 11, 25]) to empower parents
Filial Therapy
to advance or augment the benefits possible from therapeutic relationships frequently provided by mental health and school counselors, psychologists, social workers and professionals from related fields. The approach has continued to rapid growth in research and application in recent years. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated with child populations defined by various problem or life stress areas including conduct problems, stuttering, learning problems, chronic illness, problems related to immigration status, and learning disabilities [6, 15]. Promising results have been found for parents from differing ethnicities and life situations (e.g., Native American [8]; Chinese American [29]; parents with chronically ill children [27]; foster parents [7]; and incarcerated parents [13, 16]; single parents [2]; nonoffending parents of children who have been sexually abused [5]; and German mothers [9]). Particularly important to child and family development, the effects of filial therapy have been shown to remain strong over time. For example, Sywulak [26] confirmed that a significant increase in parental child acceptance was maintained after 4 months. Stover and Guerney [25] found an increase in mothers’ reflective statements and a decrease in directive statements maintained 12 months after filial therapy. Sensue [24] reported lengthy maintained results. For 16 elementary-age children, the behavioral gains that were demonstrated as the result of 4 months of filial therapy were still present after 3 years. Rennie and Landreth [21] reviewed the research in filial therapy, looking particularly at changes in parental characteristics (empathy, acceptance, stress, and family environment) and in children (adjustment, behavioral problems, play session behavior, and self-concept). They concluded that filial therapy is a powerful intervention that increased “parental acceptance, self-esteem, empathy, (and created) positive changes in family environment, and the child’s adjustment and self-esteem while decreasing parental stress and the child’s behavioral problems” (p. 31). In a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of filial therapy, Ray et al. [20] found filial therapy to be an effective treatment for children’s problems, reporting a quite high effect size, 1.06.
Brief Overview In filial therapy, a play therapist trains parents, who become therapeutic change agents by offering their children empathy, genuineness, and acceptance in play sessions [10]. The therapist (mental health professional) takes the role of the parent(s)’ guide, teacher, supervisor, supporter and challenger as the parent develops skills to provide a particularly structured, child-directed, child-centered,
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hour or half hour of weekly play, focused on parent-tochild empathy, unconditional acceptance of the child’s self-expression (within limits necessary to maintain safety and to facilitate self-expression, and the parent-child connection). These 30–60 minutes of specialized parent-child interaction/play time is often referred to as special play time (SPT). In contrast to many parent training interventions that require parents to use new relationship or interaction skills consistently across time, a daunting task for many stressed parents, filial therapy focuses change and new skills in the 30–60 minutes of weekly SPT. The therapist’s focus is on helping the parents succeed with the unique relationship provided in SPT. Once that success is well begun, new ways of interacting naturally emanate throughout the week from SPT. Parents benefit from greatly expanded empathy and unconditional positive regard, considered by many in the counseling and psychotherapy field to be the core conditions of therapeutic relationships (especially counselors and therapists with interest in the person-centered approach to counseling, psychotherapy and other relationships – see [3, 22, 23]). Parents also learn empathic methods for limit setting when needed to facilitate the child’s self-expression and parental connection in SPT. Practitioners of filial therapy often describe “the filial glow” evident in parents and children once the parent is succeeding in connecting through SPT. Filial therapy is based on helping parents approximate, as closely as possible, the therapeutic skills of CCPT. Therapists provide significant didactic instruction, demonstration, and mock practice before parents begin SPT with their children under the supervision of their therapist. Therapists also help parents develop a specialized kit of toys, designed to best facilitate the child’s therapeutic selfexpression in SPT. Therapists using filial therapy should be well-trained and well-experienced in CCPT. Especially for situations that have included significant trauma for the child, filial therapy is often provided as an addition to CCPT, after the child has achieved mastery stage [19] in CCPT. The primary professional organization focused in promoting filial therapy and associated family relationship interventions is the Association for Filial and Relationship Enhancement Methods (AFREM – afrem.org). The National Institute for Relationship Enhancement (NIRE – www.nire.org) has served as the major training, service and research institute for filial therapy, CCPT and related interventions for the past 25 years. Along with Bernard and Louise Guerney at NIRE, Garry Landreth, of the University of North Texas, is one of the major trainers and scholars of
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filial therapy (e.g., see [2, 5, 12, 18]) and the University of North Texas Center for Play Therapy has been the major university based training, service and research center for play therapy since it began in 1988. Landreth [17, 18] developed a 10-week training model that has been wellresearched across 14 studies involving more than 400 participants. A meta-analysis of studies utilizing the Landreth 10-session model demonstrated an exceptionally high effect size of 1.57. A commonly used and highly effective parent training manual for filial therapy is Mastering the Magic of Play, by Mary Ortwein (1997, Ideals). Another highly recommended filial parent training manual is Filial Therapy: Strengthening Parent-Child Relationships Through Play, 2nd edition, by Rise VanFleet (2005, Professional Resources Press). As Landreth [17] points out, filial therapy can be an effective intervention for parents of children experiencing behavioral and emotionally based problems, but is also appropriate for families experiencing difficult times in normal development, times when the parent needs to strengthen her sense of her child’s emotional reactions and needs (e.g., around the birth of a new baby or new adoption, when children from different parents are being blended through a new marriage, during periods of grief and loss, around the time of a family move, and through other significant changes). Filial therapy is considered appropriate through the age ranges projected for CCPT, usually considered ages 3–12 years, with some therapists modifying toys to be more age appropriate for 11 and 12 year children. While filial therapy is an option for most families, there may be some parents who would likely be unable to use the model. Watts and Broadus [28] quote Garry Landreth as suggesting that exceptions include parents who are severely retarded and may be unable to learn the skills, parents who are excessively angry with their children and may need individual counseling before they could begin the new relationships required in filial therapy, and parents who are out of touch with reality (e.g., severe psychosis). The approach also requires a significant commitment to consistency. It may be that some parents self-select out of the treatment due to an unwillingness or inability to commit to the training required. Practitioners often report that once parents are engaged in SPT, the new relationship is highly self-rewarding to the parent, which strongly encourages consistent application. Additionally, when filial therapy is provided as an addition to childcentered play therapy, parents have usually developed high levels of trust in the therapist, and thus are willing to engage in the necessary training, and many
parents are particularly ready to seek ways to greater relationships with their children, after seeing their children succeed in CCPT.
Relevance to Childhood Development Johnson et al. [14] point out that filial therapy is a family system intervention. They explain that it: (1) requires family involvement, (2) takes the focus off the child as the identified problem, (3) often helps parents see their role in the problem, (4) enhances parental leadership by strengthening the generational boundary between parents and children, (5) increases differentiated relating and reduces polarization between parents and children, and (6) highlights unhelpful systematic sequences. Filial therapy is one of the most promising therapeutic interventions for troubled children and parents. It capitalizes on the potential of positive parent child bonds through teaching and supervising parents in becoming therapeutic agents for their children. It provides a relatively stigma free way for parents to help their children with behavioral and emotional difficulties in ways that in turn help the parents become more effective and less stressed, especially through forming balanced and healthy parent-child attachments. It appears effective across a wide range of parent-child problems and population groups and may be particularly promising for foster and adoptive families in need. Filial therapy is a dynamic family intervention that provides opportunities for very positive change for families and children in need.
References 1. Axline, V. (1947). Play therapy. The inner dynamics of childhood. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2. Bratton, S., & Landreth, G. (1995). Filial therapy with single parents: Effects on parental acceptance, empathy, and stress. International Journal of Play Therapy, 4, 61–80. 3. Cochran, J. L., & Cochran, N. H. (2006). The heart of counseling: A guide to developing therapeutic relationships. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole. 4. Cochran, N. H., Nordling, W. J., & Cochran, J. L. (2010). Childcentered play therapy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 5. Costas, M. B., & Landreth, G. (1999). Filial therapy with nonoffending parents of children who have been sexually abused. International Journal of Play Therapy, 8, 43–66. 6. Crow, J. (1990). Play therapy with low achievers in reading (Doctoral dissertation, University of North Texas, 1989). Dissertation Abstracts International, 50, 2789. 7. Ginsberg, B. G. (1976). Parents as therapeutic agents: The usefulness of filial therapy in a community mental health center. American Journal of Community Psychology, 4, 47–54. 8. Glover, G. J. (1996). Filial therapy with the Native Americans on the flathead reservation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Texas, Denton.
Fire Setting 9. Grskovic, J. A., & Goetze, H. (2008). Short-term filial therapy with German mothers: Findings from a controlled study. International Journal of Play Therapy, 17, 39–51. 10. Guerney, B. (1964). Filial therapy: Description and rationale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 28, 304–310. 11. Guerney, L. (2000). Filial therapy into the 21st century. International Journal of Play Therapy, 9, 1–17. 12. Guerney, L. (2001). Child-centered play therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 10, 13–31. 13. Harris, Z. L., & Landreth, G. L. (1997). Filial therapy with incarcerated mothers: A five week model. International Journal of Play Therapy, 6, 53–73. 14. Johnson, L., Bruhn, R., Winek, J., Kreps, J., & Wiley, K. (1999). The use of child-centered play therapy and filial therapy with head start families: A brief report. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 25, 169–175. 15. Kale, A. L., & Landreth, G. L. (1999). Filial therapy with parents of children experiencing learning difficulties. International Journal of Play Therapy, 8, 35–56. 16. Landreth, G. L., & Lobaugh, A. F. (1998). Filial therapy with incarcerated fathers: Effects on parental acceptance of child, parental stress, and child adjustment. Journal of Counseling & Development, 76, 157–165. 17. Landreth, G. L. (2002). Play therapy: The art of the relationship (2nd ed.). New York: Brunner-Routledge. 18. Landreth, G. L., & Bratton, S. C. (2005). Child parent relationship therapy (CPRT): A 10-session filial model. New York: BrunnerRoutledge. 19. Nordling, W. J., & Guerney, L. F. (1999). Typical stages in the childcentered play therapy process. Journal for the Professional Counselor, 14, 17–23. 20. Ray, D., Bratton, S., Rhine, T., & Jones, L. (2001). The effectiveness of play therapy: Responding to the critics. International Journal of Play Therapy, 10, 85–108. 21. Rennie, R., & Landreth, G. L. (2000). Effects of filial therapy on parent and child behaviors. International Journal of Play Therapy, 9(2), 19–38. 22. Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21, 95–103. 23. Rogers, C. R. (1980). A way of being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 24. Sensue, M. E. (1981). Filial therapy follow up study: Effects on parental acceptance and child adjustment (Doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1981). Dissertation Abstracts International, 42, 0148B. 25. Stover, L., & Guerney, B. (1967). The efficacy of training procedures for mothers in filial therapy. Psychotherapy: Theory, research, and practice, 4, 110–115. 26. Sywulak, A. (1978). The effect of filial therapy on parental acceptance and child adjustment (Doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1977). Dissertation Abstracts International, 38, B6180. 27. Tew, K., Landreth, G. L., Joiner, K. B., & Solt, M. D. (2002). Filial therapy with parents of chronically ill children. International Journal of Play Therapy, 11, 79–100. 28. Watts, R. E., & Broaddus, J. L. (2002). Improving parent-child relationships through filial therapy: An interview with Garry Landreth. Journal of Counseling and Development, 80, 372–379. 29. Yuen, T., Landreth, G., & Baggerly, J. (2002). Filial therapy with immigrant Chinese families. International Journal of Play Therapy, 11, 63–90.
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Fine Motor Skills MARIA ASSUNTA CUFFARO State University of NY: Potsdam, Potsdam, NY, USA
Definition More precision and steadiness than the skills developed by gross motor skills. Fine Motor Skills Students’ proficiency in using small motor muscles for tasks such as writing, buttoning or grasping [2].
Description Fine motor skills, including reaching, grasping, and manipulating objects, it is in ne motor skills can be defined as coordination of small muscle movements which occur e.g., in the fingers, usually in coordination with the eyes. In application to motor skills of hands (and fingers) the term dexterity is commonly used. The abilities which involve the use of hands, develop over time, starting with primitive gestures such as grabbing at objects to more precise activities that involve precise hand-eye coordination. Fine motor skills are skills that involve a refined use of the small muscles controlling the hand, fingers, and thumb. The development of these skills allows one to be able to complete tasks such as writing, drawing, and buttoning [1].
References 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexterity
Fire Setting MICAH S. BROSBE, ANGELA WAGUESPACK Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Firestarting
Definition Fire setting is a complex pattern of behavior in which a child or adolescent starts fires, either accidentally or intentionally. Factors in classifying fire setting include
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intentionality, damage caused, frequency, and interest in fire vs. actually starting fires. Fire-setting has a variety of contexts and causes, and may be an aspect of the clinical presentation of other psychological disorders such as conduct disorder.
Description The literature is somewhat mixed as to what exactly is meant by the label of fire setter [5]. The term firesetting is often used synonymously with arson; however, arson is a legal term that is applied in situations when an individual engages in intentional firesetting and is aware of the potential consequences of the behavior [7]. Some fire setters, usually younger ones, do so out of curiosity or accidentally. They do not intend to cause harm and often show remorse [9]. Of those who intentionally start fires, some do it as a cry for help or for attention. These children often have a diagnosable condition such as major depressive disorder or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. They may not mean to cause harm, but set fires in an attempt to bring attention to their situation and to express their emotions. These children often have histories of fire play, and lack the skills or abilities to appropriately express themselves and solve problems [9]. For other children or adolescents, fire setting is simply considered a severe form of antisocial behavior [8]. These delinquent fire setters may have an external gain for their behavior. They often engage in other antisocial behaviors and conduct problems as well, and the fire setting behavior may be part of a group activity [9, 10]. Finally, a fourth group of children who set fires have a severe emotional or mental illness such as mania or schizophrenia. For these “severely disturbed fire setters,” the behavior is attributable to their mental illness. Pyromania is included under this category, but it is rare to see this in juvenile fire setters.
Relevance to Childhood Development Childhood fire setting is a serious and prevalent societal problem, exhibited primarily by males. Almost 250,000 fires were set by juveniles in 1993 [10]. Children and adolescents have accounted for roughly half of all arson arrests in recent decades, including 2006 [3, 10]. Previous studies suggest that typically developing children often engage in fireplay and firesetting; however, only a small number of children become repetitive firesetters [7]. Many factors determine whether a child actually engages in fire setting behavior or not [10]. Risk factors for childhood fire setting can be discussed in terms of
both individual as well as environmental characteristics (e.g., family). Risk factors appear to be cumulative; the number of risk factors affects the course and prognosis of the fire setting behaviors [8]. High levels of aggression, impulsivity, delinquency, interest in fire, social skills deficits, attention-seeking and risky behaviors, and externalizing emotions are commonly seen in children who light fires [9]. Some other risk factors include past fire play, being around people who smoke, and knowledge of materials that burn [5]. The attention individuals receive after setting fires is often reinforcing, which maintains the behavior [9]. Further, individuals who engage in more persistent fire setting may have poor social judgment, problems in peer relationships, and evidence higher levels of other forms of antisocial behavior. Children who set fires may have social skills deficits or difficulties in appropriately expressing their emotions, thus setting the fires serves this function for them [9]. Many fire setters have high levels of impulsivity and difficulty controlling their thoughts and actions [9]. They may show more aggression and engage in other antisocial acts such as lying and stealing. Individuals who set fires tend to be more impulsive, show less remorse or guilt, and have exhibited more cruelty to animals [5]. Fire setters also often engage in other antisocial behaviors such as property destruction (other than by fire setting), physical aggression, and vandalism [5]. Individuals who exhibit many of these other behaviors in addition to the firesetting are often diagnosed with conduct disorder in childhood or adolescence. A history of fire involvement and playing with matches is consistently shown to be a predictor of recidivism [4]. Among children who have set fires, impulsivity is the individual characteristic that most often determines whether they continue [8]. Other research has shown that conduct problems, specifically covert antisocial behaviors, predict continuation of fire setting behaviors in children and adolescents [4]. Aggressive acts become more deviant as a child grows older. Age is also a risk factor for future fire setting. When older children and adolescents light fires, they are more likely to engage in such behavior in the future [4]. With regard to parental and family factors, children who have continually set fires often have parents who use harsh and inconsistent discipline, display less warmth, and have interpersonal problems [5, 8]. Poor parental supervision and lax child rearing have also been shown to contribute to the development of fire setting behaviors. In some cases, parents can be hostile and aggressive, and they tend to be less educated [9]. In addition, there may be a higher level of family dysfunction for children who set
Fixed Interval Schedule
fires [5]. There is a correlation between repeated fire setting in children and parental mental health issues and problems in the family. Children who have continually set fires were more likely to have depressed parents and more hostility among family members, including violence among parents [8]. They may be more likely to come from single parent homes [8] and to observe fathers who are alcoholics and/or abuse animals [2]. Living with a person who smokes greatly increases the risk of children becoming involved with fire as well [10]. Interventions utilized with children who engage in firesetting behaviors often include individual, family, and community levels. While treatment outcome studies are relatively sparse in the literature, research suggests that fire safety education programs targeting both children and their families have been found to improve both fire safety knowledge and skills [6] and are often included in treatment planning. Additionally, clinical interventions such as cognitive-behavior treatment and family therapy have been used in order to address behavioral, emotional, and social difficulties of the child, as well as parental and family functioning.
References 1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 2. Becker, K. D., Stuewig, J., Herrera, V. M., & McCloskey, L. A. (2004). A study of firesetting and animal cruelty in children: Family influences and adolescent outcomes. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43(7), 905–912. 3. Hall, J. R. (2007). Intentional fires and arson. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association. 4. Kennedy, P. J., Vale, E. L. E., Khan, S. J., & McAnaney, A. (2006). Factors predicting recidivism in child and adolescent fire-setters: A systematic review of the literature. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 17(1), 151–164. 5. Kolko, D. J. (2002). Research studies on the problem. In D. J. Kolko (Ed.), Handbook on firesetting in children and youth (pp. 33–56). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 6. Kolko, D. J., Herschell, A. D., & Scharf, D. M. (2006). Education and treatment for boys who set fires: Specificity, moderators, and predictors of recidivism. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 14(4), 227–239. 7. Lambie, I., McCardle, S., & Colmar, R. (2002). Where there’s smoke there’s fire: Firesetting behavior in children and adolescents. New England Journal of Psychology, 31(2), 73–78. 8. McCarty, C. A., McMahon, R. J., & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2005). Domains of risk in the developmental continuity of fire setting. Behavior Therapy, 36, 185–195. 9. Slavkin, M. (2007). Juvenile firesetting. In M. Herson & J. C. Thomas (Eds.), Juvenile firesetting (pp. 384–403). Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 10. U.S. Fire Administration. (2001). Children and fire. In Topical Fire Research Series.
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Firestarting ▶Fire Setting
First Language Acquisition ▶Language Acquisition
First-Generation Immigrant Children ▶Immigrant Children
Fixed Interval Schedule STEUART T. WATSON, CHRISTINE GRIFFES Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH, USA
Synonyms Scalloped response pattern
Definition A schedule of reinforcement in which the first response is reinforced only after a set amount of time has elapsed.
Description A fixed-interval (FI) schedule has two components: (1) it requires the passage of a specified amount of time before reinforcement will be delivered contingent on a response and (2) no responding during the interval is reinforced, only the first response following the end of the interval is reinforced [1]. An FI schedule of reinforcement results in high amounts of responding near the end of the interval, but a much slower rate of responding immediately after the delivery of the reinforcer. This post reinforcement pause and then subsequent acceleration in responding results in a scalloped pattern of responding. B. F. Skinner’s early research with pigeons identified the scalloped pattern, which was also consistently found in mice, monkeys, and human children [3]. More recent research is skeptical of
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humans responding in a scalloped pattern, however it is agreed that a post-reinforcement pause followed by increased responding is typically found when using an FI schedule [2]. Examples of true FI schedules are difficulty to find in everyday life. First, they must be distinguished from fixed time schedules where reinforcement is delivered only after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Second, there are often other factors that interfere to make the schedule less than a true FI. In educational and other applied settings, there are devices that provide a vibration to signal the end of an interval and that reinforcement is available for the next target response. For instance, a teacher could use one of these and set the timer for 2 min. At the end of the 2 min period, the student’s next correct response would be reinforced. In such a real life setting, FI schedules have advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages of an FI schedule are they produce an overall low but consistent rate of responding and they allow for reinforcement to be provided at greater intervals, (i.e., hourly, weekly, etc.) versus a more frequent basis. Some of the disadvantages of FI schedules are that they tend to produce irregular performance and are susceptible to extinction due to infrequent reinforcement. Also, some people may have a tendency to increase their rate of response as the end of the interval (i.e., availability of reinforcement) draws near, which can result in sloppy work or incomplete assignments.
References 1.
2.
3.
APP-53 Schedules of reinforcement. Retrieved December 16, 2008, from www.mrgalusha.org/APPsychDocs/Unit%205/APP%20% 2053%20Schedules%20of%20Reinforcement.ppt Hyten, C., & Madden, G. J. (1993). The scallop in human fixedinterval research: A review of problems with data description. Psychological Record, 43, 471–501. Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts.
Floppy Baby Syndrome ▶Hypotonia
Floppy Infant Syndrome
Fluency ▶Standard Celeration Charting
Fluid Intelligence ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Analytic intelligence; Fluid reasoning; Gf
Definition The ability to solve novel problems using inductive and deductive reasoning abilities, sequential thinking, and quantitative abilities. It includes abilities to draw inferences, identify and classify relationships, and to change reasoning and problem solving approaches based on demands of the situation [2].
Description Part of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities [1], Fluid Intelligence is considered a broad ability composed of a series of narrow abilities including general sequential (deductive) reasoning (RG), induction (I), quantitative reasoning (RQ), piagetian reasoning (RP), and speed of reasoning (RE).
References 1.
2.
McGrew, K. S. (2005). The Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of cognitive abilities. In D. Flanagan & P. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (pp. 136–202). New York: Guilford. McGrew, K. S., & Flanagan, D. P. (1998). The intelligence test desk reference (ITDR): Gf-Gc cross battery assessment. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Fluid Reasoning ▶Fluid Intelligence
Fluoxetine Synonyms
▶Hypotonia
Prozac; Sarafem
Formative Assessment
Definition A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant most commonly used to treat major depression; however, it is also used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, bulimia nervosa, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).
Description Depression is believed to be caused by an imbalance of the neurotransmitter, serotonin. Serotonin is known to affect mood, emotions, sleep, and appetite. Fluoxetine corrects the imbalance by preventing the reuptake of serotonin into the synaptic clef; therefore, increasing serotonin in the brain and alleviating depression symptoms. Fluoxetine has some adverse side effects. It can cause nausea, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, drowsiness, loss of appetite, skin rashes, and vasculitis. Also, blood pressure can increase; some seizures and sexual dysfunction have been reported. When coming off fluoxetine withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, nausea, nervousness, and insomnia can occur. There is also an increased risk of suicidal ideations. Fluoxetine should not be taken while pregnant or when nursing.
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Food ▶Nutrition
Food Refusal/Selectivity ▶Feeding Disorder
Formative Assessment SUSAN K. GREEN Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, USA
Synonyms Assessment for learning; Formative evaluation
Definition
Flurazepam Flurazepam, also marketed under the brand names of Dalmane and Dalmadorm, is a psychiatric drug of benzodiazepam derivation. Flurazepam possesses anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, sedative and skeletal muscle relaxant properties. Flurazepam produces a metabolite with a very long half life of up to 25 hours. It may stay in the blood stream up to four days. Flurazepam demonstrates effects approximately a half to one hour after oral administration. It is typically used for the treatment of insomnia. It acts by relaxing muscles, reducing anxiety and causing sleepiness. It is typically used on a short term basis and not approved for children under the age of fifteen. It has been used off label to treat anxiety. In many cases, however, it causes sedation for extended periods of time often into the next day and therefore may not be a good long term sleep aid.
Focused Attention ▶Selective Attention
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The monitoring of progress during instruction that includes useful feedback, opportunities for improvement, and information helpful for tailoring future instruction.
Description The concept of formative assessment [2–4] has been researched and promoted over the last decade as a means of reconceptualizing classroom assessment, and even the teaching and learning process. Formative assessment, conducted during a course of instruction, is often termed assessment for learning to distinguish it from traditional summative assessment, such as an end of unit test after instruction (assessment of learning). The function of formative assessment is to promote learning. The function of summative assessment is to document learning. In formative assessment, “activities. . . are undertaken by teachers to provide feedback to students to enhance their motivation and learning. . .” [4]. To qualify as formative, that feedback must offer learners specific suggestions for future actions that will improve their learning. Examples of formative assessment activities might include students explaining their reasoning behind a choice or position on a political issue in a social studies class with teacher feedback, observation of students’ performance of a gymnastics routine with both teacher and students making suggestions for improvement, an ungraded quiz covering recent biology
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readings for student self-assessment, or quick writes at the end of class asking students to describe their understanding of and questions about the content addressed that can contribute to later discussion and instruction. Key components of effective formative assessment include student understanding of the academic learning goals, meaningful tasks involving critical thinking and dialogue between teacher and student, and student selfassessment, as well as feedback to students with explicit information on how to close the gap between where they are and what they are aiming for, and then opportunities to close that gap [2–4]. The use of formative assessment in the classroom has been shown to enhance student achievement as effectively or more effectively than many traditional academic interventions such as one-one-one tutoring [3]. Other recent research [5, 8] has demonstrated that formative assessment can dramatically increase student achievement, especially among lower achievers. To account for these findings, researchers have suggested that emphasizing individual improvement and rewarding growth rather than focusing on comparison to others and competition, leads to stronger motivation, persistence, and engagement [1, 9]. In contrast, evaluation practices such as grading on a curve, giving special recognition to high achievers and emphasizing correct answers more than the process of learning may allow high achievers to thrive, but may influence less gifted students to reduce effort, avoid difficult tasks or classes, and disengage. Thus, quality formative assessment “redefines the emotional dynamics” of assessment [7]. Rather than exclusively using (summative) assessments as a threat to increase anxiety to maximize motivation and learning, use of formative assessment encourages positive emotional states with the intent of producing confidence, optimism and persistence among students. In addition, the emphasis in formative assessment on the development of metacognition, the process of analyzing and thinking about one’s own thinking (e.g., using skills such as self-assessment, self-correcting errors, and actively monitoring one’s own progress toward a goal) can be especially helpful for lower achievers [6].
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5.
6.
7.
8.
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Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 261–271. Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, October, 139–148. Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 5(1), 7–73. McMillan, J. (2007). Formative classroom assessment: Theory into practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Meisels, S. Atkins-Burnett, S., Xue, Y., & Bickel, D. (2003). Creating a system of accountability: The impact of instructional assessment on elementary children’s achievement scores. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(9). Retrieved June 2, 2008, from http://epaa.asu.edu/ epaa/v11n9/ Shepard, L. (2008). Formative assessment: Caveat Emptor. In C. A. Dwyer (Ed.), The future of assessment: Shaping teaching and learning (pp. 279–303). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stiggins, R. (2008). Correcting “Errors of measurement” that sabotage student learning. In C. A. Dwyer (Ed.), The future of assessment: Shaping Teaching and learning (pp. 229–243). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Wiliam, D., Lee, C., Harrison, C., & Black, P. (2004). Teachers developing assessment for learning: Impact on student achievement. Assessment in Education, 11, 49–65. Wolters, C. (2004). Advancing achievement goal theory: Using goal structures, and goal orientations to predict students’ motivation, cognition, and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 216–235.
Formative Evaluation ▶Formative Assessment
Formative Year ▶Infancy
Foster Care
Relevance to Childhood Development Because use of formative assessment strategies has been shown to augment student learning and motivation, the basic elements of formative assessment can be recommended to teachers and incorporated into many types of interventions to enhance children’s academic development and improve attitudes toward school and learning.
STEPHANIE DVORAK, TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
Synonyms Kinship care; Out-of-home placements; Parental rights termination
Fragile X Syndrome
Definition Temporary care provided for children who are unable to live with their biological parents and are typically placed by state agencies [4].
3.
4.
Description In the United States over 500,000 children are currently in some foster care placement [1]. Some of the reasons for foster care placements include cases where children have been abused or neglected, have severe emotional or behavioral problems, or there have been parental problems such as drug abuse, incarceration, abandonment, serious illness, or death [1]. The largest population of children in foster care is African American children who represent two thirds of all children and foster care and are more likely to remain in foster care for longer periods of time [1]. However, two thirds of children in foster care will be reunited with their parents within 2 years. Unfortunately, many children spend years waiting in the system to either go back to their biological families or be adopted. Most states encourage reunification of biological families, but if that is not possible, children can spend years waiting for other permanent placements [1]. About one quarter of the children in foster care have serious problems including emotional, behavioral, and developmental delays or disturbances. Over the past few years the number of foster parents available has decreased, while there has been an increase in foster care placement with relatives (kinship care) [1]. Some of the different types of foster care settings include relative and nonrelative foster homes, group homes, emergency shelters, and residential facilities. Data from 2005 show that around 70% of foster care placements are relative or non-relative foster family homes. The main goal of foster care is that children will be placed in a permanent setting in which they will have a loving and stable environment in which to thrive [1]. Statistics from 2005 show that of the children who exited foster care that year, over 50% went back to their parents and 18% were adopted [2]. Children can be placed in foster care at any point from birth to age 18. There is a growing problem of children who reach age 18 “aging out” of foster care without the proper educational, emotional, or financial support to maintain lives as productive adults [3].
References 1.
2.
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Facts for families foster care [Data File]. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/foster_care Child Welfare Information Gateway Protecting Children Strengthening Families. Child welfare/foster care statistics [Data File].
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Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.childwelfare.gov/ pubs/factsheets/foster.cfm Geenen, S., & Powers, L. E. (2007). Tomorrow is another problem: The experiences of youth in foster care during their transition into adulthood. Children and Youth Services Review, 29, 1085–1101. United States Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. Child welfare policy manual [Data File]. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.acf. hhs.gov/j2ee/programs/cb/laws_policies/laws/cwpm/policy_dsp.jsp? citID=207#820
F Fragile X Syndrome RANDAL J. MCCALLIAN, MARIA G. VALDOVINOS Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
Synonyms FXS; Martin-Bell syndrome
Description Fragile X Syndrome, originally called Martin-Bell syndrome, was first described by Martin and Bell in 1943 as they described a large family in which multiple males were affected with mental retardation (MR) which appeared to be inherited from women who either were not affected with mental retardation or who were minimally affected with MR. Since that time, Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) has been identified as the most commonly known inherited cause of mental retardation. FXS is caused by a mutation on the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene (FMR1), located on the X chromosome. The mutation results in a decrease in, or lack of, production of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) leading to a wide range of learning disabilities, emotional problems, physical features, and high comorbidity with other disorders, such as ADHD and autism. There is no known cure for FXS and the best treatment includes a broad range of behavioral interventions and pharmacotherapy.
Genetics FXS is the first known disorder to be associated with a trinucleotide sequence (CGG). This sequence is located on the X chromosome at the Xq27.3 locus [9]. Within the general population, the number of CGG repeats varies between 6 and 54. This results in the normal expression of FMR1 gene and the appropriate production of FMRP. However, for some, through a process not entirely understood, an observed expansion in the number of repeats occurs. Specifically, an expansion from a premutation
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state (between 55 and 200 CGG repeats) to full mutation may occur when the FMR1 gene is passed on to the next generation via a female. Those with the premutation were previously thought to be unaffected by the inherited mutation on the FMR1 gene as the production of FMRP is unaltered, however, recent research has shown that those with the premutation may have higher prevalence rates of psychological, cognitive and physical issues than the typical population. For instance, female carriers of the premutation have a higher incidence (20–28% of women carriers) of premature ovarian failure, a cessation of the normal functioning of the ovaries in a woman younger than age 40 (this is not to be confused with menopause as women with premature ovarian failure are much more likely to continue to menstruate, even if irregularly) [9]. Women with the premutation also present with increased rates of depression. Male carriers are prone to develop fragile X associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS). This disorder affects 30% of premutation older males and often begins with an intention tremor or ataxia. Then, as the disorder progresses, disruption in activities associated with daily living occurs in addition to a decreased sensation in lower extremities, Parkinsonian features, psychiatric symptoms including anxiety, progressive memory and executive function deficits along with attention switching problems [8]. In females, premutations are unstable and can expand further when passed down to the next generation. Males with the premutation pass the premutation to their daughters (X-linked disorders) but unlike in female transmission, the number of repeats does not expand in size. In female transmission of the premutation, the greater the number of repeats found on the mother’s X chromosome, the greater the likelihood of expansion to full mutation in next generation. If the mother possesses more than 100 repeats and passes the mutated X chromosome to her child, that mutation will expand to a full mutation 100% of the time [9]. Once expansion of the trinucleotide sequence CGG exceeds 230, methylation, or silencing, of a portion of the FMR1 gene and surrounding areas occurs resulting in a disruption in the production of FMRP. Not everyone with the full mutation is affected in the same way. That is to say, individuals with the full mutation may experience partial or full methylation which in turn determines FMRP production. Nonetheless, the greater the number of repeats the more likely one experiences full methylation. Another form of inheritance is mosaicism, which occurs in up to 5% of those diagnosed with FXS. In those with a mosaic form of FXS, some cells have unmethylated FMR1 genes and other cells have fully
mutated genes resulting in varying amounts of FMRP production. Those with a mosaic inheritance generally present with fewer cognitive deficits and overall higher functioning abilities as FMRP production positively correlates with level of functioning [13]. Females, on average, are less affected by the inheritance of the full mutation. This is, in part, due to typical methylation that occurs regardless of mutation status. Since females possess two X chromosomes, inactivation of one of the X chromosomes occurs naturally via methylation in each cell. Contingent on the ratio of cells that possess methylated affected versus methylated unaffected X chromosomes (referred to as the activation ratio), the impact of FXS may be limited as there may be a varying degree of normal X chromosome expression. In other words, more FMRP is produced and fewer symptoms are observed when there are more mutated X chromosomes turned off and more unaffected X chromosomes left on [2]. Diagnosing FXS is conducted via DNA testing. Specifically, the FMR1 gene is evaluated and the number of CGG repeats is determined. This testing enables the diagnosis of either the premutation or the full mutation. As with many disorders, the definitive prevalence rates for those with FXS is unknown, however, recent reports have stated the prevalence for full mutations to be at 1 in 4,000 for males and 1 in 9,000 for females. The prevalence of premutation carriers is greater at 1 in 259 females and 1 in 700 males [9].
Mechanism of Action Although the FXS brain appears to be grossly normal in comparison to typically matched peers, in the absence of FMRP, abnormal dendritic development occurs in which an overgrowth of immature spines is observed [4, 10]. The mechanism by which this occurs is unknown, but is hypothesized to be attributed to enhanced metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) activity resulting from the lack of FMRP [3]. Essentially, the activation of mGluR leads to mRNA translation at synapses producing an increase in long-term depression (LTD), a process that decreases synaptic effectiveness, and a weakening of AMPA receptors. FMRP, which is widely expressed in a typically developing brain, functions as a repressor of mRNA translation (negative feedback loop). As a result, AMPA is made available at the synapse thereby facilitating long-term potentiation (LTP), a process that increases synaptic strength, rather than LTD [3]. In the case of FXS, in which there are lower amounts of FMRP available or none at all, the overabundance of mRNA translation results in increased LTD and decreased AMPA activity at the synapse resulting in an increased density of immature dendritic spines.
Fragile X Syndrome
The overactive mGluR signaling is hypothesized to be responsible for many features of FXS such as epilepsy, cognitive impairment, developmental delay, and loss of motor coordination [8].
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Those diagnosed with FXS have distinct features which include a long face, a high arched palate, and large and long ears. Also observed in those with FXS are flat feet, soft skin, and hand calluses. A characteristic unique to FXS is the single palmer crease seen in approximately 51% of males. Additionally, an increased prevalence of connective tissue dysplasia is found in those with FXS. This connective tissue dysplasia is thought to contribute to other common physical features of FXS including: hypotonia, hyperextensible finger joints, double-jointed thumbs, mitral valve prolapse, cardiac murmur, hernias, scoliosis and higher than average rates of otitis media. Growth abnormalities are also more likely to be observed in those with FXS. For example, young children with FXS may present with a large head circumference and an initial overgrowth in height and weight; however, during puberty, many with FXS experience a slowing of growth leading to an overall shorter stature. Adolescent and adult males with FXS also tend to develop macroorchidism (i.e., large testicles) sometimes reaching a volume two to three times the normal size [9].
math skills are still likely. There may also be issues with mood lability, temper control, and increased levels of anxiety in some males with FXS. It has been found that many males with FXS experience a developmental decline in IQ as they age, although the reason for this is not yet known [8]. Females with FXS are also affected by cognitive impairments with deficits observed in, focusing and maintaining attention, organizational tasks, and a tendency to also have difficulties with math. Females are more commonly affected, than males with FXS, by impulsive behavior, mood lability, avoidant personality disorder, and anxiety disorders [2]. Excessive shyness and social anxiety are also common among girls with FXS and in very severe cases can lead to selective mutism in specific settings. The severity of cognitive impairments, as with most features of FXS, varies greatly among individuals. It is typically seen that females with FXS tend to have a less severe presentation of associated characteristics than males because of the potential for more FMRP production. Strengths for both genders are often seen in the entering and processing of simultaneous information in addition to retrieving information from long-term memory, particularly verbal memory. Those with FXS have also displayed an increased ability to understand the difference between their own personal representations of the world, as compared to that of others [7].
Neurological Presentation
Behavioral Phenotype
Epilepsy is the most common neurologic abnormality in FXS presenting in 15–20% of males diagnosed with FXS [13]. Seizures typically begin in childhood or adolescence and are usually seen to either occur less frequently by adulthood or have disappeared altogether. Anticonvulsant medications (e.g., carbamazepine (Tegretol)) have been found to be very effective in controlling seizure activity in individuals with FXS. The cause of epilepsy in individuals with FXS is not yet known, however, it is hypothesized that the dendritic spine abnormalities seen in the FXS brain may lead to excessive neuronal excitation and potentially cause seizures [9].
Behavioral characteristics that are prevalent in those with FXS include difficulty with social interaction, sensory hypersensitivities, and extreme sensitivity to changes in their environment. This also includes poor eye contact, shyness, and social anxiety particularly in new or unfamiliar environments [11]. Individuals with FXS may have hypersensitivities to visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory stimuli. Loud noises, obvious or distinct smells and some textures of fabric or food are frequently aversive to those with FXS. Hyper-arousal of the senses may lead to violent outbursts, tantrums, and either self-injurious behavior or outward aggression. Children with FXS are prone to hyperarousal and tend to struggle with even simple transitions, potentially leading to violent behavior [11]. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and associated symptoms (e.g., varying degrees of inhibition/ impulsivity, hyperactivity, and sustained, divided or selective attention) account for much of the problematic behaviors observed in those with FXS [12]. When compared to other children diagnosed with developmental disabilities (matched for intellectual functioning), a higher prevalence of ADHD has been found in those
Physical Phenotype
Cognitive Deficits Males with FXS generally present with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) displaying deficits in cognitive and executive functioning, verbal reasoning, abstract /visual ability, quantitative skills, short-term memory, adaptive and daily living skills and communication [9]. High functioning males may have typical, or slightly less than typical, cognitive abilities but deficits in executive functioning, attentional control, and
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with FXS. Research has also found a higher incidence of ADHD in boys with FXS (73%) as compared to girls with FXS (35%); however, it appears that a percentage of older males with FXS outgrow their hyperactivity [11]. FXS also has a high comorbidity with autism. Approximately 30% of males with FXS have a dual diagnosis of autism and FXS. Conversely, approximately 6% of those diagnosed with autism will also possess the FXS FMR1 gene mutation [9]. Those presenting with a dual diagnosis have more severe cognitive, adaptive, receptive and expressive language deficits [9]. Certain behavioral characteristics of autism (e.g., hand flapping, hand biting and toe-walking) are more common among those with FXS as are certain speech characteristics (e.g., perseveration of a particular activity or topic of speech, echolalia, cluttered speech, mumbling, and self-talk) [11].
Language Prelinguistic gestures and vocalizations are commonly used well past the usual age (i.e., toddlerhood) at times extending into adolescence or adulthood [1]. Language delays may be more severe in males, although research with females in this area is minimal. Those with a dual diagnosis of autism and FXS show greater language delays with limited receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. For those who do not have a comorbid diagnosis of autism, research has demonstrated that receptive and expressive vocabularies can be strengths [7]. The high frequency of difficult behaviors and psychopathology, such as excessive hyperactivity, greatly impact the acquisition of language and subsequent use.
Treatment Treatment and appropriate interventions, for the physical and behavioral problems associated with FXS, are currently the best available methods for alleviating the effects of the disorder. An optimal treatment plan involves a multiprofessional approach of physicians, occupational therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, and the involvement of those closest to the person such as family members and teachers. These professionals can provide support to the individual through an individualized treatment plan addressing academic and behavioral issues, motor and language delays, and pharmacotherapy for the psychopathologies and epilepsy associated with FXS [9]. Intervention methods can be very effective for addressing both the emotional and behavioral problems associated with FXS. Treatment may include individual and family psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, group therapy, social skills training programs, and pharmacotherapy
[9]. Pharmacotherapy can be used to treat the wide range of attentional, behavioral and neurological issues seen in individuals with FXS. ADHD symptoms, such as attentional deficits and impulsivity, can be treated with stimulant medication (e.g., dextroamphetamine (Dexedrin; Adderall), methylphenidate (Ritalin)) [9]. For some individuals, stimulants may exacerbate problem behaviors in which case medications such as anti-hypertensive drugs (e.g., clonidine or guanfacine) may be prescribed. Antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (e.g., fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil)), can be used to treat various problems related to anxiety, compulsive and perseverative behaviors along with mood symptoms and depression. SSRIs are also used to treat the social anxiety and withdrawal symptoms found in many females and high-functioning males with FXS [5]. Atypical antipsychotics (e.g., risperidone (Risperdal)) are also used to treat mood disorders and aggression in those with FXS. Anticonvulsants (e.g., carbamazepine, valproic acid, lamotrigine, gabapentin, and topiramate) are commonly used to treat epilepsy and have also been shown to be effective in decreasing some of the behavioral problems observed in those with FXS and treating mood disorders in individuals with FXS [5, 9]. Sleep disturbances, including problems with sleep regulation, is a common feature of FXS, particularly in young children for which melatonin use at bedtime is often used [5]. Recent research has been focused towards addressing the cognitive impairments and neurological basis of FXS (i.e., mGluR overactivity). Preliminary research has evaluated the effects lithium, an inhibitor of mGluR pathways, has on behavioral and cognitive traits of those with FXS. Results indicate positive benefits; however, clinical trials are necessary to determine the reliability and validity of these results [6].
References 1. Abbeduto, L., Brady, N., & Kover, S. T. (2007). Language and development and fragile X syndrome: Profiles, syndrome-specificity, and within-syndrome differences. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 13, 36–46. 2. Abrams, M. T., Reiss, A. L., Freund, L. S., Baumgardner, T. L., Chase, G. A., & Denckla, M. B. (1994). Molecular-neurobehavioral associations in females with the fragile X full mutation. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 51, 317–327. 3. Bear, M. F., Huber, K. M., & Warren, S. T. (2004). The mGluR theory of fragile X mental retardation. Trends in Neuroscience, 27(7), 370–377. 4. Beckel-Mitchener, A., & Greenough, W. T. (2004). Correlates across the structural, functional, and molecular phenotypes of fragile X syndrome. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 10, 53–59.
Freud, Anna 5. Berry-Kravis, E., & Potanos, K. (2004). Psychopharmacology in fragile X syndrome-present and future. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 10, 42–48. 6. Berry-Kravis, E., Sumis, A., Hervey, C., Nelson, M., Porges, S. W., Weng, N., et al. (2008). Open-label treatment trial of lithium to target the underlying defect in fragile X syndrome. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 29, 293–302. 7. Cornish, K., Sudhalter, V., & Turk, J. (2004). Attention and language in fragile X. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 10, 11–16. 8. Hagerman, R. J., & Hagerman, P. J. (Eds.). (2002). Fragile X syndrome: Diagnosis, treatment, and research. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 9. Hagerman, R. J., & Lampe, M. E. (1999). Fragile X syndrome. In S. Goldstein & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders (pp. 298–316). New York: The Guilford Press. 10. Irwin, S. A., Galvez, R., & Greenough, W. T. (2000). Dendritic spine abnormalities in fragile-X mental retardation syndrome. Cerebral Cortex, 10, 1038–1044. 11. Roberts, J. E., Weisenfield, L. A., Hatton, D. D., Heath, M., & Kaufmann, W. E. (2006). Social approach and autistic behavior in children with fragile X syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1748–1760. 12. Sullivan, K., Hatton, D., Hammer, J., Sideris, J., Hooper, S., Ornstein, P., et al. (2006). ADHD symptoms in children with FXS. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 140A, 2275–2288. 13. Tsiouris, J. A., & Brown, W. T. (2004). Neuropsychiatric symptoms of fragile X syndrome: Pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy. Therapy in Practice: CNS Drugs, 18(11), 687–703.
Frame of Mind ▶Mood
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Freud, Anna RACHEL WAMSER1, RACHEL HIBBERD1, BRIAN VANDENBERG2 1 University Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA 2 University Missouri 1 University Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, USA
Life Dates 1895–1982
Introduction Anna Freud is the daughter of Dr. Sigmund Freud and is considered to be the keeper of her father’s legacy [1, 12– 14]. She is a pioneer in the development of child psychoanalysis and child developmental psychology. Ms. Freud is known for her theoretical, technical, and scientific contributions to psychoanalysis, child and ego psychology, as well as her initiatives with children in poverty and those in the legal system. Ms. Freud was prolific, with over 200 articles, most of which can be found in The Writings of Anna Freud [6], and her book, The Ego and its Defense Mechanisms [5], is one of the most widely read psychoanalytic works to this day.
Educational Information
Fraternal Twins ▶Dizygotic (DZ) Twins
Fraudulence ▶Dishonesty
Frequency ▶Standard Celeration Charting
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Ms. Freud, originally an elementary school teacher, completed her training as a psychoanalyst in 1920 [14]. She never had formal college training, nor a medical degree, but at that time no formal training programs existed and none would be developed until 1926. She later received many honorary degrees including Doctor of Laws, M.D., and Ph.D.
Accomplishments Anna Freud was involved in psychoanalytic training, establishing charitable nurseries, and improving legal decisions involving children. Ms. Freud was a training analyst and later the director of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Training Institute, where she was instrumental in training many analysts, including Erik Erikson [14]. In 1947, Ms. Freud and Kate Friedlander founded the Hampstead Child Therapy Training course and later the Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic, subsequently renamed
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the Anna Freud Centre, a charitable institution that provided free services. Anna Freud and Edith Jackson established the Jackson nursery in 1937, one of the first nurseries to provide care for underprivileged children under the age of 2. During World War II, Ms. Freud and Dorothy Burlingham founded the Hampstead Wartime Nurseries, which served over 190 children who had been evacuated due to the war. She received the first Dolly Madison Award at the White House for Outstanding Service to Children. Ms. Freud taught courses at Yale Law School on family and crime in the early 1960s. Here, she partnered with Joseph Goldstein, Dorothy Burlingham, and Albert Solnit and published Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, Before the Best Interests of the Child, and In the Best Interests of the Child [9–11]. The authors stressed the importance of continuity in children’s relationships, argued for how to best construe “the best interests of the child,” and helped to define situations in which intervention is needed. Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, in particular, had a profound impact on the legal system [11]. Anna Freud was involved in many professional affiliations and had numerous appointments. Ms. Freud presented her first paper, “Beating Fantasies and Daydreams” for admittance into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in May 1922 [2]. Ms. Freud held the position of Secretary from 1931 to 1933, at which time she became coVice-President. She also was General Secretary of the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1927 and continued in that position until 1934, when she became VicePresident. Following her emigration to London in 1938, she became affiliated with the British Psychoanalytic Society and was elected Secretary in 1944. Ms. Freud was one of the founding editors of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, and editor of Journal of Psychoanalytic Education and Psychoanalytic Quarterly [14].
Contributions Anna Freud was one of a small group of analysts interested in using psychoanalysis with children. In 1927, Ms. Freud established the use of psychoanalysis with children in Introduction to the Technique of Child Analysis, based on lectures from her child analysis courses [1, 3]. Ms. Freud viewed children’s difficulties as being transient and normal, and urged a conservative use of psychoanalysis with children. Nonetheless, she advocated for a psychoanalytically informed environment for children. Her work emphasized the developmental and technical differences in working with children, as opposed to adults, an uncommon perspective at the time. She recommended the use of play techniques for children, since she viewed techniques used
in adult psychoanalysis to be inappropriate. Ms. Freud asserted that not all children’s play actions have symbolic significance, and should not be thought of as equivalent to free association in adults. Ms. Freud also argued that transference differs in children, in that children do not develop a complete transference neurosis. Despite some important developmental differences, she argued that a separate theory of child psychoanalysis was unnecessary; that psychoanalytic insights applied equally to children. Ms. Freud effectively argued for the importance of the ego, in comparison to instincts and drives, in The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense, making the ego a worthwhile therapeutic enterprise [5, 12]. Ms. Freud mapped out the ego’s functioning and offered a comprehensive account of psychological defenses. Sigmund Freud had introduced the concept of defense mechanisms; however, it was largely unexplained and he had not expanded the concept since 1900. Ms. Freud added new defense mechanisms to the classic list of defense mechanisms, including sublimation or the transformation of unwanted impulses into something less harmful, altruistic surrender, and identification with the aggressor. Based on their observations from Hampstead, Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham published Young Children in Wartime: A Year’s Work in a Residential Nursery and Infants Without Families: The Case for and Against Residential Nurseries [7, 8]. These works concluded that emotional development was most hindered in institutional life due to separation from caregivers, and consequently a family-like atmosphere was created in the residential nursery. Children were assigned to surrogate families, with one nurse assigned to four or five children. Parent involvement was encouraged as much as possible. Mothers could work as housekeepers so that they could nurse their babies, siblings were not separated, and there were no restrictions placed on visitation. The Hampstead Nurseries provided valuable information about the effects of wartime on children, which led to changes in the treatment of children separated from their parents. For example, English hospital polices were amended to allow parents to stay with their children during long hospital stays. Ms. Freud was involved in the development of the Hampstead Index, an observational classification system used to record children’s feeding, sleeping, bodily development, intellectual development, and formation of relationships [2]. The use of the Hampstead Index lead to detailed developmental charts and histories for each child, and was one of the first to utilize systematic reliable observation of children. At Hampstead, Ms. Freud and colleagues also created the Developmental Profile, a diagnostic instrument used
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to assess normality and abnormality [1]. The Profile includes numerous aspects of psychological functioning, as well as achievements and regressions, in a number of areas of development, such as body independence (independent feeding, bladder and bowel control) and play (from egocentricity to companionship). Prior to this Profile, diagnosis was given little attention in psychoanalysis [2]. The use of the Profile led to more precise diagnoses and conceptualizations for treatment. It also was used to test the effectiveness of analysis, by comparing pre- and post-treatment profiles to each other. In her last major theoretical statement, Normality and Pathology in Childhood, Ms. Freud gives a comprehensive account of her views on abnormal and normal development, including her theory of “developmental lines.” [4, 13] Developmental lines are linear progressions in various aspects of development that can be observed in children. The sequence of social relations, for example, runs from the total dependency observed in infants to the ability to form mature relationships in adulthood. Psychopathology is thought to occur when an individual fails to progress in one aspect of development or when there is unevenness along the “lines.” Through this theory, Ms. Freud was able to connect normal and abnormal developmental processes [2].
References 1. Cole, R. (1992). Anna Freud: The dream of psychoanalysis (Radcliffe biography series). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. 2. Dyer, R. (1983). Her father’s daughter: The work of Anna Freud. New York: Jason Aronson, Inc. 3. Freud, A. (1928). Techniques of child analysis. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co. 4. Freud, A. (1965). Normality and pathology in childhood. New York: International Universities Press. 5. Freud, A. (1966). The ego and mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press. 6. Freud, A. (1967). The writings of Anna Freud. New York: International Universities Press. 7. Freud, A., & Burlingham, D. (1942). Young children in wartime: A year’s work in a residential nursery. London: International Universities Press. 8. Freud, A., & Burlingham, D. (1944). Infants without families: The case for and against residential nurseries. London: International Universities Press. 9. Goldstein, J., Freud, A., & Solnit, A. (1973). Before the best interests of the child. New York: Free Press. 10. Goldstein, J., Freud, A., & Solnit, A. (1979). Beyond the best interests of the child. New York: Free Press. 11. Goldstein, J., Freud, A., & Solnit, A. (1986). In the best interests of the child. New York: Free Press. 12. Peters, U. H. (1985). Anna Freud. New York: Schocken Books. 13. Solnit, A. (1983). Anna Freud’s contribution to child and applied analysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 64, 379–390. 14. Young-Bruehl, E. (1988). Anna Freud. New York: Summit Books.
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Friends CYNTHIA A. ERDLEY, DOUGLAS W. NANGLE, ALANA M. BURNS University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Synonyms Buddies; Chums; Companions; Pals
Definition Friends are individuals who have a close, personal relationship with one another that is characterized by mutual positive feelings.
Description Assessment of Friendship Friendship dyads are typically identified using sociometric techniques. Specifically, researchers use some combination of positive nominations, in which children are asked to select their best friends or the classmates they like the most, and peer ratings, in which children are asked to rate how much they like to play with or participate in activities with their classmates. Identification of friends has most frequently been based on mutual positive nominations (i.e., each dyad member nominates the other as a best friend). However, some researchers have classified individuals as friends if they display mutual positive regard for one another through either positive nominations or high ratings. It has been found that operationalizing friendship based on mutual positive nominations is more restrictive, since this technique results in fewer friendships being identified than techniques involving the use of ratings [5]. It is possible that defining friendship based on mutual positive nominations identifies friendship dyads that are qualitatively distinct from the friendships that are identified using more lenient criteria. This proposition is relevant to the question of whether friendship is a categorical or continuous construct [8]. Whereas the categorical view implies that friendship is a distinct relationship, a continuous view implies that there are varying levels of relationships that are labeled as “friendships” (for example, best friends, good friends, acquaintances). The degree to which individuals say they like one another may reflect the level of friendship that exists. It should be noted that some researchers simply ask individuals who their friends are and assume a friendship exists despite the fact that there is no information available regarding whether the identified partner actually has positive feelings for the person.
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Nature of Interactions with Friends Individuals tend to choose as their friends those who are similar to themselves in demographic, behavioral, and personality characteristics. For example, friends are typically similar in variables such as age, race, level of aggression, attitudes toward school, and substance use patterns. It is thought that similarity in features initially attracts individuals to one another and provides validation for one’s characteristics. Friends then mutually influence one another in ways that make them even more alike as their relationship develops [3]. There are many ways in which individuals’ interactions with friends differ from their interactions with peers who are not friends. For example, there is a greater level of positive engagement with friends than nonfriends, including a higher intensity and frequency of talking, smiling, laughing, sharing, cooperating, and helping. Interactions with friends feature less intense competition and domination than interactions with nonfriends, and there is more emphasis on equality. Interestingly, although the frequency of conflict between friends versus nonfriends does not differ, disagreements between friends are more apt to be resolved using negotiation rather than strategies involving power assertion and standing firm. Consequently, conflict resolution strategies used by friends are more apt to lead to equitable outcomes that help to preserve the friendship [10]. Although friendships are characterized by mutual positive feelings, there is variability in the quality of specific friendships. Compared to those who are poorly accepted by the peer group, children who are well liked tend to enjoy higher quality friendships that involve greater trust and loyalty, more equitable conflict resolution, and greater validation and intimacy [11]. It is also important to consider the identity of an individual’s friends, given that whether a child’s friends are prosocial or antisocial likely makes a difference in the child’s overall adjustment [8]. Indeed, the friendships of antisocial adolescent males have been found to be of relatively low quality and short duration, and are apt to end acrimoniously [2]. Children begin forming friendships during the preschool years, and they tend to identify those with whom they play frequently as their friends. Although young children are likely to describe their friends primarily in terms of their role as playmate, it has been observed that intimacy also characterizes young children’s friendships. For example, young children confide in one another about their worries and fears, and friends know more about the likes and dislikes of their friends versus nonfriends. By middle childhood, children begin to emphasize the loyalty
aspect of friendship relations. During adolescence, there is a strong focus on intimacy as an important facet of friendship [6]. Throughout the childhood years, children tend to choose same-gender peers as their friends. This seems to result from boys and girls each having distinctive play styles (e.g., boys more focused on rough-and-tumble play) and differing interests in particular toys and activities. However, by early adolescence, cross-sex friendships begin to occur with greater frequency as individuals experience increasing interest in the other sex. Although boys’ and girls’ friendships are similar in many respects, such as companionship and conflict, it has been found that boys tend to have larger, less intimate friendship networks, whereas girls have smaller, more intimate friendship networks [4]. By late elementary school, female-female friendships are characterized by greater levels of emotional intimacy than are male-male friendships, a pattern that continues throughout the lifespan. In early adolescence, cross-sex friendships tend to be fairly low in intimacy, but by late adolescence female-male friendships show higher levels of intimacy, similar to the levels observed in female-female friendships. It has been suggested that this increase in intimacy in cross-sex friendships may provide a training ground, particularly for males, for heterosexual romantic relationships [12]. Interestingly, the size of adolescents’ same-sex friendship network is predictive of the size of their other-sex friendship network. In turn, the number of other-sex friends is associated with the likelihood of adolescents having a romantic relationship, both concurrently and in subsequent years [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development Friendships serve many important functions in childhood and beyond [7]. Within the friendship context, children typically experience affection and love. Moreover, friendships tend to be characterized by intimacy, as friends share their feelings and personal aspects of themselves. Having a friend to confide in may promote feelings of trust, acceptance, and a sense of being understood. Friends may also be a valuable source of nurturance by providing comfort, solace, and support to one another. Giving such aid may promote feelings of competence, enhance self-esteem, and create a sense of being needed. Furthermore, friends provide instrumental aide as well as a sense of reliable alliance by being loyal to one another and willing to share resources. Finally, friends are frequent sources of companionship, stimulation, and fun. Interacting with a friend affirms one’s
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competence and value and can enhance one’s feelings of self-worth. Given that interactions with friends provide affection, emotional support, validation, and a sense of belonging, it is not surprising that research has revealed that children and adolescents who have poor friendship experiences are at risk for psychosocial difficulties. Those who do not have a friend or who are involved in a low quality friendship are more vulnerable to feelings of loneliness and depression. Poor friendship experiences are also related to lower self-esteem, higher social anxiety, greater risk for peer victimization, and more difficulties in making school transitions [9]. Because of the critical role that positive friendship experiences play in childhood, there is clearly a need to design interventions that are focused on improving the social skills of children who are having difficulties with friendships.
References 1. Connolly, J., Furman, W., & Konarksi, R. (2000). The role of peers in the emergence of heterosexual romantic relationships in adolescence. Child Development, 71, 1395–1408. 2. Dishion, T. J., Andrews, D. W., & Crosby, L. (1995). Antisocial boys and their friends in early adolescence: Relationship characteristics, quality, and interactional process. Child Development, 66, 139–151. 3. Dishion, T. J., Patterson, G. R., & Griesler, P. C. (1994). Peer adaptations in the development of antisocial behavior: a confluence model. In L. R. Huesmann (Ed.), Aggressive behavior: current perspectives (pp. 61–95). New York: Plenum. 4. Eder, D., & Hallinan, M. T. (1978). Sex differences in children’s friendships. American Sociological Review, 43, 237–250. 5. Erdley, C. A., Nangle, D. W., & Gold, J. A. (1998). Operationalizing the construct of friendship among children: a psychometric comparison of sociometric-based definitional methodologies. Social Development, 7, 62–71. 6. Furman, W., & Bierman, K. (1984). Children’s conceptions of friendship: a multidimensional study. Developmental Psychology, 96, 925–931. 7. Furman, W., & Robbins, P. (1985). What’s the point? Issues in the selection of treatment objectives. In B. H. Schneider, K. H. Rubin, & J. E. Ledingham (Eds.), Children’s peer relations: issues in assessment and intervention. New York: Springer. 8. Hartup, W. W. (1996). The company they keep: friendships and their developmental significance. Child Development, 67, 1–13. 9. Nangle, D. W., & Erdley, C. A. (Eds.). (2001). New directions for child and adolescent development: the role of friendship in psychological adjustment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 10. Newcomb, A. F., & Bagwell, C. L. (1995). Children’s friendship relations: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 306–347. 11. Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1993). Friendship and friendship quality in middle childhood: Links with peer group acceptance and feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction. Developmental Psychology, 29, 611–621. 12. Reisman, J. M. (1990). Intimacy in same-sex friendships. Sex Roles, 23, 65–82.
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Friendship JANETT M. NAYLOR Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS, USA
Synonyms Ally; Best friends; Chums; Cohort; Companions; Pals; Peers; Playmates
Definition A close relationship entered in voluntary and is marked by emotional attachment, reciprocity, and mutuality.
Description Being liked by classmates is very different from having friends. Close friends provide children with (1) accepting contexts for children to learn and expand basic social skills; (2) knowledge about others and the self not available from other sources (family, siblings, etc.); (3) emotional support in times of need; and (4) a foundation of relationship expectations that set the stage for future relationships (romantic, parental, etc.). Just being liked by others does not necessary insure children will receive the benefits of close friendships. Although no central definition of friendship exists, researchers can agree on several key aspects that separate friendships from other types of relationships. Friendships are reciprocal in which both members must affirm participation in the relationship. Also, friends are tied by emotional bond rather than instrumental bonds (both playing the same sport or having same classes). Finally, friendships, unlike other relationships, are voluntary. Children willingly enter into the friendship and willingly maintain and dissolve the relationship. Friends play an important role in every stage of development. Toddlers show a clear preference for their choice of playmates and those preferences seem to remain stable over an entire year. Then, in preschool, friendships become more common and more clearly defined. The number of friends children report having increases steadily from preschool, across middle childhood, and into adolescence. The stability of friendships also increases with development with over 3⁄4 of older children naming the same individuals as friends over the course of one school year. Also, across childhood and adolescence, friends are more similar than nonfriends in age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, as well as behavioral and emotional traits like shyness, achievement and antisocial behaviors.
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Like other areas of social development, children’s friendships progress from a playmate to reciprocal partners exchanging personal information. In preschool, children report friends as someone to play with and with whom to share certain activities. Typically, preschool friends are based on a matter of convenience (living next door, going to the same preschool, children of parents’ friends) rather than on true selection from a variety of sources. Young children also expect their friends to behave in a manner consistent with their own behavior and developmental struggles. However, when children enter elementary school, the selection of available friends expands. Children are able now to choose friends based on shared values and attitudes. Because of the selectivity of friendships in middle childhood, friends can stress the importance of mutually liking each other’s company. Children also understand the differential power distribution between parent-child relationships and friendships. Therefore, in middle childhood, children conceptualize friendships as relationships that transcend shared activities and time. Children are able to distinguish between supportive, high-quality friendships and one-sided friendships. From the reciprocal foundation built in middle childhood, adolescents can expand their friendships to include disclosing intimate and personal information, sharing problems and expecting help with psychological problems. Friendships in adolescence provide the basis for future romantic relationships by allowing members to become emotionally tied to non-related people. Studying children’s friendships is of great importance to researchers because having friends is important to children, making friendships impact on development even stronger. In fact, not having close friendships leads to elevated levels of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and loss of self-esteem. Specifically children without friends are more likely to have emotional problems, to be less altruistic, to have deficiencies in social skills, to show poorer school adjustment, and to make fewer educational gains. Several caveats to the link between friendlessness and developmental issues must be addressed. First, being friendless may be just a temporary state thus decreasing the lasting emotional effects. Second, not all children who are friendless will experience the same developmental issues. Some children seem to not need friends to develop appropriately. Last, no true cause-and-effect link has been determined. Not having friends could be due to poor social skills or having poor social skills could lead to not having friends. Causation may actually be more of a circular cycle for children, which once started can spiral out of control leading to loneliness.
Friendships serve different purposes and vary by contextual factors, such as gender. Specifically, girls’ friendships tend to be more intimate, and show more validation and emotional sharing than boys’ friendships. However, girls’ friendships, especially best friendships, tend to be less stable and more vulnerable to dissolution than those of boys. Friendships between males show less exchange of personal information and are based on shared physical activities. In addition, boys’ friendships are more integrated into the larger social network, whereas girls’ friendships are more isolated from the larger group again making them more vulnerable to dissolution than boys’ friendships. Interestingly, when boys and girls are friends, intimacy is higher than when two boys are friends. Again, this supports the notion of friendships serving different purposes and having different contexts.
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
Bulowski, W. M., Newcomb, A. F., & Hartup, W. W. (Eds.). (1996). The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescence. New York: Cambridge University Press. Dunn, J. (2004). Children’s friendships: The beginnings of intimacy. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Hartup, W. W., & Abecassis, M. (2004). Friends and enemies. In P. K. Smith & C. H. Hart (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (pp. 285–306). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Schaffer, H. R. (1996). Social development. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Fromm, Erich JANET G. BENTON William Alanson White Institute, New York, USA
Life Dates 1900–1980
Educational Information Born in Frankfurt, Germany on March 23, 1900, Erich Fromm was a psychoanalyst and social philosopher whose ideas significantly influenced a broad audience, in addition to psychologists and psychiatrists, in the middle of the twentieth century. He was deeply interested in the emotional lives of the individual and of groups and how both related to community and to culture. Fromm was born into a bourgeois, Jewish background, which he described as “neurotic,” but he rejected religion in his mid-twenties [1]. He received his Ph.D. at the
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University of Heidelberg in 1922, then went on to train in psychoanalysis at the University of Munich in 1923–1924 and the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute in 1925. Fromm was deeply influenced by the events leading up to and resulting from of World War I and by the theories of Karl Marx. Although trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst, Fromm would eventually part with Freud and many of his followers because of his beliefs about the influence of culture and social circumstances on personality [1, 6, 7].
Accomplishments Fromm visited as a guest lecturer in 1933 at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, then left Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1934. He was never welcome in the orthodox community because of his socialist views and was actively ostracized in 1941 when he published Escape from Freedom, which met with critical success in other intellectual communities but not in his own. He went on to write a number of books, including The Forgotten Language (1951) about the function of dreams, The Art of Loving (1956), and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1957) [2–5]. Originally aligned with Karen Horney and the American Institute of Psychoanalysis, Fromm eventually split in 1945 from this group because of controversy about his training as a “lay analyst,” i.e., his non-medical doctorate degree in psychology. This was the beginning of a long, politically driven controversy that was not resolved until 1988 after a lawsuit against the American Psychoanalytic Association was won allowing lay analysts to practice psychoanalysis in the United States [1, 6, 7]. Fromm joined Harry Stack Sullivan and Clara Thompson at what is now the William Alanson White Institute for Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychoanalysis in New York in 1945 and was influential in establishing the interpersonal school of psychoanalysis. He subsequently taught at many different institutions including Columbia University , the New School and New York University in New York, Bennington College in Vermont, Yale University in New Haven, ant the National University of Mexico. He helped found the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) [1].
Contributions Fromm published extensively about many topics, including the importance of social and cultural influence on the development of individuals and groups. He also foresaw difficulties that would eventually develop in the world about energy, famine, and nuclear war. In the theoretical realm Fromm believed in the importance of instinctual drives but rejected Freud’s structural model of Id, Ego, and
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Superego. Instead he emphasized the need for others, transcendence, identity, and frames of orientation. He was somewhat more optimistic than Freud in his beliefs about the “productive frame of orientation” but was also cautionary in his warning about nonproductive frames that include receptive (overly dependent on external gratification and love,) hoarding, exploitative, marketing, and bureaucratic orientations [1, 7, 8].
References 1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
7. 8.
Ewen, R. B. (1988). An introduction to theories of personality (3rd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Fromm, E. (1941). Escape from freedom. New York: Avon Books. Fromm, E. (1951). The forgotten language: An introduction to the understanding of dreams, fairy tales, and myths. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Fromm, E. (1956). The art of loving. New York: Harper and Row. Fromm, E. (1973). The anatomy of human destructiveness. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Lionells, M., Fiscalini, J., Mann, C. H., & Stern, D. B. (Eds.). (1995). Handbook of interpersonal psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press. Mitchell, S., & Black, M. (1995). Freud and beyond. New York: Basic Books. Singer, E. (1970). Key concepts in psychotherapy (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books.
Frontal Cortex ▶Frontal Lobes
Frontal Lesion TRACEY MCLELLAN University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Synonyms Brain damage; Brain injury; Frontal lobe dysfunction; Frontal lobe injury
Definition A lesion, from the Latin word laesio meaning injury, is any abnormal tissue or injury. The frontal lobes are part of the cerebral cortex of the brain. Frontal lesions are damage to the frontal lobe region that is usually caused by disease or trauma.
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Description The frontal lobe region of the human brain (see Fig. 1) is the largest lobe and the region accounts for approximately a third of the total human brain surface. There are considerable functional and anatomical divisions within the frontal lobe. Three primary functional regions on the lateral surface are recognized: the motor region, premotor region, and prefrontal region. The prefrontal region can be subdivided into three topographically segregated groups: the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and paralimbic regions. The limbic/paralimbic region is a forth-functional region that is located deep in the medial portion of the lobe [4]. The cortical surface of the frontal lobe evolves prenatally and then continues throughout the forth decade. The frontal lobe plays a central role in human cognition and is involved in motor behavior, expressive language, concentration and attention, reasoning and thinking, orientation in time, place and person. Frontal lobe functioning, therefore, contributes significantly to the overall psychological and behavioral functioning of an individual [4]. The multidimensional nature of the frontal lobe serves to coordinate and organize brain functioning. This in turn serves the purpose of assisting individuals with goal-directed and self-regulatory behavior, including planning, flexibility and impulse control. The frontal lobes serve a vital role in social behavior, personality and emotion regulation [4]. Importantly, the frontal lobe provides a regulatory function, which effects the integration of multimodality information and the utilization of intellectual resources. Executive function is a cognitive construct adopted as a general description of the types of behavior that reflect frontal lobe activity. Executive functions may be defined as
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Frontal Lesion. Fig. 1 Frontal lobe.
“the ability to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for attainment of a future goal” [6]. Of central importance is the ability to plan future actions, maintain these in mind until implemented and inhibit other actions. Given the wide range of behaviors that are associated with the frontal lobes, it is not unusual to expect that individuals with frontal lesions exhibit a varied range of functional deficits. Frontal lesions are associated with psychiatric (functional) and neurological (organic) disorders. Damage to the frontal lobes can be very disabling for everyday life and dramatic behavioral changes are the hallmark of human frontal lobe dysfunction. In individuals with frontal lobe lesions, the cognitive abilities may continue to operate and “work” but the individual has difficulty ensuring they can constrain the skills to the task at hand [3]. Being able to control many aspects of behavior is often contingent on working memory. For example, an individual may need to manipulate temporarily held representations to formulate plans or they may need to update task goals when another task must also be performed. Frontal lesions that result in working memory deficits likely cause a wide range of problems in the control of attention and in planning and switching between tasks [2]. Frontal lesions can also result in an individual displaying abnormal behaviors linked to the reduced recognition of affective state in others, as well as associated difficulties with other emotional information and emotion regulation. Likewise, the lack of impulse control can result in the expression of inappropriate behaviors.
Relevance to Childhood Development Eslinger et al. [1] found that most but not all children who suffered early frontal lesions involving the prefrontal cortex showed chronic and profound impairments that limited their ability to participate fully in school/employment and maintain successful social relationships. Specific deficits involved the application of social knowledge and sustaining friendships, planning and impulse control, learning from experience, and the relative lack of anxiety, fear or empathy. The finding that a wide range of behaviors were associated with frontal lesions emphasized the convergent nature of the function of the frontal lobes. In addition, Eslinger et al. [1] concluded that an early lesion within the frontal lobe is not only a localized event but also the consequences then have an experiential effect on the maturation of other interacting areas of the brain. Frontal lobe dysfunction has been implicated in many childhood disorders. Deficits in executive function, for example, have been found to be typical of developmental
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disorders in general [5] and several studies have examined the contribution of executive function deficits to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD [5]), learning disabilities [7] and conduct disorders [5]. Difficulty in maintaining attention is one of the hallmarks of selective frontal lesions. Developmental disorders of attention, such as ADHD are most notably relevant to childhood development. ADHD is a common referral for psychiatric treatment in children. The disorder is characterized by difficulties sustaining attention, organizing tasks, being easily distracted and forgetful, difficulty waiting a turn, and difficulty inhibiting a response. As discussed, many of these behaviors are associated with frontal lobe lesions in adults. There is converging evidence that frontal lesions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are implicated in schizophrenia. The onset of schizophrenia typically occurs in the postpubertal period just after performance on DLPFC-dependant tasks typically reaches full adult potential. The pruning of specific DLPFC neuron connections that occurs during adolescence may confer a selective vulnerability to symptom onset after maturity [4]. In addition, traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently involves the frontal lobe. Severe closed head injuries, for example, preferentially involve the orbitofrontal areas because the movement of the brain on impact is restricted by the bony skull. Pediatric TBI results in substantial difficulties for survivors well beyond the acute phase of the injury [3].
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Frontal Lobe Injury ▶Frontal Lesion
F Frontal Lobes AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Synonyms Frontal cortex
Definition The brain is divided into a left and right hemisphere. Each hemisphere is subdivided into four lobes, frontal parietal, occipital and temporal. Each of the four lobes is thought to have specialist roles for aspects of functioning.
Description References 1.
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Eslinger, P. J., Flaherty-Craig, C. V., & Benton, A. L. (2004). Developmental outcomes after early prefrontal cortex damage. Brain and Cognition, 55(1), 84–103. Humphreys, G., & Samson, D. (2004). Attention and the frontal lobes. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kramer, M. E., Chiu, C. Y., Walz, N. C., Holland, S. K., Yuan, W., Karunanayaka, P., et al. (2008). Long-term neural processing of attention following early childhood traumatic brain injury: fMRI and neurobehavioral outcomes. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 14(3), 424–435. Miller, B., & Cummings, J. (1999). The human frontal lobes: Functions and disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. Pennington, B. F., & Ozonoff, S. (1996). Executive functions and developmental psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Special Issue: Annual Research Review, 37(1), 51–87. Welsh, M. C., & Pennington, B. F. (1988). Assessing frontal lobe functioning in children: Views from developmental psychology. Developmental Neuropsychology, 4(3), 199–230. Graham, S., & Harris, K. (1993). Self-regulated strategy development: Helping students with learning problems develop as writers. The Elementary School Journal Special Issue. Strategies Instruction, 94(2), 169–181.
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The frontal lobe is the largest part of the cortex. Anatomically, the frontal lobes extend from the central gyrus to the anterior limit of the brain [5] see yellow area in Fig. 1. The frontal lobes include the primary motor, supplementary motor and premotor cortex (involved in planning of
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Frontal Lobes. Fig. 1 The frontal lobes in relation to the remainder of the brain.
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execution of movement), Brocas area (involved in the production of speech) and the prefrontal lobes (involved in executive functions, social behavior and motivational states [5].
Premotor and Motor Cortex The Primary motor cortex is principally involved with movement and motor control; it has extensive connections with the premotor cortex. Damage to the primary motor cortex causes loss of fine motor movements [6]. The Premotor area is principally involved with somatosensory information i.e., information about touch. The Supplementary motor cortex is involved in preparation for rapid series of movements i.e., typing. Both the Premotor and Supplementary motor cortex are involved in the planning of movement [5].
Brocas Area Broca’s area is located on the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobes. Damage to Broca’s area results in difficulties producing speech, however, the person is still able to understand speech. Prefrontal cortex: The most anterior portion of the frontal lobes is called the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the only part of the brain that receives input from all sensory modalities. The prefrontal cortex is split into the
dorsolateral, orbitofronal and the anterior cingulate each area is associated with specific functions outline below [3]: A. Dorsolateral prefrontal circuit: The integrity of this circuit is associated with the effective performance of executive functions, the ability to integrate cognitive and perceptual processes across time and space and update goals in the face of new information. Executive functions include working memory, decision making, flexibility, set maintenance, self monitoring and control of ongoing behavior [9–11]. B. The Orbitofrontal circuit mediates socially appropriate behaviors. Personality changes are most commonly seen after disruption of this circuit and may include irritability and changes in mood [7]. Patients with lesions in this area may behave inappropriately in social situations, often failing to respond to environmental and social cues [3, 7]. C. The Anterior cingulate: This circuit is involved in motivated behavior [12]. Patients with lesions in the structures of the anterior cingulate are reported to be apathetic with impaired motivation along with poor response inhibition and may show a reduction in creative thought [3]. Lesions to different areas of the prefrontal cortex can result in a range of deficits depending on the site of the lesion prefrontal (see Table 1 below).
Frontal Lobes. Table 1 Cognitive and behavioral problems associated with dysfunction in the three frontal-sub-cortical circuits (Table adapted from Chow and Cummings [3]). Circuit
Dysfunction
Dorsolateral prefrontal circuit Executive functions
Impairments Poor organizational strategies Poor memory search strategies Stimulus bound behavior/Environmental dependency Impaired set shifting and maintenance Poor working memory
Anterior cingulate circuit
Socially appropriate behavior
Personality change Emotional incontinence Impulsivity Irritability Mood disorders
Lateral orbitofrontal circuit
Motivated behavior
Apathy Poverty of spontaneous speech Poor response inhibition Reduced creative thought Akinetic mutism
Frontal Lobes
Connections with Subcortical Structures The frontal lobes are also connected with subcortical structures including the basal ganglia and the thalamus (see Fig. 2). The relationship between the frontal lobes and the subcortical structures has been most clearly outline by Alexander, DeLong and Strick [1, 2]. These researchers introduced the concept that the structures of the frontal lobe were involved in five parallel but segregated frontal subcortical pathways. The five frontal subcorticle structures are each named according to their site of origin in the frontal lobes, (1) the motor circuit, (2) the ocular motor circuit (originating in the frontal eye fields), (3) dorsolateral circuit, (4) the Orbital frontal circuit and the (5) Anterior cingulated. The latter three originate in the prefrontal cortex and are dedicated to executive functions. Each of the five circuit is proposed as having a preeminent, if not exclusive, role in the performance of different functions and all share the same features having direct and indirect pathways, with each loop being segregated, and arising from and projecting to the same area of the cortex (see Fig. 2 for diagrammatic representation of the closed circuit for each pathway only the direct circuit is shown). A large body of research supports the role of these circuits in cognitive and behavioral functioning (for review see Owen [8]). Also, lesions to the cortical areas and at other points of the circuits have been reported as having similar effects. For example, people with Parkinson’s disease exhibit many of the deficits associated with dysfunction of the basal thalamo-cortical loops.
Significance to Child Development Synaptic density in the frontal cortex changes over the life span. Huttenlocher (1979) observed that density increases
Frontal cortex
Striatum
Globus pallidus/ Substaintia Nigra
Thalamus
Frontal Lobes. Fig. 2 Diagrammatic representation of the general structure of the frontal sub cortical circuits adapted from Tekin and Cummings [12].
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in the first year of life to well above that of adults and then declines over the next 16 years. There is little change between 16 and 70 years. After 70 years of age the synaptic density declines [4]. This change in synaptic density has been associated with many of the developmental changes seen during childhood and adolescents, particularly the development of emotional and inhibitory control. Some researchers have pointed to the development of the frontal lobe as being directly related to changes such as development of executive functions and theory of mind [11]. Further, disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have also been associated with frontal lobe development, specifically the prefrontal cortex [11]. Given the role of the frontal lobes in development it is important to realize that damage to this area of the brain may have a significant effect on the child’s ability to function.
References 1. Alexander, G., & Crutcher, M. D. (1990). Functional architecture of basal ganglia circuits: Neural substrates of parallel processing. Trends in Neuroscience, 13(7), 266–271. 2. Alexander, G., DeLong, M. R., & Strick, P. L. (1986). Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 9, 357–381. 3. Chow, T. W., & Cummings, J. L. (1999). Frontal-subcortical circuits. In B. L. Miller & J. L. Cummings (Eds.), The human frontal lobes (pp. 3–26). Guilford Press: New York. 4. Huttenlocher, P. R. (1979). Synaptic density in human frontal cortex – developmental changes and effects of aging. Brain Research, 163(2), 195–205. 5. Kalat, J. W. (1995). Biological psychology (5th ed.). New York: Brookes/Cole Publishing Company. 6. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (1996). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (4th ed.). New York: W.H. Freemen and Company. 7. Mah, L. W., Arnold, M. C., & Grafman, J. (2005). Deficits in social knowledge following damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 17(1), 66–74. 8. Owen, A. M. (2004). Cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease: The role of frontostriatal circuitry. The Neuroscientist, 10(6), 525–537. 9. Roberts, R. J., Jr. & Pennington, B. F. (1996). An interactive framework for examining prefrontal cognitive processes. Developmental Neuropsychology [Special executive functions in children], 12(1), 105–126. 10. Salthouse, T. A. (2005). Relations between cognitive abilities and measures of executive functioning. Neuropsychology, 19(4), 532–545. 11. Samango-Sprouse, C. (1999). Frontal lobe development in childhood. In B. L. Miller & J. L. Cummings (Eds.), The human frontal lobes (pp. 584–605). New York: Guilford Press. 12. Tekin, S., & Cummings, J. L. (2002). Frontal-subcortical neuronal circuits and clinical neuropsychiatry: An update. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 53(2), 647–654.
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Full Inclusion JUDAH B. AXE Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
Functional Behavior Analysis ▶Radical Behaviorism
Functional Behavioral Assessment
Synonyms Inclusive education; Mainstreaming
Definition Educating a child with a disability in a general education classroom for all educational services.
Synonyms
Description
Definition
One of the mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is educating children with disabilities in the “least restrictive environment.” This stipulates a continuum of services ranging from hospitalization to homebased education to resource room to partial inclusion to full inclusion. A student in full inclusion has a disability and spends all school hours with same-age, typically developing students in the general education classroom. A special educator often consults with a student’s general education teacher to assess the needs of the student and provide supports allowing the student to benefit from instruction.
Provides a consideration of specific behaviors and behavioral patterns set within an environmental context. It has been defined as “an analysis of the contingencies responsible for behavioral problems” [1, p. 433].
References 1. 2.
Guralnick, M. (2001). Early childhood inclusion: Focus on change. Baltimore: Brookes. Mesibov, G. B., & Shea, V. (1996). Full inclusion and students with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 26, 337–346.
Full Scale IQ ▶Intelligence Quotient
FBA
Description FBA can be conducted with students who have an identified disability and who exhibit problem behaviors, which interfere with their learning and the learning of others in the classroom. The purpose of conducting an FBA is to determine the problem behavior and to identify the factors that predict and maintain the behavior. Such factors include (a) antecedents: events or situations that consistently preceded the behavior, and (b) consequences, events and conditions that result from problem behaviors. The steps in the FBA include the following: Identifying and operationally defining the target behaviors, collecting data, such as frequency, rate, intensity, and latency of the behaviors, identifying the events that precede and follow the target behavior (antecedent-behavior-consequence or ABC analysis), developing a “hypothesis” about the function of the target behavior and developing an intervention plan [2].
References 1.
Functional Analysis
2.
Malott, R. W., Whaley, D. L., & Malott, M. E. (1997). Elementary principles of behavior (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Shippen, M. E., Simpson, R. G., & Crites, S. A. (2003). A practical guide to functional behavioural assessment. Teaching Exceptional Children, 35(5), 36–44.
▶Behavior Assessment
Functional Assessment ▶Behavior Assessment
Functional Imaging ▶Brain Imaging ▶Positron Emission Tomography
Function-Based Diagnostic Classification Systems: Problem Behavior
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging LAUREN CONNELL PAVELKA University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
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Function-Based Diagnostic Classification Systems: Problem Behavior ENNIO CIPANI National University, Fresno, CA, USA
Synonyms Brain mapping MRI; Brain MRI
Definition Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a cutting edge type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that measures blood flow and oxygenation in the brain to map brain functioning.
Description Making its first appearance in the early 1990s, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a procedure that detects the brain’s response to neural activity by measuring blood flow and blood oxygenation produced by neurons in different locations of the brain. The emergence of fMRI has contributed greatly to research in neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, and neuroscience. Currently, fMRI provides the best quality of activity images in the human brain; therefore, it is used extensively in experiments involving functional brain mapping. Some examples of psychological functions that can be measured in the brain with fMRI include: attention, cognition, language, sensation, perception, and emotion.
Relevance to Childhood Development Functional MRI has gained much popularity among researchers in recent decades because it does not use ionizing radiation. This allows researchers to safely conduct multiple studies on single subjects – including child subjects.
References 1.
2.
Bandettine, P. A. (2007). Principles of functional magnetic resonance imaging. In F. G. Hillary & J. DeLuca (Eds.), Functional neuroimaging in clinical populations (pp. 31–70). New York: Guilford. Salvoni, U., & Scarabino, T. (Eds.). (2006). High field brain MRI: Use in clinical practice. Berlin: Springer.
Functional Mutism ▶Selective Mutism
Introduction A function based diagnostic classification system contrasts with traditional diagnostic classification systems for child behavior (e.g., DSM-IV-TR). Behaviors are classified as to their environmental function, rather than as a symptom of a syndrome of related behaviors. The characteristics of a function-based diagnostic classification system are the following [1, 2]: ● The diagnosis is of behavior problem characteristics, not child characteristics ● Prescriptive differential treatment is derived from a differential diagnosis ● Assessment data is collected to provide information on context variables, not just rate of behavior ● Assessment phase is concluded with diagnosis phase, in which a function-based category is selected A unique function-based diagnostic classification system has been developed [1, 2] with major categories and subcategories. The four major diagnostic categories classify problem behaviors according to their environmental function. One parameter for this system examines the reinforcement operation currently maintaining the problem behavior (positive reinforcement operations or negative reinforcement operations). A second parameter examines the manner of access to such reinforcement (directly produced or socially mediated). Problem behaviors that serve a positive reinforcement function are termed access behaviors. Problem behaviors that serve a negative reinforcement function are termed escape behaviors (encumbers avoidance functions). Access can be either socially mediated or direct. Escape can also be either socially mediated or direct. The following major categories constitute this classification system: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Direct access (DA) Socially mediated access (SMA) Direct escape (DE) Socially mediated escape (SME)
Within each category, the following sub-categories are offered.
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1. Direct access (DA) ● DA-immediate sensory stimuli ● DA-direct chain to tangible reinforcers ● DA-other 2. Socially mediated access (SMA) ● SMA-adult attention ● SMA-peer attention ● SMA-tangible reinforcers ● SMA-other 3. Direct escape (DE) ● DE-Unpleasant social situations ● DE-relatively lengthy tasks/chores ● DE-relatively difficult tasks/chores ● DE aversive physical stimuli/events ● DE-other 4. Socially mediated escape (SME) ● SME-unpleasant social situations ● SME-relatively lengthy tasks/chores
● SME-relatively difficult tasks/chores ● SME-aversive physical stimuli/event ● SME-other
References 1.
2.
Cipani, E. (1994). Treating children’s severe behavior disorders: A behavioral diagnostic system. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 25, 293–300. Cipani, E., & Schock, K. (2007). Functional behavioral assessment, diagnosis and treatment: A complete system for education and mental health settings. New York: Springer.
FXS ▶Fragile X Syndrome
G GAD ▶Generalized Anxiety Disorder
GAF ▶Global Assessment of Functioning Scales
intelligence; Logical-mathematical intelligence; Musical intelligence; Naturalist intelligence; Spatial intelligence
Definition According to Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, there are eight different domain-specific intelligences. The eight intelligences are: Logical-mathematical, Linguistic, Musical, Spatial, Bodily-kinesthetic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Naturalist.
Description
Galantamine ▶Razadyne®
Gammahydroxybutyrate (GHB) ▶Depressants
GAPD ▶Global Assessment of Functioning Scales
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences DANIEL PATANELLA1, CHANDRA EBANKS2 1 New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA 2 Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
Synonyms Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence; Eight intelligences; Interpersonal intelligence; Intrapersonal intelligence; Linguistic
Although the concepts of intelligence and intelligence testing have been reliable cornerstones of both applied and academic psychology for over a century, they have been equally reliable sources of controversy. Once such controversy is whether intelligence is best conceptualized as being a general mental ability (often referred to in the literature as g), or a set of mental abilities. The traditional psychometric perspective on intelligence leans heavily toward g, yet arguments in favor of multiple intelligences have been offered as an alternative. One of the most influential, and most frequently cited, of these theories is Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. In his 1983 book Frames of Mind, Gardner (born in 1943) postulated that a multiple intelligence framework better describes human intellectual capacity than the traditional single intelligence as epitomized by such wellknown intelligence tests as the Stanford-Binet and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) [2]. Using an impressive array of evidence, Gardner argued that humans simply do not display equal aptitude across domains and initially proposed a set of seven intelligences. These intelligences would constitute distinct and separate units with their own measurable and observable abilities. Each type of intelligence would be tailored to specific types of information, possess different developmental trajectories, and individuals would display competencies in these intelligences in different combinations. All intelligences are not only simply biologically based, but must be
Author’s Note This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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nourished and developed by societies through valued disciplines. Gardner continued to develop and refine his theory through several publications and, in its most current form stemming from 1999s Intelligence Reframed, Gardner lists eight intelligences [3]. The eight intelligences are: Logical-mathematical, Linguistic, Musical, Spatial, Bodily-kinesthetic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Naturalist. Logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences are the closest to intelligence as traditionally conceptualized. Musical intelligence is obviously linked to musical accomplishment, whereas spatial intelligence reflects accomplishment in the visual arts such as painting and sculpture and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence manifests itself in physical activity such as dance. Intrapersonal intelligence refers to self-awareness, and Gardner suggests that Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) is an exemplar of this specific type of intelligence. Interpersonal intelligence is related to leadership abilities and working with other people. Finally, naturalist intelligence is related to accomplishments in the study and appreciation of life itself; Gardner indicates that Charles Darwin is an exemplar of naturalist intelligence. As with virtually every other aspect of intelligence as a topic of psychological inquiry, controversy exists regarding Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Recent critics such as Allix [1] and Waterhouse (2006a, b) note that while there are indeed many publications devoted to Gardner’s theory, there are comparatively little scientific data to actually evaluate the theory. Morgan [7], while otherwise supportive, stresses the similarity of Gardner’s multiple intelligences to earlier conceptualizations of cognitive styles. At the heart of the debate are the differences between Gardner and his critics regarding psychometrics and the experimental method in theory-testing. Gardner’s critics take a traditional view of the worth of rigorous psychometric measurement as the core of intelligence research; Gardner is a critic of the standardized tests that result from psychometric development as well as the culture of testing that arose in response to intelligence tests. Gardner’s critics regard controlled experimentation as the strongest evidence to be offered in the testing and development of theory; Gardner prefers a more holistic approach that stresses external validity. Given the diametrically opposed paradigms these two positions represent, resolution of the conflict appears unlikely.
courses and workshops intended for educational professionals teaching the full spectrum of children from the gifted to the developmentally challenged. Although more data is needed to evaluate the scientific merit of Gardner’s multiple intelligences as a theory, his re-conceptualization of intelligence has provided a useful alternative paradigm in which educators may better assist student learning.
References 1.
2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8.
9.
Allix, N. M. (2000). The theory of multiple intelligences: A case of missing cognitive matter. Australian Journal of Education, 44, 272–288. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind. New York: Basic Books. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed. New York: Basic Books. Gardner, H., & Connell, M. (2000). Response to Nicholas Allix. Australian Journal of Education, 44, 288–293. Gardner, H., & Moran, S. (2006). The science of multiple intelligences theory: A response to Lynn Waterhouse. Educational Psychologist, 41(4), 227–232. Kornhaber, M., Krechevsky, M., & Gardner, H. (1990). Engaging intelligence. Educational Psychologist, 25(3 & 4), 177–199. Morgan, H. (1996). An analysis of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence. Roeper Review, 18(4), 263–269. Waterhouse, L. (2006a). Inadequate evidence for multiple intelligences, Mozart effect, and emotional intelligence theories. Educational Psychologist, 41(4), 247–255. Waterhouse, L. (2006b). Multiple intelligences, the Mozart effect, and emotional intelligence: A critical review. Educational Psychologist, 41, 207–225.
Gaussian Distribution ▶Normal Curve
Gay ▶Homosexuality
Gaze following ▶Joint Attention
Relevance to Childhood Development As is fitting given Gardner’s status as a professor at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, his theory of multiple intelligences is quite influential among educators. Multiple intelligence theory is a framework for
Gc ▶Crystallized Intelligence
Gender Development
GDS ▶Gordon Diagnostic System
Gender Conformity ▶Gender Roles
Gender Development JESSIE KOSOROK MELLOR University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Synonyms Gender identity
Definition The process of identifying one’s subjective sense of identity as male or female [2], neither or both.
Description On the most basic level, gender identity refers to individuals accepting themselves as male or female. The intersexed (intersexed/intersexuality) community includes a neither or both aspect due to the fact that there individuals are also born with characteristics pertaining to both males and females. Limiting the definition of gender identity to the categorization of solely male or female ignores individuals who do not identify as solely male or female. Aside from the complicated process of biological sex development, or the development of internal and external genitalia is the social phenomenon of gender development or how individuals identify as male, female, neither, or both. Each child has their own unique development of gender and both biology and social learning play key roles.
Relevance to Childhood Development In typical western society, children are exposed to gender differences as well as gender reinforcements from before they are even born. Once a mother finds out she is pregnant, it is inevitable that she will be asked if she is having a boy or a girl. Based on the dichotomous answer, friends,
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relatives and the like will often purchase gifts based on the identified biological sex of the baby. Pink items are given to girls and blue items to boys. Once the baby is born, the hospital often gives pink or blue blankets and identifying bracelets depending on the biological sex. From day one children are bombarded with proper girl toys and proper boy toys and respective colored clothing. Some researchers believe infants have the ability to distinguish between male and female faces as young as 6 months of age [5]. However, it is not until 24 months of age that toddlers show gender specific activities including verbal differences [6]. Although, when infants and toddlers make gender distinctions, they are using superficial features such as hair length and are reported to not possess the ability to make more sound gender distinctions. This issue is referred to as a lack of gender constancy, or the understanding that being male or female is permanent and unable to change and by 3 years of age most children are still deficient with respect to this concept; however, [2] by age 6 aspects of gender constancy (i.e., gender consistency and gender stability) are evident. As children develop they are bombarded with ▶gender stereotypes and the pressures to adhere to traditional ▶gender roles. Boys are not stereotypically encouraged to play with dolls; the majority of western society perceives dolls as girls’ toys. Instead, boys are encouraged to play sports, play with trucks, dinosaurs, and similar toys and activities [3]. Girls are encouraged to look pretty, pretend to play house and cook, and take care of their dolls. However, if girls wish to cross the gender boundary and play with stereotypical boy toys or participate in boyish activities, they do not experience negative consequences on the same level that boys do when they choose to play with stereotypical girl toys or participate in girl activities. As children grow and develop and understand various aspects of gender, how to appropriately label different genders and what stereotypically accounts for appropriate gender roles, they begin to adopt what they feel is appropriate behavior with respect to gender. Children often evaluate their own gender as “better” and are more knowledgeable of the stereotypical appropriate behaviors associated with their own gender [4]. In general it is agreed that with increase in age comes an increase in gender flexibility, or the idea that children will make exceptions to gender stereotypes as they grow older and become more comfortable with their own gender identity and what gender identity means. However, research on this topic varies in methodology and how to measure gender flexibility thus giving exceptions to this reported linear relationship [2]. By the time children enter middle childhood and adolescence, their concept of gender identity is more
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concrete and they have a more sound idea of what constitutes stereotypical gender roles. Additionally, they have a more concrete understanding of their own identity and what it means to identify as male, female, neither, or both. Occasionally, children and adolescents will have an understanding that their biological sex (that is being born with a penis or vagina) does not match their gender identity (or identifying as male, female, neither, or both). Exhibiting four of the five following symptoms can result in a diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder [1]: (1) cross-sex behaviors, (2) cross-sex toy and activity preferences, (3) cross-sex peer affiliation, (4) cross-dressing, (5) a stated desire to be the other sex. Each child will come to terms with their gender identity in their own way and understanding. A desire to be the gender that does not match their biological sex can result in many difficult situations for the individual as well as their family; however, there are many resources available to the transgender community to foster a healthy transition for the individual and offer support and education for their family.
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
6.
American Psychiatric Association. (2002). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Brannon, L. (2008). Gender: Psychological perspectives. Boston: Pearson. Kane, E.W. (2006). “No way my boys are going to be like that!”. Parents’ response to children’s gender nonconformity. Gender & Society, 20, 149–176. Levy, G. D. (1999). Gender-typed and non-gender-typed category awareness in toddlers. Sex Roles, 41, 851–874. Ramsey-Rennels, J. L., & Langlois, J. H. (2006). Infants’ differential processing of female and male faces. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 59–62. Serbin, L. A., Poulin-Doubois, D., & Eichestedt, J. A. (2002). Infants’ response to gender-inconsistent events. Infancy, 3, 531–542.
Gender Identity LISA KILANOWSKI-PRESS Niagara University, Niagara, NY, USA
Synonyms Gender development; Gender identity disorder; Gender roles; Gender variance; Sexual identity; Transgender; Transsexual
Definition Gender identity pertains to the degree to which an individual espouses either a male or female sexual identity; it is
reflective of the degree to which individuals “feel” or conceptualize their psychological and sexual identity as male or female. Most often, gender identity matches biological sex. In cases where ones’ gender identity does not match assigned sex, diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID) may be explored.
Description Gender identity pertains to the degree to which an individual espouses either a male or female sexual identity; it is reflective of the degree to which individuals “feel” or conceptualize their psychological and sexual identity as male or female. Most often, gender identity matches biological sex. Specifically, most biological males espouse a male gender identity, and most biological females espouse a female gender identity. However, biological sex assignment alone is not predictive of gender identity in all cases, leading to situations in which ones’ gender identity differs from their sex assignment. Gender typical behavior, including dress, mannerisms, and sexual attraction, are some of many factors that comprise gender identity. Stereotypical gender role fulfillment is also viewed by some to reflect gender identity, but is not in and of itself a strong predictor of either gender identity or sexual orientation. Espousal of gender roles that significantly deviate from ones’ biological sex, combined with reports on the part of an individual that they want to be (or feel like) a member of the opposite sex, are early indicators of mismatch between sex and gender identity, and are suggestive of GID.
Gender Identity Disorder (GID) or Gender Dysphoria Dissonance between biological sex and gender identity may be reported in early childhood, adolescence, or adulthood. According to the APA [1], diagnosis of GID may occur when four or more of the following criteria are met: 1. Repeatedly stated desire to be, or insistence that he or she is, a member of the opposite sex. 2. In boys, a preference for cross-dressing or simulating women’s attire; in girls, insistence on wearing only stereotypically masculine clothing. 3. Strong and persistent preferences for cross-sex roles in make believe play or persistent fantasies of the opposite sex. 4. Intense desire to participate in the stereotypical games and pastimes of the other sex. 5. Strong preference for playmates of the other sex (p. 581).
Gender Identity
Additionally, “persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex” must be manifested, must not be attributed to a physical intersex condition wherein the individual possesses both male and female genitalia, and must result in significant psychosocial impairment (p. 581). Often, male children with disturbances in gender identity overtly reject their genitalia and express a desire to no longer have a penis; some will indicate a desire to have a vagina. Avoidance of or disinterest in stereotypical male pursuits, such as rough play, engaging in games or playing with toys most often associated with boys, or engaging in play with male playmates, is common. Open interest in stereotypical female interests, including dolls, female play mates, and wearing female clothing is frequently observed. Female children may demonstrate aversion to their genitalia by standing to urinate, suggesting that they may “grow a penis” or someday have a penis, or indicating that they do not want breasts or to menstruate. Active avoidance of feminine clothing and pursuits is also often noted, along with a preference for male dress, haircuts, playmates, and stereotypical male play activities ([1], p. 581). In adolescents and adults, individuals with GID often take active steps to live as a member of the opposite sex for some or part of the time. Many express desire to engage in hormone treatment or surgery in hopes of attaining their desired physical form, and may often indicate belief that they were “born the wrong sex” ([1], p. 581). Individuals with GID may be referred to as transgender or transsexual. The term male-tofemale (MTF) is used to denote a male individual who is transgender and is living their life as a female. Femaleto-male (FTM) is used to indicate a female who is living their life as a male. Holistically, children, adolescents, and adults with GID are plagued by social and emotional discomfort resulting from the lack of congruence between their actual and desired sex. In addition to experiencing social isolation stemming from gender related differences and stigma, individuals with GID are prone to depression, anxiety, and suicide or suicide attempt [6]. Many individuals with GID do not actively pursue gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy (testosterone or estrogen), or the use of implants, but rather choose to live their life as a member of their assigned sex. Some individuals with GID elect to live their “private” lives as the opposite sex, while their “public” gender identity matches their biological sex. The degree to which and individual actively pursues a lifestyle as the opposite sex varies considerably from person to person.
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Prevalence of Gender Identity Disorder Due the lack of comprehensive national data collection systems assessing gender identity in the United States, data regarding prevalence in the US is unavailable. As per Sohn, Hartmut, and Bosinski [5], several researchers have identified prevalence rates in Europe due to the availability of broader, national data collection systems. In the Netherlands, the number of MTF transsexuals is approximately one per 119,000 individuals, with the number of FTM transsexuals approximately one per 11,900 individuals; in Belgium, the number of MTF’s is approximately 1 per 12,900, with one per 33,800 persons (p. 1,195). Similar prevalence rates appear to be common across Europe. MTF transsexuals typically outnumber FTM transsexuals by three to one.
Etiology of Gender Identity Disorder The precise cause of disruptions in gender identity is unknown. Current theory regarding GID highlights the possibility of genetic as well as hormonal underpinnings, with relatively limited and non definitive literature supporting either of the aforementioned. At present, twin studies have yielded the finding that GID appears to be heritable, with estimates of heritability ranging from 50 to 62% [2, 3]. However, despite the fact that genetic identity disruptions are likely heritable, to date, no research has identified how differences in gender identity are genetically coded [4]. Hormonal hypotheses suggest that prenatal hormone exposure influences the development of sex-typed behavior. However, aside from illuminating potential differences in the development of the hypothalamus as a result of hormone bathing, no definitive hormonal cause has been found.
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (4th ed. text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Bailey, J. M., Dunne, M. P., & Martin, N. G. (2000). Genetic and environmental influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 524–553. Coolidge, F. L., Thede, L. L., & Young, S. E. (2002). The heritability of gender identity disorder in an adolescent twin sample. Behavior Genetics, 32(4), 251–257. Martin, N. G. (2008). Nosology, etiology, and course of gender identity disorder in children. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, 12(1), 2008. Sohn, M., Hartmut, A. G., & Bosinski, M. D. (2007). Gender identity disorders: Diagnostic and surgical aspects. Journal of Sex Medicine, 4, 1193–1208. Wallien, M. S., Swaab, H., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2007). Psychiatric comorbidity among children with gender identity disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46(10), 1307–1314.
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Gender Identity Disorder STACEE REICHERZER Walden University, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Synonyms Gender identity; Transgenderism; Transsexualism
Definition Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is the diagnosis for persistent discomfort with the gender role of one’s birthassigned sex, concurrent with a strong identification as the opposite gender.
Description GID is the formal classification identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR [1]) for an experience of both extreme identification with one’s opposite gender, and a lack of association or comfort with the gender role of with one’s birth-assigned sex. Formal assessment of the diagnosis includes a ruling out of a physical intersex experience, and the establishment of a significant level of stress in interpersonal relationships and social interactions as a result of one’s gender. A diagnosis of GID by a qualified mental health professional is recommended by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care [8] for determining candidacy and readiness for a medical referral to begin hormone replacement therapy (HRT); while two mental health evaluation of GID are recommended for referrals of transgenders who seek sexual reassignment surgery (SRS). The prevalence of GID has been estimated by identifying the number of transgenders who seek SRS, which the WPATH Standards of Care have identified as ranging from 1 in 37,000 males and 1 in 107,000 females in an early estimation, to 1 in 11,900 males and 1 in 30,400 females in a more recent estimate. A major challenge in establishing a more precise estimate exists in that the high cost of surgeries, individuals’ pre-existing medical conditions, and limited esthetically satisfactory medical options (particularly of female-to-male genital surgery) do not make surgery an option for transgenders who would otherwise meet the diagnostic criteria of GID. The GID diagnosis has been a subject of some controversy, as many transgender activists and allies have identified it as pathologizing, citing that it is based upon
a biased system of diagnosis that posits a binary model of gender [2, 3, 5, 7, 12, 13]. The argument also centers on the role of mental health professionals in assessing candidacy and readiness for hormones surgery, when many transgenders identify that the choice to migrate their bodies in concordance with gender identity should be their own [10]. Additionally, seeking mental health services for the purpose of procuring an assessment of GID is seen as artificial and counter-intuitive to a therapeutic environment of honesty, as many transgenders have identified that they tell therapists what they believe the therapists wish to hear in order to write favorable assessment letters [10]. The identification of gender as a continuum [4, 11] or spectrum [9], rather than a binary model of male and female as discrete and opposite experiences, is gaining attention within the medical and mental health community, as more helping professionals and gender researchers encounter transgender clients who do not meet the full diagnostic criteria of GID, but who identify themselves as existing between the genders. Self-identifiers such as gender queer, genderless, bi-gendered, and third-gendered have emerged along with third gender pronouns (“ze” or “sie” – rather than “he” or “she”) to identify a range of experiences to that reflect a range of gender possibilities [6]. Cross-cultural examples of third gender experiences include the hijra of India, the kathoey of Thailand, and numerous examples of two-spirit tradition in Hopi, Navajo, and other Native American cultures (sometimes mistakenly referred to by non-Native researchers using the perjorative berdache). The Bugi ethnic group of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi acknowledges five genders that are seen as a foundation for social harmony.
Relevance to Childhood Development Many adult transgenders report having experienced the features of GID from earliest memory. Such reports include knowledge that one was “different,” a desire to play with the toys or games more typically assigned to the other gender, and a desire to dress in the clothes or assume the appearance of the other gender. Clinically, children are referred as young as ages 2–4 [1] for mental health services, generally when gender nonconforming behaviors are a cause of concern for caregivers. Although some of these children do grow-up to identify as transgender and/or to present the features of GID, relatively few pre-school age children who demonstrate crossgender propensities will continue these behaviors into adulthood. Generally, the malleability of behavior is
Gender Roles
relative to a child’s age. Although relatively few children who meet the diagnostic criteria of GID will become transsexuals as adults (meaning that they actively pursue hormones and sexual reassignment), many will identify as lesbian or gay in adulthood ([1]; WPATH, 2001). GID can be a source of tremendous distress for children, with a great deal of stress often precipitated by interactions with parents, siblings, and other children who are antagonistic of the child’s expression of her or his gender. Social mistreatment is often cited in teen suicide letters, and is identified as a major cause of Major Depression for transgender adolescents. Referral to a mental health professional who is knowledgeable of transgender experiences and who will be supportive of the child is advisable.
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Gender Roles KEVIN L. NADAL John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Gender conformity; Gender identity; Gender socialization
Definition The behaviors, expectations, and values defined by society as masculine and feminine [4].
Description References 1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 2. Bornstein, K. (1994). Gender outlaw: Of men, women, and the rest of us. New York: Vintage Books. 3. Califia, P. (1997). Sex changes: The politics of transgenderism. San Francisco: Cleis Press. 4. Casper, V., & Schultz, S. B. (1999). Gay parents/straight schools: Building communication and trust. New York: Teachers College Press. 5. Cromwell, J. (1999). Transmen & FTM’s: Identities, bodies, genders, & sexualities. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. 6. Feinberg, L. (1996). Transgender warriors: Making history from Joan of Arc to RuPaul. Boston: Beacon Press. 7. Griggs, C. (1998). S/he. Changing sex and changing clothes. Oxford: Berg. 8. Meyer, W., Cohen-Kettenis, P., Coleman, E., Diceglie, D., Devor, H., et al. (2001). World Professional Association of Transgender Health standards of care for gender-identity disorders (6th version). International Journal of Transgenderism, 5(1). Retrieved September 5, 2008, from http://www.symposion.com/ijt/soc_2001/index.htm. 9. Monro, S. (2005). Beyond male and female: Poststructuralism and the spectrum of gender. International Journal of Transgenderism, 6(1), 3–22. 10. Reicherzer, S. (2007). The grounded theory of a new gender episteme: Transgender subjectivity deconstructs the power, privilege, and pathos of mental health diagnostics. Doctoral dissertation, St. Mary’s University. 11. Reicherzer, S., & Anderson, J. (2006). Ethics and the gender continuum: A lifespan approach. Vistas 2006- American Counseling Association Virtual Counseling Library. Retrieved from: http:// counselingoutfitters.com/Reicherzer.htm 12. Stryker, S. (1997). Over and out in academe: Transgender studies come of age. In G. E. Israel & D. E. Tarver (Eds.), Transgender care: Recommended guidelines, practical information, & personal accounts (pp. 241–247). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 13. Wilchins, R. (2004). Queer theory, gender theory: An instant primer. Los Angeles: Alyson Books.
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Gender roles are defined differently within specific societies and cultures as each society sends messages to its members about culturally appropriate behaviors, norms, and values for men and women, based on gender. Each society or culture has its own concept of gender, which can be defined as the social construct that associates behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits as male or female. Gender is usually determined by one’s biological sex (or whether one has male or female reproductive organs). However, it is possible for an individual to accept gender roles that are opposite of their birth sex. Gender roles are often determined based on traditional stereotypes (e.g., women cook and clean, while men go to work or fix cars). Gender roles may also influence one’s career choice (e.g., women are often discouraged from entering sciences or medicine, while men are discouraged from traditionally feminine careers like nursing or secretarial work). Gender roles may also be expressed through clothing or styles of dress (e.g., men wear suits and ties to formal occasions, while women wear dresses to formal occasions). In contemporary times, women may wear pants and dress shirts like men, but these articles of clothing are often feminized and/or fitted differently. Gender roles may be expressed in behavior (e.g., men express their emotions through anger or yelling, while women express their emotions through crying). Gender roles may be expressed in relationships (e.g., men have close friendships with other men where they do not discuss intimate, personal problems, while women have close friendships with other women where they discuss emotions and intimate, personal problems regularly). Gender roles may even influence personality traits that are more desirable for men or women; for example, men are
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more desired to act as leaders or be aggressive, while women are more desired to be affectionate or cheerful [1]. Gender role socialization (Gender socialization, Gender conformity, Gender identity) is the process in which an individual learns and accepts roles as a male or a female. There are many ways that individuals are socialized to learn about gender roles, even from a very early age. In many Western societies, baby boys are usually dressed in blue and male toddlers are given toys like trucks and cars; baby girls are usually dressed in pink and female toddlers are given toys like baby dolls and play cooking sets. In adolescence, boys and girls receive messages about how they are supposed to behave. Adolescent girls are encouraged to be emotionally expressive, while adolescent boys are encouraged to be more controlling of their emotions [8]. And in adulthood, men may be socialized to believe that they must be providers or breadwinners of the family, while women may be socialized to believe that they must be motherly and submissive to men. Gender role socialization may influence one’s personality development. Previous literature has supported that men may be more achievement-oriented than women and that men may have a greater internal locus of control than women, but that women may possess more empathy than men [3]. Gender roles may influence achievementorientation in that men are socialized to be more practical and unemotional; accordingly, they may view a problem or stressor as something to be overcome. Gender role expectations may impact locus of control and worldview; women may learn that stereotyping and discrimination may limit their opportunities and negatively impact their lives. Accordingly, men may perceive that they have more power in determining their present and future lives, while women may perceive that there will be other external forces that may determine their present and future lives. Gender role norms may encourage one’s ability to be empathetic and emotionally-expressive. Women may be more able to relate personally and emotionally with others, and may cope by seeking social support, while men may learn that it is more acceptable to have emotional control and cope with problems individually. Gender role socialization may also influence how individuals cope with stress and/or how mental health disparities occur for both men and women. Previous literature has supported that there is a higher prevalence of depression in adolescent girls, while there is a higher prevalence of substance use and antisocial behavior in adolescent boys [3]. Because women are taught to be emotionally expressive, there is a higher risk of depression. However, because men are not taught to be emotionally expressive of
their feelings, it may be more acceptable to cope with their depression or stress by turning to substances and/or acting out in rebellious ways. Additionally, men are likely to be more aggressive, engage in violent behaviors, and/or have conduct problems than women [2]. Gender role expectations may lead to conflict and psychological distress for women. First, gender role expectations for women imply sexism, in that they objectify and demean women, while prevent them from the same opportunities for success or equality as men [6]. Additionally, previous literature purports that women are often in conflict about being societal norms of success for women, which is defined as a woman being “nurturing, physically attractive, and passive” [7]. Additionally, many women may be resistant to be identified as “feminists” because of the negative connotations that are attributed [7]. The manifestation of these gender roles on women may lead to several psychological problems, including a decrease in self-esteem, a decrease in comfort, and feelings of anger and depression [6]. Gender role expectations may also lead to conflict and psychological distress for men. Previous literature on gender role conflict has purported that there are six patterns that lead to mental health problems for men, including: restrictive emotionality, health care problems, obsession with achievement and success, restrictive sexual and affectionate behavior, socialized control, power, and competition issues, and homophobia [4]. Additionally, gender role conflict may manifest in several situational contexts including times when men experience a gender role transition or face difficult developmental tasks, when men deviate from or violate gender role norms of masculinity ideology, or when men try to meet or fail to meet gender role norms of masculinity ideology [5]. Gender roles may vary distinctly across cultures. For example, while women in Asian or Latin American countries are taught to be submissive to men, women in the Philippines are seen as the authoritative leaders and decision-makers of the family. Additionally, while doctors in the US are traditionally stereotyped to be mostly men, doctors in Russia, Taiwan, or Germany are predominantly women. Finally, while men in the US are discouraged from expressing physical affection towards other men, it is common and acceptable for men in Spain or France to hold hands or even kiss to express their friendship. Finally, the practice of androgyny (or the acceptance of both male and female behaviors and physical traits) is common practice in some cultures. For example, many Native American tribes have described their members as “twospirited” or individuals who fulfill an array of mixed
Gender Roles
gender roles (physically, socially, or functionally) in their everyday lives. Two-spirited people may serve as mothers, fathers, healers or medicine persons, pottery makers, fortune tellers, and many other gender-neutral roles. Gender roles may also have different meanings for various subcultures. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals may find themselves balancing various gender roles in their personal, romantic, and family relationships. First, by virtue of identifying as non-heterosexual and behaving accordingly, LGB individuals are already breaking gender role expectations. Second, there may be a spectrum of gender role identities for LGB individuals. Some LGB individuals may maintain strict gender roles; these individuals be involved in same-sex attractions and relationships, but may still choose to behave in “masculine” or “feminine” ways within their romantic, personal, family, or work relationships. For example, a gay man may choose to be the masculine, dominant one in his same-sex relationship (socially and sexually), while a lesbian woman may choose to be the feminine, submissive one in the relationship (socially and sexually). Conversely, some LGB individuals may identify as androgynous or a mix of masculine and feminine gender roles. For example, some lesbian women may choose to dress in genderneutral ways and desire others not knowing what their gender or biological sex is. Finally, some LGB individuals may enjoy rebelling against gender role norms. For example, some gay or bisexual men may enjoy wearing makeup or entering professions that are considered feminine, while some lesbian or bisexual women may enjoy playing or watching masculine sports or being dominant or aggressive in their sexual and romantic relationships. Gender roles may also have different meanings for transgender individuals. Transgender persons, whom are diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID), are defined as individuals whose self-identification as a woman, man, or neither does not match their biological sex. Because transgender individuals may feel like they were born into the wrong gender, they may struggle in accepting prescribed gender roles from a very young age. For example, if a boy identifies as a girl, but his parents force him to wear boys’ clothes, play with boys’ toys, and play boys’ sports, this may cause him significant psychological distress.
(e.g., buying a boy masculine toys like guns or buying a girl feminine toys like dolls). Gender roles may be learned by children through modeling (e.g., watching how parents and adults interact with each other), through the media (e.g., viewing how men and women relate with each other on television), through religion (e.g., studying messages about gender from religious leaders or historical religious figures), and through school (e.g., understanding messages that one’s teacher gives them about gender). When parents, families, and other sources send messages about gender roles to their children, these messages and may have lasting impacts on individual’s personality development, worldviews, and self-esteem. Gender roles in childhood may also influence an individual’s perception of socially acceptable ways of coping with problems, expressing their emotions, interacting in relationships, or choosing career paths. Gender roles can be both positive and negative in a child’s development. Some gender roles may be positive in that they may encourage affirmative personality traits in children. For example, little girls may learn the importance of being affectionate, compassionate, or sensitive to the needs of others, while little boys may learn the importance of being assertive, self-sufficient, or willing to take risks. However, while these gender role traits may be positive for the gender these traits are assigned to, they may negatively impact children of the other gender. For example, little girls may learn to be submissive, shy, or soft-spoken, while little boys may learn to be competitive, forceful, or dominant. Finally, parents and families can minimize gender role conflict in individuals by preparing them for the psychological distress that may occur as a result of gender roles. For example, teaching young girls about sexism and discrimination or teaching young boys about the pressures and negative implications of masculinity may lead to better coping mechanisms and an increase in mental health.
References 1. 2.
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Relevance to Childhood Development Gender roles are introduced in early childhood in both overt and covert ways. Gender roles may be communicated overtly (e.g., telling a boy that “Boys don’t cry” or telling a girl “Young ladies don’t play rough”) or covertly
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Bem, S. L. (1981). Bem sex role inventory: Professional manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Cohn, A., & Zeichner, A. (2006). Effects of masculine identity and gender role stress on aggression in men. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 7(4), 179–190. Lengua, L. J. (2000). Gender, gender roles, and personality: Gender differences in the prediction of coping and psychological symptoms. Sex Roles, 43(11/12), 787–820. O’Neil, J. M. (1990). Assessing men’s gender role conflict. In D. Moore & F. Leafgren (Eds.), Men in conflict: Problem solving strategies and interventions (pp. 23–38). Alexandria, VA: American Association for Counseling and Development.
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O’Neil, J. M. (2008). Summarizing 25 years of research on men’s gender role conflict using the gender role conflict scale: New research paradigms and clinical implications. The Counseling Psychologist, 36(3), 358–445. Swim, J. K., Hyers, L. L., Cohen, L. L., & Ferguson, M. J. (2001). Everyday sexism: Evidence for its incidence, nature, and psychological impact from three daily diary studies. Journal of Social Issues, 57(1), 31–53. Toller, P. W., Suter, E. A., & Trautman, T. C. (2004). Gender role identity and attitudes toward feminism. Sex Roles, 51(1/2), 85–90. Vogel, D. L., Wester, S. R., Heesacker, M., & Madon, S. (2003). Confirming gender stereotypes: A social role perspective. Sex Roles, 48(11/12), 519–528.
Gender Schema Theory JONATHAN PERLE, ANGELA WAGUESPACK Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Definition Gender schema theory states that children actively construct mental representations about that which defines males and females by observing individuals in the culture in which they live. Such schemas are incorporated into the child’s self concept, aid in the search and assimilation of subsequent information that the child deems schema-relevant, and are constantly changing as the child develops.
Description First coined by Sandra Bem in 1981 [1], gender schema theory is a cognitive account of sex typing by which schemas are developed through the combination of social and cognitive learning processes. Through observations of individuals within a child’s culture, the child is able to observe male and female typical attributes, activities, and actions. These observations which aid in gender segregation and guide the child’s gender related actions and activities are incorporated into the child’s evolving gender schema. The developing child begins to label him or herself as either male or female by about age 2 [6], but it is not until about age 7 that the child gains gender constancy [5] and recognizes that his or her sex is unchanging. However, even at age 2, the child is actively developing his or her schemas and incorporating them into his or her sense of self. He/She is constantly evaluating objects and activities as “boy” or “girl” things and forming his/her own schema, thereby integrating those aspects of self-definition that are appropriate for one’s own gender. Further, gender schematic cognitions are not only influenced by the child
observing others, but are also reinforced by toys, clothing, occupations, and hobbies including sports.
Relevance to Childhood Development The lens through which children see the world as explained by gender schema theory is used to account for sex-related behavioral differences in boys and girls. Once a child develops his/her schemas regarding proper behaviors for men and women, these schemata guide all subsequent cognitions including information processing, behavior, and memory to specific activities [1]. By assimilating these schemas into their cognitions, children develop self-concepts that include the concepts of gender and gender-specific roles. Such development of selfconcept is demonstrated by those gender-schematic children behaving in more gender-typical ways than genderaschematic children. For these children, gender-consistent information is more easily understood and remembered, while information that contradicts or doesn’t fit within the constructs of the schemas are difficult to process and are often not as easily remembered [3]. Gender schematic individuals are also more likely to be able to quickly indicate the gender appropriateness of behaviors and activities and are more readily able to recall gender specific terms and information in free recall tasks [4]. Given these findings, it is hypothesized that the attempted behaviors and associated cognitions of a child are not random, but rather determined by the child to match his/her hypothesized ▶gender identity as determined through his/her schemas. It has been hypothesized by Sandra Bem that the ideal developing child schema would not be strongly male or female gender typical; with an optimal child having both male and female associations [2]. Such ideals are believed to be possible if the parents partake in behaviors that are cross-sexed. Possible behaviors including taking turns making dinner, both parents taking part in sex-typical hobbies such as watching and playing sports, and making sure that their children have access to both male and female typical colored clothing and toys.
References 1. 2.
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Bem, S. L. (1981). Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 88(4), 354–364. Bem, S. L. (1983). Gender schema theory and its implications for child development: Raising gender-aschematic children in a gender-schematic society. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 8(4), 598–616. Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L. S. (1992). Cognitive mechanisms in children’s gender stereotyping: Theoretical and educational implication of a cognitive-based intervention. Child Development, 63(6), 1351–1363.
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Frable, D. E. S., & Bem, S. L. (1985). If you are gender schematic, all members of the opposite sex look alike. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(2), 459–468. Kohlberg, L. (1993). A cognitive-developmental analysis of children’s sex-role concepts and attitudes. In E. E. Maccoby (Ed.), The development of sex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Slaby, R. G., & Frey, K. S. (1975). Development of gender constancy and selective attention to same-sex models. Child Development, 46, 849–856.
Gender Socialization ▶Gender Roles
Gender Variance ▶Gender Identity
Gene–Environment Interaction ▶Diathesis-stress Model
12 individual subtests which varied in content. The content of the IQ tests developed in the early part of the 1900s included subtests, like the Army Mental Tests, which varied along the now familiar verbal, nonverbal (performance), and quantitative dimensions. Despite the varying content, all tests were intended to measure general ability. For example, some of the tests require knowledge of words and comprehension of verbal relationships; others, memory of the sequence of numbers; and others, reasoning with arithmetic and spatial stimuli. But as Wechsler (1975) wrote “… the attributes and factors of intelligence, like the elementary particles in physics, have at once collective and individual properties (p. 138).” Therefore, despite the individual demands of specific subtests, they form a cohesive whole which is general ability. Wechsler continued writing “the subtests are different measures of intelligence, not measures of different kinds of intelligence (p. 64)”. More recently, Naglieri (2003) reminded us that “the term nonverbal refers to the content of the test, not a type of ability (p. 2).” Thus, tests may differ in their content or specific demands (what Spearman [1927] referred to as “indifference of the indicator” [p. 197]) but still measure the concept of general intelligence.
References 1. 2. 3.
General Cognitive Aptitude Testing
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Spearman, C. (1904). “General intelligence”: Objectively determined and measured. American Journal of Psychology, 15, 201–293. Naglieri, J. A. (2003). Naglieri nonverbal ability test–Individual administration. San Antonio, TX: Pearson. Wechsler, D. (1939). Wechsler-Bellevue intelligence scale. New York: The Psychological Corporation. Wechsler, D. (1975). Intelligence defined and undefined: A relativistic appraisal. American Psychologist, 30, 135–139.
▶Intelligence Testing
General System Theory General Intelligence The concept of general intelligence began more than 100 years ago with Charles Spearman’s (1904) seminal work General Intelligence, Objectively Determined and Measured. Spearman proposed that all mental tests are comprised of a factor specific to each test and a general factor of intelligence, noted by g. One of the first tests to formally measure general ability was the Wechsler-Bellevue Scales (Wechsler, 1939) which included subtests that differed in their content but were all designed to measure general ability. All of Wechsler’s tests that have been published have included an overall total score called a Full Scale score which represents general ability based on 10 to
▶Systems Theory
Generalization GINA COFFEE Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Definition Generalization is “the occurrence of relevant behavior under different, nontraining conditions (i.e., across subjects,
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settings, people, behaviors, and/or time) without the scheduling of the same events in those conditions as had been scheduled in the training conditions” ([2], p. 350).
Description The concept of generalization is particularly important in child behavior and development when changes in behavior across settings, people, or time, for example, are desired. Historically, generalization was thought to occur passively and naturally, as practitioners adopted the “train and hope” philosophy of generalization [2], whereby they acknowledged the potential for generalization to occur but did not facilitate its occurrence. However, generalization does not appear to occur naturally, so attention has recently been turned to programming for it [1–4]. The seminal piece by Stokes and Baer [2] first called attention to the fact that generalization is rarely a passive process. By systematically reviewing the generalization literature to date, Stokes and Baer [2] developed a classification system of generalization techniques used in research studies. Stokes and Baer’s contribution was important not only because it provided a thorough review of the existing generalization literature at the time and facilitated the conceptualization of generalization as an active process, but also because it provided a framework for researchers who sought to bring about lasting and widespread behavioral change in their clients/patients/ participants. Later, Stokes and Osnes [3] modified the classification system by grouping programming tactics within three general principles. That is, Stokes and Osnes reorganized, and elaborated upon, the techniques first presented by Stokes and Baer [2], with the goal of presenting a clearer picture of how to program for generalization. Within the categorization developed by Stokes and Osnes [3], twelve programming tactics fell under the general principles of (1) exploit current functional contingencies, (2) train diversely, and (3) incorporate functional mediators. The first principle (exploit current functional contingencies) refers to the direct exploitation of the antecedentresponse-consequence pathway that can influence the frequency, intensity, and/or duration a given behavior. The programming tactics under this general principle include (1) contact natural consequences, (2) recruit natural consequences, (3) modify maladaptive consequences, and (4) reinforce occurrences of generalization. Contacting natural consequences involves identifying and making use of positive consequences that naturally occur in the environment, rather than employing artificial consequences or consequences that have been programmed by the
therapist or change agent. For example, a natural positive consequence for engagement behaviors of a child who is socially withdrawn may be positive peer attention. When natural consequences are not readily identifiable or accessible, it may become necessary to recruit natural consequences – the second tactic within this principle. For example, a student can recruit the natural consequence of teacher praise by directly asking the teacher how he/she performed on an academic or behavioral task (e.g., asking the teacher “How did I do?” after successfully turning an assignment in on time). The third programming tactic of modifying maladaptive consequences is used when existing consequences are working toward maintaining an inappropriate behavior. In these cases, the maladaptive consequences must be changed in order to decrease the frequency, intensity, or duration of the inappropriate behavior. For example, if the consequence for a student’s out-of-seat behavior (avoidance behavior) is to send the student out of the classroom, it is likely that this consequence needs to be changed to encourage the student to stay actively engaged in classwork. Finally, Stokes and Osnes [3] proffered that current functional contingencies may be exploited by the reinforcement of generalization occurrences. Specifically, generalization behaviors should be noted and reinforced, such as when a student who has been taught to engage in prosocial behaviors in the lunchroom also engages in these behaviors on the playground. The second principle (train diversely) involves the institution of less control and rigidity during training conditions. In particular, training diversely encourages change agents to broaden training goals and procedures with the ultimate goal of promoting widespread outcomes. The programming tactics under this general principle include (1) use sufficient stimulus exemplars, (2) use sufficient response exemplars, (3) make antecedents less discriminable, and (4) make consequences less discriminable. A stimulus exemplar is an aspect of training that is associated with the training condition (e.g., a change agent or the therapy room). By using sufficient stimulus exemplars (e.g., multiple change agents or several different therapy rooms), generalization can be enhanced. The literature suggests that as few as two stimulus exemplars may be sufficient. In contrast, a response exemplar can be understood as the behavior that is sought during training. An example of using sufficient response exemplars could be training students to solve a problem in many different ways. Another way generalization can be achieved with this tactic is by training subsets of behaviors that are representative of a particular class of responses. The final two tactics of this principle address discrimination
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
by indicating that (to enhance generalization) antecedents and consequences must be made less discriminable. In terms of antecedents, the conditions of training should vary and be flexible enough so that target behaviors are not associated only with a specific set of circumstances. For example, training could occur in natural settings at unplanned times. With regard to consequences, schedules of reinforcement should be varied, and reinforcement should be delayed when feasible. The final principle (incorporate functional mediators) involves the use of mediators to enhance generalization. In this context, “a mediator is a stimulus that occurs between the training and the occurrence of generalization in such a way that it facilitates or mediates that generalization, probably as a discriminative stimulus for the performance of the behavior” ([3], p. 348). A mediating stimulus, then, is a stimulus that is either present in multiple conditions or a stimulus that the client can easily transport between the training condition and other settings. The programming tactics under this general principle include (1) incorporate common salient physical stimuli, (2) incorporate common salient social stimuli, (3) incorporate salient selfmediated physical stimuli, and (4) incorporate salient self-mediated verbal and overt stimuli. Essentially, the principle remains the same, while the types of stimuli differ. In particular, a physical stimulus is a physical object (e.g., a timer); a social stimulus is a person (e.g., a peer, therapist, teacher) or a characteristic of a person (e.g., a gesture someone makes); a self-mediated physical stimulus is something the client can maintain and carry with him/her between training and non-training conditions (e.g., a notebook with procedures or a self-monitoring chart); and self-mediated verbal and overt stimuli are verbalizations, thoughts, and or cognitive strategies used by the client in relevant settings. Using the techniques put forth by Stokes and Baer [2] and Stokes and Osnes [3], Osnes and Lieblein [4] recently examined the current state of generalization programming by reviewing generalization articles in select journals (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Modification, the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, and The Behavior Analyst Today) from 1999 to 2002. In general, they sought to determine whether the field of generalization has moved beyond “train and hope” and found mixed results. Whereas they found researchers are assessing maintenance and incorporating the techniques identified by Stokes and Baer [2] and Stokes and Osnes [3], they also found that researchers are continuing to use interventions that are highly discriminable without longlasting effects.
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References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Osnes, P. G., & Lieblein, T. (2003). An explicit technology of generalization. The Behavior Analyst Today, 3, 364–374. Stokes, T. F., & Baer, D. M. (1977). An implicit technology of generalization. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10, 349–367. Stokes, T. F., & Osnes, P. G. (1989). An operant pursuit of generalization. Behavior Therapy, 20, 337–355. Tillman, T. C. (2000). Generalization programming and behavioral consultation. The Behavior Analyst Today, 1, 30–34.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder G JILL DRIEST Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL, USA
Synonyms Anxiety disorders; GAD; Over-anxious disorder
Definition Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive worry, more days than not, for at least 6 months. This worry can cause significant distress in both social and academic functioning.
Description Diagnosis and Classification Children diagnosed with GAD must experience excessive anxiety and worry occurring more days than not for at least 6 months. These children find it very difficult to control their anxious thoughts and which results in distress at school, home, and other areas of functioning. This worry is observed in restlessness, fatigue, irritability, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, or sleep disturbances. Prior to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, GAD was referred to as Over-Anxious Disorder (OAD).
Core Symptoms The continuous anxiety and worry characterized by GAD can occur in a variety of areas, including academics, natural disasters, sports, past behavior, or future events. Some children also worry about characteristically adult issues, such as the financial situations of their parents, relationships, punctuality, or perfectionism. When these issues begin to interfere with social adjustment and academic functioning, the anxiety becomes a cause for clinical concern.
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The expression of GAD can change developmentally in both the content and the severity of the disorder. Children over the age of 12 years report more GAD symptoms and present with anxiety towards more events. The worries experienced by children diagnosed with GAD persist despite the fact that the event is unlikely to occur. This can be partly attributed to the fact that these children overestimate the likelihood that a negative event will occur. These children also underestimate their ability to cope with these negative events and tend to catastrophize minor events. Children with GAD tend to make more negative statements about themselves and require constant reassurance from others. As a result, they tend to present with a negative self-concept.
Physical Complaints Children diagnosed with GAD are likely to complain about gastrointestinal problems, which include muscle tension, nausea, diarrhea, and stomachaches. Other common physical symptoms include, but are not limited to, sweating, headaches, dry mouth, teeth grinding, and trembling. Due to all these physical complaints, most children with GAD tend to seek out consultation of a physician or an internist [1].
Prevalence GAD is one of the most common anxiety disorders in children. It is estimated that approximately 2–4% of children in the general population meet the diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis.
studies. Likewise, there have also been some abnormalities with sleep electroencephalogram (EEG). These studies have illustrated that those diagnosed with GAD tend to have decreased delta sleep, decreased stage 1 sleep, reduced rapid eye movement sleep, and difficulty staying asleep [4].
Comorbid Problems GAD is frequently comorbid with other anxiety disorders and affective disorders. Children diagnosed with GAD are also at increased risk for alcohol use as a form of selfmedication [2].
Developmental Course and Prognosis The developmental course of GAD is unknown due to the high comorbidity rate associated with the disorder. The few studies in the literature are retrospective in nature with adults reporting the onset of symptomatology in childhood [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development Considering the extensiveness of the disorder, children diagnosed with GAD are likely to have problems developing and maintaining close relationships, as well as completing everyday activities [3].
References 1.
2.
Sociodemographic Variables Data regarding the sociodemographic variables of children diagnosed with GAD are limited. Nevertheless, much of the research from the previous diagnosis of OAD can utilize. Children diagnosed with OAD are typically from middle-to-upper class families. Females are more frequently diagnosed with GAD.
Etiology The cause of GAD is unknown. However, early twin studies suggest that every anxiety disorder, with the exception of GAD, demonstrated a high monozygotic concordance. Since this study, more researchers have argued that there is a possible genetic contribution in patients with GAD. The genes are responsible for creating a general vulnerability and risk factor for these disorders [4]. GAD has also been associated with a lower metabolic rate in white matter and basal ganglia with brain-imaging
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American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Kaplow, J. B., Curran, P. J., Angold, A., & Costello, E. J. (2001). The prospective relation between dimensions of anxiety and the initiation of adolescent alcohol abuse. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30, 316–326. Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (Eds.). (2003). Child psychopathology (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. Torgersen, S. (1983). Genetic factors in anxiety disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 1085–1089.
Generation ▶Birth Cohort
Generational Effects ▶Age-Graded Influences: Cohort
Generativity versus Stagnation (Erikson’s Middle Age)
Generativity versus Stagnation (Erikson’s Middle Age) SARAH POOLE, JOHN SNAREY Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Definition Generativity is psychologist Erik H. Erikson’s term for the primary developmental task of the seventh stage of the life cycle – caring for and contributing to the life of the next generation. The developmental challenge of adults in their middle years is to be procreative, productive, and creative and to overcome a pervading mood of self-absorption or personal stagnation. Generativity includes any activity that contributes to the development of others and to the life of the generations. The successful realization of generativity gives rise to the ego strength that Erikson described as the virtue of care.
Description Erik H. Erikson viewed generativity as the principal task of middle adulthood and used the term to highlight the adult’s role “in establishing and guiding the next generation” ([3], p. 267). Erikson summed up the stages in the following way: “In youth you find out what you care to do and who you care to be – even in changing roles. In young adulthood you learn whom you care to be with – at work and in private life, not only exchanging intimacies, but sharing intimacy. In adulthood, however, you learn to know what and whom you can take care of ” (p. 124). Stage 7 of the life cycle marks the time a person takes their place in society and helps to take care of the next generation. Adults’ societal generativity can be in the form of creating and caring for ideas, art, children, and products. Erikson notes that those who do not have children sometimes fulfill their parental responsibility by performing other altruistic and care-related activities. For example, one can help someone else’s child and still exercise generativity. Therefore, this stage does not center on having children; it centers on extending one’s self to make the world a better place for the next generation [7]. Due to the nature of this stage, relationships center on the workplace, the community, and the family – places where one can both creatively contribute to and care for what has been created. Regardless of the setting, the psychosocial challenge to adults is to promote the development of others, from nurturing the growth of another person to shepherding the development of a broader community.
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If adults do not master this developmental task, however, they tend to become self-absorbed and stagnant. Erikson’s concept of stagnation, that is, most directly applies to the failure to become socially generative. The absence of generative care threatens the entire future of the society because generativity is “the link between the life cycle and the generational cycle” ([5], p. 258). Without generativity, inactivity and meaninglessness predominate; adults embrace “pseudo intimacy” while feeling “stagnation and interpersonal impoverishment” ([2], p. 103). They focus inward, indulging their own needs instead of the needs of others. In some sense, they become their own child. An extension of self-absorption is the act of “rejectivity” or rejecting specified groups of people. Erikson elaborated on this term by noting the correlation between rejectivity and what he calls “pseudospeciation,” which he defined as the distorted belief that another group not only differs from you but also poses a threat to you ([4], p. 69). For the mature, generative adult, care extends to all, not just to certain groups of people. The virtue of care arises from the favorable resolution of generativity versus stagnation. Erikson notes that “care” includes “‘to care to do’ something, to ‘care for’ somebody or something, to ‘take care of’ that which needs protection and attention, and ‘to take care not to’ do something destructive” ([6], p. 53). An “ethic of care,” as expanded by Snarey [13], “is an ethical position that first considers the possible effects on the next generation. Care is an inclusive concern for what love, necessity, and chance have generated. Generative care overcomes the ambivalence associated with irreversible obligations by being inclusively attentive to all that has been created” (p. 228). Giving instead of receiving generates personal contentment. Erikson [1] posits that mature humans “need to be needed, and maturity needs guidance as well as encouragement from what has been produced and must be taken care of ” (pp. 266–267). In the process of caring for others, the adult also experiences further growth and personal development. In other words, just as children cannot develop into healthy adults without committed parenting, adults cannot achieve healthy maturity and generativity without the experience of nurturing future generations [7]. Research on adult development has built on or advanced Erikson’s concept of generativity. Valliant and Milofsky [14] interpreted the findings of their longitudinal study of working and upper-class men as indicating that two separate developmental tasks (career consolidation versus self-absorption; keepers of meaning versus rigidity) can be understood as derive from Erikson’s concept of generativity. Deemphasizing the significance of crisis, they also suggested a spiral model by which each new
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stage balanced off the prior stage in a pendulum swing between “times of change and instability” and a “preoccupation with the preservation of sameness and autonomy and with following and maintaining rules” (p. 1350). A spiral model suggests the evolving, hierarchal nature of maturation and the difficulties of development without mastery of each stage. This study also illumines the role of culture in modifying the tasks of development; cultural differences influence what society deems as suitable developmental tasks for each stage ([14], pp. 1348–1351). Erikson’s concept of generativity also was elaborated in the lives of men by studying the role of fatherhood. Kotre’s theorizing [8] and Snarey’s [12] research centered on generative fathering, which describes men “who contribute to and renew the ongoing cycle of the generations through the care they provide as birth fathers (biological generativity), childrearing fathers (parental generativity), and cultural fathers (societal generativity)” (12, p. 1). Additionally, Snarey [12] developed the concept of “generativity chill” to describe the threats to adult generativity, and his four-decade study demonstrated that brief or long-term threats to generativity have considerable impact on a father’s selfhood, bringing the father to confront his own mortality and challenging his own generativity with stagnation. McAdams and de St. Aubin [9] introduce seven interrelated features of generativity: cultural demand, inner desire, generative concern, belief in species, commitment, generative action, and personal narration (p. 1). The creation of the Loyola Generativity Scale attempts to assess self-reported acts and autobiographical experiences to of measure the psychosocial dimensions of generativity. McAdams and de St. Aubin [10] elaborate further by pointing to “generativity scripts” or the stories people construct to answer the question of generativity. These stories outline what a person plans to do to ensure that he or she leaves a legacy for the next generation. They posit that identity deals not only with the past and present, but with future life plans of generative action manifested in the life stories or generativity scripts of individuals. Finally, Slater [11] gave new breadth to Erikson’s crisis of generativity versus stagnation by highlighting the ways in which each of the other seven stages in Erikson’s eightstage model of the life cycle is present and expresses itself as a dimension of middle adulthood. Following Erikson’s lead, he presents inclusivity versus exclusivity, pride versus embarrassment, responsibility versus ambivalence, career productivity versus inadequacy, being needed versus alienation, and honesty versus denial (pp. 59–64). Overall, the developmental concept of Generativity continues to be an effective tool for understanding how mature adults care for the next generation.
Relevance to Childhood Development The goal of societal generativity directly involves a person in guiding and establishing the next generation. Stagnation in this period of life is counterproductive to the development of successive generations. Lack of generativity can lead to placing excessive pressure and expectations on children to redeem what adults or parents failed to do. Unrealistic burdens such as these hinder a child’s development instead of promoting it. Additionally, the adult does not just fulfill the needs of children; children also fulfill the adult’s need to be needed. In this sense, a mutual exchange takes place. Viewing a child in this way implies interconnectedness within the life cycle. In essence, based on whether an adult is generative or stagnant, this stage can either promote or hinder the flourishing of the next generation and future generations.
References 1. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. 2. Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press. 3. Erikson, E. H. (1974). Dimensions of a new identity. New York: Norton. 4. Erikson, E. H. (1982). The life cycle completed: A review. New York: Norton. 5. Erikson, E. H., & Erikson, J. (1981). On generativity and identity. Harvard Educational Review, 51(2), 249–269. 6. Evans, R. I., & Erikson, E. H. (1967). Dialogue with Erik Erikson. New York: Harper & Row. 7. Hawkins, A., & Dollahite, D. (1997). Generative fathering. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 8. Kotre, J. (1984). Outliving the self: Generativity and the interpretation of lives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 9. McAdams, D., & St. Aubin, E. (1992). A theory of generativity and its assessment through self-report, behavioral acts, and narrative themes in autobiography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(6), 1003–1015. 10. McAdams, D., & St. Aubin, E. (1998). Generativity and adult development: How and why we care for the next generation. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 11. Slater, C. L. (2003). Generativity versus Stagnation: An elaboration of Erikson’s adult stage of human development. Journal of Adult Development, 10(1), 53–65. 12. Snarey, J. (1993). How fathers care for the next generation: A fourdecade study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 13. Snarey, J. (1998). Fathers. In Encyclopedia of mental health (Vol. 10, pp. 227–240). New York: Academic Press. 14. Vaillant, G. E., & Milofsky, E. S. (1980). Natural history of male psychological health: Empirical evidence for Erikson’s model of the life cycle. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137(11), 1348–1359.
Genetic Blueprint ▶Maturation
Gerstmann Syndrome
Genetic Disorder ▶Turner Syndrome
Genotype ARTHUR E. HERNANDEZ Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Definition The genetic make up of an individual or group.
Description The genotype determines the hereditary characteristics of an individual and is sometimes considered as the allele constitution of any particular trait. Among individuals who are the product of sexual reproduction, the genotype represents the complete set of genes transmitted by both parents. The genotype is often contrasted with the phenotype which refers to individual characteristics determined by nonhereditary experience.
References 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genotype accessed April 21, 2010.
Geodon® ANISA FORNOFF Drake University, Ankeny, IA, USA
is 160 mg a day. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor. The intramuscular injection form of this medication is generally just used in the hospital setting. This medication should be taken with food. Avoid drinking alcohol. Inform your doctor if you have kidney disease, a personal history or family history of heart problems, or other medical conditions. Some side effects are listed here: twitching or muscle movements you cannot control, sleepiness, headache, dizziness, nausea, chest pain, change in heart rate, rash, anxiety, weight gain, and weakness. Tell your doctor immediately if you notice the following: fainting, slurred speech, or irregular heartbeat. The doctor may check your potassium level with a blood test. Geodon may cause an increase in blood sugar levels and possible weight gain. Elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis taking this class of medications are at increased risk of death. This medication may cause lightheadedness when going from a lying or sitting position, so it is recommended to get up slowly. This medication should be stored out of reach of children and pets and away from light, heat, and moisture.
Relevance to Childhood Development Geodon® is not FDA approved for use in children. Women should let their doctor know if they are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. Talk with your doctor before breastfeeding.
References 1.
2. 3.
Synonyms Ziprasidone
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American Management Association. (2008). AHFS drug information (24th ed., pp. 1280–1282). Maryland: American Society of HealthSystem Pharmacists. Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp. Accessed August 26, 2008. Medical Economics Staff. (2007). Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language. USP DI Vol II. (27th ed., pp. 1663–1665). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex.
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar disorder, and in acute agitation in people with schizophrenia.
Description This medication is an atypical antipsychotic available in capsule or injection. The recommended starting dose for the oral capsules is 20 or 40 mg twice daily. Maximum recommended dose
Gerstmann Syndrome KRISTEN DOMBOSKI, WILEY MITTENBERG Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Angular gyrus syndrome
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Definition Gerstmann syndrome is a condition that consists of a tetrad of neuropsychological symptoms including agraphia, acalculia, finger agnosia, and right-left disorientation. The presence of these four symptoms suggests cortical dysfunction in the left parietal lobe. The autonomous nature of the syndrome is debated, and some posit that a developmental form also exists.
Description Gerstmann syndrome was first identified and described in a paper by Josef Gerstmann in 1924. In this paper, a case was presented of a patient who exhibited inabilities to write, to perform mathematical calculations; to recognize, name, or identify fingers; and to discriminate the right and left sides of the body. Gerstmann later reported additional cases of patients with the same tetrad of symptoms, and he hypothesized that these cardinal symptoms resulted from a lesion in the left angular gyrus [7, 14]. Gerstmann believed that a unifying disruption of body image integration, or body scheme, accounted for all four symptoms and was responsible for the shared spatial deficit root of each symptom. Due to this belief of a unifying theme, Gerstmann argued that the symptoms constitute an autonomous syndrome [8]. Researchers and clinicians have subsequently disputed the existence of Gerstmann syndrome as a discrete entity [3, 5]. Cases have been presented consisting of the tetrad of symptoms with no additional deficits [4, 15], often referred to as “pure Gerstmann syndrome.” However, patients frequently exhibit a mixed presentation of symptoms, including some or all of the cardinal symptoms along with other symptoms. Some of these other symptoms include constructional apraxia [2], ideational apraxia [6, 14], alexia [3], hemianopsia [5, 15], color agnosia [5], and aphasia [5, 21]. Because of the overlap and variability of the presentation of the cardinal symptoms with these other deficits, it is argued that an autonomous syndrome does not exist [11]. The tetrad of symptoms is less likely to occur in patients without aphasia than in patients with aphasia, refuting the notion that the disorder is purely spatial [21]. The syndrome may develop in primary form, where no additional deficits have been noted within the course of the illness and the tetrad manifests as the primary presentation. The secondary form refers to cases where the clinical presentation initially includes additional symptoms (i.e., aphasia, constructional apraxia) and over time, most resolve with the exception of the Gerstmann tetrad. Generally intact functions in patients who present with pure or partial Gerstmann
syndrome include intellectual functioning, memory, and personality [7]. The cardinal symptoms of this syndrome most frequently occur following damage to the left parietal lobe, and for this reason the syndrome is thought by some to carry value in regards to lesion localization. The left angular gyrus, located at the inferior parietal lobe at the temporal and occipital junctions, is more specifically implicated, and accounts for the belief that this syndrome is related to deficits with visuospatial processing [4], mental manipulation of images [15], or body scheme [7]. A unifying theme of spatial cognition is evident [26]. Case reports of pure Gerstmann syndrome entail discrete focal damage to this region, such as in a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or glioma. Patients may present with Gerstmann symptoms secondary to diffuse damage or focal damage to regions other than the angular gyrus as well. Deficits in addition to the cardinal symptoms are more likely to occur in these cases, such as with patients with diffuse posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) who have been observed to exhibit some or all of the Gerstmann syndrome symptoms [25]. The four cardinal symptoms comorbid with other neurological deficits have also been observed in cases with lesions in the left temporoparieto-occipital lobes, left posterior frontal lobe, and right parietal lobe in left-handed patients [15]. The additional deficits are assumed to be caused by damage to tissue adjacent to the angular gyrus [7]. Of significance, lesions to the angular gyrus may not produce a pure Gerstmann syndrome, yet the identification of a pure Gerstmann syndrome invariably denotes tissue damage to this specific region.
Finger Agnosia Patients with finger agnosia are unable to name, identify, recognize, or differentiate their fingers, or imitate finger movements although vision and sensorimotor functioning remains intact. The deficit is not restricted to identifying right versus left [7] and the difficulty is often most pronounced for the three middle fingers [5]. While Gerstmann attributed finger agnosia to a defect with body image, finger gnosis is also mediated by language [14]. The common comorbidity of aphasia with not only finger agnosia, but also the rest of the tetrad of symptoms, supports the claim that Gerstmann syndrome is not a unique disorder but instead the result of multiple presumable etiologies [3]. However, cases of the syndrome without aphasia [16] have corroborated the finding that finger gnosis is an ability reliant upon spatial functioning and can become impaired when language functions remain intact. The left angular gyrus has specifically been
Gerstmann Syndrome
shown during repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to disrupt finger schema [22]. Historically, fingers have been instrumental in developing numerical and calculation abilities, which may account for the co-occurrence of finger agnosia and acalculia. When one’s ability to recognize and utilize the fingers is blunted, as in a lesion in the angular gyrus, a disruption in arithmetic calculations may ensue, even for adults who do not use their fingers for solving arithmetical problems [22].
Right-Left Disorientation Gerstmann found that a disruption in the ability to discriminate and identify the right and left sides of the body, for self and others, was also a commonly observed deficit when body scheme was impaired. The disorientation is exhibited despite preserved knowledge of right and left and is often most pronounced for hands and fingers. The disruption usually does not generalize to understanding sidedness for objects outside the space of the body [8].
Agraphia This term refers to handwriting deficits despite intact letter recognition, reading, motor, and language abilities. Gerstmann conceptualized this writing impairment as a function of the loss of orientation to the hands and body, citing the spatial functioning required to perform the skill [8]. Copying written words may be less impaired that spontaneous writing. Radiographic studies utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging has confirmed the presence of writing impairments secondary to damage to the inferior and superior parietal cortices [17].
Acalculia Calculation ability is not thought to consist of one discrete function [1]. Disturbances in calculation can result from not only impaired numerical understanding, but also from other deficits, such as spatial relations, language, and memory. Calculation deficits can occur as result of various neuropathologies involving numerous areas of the brain. In cases of primary acalculia, where the ability to understand and execute basic arithmetical calculations is not based on other cognitive deficits such as attention, memory, or language impairment, the left angular gyrus is implicated in the calculation deficit. Recognition of numbers and understanding of numerical concepts remains intact in primary acalculia. It is this precise type of calculation disturbance that Gerstmann [7] postulated was associated with the other symptoms of his syndrome. When agraphia is also present, the acalculia is more pronounced for written arithmetic than oral [12].
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Relevance to Childhood Development While Gerstmann syndrome typically relates to an acquired condition secondary to cerebral damage, some cases of developmental origin have been reported. In children, however, the symptom presence must be considered relative to the child’s developmental level. Rather than absolute inability, a deficient level of skill compared to the expected developmental level of the child may be observed. Developmental Gerstmann syndrome has been recognized more infrequently than the acquired form, possibly due to the difficulty in diagnosing the presence of the symptoms at earlier developmental levels. Another potential explanation for the paucity of information on the developmental form is that other, more wellrecognized disorders better account for the symptoms. In the acquired form, symptom onset results from an injury, such as a CVA. The developmental form differs in that no specific injury is identified as the etiology of the symptoms, yet cases have been reported in children both with and without neurologic insults [19]. In case studies with children who exhibit developmental Gerstmann syndrome, soft neurologic signs suggesting parietal lobe involvement, such as gait disturbance, hypertonia, and tremor have also been reported [24]. The syndrome has been hypothesized to be attributable to learning disorders [13], perinatal trauma [12], and developmental delays, but no known etiology exists [18]. Related disorders that may better account for the symptoms of Gerstmann syndrome in childhood include Fragile X syndrome, Williams syndrome, nonverbal learning disabilities, and Asperger’s syndrome. Abnormalities in the left parietal lobe often seen in Fragile X syndrome may account for the presence of the cardinal Gerstmann symptoms [9]. In Williams syndrome, which may also include visuospatial deficits, pronounced attention and verbal memory deficits are also seen [10]. Regardless of the presence or absence of developmental Gerstmann syndrome, nonverbal learning disabilities are characterized by impairments in social judgment and problem solving, and Asperger’s syndrome includes deficits with social interaction, communication, and personal interests [18].
Finger Agnosia Diagnosis of finger agnosia can be difficult in children, as this ability typically develops in later childhood to early adolescence [5]. The term is often used to describe distinct dysfunction in either finger identification or finger naming. In finger identification dysfunction, the child cannot point to or select a given finger on request. Finger naming dysfunction, also called finger anomia, entails the child’s inability to name specific fingers on request. In the
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developmental form of Gerstmann syndrome, either or both functions may be impaired [24].
Right-Left Disorientation It is has been demonstrated that the majority of children can discriminate the right and left sides of their body by eight years of age [5]. Right-left disorientation may be seen as slowness or hesitation in responding to tasks requiring right and left differentiation rather than a complete lack of right-left orientation. Simple knowledge of right and left may be intact, yet performance of complex commands may be impaired [19].
Agraphia Levels of writing impairment, called dysgraphia, vary in the developmental form of this condition, often regardless of the developmental level of the child [18, 24]. Letter and word formation can be seen as clumsy or illegible, and spelling errors may occur. The impairment may be for spontaneous writing, copying, or both. Letter sequencing and reversal is also common. Demonstrating a visuospatial nature of the symptomatology, the underdeveloped penmanship may qualitatively be considered poor use of space [2]. Disorientation for right and left impacts the manifestation of agraphia in some cases, evidenced by improper use of paper margins, misaligned writing, and disoriented letters [24].
Dyscalculia The term dyscalculia refers to a developmental lack of acquisition of numerical or mathematical abilities [1]. Developmentally-appropriate understanding of numbers and mathematical concepts remains intact. Dyscalculia may present as difficulty sequencing numbers, writing numbers, or performing calculations verbally or in writing [27]. In dyscalculia, also sometimes referred to as developmental dyscalculia, mathematical abilities are never learned. This impairment contrasts with acalculia, where a previous understanding of mathematical concepts is halted by acquired organic brain dysfunction. In children, the co-occurrence of finger agnosia and dyscalculia are considered evidence of a learning disorder, as numerical concepts and arithmetic skills at early ages are reliant on discrimination of the fingers [26]. The acquisition of simple arithmetic skills can also be understood by examining Piaget’s Concrete Operational stage of development [23], where children between the ages of 7 and 11 years typically develop an understanding of the concept of reversibility for logical problem solving. Without ability to utilize this concept, the child may manifest intact abilities,
such as language, yet have impaired abilities with ordering and simple arithmetic. While constructional dyspraxia may or may not occur with acquired Gerstmann syndrome, many consider it the fifth sign of the developmental form [2]. The child may not be able to copy drawings or manipulate blocks, but the impairment is not attributable to sensorimotor deficits. Contrasting with the acquired form, which frequently presents with aphasia, developmental Gerstmann syndrome typically does not occur with pronounced language deficits [13, 27]. Other associated features of the developmental form may include hyperactivity, attention deficit [28], mild language delays, and behavioral problems such as aggressiveness and temper tantrums [24]. Due to the scarcity of literature, varied causal hypotheses, and reduced reliability in diagnosing individual symptoms of developmental Gerstmann syndrome, there is doubt as to whether the syndrome is an independent developmental disorder. A higher incidence of cases with Gerstmann symptoms may be uncovered through more thorough neurological and neuropsychological assessment for children with learning disabilities, as some argue that the syndrome often goes unrecognized. When the syndrome is identified, averting the child’s deficits by teaching compensation skills and utilization of strengths remain common treatment approaches [20].
References 1. Ardila, A., & Rosselli, M. (2002). Acalculia and dyscalculia. Neuropsychology Review, 12, 179–231. 2. Benson, F., & Geschwind, N. (1970). Developmental Gerstmann syndrome. Neurology, 20, 293–298. 3. Benton, A. (1977). Reflections on the Gerstmann syndrome. Brain and Language, 4, 45–62. 4. Carota, A., Di Pietro, M., Ptak, R., Poglia, D., & Schnider, A. (2004). Defective spatial imagery with pure Gerstmann syndrome. European Neurology, 52, 1–6. 5. Critchley, M. (1966). The enigma of Gerstmann’s syndrome. Brain, 89, 183–197. 6. Dozono, K., Hachisuka, K., Ohnishi, A., & Ogata, H. (1997). Gerstmann’s syndrome and ideational apraxia with a right cerebral hemispheric lesion: A case study. Neurocase, 3, 61–66. 7. Gerstmann, J. (1940). Syndrome of finger agnosia, disorientation for right and left, agraphia, and acalculia. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 44, 398–408. 8. Gerstmann, J. (1957). Some notes on the Gerstmann syndrome. Neurology, 7, 866–869. 9. Grigsby, J. P., Kemper, M. B., Hagerman, R. J., & Myers, C. S. (1990). Neuropsychological dysfunction among affected heterozygous fragile X females. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 35, 28–35. 10. Jarrold, C., Baddeley, A. D., & Hewes, A. K. (1998). Verbal and nonverbal abilities in the Williams syndrome phenotype: Evidence for diverging developmental trajectories. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 511–523.
Gestures 11. Kaplan, E., Gallagher, R. E., & Glosser, G. (1998). Aphasia-related disorders. In M. T. Sarno (Ed.), Acquired aphasia (pp. 309–339). California: Academic Press. 12. Kinsbourne, M. (1968). Developmental Gerstmann syndrome. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 15, 771–778. 13. Kinsbourne, M., & Warrington, E. K. (1963). The developmental Gerstmann syndrome. Archives of Neurology, 8, 490–501. 14. Lebrun, Y. (2005). Gerstmann’s syndrome. Journal of Neuorlinguistics, 18, 317–326. 15. Mayer, E., Martory, M., Pegna, A. J., Landis, T., Delavelle, J., & Annoni, J. (1999). A pure case of Gerstmann syndrome with a subangular lesion. Brain, 122, 1107–1120. 16. Mazzoni, M., Pardossi, L., Cantini, R., Giorgetti, V., & Arena, R. (1990). Gerstmann syndrome: A case report. Cortex, 26, 459–467. 17. Menon, V., & Desmond, J. E. (2001). Left superior parietal cortex involvement in writing: Integrating fMRI with lesion evidence. Cognitive Brain Research, 12, 337–340. 18. Miller, C. J., & Hynd, G. W. (2004). What ever happened to developmental Gerstmann’s syndrome? Links to other pediatric, genetic, and neurodevelopmental syndromes. Journal of Child Neurology, 19, 282–289. 19. PeBenito, R. (1987). Developmental Gerstmann syndrome: Case report and review of the literature. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 8, 229–232. 20. PeBenito, R., Fisch, C. B., & Fisch, M. L. (1988). Developmental Gerstmann’s syndrome. Archives of Neurology, 45, 977–982. 21. Poeck, K., & Orgass, B. (1966). Gerstmann’s syndrome and aphasia. Cortex, 2, 421–437. 22. Rusconi, E., Walsh, V., & Butterworth, B. (2005). Dexterity with numbers: rTMS over left angular gyrus disrupts finger gnosis and number processing. Neuropsychologia, 43, 1609–1624. 23. Saxe, G. B., & Shaheen, S. (1981). Piagetian theory and the atypical case: An analysis of the developmental Gerstmann syndrome. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 14, 131–135. 24. Suresh, P. A., & Sebastian, S. (2000). Developmental Gerstmann’s syndrome: A distinct clinical entity of learning disabilities. Pediatric Neurology, 22, 267–278. 25. Tang-Wai, D., & Mapstone, M. (2006). What are we seeing? Is posterior cortical atrophy just Alzheimer disease? Neurology, 66, 300–301. 26. Vallar, G. (2007). Spatial neglect, Balint-Homes’ and Gerstmann’s syndrome, and other spatial disorders. CNS Spectrums, 12, 527–536. 27. Weinberg, W. A., & McLean, A. (1986). A diagnostic approach to developmental specific learning disabilities. Journal of Child Neurology, 1, 158–172. 28. Werneck, L. C. (1975). Developmental Gerstmann syndrome associated with cerebellar neoplasm: Report of a case and review of the literature. Arquivos de Neuro-psiquiatria, 33, 64–74.
GEs ▶Grade Equivalents
Gestalt Play Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
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Gestalt Therapy ▶Humanistic Therapy
Gestures SEONGWON YUN Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Action; Body language; Movement; Nonverbal communication; Signal
Definition Gestures are bodily movements that are carried out for the purpose of communication. A wave of the hand and a nod of the head are examples of gestures.
Description Parts of a body (e.g., hand shape, kinetic movement, face, eyes, and posture) and surrounding environments are used simultaneously when we gesture [1]. For example, when someone says, “Here” with a pointing gesture, the place can be understood only as the specific location the person is referring to. Gestures can express different things. Pointing gestures indicate things, persons, or locations as objects of references. Iconic characterizing gestures provide a visual representation of things to show physical and concrete items (e.g., using hands to show how big or small a physical item is). Symbolic designating gestures express abstract ideas in visible forms (e.g., pointing ahead in space to indicate time, “the future”). Emblematic gestures are patterns of gesture that have been conventionalized within a culture (e.g., thumbs up). People also gesture spontaneously during speech. A speaker’s specific spontaneous gesture is distinguished from iconic representational gestures and emblems because it does not represent any shared meanings among people as iconic gestures or emblems do. Gestures also differ across different languages and cultures because different languages and cultures organize information about events differently. For example, people from southern India or Pakistan may shake their head from side to side to indicate “you’re welcome” or “goodbye.”
Gesture, Speech, and Thought According to research findings, speech and gesture are not separate [2, 3]. In the process of making sense to others,
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people use not only language but also gesture as a part of multiple resources, which include physical and cultural environments [1]. People may leave out some words and instead substitute them with gesture incorporating the relevant features of the environment. For example, a person holding a cup of hot coffee in a coffee shop may say to a salesperson, “Please give me” with hand shaking gestures up and down quickly indicating a cup sleeve. The relevant features of the environment in this example include physical environments such as the place (coffee shop) and a cup of hot coffee and cultural environments such as the interpersonal relationships between the customer and the salesperson and the context of holding a cup of hot coffee to take out. In meaning-making processes, speech and gesture occur almost at the same time at the very moment of expressing thought. Whereas speech is used to convey more conventional, segmental, and sequential meanings, gesture reflects instantaneous, global, and holistic thought in order to provide additional features of meaning accompanied with utterances.
distinguished from spoken language and spontaneous individualized gestures. Sign language helps deaf children learn and develop resilient properties of language.
Relevance to Childhood Development Gestures play a facilitating role in communication and in early language development [5, 6]. Gestures are used to communicate before children use their voices to express something. Infants can start understanding and using simple gestures around 6–8 months of age (e.g., rhythmic hand movements) [7]. Babies begin to use pointing gestures around 8–10 months of age [7]. Gestures not only precede language development but also have a close relationship to children’s development of words and grammatical structures. For example, babies who are producing single-word utterances may use gestures in combination with words to produce sentence-like combinations (e.g., saying want and pointing to candies). These types of gestures and word combinations occur around 18–20 months of age [7]. Gesture continues to facilitate, expand, and speed children’s early language repertoire over childhood development.
Functions of Gestures Why do we gesture? Individualized spontaneous gestures function for the speaker to compensate for or spur verbal formulation. Gestures can help people keep complex concepts in mind or retrieve certain words. Gestures can be regarded as a resource to construct discourse, which is composed of multiple resources such as speech, gesture, and relevant parts of physical and cultural environments. Gestures reflect a dynamic process of thinking for speaking [2]. They show a relationship between language and thought representation in the mind. Speech gestures are generated during the conceptual process for speaking, in which speech and gesture take place at the same time. Gestures also function as a cohesive device as people narrate discourse. There is a recurrent of one or more gesture features that spread out over a stretch of discourse to maintain reference and achieve cohesiveness in the discourse [3]. Gestures can also reveal meanings beyond speech. Gestures stimulate thought processes as people prepare gestures in advance. People enact their thoughts through gestures and express aspects of utterance content in visible forms.
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Bates, E., & Dick, F. (2002). Language, gesture, and the developing brain. Developmental Psychology, 40(3), 293–310. Duncan, S. D., Cassell, J., & Levy, E. T. (Eds.). (2007). Gesture and the dynamic dimension of language. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Goldin-Meadow, S., & Wagner, S. M. (2005). How our hands help us learn. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(5), 234–241. Goodwin, C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32, 1489–1522. Iverson, J. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). Gesture paves the way for language development. Psychological Science, 16(5), 367–371. Kendon, A. (1997). Gesture. Annual Review of Anthropology, 26, 109–128. McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gf ▶Fluid Intelligence
Sign, Gesture, and Language Sign language developed among the deaf shows an indirect relationship to spoken language [4]. Sign languages developed in deaf communities, for example, American Sign Language, are full-fledged languages, which are
Gibberish ▶Babbling
Girly
Gifted and Talented Children MEGAN PARKER University of Tennessee- Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA
Life Dates 1984–
Educational Information B. S. Psychology, Middle Tennessee State University (2005), M.S. Applied Educational Psychology, University of Tennessee- Knoxville (2008), Ph.D. School Psychology, University of Tennessee- Knoxville (2010).
Description Identification Traditionally, gifted children were identified and defined by their advanced intelligence, which was assessed by an IQ test. By this qualifier, a child was deemed gifted if he or she produced scores of approximately 130 or above or the 95th percentile. However, in many cases, there are now other ways for children to qualify and be identified as gifted [5]. Advanced scores on achievement assessments, exceptional grades in school, creativity, leadership, and observed advanced skills are just some of the additional components that may be used in combination with an IQ assessment to identify gifted children from the correction given [3].
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
Delisle, J. R. (2006). The Javits debacle. Gifted Child Today, 29, 47–48. Karnes, F. A., & Wherry, J. N. (1983). CPQ personality factors of upper elementary gifted students. Journal of Personality Assessment, 47, 303–306. National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). http://www.nagc. org/ U. S. Department of Education. (2007). Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program: Guide to U.S. Department of Education Programs. http://www.ed.gov/programs/javits/index.html VanTassel-Baska, J. L., Feng, A. X., & de Brux, E. (2007). A study of identification and achievement profiles of performance taskidentified gifted students over 6 years. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 31, 7–34.
Giggle ▶Laughter
Gilles de la Tourette’s Syndrome
Traits Because gifted children can now be identified in many different ways, it is more difficult to distinguish characteristics that only belong to gifted children. If a child is a gifted pianist, than the child’s abilities will surely be seen in his or her ability to play the piano. If a child is a gifted mathematician, than the child’s abilities will shine while computing formulas and equations. The commonality among the different types of giftedness is the advanced nature of the ability. Gifted children are also often noted for their creativity, leadership skills, and advanced cognitive development.
Services States vary on how they provide services to gifted children. Some states provide no services, and others provide
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comprehensive programs including advanced coursework and separate classes for every grade level in all subject areas for gifted students. There is currently no mandated federal funding for gifted education. However, the Javits Act provides funding to gifted education programs serving traditionally underrepresented students [1, 4]. The Javits Act funding is highly competitive. Also, in states that provide services to gifted students, there is not a uniform method for organizing such services into the educational system. Some states place gifted programs within Special Education; others place gifted services within general education programming.
Definition Gifted and talented is a label that describes children who possess exceptionally advanced abilities in one or more performance areas.
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▶Tourette Syndrome
Girlhood ▶Femininity
Girly ▶Femininity
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GLA Deficiency
GLA Deficiency ▶Fabry Syndrome
GLBTQ ▶Homosexuality
Global Assessment of Functioning Scales LORI J. WARNER Center for Human Development, Berkley, MI, USA
Synonyms CGAS; C-GAS; Children’s global functioning; GAF; GAPD; Social adjustment
Definition Global assessment of functioning scales are intended for use by mental health professionals to rate the overall functioning of their patients, taking into account occupational/school, social, and psychological symptoms.
the general functioning of their patients. The GAF is designed for use with patients of any age, whereas the GAPD is intended specifically for use with children under age 18, and the CGAS is for use with patients aged 4–16. The psychometric properties of all three scales have been recently summarized [3]. Each scale has specific instructions regarding which areas of functioning to assess and which to exclude (e.g., impairment due to physical or environmental limitations), and each differs in terms of the timeframe during which the rating is being made (see [3] for overview). The scales contain clinical descriptors of functioning/ symptoms as benchmarks or anchor points, and ratings are made on the lowest level of functioning for the CGAS and the GAPD, whereas the GAF does not specify how to rate if functioning levels vary.
Relevance to Childhood Development None of the scales has established psychometric properties for children under 4 years of age, and the reason for selecting age 16 as the upper limit for the CGAS is undocumented [3]. A developmental disabilities modification of the CGAS was published in 2007 (DD-CGAS; Wagner et al.) as the descriptors in CGAS scores are not easily applied to children with developmental disabilities. The DD-CGAS was found to be reliable, with apparent convergent validity for measuring the global functioning of children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders [4].
References 1.
Description There is consensus that clinical indices of overall functioning have utility in treatment of mental illness and impairment [3]. Functional impairment is often the impetus for clinical referral and entry into treatment [4]. Additionally, global assessment scales allow clinicians to integrate information from many areas of the patient’s functioning into one clinically meaningful index [2]. This information can then be used in planning treatment and evaluating outcome of interventions. The Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF; [1]), the Children’s Global Assessment Scale (CGAS; [2]), and the Global Assessment of Psychosocial Disability (GAPD; [5]) are the three most commonly used measures of global assessment of functioning. All are numeric scales intended for use by mental health professionals to assess
2.
3.
4.
5.
American Psychiatric Association. (2002). Multiaxial assessment. In DSM-IV-TR: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Schaffer, D., Gould, M. S., Brasic, J., Ambrosini, P., Fisher, P., Bird, H., et al. (1983). A children’s global assessment scale (CGAS). Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 1228–1231. Schorre, B. E., & Vandvik, I. H. (2004). Global assessment of psychosocial functioning in child and adolescent psychiatry: A review of three unidimensional scales (CGAS, GAF, GAPD). European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13(5), 273–286. Wagner, A., Lecavalier, L., Arnold, L. E., Aman, M. G., Scahill, L., Stigler, K. A., et al. (2007). Developmental disabilities modification of the Children’s Global Assessment Scale. Biological Psychiatry, 61, 504–511. World Health Organization. (1996). Axis Six Global Assessment of Psychosocial Disability. In: World Health Organization (1996) Multiaxial classification of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders: The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 271–272.
Go/No-Go Task
Globus Pallidus
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Go/No-Go Task
CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
GEORGE GEORGIOU, CECILIA A. ESSAU Roehampton University, London, UK
Definition
Synonyms
The Globus Pallidus is the medial portion of the lenticular nucleus, narrowly, and one part of the basal ganglia broadly, which plays a prominent role in motor modulation [2].
The go/no-go task is similar to the stop-signal task in that both investigate the ability to inhibit a response.
Description The globus pallidus is one portion of the basal ganglia, which is a cluster of subcortical structures that have been tied to the modulation and regulation of motor activities and has also been linked to procedural memory. Together as a working whole, the basal ganglia demonstrate complex interconnections between sensory centers and the cerebral cortex that participate in the control of higher-order movement, particularly in starting or initiating movement [3]. While it is part of the basal ganglia, more narrowly the globus pallidus represents the medial portion of the lenticular nucleus [2]. In terms of its influence on motor activity, the globus pallidus reflects the site at which the excitatory and inhibitory motor pathways of the motor cortex converge [1]. More specifically, this convergence occurs at the internal part of the globus pallidus. The globus pallidus in turn projects to the thalamus and the thalamus in turn projects to the motor cortex [1]. It is the actions of these thalamic projections that controls the size and force of a movement that the cortex produces; however, given the globus pallidus influences the actions of the thalamus, functionally it is likely difficult to separate one from the other. As a result, the globus pallidus may be perceived as determining how weak or how strong a movement may be [1].
References 1. 2. 3.
Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Glutethimide (Doriden) ▶Depressants
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Definition The go/no-go is a cognitive task aimed at determining the ability of an individual to inhibit a response deemed inappropriate.
Description Experimental paradigms measuring response times (RTs) often assess how the information-processing sequence of perception, decision making, and action are organized. A tool commonly employed in this endeavor is the two choice task which typically requires participants to respond to a presented stimulus using one of two possible choice responses [6]. An alternative tool is the go/no-go task where participants are required to either respond (i.e., pressing designated key) or withhold a response (not pressing designated key) depending on whether a go stimulus or a no-go stimulus is presented (Verbruggen & Logan, 2008). It has been argued that compared to the two choice task, the data collected from go/no-go procedure provides a higher signal-to-noise ratio [7]. The stopsignal task paradigm closely resembles a choice reaction task with the exception that during the presentation of a series of trials, a random presentation of a stop signal will appear (Verbruggen & Logan, 2008). The stop signal indicates to participants that a response should be withheld. The ability to suppress a response (i.e., response inhibition) has been extensively investigated using the stopsignal procedure [10] and go/no-go task (Verbruggen & Logan, 2008). Although there is a tendency for some investigators to treat the go/no-go task and the stop-signal paradigm as one of the same, recent evidence has suggested that differentiating the two may be justified upon the grounds that response inhibition may not achieved in the same way across the two paradigms (Verbruggen & Logan, 2008).
Relevance to Childhood Development The role of behavioral disinhibition is considered fundamental by a number of models of developmental
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psychopathology [3]. In general terms, inhibition refers to the ability to ignore extraneous information or to prevent an inappropriate response [5]. One’s inhibitory capabilities, whether suppressing a thought, emotion or a particular behavior, is considered to be a key feature of executive control [9]. Executive control refers to a group of interrelated abilities that promote the ability to pursue some thoughts and behaviors whilst suppressing others [1]. With regard to childhood development, inhibitory control is subject to rapid development in childhood between the ages of 3 and 5 [15]. As the capacity of inhibitory control increases with age [17] there is the risk of impairment as implicated in attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [13]. ADHD is associated with deficits in sustained attention (or inattention), response inhibition, and hyperactivity amongst others [16]. This line of research was mainly prompted by clinical observations linking excessive distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity with failures in inhibition [2]. The go/no-go procedure has proved to be a popular tool in showing that children diagnosed with ADHD exhibit poor inhibitory control [14]. Similar findings were also found with the stop-signal task [12]. There is some evidence, albeit tentative, that behavioral disinhibition has also been found in patients diagnosed with conduct disorder [8]. Nevertheless, there are suggestions that ADHD should be first and foremost be seen as a dysfunction of behavior inhibition [2].
10. Logan, G. D., & Cowan, W. B. (1984). On the ability to inhibit thought and action: A theory of an act of control. Psychological Review, 91, 295–327. 11. Nigg, J. T. (2000). On inhibition/disinhibition in developmental psychopathology: Views from cognitive and personality psychology and a working inhibition taxonomy. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 220– 246. 12. Oosterlaan, J., Logan, G. D., & Sergeant, J. A. (1998). Response inhibition in AD/HD, CD, comorbid AD/HD+CD, anxious, and control children: A meta-analysis of studies with the stop task. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 411–425. 13. Overtoom, C. C. E., Kenemans, J. L., Verbaten, M. N., Kemmer, C., van der Molen, M. W., van Engeland, H., et al. (2002). Inhibition in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A psychophysiological study of the stop task. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 667–676. 14. Shue, K. L., & Douglas, V. I. (1992). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the frontal lobe syndrome. Brain and Cognition, 20, 104–124. 15. Simpson, A., & Riggs, K. J. (2005). Inhibitory and working memory demands of the day-night task in children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 317–333. 16. Voeller, K. K. S. (2004). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Journal of Child Neurology, 19, 798–814. 17. Williams, B. R., Ponesse, J. S., Schachar, R., Logan, G. D., & Tanock, R. (1999). Development of inhibitory control across the lifespan. Developmental Psychology, 35, 205–213.
Gonads CAROL D. DANIELS Emporia State University, Emporia, KS, USA
References 1. Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. 2. Barkley, R. A. (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121(1), 65–94. 3. Berlin, L., & Bohlin, G. (2002). Response inhibition, hyperactivity, and conduct problems among preschool children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 31(2), 242–251. 4. Carlson, S. M., & Moses, L. J. (2001). Individual differences in inhibitory control and children’s theory of mind. Child Development, 72, 1032–1053. 5. Dagenbach, D., & Carr, T. H. (1994). Inhibitory processes in attention, memory, and language. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 6. Gomez, P., Ratcliff, R., & Perea, M. (2007). A model of the go/no-go task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 389–413. 7. Gordon, B., & Caramazza, A. (1982). Lexical decision for open- and closed-class words: Failure to replicate differential frequency sensitivity. Brain and Language, 15, 143–160. 8. Hurt, J., & Naglieri, J. A. (1992). Performance of delinquent and nondeliquent males on planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive cognitive processing tasks. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 48, 120–128. 9. Logan, G. D. (1985). Executive control of thought and action. Acta Psychologica, 60, 193–210.
Synonyms Balls; Testes; Testicles
Definition From the Greek work, gone, meaning seed. It refers to a seed producing gland, such as an ovary or a testis [1].
Description Gonads typically refer to the male sex glands. These glands usually occur in pairs. They are located in an external sac of skin in humans called the scrotum behind the penis. The gonads produce and store sperm and are the male’s primary source of male hormones, such as testosterone. These hormones control the development of the reproductive organs and other male characteristics, such as body and facial hair, low voice, and wide shoulders [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development The male sex glands, gonads, provide the male gamete, or seed, that joins with the female gamete to form a zygote
Gordon Diagnostic System
from which the embryo develops. The male seed helps to determine the sex of the zygote and the characteristics inherited from the father. As the male child progresses through puberty, the gonads release the male hormones that control the development of the reproductive organs and other male characteristics [1].
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Synonyms
Hyperactivity Disorder. The GDS can also be used as a monitor of stimulant medication and as a neuropsychological assessment of post concussion syndrome, closed head injury, neurotoxicity, Fragile X Syndrome, and Alzheimer’s disease. The evaluative tests used in the GDS are Standard Vigilance Task, Standard Distractibility Test, Delay Task, Preschool Delay Task, Preschool Vigilance “0” Task, Preschool Vigilance “1” Task, Vigilance “3/5” Task, Adult Vigilance Task, Adult Distractibility Task, Auditory Vigilance Task, and Auditory Interference Task [1]. The outcomes of the evaluations are shown on a printout via the automatic printer output on the instrument. The printout notates the number of correct responses, incorrect responses, and failures to respond. The GDS has been standardized on approximately 1,300 4–16 year olds. Standardization was primarily performed on a limited selection of individuals in the upstate area of New York, but additional protocols from various populations, including deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, and Spanish-speaking have been gathered [2]. When the GDS is being used for its primary purpose of providing a behavior-based measure of inattention and impulsivity, three of the tests are used: Delay, Vigilance, and Distractibility. The Delay task provides a measure of the child’s ability to inhibit impulsive responding. The Vigilance task assesses the child’s ability to sustain attention, respond correctly, and inhibit incorrect responding. The Distractibility task assesses the child’s ability to differentiate extraneous stimuli while responding correctly, and inhibiting incorrect responses. Moderate correlations with neuropsychological instruments, behavior-based measures, and teacher and parent evaluations of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders have been found although validity studies have primarily been performed by the developers [1, 3]. The developer recommends that the GDS is to be utilized as only one resource of data to be combined with other resources in evaluating and diagnosing attention difficulties.
Computerized assessment of attention and self control; Computerized behavior assessment; Continuous performance test; GDS
References
References 1.
Anderson, K. N., Anderson, L. E., & Glanze, W. D. (Eds.). (1998). Mosby’s medical, nursing, & allied health dictionary (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Good-Enough Mother ▶Object Relations Theory
Goodenough/Harris Drawing Test ▶Draw-A-Person Test
Goofballs ▶Depressants
Gordon Diagnostic System NINA FOSTER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
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Definition The Gordon Diagnostic System (GDS) consists of 11 tests that aid in assessing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
2.
Description
3.
The GDS is a portable, microprocessor-based continuous performance test often used in assessing Attention Deficit
Dickerson Mayes, S., Calhoun, S. L., & Crowell, E. W. (2001). Clinical validity and interpretation of the Gordon Diagnostic System in ADHD assessments. Child Neuropsychology, 7(1), 32–41. Harrington, R. G. (1998). Review of the Gordon Diagnostic System. In J. C. Impara & B. S. Plake (Eds.), The thirteenth mental measurements yearbook. Retrieved from the Buros Institute’s Test Reviews Online website: http://www.unl.edu/buros. Oehler-Stinnett, J. J. (1998). Review of the Gordon Diagnostic System. In J. C. Impara & B. S. Plake (Eds.), The thirteenth mental measurements yearbook. Retrieved from the Buros Institute’s Test Reviews Online website: http://www.unl.edu/buros.
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Grade Equivalents
Grade Equivalents MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Developmental norms; referenced scores
GEs; Grade
scores;
Norm
Definition A type of test score describing an individual’s performance in relation to the performance of typical students at a given grade level.
Description Grade equivalent scores are commonly used in reporting students’ performance in educational settings. Most often, these scores are used to describe performance on academic achievement tests, though grade-based norms and grade equivalent scores are available for some other types of standardized assessment instruments (e.g., cognitive assessment instruments, speech and language assessment instruments). Grade equivalent scores can be calculated for a test by finding the median (i.e., the 50th percentile) score obtained by children at each grade level on that test. Children who earn the median raw score for a given grade level are assigned a score equivalent to that grade level. Grade equivalent scores are generally expressed numerically in decimal format, with the number to the left of the decimal representing the grade, and the number to the right of the decimal indicating the number of months completed in that grade. For example, a grade equivalent score of 5.8 on a test would indicate that the student receiving that score answered the same number of items correctly as the typical student who has completed eight months of fifth grade. Despite their frequent use, grade equivalent scores are prone to misinterpretation. Since grade equivalent scores represent a student’s performance on a single test, they should not be interpreted to mean that the grade level represented by the grade equivalent score would be more appropriate for the student, or that, overall, the student is performing at the grade level indicated by the score. In other words, if a fifth-grade student obtains a grade equivalent score of 6.0 on a test of reading skill, it means that that student got the same number of items right on that test as the typical sixth-grader in that test’s norming sample; however, it does not necessarily mean that the student
reads or requires reading instruction at a sixth-grade level. Additionally, grade equivalent scores do not necessarily increase smoothly as the number of correctly answered items increases. For example, imagine a hypothetical academic achievement test on which the typical third-grader gets 17 items right, the typical fourth-grader gets 19 items right, and the typical seventh-grader gets 21 items right. For a student with a raw score of 17, increasing performance by two points (i.e., to 19) would increase that student’s grade equivalent score from 3.0 to 4.0; however, if a student with a raw score of 19 got two additional items right, that student’s grade equivalent score would increase much more dramatically (i.e., from 4.0 to 7.0). Finally, if the students who participate in the norming process for a given test are taught academic skills in a different sequence from test-takers, grade equivalent scores are likely to provide inaccurate estimates of skill levels. For these reasons, grade equivalent scores should be reported and interpreted with caution.
References 1. 2. 3.
4.
Allen, M. J., & Yen, W. M. (2002). Introduction to measurement theory. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Joint Committee on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Murphy, K. M., & Davidshofer, C. O. (2005). Psychological testing: Principles and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Grade Retention PRISCILLA JONES, ANGELA WAGUESPACK Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Failing a grade; Non-promotion
Definition Grade retention is the practice in which children are required to repeat a grade level in school because they failed to meet required benchmarks or grade level standards.
Description Grade retention, which has been increasingly implemented in recent years, is considered one of the most scrutinized
Grade Retention
and debated practices in education. Historically, students have been retained by well-meaning school-based decisionmakers when it was believed that holding the child back would allow him/her the opportunity to “catch-up” socially or academically with peers. While teacher-based retention continues, since the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, large-scale test-based retention polices have been enacted by several states in an effort to address student progression and to end social promotion. Students who fail to meet grade level standards, typically assessed by standardized tests, must be retained according to state law. This has resulted in greater numbers of students retained than ever before in the United States. Recent estimates indicate that as many as 15% of children are retained each year, with boys, minority students, and poor children retained at the highest rates [9]. Grade retention can occur at any grade level, but practices vary depending on the source with teacher-based retentions occurring in the early grade-school years and testbased retentions occurring throughout the school career at grades designated by state policy.
Relevance to Childhood Development Despite the widespread use of grade retention as an intervention, the preponderance of the research suggests there are many long-term negative consequences for children as a result of this practice. While some studies suggest short-term gains in retainees, meta-analyses involving 80 studies failed to support greater levels of academic achievement in retainees when compared to lowperforming promoted peers [7]. Additionally, a strong correlation between retention and high school drop-out exists, with one recent longitudinal study finding that compared to promoted students, retained students were five to nine times more likely to drop out of high school [6]. Further, another study found that retainees were much less likely to enroll in college even if they did graduate from high school [4]. In addition to the lack of support for increased academic achievement when using retention as an intervention, negative social-emotional consequences for retained students have been investigated as well. Retention has been found to give rise to the development of low-self esteem in retained students, since these students are usually teased by other non-retained students [2]. Studies have found that children view being retained as a form of punishment and often feel stigmatized throughout their school career [10]. Further, research suggests that children perceive retention as one of the most significant stressful life events that can occur [1, 11] and that it becomes increasingly stressful as the child ages.
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With regard to claims that retention enhances the behavioral and social-emotional functioning of children when compared to promoted students, the research is unsupportive as well. In one study, an existing relationship was found between peer rejection and academic outcomes, especially for retained students [8]. Other studies have indicated that retained students are at greater risk of exhibiting disruptive and aggressive behaviors [3, 6] and display poorer social adjustment and more problem behaviors when compared to matched controls [5]. Given the evidence that grade retention is generally considered harmful in many ways, evidence-based alternatives to retention are currently being investigated and implemented. These include incorporating system-wide prevention efforts such as high quality preschool and early reading programs for targeted at-risk groups, as well as providing effective instructional and/or behavioral interventions for students who are identified as experiencing difficulties [7].
References 1. Anderson, G. E., Jimerson, S. R., & Whipple, A. D. (2005). Students’ ratings of stressful experiences at home and school: Loss of a parent and grade retention as superlative stressors. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 21(1), 1–20. 2. Bowman, L. J. (2005). Grade retention: Is it a help or hindrance to student academic success? Preventing School Failure, 49(3), 42–46. 3. Eide, E. R., & Goldhaber, D. D. (2005). Grade retention: What are the costs and benefits? Journal of Education Finance, 31(2), 195–214. 4. Fine, J. G., & Davis, J. M. (2003). Grade retention and enrollment in post-secondary education. Journal of School Psychology, 41(6), 401–411. 5. Holmes, C. T. (1989). Grade-level retention effects: A meta-analysis of research studies. In L. A. Shepard & M. L. Smith (Eds.), Flunking grades: Research and policies on retention (pp. 16–33). London: Falmer Press. 6. Jimerson, S. R., & Ferguson, P. (2007). A longitudinal study of grade retention: Academic and behavioral outcomes of retained students through adolescence. School Psychology Quarterly, 22(3), 314–339. 7. Jimerson, S. R., Pletcher, S. M., Graydon, K., Schnurr, B. L., Nickerson, A. B., & Kundert, D. K. (2006). Beyond grade retention and social promotion: Promoting the social and academic competence of students. Psychology in the Schools, 43(1), 85–97. 8. Lubbers, M. J., Van Der Werf, M. P. C., Snijders, T. A. B., Creemers, B. P. M., & Kuyper, H. (2006). The impact of peer relations on academic progress in junior high. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 491–512. 9. National Association of School Psychologists. (2003). Position statement on student grade retention and social promotion. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. 10. Setencich, J. (1994). The impact of early grade retention on the academic achievement and self-esteem of seventh and eighth grade students. In Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists, Seattle, WA. 11. Yamamoto, K., & Byrnes, D. A. (1987). Primary children’s ratings of the stressfulness of experiences. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 2, 117–121.
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Grade Scores
Grade Scores ▶Grade Equivalents
Graduated Learning ▶Dynamic Assessment
Grain Alcohol ▶Alcohol
system are dependent upon the integrity of the cell body which controls and maintains the neuronal structure [4]. The presence of grey matter within the various areas of the Central Nervous System demonstrates that nerve cells have their origins and are making rich interconnections in these regions [1]. In terms of its’ presence in the Spinal Cord, grey matter is found in the inner part. Functionally, grey matter in the Spinal Cord is composed of cell bodies which help organize movements carried out peripherally [3]. This conduction is made possible by the grey matter also representing the area from which the ventral roots of the Spinal Cord originate. It is through these circuits that transmissions of signals are sent away from the Spinal Cord to the muscles [3]. In regards to the brain, grey matter predominates in the outer layers, forming the cortex, which may be depicted as those areas where functions are housed.
References
Grammar
1. 2.
▶Morphology ▶Syntax
3. 4.
Beaumont, J. G. (2008). Introduction to Neuropsychology (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Goldberg, S. (2007). Clinical neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple (3rd ed.). Miami, Fl: Medmaster. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
GRE/SAT Score ▶Standard Scores
Grief ▶Cross-Culture Perspective on Bereavement Springer
Grey Matter CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Grief Work EMILY A. BULLINGTON Spartanburg School District 6, Spartanburg, SC, USA
Definition Grey matter is a form of tissue found in the brain and spinal cord that contains neuronal cell bodies and capillary.
Definition Grief work is the working out of psychological issues connected with grief [4].
Description Grey matter is a form of tissue found throughout the Central Nervous System. It is so termed based on its characteristic grayish-brown color. Grey matter obtains its color from the neuronal cell bodies and capillaries that make up the tissue [2, 3]. This is important because the functionality and survival of the neurons within the
Description Grief is a highly personal experience to which some people recover fairly quickly, while others never do. Grief work is often looked at in three stages. It begins with shock and disbelief, during which the bereaved person begins to accept the painful reality of the loss. Next, the person
Grieving
will gradually let go of the bond with the dead person. They may become preoccupied with the memory of the dead person during this time. The last stage begins when a person readjusts to life by developing new interests and relationships. This pattern of grief work is common; however, grieving does not necessarily follow a straight line from one stage to the next [4].
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Giddens, S., & Giddens, O. (2000). Coping with grieving and loss. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. Mauk, G., & Sharpnack, J. (1997). Grief. In G. Bear, K. Minke, & A. Thomas (Eds.), Children’s needs II: Development, problems, and alternatives (pp. 375–385). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Neimeyer, R. (2000). Lessons of loss: A guide to coping. Memphis TN: University of Memphis. Papalia, D., Olds, S., & Feldman, R. (2001). Epilogue: The end of life. In Human development (8th ed., pp. E1–E13). New York: McGraw Hill. The Dougy Center. (1997). Helping children cope with death. Portland, OR: The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. The Dougy Center. (2003). Helping the grieving student: A guide for teachers. Portland, OR: The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. The Dougy Center. (2004). Helping teens cope with death. Portland, OR: The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. Whiting, P., & Matthews, J. (1997). Responding to loss: A manual to assist educators in responding to loss in the schools. Rock Hill, SC: SCETV.
Grieving EMILY A. BULLINGTON Spartanburg School District 6, Spartanburg, SC, USA
Synonyms Anguished; Inconsolable; Mournful; Sorrowful
Definition Grief is the combination of thoughts and feelings you experience surrounding loss [1]. It is not only a response caused by the death of someone loved but also a response characteristic of the loss of something or someone significant in an individual’s life. Grieving is the process of separating oneself from losses for survival, for effecting necessary changes in life, and for fostering new attachments and commitments [2, p. 375].
Description Grief is a highly personal experience to which some people recover quickly and others never do [4]. Some basic concepts of grief are that it is a natural reaction to loss, each
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person’s grief experience is unique, there are no “right” and “wrong” ways to grieve, every death is different and will be experienced in differing ways, the grieving process is influenced by a multitude of factors, and grieving never ends [6, pp. 4–6]. The type of response a person will have to grieving is individual and unpredictable. While there are common experiences, each person must go through grief in their own way. Some common response types to grief include behavioral, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual [6]. Mauk and Sharpnack [2] describe three grief response phases, which include avoidance, confrontation, and reestablishment. Avoidance is when a person feels shock, denial, and disbelief. The confrontation phase is a highly emotional state when a person realizes that the significant other or loved one is dead. This phase is the one in which grief is often most intense. The reestablishment phase is the gradual decline of acute grief and the start of reentry into the everyday world. Another widely studied pattern of grief that is similar to the previous one, and also includes three stages, is defined as a process of grief work. Grief work is the working out of psychological issues connected with grief. It often follows the path of shock and disbelief, preoccupation with the memory of the dead person, and resolution. Although the pattern of grief work just described is common, grieving does not necessarily follow a straight line from shock to resolution [4]. Many experts indicate that to speak of grief “stages” is misleading. Neimeyer [3] explains that all mourners do not follow the same path in their journey, but pass through phases at their own pace. He describes three phases in a typical grief process, which include avoidance, assimilation, and accommodation. Avoidance is when a person avoids the full awareness of reality because it is too painful to absorb. People will often act as if the deceased is still alive, or will imagine they see his or her face. This can be a confusing experience, but it can be said to be a normal reaction to loss. A person in this phase may physically feel numb, distant, or detached from their immediate surroundings. At the behavioral level, one may appear distracted, disorganized, and often unable to complete even routine activities of daily life. The assimilation phase begins as a person gradually starts to absorb the full impact of their loss. One will often begin to experience loneliness, sorrow, and the realization of the loved one’s absence. Depressive symptoms likely appear during this phase and include loss of motivation, unpredictable crying spells, pervasive sadness, inability to concentrate, and hopelessness about the future. The last phase is accommodation and occurs as the anguish from the assimilation phase starts to blend into an
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acceptance and reality of the death. Gradually, a person will reestablish a greater sense of emotional self-control and return to normal daily living habits.
Relevance to Childhood Development Death is viewed in many diverse ways, especially at different ages in a person’s life. Often a person’s attitude towards death reflects their past experiences and their personality. Typical changes in the way a person feels toward death across the life span will depend on their cognitive development and on the typical or atypical timing of the event [4]. In general, there are some important things to remember when a child is grieving. These include remembering that children go in and out of grief, not all children talk about their grief, some children do not seem affected at all, play is one way children will deal with grief, it is not unusual for children to experience physical reactions or difficulty thinking, a child’s developmental age will influence their reaction to the death, and it is not uncommon for children to believe that they have seen or heard the deceased person [5]. Children usually do not understand death or loss as final. However, infants and toddlers have an intuitive sense that something serious has happened, even if they do not entirely comprehend what it is. These young children are able to sense the emotions in their environment as well as read the expressions of others. Children who are grieving during this stage in their life will often present reactions which are sensory and physical. Some common behaviors expected at this age include crying, biting, separation anxiety, temper tantrums, and general anxiety [6]. As a child becomes preschool age they are naturally egocentric. They believe that they cause things to happen and that the world revolves around them. Death for them is often an experience of abandonment and may even believe that they have somehow caused the death. A preschool age child will often show intense but brief grief responses and may also regress to earlier behaviors such as thumb sucking or baby talk [6]. Children grade-school age see the world in a more literal sense and need concrete and detailed explanations of loss situations. They may begin to question how their lives will be different with the loss of someone, what may be the same, and may even wonder if a person is truly deceased [6]. They also have short attention spans and will move from one feeling to another rapidly. For these children, grief can often be misunderstood because “sad” emotions are quickly turned into happiness and playfulness. One must remember that children grieve with the same emotions that adults do, but for children these emotions come and
go in a different way [8]. As children grow older they will begin to understand that death is final. With this feeling of finality, they may also being to worry about their own death and the death of others. The school age child will often show some common behaviors when grieving that include fighting, anger, withdrawal, regression to earlier behaviors, and not completing assignments [6]. It is important to know that many factors can influence how a child copes with death. Some of these include the nature of the death, past experiences with death, response of others to the death, support systems in and outside of the immediate family, as well as consistency and routines [5]. As a child grows older and enters their teen years, their ways of coping with grief continue to change. Adolescence is a time of identity formation and loss must be affirmed as it uniquely impacts the individual person. When an adolescent has a loss that occurs in their life, they are shocked because most of them fell that nothing can happen to them. Our assumptions about the order of the world collapse when loss occurs outside the normally expected timeline of life events [8]. The Dougy Center for Grieving Children (2004) indicates that there are six basic principles of teen grief. They report that grieving is the teens natural reaction to a death, each teen’s grieving experience is unique, there are no “right” and “wrong” ways to grieve, every death is unique and experienced differently, the grieving process is influenced by many issues, and grief is ongoing. When you look at adolescence broken down even further into middle and high school ages, even more differences in dealing with grief can be seen. Middle school students are experiencing a vast amount of disorder due to the physical and hormonal changes in their bodies. When the additional stress of grief is added to this they will likely experience a range of emotional reactions. This is also the time in which a teen will begin to get their principal support from friends rather than family. Some other common grief behaviors to expect in a middle school student include anger, fighting, moodiness, and risktaking behaviors [6]. As a teen enters into high school they will often become more philosophical about life and death, and may believe that death won’t happen to them. Teens at this stage will appear to use an “adult” approach to solving a problem; however, it is important to remember that high school students are not adults yet. Some common behaviors to expect include withdrawal from parents or other adults, pushing the limits of rules, lack of concentration, evidence of crying, sleepiness, angry outbursts, and increased risk-taking behaviors [6].
Group Homes
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No matter what age a teenager actually is, their level of emotional and physical maturity, past experiences and family dynamics all influence his or her grief response. A grieving teen may feel conflicted about letting go of the deceased, attached to (yet separated) from the deceased, embarrassed about showing emotions, ambivalent about the person who died, or awkward about being different from their peers [7]. Some overall reactions to grief from a teen may include academic problems, crying, eating problems and disorders, nightmares and dreams, physical reactions, playing, regressive behaviors, suicidal talk or behaviors, sensory experiences. Some common emotions include anger, frustration, guilt, anxiety, isolation, relief, revenge and rage, sadness [7]. Even though grieving manifests itself differently from adults, the needs leading in the direction of resolution are the same [2]. Some basic needs of a grieving teen (or child) include assurances, boundaries, choices, food, listeners, models, privacy, recreation, routines, sleep, and truth [7]. One must remember that a child’s grief responses are natural reactions when they are experiencing the loss and separation from someone they were close to and/or loved [2].
Extrafamilial home; In residence; Residential care; Residential group care; 24-hour care
References
Definition
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
Giddens, S., & Giddens, O. (2000). Coping with grieving and loss. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Mauk, G., & Sharpnack, J. (1997). Grief. In G. Bear, K. Minke, & A. Thomas (Eds.), Children’s needs II: Development, problems, and alternatives (pp. 375–385). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Neimeyer, R. (2000). Lessons of loss: A guide to coping. Memphis, TN: University of Memphis. Papalia, D., Olds, S., & Feldman, R. (Eds.). (2001). Epilogue: The end of life. Human development (8th ed., pp. E1–E13). New York: McGraw Hill. The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. (1997). Helping children cope with death. Portland, OR: The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. (2003). Helping the grieving student: A guide for teachers. Portland, OR: The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. (2004). Helping teens cope with death. Portland, OR: The Dougy Center for Grieving Children. Whiting, P., & Matthews, J. (1997). Responding to loss: A manual to assist educators in responding to loss in the schools. Rock Hill, SC: SCETV.
Gross Impairment in Reality Testing ▶Childhood Psychosis
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Group Activity Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
Group Embedded Figures Test ▶Embedded Figures Test
G Group Homes MYSTI S. FRAZIER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms
Group homes are community based care facilities designed to provide resources to children and youth who experience abuse and/or neglect and must be removed from their homes. Group homes also include residential treatment centers for children with mental disorders and/or disabilities [5]. Group homes vary by community and include staffed residential homes and large institutions like residential schools, detention facilities, mental health centers, psychiatric wards, boarding schools, or orphanages (Anglin 2002). They do not include foster homes or family-based homes.
Description Group home care is one of the most common communitybased residential treatment placements for youth with the most difficult to treat combinations of psychiatric disorders, aggressive behavior, and histories of complex and extended personal and family problems [4]. Group homes employ staff members to attend to and teach children daily living and self-care skills, so that they may be able to provide for and take care of themselves. Daily living skills include cooking meals, doing laundry, cleaning, managing money, and learning to interact socially; self-care skills include bathing, dressing, eating, and taking needed medications [5]. It is important to note that many of the children in group homes are not considered orphans; a majority of
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these children have families. The families, however, are unable to provide and/or appropriately care for their children for various reasons. It is important for the children to maintain a link to the biological family because there is a chance that they may be reunited if conditions in the family improve (Anglin 2002). In group homes, the staff is able to help children address issues with relationships, socialization, economic concerns, and emotional well-being (Anglin 2002). All of these functions are characteristic of family life which group home staff members work to incorporate so that children may get the support that is needed as well as become well-rounded individuals. However, there is research to suggest that these settings fall short of providing a family-like atmosphere because they may not provide love and a sense of belonging (Anglin 2002). The term “group home” implies that a home-like environment is offered; however, since many group home settings are institutional it is hard to create an intimate, loving experience. The staff of the group home is required to maintain control at all times [1]. Therefore, it is in the overall best interest of the children for the staff to maintain a hierarchy and contain problem situations right away; this results in an incongruence between the desired affects of group home living and the reality [1] (Anglin 2002). Adequate attention to proper group home care involves sincere and constant engagement with the children and for each individual child as to not hinder their positive development [1]. Important factors to consider include the physical environment, opportunities for social interaction with peers and staff, access to adequate food, and positive attitudes from the staff [1]. Appropriate attention to these factors can predict the quality of children’s experiences in group homes.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
6.
Ainsworth, F., & Fulcher, L. C. (2006). Creating and sustaining a culture of group care. Child & Youth Services, 28(1/2), 151–176. Anglin, J. P. (2002). Historical and contemporary issues in residential care for children and youth. Child & Youth Services, 24(1/2), 5–21. Anglin, J. P. (2002). A theoretical framework for understanding group home life and work. Child & Youth Services, 24(1/2), 49–59. Breland-Nobel, A. M., Farmer, E. M. Z., Dubs, M. S., Potter, E., & Burns, B. J. (2005). Mental health and other service used by youth in therapeutic foster care and group homes. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 14(2), 167–180. Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders. (2010). Group homes. http:// www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Group-homes.html#ixzz0hhs2EkFw. Accessed on April 26, 2010. Whittaker, J. K. (2000). The future of residential group care. Child Welfare League of America, LXXIX(1), 59–74.
Group Investigation (GI) ▶Cooperative Learning
Group Play Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
Group Psychotherapy ▶Group Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
Group Therapy MICHAEL BLOCK Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Synonyms Group psychotherapy; Psychosocial therapy
Definition Group therapy is a form of psychosocial treatment where a small group of patients meet regularly to talk, interact, and discuss problems with each other and the group leader (therapist).
Description A psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, or other healthcare professional typically arranges and conducts group therapy sessions. In some therapy groups, two individuals or co-therapists may share the responsibility of group leadership. Patients are selected on the basis of what they might gain from group therapy interaction and what they can contribute to the group as a whole. Therapy groups may be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Homogeneous groups have members with similar diagnostic backgrounds (for example, they may all suffer from depression). Heterogeneous groups have a mix of individuals with different emotional issues. The number of group members varies widely, but is typically no
Growth
more than 12. Groups may be time limited (with a predetermined number of sessions) or indefinite (where the group determines when therapy ends). Membership may be closed or open to new members once sessions begin. The number of sessions in group therapy depends on the makeup, goals, and setting of the group. For example, a therapy group that is part of a substance abuse program to rehabilitate inpatients would be called short-term group therapy. This term is used because, as patients, the group members will only be in the hospital for a relatively short period of time. Long-term therapy groups may meet for six months, a year, or longer. The therapeutic approach used in therapy depends on the focus of the group and the psychological training of the therapist. Some common techniques include psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and Gestalt therapy. In a group therapy session, group members are encouraged to openly and honestly discuss the issues that brought them to therapy. They try to help other group members by offering their own suggestions, insights, and empathy regarding their problems. There are no definite rules for group therapy, only that members participate to the best of their ability. However, most therapy groups do have some basic ground rules that are usually discussed during the first session. Patients are asked not to share what goes on in therapy sessions with anyone outside of the group. This protects the confidentiality of the other members. They may also be asked not to see other group members socially outside of therapy because of the harmful effect it might have on the dynamics of the group. The therapist’s main task is to guide the group in selfdiscovery. Depending on the goals of the group and the training and style of the therapist, he or she may lead the group interaction or allow the group to take their own direction. Typically, the group leader does some of both, providing direction when the group gets off track while letting them set their own agenda. The therapist may guide the group by simply reinforcing the positive behaviors they engage in. For example, if a group member shows empathy to another member, or offers a constructive suggestion, the therapist will point this out and explain the value of these actions to the group. In almost all group therapy situations, the therapist will attempt to emphasize the common traits among group members so that members can gain a sense of group identity. Group members realize that others share the same issues they do. The main benefit group therapy may have over individual psychotherapy is that some patients behave and
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react more like themselves in a group setting than they would one-on-one with a therapist. The group therapy patient gains a certain sense of identity and social acceptance from their membership in the group. Suddenly, they are not alone. They are surrounded by others who have the same anxieties and emotional issues that they have. Seeing how others deal with these issues may give them new solutions to their problems. Feedback from group members also offers them a unique insight into their own behavior, and the group provides a safe forum in which to practice new behaviors. Lastly, by helping others in the group work through their problems, group therapy members can gain more self-esteem. Group therapy may also simulate family experiences of patients and will allow family dynamic issues to emerge. Self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers fall outside of the psychotherapy realm. These self-help groups do offer many of the same benefits of social support, identity, and belonging that make group therapy effective for many. Self-help group members meet to discuss a common area of concern (such as, eating disorders, bereavement, parenting). Group sessions are not run by a therapist, but by a nonprofessional leader, group member, or the group as a whole. Self-help groups are sometimes used in addition to psychotherapy or regular group therapy.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
American Group Psychotherapy Association, 25 East 21st Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10010, email,
[email protected]. Corey, G. (2007). Theory and Practice of Group Counseling (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks Cole. Corey, M., & Corey, G. (2006). Groups: Process and practice (7th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Ford-Martin, P. A. (2001). Group Psychotherapy. In D. Blanchfields & J. Longes (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Medicine 2. Gale Research Company. Yalom, I., & Leszcz, M. (2005). Theory and practice of group psychotherapy (5th ed.). New York: Basic Books.
Group-Oriented Cultures ▶Collectivist Cultures
Growth ▶Maturation
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Growth Faltering ▶Failure to Thrive Syndrome
Guaranine ▶Caffeine
Guardianship ▶Joint Legal Custody
Guffaw ▶Laughter
Guilt TEMI BIDJERANO Furman University, Greenville, SC, USA
Definition Guilt is an adaptive self-conscious emotion, typically evoked in situations of failing to achieve a goal or standard and when failure is attributed to internal transitional states, inappropriate actions, or non-stable internal characteristics such as lack of effort.
Description Guilt is experienced when an individual fails to meet personal standards or goals even after exerting a great deal of effort to achieve a successful outcome and the end product has personal implications. Individuals experience guilt when they have committed a wrongdoing directly or haphazardly and feel personal responsibility for the consequences [1]. The emotion of guilt includes the self as a frame of reference and involves a certain degree of self-evaluation. Guilt is regarded also as a moral emotion, as it involves some degree of dilemma
and conflict; it is based on relationships within a social context and results in the individual’s intent to repair the unfortunate situation. The emotion of guilt has specific adaptive purposes. It could prevent transgression as well as encourage reparative behaviors in situations of wrongdoing. Guilt is experienced in situations of failure attributed to internal factor and when the wrongdoing is perceived as controllable or avoidable [4]. Beliefs about controllability are exemplified by an implicit desire to repair the situation or avoid the wrongdoing in the future, rationalize the misdeed, or confess. In interpreting the wrongful act, the person feels remorseful and regretful. He/she focuses on the behavior that led to the transgression, rather than on making judgments about global imperfections of the self. Guilt co-occurs with other emotional states such as sadness, tension, worry, anxiety and restlessness and is believed to have some genetic underpinning [7]. Gender differences in the experience of guilt are also present. Parent-child transactions in early childhood have been acknowledged to play a substantial role in the socialization of guilt.
Relevance to Childhood Development Guilt does not typically emerge before the age of 2½ and 3 year and it has both cognitive and social antecedents. One of the prerequisites is the sense of conscience and self-representation, which typically develop between 18 months and 2 years of age. During this age period, the child begins to react with distress when he/she violates a rule or a standard for behavior [3, 7]. The experience of anxiety and discomfort following a wrongful act is considered a precursor of guilt [3]. During the second half of the third year of life, another important cognitive milestone is achieved: the child becomes able to acquire and retain standards and rules for appropriate behavior [4]. Adaptive forms of guilt develop out of parental use of socialization techniques such as reasoning and induction, which consist of clearly defining expectations for appropriate behavior and providing explanation for the nature of consequences of the child’s behavioral transgression on others. Induction and reasoning facilitate to a great extent the process of internalization [2, 5]. Evaluative feedback, frequently communicated by parents, enhances the growing child’s understanding of the social meaning and significance of his/her behavior and leads subsequently to the internalization of adults’ imposed standards for and expectations of acceptable behavior. The growing child acquire the ability to evaluate his behavior in conjunction with those standards, recognizes inconsistencies between the standard and behavior, and experiences discomfort,
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anxiety and guilt when they are violated or a transgression is committed [3, 7]. Although young children do experience rudimentary forms of guilt, they do not possess a complete understanding of the emotion; neither can they reason about the factors that trigger it. In younger children’s accounts, guilt is often associated with having done something naughty, feelings of regret, and a desire to repair the situation out of fear of being punished. A full understanding of the emotion and its elicitors is achieved later in life when the child acquires the ability to make explicit causal attributions. Before the age of six or seven, children learn to associate guilt with failure. It is not until the elementary school years, however, when they become capable of linking failure to lack of effort or other internal factors perceived in one’s control. Thus, older children become more likely to report feeling guilty when failure occurs in the context of avoidable, controllable and preventable factors. In this respect, older children’s and adults’ understanding of guilt becomes increasingly similar [1, 2, 5]. In addition to normal developmental changes, individual variations in guilt experiences are also present. Girls tend to be more self-conscious and experience guilt more frequently. It has been suggested also that individual differences in temperament could contribute to differential socialization of guilt. That is, a child who is temperamentally predisposed to experience emotions with high intensity, is likely to experience also high levels of distress and discomfort following a misconduct; in turn, the transgression is likely to be attributed to internal to the self characteristics acting as an inhibitor for similar transgressions in the future [3, 7]. Inhibited and fearful toddlers were found to be more prone to internalized conscience at later ages, and therefore, more amenable to socialization and moral internalization [3]. In addition, some children tend to develop maladaptive forms of guilt, the so called “guiltprone” style, as a result of a repeated exposure to guilt provoking experiences. The proneness to guilt is characterized by rumination over mishaps and misdeeds, blameworthiness, excessively taking responsibilities for negative events, and a sense of unworthiness [7]. It has been
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suggested that the parental use of socialization techniques such as power assertion and love withdrawal in early childhood is one of the sources of development of maladaptive guilt. Power assertion and love withdrawal are construed as fostering an external moral orientation in the child, which is manifested by lack of concerns about consequences for others and desire to avoid infringement of personal interests. Excessive guilt has been associated also with symptoms of depression [6].
References 1.
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Ferguson, T. J., & Stegge, H. (1995). Emotional states and traits in children: The case of guilt and shame. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. New York: The Guilford Press. Griffin, S. (1995). A cognitive-developmental analysis of pride, shame, and embarrassment in middle childhood. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. New York: The Guilford Press. Kochanska, G. (1991). Socialization and temperament in the development of guilt and conscience. Child Development, 62, 1379–1392. Lewis, M. (2000). Self-conscious emotions: Embarrassment, pride, shame and guilt. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (2nd ed., pp. 623–636). New York: The Guilford Press. Stipek, D. (1995). The Development of pride and shame in toddlers. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 234–252). New York: Guilford Press. Tangney, J. P., Burggraf, S. A., & Wagner, P. E. (1995). Shameproneness, guilt-proneness, and psychological symptoms. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 343–367). New York: Guilford Press. Zhan-Waxler, C., & Robinson, J. (1995). Empathy and guilt: Early origins of feelings of responsibility. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 174–197). New York: Guilford Press.
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Habit Reversal JESSE M. CROSBY, MICHAEL P. TWOHIG Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
Synonyms Behavioral intervention for repetitive behavior disorders; Complete habit reversal; Original habit reversal; Simplified habit reversal
Definition Habit Reversal is a behavioral intervention for repetitive behavior problems. The original treatment consists of approximately 12 procedures organized in four phases: (1) awareness training, (2) competing response practice, (3) habit control motivation, and (4) generalization training [1]. Subsequent research has resulted in a simplified variation of the treatment. Simplified Habit Reversal (SHR) training consists of four procedures organized in three phases: (1) awareness training, (2) competing response training, and (3) social support training. SHR can be completed in one to two sessions, and it is reinforced through application outside of the session and additional booster sessions. SHR has been found to be effective in treating a wide variety of repetitive behavior problems found in children including motor and vocal tics and Tourette’s disorder, thumb/finger sucking, nail biting, trichotillomania, skin picking, and stuttering [7].
Description Habit Reversal The original Habit Reversal treatment consists of several procedures organized in four phases: (1) awareness training, (2) competing response practice, (3) habit control
motivation, and (4) generalization training [1]. The purpose of awareness training is to make the client aware of the habit through four procedures: (1) response description – the client is required to describe the details of the habit to the therapist while reenacting a typical instance; (2) response detection – the client is taught to detect each instance of the habit alerting them when it has occurred; (3) early warning – the client practices detecting the earliest sign of the habit; and (4) situation awareness – the client identifies situations, persons, and places associated with the occurrence of the habit. In the competing response phase, the client is taught a specific response pattern that would be incompatible with the habit, thus preventing the habit from occurring. This incompatible response should involve the muscles opposite to those involved in the habit, be capable of being maintained for several minutes, produce heightened awareness of the muscles involved in the habit, be socially inconspicuous and compatible with normal activities, and strengthen the muscles antagonistic to the habit movement. The client is asked to perform the competitive response for 3 min after a premonitory urge to perform the habit or the actual occurrence of the habit. Examples of competitive behaviors include contraction of the neck muscles instead of head jerking and clenching the fists instead of nail biting. The purpose of the habit control motivation phase is to increase motivation to engage in the treatment consistently. This is done by reviewing the inconveniences, embarrassment, and suffering associated with the habit and implementing a social support system that includes positive reinforcement for success and noting the occurrence of habits and reminding the client to continue practicing the treatment. For children with little or no motivation, parents/caregivers are instructed to physically guide the child through the exercises. Generalization training is performed to ensure that the client is able to control the habit in everyday situations. The client is asked to practice the exercise through a symbolic rehearsal procedure in which they imagine common habiteliciting situations, the detection of a habit, and practice performing the competing behavior. Additional practice can be given by engaging the client in casual conversation
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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and identifying the occurrence of habits and then practicing the competing behavior.
Simplified Habit Reversal The SHR treatment can be given in four sessions. The first 1 h session includes an interview, standardized assessments, and the establishment of a system for data collection. The SHR is implemented during the second 1 h session, and the last two sessions are 30 min booster sessions to monitor progress, review treatment implementation, and address any further problems [10]. The information gathered during the initial interview includes identifying the habit, the possible functions of the habit, and the sensory experiences surrounding the habit. The purpose of data collection is to monitor the effectiveness of the treatment and to identify any needed modifications to the treatment. Arrangements should be made to collect data at home in situations where the habit is most likely to occur using video monitoring, parent monitoring, or self-monitoring. Standardized assessments are given to detect the presence of any common comorbid conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety, ADHD). Clients are also asked to bring a person to the next session to help them with the treatment outside of the session (usually a parent/caregiver). The implementation of SHR in the second session consists of awareness training, competing response training, and social support training. Awareness training contains two procedures: (1) response description, and (2) response detection; the purpose of which is to help the client recognize the habit and the associated warning signs. After giving the rationale for the treatment, the client is asked to describe both the habit and the warning signs in detail. The purpose of response detection is to help the client recognize and acknowledge the actual occurrences of the habit as well as the warning signs. The client is asked to identify both simulated and actual occurrences of the habit and the warning signs. Competing response training teaches the client to engage in a behavior that is incompatible with the habit or the warning signs. This includes choosing a competing response, demonstrating the proper use of the competing response, teaching them to use the competing response, and having the client demonstrate the use of the competing response. The competing response could be anything that makes it difficult to engage in the behavior, and it should be socially acceptable as well as acceptable to the client. Some examples of competing responses include diaphragmatic breathing for vocal tics, depressed shoulders for shoulder jerking, pressing the lips together for jaw stretching, and making a fist with both hands
for nail biting thumb/finger sucking, trichotillomania, and skin picking. Social support training is provided to ensure treatment compliance. The primary responsibility for the social support is to help the client remember to use the competing response. The social support person is usually asked to praise the client when he or she is seen using the competing response correctly, and remind the client to use the competing response when seen engaging in the habit. Small rewards or tokens for larger rewards are often used to help children participate in SHR outside of the therapy sessions. The social support person is invited to participate in the session after the initial SHR training has occurred, and the process is demonstrated so that they understand the goals and procedures of the treatment. The booster sessions are used to review the data, address any difficulties with the treatment, and to review the procedures.
Research Because the original Habit Reversal treatment is a package made up of several components, it was unclear which components were actually necessary for treatment effectiveness [4]. The original treatment package is also time consuming and labor intensive, so subsequent research has sought to identify the necessary components for treatment effectiveness and to simplify the procedure. Awareness training and competing response training when used together have been found to be as effective as the original Habit Reversal treatment in the treatment of motor tics [3]. This has been supported in additional research with tics and nervous habits [4]. Social support was also found to be an important component when working with children [9], but the evidence on the inclusion of this component is mixed depending on the population of interest as later research with a college age population indicated that the social support component was unnecessary for the intervention to be effective [2]. Competing response training is thought to be central to treatment effectiveness [8]. In the original Habit Reversal procedure, it was believed that the competing response lead to a decrease in the habit behavior because it was physically incompatible with the habit behavior [1]. Thus, competing behaviors would have to include opposite muscle groups to those used in the habit behavior. However, subsequent research has demonstrated that both similar and dissimilar muscle groups are equally effective in reducing tics and habit behaviors [5, 9]. The necessary duration of the competing response has also been a subject of investigation [6]. In a study with
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adult nail biting, it was found that both 1 and 3 min competing response durations lead to both short-term and long-term treatment effectiveness. Five second competing response durations lead to short-term improvements, but the effects were not maintained long-term.
Clinical Applications In a child population the original Habit Reversal procedure has been shown to effectively treat motor tics including head/shoulder jerking, elbow flapping, eye blinking, grimacing, and head shaking. Simplified variations have been equally as effective in treating similar motor tics in children. The original and simplified versions have also had limited success in treating the motor and vocal tics and Tourette’s disorder in children. Both the original procedure and the simplified variations have been used to effectively treat numerous nervous habits in children including finger sucking, thumb sucking, nail biting, hair pulling, and scratching. Both treatments have also proven effective in treating stuttering in children [7]. The application with adult populations is similar as both the original and simplified procedures have effectively treated repetitive behaviors. Even though Habit Reversal has strong empirical support, there are still participants who do not respond to the treatment, and clinically, it has been found that additional procedures are often required. Current applications of the treatment typically augment SHR with cognitive restructuring procedures or the acceptance and mindfulness procedures of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
References 1. Azrin, N. H., & Nunn, R. G. (1973). Habit-reversal: A method of eliminating nervous habits and tics. Behavior Research and Therapy, 11, 619–628. 2. Flessner, C. A., Miltenberger, R. G., Egemo, K., Kelso, P., Jostad, C., Johnson, B., et al. (2005). An evaluation of the social support component of simplified habit reversal. Behavior Therapy, 36, 35–42. 3. Miltenberger, R. G., Fuqua, R. W., & McKinley, T. (1985). Habit reversal with muscle tics: Replication and component analysis. Behavior Therapy, 16, 39–50. 4. Miltenberger, R. G., Fuqua, R. W., & Woods, D. W. (1998). Applying behavior analysis to clinical problems: Review and analysis of habit reversal. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31, 447–469. 5. Sharenow, E. L., Fuqua, R. W., & Miltenberger, R. G. (1989). The treatment of muscle tics with dissimilar competing response practice. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 22, 35–42. 6. Twohig, M. P., & Woods, D. W. (2001). Evaluating the necessary duration of the competing response in habit reversal: A parametric analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34, 517–520. 7. Woods, D. W., & Miltenberger, R. G. (1996). A review of habit reversal with childhood habit disorders. Education & Treatment of Children, 19, 197–214.
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8. Woods, D. W., Miltenberger, R. G., & Lumley, V. A. (1996). Sequential application of major habit reversal components to treat motor tics in children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 29, 483–493. 9. Woods, D. W., Murray, L. K., Fuqua, R. W., Seif, T. A., Boyer, L. J., & Siah, A. (1999). Comparing the effectiveness of similar and dissimilar competing responses in evaluating the habit reversal treatment for oral-digital habits in children. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 30, 289–300. 10. Woods, D. W., & Twohig, M. P. (2001). Habit reversal treatment manual for oral-digital habits. In D. W. Woods & R. G. Miltenberger (Eds.), Tic disorders, trichotillomania, and other repetitive behavior disorders: Behavioral approaches to analysis and treatment (pp. 241–267). Boston: Kluwer. Suggested Readings Azrin, N., & Nunn, G. (1978). Habit control in a day. New York: Simon & Shuster. Woods, D. W., & Miltenberger, R. G. (2001). Tic disorders, trichotillomania, and other repetitive behavior disorders: Behavioral approaches to analysis and treatment. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Habituation BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Definition An innate, unlearned reflex that is elicited in response (unconditioned response) to a biologically-significant stimulus (unconditioned stimulus) will typically show habituation if the stimulus is repeated. That is, measures of the response will show orderly decreases in magnitude as the stimulus is repeatedly applied. This change in behavior, known as habituation, can be seen in the withdrawal responses of various invertebrates, including protozoa to tactile stimulation, in freezing-defensive responses of rodents to auditory stimuli, and in the orienting responses of human infants to complex auditory and or visual stimuli, and is one of the most fundamental properties of behavior. More simply put, habituation is the process by which a stimulus loses its attentiongrabbing properties, i.e., its “novelty,” and decreases in responsiveness to the stimulus are seen when the stimulus is presented repeatedly or for an extended time period. An organism ceases to engage in attending or other responses to the stimulus; the stimulus comes to be ignored [3, 7]. Habituation is often termed “non-associative learning,” since only one stimulus is involved and no associations are formed; Habituation is considered one of the most basic forms of behavior change from experience and learning [3, 7].
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For some unlearned, innate reflexes, the repeated presentation of the eliciting stimulus results in an increase in measures of the reflex; this effect is referred to as sensitization and is the opposite effect of habituation [8, 13].
What are Some of the Properties of Habituation? The formal study of habituation goes back nearly a century being described by writers in the early twentieth century, with the basic properties being outlined in the 1930s and again in the 1960s and 1970s. Some nine basic features of habituation were formally outlined and have come to serve as a formal definition of habituation: 1. If a specific stimulus elicits a response, repeated presentations of that stimulus result in decreased response or habituation; the decrease is typically an orderly function of the number of stimulus presentations. 2. If the stimulus is subsequently withheld, the response showing habituation will tend to return or recover with the passage of time, termed spontaneous recovery. 3. If the habituation experience and subsequent opportunity for recovery are repeated in a series, then habituation will progress more rapidly. 4. With all other variables held constant, the higher the frequency of stimulation, the more rapid and pronounced is habituation. 5. With weaker stimulation, habituation will progress more rapidly and be more pronounced. 6. The effects of habituation training may progress below baseline measures of the response. 7. If habituation occurs to a specific stimulus, then habituation to similar stimuli via stimulus generalization also occurs. 8. Presentation of an irrelevant stimulus will result in the recovery of the habituated response, termed dishabituation. 9. With repeated presentation of the dishabituating stimulus of #8, the degree of resultant dishabituation is decreased or shows habituation itself [8, 19]. A modified list of defining features has also been put forth with the following additional defining characteristics: 1. The process of habituation will be disrupted by any unpredictable changes in the eliciting stimulus. 2. Habituation will occur more slowly to stimuli that are presented in a varying manner relative to stimuli presented in a constant, unchanging manner. 3. Spontaneous recovery may occur faster after more rapid rates of stimulus presentation relative to slower rates of stimulus presentation.
4. Spontaneous recovery may be incomplete recovery in that some habituation will persist over a long-time period. 5. Habituation will be observed for most if not all animal species; habituation occurs in response to most stimuli, including events without ingestive consequences such as lights and noises. The rate at which habituation will be observed will differ as a function of the species, the stimuli employed, the responses being measured as well as the individual subject [11]. As defining features, any unlearned behavioral stimulusresponse contingency is said to display habituation if the response decrement shows these properties.
How is Habituation Studied with Infants? In general, studies of human infant habituation will employ variations of some basic protocols and habituation is a means of non-verbal assessment of learning [18]. In measuring the rate of a reflex such as the sucking reflex, researchers will measure the initial baseline rate of sucking to a pacifier equipped with transducers to measure muscle contractions applied to it. Then an auditory stimulus will be presented such as a human voice uttering a speech phoneme such as “ba.” In response to a novel stimulus such as this, the rate of sucking will predictably increase but come to decline to baseline levels as “ba” is repeatedly presented, showing habituation. If the phoneme “pa” were to then be presented, the rate of sucking would again increase, demonstrating that the infant can discriminate between these two stimuli [2]. To measure more complex responses, slightly different procedures are used. When an intense or novel stimulus is presented, an orienting response is elicited and an infant (or any person) turns to look and fix their gaze at the source of a visual stimulus or turns their head towards the source of an auditory stimulus, as well as show changes in heart rate, EEG patterns and other autonomic responses. Initially, infants will show this orienting (or orientation) response to a stimulus but after repeated trials of stimulus presentations, infants will no longer respond to the stimulus, showing habituation of the orienting response [14–16]. Researchers in human development have used measures of the orienting response as assessment tools of complex human development, which will be described in the next section. Habituation procedures have increasingly been employed to assess the covert-behavioral abilities of preverbal infants to study the development of perception, remembering, and what is termed “information processing” as part of basic developmental research [16]. In addition, the measures of habituation obtained with infants have been
Habituation
shown to be a reliable predictor of long-term development. Indices of the speed or efficiency with which infants show habituation have been shown to predict outcomes in behaviors such as language acquisition as well as more general behavioral outcomes such as verbal and nonverbal intelligence. Infants who show difficulty during habituation or habituate at slower than normal rates have been found to be at increased risk for a range of significant developmental delays. Despite its widespread use, some writers have argued that the precise psychometric parameters of habituation need to be established before any definitive and significant dialog on the predictive value of habituation can be conducted [6, 9]. Some such studies have also been criticized for using highly artificial events as stimuli, such as an artificial voice box, instead of a stimulus with higher ecological validity, recordings of actual human utterances as auditory stimuli. In spite of cross-study comparisons being obfuscated by procedural differences as well as in the response being measured and that normally-developing infants show a range of individual variations in habituation, acceptable measures of test–retest reliability have been obtained for some measures of habituation. Unfortunately, few such data exist for populations of high-risk infants, among whom the pertinent data would be of greater interest [4, 6].
Why and How Does Habituation Occur? The observation that habituation is so catholic points to an obvious and basic adaptive significance. Constantly responding to meaningless stimuli would be taxing and wasteful to any organism; learning to not respond to biologically-irrelevant events while still responding to events that are biologically-significant has clear survival value [5, 7]. For some stimulus-response contingencies that show habituation, the physiological mechanisms have been identified and while habituation has 9 (or 14) defining features, only one established physiological process has been elucidated. In studies of simple reflexes of invertebrates, such as a defensive-withdrawal reflex to tactile stimulation, the organism ceases to respond as the repeated stimulation causes a dampening in the synaptic connections between the sensory neuron receptor to an effector motor neuron [7, 17]. The sensory neuron will continue to release its neurotransmitter in response to a different stimulus and the reflex will still occur to a different stimulus but not to the stimulus to which habituation has occurred. That is, the observed change in responsiveness will be stimulus specific but show stimulus generalization to physically similar stimuli [7, 10]. In terms of identifying the biological bases of habituation in vertebrates, less progress has been
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made but research so far points to similar neural events taking place in distinct lower brain areas depending upon the sensory modality of the stimulus and the nature of the response undergoing habituation. Little if any research has been conducted into the biological basis of habituation in humans but the infrahuman models of habituation are considered more or less applicable [10, 12]. Habituation is a ubiquitous behavioral phenomenon, seen with a wide variety of reflexes of a wide range of organisms in response to repeated stimulation and since it is so universal, it has been argued as having adaptive value [7, 10, 12]. Whether it merely reflects basic behavioral processes such as learning or more complex actions such as attention or memory is debated [1, 7]. Researchers in human development have studied habituation both for purposes of basic research as well as a possible diagnostic mechanism to map and possibly predict developmental delays and or disorders. Habituation will continue to be the subject of human development research for many years to come.
References 1. Balkenius, C. (2000). Attention, habituation and conditioning: Toward a computational model. Retrieved November 11, 2008, from http:// www.lucs.lu.se/Christian.Balkenius/PDF/Balkenius.2000.CSQ.pdf 2. Benaisch, A. A., & Leevers, H. J. (2003). Processing of rapidly presented auditory cues. in infancy: Implications for later language development. In H. Hayne & J. Fagen (Eds.), Progress in infancy research (Vol. 3, pp. 245–288). Mahwah, NJ: LEA. 3. Bouton, M. E. (2007). Learning and behavior: A contemporary synthesis. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. 4. Brian, J. A., Landry, R., Szatmari, P., Niccols, A., & Byson, S. (2003). Habituation in high-risk infants: Reliability and patterns of responding. Infant and Child Development, 12, 387–394. 5. Eisenstein, E. M., Eisenstein, D., & Smith, J. C. (2001). The evolutionary significance of habituation and sensitization across phylogeny: A behavioral homeostasis model. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 36(4), 251–265. 6. Fagen, J. W., & Ohr, P. S. (2001). Learning and memory in infancy: Habituation, instrumental conditioning, and expectancy formation. In L. T. Singer & P. S. Zeskind (Eds.), Biobehavioral assessment of the infant (pp. 233–273). New York: Guilford. 7. Gluck, M. A., Mercado, E., & Myers, C. E. (2008). Learning and memory: From brain to behavior. New York: Worth. 8. Groves, P. M., & Thompson, R. F. (1970). Habituation: A dual process theory. Psychological Review, 77, 419–450. 9. Hoben, T., & Gilmore, R. O. (2004). Habituation assessment in infancy. Psychological Methods, 9(1), 70–92. 10. Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H., & Jessell, T. M. (2000). Cellular mechanisms of learning and the biological basis of individuality. In E. R. Kandel, J. H. Schwartz, & T. M. Jessell (Eds.), Principles of neural science (4th ed., pp. 1247–1279). New York: McGraw Hill. 11. McSweeney, F. K., & Swindell, S. (2002). Common processes may contribute to extinction and habituation. Journal of General Psychology, 129(4), 1–37.
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12. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2001). From cells to selves: Biobehavioral development. Washington, DC: Author. 13. Pear, J. J. (2001). The science of learning. New York: Psychology Press. 14. Rose, S. A., Feldman, J. F., & Jankowski, J. J. (2001). Attention and recognition memory in the 1st year of life: A longitudinal study of preterm and full-term infants. Developmental Psychology, 37, 539–549. 15. Rose, S. A., & Orlian, E. K. (2001). Visual information processing. In L. T. Singer & P. S. Zeskind (Eds.), Biobehavioral assessment of the infant (pp. 274–292). New York: Guilford. 16. Rovee-Collier, C., & Barr, R. (2002). Infant cognition. In H. Pashler & J. Wixted (Eds.), Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology (pp. 693–791). New York: Wiley. 17. Rudy, J. W. (2008). The neurobiology of learning and memory. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. 18. Terry, W. S. (2009). Learning and memory: Basic principles, processes and procedures. Boston: Pearson. 19. Thompson, R. F., & Spencer, W. A. (1966). Habituation: A model phenomenon for the study of neuronal substrates of behavior. Psychological Review, 73, 16–43.
Haemoglobin ▶Hemoglobin
The recommended starting dose for this medication is 0.125 or 0.25 mg taken once a day at bedtime. Maximum suggested dose is 0.25 mg a day. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor and is usually taken only for 7–10 days. This medication may become habit forming. This medication should be taken with or without food. Avoid drinking alcohol and grapefruit juice. It is recommended to be ready for bed, as this mediation acts very quickly. Inform your doctor if you have liver or kidney disease or other medical issues. It is very important that you do not take more of this medication than your doctor prescribed. Some side effects are listed here: drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, memory impairment, headache, amnesia, lightheadedness, upset stomach, and blurred vision. Certain side effects may go away during treatment. Tell your doctor immediately if you notice the following: slow heartbeat, swelling, or trouble breathing. Signs of an overdose of this medication are slurred speech or confusion, severe drowsiness, severe weakness, and staggering. If these should occur, seek medical attention immediately. This medication should be stored out of reach of children and pets and away from light, heat, and moisture.
Relevance to Childhood Development
Hair Pulling ▶Trichotillomania
Halcion® ANISA FORNOFF Drake University, Ankeny, IA, USA
Halcion® is not FDA approved for use in children younger than 18 years old. Women should let their doctor know if they are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. This medication has been shown to cause adverse effects to the fetus. Breastfeeding is not recommended while taking this medication.
References 1.
2.
Synonyms Triazolam
3.
American Management Association (2008). AHFS drug information (24th ed., pp. 2602). Maryland: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp. Accessed August 26, 2008. Medical Economics Staff (2007). Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language. USP DI Vol II. (27th ed., pp. 237–243). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex.
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the shortterm treatment of insomnia (difficulty sleeping).
Description This medication is a benzodiazepine, a central nervous system depressant, available in tablets.
Hallucinogenic Drugs ▶Hallucinogens
Halstead, Ward C.
Hallucinogens IOANA BOIE University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
References
Hallucinogenic drugs; Psychedelics; Psychoactive drugs
1.
Definition
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Blachford, S., & Knapp, K. (2003). Drugs and controlled substances: information for students. Detroit: Detroit Gale Group. Carson-DeWitt, R. (2001). Encyclopedia of drugs, alcohol and addictive behavior (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
Halo Effect ▶Pygmalion Effect
Description The most common hallucinogenic substances can be classified as indole-type hallucinogens and the substituted phenethylamines. The first group, the indole-type, have a structure similar to serotonin, a neurotransmitter, which can disrupt or alter neurotransmission in neurons using serotonin. This group includes Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), Psilocybin, and Psilocin. The second group, the substituted phenethylamines, are made of substances with similar structures as phenethylamine-type neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine. These hallucinogens include Mescaline; 2,5-dimethoxy4-methylamphetamine (DOM or STP); and 3,4methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy). Because of their structure, these substances also have stimulant properties, aside from the hallucinogenic ones. Other drugs may have psychoactive properties and cause psychotic symptoms. Stimulants, such as amphetamine, methamphetamine or cocaine, as well as marijuana and hashish may cause hallucinations. Hallucinations in this context are part of a more complex behavioral syndrome, characterized by the alterations of the level of consciousness, and distorted perception of the body and of the environment caused by the disruption of the brain’s ability to process the information received through the senses. Hallucinogens affect the autonomic activity in that they can affect the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, with symptoms such as pupil dilation, exaggerated reflexes, increase in blood pressure, increased body temperature, nausea, and increased heart rate. Other
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manifestations are acute mental effects such as anxiety, panic attacks, paranoid ideation, confusion and delirium. Some symptoms may persist in clusters and can be diagnosed as hallucinogen-induced mood disorder, hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, and hallucinogen-induced psychotic disorders.
Synonyms
The term defines substances that produce hallucinations. A number of diseases can also play a role in hallucination, such as some infections, acute brain injuries, delirium, or as a result of high fever. Additionally, poisoning or reactions to toxic substances may lead to psychotic symptoms, as can withdrawal from certain substances (e.g., barbiturates).
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Halstead, Ward C. ANNA MAZUR-MOSIEWICZ, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Life Dates 1908–1968
Introduction Halstead was an American psychologist [4] best known for his studies of brain-behavior relationships. With his student, Ralph Reitan, Halstead developed a series of psychological tests that laid foundations for the first fixed neuropsychological battery, the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery (HRNB). Halstead also proposed using neuropsychological measures to describe neurobehavioral aspects of various diseases and impairments, such as chronic brucellosis and essential hypertension. Moreover, he was interested in the neuropsychological changes involved in the process of aging, biological bases of memory, and auditory and visual perception.
Educational Information Halstead received his Ph.D. in physiological and comparative psychology from Northwestern University in 1935. After graduating, Dr. Halstead taught at the Medical School at the University of Chicago. During the 1930s and 1940s,
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he established a working relationship with two neurosurgeons, Percival Bailey and Paul Bucy, and started the first full-time laboratory for the examination and evaluation of brain-behavior relationships in humans [6]. Halstead’s approach to evaluating patients focused on the practical aspects of rehabilitation and adaptive abilities. His observations of patients with cerebral lesions led him to conclude that brain-damaged individuals had wide ranging deficits, of which severity could not be adequately identified or evaluated by any of the existing cognitive tests. Halstead studied brain-damaged persons in their routine and everyday living situations; he noticed that most of them had difficulties with understanding the complex situations and problems, analyzing circumstances, and reaching meaningful conclusions about situations in everyday life. Therefore, many of the assessment procedures developed by Halstead focused not only on the ability to solve a specific problem, but also on the ability to observe and analyze the components of the problem. Working with his patients, Halstead devised and tested an array of tasks that were originally intended to distinguish patients with bran impairments from healthy individuals. These tasks were re-examined by Halstead’s student, Ralph Reitan, and eventually formed the nucleus of the HRNB. Ralph Reitan began working with Halstead in his laboratory in the 1940s and extended the work of Halstead by assembling a battery of tests for the comprehensive evaluation of brain-damaged individuals [6, 9].
that is the most commonly used in the implementation and interpretation of the Halstead-Reitan battery [6].
Contributions Halstead’s major contribution to the area of clinical neuropsychology was the development of a series of tests that evaluated the brain-behavior relationship in individual subjects. Additionally, he added to the overall body of knowledge in neuropsychology through his study of differential dependence of his tests on various areas of the cerebral cortex. Halstead authored and researched the original set of tasks that became a core battery of the HRNB. Currently, the HRNB is one of the most researched and widely used clinical measure of the integrity and functioning of the brain in North America. Halstead’s work and the HRNB laid the groundwork for a rehabilitation program for patients with brain damage.
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Accomplishments Halstead major accomplishment is his impact on the field on neuropsychology and neuropsychological assessment [7, 8]. He was the first to design and clinically study tasks that evaluated the functioning of the brain and nervous system. His work lead to the development of the HRNB, which is shown to be sensitive to not only the effects of brain damage, but also impairments associated with head trauma, tumors, cerebro-vascular accidents, infections, degenerative diseases, learning disabilities, and specific neurological disorders. As such, the HRNB assists clinicians with the identification of a broad range of neurological variables including location, type, severity, and status of brain lesions [1, 2, 5]. Halstead also authored the biological theory of intelligence, which was first described in his book, Brain and Intelligence: A Quantitative Study of the Frontal Lobes [3]. Halstead’s theory was based on four factors: central integrative field, abstraction, power, and direction. Although the four-factor model of intelligence has not become widely accepted, the theory has been incorporated not only in the HRNB, but also in the model of brain-behavior relations
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Davis, A. S., Johnson, J. A., & D’Amato, R. C. (2005). Evaluating and using long-standing school batteries: The Halstead-Reitan and LuriaNebraska neuropsychological batteries. In R. C. D’Amato, E. Fletcher-Janzen, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of school psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Dean, R. S. (1985). Review of the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery. In J. V. Mitchell (Ed.), The ninth mental measurements yearbook. Highland Park, HJ: Gryphon Press. Halstead, W. C. (1947). Brain and intelligence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Halstead, W. C., & Wepman, J. M. (1959). The Halstead-Wepman aphasia screening test. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 14, 9–15. Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment. New York: Oxford University Press. Reitan, R. M. (1994). Ward Halstead’s contributions to neuropsychology and the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 47–70. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1993). The Halstead-Reitan neuropsychology test battery: Theory and clinical interpretation (2nd ed.). Tucson, AZ: Neuropsychology Press. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1994). The Halstead-Reitan neuropsychology test battery: Theory and clinical interpretation. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 9(3), 289–290. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (2004). The Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery for adults: Theoretical, methodological, and validational bases. In G. Goldstein & S. Beers (Eds.), Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological Assessment. Volume 1. Intellectual and Neuropsychological Assessment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Halstead-Reitan Battery ▶Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery
Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery
Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery ANNA MAZUR-MOSIEWICZ, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Halstead-Reitan battery; HRB; HRNB; Neuropsychological assessment
Definition The Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery (HRNB) is a compilation of neuropsychological tests designed to evaluate the functioning of the brain and nervous system in individuals aged 15 years and older. Although the test was designed as a tool to detect brain damage, the HRNB has shown to be effective in identifying impairment associated with head trauma, tumors, cerebro-vascular accidents, infections, degenerative diseases, learning disabilities, and specific neurological disorders. The HRNB assists clinicians in the identification of a broad range of neurological variables including location, type, severity, and status of brain lesions [2, 3, 8, 10]. The Halstead-Reitan tests evaluates a wide range of nervous system and brain functions, including: visual, auditory, and tactual input; verbal communication; spatial and sequential perception; the ability to analyze information; form mental concepts and make judgments; motor output and attention; and concentration. The battery does not include specific tests of memory; rather, memory is evaluated within the context of other tests. Administration time for the complete HRNB takes 4–8 h. Test results are affected by the examinee’s age, education level, intellectual ability, and – to some extent – gender or ethnicity, which should be taken into account. Of additional importance is the fixed nature of the HalsteadReitan, which may lead to unnecessary information being gathered, or other information not assessed within the battery being missed [2, 8]. The core tests of the HRNB were developed by Ward Halstead in the 1940s as the part of a larger series of tests sensitive to brain injury [4]. These tests were later combined into a fixed battery by Ralph Reitan. Since its origins, the Halstead-Reitan instrument has grown by gradual addition and revision of its tests. Currently, the HRNB is one of the most researched and widely used measure of integrity and functioning of the brain [3, 9]. The HRNB laid the groundwork for a rehabilitation program for patients with brain injuries, the REHABIT [9].
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The REHABIT integrates neuropsychological evaluation with cognitive retraining, using an approach that aims at restoring the individual’s functional ability structure (as contrasted with approaches focusing on highly specific deficits or extremely general, non-specific notions of brain damage). The HRNB core battery includes the following tests: (1) Category Test, (2) Tactual Performance Test, (3) Seashore Rhythm Test, (4) Speech-Sounds Perception Test, and (5) Finger Tapping Test (or Finger Oscillation). These five tests yield seven scores, three of which are derived from the Tactual Performance Test (Total Time, Memory, Location), which are used to calculate the Impairment Index. Additional Tests in the battery include the Reitan-Indiana Aphasia Screening Test, Grip Strength, Sensory-Perceptual Examination, Tactile Form Recognition, and Trail Making Test [5]. The HRNB is typically administered along with a Wechsler Intelligence Scale (i.e., The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales or Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children) and a comprehensive measure of personality (i.e., Behavior Assessment System, or Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) [11–13].
Historical Background Halstead laid the foundation for the HRNB when he noted that individuals with cerebral lesions displayed a multitude of deficits including motor problems, sensory perceptual problems related to right or left side of the body, and confusion about events and activities. In Halstead’s opinion, none of existing intelligence tests were able to measure and assess these deficits. He addressed this problem by creating a series of 10 tests that were based on his biological theory of intelligence. Halstead’s biological theory of intelligence was based on four factors: (1) central integrative field, (2) abstraction, (3) power, and (4) direction. Although Halstead’s fourfactor model of intelligence has not become widely accepted, the theory has been incorporated not only in the HRNB, but also into part of the model of brainbehavior relations that is most commonly used in interpretation of the Halstead-Reitan battery [9]. To create and select the tests, which later became the core of the HRNB, Halstead experimented with tasks that required his participants not only to solve problems, but also analyze and define the problems. His tests were published in 1947 in his text, Brain and Intelligence: A quantitative Study of the Frontal Lobes. Seven of the original 27 Halstead’s tests have stood the test of time and now form the core of the Halstead-Reitan tests [8]. Reitan was a doctoral student of Halstead’s who started to work with Halstead’s tests during the 1950s.
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Using seven selected tests, Reitan successfully differentiated individuals with and without brain injury. As existing intelligence test were not able to identify or assess brain injury, Reitan’s results showed that neurological assessment of cerebral impairment should be based on a comprehensive clinical approach. In the following years, Reitan removed three of Halstead’s tests due to their low ability to differentiate patients with brain injury form non-impaired individuals. He replaced the tests with new measures such as Trail Making A, Trail Making B, Sensory Perceptual Examination, and Reitan-Indiana Aphasia Screening Test [2, 8]. The NHNB has been adopted for use with younger populations and released in two new versions: the Halstead Neuropsychological Test Battery for Older Children (HRNB-C) released in 1974 and the Reitan-Indiana test battery for children (RITB-C) released in 1969. The HRNB-C is designed for examinees age 9–14 years, and the RITB-C is designed for examinees age five to eight. Both children versions use subtests from the HRNB, but contain different instructions and some of the subtests have been added or subtracted from the original battery.
Selected Tests from the HRNB Category test. The Category Test requires the examinee to formulate and test a hypothesis and gives the examinee a positive or negative feedback regarding the hypothesis. Based on the feedback, the examinee can adjust or modify the hypothesis. The Category Test uses a large projection box. Although a computer and book versions of the test exist, the information about their validity and reliability are less available than the information about the original version of the Category Test. The original test requires the examinee to sit in front of a 10-by-8-inch screen on which a series of figures are projected. A total of 208 pictures consisting of geometric figures are presented. For each picture, the examinee is asked to decide whether they are reminded of the number 1, 2, 3, or 4. The examinee must press one of the four keys that corresponds to their number of choice. Each correct answer is rewarded with a pleasantly sounding bell, incorrect answers are punished with a buzzer. The pictures are presented in seven subtests. Correct answers rely on abstract thinking and are derived from color, shape, size, figure, and memory clues. The score is based on a total number of errors made by the examinee. The Category test is the most sensitive of all Halstead-Reitan tests to the effects of brain damage, but does not help determine localization. The test evaluates abstraction ability, or the ability to draw specific conclusions from general information. Related abilities are solving complex and unique problems, and learning from
experience, concept formation, abstractions, memory, reasoning, hypothesis testing, and is a classic measure of executive functioning. Tactual performance test. The Tactual Performance Test is one of the most complex tasks of the HRNB. The examinee is blindfolded before the test begins and seated in a chair. On the table in front of the examinee is a form board containing ten cut-out geometric shapes (cross, circle, square, etc.) and ten wooden blocks matching those shapes. The examinee is first instructed to place the blocks in their appropriate space on the form board using only the dominant hand. The same procedure is repeated using only the non-dominant hand. The third step is to complete the tasks using both hands. After the examinee completes the third task, the form board is placed out of sight and the blindfold is removed. The examinee is then given paper and pencil and asked to draw the form board and the shapes in their proper locations. There is a time limit of 15 min for each trial, or each performance segment. Scoring involves recording the time to complete each of the three blindfolded trials and the total time for all trials combined (time score), the number of shapes recalled (memory score), and the number of shapes drawn in their correct locations (localization score). Generally, the trial for the non-dominant hand should be between 20 to 30 percent faster than the trial for the dominant hand, due to the benefit of practice. If the non-dominant hand is slower than the dominant hand or more than 30 percent faster than the dominant hand, brain damage is possible. Injuries of the arms, shoulders, or hands can also affect performance and should be considered during the test interpretation. Scores should be adjusted depending on education level and may vary depending on age. The Tactile Performance Test allows the clinician to compare left and right hemispheres and estimate the general efficiency of the brain. This test measures sensory ability, particularly; tactual discrimination, nonvisual special awareness, and tactile awareness. It also evaluates motor skills, nonvisual figural memory, ability to learn, and commitment. Seashore rhythm test (rhythm test). The Seashore Rhythm Test requires the examinee to listen to taperecorded pairs of rhythmic sounds and determine whether the sounds are the same or different. The test contains thirty pairs of sounds. For each pair, individuals respond to the tasks by marking “S” or “D” respectively on their answer sheets. The pairs are grouped into three subtests. The Seashore Rhythm Test evaluates auditory attention, concentration and perception as well as and the ability to discriminate between non-verbal sounds. The test helps detect brain damage, but not localization of damage.
Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery
Adequate hearing and visual abilities are necessary to take this test. Scoring is based on number of correct items, with higher scores indicating less impairment. Speech-sounds perception test. The Speech Sounds Perception Test requires the examinee to listen to taperecorded nonsense syllables containing the “ee” sound. After listening to each syllable, the examinee is required to identify the correct spelling of the sound from several options. The test evaluates auditory attention and concentration, the ability to discriminate between verbal sounds, and auditory-visual integration. The Speech Sounds Perception Test may also indicate attention deficits or hearing loss. The research shows that individuals with lefthemispheric lesions tend to perform poorly on this test due to verbal comprehension component. Finger tapping test (finger oscillation). The Finger Tapping Test is a measure of fine motor speed and coordination. The examinee is asked to place one hand palm down, fingers extended, with the index finger resting on a lever that is attached to a counting device. The examinee is instructed to tap the index finger as quickly as possible for 10 s, keeping the hand and arm stationary. The test assesses both dominant and non-dominant hands. The task is repeated up to 10 times till five appropriate samples are obtained. Scoring involves using the five accepted trials to calculate an average number of taps per trial for each hand. The test is sensitive to fine motor problems, brain impairment, and laterality of brain lesions. In general, the dominant hand should perform ten percent better than the non-dominant hand, and decreased performance in one hand generally is indicative of contralateral hemispheric weakness. Reitan-Indiana aphasia screening test. The ReitanIndiana Aphasia Screening Test is a modification of the Halstead-Wepman Aphasia Screening Test. The examinee is required to name objects, understand spoken language, identify different parts of the body, copy simple geometric shapes, identify numbers and letters, produce spoken language, use simple mathematical skills, and discriminate between right and left. These tasks are designed to elicit responses that are indicative of pathognomic signs of brain damage or are useful in making a diagnosis. Excessive difficulty or failure related to any tasks of the ReitanIndiana Aphasia Screening Test are useful in identification of dyscalculia, expressive aphasia, receptive aphasia, auditory dysgnosia, visual dysgnosia, dysnomia, right/left confusion, spelling and construction dyspraxia. Scoring of the test can be executed in two different ways. Some clinicians score each item as passed or failed and calculate the total number of errors. Another approach is to look at each task independently and interpret the failures on specific tasks as indicative of a deficit in these areas.
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Grip strength. The Grip Strength Test is designed to assess motor skills of the upper extremities. The examinee is asked to stand and with the arms close to his or hers sides while holding a hand dynamometer in one hand. Then, examinee is then instructed asked to squeeze the dynamometer as hard as possible. Alternate trials are repeated for dominant and non-dominant hand. The hand dynamometer can be adjusted to fit different hand sizes; thus, it can be used with children, adolescents, and adults. The Grip Strength Test is sensitive to lateralized impairment in the brain hemisphere contralateral to the weakness observed in either hand. The test also assesses sensorimotor difficulties, and it is used with patients with brain lesions and degenerative diseases that involve motor functions. Sensory-perceptual examination. The SensoryPerceptual Examination is composed of several different tasks that assess the integrity of the examinee’s auditory, tactile, and visual sensory abilities. The test consists of a tactile finger localization task, auditory perception tasks, visual perception task, and it detects how accurately the examinee is able to perceive unilateral and bilateral sensory stimulation. The test assesses the ability to identify shapes without visual stimuli, the ability to identify the location of unilateral and bilateral sensory stimulation, and visual and auditory acuity. The Sensory-Perceptual Examination measures the auditory, kinesthetic, and visual sensory modalities independently of one another. Moreover, this test is sensitive to laterality of brain impairment. Examinees with lateralized lesions can often identify stimulation when it is limited to one side of the body, but may struggle with the recognition of stimuli that are presented simultaneously on both sides of the body. Trail making test. The Trail Making Test is composed of two tasks, Trail Making A and Trail Making B. During the Trail Making A, the examinee is presented with a page with 25 numbered circles randomly arranged. The examinee is then asked to draw lines between the circles in increasing sequential order until they reach the final circle. The Trial Making B is a page with circles containing the letters A through L and 13 numbered circles intermixed and randomly arranged. The task requires the examinee to connect circles alternating from numbers to letters in a correct sequential fashion. If the examinee makes a mistake, the clinician quickly points out the mistake, and the examinee is asked to continue the task from the last correct circle. The score is the number of seconds to complete each part. Any errors made during the tasks increase the total time. The test evaluates global cerebral functioning due to the symbolic recognition, which is a left-hemispheric task, and the visual scanning component, which is considered a right-hemispheric function.
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The Trial Making Test also assesses mental flexibility, inhibition, processing speed, integration of visual and motor functions, and visual attention and perception. Tactile form recognition. The Tactile Form Recognition Test requires the subject to identify shapes through the sense of touch. The examinee is asked to identify various objects without visual stimuli and using only the tactile perception. Each hand is evaluated separately. The Tactile Form Recognition Test yields information about astereognosis and the integrity of the contralateral parietal area of the brain.
The HRNB Standardization The HRNB was never standardized on a representative, [1] stratified sample of healthy individuals. Thus, universal standard scores drawn from a large normative sample are not available [2, 3, 8, 10]. As with other assessment tools that lack detailed standardization procedures, there is much variability in how the RBNB results should be obtained and interpreted. Reitan published the first administration and scoring manual for the HRNB in 1979. Yet, the HRNB manual does not include in-depth reliability and validity information, but rather focuses on the reasons why subtests were included into the battery. There has been several different variations of the manual published since then. Additionally, several variations of the test materials and procedures have emerged. For this reasons, the HRNB is often disputed as the fixed battery approach, which requires extremely well specified and detailed instructions and standardized scoring procedures. In addition, the HRNB was developed to be a single integrated test; however, many neuropsychologists today choose not to use the complete battery but incorporate the Halstead-Reitan subtests selectively into their assessments.
Normative Data Collection of normative data and the selected sample is one of the major limitations of the HRNB. Halstead developed the original cutting scores for his tests using group of “normals” consisting of 28 (eight females) subjects. Ten of these subjects suffered minor psychiatric disturbances and one was a military prisoner. Three other subjects were awaiting lobotomies due to behavioral problems, which included homicidal and suicidal tendencies. Two of these subjects contributed each set of scores, before and after their lobotomies. Another criticism against the normative group is the relative youth of the group. The range of ages of the group ranged from 14 to 50 years of age (mean = 28.3). Considering that performance on cognitive and neurocognitive tests tends to decline with age, the
performance of the elderly examinees is likely to fall in the impaired range despite age-appropriate neurocognitive abilities [8]. Currently, there are several independent editions of normative scores for the battery available for the test interpretation. In addition to Halstead original norms published in 1947, other major sources of norms and test administration have been published and include norms by Russel et al. [14], Heaton et al. [6], and Reitan and Wolfson [10]. Also, it is difficult to compare results between individual subtests of the HRNB due to the lack of standard score transformation data. Despite these limitations, the Halstead-Reitan test remains one of the most validated and researched neuropsychological assessment tools in the world.
Summary Scores The impairment index by Halstead [4] is derived from five core subtests of the battery that yield seven scores: the Category Test Score, Total Time Score (Tactile Performance Test), Memory Score (Tactile Performance Test), Localization Score (Tactile Performance Test),Seashore Rhythm Test Score, Speech Sounds Perception Test Score, and Finger Oscillation Test Score. The Impairment Index provides an indicator of overall impairment by looking at the proportion of tests in which the examinee performed in the impaired range. The scores on the index range from 0.0 to 1.0. Scores of 0.0 to 50 indicate the lack of brain impairment, and the scores of 51 and above are indicative of cerebral impairment. Because only seven scores contribute to the Impairment Index, and the index does not reflect the degrees of cerebral impairments, other summary scales have been developed to incorporate the performances of a large number of the Halstead-Reitan subtests. The average impairment index (AIR) by Russel et al. [14] is based on 12 scores each rated on a 6-point scale (from 0 to 5). The seven scores comprising the Impairment Index, Trail Making Part B, Digit Symbol form the original WAIS, Wepman’s Aphasia Screening Test with scoring differences for language and spatial errors, and the number of Perceptual Errors on the Sensory Perceptual Examination. The AIR rates the patients’ performance on a six-point scale, which contrasts the Halstead’s binary diagnostic system. The alternative impairment index and alternative impairment index-revised by Horto [7] are shorter alternatives to the Impairment Index. They are derived from the scores form the Category Test, Seashore Rhythm Test, Speech Sounds Perception Test, bilateral Finger Tapping, and Trail Making A and B. Normal range of performance
Hawthorne Effect
on the indexes is 0.0 to 0.2; the impaired range includes scores from mildly impaired (0.3 to 0.4) to severely impaired (0.8–1.0). The general neuropsychological deficit score (GNDS) by Reitan and Wolfson [10] summarizes 42 Halstead-Reitan measures into four major areas: (1) Level of Performance, which includes 10 variables), (2) Pathognomic Signs, which includes 12 variables, (3) Patterns and Relationships among Tests Results, which includes two variables, and (4) Right-Left Differences, which includes nine variables. Except pathognomic signs, test performances are rated on a 4-point scale (0–3). Scores of 0 to 1 represent normal performance, and scores 2 and 3 represent impaired and severely impaired performances, respectively. The ratings from each item contribute to the GNDS, which determines four different levels of overall performance. As the overall GNDS score ranges from 0 to 168, scores 0–25 signify normal performance, scores 26–40 indicate mild impairment, scores 41–67 refer to moderate impairment, and scores above 68 imply severe impairment.
Levels of Interpretation Reitan proposed a fourfold approach to inferential decision making using the HRNB. The four areas include: (1) Level of Performance, which involves the comparison of the examinee with normative groups of impaired and non-impaired persons; (2) Pattern of Performance, which refers to the examination of intra-test performance and subtest scores; (3) Specific Behavioral Deficits, which looks at the existence of pathognomonic signs of specific disorders; (4) Comparison of two sides to the body (rightleft comparisons), which is looking for discrepancies in test performance which may reveal weakness or lateralized impairment.
References 1. Batchelor, E., Jr., Sowles, G., Dean, R. S., & Fisher, W. (1991). Construct validity of the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological battery for children with learning disabilities. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 9(1), 16–31. 2. Davis, A. S., Johnson, J. A., & D’Amato, R. C. (2005). Evaluating and using long-standing school batteries: The Halstead-Reitan and LuriaNebraska neuropsychological batteries. In R. C. D’Amato, E. Fletcher-Janzen, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of school psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 3. Dean, R. S. (1985). Review of the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery. In J. V. Mitchell (Ed.), The ninth mental measurements yearbook. Highland Park, HJ: Gryphon Press. 4. Halstead, W. C. (1947). Brain and intelligence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 5. Halstead, W. C., & Wepman, J. M. (1959). The Halstead-Wepman aphasia screening test. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 14, 9–15.
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6. Heaton, R. K., Grant, I., & Matthews, C. G. (1991). Comprehensive norms for an expanded Halstead-Reitan battery: Demographic corrections, research findings, and clinical implications. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. 7. Horto, A. M., Jr. (1995). Alternative impairment index: A measure of neuropsychological deficit. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 80, 336–338. 8. Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment. New York: Oxford University Press. 9. Reitan, R. M. (1994). Ward Halstead’s contributions to neuropsychology and the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 47–70. 10. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1993). The Halstead-Reitan neuropsychology test battery: Theory and clinical interpretation (2nd ed.). Tucson, AZ: Neuropsychology Press. 11. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1994). The Halstead-Reitan neuropsychology test battery: Theory and clinical interpretation. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 9(3), 289–290. 12. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1996). Theoretical and methodological basis of the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychology test battery. In I. Grant & K. M. Adams (Eds.), Neuropsychological assessment of neuropsychiatric disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. 13. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (2002). Using the tactile form recognition test to differentiate persons with brain damage from control subjects. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 17, 117–121. 14. Russel, E. W., Nueringer, C., & Goldstein, G. (1970). Assessment of brain damage: A neuropsychological approach. New York: Wiley.
Handwriting ▶Dysgraphia
Harsh Discipline ▶Corporal (Physical) Punishment ▶Physical Abuse
Hawthorne Effect RENEE L. ALLEN, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Definition A widely accepted definition of the Hawthorne Effect refers to the effects of subjects’ awareness of their evaluation as participants of a research study [4]. Other definitions include the importance of changes in the work
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environment (e.g., lighting, rest breaks) while some focus on the resilience of the change in performance. Common variables that can be found in the Hawthorne effect definitions include participants’ interpretation of workplace changes being implemented for their benefit, reference to the response of subjects to change, and the presence of reduced worker boredom [2]. Researchers who support the phenomenon that is known as the Hawthorne Effect have been criticized for failing to differentiate this concept from subject reactivity to experimental conditions or from the issue of confounding variables in experimental research. Indeed, the original research itself has been deemed methodologically flawed and insufficient to suggest such an effect by some [5].
Description The Hawthorne studies have been called the “single most important investigation of the human dimensions of industrial relations in the early twentieth century” ([1], p. 55). The Hawthorne studies, from which the concept of a Hawthorne effect originated, occurred between 1924 and 1933. The name “Hawthorne” was taken from the site of the original study that began in 1927: the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Chicago, Illinois [5]. The seven studies that took place at Hawthorne were conducted by employees at the Industrial Research Division of the plant. These studies were then interpreted by a group of external experts that included Elton Mayo of the Harvard Business School as well as biology and public health professor Clair Turner from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [1]. The participants of the Hawthorne studies were uneducated, low-income women who worked various jobs at the factory [4]. Reports of the Hawthorne studies are contained in Mayo’s 1933 [3] book The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization and Roethlisberger and Dickson’s 1939 [6] book Management and the Worker. The three illumination experiments are the most frequently cited experiments from the original research that are used to support the Hawthorne Effect. Conducted between 1924 and 1927, these three experiments involved the manipulation of illumination levels to investigate the relationship between lighting and worker productivity. These experiments were first conducted using workers from three different departments who were engaged in three different kinds of work tasks. Noting the flawed methodology of this experiment, the researchers then used two groups of participants from one department only. The first group of participants worked under the normal illumination conditions of the factory. The second group of participants worked under various intensities of natural and artificial illumination. As the researchers
received results from the second study that did not support their hypotheses, a final experiment essentially recreated the second experiment with the exception of the use of artificial light only. The researchers involved in the illumination experiments expected to find that groups who received progressively more illumination would become more productive. Although this hypothesis was supported by the research, the illumination experiments yielded results that illustrated increased productivity among groups who did not receive increased levels of illumination. These experiments also revealed that increased productivity could occur among groups whose illumination was progressively decreased. Overall, the results from the illumination experiments suggested that the relationship between illumination and productivity must be affected by other variables, including the notion that participation in a research study could increase worker productivity.
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5.
6.
Brannigan, A., & Zwerman, W. (2001). The real “Hawthorne Effect”. Society, 38, 55–60. Chiesa, M., & Hobbs, S. (2008). Making sense of social research: How useful is the Hawthorne Effect? European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 67–74. Mayo, E. (1933). The human problems of an industrial civilization. New York: MacMillan. Merrett, F. (2006). Reflections on the Hawthorne effect. Educational Psychology, 26, 143–146. Olson, R., Verley, J., Santos, L., & Salas, C. (2004). What we teach students about the Hawthorne studies: A review of content within a sample of introductory I-O and OB textbooks. The IndustrialOrganizational Psychologist, 41, 23–39. Roethlisberger, F. J., & Dickson, W. J. (1939). Management and the worker. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Further Readings Gillespie, R. (1991). Manufacturing knowledge: A history of the Hawthorne experiments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Holden, J. D. (2001). Hawthorne effects and research into professional practice. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 7, 65–70.
Hb ▶Hemoglobin
Head Injury ▶Brain Damage ▶Traumatic Brain Injury
Head Start
Head Start JUSTIN A. BARTERIAN, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms Pre-school programs; Project head start; War on poverty
Definition Head Start is a federally funded program that provides a variety of services (i.e. educational, social, health, nutritional) and stimulating academic environments for economically disadvantaged children with a goal of enhancing school readiness.
Description Head Start was initiated as part of the war on poverty in 1965. The program was created in an effort to address the needs of children in economically deprived settings. Head Start was initially started as an 8-week program, but now includes full-day options and services throughout the entire calendar year. Head Start promotes school readiness for children of economically disadvantaged families by providing academic and social-related services to families and children. These services are often based on the information gathered from a needs assessment. Furthermore, the goal of Head Start is to provide a stimulating learning environment in an effort to target several aspects of the child’s educational development including: “language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, creative arts, physical skills, and approaches to learning” (Head Start Act as Amended). Services are provided through centerbased, home-based, or combined (center and home-based) programs. In addition to these services, Head Start provides assistance for children transitioning into elementary school by providing schools with records on the student as well as connecting the family to appropriate professionals and services within a school. Since the inception of Head Start, 25 million children have received service through the program. In 2007, 908,412 students were enrolled in the Head Start program. Children participating in Head Start come from diverse backgrounds. During fiscal year 2007, 39.7% of the children in the program were white, 30.1% Black/African American, 18.8% unspecified other, 4.9% bi-racial/ multi-racial, 4% American Indian/Alaska Native, 1.7% Asian, and 0.8% Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander. Furthermore, 12.2% of the children enrolled in Head Start are diagnosed with a disability, such as “mental retardation, health
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impairments, visual handicaps, hearing impairments emotional disturbance, speech and language impairments, orthopedic handicaps, and learning disabilities (Head Start Fact Sheet, 2008).” The government spends approximately $7,326 for each child enrolled in the program. Head Start often collaborates with several community agencies and businesses in providing additional services. There have been several studies that have noted the benefits of participation in Head Start programs, as well as several studies questioning its effectiveness. Based on a comprehensive literature review, Love and colleagues [4] note that there was evidence to support the effectiveness of the program. Results from the Head Start Impact Study indicate significant improvements in school readiness skills of first grade children, including cognitive, social, and emotional skills as well as improvements in parenting practices. In addition, Head Start had a statistically significant effect on children’s pre-reading, pre-writing, vocabulary, and parent reported literacy skills. These results were found for children who entered the program as early as 3-years of age. Head Start was also found to remediate problem behaviors and improve socialemotional functioning for children who entered at an early age. Children who were enrolled in the program at 3- or 4- years old also displayed improvement in their physical health and access to health care. Head Start had an impact on access to health care for children who entered the program at 4 years old. Furthermore, the study found that Head Start had an impact on parenting practices. For children who entered the program at age 3, parents of these children demonstrated an increased use of educational activities within the household and a decreased amount of physical punishment. The study found that Head Start had an impact on the parents of children who entered the program at age 4 demonstrated by an increase of educational activities within the household and a decreased amount of physical punishment. Although there is evidence demonstrating benefits for children who recently completed a Head Start program, there have been fewer positive studies suggesting its long term benefits. Aughinbaugh [1] found no evidence supporting the long-term effectiveness of Head Start related to grade retention and math ability. Head Start is a federally funded program that strives to meet the school readiness needs of children in poverty. Several research studies have examined and continue to examine the effectiveness of the program. There are Head Start centers located within all fifty states and several U.S. territories. Furthermore, Head Start makes special efforts to meet the needs of specific populations who are deemed at risk for educational and social difficulties in school.
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References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
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Auginbaugh, A. (2001). Does head start yield long term benefits. The Journal of Human Resources, 36, 641–665. Head Start Act as Amended (42 USC 9801 et seq.) Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs/legislation/HS_act.html#657B History of Project Head Start. Retrieved from http://www.ilheadstart. org/hgv.html Love, J. M., Louisa, B. T., Helen, R., & Rachel C.-C. (2005). Head start: what do we know about its effectiveness? What do we need to know?. In: McCartney, Kathleen, & Deborah, P. (eds). Blackwell handbook of early childhood development. Blackwell. Blackwell Reference Online. 19 September 2008 http://www.blackwellreference.com/ subscriber/ tocnode?id=g9781405120739_chunk_g978140512073929 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. (2008) Head start fact sheet. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs/about/fy2008.html U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. (May 2005). Head start impact study: First year findings. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Head Trauma ▶Traumatic Brain Injury
Health ▶Nutrition
Health Psychology MARIA KYRIAKAKI, GEORGE GEORGIOU, CECILIA A. ESSAU Roehampton University, London, UK
Synonyms Child health psychology; Clinical health psychology; Critical health psychology; Occupational health psychology; Public health psychology
Definition Health Psychology is a dynamic theoretical and applied psychological discipline founded almost 30 years ago, and emerged as the science of the psychological foundations of health, illness and health care [3]. The diversity that characterizes this rapidly expanding field of psychology is reflected by the
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educational, scientific, and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, the identification of etiologic and diagnostic correlates of health, illness, and related dysfunction, and the improvement of the health care system and health policy formation [5].
Description Health psychology applies psychological theories and methodology to identify the psychosocial and developmental factors underlying physical illness and enactment of healthrelated behaviors. Health psychology has made substantial contributions to the understanding of health maintenance and illness prevention and a kaleidoscope of other healthrelated issues, such as coping with chronic illness, adherence to medication, effective doctor–patient communication, health education and promotion via the development and application of effective interventions [8, 9].
Relevance to Childhood Development Child health psychology emerged as an interdisciplinary area, where health-related and developmental perspectives are jointly considered for the improvement of child health care. According to Drotar et al. [2] child health psychology focuses on the “behavioral aspects of children’s health and illness,” hence the integration of developmental issues within the spectrum of health-related research. Accident-relevant behaviors, child physical abuse, substance abuse in the family, chronic pediatric pain and illness, child stress, and children’s reactions to medical procedures are only few of the key areas of interest in child health psychology [2, 4]. Childhood is considered to be a crucial developmental stage where illness prevention and health promotion may be particularly fruitful especially at the level of attitude formation [10, 11]. A developmental perspective to health promotion may increase the relevance and effectiveness of health education targeting children and their caregivers. Usually, child health promotion primarily targets the child caregiver (e.g., parents) on health-related issues concerning child wellbeing (e.g., [7]), and to a lesser extent it targets children themselves. The latter typically involves the use of effective, creative, and innovative methods (e.g., theater play; see [6]) to attract children’s attention by taking into account their age, physical condition (e.g., obesity, medical condition), and the setting where promotion takes place (e.g., schools). The child health professional can foster health promotion in children and families by using effective teaching strategies in various settings where learning occurs and is
Hebb, Donald O.
encouraged (e.g., at schools; in health clinics etc.). The health educator’s skills and techniques used for this purpose are as critical as the consideration of socio-cultural factors and their role in health communication and persuasion. Hence, “culturally effective” or “communityrelevant” health promotion would be essential. The role of child health professionals is not limited to a sterile “lecture-type” health education. On the contrary, it involves interaction with children and their caregivers/ family and discussion on issues that are relevant to health maintenance and prevention of illness [1]. These are important prerequisites for the development of effective health interventions inspired by working with children and families in applied and clinical settings.
References 1. Bernstein, H. H. (2005). Pediatrics in practice: A health promotion curriculum for child health professionals. New York: Springer. 2. Drotar, D., Bennett Johnson, S., Iannotti, R., Krasnegor, N., Mathews, K. A., Melamed, B. G., et al. (1989). Child health psychology. Health Psychology, 8(6), 781–784. 3. Friedman, H. S., & Adler, N. E. (2007). The history and background of health psychology. In H. S. Friedman & R. C. Silver (Eds.), Foundations of health psychology (pp. 3–18). New York: Oxford University Press. 4. Maddux, J. E., Roberts, M. C., Siedden, E. A., & Wright, L. (1986). Developmental issues in child health psychology. American Psychologist, 41(1), 25–34. 5. Matarazzo, J. D. (1980). Behavioral health and behavioral medicine: Frontiers for a new health psychology. American Psychologist, 35, 807–817. 6. Ribeiro, I. C., Viensci, G., Maistrovicz, T., & Pratt, M. (2006). Health promotion and nutritional education for children and adolescents enrolled in two public schools in southern Brazil. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 38(Suppl. 5), S471. 7. Roberts, M. C., Elkins, P. D., & Royal, G. P. (1984). Psychological applications to the prevention of accidents and illness. In M. C. Roberts & L. Peterson (Eds.), Prevention of problems in childhood: Psychological research and applications (pp. 173–199). New York: Wiley Interscience. 8. Smith, T. W., & Suls, J. (2004). Introduction to the special section on the future of health psychology. Health Psychology, 23(2), 115–118. 9. Taylor, S. (1990). Health psychology: The science and the field. American Psychologist, 45(1), 40–50. 10. Tercyak, K. P. (2008). Editorial: Prevention in child health psychology and the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 33(1), 31–34. 11. Wurtele, S. K. (1995). Health promotion. In M. C. Roberts (Ed.), Handbook of pediatric psychology (2nd ed., pp. 200–216). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Heart Disease ▶Cardiac Disorders
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Hebb, Donald O. AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Life Dates July 1904–August 1985
Introduction Hebb is an internationally renowned neurophysiologist most who developed the concept of the Hebbian synapse and the Hebbian learning rule [1]. His contributions to the understanding of human learning and memory continue to have an impact on most areas of psychological thought and practice.
Educational Information The eldest son of four children Donald Olding Hebb was a born in Chester, Nova Scotia in Canada [1]. Hebb initially pursued a career as a novelist and studied in the Faculty of Arts at Dalhousie University in Halifax where he majored in English. However, this ambition did not meet with success [1]. Hebb then motivated by the works of Sigmund Freud and went on to study as a graduate student in psychology at McGill University. In 1931 he wrote his M.A. thesis entitled Conditioned and Unconditioned Reflexes and Inhibition which argued that skeletal reflexes were due to cellular learning. This thesis later formed the basis for his work on the Hebb synapse [1]. Hebb became interested in physiological aspects of psychology and went on to study for a Ph.D. in this area with Lashley at the University of Chicago. Hebb’s Ph.D. thesis topic was “The problem of spatial orientation and place learning”. However, prior to completing the Ph.D. Lashley accepted a position at Harvard University and Hebb also transferred to Harvard University to continue his work with Lashley. However, he had to change his thesis topic to the study of vision in rats reared in darkness. He was awarded his Ph.D in 1936 [1]. In 1937 Hebb began his post doctoral work with Wilder Penfield at Montreal Neurological Institute [1]. At this
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point Hebb began to assemble test batteries based on his observation that lesions in different areas of the brain led to different disabilities. Therefore, different aspects of strengths and weakness should be assessed rather than overall intellectual change [1]. During this process he developed two new tests 1) the verbal Adult Comprehension Test, 2) The non verbal Picture Anomaly Test [1].
Accomplishments Hebb has been a leading neuroscientist his work has influenced most aspects of psychological thought [2]. He took a professorship of McGill University in 1947 and went on to become Chancellor from 1970–1974 and a Professor Emeritus in 1978 [1]. Under his guidance McGill University became a leading research center for physiological research [1]. Hebb became president of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) in 1952 and the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1961 [1]. During his life his contributions to psychology were recognized by numerous awards including: a distinguished scientific contributions award from the APA in 1961, an award from the Association for Research in Nervous Mental Disorders 1962. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1965, awarded the gold medal from the APA in 1974, awarded Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for Research in Child Development in 1979 and the CPA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1980 [1]. Hebb was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in October 2003 [1].
Contributions Hebb is most well known for his work on memory and learning [2]. The Hebbian synapse and the Hebbian learning rule form the bases of multiple memory systems and synaptic plasticity [1, 2]. Hebb was also involved with identified that intelligence is not exclusively innate and that early environmental influence during a child’s development is crucial in determining adult intelligence [1]. Modern computer models of the brain are based on Hebbs ideas of synapse and cell assembly [2].
References 1.
2.
Brown, R. E., & Milner, P. M. (2003). The legacy of Donald O Hebb: mare than the Hebb synapse. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4, 1013–1019. Cooper, S. J. (2004). Donald O Hebb’s synapse and learning rule: a history and commentary. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, 28, 851–874.
HELLP Pregnancy Syndrome ▶HELLP Syndrome
HELLP Syndrome MARIA STYLIANOU, XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms HELLP pregnancy syndrome
Definition HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening obstetric complication usually considered to be a variant of pre-eclampsia involving a combination of liver and blood disorders. Specifically, HELLP is an abbreviation of the main symptoms of this syndrome: H stands for Hemolytic anemia (Hemolytic anemia is the breaking down of red blood cells.), EL stands for Elevated Liver enzymes (indicating liver damage) and LP stands for Low Platelet count (leading to a bleeding tendency).
Description Epidemiology The incidence of HELLP syndrome is reported as 0.17–0.85% of all pregnancies and develops in 4–12% of women with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia [8, 13, 14]. When pre-eclampsia is not present, diagnosis of the syndrome is often delayed. The syndrome presents antepartum in 69% of patients and postpartum in 31% of patients [4]. With postpartum presentation, the onset is typically within the first 48 h after delivery; however, signs and symptoms may not become apparent until as long as 7 days after delivery. HELLP syndrome usually begins on average between 32 and 34 weeks but rare cases have been reported as early as 23 weeks gestation [8]. Although up to 3% of HELLP cases result in maternal mortality and stillbirths occur in up to 20% of cases, the outcome for mothers with HELLP syndrome is generally good [6].
Etiology The exact cause of HELLP syndrome is unknown, but general activation of the coagulation cascade
HELLP Syndrome
(Coagulation cascade is the sequence of biochemical activities, involving clotting factors that stop bleeding by forming a clot.) is considered the main underlying problem [7]. Fibrin (Fibrin is an insoluble protein that is essential to clotting of blood, formed from fibrinogen by action of thrombin.) forms cross linked networks in the small blood vessels. This leads to a microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (Microangiopathic hemolytic anemia is a disorder in which narrowing or obstruction of small blood vessels results in distortion and fragmentation of cells.): the mesh causes destruction of red blood cells as if they were being forced through a strainer [7]. As the liver appears to be the main site of this process, downstream liver cells suffer ischemia (Periportal necrosis is the necrosis of liver cells localized around the portal vein. It is usually associated with ingested toxins.), leading to periportal necrosis (Disseminated intravascular coagulation is a serious medical condition that develops when the normal balance between bleeding and clotting is disturbed). Other organs can be similarly affected. HELLP syndrome leads to a variant form of disseminated intravascular coagulation (Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is a disease of unknown origin, characterized by abnormally low levels of platelets in the blood, the formation of blood clots in the arterioles and capillaries of many organs, and neurological damage.), leading to paradoxical bleeding, which can make emergency surgery a serious challenge. Some conditions may increase the risk of developing HELLP syndrome, including preeclampsia during pregnancy and previous pregnancy with HELLP syndrome.
Features Symptoms of HELLP syndrome are progressive nausea and vomiting, upper abdominal pain, severe headaches, visual disturbance, easy bruising, swollen hands and feet. Tenderness in the upper right abdomen just below the ribs results from enlargement and inflammation of the liver [1, 3]. Edema may also occur but its absence does not exclude HELLP syndrome. Arterial hypertension is also a diagnostic requirement, but it may be mild. Rupture of the liver capsule and a resultant hematoma may also occur. Disseminated intravascular coagulation is also seen in about 20% of all women with HELLP syndrome [10], and in 84% when HELLP syndrome is complicated by acute renal failure [9]. Due to the fact that HELLP syndrome may resemble other medical conditions, such as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (Acute exacerbation of systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic generalized connective tissue disorder marked by skin eruptions, arthralgia, arthritis, leukopenia, anemia, visceral lesions, neurologic manifestations, lymphadenopathy, fever, and other constitutional symptoms.), acute exacerbation of systemic lupus
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erythematosus (Acute exacerbation of systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic generalized connective tissue disorder marked by skin eruptions, arthralgia, arthritis, leukopenia, anemia, visceral lesions, neurologic manifestations, lymphadenopathy, fever, and other constitutional symptoms.) and pregnancy-induced hypertension, patients who present with symptoms of HELLP syndrome can be misdiagnosed in the early stages increasing the risk of liver failure and morbidity [11].
Treatment Early diagnosis is critical because the morbidity and mortality rates associated with the syndrome have been reported to be as high as 25% [5]. The mortality rate among babies born to mothers with HELLP syndrome varies and depends mainly on gestation and birth weight. In the past the only treatment advocated was to deliver the baby immediately [2]. This is due to the fact that as the liver deteriorates rapidly, hemorrhaging into the liver and from the site of the placenta can threaten the life of mother and baby. Permanent liver damage may result if delivery of the baby is delayed. Fortunately, the majority of babies born to HELLP syndrome mothers do very well, especially if weighing over 2 lbs at birth. Babies less than 2 lbs in weight, face serious problems and complications due to prematurity. Depending on the estimated gestational age and the condition of the mother and fetus a more conservative treatment could be administered [2]. Blood transfusions may be conducted for severe anemia and low platelets, magnesium sulfate may be administered to prevent seizures [3], antihypertensive medications may be given to reduce blood pressure, corticosteroids may be prescribed to help mature the lungs of the fetus [12] and then if HELLP syndrome worsens and endangers the well-being of the mother or fetus, then an early delivery may be necessary. Patients with HELLP syndrome may be eligible for conservative management if hypertension is controlled at less than 160/110 mmHg, oliguria responds to fluid management and elevated liver function values are not associated with right upper quadrant or epigastric pain [5]. One study found that pregnancy was prolonged by an average of 15 days when conservative management (i.e., bed rest, fluids and close observation) was used in patients who were at less than 32 weeks of gestation. Maternal morbidity was not increased. For infants, the prolongation of pregnancy translated into less time in the neonatal intensive care unit, a decreased incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis and a decreased incidence of respiratory distress syndrome. Following HELLP syndrome, future pregnancies are at an increased risk and so most mothers will be advised to avoid pregnancy again.
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References 1. Beucher, G., Simonet, T., & Dreyfus, M. (2008). Prise en charge du HELLP syndrome. Gyne´cologie, Obste´trique et Fertilite´, 36(12), 1175–1190. 2. Callinot, P., & Jourdain, M. (2007). Le HELLP syndrome. Re´animation, 16(5), 386–392. 3. Clarke, S. D., & Nelson-Piercy, C. (2008). Preclampsia and HELLP syndrome. Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, 9(3), 110–114. 4. Gleeson, R., Farrell, J., Doyle, M., & Walshe, J. J. (1996). HELLP syndrome: A condition of varied presentation. Irish Journal of Medical Sciences, 165, 265–267. 5. Padden, M. O. (1999). HELLP syndrome: Recognition and perinatal management. American Family Physician, 60(3), 829–839. 6. Parnas, M., Sheiner, E., Shoham-Vardi, I., Burstein, E., Yermiahu, T., Levi, I., et al. (2006). Moderate to severe thrombocytopenia during pregnancy. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology, 128(1–2), 163–168. 7. Paternoster, D. M., Stella, A., Simioni, P., Mussap, M., & Plebani, M. (1995). Coagulation and plasma fibronectin parameters in HELLP syndrome. International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, 50(3), 263–268. 8. Rath, W., Faridi, A., & Dudenhausen, J. W. (2000). HELLP syndrome. Journal of Perinatal Medicine, 28(4), 249–260. 9. Sibai, B. M. (1993). Acute renal failure in pregnancies complicated by HELLP. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 168, 1682–1690. 10. Sibai, B. M. (1993). Maternal morbidity and mortality in 442 pregnancies with HELLP syndrome. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 169, 1000–1006. 11. Sibai, B. M. (2007). Imitators of severe preeclampsia. Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 109(4), 956–966. 12. Tita, A. T. N., & Ramse, P. S. (2006). Corticosteroids and HELLP. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 195(6), e7. 13. Vigil-De Garcia, P. (2009). Maternal deaths due to eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, 104(2), 90–94. 14. Wolf, J. L. (1996). Liver disease in pregnancy. Medical Clinics of North America, 80, 1167–1187.
Hemispherectomy BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Hemidecortication
Definition A hemispherectomy is a surgical procedure to remove one of the two hemispheres of the cerebrum, which together make up the majority of the ▶brain’s tissue [1]. The surgery takes one of two forms: Anatomical hemispherectomies involve the complete removal of a cerebral hemisphere while functional hemispherectomies involve the selective removal of parts of a cerebral hemisphere and severing the corpus callosum such that the afflicted hemisphere in more or less left intact but is functionally disconnected from the rest of the brain [1]. Hemispherectomies are typically performed to treat intractable epilepsy [3]. While the majority of hemispherectomies are performed in the adolescent years, some are performed in the first year of life, before the acquisition of speech [2]. The outcome following a hemispherectomy in early infancy depends on which hemisphere is involved, supporting the conclusion that the cerebral hemispheres have considerable degree of specialization of function, even early in life [2]. The specific outcomes following a hemispherectomy, to the extent that such results can be summarized briefly, are summarized in Table 1. To elaborate on some of the data presented above, left hemispherectomies, in contrast to right
Helping Behavior ▶Prosocial Behavior
Hematinoglobulin ▶Hemoglobin
Hemispherectomy. Table 1 Post-Hemispherectomy Outcomes Behavioral measures
Left hemisphere removal
Right hemisphere removal
Measures of intelligence
Low but normal
Low but normal
Measures of language Simple
Normal
Normal
Complex
Poor
Normal
Measures of visuospatial abilities
Hemidecortication ▶Hemispherectomy
Simple
Normal
Normal
Complex
Normal
Poor
Adapted from [2]
Hemispheres of the Brain
hemispherectomies, result in deficits in comprehending spoken language when the meaning in the utterance is a function of complex syntax of the utterance, especially if the spoken sentence contains an error (as in “The tall guard wasn’t shot by the armed robber”). Similarly, a left hemidecortication produces deficits in understanding the implied meaning of a spoken sentence, in using the information in a sentence to identify a missing pronoun, and in judging how the words in a sentence are inter-related [2]. Both hemispheres can function to enable a person to comprehend word meanings and both will allow a person to produces lists of words to name things. In tasks involving a search for words through the use of different cues, the left hemisphere provides a person with some advantages. While either hemispheres can arrive at a word to name an object based on its picture or from its description, only the left hemisphere can identify a word based on a prompt such as “It rhymes with. . .”; the right hemisphere alone does not function to allow a person to respond correctly to such a prompt. Both hemispheres enable a person to engage in higher-order reading comprehension but, the left hemisphere gives a person superior ability in spelling and reading words that are novel to the person and to engage in more fluent reading [2]. The left hemisphere also enables a person to read passages of prose with greater accuracy and fluency and with fewer violations or errors of the semantic content and syntax of the sentences; the superior ability given with an intact left hemisphere was summarized as the ability to use and understand the implicit and explicit rules of the use of language. The right hemisphere, however, enables a person to have better performance of a task involving learning an association between symbols and nonsense syllables [2]. In terms of visuospatial ability, individuals who had undergone right hemispherectomies had normal abilities on simple measures such as drawing an object, these individuals exhibited significant deficits on more complex measures such as reading a map or solving a maze task [2]. In summary, each cerebral hemisphere can take on some of the opposite hemisphere’s abilities and functions if the opposite hemisphere is removed, but neither hemisphere can totally fulfill all of the absent hemisphere’s roles [2]. With very few exceptions, individuals who have undergone a hemidecortication evidence below-average or in best case outcomes, average intellectual ability and the individual’s competence on assessments of the missing hemisphere’s typical functions is below normal [4].
References 1.
Choi, C. Q. (2008). Do you need only half your brain? Scientific American, 298(3), 104.
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Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2009). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (6th ed.). New York: Worth. Kossoff, E. H., Vining, E. P. G., Pillas, D. J., Pyzik, P. L., Avellino, A. M., Carson, B. S., et al. (2003). Hemispherectomy for intractable unihemispheric epilepsy. Neurology, 61, 887–890. Pulsifer, M. B., Brandt, J., Salario, C. F., Vining, E. P. G., Carson, B. S., & Freeman, J. M. (2004). The cognitive outcome of hemispherectomy in 71 children. Epilepsia, 45(3), 243–254.
Hemispheres of the Brain CHAD A. NOGGLE1, ANDREA R. MOREAU2 1 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA 2 Indiana Neuroscience Institute/St. Vincent’s Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Synonyms Brain hemispheres; Cerebral hemispheres
Definition The hemispheres of the brain refer to the two relatively symmetrical halves of the forebrain that lie on the right and left.
Description The hemispheres of the brain refer to the two relatively symmetrical halves of the Forebrain that are topographically divided by the Longitudinal Fissure [1, 3]. While they appear divided on the surface, the hemispheres are connected by both the Corpus Callosum and the Anterior Commissure so to allow for proper neuronal communication between the hemispheres [2]. It is these connections that provide the foundation of the brain’s mirrorimage structure. Specifically, these noted interhemispheric connections join contralateral points that are similar in functionality [2]. For example, those points relating to the movement of the right arm will present with connections to those points, similar in hemispheric locality, that relate to the movement of the left arm. However, in terms of functional regulation, the hemispheres of the Forebrain demonstrate contralateral control such that motor and sensory functioning of the right side of the body is modulated by the left hemisphere and vice versa, the motor and sensory functioning of the left side of the body is modulated by the right hemisphere. The subtle asymmetry of the hemispheres of the brain is largely related to their differences in morphology and physiology [4]. While the right hemisphere in most people presents as both larger and heavier, the left
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hemisphere tends to be more dense [4]. The greater density of the left likely corresponds with a more intricate association circuitry of this hemisphere compared to the right secondary to the lateralization of various higher-order functions to this hemisphere. In terms of lateralization, this refers to a functional dominance of one hemisphere over the other, in which one is more responsible or entirely responsible for control of a function in comparison to the other. For example, the left hemisphere is generally dominant as language and various aspects of verbal processing are usually lateralized to this side, which are higher-order processes. As a result, there is likely a great reliance on more intricate neuronal networking and thus the left hemisphere presents with greater density [4]. For more information on the lateralization of the hemispheres, please see Hemispheres of the Brain, Lateralization of.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Hemispheres of the Brain, Lateralization of CHAD A. NOGGLE1, JOHN JOSHUA HALL2 1 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA 2 The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA
Synonyms Cerebral dominance; Cerebral lateralization; Hemispheric dominance; Hemispheric lateralization
Definition Lateralization of the brain hemispheres refers to a functional dominance of one hemisphere over the other, in which one is more responsible or entirely responsible for control of a function in comparison to the other.
Description In addition to a multitude of other defining features, the brain Cerebrum is divided into two relatively symmetrical
halves referred to as the hemispheres of the brain. Although they are relatively similar in appearance, each hemisphere is entrusted with the modulation of different functions. It is this functional asymmetry that is the hallmark of lateralization. Specifically, lateralization of the brain hemispheres refers to a functional dominance of one hemisphere over the other, in which one is more responsible or entirely responsible for control of a function in comparison to the other. This can be depicted in two general ways. First, in regards to sensory and motor functioning the hemispheres of the brain present with a contralateral pattern of control in which the left hemisphere is involved in the functioning of the right and the right hemisphere is involved in the functioning of the left [17]. Beyond this more basic aspect of lateralization, empirical evidence has demonstrated further lateralization of hemispheric functioning along the lines of higher-order cognitive functions. A general way of conceptualizing this is in regarding the left hemisphere as more prominently involved in language and other verbal processes and the right hemisphere as more involve in visual-spatial processing and other non-verbal abilities [18]. This breakdown represents the basis for the idea of left hemisphere dominance. In regards to this latter idea, dominance is determined by which hemisphere houses language. While, as suggested above, left hemisphere dominance holds true for the vast majority of individuals, there are some who present with cross-dominance as well as those who present with reverse-dominance. Beyond the more simplistic differentiation of verbal versus non-verbal/ visual in regards to lateralization of the hemispheres, prior research has demonstrated greater specifics along these lines. Dean and Anderson [8] provided a summary table of the various lateralized functions as determined by empirical evidence that was revised by Davis and Dean [6] and then Noggle, Davis, and Barisa [23]. Based on these empirical summaries, functions that have been demonstrated as largely lateralized to the right hemisphere include: Simultaneous Processing [31]; Holistic Processing [9, 31]; Visual/nonverbal Processing [27, 31]; Imagery [28]; Spatial reasoning [25, 31]; Depth perception [4]; Melodic perception [29]; Tactile perception [3, 5]; Nonverbal sound recognition [21]; Motor integration [16], Visual constructive performance [24]; Pattern recognition [10]; Language Pragmatics [1]; Nonverbal memory [33]; and Face recognition [14, 22]. In comparison, functions that have been demonstrated as largely lateralized to the left hemisphere include: Sequential Processing [32]; Temporal Processing [20]; Analytic Processing [10]; Speech [2]; General language/ Verbal Skills [11, 12, 30]; Calculation/Arithmetic [10, 26]; Abstract verbal thought [12]; Writing (composition)
Hemispheric Dominance
[15, 31]; Complex motor functions [9]; Body orientation [13]; Vigilance [9]; Verbal paired associates [9]; Shortterm verbal recall [16]; Abstract and concrete words [19, 28]; Verbal mediation/rehearsal [7, 28]; and Learning complex motor function [9].
References 1. Berman, S. M., Mandelkern, M. A., Phan, H., & Zaidel, E. (2003). Complementary hemispheric specialization for word and accent detection. Neuroimage, 19, 319–331. 2. Blank, S. C., Scott, S. K., Murphy, K., Warburton, W., & Wise, R. J. S. (2002). Speech production: Wernicke, Broca and beyond. Brain, 125, 1829–1838. 3. Boll, T. J. (1974). Behavioral correlates of cerebral damage in children age 9–14. In R. M. Reitan & L. A. Davison (Eds.), Clinical neuropsychology: Current status and application (pp. 91–120). Washington, DC: Hemisphere Pub Corp. 4. Carmon, A., & Bechtoldt, H. (1969). Dominance of the right cerebral hemisphere for stereopsis. Neuropsychologia, 7, 29–39. 5. Coghill, R. C., Gilron, I., & Iadarola, J. (2001). Hemispheric lateralization of somatosensory processing. Journal of Neurophysiology, 85, 2602–2612. 6. Davis, A. S., & Dean, R. S. (2005). Lateralization of cerebral functions and hemispheric specialization: Linking behavior, structure, and neuroimaging. In R. C. D’Amato, E. Fletcher-Janzen, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of school neuropsychology (pp. 120–141). New York: Guildford Press. 7. Dean, R. S. (1983, February). Dual processing of prose and cerebral laterality. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Mexico City. 8. Dean, R. S., & Anderson, J. L. (1997). Lateralization of cerebral functions. In A. M. Horton, D. Wedding, & J. Webster (Eds.), The neuropsychology handbook (2nd ed., pp. 139–170). New York: Springer. 9. Dimond, S., & Beaumont, J. (1974). Hemispheric function in the human brain. New York: Wiley. 10. Eccles, J. C. (1973). The understanding of the brain. New York: McGraw-Hill. 11. Friedman, L., Kenny, J. T., Wise, A. L., Wu, D., Stuve, T. A., Miller, D. A., et al. (1998). Brain activation during silent word generation evaluated with functional MRI. Brain and Language, 38, 278–287. 12. Gazzaniga, M. S. (1970). The bisected brain. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts. 13. Gerstmann, J. (1957). Some notes on the Gerstmann syndrome. Neurology, 7, 866–869. 14. Hecaen, H., & Angelergues, R. (1962). Agnosia for faces (prosopagnosia). Archives of Neurology, 7, 24–32. 15. Hecaen, H., & Marcie, P. (1974). Disorders of written language following right hemisphere lesions: Spatial dysgraphia. In S. J. Dimond & J. G. Beaumont (Eds.), Hemisphere function in the human brain (pp. 345–366). New York: Wiley. 16. Kimura, D. (1961). Cerebral dominance and the perception of visual stimuli. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 15, 166–171. 17. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. 18. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. 19. McFarland, K., McFarland, M. L., Bain, J. D., & Ashton, R. (1978). Ear differences of abstract and concrete word recognition. Neuropsychologia, 16, 555–561.
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20. Mills, L. (1977). Left hemispheric specialization in normal subjects for judgments of successive order and duration of nonverbal stimuli. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Western Ontario, ON, Canada. 21. Milner, B. (1962). Laterality effects in audition. In V. B. Mountcastle (Ed.), Interhemispheric relations and cerebral dominance (pp. 177–195). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 22. Milner, B. (1967). Brain mechanisms suggested by studies of the temporal lobes. In C. H. Millikan & F. L. Darley (Eds.), Brain mechanisms underlying speech and language (pp. 381–414). New York: Grune & Stratton. 23. Noggle, C. A., Davis, A. S., & Barisa, M. (2008). Neuropsychology and neuroimaging: Integrating and understanding structure and function in clinical practice. In L. Hartlage & R. C. D’Amato (Eds.), Essentials of neuropsychological assessment: Treatment planning for rehabilitation (2nd ed., pp. 79–102). New York: Springer. 24. Parsons, O. A., Vega, A., & Burn, J. (1969). Different psychological effects of lateralized brain damage. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 33, 551–557. 25. Poizner, H., Bellugi, U., & Klima, E. S. (1990). Biological foundations of language: Clues from sign language. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 283–307. 26. Reitan, R. M. (1955). An investigation of the validity of Halstead’s measure of biological intelligence. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 73, 28–35. 27. Savage, C. R., & Thomas, D. G. (1993). Information processing and interhemispheric transfer in left- and right-handed adults. International Journal of Neuroscience, 71, 201–219. 28. Seamon, J. G., & Gazzaniga, M. D. (1973). Coding strategies and cerebral laterality effects. Cognitive Psychology, 5, 249–256. 29. Shankweiler, D. (1996). Effects of temporal-lobe damage on perception of dichototically presented melodies. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 62, 115–119. 30. Smith, A. (1974). Dominant and nondominant hemispherectomy. In M. Kisnsborne & W. L. Smith (Eds.), Hemispheric deconnection and cerebral function (pp. 5–33). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. 31. Sperry, R. W. (1974). Lateral specialization in the surgically separated hemispheres. In F. O. Schmitt & F. G. Worden (Eds.), The neurosciences: Third study program (pp. 5–20). New York: Wiley. 32. Sperry, R. W., Gazzaniga, M. S., & Bogen, J. H. (1969). Interhemispheric relationships: The neocortical commissures: Syndromes of hemispheric disconnection. In P. Vinken & G. W. Bruyn (Eds.), Handbook of clinical neurology (Vol. 4, pp. 273–290). New York: Wiley. 33. Stark, R. (1961). An investigation of unilateral cerebral pathology with equated verbal and visual-spatial tasks. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62, 282–287.
Hemispheric Differences ▶Split Brain
Hemispheric Dominance ▶Hemispheres of the Brain, Lateralization of
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Hemispheric Lateralization ▶Hemispheres of the Brain, Lateralization of
Hemoglobin MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
hemoglobinopathies are genetic in origin; this category includes diseases such as sickle cell anemia, in which structural abnormalities in globin chains are present, and the thalassemias, in which rate of globin synthesis is affected. Other forms of hemoglobinopathy are acquired, rather than genetic. One such hemoglobinopathy is carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. CO molecules bind over 200 times more strongly to hemoglobin than do oxygen molecules; therefore, exposure to even relatively low concentrations of CO can result in CO molecules binding to hemoglobin for transport throughout the body at much higher rates than oxygen molecules, leading to significant (and potentially fatal) oxygen deprivation.
Synonyms Deoxyhemoglobin; Haemoglobin; Hb; Hematinoglobulin; Hemoprotein; Metalloprotein; Oxyhemoglobin
References
Definition
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An iron-containing protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs through the bloodstream for use by the body in energy-generating metabolic processes. 3.
Description Hemoglobin molecules are found in erythrocytes, or red blood cells. Hemoglobin molecules contain four subunits, each comprising an iron-containing heme group folded within protein chains known as globin. The reddish color of the heme gives blood its characteristic color; globin peptide chains are colorless. Since each heme group can bind one oxygen molecule for transport, each hemoglobin molecule can transport four oxygen molecules into the peripheral tissues of the body, where they are used in aerobic metabolic processes. When in oxygen-rich environments, the hemoglobin molecules change their structures, “unfolding” slightly to facilitate binding between the heme and oxygen molecules. Once the oxygen molecules have been released into tissue, the hemoglobin molecules again reconfigure, making the heme groups less accessible so that they will not rebind to the released oxygen molecules. The hemoglobin molecules then transport carbon dioxide molecules from peripheral tissue back to the lungs to be released via exhalation. Hemoglobin molecules that are actively involved in transporting oxygen in the bloodstream are known as oxyhemoglobin molecules; non-oxygen-carrying hemoglobin molecules are sometimes referred to as deoxyhemoglobin. In addition to their role in oxygen transport, hemoglobin molecules serve a buffering function within red blood cells, helping to maintain a pH level of approximately 7.4 in the bloodstream. Disorders that affect hemoglobin production, structure, or function are known as hemoglobinopathies. Most
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Ahmed, N., Dawson, M., Smith, C., & Wood, E. (2007). Biology of disease. New York: Taylor & Francis. Benz, E. J. (2008). Disorders of hemoglobin. In A. S. Fauci, E. Braunwald, D. L. Kasper, S. L. Hauser, D. L. Longo, J. L. Jameson, & J. Loscalzo (Eds.), Harrison’s principles of internal medicine (17th ed.). Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.accessmedicine. com/content.aspx?aID=2868933 Kennelly, P. J., & Rodwell, V. W. (2006). Proteins: Myoglobin and hemoglobin. In R. K. Murray, D. K. Granner, & V. W. Rodwell (Eds.), Harper’s illustrated biochemistry (27th ed.). Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx? aID=2330875 Weatherall, D. J. (2006). Disorders of globin synthesis: The thalassemias. In M. A. Lichtman, E. Beutler, T. J. Kipps, U. Seligsohn, K. Kaushansky, & J. T. Prchal (Eds.), Williams hematology (7th ed.). Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.accessmedicine.com/ content.aspx?aID=2142582
Hemophilia Synonyms Blood-clotting disorder; Christmas disease; Factor IX deficiency; Factor VIII deficiency
Definition A rare hereditary disorder of the blood-clotting system, where your blood does not clot normally.
Description There are several types of blood-clotting diseases, and they are all lifelong medical conditions. With hemophilia small cuts bleed longer than usual; however, are not as great a concern as deeper cuts and internal bleeding that are more life threatening. Fortunately, with appropriate treatment
Heritability
and good self-care many individuals with hemophilia can live active and healthy lives. Hemophilia is predominantly found in males (with rare exceptions), and severity varies depending on the amount of clot-forming proteins, in the body, called clotting factors. There are several types of clotting factors that work in conjunction with platelets (small blood fragments that form bone marrow). Clotting factors help platelets stick together to plug cuts at the site of injury to stop bleeding. There are two main types of hemophilia, hemophilia A and hemophilia B. Individuals with hemophilia A are missing or have low levels of clotting factor VIII. This is the more common form of hemophilia, affecting 9 out of 10 people. Also, about 7 out of 10 people who have hemophilia A have a severe presentation of the disorder. On the other hand, hemophilia B individuals lack or have low levels of clotting factor IX. Although hemophilia is a predominantly hereditary disorder, in rare cases it can be acquired due to the formation of antibodies to clotting factors. The main treatment for hemophilia is injecting missing clotting factors into the bloodstream.
References 1. 2.
Medline Plus. Health Topics: Hemophilia: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ medlineplus/hemophilia.html U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Diseases and Conditions Index: Hemophilia. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hemophilia/hemophilia_ what.html
Hemoprotein ▶Hemoglobin
Hereditary Dystopic Lipidosis ▶Fabry Syndrome
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Heritability IOANA BOIE University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Heredity
Definition Heritability is the proportion of phenotypic variance that can be accounted for by genetic differences among individuals [5]. There are several variations in the definitions of heritability, depending on the field it is used in and depending on the author’s stance. For example, certain authors emphasize that heritability and heredity are not the same, although they have been used interchangeably in certain texts [1].
Description The term has been used since the 19th century, with the meaning we attribute today described by Jay Lush in 1936. Lush was an Iowa State College professor of animal breeding, and focused on breeding animals with certain traits. He described heritability as the proportion of phenotypic variance (i.e., physical traits) that can be accounted for by genes. Initially, the concept was used to help plant and animal breeders predict their selection. Lush also described two types of heritability: broad heritability and narrow heritability. Broad heritability entails the entire genotype, including genes that interact non-additively. Narrow heritability includes only additive genetic effects, which are of interest to plant and animal breeders. Lush also established that a heritability estimate would be useful, which provides a numeric index of how much of the observed variation in physical characteristics is due to genetic factors. In behavioral genetics, heritability calculations are done by doubling the reared-together identical-fraternal correlation differences, where there is an assumption that genetic makeup and environment do not interact, although it is known this isn’t true. The statistical calculations of heritability estimates are thought to be biased and methodologically inaccurate.
Heritability and Psychiatric Disorders
Heredity ▶Heritability
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Past research on heritability has focused largely on IQ and psychiatric disorders. For example, major twin studies revealed that heritability of schizophrenia is somewhere between 0.6 and 0.9, where the heritability can range from
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no genetic factors playing a role in developing the disease (0.0) to where genes carry the sole responsibility for a disease (1.0) [3]. Other psychiatric disorders, such as autism, bipolar affective disorder, and ADHD are thought to be highly influenced by genetics, with heritabilities between 60 and 90% (Lerner, 2006), while antisocial behaviors have between 41 and 50% heritability, and Alzheimer’s disease has 40–80%.
References 1. 2. 3.
4. 5.
Hirsch, J. (1970). Behavior-genetic analysis and its biosocial consequence. Seminars in Psychiatry, 2, 89–105. Joseph, J. (2004). The gene illusion: genetic research in psychiatry and psychology under the microscope. New York: Algora. Kendler, K., & Diehl, S. R. (1995). Schizophrenia: genetics. In H. Kaplan & B. Sadock (Eds.), Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (6th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 942–957). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E., & Rutter, M. (1997). Behavioral genetics (3rd ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman.
Hermaphrodite ▶Androgyny
Hermaphroditic ▶Androgyny
Heteronomous ▶Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
Heterosexism ▶Homophobia ▶Sexual Prejudice
Heterosexual Identity ▶Sexual Identity
Hierarchical Linear Modeling SCOTT GRAVES Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA
Synonyms Mixed models; Multilevel modeling; Random coefficient models
Definition Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) is a statistical technique that allows used for analyzing data in a clustered or “nested” structure, in which lower-level units of analysis are nested within higher-level units of analysis. For example, students are nested within classrooms, which are nested within schools.
Description Hierarchical, or nested, data structures are common in many areas of child development research. Specifically, students exist within a hierarchical social structure that can include family, peer group, classroom, grade level, school, school district, state, and country. Hierarchical, or nested, data present several problems for analysis. In particular, individuals from the same classroom or school tend to share certain characteristics (i.e., socioeconomic status, demographics, background) and observations based on these individuals are not fully independent. These individuals tend to be more similar than people randomly sampled from the entire population and thus are not fully independent. However, most analytic techniques require independence of observations as a primary assumption for the analysis. When data is organized in this manner the fundamental assumption of regression analysis that implies that observations should be independent is violated. Since this assumption is violated in the presence of hierarchical data, ordinary least squares regression (OLS) produces standard errors that are too small. When some form of multilevel modeling is not used this fact is ignored and may severely inhibit the validity of a study’s results. In order to accomplish the use of taking into account individual scores
Hippocampus
adjusted for group differences as well as prediction of group scores adjusted for individual differences within groups, HLM allows intercepts (means) and slopes (independent variable-dependent variable relationship) to vary between higher level units. For example, the relationship between a student’s personal competency (independent variable) and reading achievement (dependent variable) is allowed to vary between classrooms. This variability is modeled by treating group intercepts and slopes as dependent variables in the next level of analysis. By doing this it decreases the Type I error rate and facilitates a more accurate representation of outcomes. Conducting a study that utilizes HLM techniques generally requires the use of specialized software. Commercially available software for this procedure includes: HLM, SAS Proc Mixed, MLwiN, and Mplus.
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Hippocampus IOANA BOIE University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition The hippocampus is an anatomical brain structure that is part of the hippocampal formation, which also includes the dentate gyrus and subiculum. The hippocampus is located in the subcortical medial and ventral areas of the temporal lobe, and appears to play a role in socioemotional behavior, attention, and memory and learning, as well as locomotor activity.
Description Relevance to Childhood Development The study of child development is inherently a multilevel field. The term multilevel refers to a nested membership relation among units in a system. In the field of child development, students are nested in teacher classrooms, classrooms nested within schools, and schools grouped within neighborhoods. In as much as researchers are concerned with improving the outcomes of children, the study of these subjects cannot be done appropriately without taking into account their school, neighborhood, and family environments concurrently. Specifically, the development of appropriate interventions, home-school collaborations, and gathering appropriate assessment data must recognize and acknowledge the nested nature of the target child’s circumstance. To account for the clustering of children within their environments, researchers can use HLM procedures to appropriately account for nesting hierarchies.
References 1. 2.
3.
O’Connell, A., & McCoach, B. (Eds.). (2008). Multilevel modeling of educational data. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Raudenbush, S., & Bryk, A. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Snijder, T., & Bosker, R. (1999). Multilevel analysis: An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hindbrain ▶Brain Stem
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The hippocampus, along with other structures such as the primary sensory and motor cortex, tends to be one of the most active areas of the brain in newborns. The hippocampus is one of the structures containing the highest concentrations of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the brain, making it more vulnerable to dysfunctions, neural damage due to anoxia and ischemia, as well as dysfunctions associated with psychiatric disorders. For example, it is believed to play a major role in neurodevelopmental disorders involving dysregulation of dopaminergic systems, such as schizophrenia. Hippocampal lesions can induce hyperactivity and distractibility, possibly contributing to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. These lesions can also create perseveration – with the result that the child repeats the same response over and over, even when the response is not instrumental in achieving a goal. Lesions to the hippocampal formation also may interfere with learning and habituation, resulting in longer time to realize that repetitive stimuli are familiar. With regard to memory, lesions lead to amnesia, and also affect stimuli from all modalities, thus resulting in a deficit in the consolidation of explicitly recalled memory. Lesions to the left hippocampal formation lead to problems with verbal memory while right side lesions are associated with spatial memory deficits. Some studies also show a significant shrinkage of the hippocampus in adults diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, however this has not been noted in children with the same diagnosis.
References 1.
Berninger, V. W., & Richards, T. L. (2002). Brain literacy for educators and psychologists (Practical resources for the mental health professional). Amsterdam: Boston Elsevier.
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Gozal, D., & Molfese, D. L. (2005). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: from genes to patients (Contemporary clinical neuroscience). Totowa: Humana. Krishnan, K., & Ranga, R. (1997). Brain imaging in clinical psychiatry. New York: Marcel Dekker. Zillmer, E., Spiers, M., & Culbertson, W. (2008). Principles of neuropsychology (3rd ed.). Belmont: Thomson.
Histories ▶Personal Narratives
Hold Fast to Another’s View ▶Identity Foreclosure
use their holophrases to a achieve variety of goals, regardless of the language being learned. Examples of holophrases and their uses are outlined below: ● Request or indicate the existence of object (e.g., by naming them with a requestive or neutral intonation) ● Request or describe the reoccurrence of objects or events (e.g., More, Again, Another) ● Request or describe dynamic events involving objects (e.g., as described by Up, Down, On, Off, In, Out, Open, Close) ● Request or describe the action of people (e.g., Eat, Kick, Ride, Draw) ● Comment on the location of objects and people (e.g., Here, Outside) ● Ask some basic questions (What’s-that? or Where-go?) ● Attribute a property to an object (e.g., Pretty, or Wet) ● Use performatives to mark specific social events and situations (e.g., Hi, Bye, Thank you, and No)
Relevance to Childhood Development
Holistic Health ▶Humanistic Therapy
Holophrases GYASI BRAMOS HANTMAN Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL, USA
Synonyms Single word utterance
Definition Term used in the study of language acquisition to refer to the use of a single word to express a complex idea.
Description Derived from a usage based theory of linguistic acquisition, holophrases are single word utterances used by children to convey an intention similar to that of the adult expression it derives. The majority of holophrases are conventional and stable and children learning to speak
Holophrases form the foundation of a child’s early vocabulary and typically develop around the age of 12 months. Children do not attempt to learn isolated words but rather singular constructs that correspond to full sentences used by adults. These individual lexical items appear to have a wide range of communicative intention when accompanied by symbolic gesturing. Depending on the specific language children are learning and the kinds of discourse in which they participate with adults, children will choose different holophrases to learn to communicate their thoughts and desires. In English, most beginning language learners acquire a number of so called relational words such as more, gone, up, down, on, and off, presumably because adults use these words in salient ways to talk about salient events.
References 1. 2.
3.
Dore, J. (1975). Holophrases, speech acts and language universals. Journal of Child Language, 2(1), 21–40. Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition (pp. 37–38). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Tomassello, M. (2008). Acquiring linguistic constructions. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Child and adolescent development (pp. 263–297). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Homeless Families
Holtzman Ink Blot Test (HIT) Definition A projective personality test created by Wayne Holtzman to correct many of the controversial limitations in the Rorschach Inkblot Test.
Description The test is made up of two alternate forms of forty-five inkblots; the scoring is based on twenty-two personalityrelated characteristics. The administration usually takes 50-80 minutes to administer, and scoring can be timeconsuming if not scored by a computer. The Holtzman Ink Blot Test is most often used to assess schizophrenia, depression, and head trauma. Note that Holtzman Ink Blot Test should only be administered and interpreted by mental health practitioners who are trained to use this assessment tool.
References 1.
Holtzman, W. H., Thorpe, J. S., Swartz. J. D., & Herron, E. W. (1961). Inkblot perception and personality. Austin; University of Texas Press.
Home Situations Questionnaire ▶Barkley Home Situations Questionnaire
Homeless Families JESSICA MACKELPRANG Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL, USA
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Description Homelessness is a serious public health problem in the United States. According to 2004 estimates, approximately 2.5–3.5 million Americans will experience homelessness in a given year; of these, approximately 1.35 million are children [8]. Currently, homeless families are among the most rapidly growing sectors of the homeless population. According to a 2007 report, homeless families accounted for approximately half of all homeless persons residing in rural and suburban areas in the United States [14]. Homeless families also tend to remain in sheltered situations for longer periods of time than do single homeless persons, and the adult member of the family is a single woman in 84% of cases [14]. Additionally, the majority of these families have two or more children, with at least one being younger than 6 years of age [14].
Risk Factors for Homelessness Families who become homeless often do so following a series of traumatic events, including domestic violence, eviction due to inadequate finances, or loss of employment. These families are also more likely than single or unaccompanied adults to seek solace in an emergency shelter immediately following residential living, suggesting that a more abrupt transition to homelessness may occur among families than single adults. In fact, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that 20% of homeless families spent the night immediately preceding the onset of their homeless episode in a residence that they rented or owned [14]. The threat of becoming homeless is a reality for many low-income families, particularly during times of economic hardship. Between 2006 and 2007, requests for housing assistance increased 86% [6]. Unaffordable housing plays a key role in the prevalence of homelessness [10, 11]. Other risk factors for homelessness include being a part of an ethnic minority group, particularly being African American, having low educational attainment, and having minimal work experience [10].
Relevance to Childhood Development Synonyms Destitute family; Homeless household; Indigent family
Definition A homeless family is a family that lacks a consistent, stable residence and is comprised of at least one adult parent or guardian and one or more children under the age of 18 years.
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Since the 1980s, the disadvantage experienced by homeless children has become progressively similar to that of lowincome housed youth. Significant discrepancies are still noted, however, across multiple domains (e.g., health, cognitive and academic functioning) when these children are compared to the general population [10]. Some of the narrowing of this gap has been attributed to programs that were enacted as a result of the McKinney-Vento Act (▶McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act
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(PL100-77)) which increased the availability of services to homeless individuals and families [7]. As a direct result of the McKinney-Vento Act, programs supporting education, healthcare, and job training, along with emergency, transitional, and permanent housing have been established. As such, homeless children are likely to exhibit difficulties that are akin to those experienced by age-matched, housed peers who experience a similar level of impoverishment [10]. Owing to the pervasive threats that homeless individuals are exposed to, and the emotionally devastating process of becoming homeless, homelessness has been considered a form of severe and chronic stress [3]. Violence is one of the most prevalent and devastating aspects of homelessness, and it is a common antecedent to homelessness. These families are at increased risk of experiencing direct (e.g., being victimized) and indirect forms of violence (e.g., witnessing violent acts) [1]. For instance, rates of domestic violence are high and aggressive modes of interacting may become customary, while nurturing behaviors are reduced [12]. Not only does violence disrupt interfamily relationships, but it also disturbs a family’s social interactions which lead to increased isolation [12]. The combination of these environmental factors prompts fearfulness and anxiety among homeless children. Homeless children have a greater risk of emotional and physical challenges than their housed peers Exposure to violence and trauma among homeless families has also been linked to an increased incidence of behavioral problems among children [1]. The greater the duration of homelessness, the greater the likelihood that additional trauma may be incurred [16]. The combination of economic hardship and violence plays a role in the level of aggression that is exhibited by homeless children and, correspondingly, the quality of peer interactions these children experience. Homeless children exhibit disruptive behavior at a rate of four times that of their housed peers [15]. Although externalizing behaviors may be adaptive in the lives of homeless youth, these children’s relationships are often compromised by peer rejection and, subsequently, social avoidance in the school environment [1]. These children are twice as likely as other youth to go hungry and fall ill, and there is a greater likelihood that they will receive inconsistent healthcare [2, 5]. Furthermore, roughly half of homeless youth experience anxiety and/or depression [2]. The academic performance among homeless children is also hindered. Homeless youth are twice as likely as housed children to repeat a grade and to be diagnosed with a learning disability [2, 9]. One study revealed that approximately 50% of formerly homeless children in
New York City had been retained at least one grade. Homeless students also experience more school mobility and higher rates of absenteeism than housed youth which may result in learning gaps and poorer academic performance [9]. These factors contribute to diminished ability to accrue credits and increased likelihood that attendance-related disciplinary action will be imposed [13]. Consequently, homeless youth are at greater risk of having poor school experiences and impoverished peer relationships, thus increasing their risk of dropping out of school in the future. Many homeless youth also demonstrate lower verbal ability than domiciled children [15]. Research has revealed that the functioning of homeless children seems to stratify into two main subgroups which are primarily differentiated by performance on behavioral, adaptive, and achievement measures. In the higher functioning group, emotional and behavioral health, adaptive functioning, and academic achievement, including intelligence, are retained while the lowerfunctioning portion significant deficits are observed [4]. Thus, the resources and interventions that are appropriate for some homeless families may have limited applicability for others. Homelessness is also associated with increased family separation, particularly among families that experience chronic homelessness. Maintaining family intactness is further complicated by the fact that many shelters which allow children do not allow adult males (i.e., fathers). Although few studies have addressed the long-term ramifications of homelessness on formerly homeless children, the current body of research indicates that the short-term effects of homelessness are most dramatic and attenuate over time following stability in residence [10].
References 1. Anooshian, L. J. (2005). Violence and aggression in the lives of homeless children. Journal of Family Violence, 20(6), 373–387. 2. Bassuk, E. L., Friedman, S. M., Batia, K., Holland, J., Kelly, A. H., Olson, L., et al. (2005). Facts on trauma and homeless children. Retrieved August 7, 2008, from http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav. do?pid=ctr_top_sp 3. Goodman, L., Saxe, L., & Harvey, M. (1991). Homelessness as psychological trauma. American Psychologist, 46(11), 1219–1225. 4. Huntington, N., Buckner, J. C., & Bassuk, E. L. (2008). Adaptation in homeless children: An empirical examination using cluster analysis. American Behavioral Scientist, 51, 737–755. 5. Nabors, L. A., Weist, M. D., Shugarman, R., Woeste, M. J., Mullet, E., & Rosner, L. (2004). Assessment, prevention, and intervention activities in a school-based program for children experiencing homelessness. Behavior Modification, 28(4), 565–578. 6. National Coalition for the Homeless. (2007). NCH fact sheet #2: How many people experience homelessness? Retrieved August 8, 2008, from www.nationalhomelessness.org
Homework 7. National Coalition for the Homeless. (2008). NCH fact sheet #18: McKinney-Vento act. Retrieved October 28, 2008, from www. nationalhomelessness.org 8. National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. (2004). Homelessness in the United States and the right to housing. Retrieved October 28, 2008, from http://www.nlchp.org/content/pubs/ HomelessnessintheUSandRightstoHousing.pdf 9. Rafferty, Y., Shinn, M., & Weitzman, B. C. (2004). Academic achievement among formerly homeless adolescents and their continuously housed peers. Journal of School Psychology, 42, 179–199. 10. Rog, D. J., & Buckner, J. C. (2007). Homeless families and children. In Paper presented at the 2007 National symposium on homeless research, Washington, DC. 11. Shinn, M. B., Rog, D. R., & Culhane, D. P. (2005). Family homelessness: Background research findings and policy options. Washington, DC: The US Interagency Council on Homelessness. Retrieved November 1, 2008, from http://repository.upenn.edu/spp_papers/83/ 12. Swick, K. J. (2008). The dynamics of violence and homelessness among young families. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36, 81–85. 13. U.S. Department of Education. (2006). Report to the president and congress on the implementation of the education for homeless children and youth program under the McKinney-Vento homeless assistance act. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from http://www.ich.gov/ library/reportonmckinney-ventoimplementation2006.pdf 14. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2007). The annual homeless assessment report to congress. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www.huduser.org/index.html 15. Yu, M., North, C. S., LaVesser, P. D., Osborne, V. A., & Spitznagel, E. L. (2008). A comparison study of psychiatric and behavior disorders and cognitive ability among homeless and housed children. Community Mental Health Journal, 44(1), 1–10. 16. Zlotnick, C., Tam, T., & Bradley, K. (2007). Impact of adulthood trauma on homeless mothers. Community Mental Health Journal, 43(1), 13–32.
Homeless Household ▶Homeless Families
Homework LORI UNRUH Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA
Definition Homework consists of those tasks that are assigned to students by teachers with the intention that the tasks be completed during non-school hours. The purpose of homework has generally been identified as providing
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practice, preparation, and elaboration in relation to what is being taught in the classroom. Homework practices vary considerably across a variety of factors including amount assigned, academic and nonacademic purposes, skill areas covered, amount of student choice, deadline for completion, degree of individualization, and social context for completion of task.
Description Homework is an educational practice that is solidly entrenched in public and private school systems everywhere. It is often taken for granted by both teachers and parents in that it is assumed that homework is necessary in order for children to make adequate academic progress. In the popular literature discussions about homework are usually centered around issues related to how much and how often homework should be assigned, how long children at different ages should spend on homework, and what parents and children need to do to get through the homework requirements. What is often not addressed is what learning actually occurs during the homework process. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, public opinions, policies, and practices regarding homework have wavered between support and opposition. Initially, homework was supported as an important means of disciplining children’s minds with an emphasis on memorization skills. Later when student initiative and learning was valued more than the ability to memorize facts, homework became less important. As the United States became more concerned about global competitiveness, homework was once again seen as a way for increasing knowledge acquisition. However, that led to concerns regarding the mental health of school children in the United States as homework was seen as placing too much pressure on children. Finally, the recent push for more rigorous statemandated academic standards has led to another push for the increased use of homework. Proponents of homework focus on the potential for student improvements in academic skills as well as nonacademic skills. Improvements in academic skills are usually measured through student performance on unit exams and standardized tests. Improvements in non-academic skills are more difficult to measure and include factors such as improved attitude toward school, better study habits, improved organization and time-management skills, greater self-discipline, and improved problem-solving skills. Opponents of homework focus on several areas of concern with the assumption being that any academic and/or nonacademic benefits gained through homework are outweighed by the costs associated. These concerns
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and therefore costs include the burden homework places on parents, the stress it causes children, the family conflict it creates, the time it takes away from other activities, and the decrease in interest in learning that it creates. Those researchers who have analyzed the data available regarding the impact of homework on the learning process have consistently indicated that the studies involved have many methodological flaws and that conclusions are difficult to make [1–4]. Some studies have shown that there are positive effects of homework on achievement but the effect sizes have tended to be very small. Other studies have shown no effect or complex effects in which the positive impact is only for students at certain grade levels or under certain conditions. And, in a few cases, a negative impact has even been shown. These inconsistent results are due to a variety of limitations associated with research in this area. First, much of this research has been correlational and therefore, shows, at best, only an association between homework and achievement and not a causal relationship. Second, most of this research has been done with a small number of subjects and a true experimental design with random assignment to homework and nonhomework groups has generally not been possible. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized across a variety of settings. Third, there are a large number of factors related to homework that cannot be controlled through the research process. This includes factors such as knowing how much homework children actually do complete, knowing whether different homework assignments are comparable, and knowing the importance of other home and family factors. Finally, learning in relation to homework has primarily been measured through grades and test scores and long-term effects have rarely been considered. In general, the research has not been able to answer one very important question: If more homework is associated with better grades, can we assume that better grades are a good predictor of a student’s ability to retain this knowledge and use it later in life?
Relevance to Childhood Development The conclusions drawn from reviewing the literature on homework have led researchers to a variety of different recommendations regarding the use of homework as an educational practice to assist children in the learning process. Cooper [2] concluded that doing homework can lead to improved academic achievement but the improvement may be limited especially for younger students and for older students if too much is given. Based on his review of the literature, specific recommendations for how to make homework more effective were identified including considerations regarding the length or frequency of
assignments; whether homework assignments should focus on content from that day’s lessons or include content from previous lessons or content to prepare for future lessons; whether homework should include both easy and hard material; whether homework should be compulsory or voluntary; whether students should be given choices regarding assignment content; whether teachers should individualize assignments; whether groups of students should be allowed to work on assignments; whether computers should be used; whether study aids should be provided; and how important comments, grading, and rewards are to homework. Marzano et al. [4] also concluded that homework is a strategy that increases student achievement and made similar recommendations for making homework effective. His suggestions included factors related to how much homework should be assigned at different grade levels; how much parents should be involved; how explicit the purpose of homework should be; and whether it should be commented on by the teacher. Both Cooper [2] and Marzano et al. [4] made recommendations regarding homework policies at the classroom and district level. Buell [1] and Kohn [3] drew different conclusions regarding the research that has been done in the area of homework. They feel that the research does not support the conclusion that current homework practices lead to increases in academic skills. However, they do not recommend completely getting rid of homework without making other changes in educational practices first. They recommend that the practice of homework be re-thought and reform efforts implemented. Buell [1] asserted that since there is little research to support the academic benefits related to homework, the large amounts of homework being assigned are not primarily for the purpose of improving academic skills but instead of instilling character, which is also not supported by the research. He recommends that the amount of homework be reduced in order to provide children with more opportunities to manage and be responsible for their own free time. In addition, he recommends that instead of continuing to assign large amounts of homework, teachers should focus on changes needed in curriculum and instructional practices. He asserts that homework would not be necessary if well-trained teachers were efficient in the use of the school day and if older students were provided with more opportunities for independent work during the school day. Kohn [3] asserted that the problem with current homework practices is that they are often based on basic misconceptions about learning itself. These misconceptions include the ideas that more time automatically leads to better learning; that practice automatically leads
Homophobia
to better understanding; and that just getting a child to complete an activity is enough to ensure learning. Instead, he advocates for focusing more on the quality of the homework rather than the quantity; how well the child understands the activity rather than just if they completed it; and a consideration of the child’s needs, goals and attitudes related to that activity. He recommends that teachers and parents question the basic assumption that homework is important and necessary. He would like to see a drop in the number but an increase in the quality of homework assignments. He would also like to see an increase in the amount of choice offered to students in homework assignments.
References 1.
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Buell, J. (2004). Closing the book on homework: Enhancing public education and freeing family time. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Cooper, H. (2007). The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Kohn, A. (2006). The homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Long Life. Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Homogeneity of Variance ▶Homoscedasticity
Homonegativity ▶Sexual Prejudice
Homophobia JAMES E. VAUGHN III Oklahoma State University, OH, USA
Synonyms Heterosexism; Sexual prejudice
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Definition Homophobia, from the Greek words homos (same) and phobos (fear), is a term used to describe the irrational fear of homosexuals or the irrational fear of one’s own homosexuality. Homophobia is also used to describe an aversion to homosexuals as well as prejudice toward homosexuals [1].
Description The term homophobia has undergone an evolution in meaning since George Weinberg first coined the term in the late 1960s. Originally used to describe an irrational fear of homosexuals either in an external fashion by heterosexuals or in a more internalized form among homosexuals, the term is used more commonly today to describe prejudice against homosexuals. Psychologist Gregory Herek (2000) has opted to replace the term homophobia with the term sexual prejudice as a better way of defining the negative attitudes leveled not only against homosexuals but bisexuals persons as well. Sexual prejudice can also be used to refer to negative feelings and attitudes toward any sexual orientation whether it is homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Homophobia suggests that the source of the negative attitudes towards homosexuals is psychopathological in nature. What is most likely is that these attitudes are the result of multiple factors including the violations of cultural and or religious norms and beliefs. The term sexual prejudice conveys the negative attitudes toward homosexual or bisexual behavior, people with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, and communities of homosexual and bisexual persons [2, 3]. The term heterosexism has also been used to describe the negative attitudes toward homosexual persons by individuals and institutions. Heterosexism is defined as a belief that any form of sexual expression other than heterosexuality is inferior and unacceptable. Both the terms sexual prejudice and heterosexism do more to illustrate the ubiquitous nature of negative feelings toward homosexuals by emphasizing the cultural and institutionalized nature of the attitudes rather than reducing them to the level of the individual as does the term homophobia.
Relevance to Childhood Development The relevance of homophobia to childhood development is somewhat complicated. It is early in social development that children become aware of religious beliefs and societal norms and this is when the negative attitudes toward homosexuals most likely begin. The issue is complex in that the negative feelings expressed as homophobia, sexual prejudice, and heterosexism often are a part of the religious values or
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societal norms of the cultural in which the child belongs. Many if not most societies and religions hold negative attitudes toward homosexual persons and in some countries homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment or even death. Educating children in views that are contrary to religious beliefs and societal norms about homosexuality may be difficult if not impossible in some situations [3]. Another issue relevant to development would be when the development of sexual identity begins in adolescence. Adolescents who may begin to identify with a homosexual orientation may be at risk for discrimination and harassment not only from peers but from parents and educators as well. Many homosexual adolescents have the added disadvantage of not having any support systems or positive role models during this period of development [4, 5].
References 1. 2. 3.
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Berzon, B. (Ed.). (2001). Positively gay: New approaches to gay and lesbian life. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts. Herek, G. M. (2000). The psychology of sexual prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(1), 19–22. Herek, G. M. (2004). Beyond homophobia: Thinking about sexual prejudice and stigma in the twenty-first century. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 1(2), 6–24. Morrow, D. F., & Messinger, L. (Eds.). (2006). Sexual orientation and gender expression in social work practice: Working with gay, lesbian, and transgendered people. New York: Columbia University Press. Sears, J. T., & Williams, W. L. (Eds.). (1997). Overcoming heterosexism and homophobia: Strategies that work. New York: Columbia University Press.
Homoscedasticity MARIE-ANNE ISSA, KEVIN L. NADAL John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA
whereby they are looking at 10 year-olds’ weight and their stress level (as measured on a scale of 1–10). The data is said to be homoscedastic if the variance in the stress scores is somewhat the same across the children who weigh 70, 85 and 90 pounds. In regression analysis, the assumption of homoscedasticity occurs when at each level of the predictor variable, the residuals have similar variances [1, 2]. One way to test this assumption in regression analysis is through requesting a residuals scatterplot. The predicted scores lie on the first axis of this scatterplot, while the residuals (prediction errors) lie on the second axis. If the assumption of homoscedasticity is met, the shape of the data will be rectangular, with a high concentration of scores along the center. The further the scores lie from the center and/or the rectangular shape, the more the data becomes heteroscedastic [3]. In correlation studies, a bivariate scatterplot can be requested. If the assumption of homoscedasticity is met, the shape of the data distribution will be oval. Similarly, the more the data moves away from an oval shape, the more it is considered heteroscedastic. Meeting the assumption of homoscedasticity, like meeting other assumptions that underlie most multivariate procedures, is important since it renders statistical inferences more robust. The more the variables are skewed, the less likely the data would be homoscedastic. In such cases, transformation of the skewed variables is generally recommended [3].
References 1. 2. 3.
Field, A. (2005). Discovering statistics using SPSS (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications. Grimm, L. G., & Yarnold, P. R. (1995). Reading and understanding multivariate statistics. Washington, DC: APA. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Synonyms Assumption of normality; Homogeneity of variance
Antonyms ▶Heteroscedasticity
Definition
Homosexual ▶Homosexuality
In statistics, homoscedasticity occurs when the variance in scores on one variable is somewhat similar at all the values of the other variable.
Description To illustrate homoscedasticity, assume a group of researchers are collecting continuous data (i.e., correlation design),
Homosexual Identity ▶Sexual Identity
Homosexuality
Homosexuality RONALD R. HOLDER Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Bisexual; Gay; GLBTQ; Homosexual; Lesbian; Queer; Transgender
Definition Broadly defined, homosexuality refers to the sexual and/or romantic attraction to one’s own gender. Men who are attracted to men are generally referred to as “gay men.” Women who are attracted to women are commonly referred to as “lesbians.” There has been some opposition and global controversy regarding the word “lesbian.” Specifically, Lesbian, with a capital L, refers to an inhabitant of the Isle of Lesbos. The islanders of Lesbos once sued a gay rights organization over their use of the word “lesbian,” stating that the impact of the word violates the civil rights of the islanders and their freedom of self-identification [2]. To disunite this unintentional lingual connection, it has become more common to use “gay woman” instead of lesbian.
Description Definitions are deceptively simple modalities to describe words and create meaning. Homosexuality is a word that changes in meaning depending upon the context and the venue in which it is being discussed. The debates about homosexuality are generally twofold and center simultaneously on etiology and morality. The proposed solution to one of those questions often influences the answer to the other question. In 2001, Robert Spitzer, MD, presented a study that contained accounts of homosexuals who converted to heterosexuality, suggesting that homosexuality is a choice instead of a biological imperative. The media discovered the story and before checking facts or interviewing the researcher, posted headlines that proclaimed homosexuality had been scientifically proven to be a choice. Later, Spitzer admitted that the results of his study were not generalizable because the ex-gay participants were solicited from Laura Schlesinger’s radio talk show, which had a definite notion of that subject [6]. Before Spitzer’s study, the psychological community removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973. Unfortunately, that controversial decision did not serve to modify the view of mainstream society that homosexuality is abnormal or that it is the result of stunted psychosexual
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development. Some psychologists maintained a blatantly antagonistic attitude towards gay men and women who came in for therapy. There are reports of some Psychologists using ECT (electro convulsive therapy) on clients who self-identified as gay. Psychologists also developed theories regarding the etiology of homosexuality, all of which implied abnormality. The theories were usually erroneously connected with quantitative studies that began with a definition of what constituted the different categories of sexuality while largely ignoring the qualitative experience of the subjects [7]. This attitude has been embraced by organizations that seek to “cure” homosexuals, which is defined as embracing a heterosexual lifestyle. Heterosexuality is not only considered normal but also the only moral and Christian choice by ex-gay organizations that usually have affiliations with local churches. The names of some of these organizations are: Exodus International, Desert Stream Ministries, People Can Change, Evergreen International, and Regeneration, Inc. The 1999 movie But I’m a Cheerleader takes a humorous look at an ex-gay camp. In the movie, a young girl’s friends and parents suspect that she is gay and they all agree to check her into a camp with other individuals who are in need of “the cure.” The legal system is also involved in this style of heterocentrism in that the consensual sexual activity associated with gay men and women is deemed illegal in many states. Additionally, in the 2008 election, California, Arizona, and Florida voted to amend their state constitutions to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. There are now 29 states that have amended their constitution to ban same-sex marriage. In stark contrast to the United States’ apparent attitude regarding gay women and men, same-sex marriage is recognized as equal to heterosexual marriage throughout Canada, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Norway.
Relevance to Childhood Development Drescher [5] wrote that psychological professionals are now more commonly conceptualizing homosexuality as “a normal variant of human sexuality” (p. 443). With that in mind, the therapeutic search for an etiology to try and explain a client’s sexuality is unnecessary and, in most cases, irresponsible. Although he could not prove it at the time, Freud believed that there was a biological basis for homosexuality and believed that homosexuals could be productive and well-adjusted members of society (Green, 2003). If a gay woman or a gay man comes in for psychotherapeutic treatment, it is far more likely that their struggle will be in constructing a cohesive narrative in their lives that includes homosexuality. Gay men will
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frequently report to their therapist that when they were children and adolescents, their male caregivers attempted to force them into activities that are generally considered more masculine in nature (e.g., playing sports) and condemned any display of what would be considered feminine activities (e.g., playing with dolls). Isay stated that a parent who punishes their child for engaging in behaviors that do not fit with the dominant construct of their gender might prevent the child from developing a healthy attitude about their emerging sexuality [1]. There are many theories of development that are used to categorize human behavior. It is important to remember that not every client will fit within the narrow molds cast by those models. The same is true with the models that have been developed with regard to homosexual development. The client should be encouraged to define what being a gay man or a gay woman means within the framework of their dominant culture and familial interactions. Coleman [3] developed a five-stage model for the process of coming out, which is the moment when a gay individual reveals to their family, friends, and society at large that they are gay. STAGE I: Pre coming out – the child will learn about the family and society’s feelings about homosexuality. If negative attitudes are displayed about those feelings, the child may become depressed and conflicted and act out behaviorally. STAGE II: Coming out – the individual acknowledges their sexuality. The key task after that acknowledgement is telling someone about it. The reaction of this confidant will shape the individual’s self-image and their level of comfort about opening up to other people. The median age for this stage is 13–18. STAGE III: Exploration – the task at this stage is to learn how to interact with other homosexuals and develop a sense of self as a homosexual person. This stage may also include seeking a sexual partner and trying to achieve a sense of self-esteem. One of the pitfalls of this stage would be using drugs or alcohol to self-medicate and soothe a wounded ego or battered self-image. STAGE IV: First relationships – after a period of social and perhaps sexual exploration, an individual will develop a need for a stable, committed relationship. The task at this stage is learning how to exist as a gay couple in a predominantly heterosexual society. The attitudes of others play an important role in the longevity of first relationships. STAGE V: Integration – this is an open-ended stage of development that will persist across the remainder of the lifespan. Long-term relationships that approximate heterosexual relationships in terms of commitment and
familial obligations are not uncommon. This stage usually begins 10–13 years after Stage II. This model is similar to other developmental models in that there are tasks that occur at each stage that must be completed before the moving on to the next stage. While no model will fit every single person that presents for therapeutic intervention, Coleman’s model would be an empowering way to allow the young client an opportunity to see hope and acceptance rather than pathology and a lifetime of living a secret life. The American Psychological Association has adopted standards for the ethical treatment of homosexuals and there is a wealth of literature about designing a gay affirmative practice for adults. Precious little has been written about the special challenges that gay youth face and developing practices that will affirm and assist them through their development. Crisp and McCave [4] wrote about this topic and offer suggestions about the attitudes psychological professionals should adopt to meet the needs of this unique and ubiquitous population. Beyond any textbook or scientific study, homosexual youth and adult populations deserve respect and support from the professionals from whom they seek services. There are steps that society is making to embrace homosexuality in a way that did not exist a short 10 years ago. For example, there are television channels that now carry gay programming, movies with gay affirmative messages, television shows with central characters who are gay, and websites that gay youth can access that will connect them with services and groups in their area of the world. Some of those resources are listed below and fortunately it is not a complete list.
References 1.
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Basile, R., Botnick, D., & Isay, R. A. (2001). Scientific meeting of the American institute for psychoanalysis. Gender in homosexual boys: Some developmental and clinical considerations, presented by Richard Isay. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 61(4), 409–410. Brabant, M. (2008). Lesbos islanders dispute gay name. BBC News. Retrieved May 1, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/ 7376919.stm Coleman, E. (1982). Developmental stages of the coming out process. American Behavioral Scientist, 25(4), 469–482. Crisp, C., & McCave, E. L. (2007). Gay affirmative practice: A model for social work practice with gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Child Adolescent Social Work Journal, 24, 403–421. Dresher, J. (2008). A history of homosexuality and organized psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 36(3), 443–460. Lund, S., & Renna, C. (2003). An analysis of the media response to the Spitzer study. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, 7(3), 55–67. Robboy, C. A. (2002). Lost in translation? The hazards of applying social constructionism to quantitative research on sexual orientation development. Journal of Homosexuality, 42(3), 89–102.
Hospice Suggested Resources http://www.pinkpractice.co.uk/gayaffirm.htm http://www.gayaffirmativetherapy.com http://www.logoonline.com http://www.gaywired.com http://www.tvgayguide.com http://pridenation.com http://www.heretv.com http://www.inthelife.org
Homozygous MYSTI S. FRAZIER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition Homozygous, meaning similar, is a specific genotype which exists when a child has either two recessive or two dominant genes from the parents.
Description When the DNA from a sperm and egg combine they form the unique characteristics of the offspring through the expression of dominant and recessive traits. If the chromosomes in a homologous pair of genes have similar alleles they are considered to by homozygous [1]. An example of this would be if a child receives the dominant gene trait of blue eyes from the mother and blue eyes from the father, then the child is homozygous to receive blue eyes and will in fact have blue eyes.
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Peptide hormones are created by cellular DNA in the same fashion other proteins are made. A peptide hormone binds with metabotropic receptors on the cells membrane to create a second messenger, this second messenger affects the target cell’s physiology and influences the cell’s functioning. Some common peptide hormones are growth proteins and insulin. Steroid hormones are created by synthesizing cholesterol and are lipid soluble. The steroids diffuse from their gland sites and cross through cell membranes to influence the cell’s DNA to increase or decrease protein production. Steroids are found in a number of gland sites including the adrenal cortex, thyroid, and gonads. There are three different categories of hormones that affect human behavior, also note that hormones may fall in more than one category, they are as follows: 1. Hormones that help maintain homeostasis in the body 2. Gonadal (sex) hormones that control the functioning of reproductive organs (e.g., Testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, and oxytocin) 3. Hormones and stress hormones that help prepare human bodies for physiologically or psychologically challenging events or emergencies (e.g., Glucocorticoids including cortisol and corticosterone) Further, hormones can be used to prevent or treat diseases, for replacement therapy if glands are removed or are malfunctioning, to counteract aging affects, and to gain physical advantages in sports.
References 1.
Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2009). The Influence of Drugs and Hormones on Behavior. In B. Kolb & I.Q. Whishaw (Eds.), Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology Sixth Edition (pp. 163–196). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Martini, F., & Nath, J. L. (2009). Anatomy and Physiology (Vol. II). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Hospice Hormones Synonyms Estrogen
Definition A chemical that is released by the endocrine glands into the bloodstream to affect different body targets.
Description The human body contains around 100 hormones that can be classified into two different types; peptide or steroid.
Hospice is a type of care focusing on the palliation of a terminally ill patient’s physical or emotional symptoms. The hospice concept has been evolving since the eleventh century. Hospices have been places of hospitality for the ill, wounded or dying and in previous centuries for travelers and pilgrims. The modern concept of hospice includes palliative care for the incurably ill typically in their own homes. Hospice care emerged in the 17th century but many of the foundational principles by which modern hospice services operate were pioneered in the 1950’s by Dame Cicely Saunders. Hospice care has rapidly expanded through developed countries.
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Hospital Admissions for Young Children ▶Hospitalization of Preschoolers
Hospitalization of Preschoolers MARGAUX BARNES, AVI MADAN-SWAIN University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Inpatient care for preschool children; Hospital admissions for young children
Definition The period of hospitalization in a health care facility that begins with a child’s admission and ends with discharge.
Description In 2000, approximately 18% of the 36 million United States hospital admissions were for pediatric patients between birth and 18 years of age. Preschool-age children, (i.e., children between 3 and 5 years of age) accounted for approximately 3.6% of these pediatric hospitalizations [1]. The primary reasons for hospitalization of preschoolers include asthma, pneumonia, fluid and electrolyte disorders, epilepsy and convulsions, infections, gastroenteritis, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Medical procedures most likely to occur during these hospitalizations include diagnostic spinal tap, appendectomy, respiratory intubation and mechanical ventilation, respiratory therapy, vascular catheterization, blood transfusion, cancer chemotherapy, and antibiotic therapy. The average length of stay for pediatric illnesses is 3.9 days [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development Hospitalization of a preschool-aged child can be extremely stressful and frightening for both the child and their family. The ability of a preschool-aged child to understand the process of hospitalization is limited by their level of cognitive development [4]. According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, preschoolers are in the preoperational phase of development during which they begin using symbolic play and are able to use language
to discuss objects that are not present. Speech at this stage is still egocentric. Magical thinking is common along with increased use of pretend play. In addition to cognitive development, preschoolers are also developing their social and emotional skills. According to Erickson [2], preschool aged children are faced with two tasks: (1) developing autonomy versus shame, and (2) learning initiative versus guilt. These tasks are necessary for young children to develop a sense of independence and self-control as well as to begin to form healthy interpersonal relationships. Given preschooler’s level of cognitive and emotional/ behavioral development it is not surprising that hospitalization can be an extremely overwhelming and distressing experience. Some common difficulties experienced by preschool-aged children include problems understanding and adjusting to their new hospital environment, the necessity of constant monitoring (e.g., nurses and various other medical staff coming in and out of their room), and medical procedures. Some negative reactions to hospitalization noted in the literature include withdrawal or aggressive behaviors, increased separation anxiety, unrealistic fears, and behavioral regression (e.g., a child who has been toilet trained may start having accidents). Common pediatric fears include body mutilation, fear of the unknown, the supernatural, and separation from loved ones. More specific hospital-related concerns involve fears of intrusive procedures and pain. Fear of needles and shots is the most frequently reported hospital-related fear. The preschooler’s behaviors in the hospital may also vary as a function of disease chronicity and severity. For example, research indicates that children with acute illnesses demonstrate more internalizing behavior in the hospital relative to children diagnosed and treated for chronic illnesses [3]. Further, children whose disease was considered life-threatening demonstrated more internalizing and externalizing behavior during hospitalization relative to those with non-life-threatening illnesses. While research addressing the long-term impact of hospitalization on preschool-aged children and their families is limited, clinical interventions have been developed to promote adaptive coping during hospitalization [5]. Parents and medical team members should assess symptoms of distress including heightened somatic complaints, withdrawal, anxiety, and aggression. It is important that medical information, particularly procedures, be explained in simple and direct words. Using pictures is often helpful. Additionally, any questions asked by the preschooler should be answered directly and briefly; too much detail is counter-productive and will only serve to heighten their anxiety. Modeling appropriate coping and teaching preschooler’s strategies (e.g., teaching deep breathing through use of party blower) is helpful. There
Hostile Aggression
may be occasions when simply using distraction is necessary to help the preschooler through the procedure. During hospitalization it is helpful to let the child select familiar items from home to bring to the hospital. While in the hospital parents and medical team members should help the preschooler maintain a sense of control by giving them simple choices (e.g., you can take the medicine now or in 5 min) and whenever possible encourage them to participate in self-care. Preschoolers need structure and consistency. Keeping the hospital routine as close to the child’s normal daily routine will help both with adjustment to the hospital and the transition home after discharge. If specific concerns are noted, most tertiary children’s hospitals have medical team members who specialize in helping children adapt to their medical situations. Child-life specialists use medical and therapeutic play to help the child gain a sense of mastery over their medical situation. If more serious distress is noted, psychologists may help the child to cope with and adjust to the situation using empirically-validated clinical interventions. It is important to remember that not all children will experience adjustment difficulties during hospitalization. Children are generally resilient and will easily adapt to the hospital environment. However because early medical experiences will have long-term impact on future health care issues it is important to address fears and concerns as soon as they are noticed.
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
Care of Children and Adolescents in U.S. Hospitals. HCUP Fact Book No. 4. AHRQ Publication No. 04-0004, October 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq. gov/data/hcup/factbk4/ Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton. Mahat, G., Scoloveno, M. A., & Cannella, B. L. (2004). Comparison of children’s fears of medical experiences across two cultures. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 18(6), 302–307. Piaget, J. (1990). The child’s conception of the world. New York: Littlefield Adams. Vicky, R. B., & Cindy, S. G. (2008). Pediatric nursing procedures (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Hostile Aggression MICAH S. BROSBE Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Affective aggression; Impulsive aggression; Reactive aggression
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Definition Hostile aggression is a type of aggression that is committed in response to a perceived threat or insult. It is unplanned, reactionary, impulsive, and fueled by intense emotion as opposed to desire to achieve a goal. Aggressors typically have a sense of a loss of control during outbursts, and characteristically experience physiological hyperarousal.
Description ▶Aggression in children and adolescents can take many forms. It can include ▶bullying, fighting, teasing, or rumor spreading. Definitions of aggression have varied; some define it by intention of causing harm while others define it by the action of causing harm itself [1]. Aggression in general has been classified on various different dimensions. Most notably, it has been classified by the type of aggressive acts committed and by the state of mind or intention of the aggressor. Aggression is frequently classified as hostile versus proactive/▶instrumental aggression [1]. Reactive/hostile aggression is also known as impulsive or affective aggression. It is unplanned, emotional, and characterized by a loss of control. Individuals exhibiting this type of aggression attribute more hostile intent to ambiguous events. They characteristically have increased physiological hyperarousal. Whereas hostile aggression is fueled by impulsive emotion, instrumental aggression is planned and purposeful, done as a means to an end. Individuals who commit acts of instrumental aggression do not feel a sense of loss of control, and they even experience physiological hypoarousal. The two types of aggression are correlated with each other, but still represent distinct classifications [1]. It has been claimed that the instrumental vs. hostile aggression dichotomy is no longer useful [2]. According to this assertion, it is too simplified and does not explain aggressive acts that are planned and calculated but motivated by hot-blooded anger (e.g., Columbine). Nevertheless, it is still a widely used and accepted conceptualization of human aggression. Social information processing theory also seeks to explain aggressive behavior in individuals. According to this theory, one’s perception of social events and decisions on how to react include a five step process [3]. The first step is that social cues are encoded by the person, with aggressive children selectively attending to hostile or threatening cues in the environment more than nonaggressive children. Next, as these cues are encoded, the individual interprets the cues often using past experiences as references for interpretation. Aggressive children are more likely to interpret ambiguous cues as hostile, which is known as hostile attribution bias. The next step is response search,
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in which the person generates a list of possible reactions. Aggressive children generate more aggressive responses and fewer nonaggressive responses. In the fourth step, these different responses are evaluated and the person chooses one. The final step involves enacting the chosen response. Recent research has also shown that both bullies and victims have shown similar patterns of social information processing [4]. This theory has undergone tremendous research investigation since its original formulation, but it is still commonly applied to how people act in social situations and to hostile aggression. Those with hostile aggression scored high on measures of anger and impulsivity [1]. As such, certain psychological disorders are associated with higher rates of aggression, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and ▶conduct disorder (CD). In a study of hostile aggression in children with one or more of these diagnoses, children responded aggressively when in a high provocation situation [5]. Children with comorbid disruptive behavior disorders (i.e., ADHD, ODD, CD) responded more aggressively than children with only one or no diagnosis to low provocation situations as well. They also were more physiologically hyperaroused and continued to act aggressively for a longer period of time.
academic difficulties. As the child ages and moves into adolescence, the parents become less involved and able to influence the child’s behavior, thus the adolescent develops associations with delinquent peers, which is a strong predictor of violent, aggressive, and antisocial behavior. Since this study indicates a chain of risk factors, intervention can be aimed at disrupting the development of aggressive characteristics at any (or every) point in the process [8].
References 1.
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Relevance to Childhood Development Much work has been done on examining various biological, social, and psychological variables that represent risk factors for the development of aggression. Certain biological predispositions (e.g., genetics, prenatal exposure to toxins, traumatic brain injury) can influence ability to regulate emotion or social cognitive functioning. These biological factors can interact with the environment to produce aggressive behavior [6]. Parental rejection and neglect have also been related to aggression in children. Harsh discipline and high family conflict have also been associated. Aggressive behavior in childhood leads to rejection by peers, which leads to delinquent peer associations and future aggressive and antisocial behavior [6], as well as increased risk for substance abuse in high school [7]. In a recent comprehensive study which considered several predictors of hostile aggression, a pathway of cumulative risk factors was identified [8]. Children born into environments which include low socio-economic status and parental depression were found to be at greater risk for later aggression and antisocial behavior. Harsh and inconsistent discipline is more likely in these adverse contexts and may lead to aggression. Due to this family environment, the child demonstrates cognitive and/or social deficits when entering school, and this leads to peer rejection and
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Bushman, B. J., & Anderson, C. A. (2001). Is it time to pull the plug on the hostile versus instrumental aggression dichotomy? Psychological Review, 108, 273–279. Camodeca, M., & Goossens, F. A. (2005). Aggression, social cognitions, anger and sadness in bullies and victims. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 186–197. Dahlberg, L. L., & Potter, L. B. (2001). Youth violence: Developmental pathways and prevention challenges. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 20, 3–14. Dodge, K. A. (1991). Emotion and social information processing. In J. Garber & K. A. Dodge (Eds.), The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation (pp. 159–181). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Dodge, K. A., Greenberg, M. T., Malone, P. S., & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2008). Testing an idealized dynamic cascade model of the development of serious violence in adolescence. Child Development, 79, 1907–1927. Fite, P. J., Colder, C. R., Lochman, J. E., & Well, K. C. (2007). Pathways from proactive and reactive aggression to substance use. Psychology and Addictive Behaviors, 21, 355–364. Ramı´rez, J. M., & Andreu, J. M. (2006). Aggression, and some related psychological constructs (anger, hostility, and impulsivity): Some comments from a research project. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 30, 276–291. Waschbusch, D. A., Pelham, W. E., Jr., Jennings, J. R., Greiner, A. R., Tarter, R. E., & Moss, H. B. (2002). Reactive aggression in boys with disruptive behavior disorders: Behavior, physiology, and affect. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 641–656. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Hostility ▶Aggression
House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) ▶Draw-A-Person Test
Human Evolution
HRB ▶Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery
HRNB ▶Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery
HSQ ▶Barkley Home Situations Questionnaire
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Human Evolution DANIEL PATANELLA New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Paleoanthropology
Definition The study of human evolution is a multidisciplinary effort known as paleoanthropology. The consensus among scientists is that early hominids first appeared in Africa and shared a common ancestor with archaic chimpanzees. After a period of great diversity, hominids spread from Africa to both Europe and Asia and, eventually, the sole surviving species of Homo sapiens emerged.
Description
Huffing ▶Inhalants
Human Cell The word cell comes from the Latin cellula meaning a small room. This term was coined by Robert Hooke in a book he published in 1665 when he compared the cork cells he saw through his microscope to the small rooms monks lived in. The cell is the functional basic unit of all known living organisms. The human cell was discovered by Robert Hooke. It is the smallest unit of life classified as a living thing. It is frequently referred to as the building block of life. Humans are multi-cellular possessing an estimated 100 trillion cells.
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Evolution can be thought of as the adaptation of living organisms, over time, to their environment. Adaptation occurs constantly, so evolution can never be thought of as being complete. It is best conceptualized as an ongoing process in which living things strive to continue the viability of their species within an ecosystem that is also changing. As human beings are living things, the general principles of evolutionary theory can be used to help understand the behavioral and biological similarities modern humans share with related life forms, as well as to suggest the biological underpinnings of human social systems and psychology. Both Charles Darwin and T. H. Huxley theorized about human evolution in The Descent of Man [3] and Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature [5], but in the nineteenth century, the human fossil evidence beyond Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis was too sparse to allow advanced theory development beyond conjecture. The explosion of fossil discovery throughout the twentieth century led to a much richer and fuller conceptualization of human evolution leading to our own species of Homo sapiens. Scientists studying human evolution primarily rely on cladistics, the same classification tools used by scientists studying other types of evolution. A time-honored technique in which fossils are classified according to structural similarities, cladistics allows scientists to organize Author’s Note This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
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taxonomical data into tree diagrams called cladograms according to similarity of physiological data. Wherever possible, DNA evidence is used to supplement and enhance the data obtained by physical remains and fossils. Anthropological evidence based on artifacts is also incorporated whenever the human species in question engaged in toolmaking and use. It is important to remember that the fossil record, almost by definition, is incomplete. It is unknown how many hominid species truly existed, and whether our current taxonomies underestimate or overestimate true hominid diversity. As even Homo sapiens was a preliterate species until fairly recently, there is a complete absence of written records prior to the cave art attributed to the Cro-Magnons and despite the presence of anatomical apparatus required for speech, it is impossible to do more than speculate as to which hominids possessed language and the complexity of such languages. Analogies made to the tribal structure of aboriginal peoples must also be viewed with caution, for even within our species evolution has occurred over the past 200 generations.
Chronology of Human Evolution Between five and six million years ago, an ape-like genus of hominid known as Australopithecus first appeared in Africa. The earliest fossil evidence for these creatures exists in modern-day Chad and Kenya, although Australopiths most likely were widely dispersed throughout the continent. These earliest Australopiths had only recently diverged from a common ancestor they shared with what would eventually evolve into modern chimpanzees; this is based not only on fossil evidence indicating morphological and structural similarities between Australopiths and archaic chimpanzees but also by contemporary DNA evidence indicating that modern humans and modern chimpanzees differ in their nucleotide sequence by only about 1.27% suggesting the two living creatures share a fairly recent ancestor. The Australopiths were shorter than modern humans (typically reaching a height of only 3 ft), and had a generally ape-like appearance. Yet they differed from archaic and modern apes in two key ways. First, they were truly bipedal, with shorter arms and an erect spinal cord. Second, they possessed larger brains than apes of a comparable size. We know little about the behavior of the Australopiths aside from inferences based on their preference for savannahs as their habitat. There were multiple species within the genus of Australopithecus, some of which survived in Africa until roughly one million years ago. Perhaps the best-known species of these hominids, Australopithecus afarensis (nicknamed “Lucy” by the team
of scientists led by Donald C. Johnson, who discovered the fossils of the species), is believed to have been the direct ancestor of the Homo genus which would eventually lead to modern humans. More recent species of Australopiths, including Australopithecus robustus and Australopithecus boisei diverged away from the path that led to Homo and are not believed to be ancestral to modern humans. Approximately two million years ago, several varieties of the Homo genus (such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus) could be found throughout Africa. The earliest of these, represented by Homo habilis, are transitional figures between Australopiths and later, more recognizably human examples of the Homo genus. Given the large gaps in the fossil record, it is unclear how many species of Homo there were, or even how many species coexisted simultaneously. However, it is very clear that Homo erectus was in many ways the most successful of its competitors. Unlike most early humans, Homo erectus survived as a species for over a million years, only becoming extinct once more recognizably modern humans appeared about 500,000 years ago. Homo erectus stood about 5 ft tall, which approximates the lower height limits of modern humans, had the appropriate anatomy and brain structure for speech, and used crude tools to hunt and build. In common with some other late-period humans such as Homo ergaster, Homo erectus lived in small tribes of up to 50 members and presumably had some form of social structure. Homo erectus is also at the crux of a controversy between two competing theories of the dispersion of humans outside of Africa. Traditionally, it was believed that Homo erectus migrated out of Africa and that all its descendants evolved in parallel throughout Asia and Europe, leading independently to Homo sapiens. This theory, known as the Multiregional Origin, is largely based on the evidence of Homo erectus fossils found throughout Asia; both the so-called “Java Man” and “Peking Man” humans discovered in Asia were examples of Homo erectus. Thus, according to the Multiregional Origin theory, the various modern races developed in parallel, and interbred just enough to avoid evolving into distinct species. However, based on additional taxonomical classification of anatomical characteristics and skeletal structure, a competing theory claims that the true ancestor of Homo sapiens is actually Homo ergaster, which left Africa at a later time than did Homo erectus. This competing theory does not deny that Homo erectus migrated out of Africa, but instead maintains that Homo erectus became extinct and was displaced by later waves of Homo sapiens immigration out of Africa. This theory, known as the Out-of-Africa theory, receives strong support from the analysis of
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
mitochondrial DNA in surviving tissue samples (although proponents for the Multiregional theory also claim mitochondrial DNA evidence of their own). Regardless, early humans did leave Africa about one million years ago and migrated throughout Asia and Europe, ultimately evolving into Homo sapiens. The diversity of different human species declines at around the same time that Homo erectus migrated into Asia. The last two species of human are Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. All humans alive today are classified as Homo sapiens whereas there have been no surviving examples of Homo neanderthalensis for the past 30,000 years. Again, there is considerable controversy in the literature regarding how similar these two species may have been, despite the plethora of available Neanderthal remains and the fact that Neanderthals are the best-understood hominids apart from Homo sapiens. On the one hand, the traditional view of the Neanderthal stereotypes the species as an ogrelike creature of limited intelligence, unable to stand fully erect, and incapable of mastering any but the crudest technologies. A more radical view claims that socially and intellectually, Neanderthals were virtually undistinguishable from Homo sapiens and that the two species were so genetically similar that they interbred. Recent discoveries of the impressive stone craftsmanship Neanderthals were capable of, as well as the burying of their dead in what appears to be a ritualistic manner, have not brought resolution to the controversy. Paleoanthropologists are divided regarding the crediting to Neanderthals as a hominid capable of symbolic thought capabilities that rival the Homo sapiens from the same period. For close to a quarter of a million years, Neanderthals lived across the Near East and Europe. In comparison to Homo sapiens, Neanderthal skulls had pronounced bony brows and an enlarged occipital bun toward the rear of the skull. In terms of overall brain capacity, Neanderthals are usually considered to have larger brains than Homo sapiens, and physiologically Neanderthals were robust hominids possessing greater physical strength than contemporaneous Homo sapiens, usually identified as Cro-Magnons. However, starting around 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated from Africa into Europe via both Eastern Europe and the Iberian peninsula. Within the space of about 10,000 years, Homo sapiens completely replaced the formerly dominant Homo neanderthalensis throughout Europe. Exactly how this happened is a mystery, given that Neanderthals had a strong advantage due to entrenchment and experience within Europe. It is likely that modern cognition emerged in Homo sapiens at around this time, and provided the necessary abilities to
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compete successfully with Neanderthals. Although mitochondrial DNA studies do not support this hypothesis, a strain of contemporary research suggests that Neanderthals were simply absorbed within Homo sapiens due to cross-breeding even if those genes are no longer found within modern Homo sapiens’ DNA.
References 1.
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Calvalli-Sforza, L. L., Piazza, A., Mendozzi, P., & Mountain, J. (1988). Reconstruction of human evolution: Bringing together genetic, archaeological, and linguistic data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 85(16), 6002–6006. Cann, R. L., Stoneking, M., & Wilson, A. C. (1987). Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution. Nature, 325, 31–36. Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray. Duarte, C., Maurı´cio, J., Pettitt, P. B., Souto, P., Trinkaus, E., van der Plicht, H., et al. (1999). The early Upper Paleolithic human skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern human emergence in Iberia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96, 7604–7609. Huxley, T. H. (1863). Evidence as to man’s place in nature. London: Williams & Norwood. Stringer, C., & Gamble, C. (1993). In search of the Neanderthals: Solving the puzzle of human origins. London: Thames and Hudson. Tattersall, I. (1995). The fossil trail: How we know what we think we know about human evolution. London: Oxford University Press. Tattersall, I. (1995). The last Neanderthal: The rise, success, and mysterious extinction of our closest human relatives. New York: Macmillan.
Human Figure Drawing ▶Draw-A-Person Test
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) MELISSA R. MIGNOGNA1, LISA LAY2 1 Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA 2 Oklahoma State University Health Sciences Center, Tulsa, OK, USA
Synonyms Acute HIV infection
Definition Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a single stranded RNA retrovirus that attaches itself to the proteins
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Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
on the surface of infection fighting white blood cells in the human immune system (T-cells (T-lymphocyte)). Over time the virus is replicated, many T-cells are destroyed, and the immune system is seriously impaired, sometimes leading to the diagnosis of Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Description HIV is transmitted into the human body via infectious body fluids including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. Modes of transmission include contact with infected blood (e.g., injection drug use, blood transfusion, occupational needle sticks), sexual contact, ingesting infected breast milk, and transmission during child birth [2]. Testing of donated blood began in the US in March of 1985 and currently, transmission of HIV via transfused blood is very rare. Upon entering the body, HIV attaches itself to the proteins (known as CD4, CCR5, and CXCR4 molecules) on the surface of infection-fighting white blood cells that comprise the human immune system. These specialized white blood cells are known as T-cells, and function to detect and attack foreign invaders in the blood. Upon fusing to the CD4 surface molecules, the HIV injects genetic material, or RNA, into the host cell. Next, the RNA is replicated within the T-cell. The T-cell is subsequently killed as the new HIV copies are released into the blood stream and the infection process continues. In turn, the immune system detects the loss of the T-cells, and protects itself by producing new cells [8]. Over time, more T-cells are destroyed, the viral load of HIV increases, and immune system functioning is compromised or impaired [1]. Once infected, the presence of HIV in the blood stream is measured by the means of the CD4+ count and the viral load count. The CD4+ count is the number of helper Tcells present in a milliliter of blood, representing an index of a person’s immune system functioning. Non-infected individuals generally have a CD4+ count ranging from 500 to 1,500 cells, but after the first year of HIV-infection, this count decreases at a rate of approximately 30–90 cells yearly. The viral load count measures the number of HIV particles per milliliter of blood plasma, and is used to measure the rate at which CD4+ cells are being destroyed. Eventually, HIV kills enough cells that an individual’s immune system is unable to eliminate other infections that can make the person sick. These infections are referred to as “opportunistic infections.” AIDS is the later stage of HIV infection, and is diagnosed when either the CD4+ count is less than 200 (or the percentage of cells that are CD4+ in all lymphocytes is less than 14%), or
there is the presence of an AIDS identifying opportunistic infection (e.g., Pneumocystis pneumonia, Kaposi’s sarcoma). Once a diagnosis of AIDS is made, the patient is always considered to have AIDS, despite response to medications, elimination of opportunistic infection, or increases in the number of CD4+ cells [8]. The first cases of AIDS were reported in the US in 1981, with the first pediatric cases being reported in 1982 [1, 8]. Since then, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has continued to grow worldwide. Most recent CDC data indicate that by the end of 2006, more than one million people (approximately 1,106,400) in the US were living with HIV/AIDS, with 21% unaware of being infected with HIV. Ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected with HIV, including adults and children [6]. Outside the US, this epidemic is large in comparison, with approximately 33 million people living with HIV worldwide, including up to 2.3 million children. Without access to prevention methods and treatment, these estimates will surely increase [7]. Despite the growth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, fewer people die from AIDS-related deaths than ever before with the development of antiretroviral therapy (ART), or highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART). According to the CDC, the estimated number of deaths among adults living with AIDS increased steadily through 1995 and since then, this number has significantly declined in the US due to the development of HAART [4]. Furthermore, deaths of children due to HIV are declining, with a reduction from 554 deaths in 1993 to 48 deaths in 2006 [6]. In essence, HAART has transformed HIV from a terminal disease to a manageable, chronic illness by increasing the lifespan and improving immune system functioning of people living with HIV. Usually consisting of a “cocktail” of three or more anti-HIV drugs, HAART is designed to inhibit HIV replication, slow progression of the disease, and delay immune system decline. HAART works by driving down levels of HIV in blood, semen, and vaginal secretions [2, 8]. Over 25 different HAART medications are currently approved for use by the FDA with clinical trials being conducted on several new medications at any given time. Currently, there are five different classes of HAART medications available: nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, fusion inhibitors, and integrase inhibitors. Each class affects replication of the virus in a different way [3]. The goal for using ART is to achieve an “undetectable” viral load in the blood. All viral load tests have a cut-off point below which they cannot reliably detect HIV, which is called the limit of detection
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
and varies from one testing kit to another. Most viral load tests consider undetectable as less than 50 copies per milliliter of blood. Having an undetectable viral load signifies excellent viral suppression and means that transmission of the virus to others is less likely to occur. However, an undetectable viral load in a blood sample does not mean that other infectious body fluids will be undetectable of virus as well [8].
Relevance to Childhood Development The HIV/AIDS epidemic has also impacted children in the US In 2006, approximately 9,522 children under the age of 13 had HIV or AIDS, with the large majority of these cases occurring through vertical transmission [6]. Fortunately, with the development of HAART, rates of pediatric infection occurring via mother-to-child vertical transmission have dramatically decreased. This approach involves both the use of antiretroviral medications to reduce viral load and use of antibiotics to prevent and treat opportunistic infection. The mother is treated throughout the pregnancy and during labor and delivery, and the newborn is also treated for a brief period of time with antiretroviral medications. At birth, many newborns show the presence of maternal HIV antibodies in the blood, but with treatment these antibodies disappear. With the use of ART to both mother and child and preventing HIV-positive mothers from breastfeeding, the chances of the infant contracting HIV is reduced to less than 2%, compared to the 25–30% chance of infection with no pre- and post-natal intervention [5]. Unlike the decreasing rates of pediatric HIV infection, an increase of HIV transmission has been documented in adolescents between the ages of 13 and 24, with approximately 56,500 adolescents living with HIV in 2006. Increasing rates of infection in this age category are largely due to heterosexual and homosexual transmission. A number of risk factors have been identified that make adolescents at persistent risk for infection, including having sexual intercourse at an earlier age, high rates of substance use, lack of awareness (especially in povertystricken areas and among youth who have dropped out of school), and increasing rates of sexually transmitted diseases [6]. Since the beginning of the US HIV/AIDS epidemic, much has been learned about the effects of HIV on childhood physical and psychological development. During the early phases of the epidemic (and currently in undeveloped nations), symptoms of infection in childhood included significant problems such as central nervous system (CNS) encephalopathy (characterized by either a loss of previously acquired development or a failure to
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progress in development), changes in the frontal cortex and basal ganglia, motor hyper or hypo-tonicity of muscles (i.e., increased or decreased muscle tone), and at times, early death. However, with the advent of HAART medications, these symptoms have been reduced significantly. Overall, early CNS disease and neurocognitive impairment is associated with a poorer prognosis, but implementation of HAART can result in improvement in these areas. If untreated, HIV infection can lead to significant neurocognitive and developmental difficulties, and even children who are asymptomatic may show some neurocognitive impairment. Many children treated with HAART regimens do not show global deficits in cognitive ability, although specific deficits have been identified in areas such as visual-spatial and perceptual organization, social emotional regulation, language development, and attention problems. These specific deficits can negatively impact school performance and can be addressed with special education services. Given the limitations of antiretroviral medications and evolving resistance to classes of drugs, the future of long-term HAART treatment is uncertain, with several experts anticipating that some vertically infected adolescents will eventually experience neurocognitive decline similar to AIDS-related dementia [1]. Research with a pediatric HIV-positive population has also focused on psychosocial issues such as coping with stigma, disclosure of status, etc. Caregivers of HIVpositive children who are also positive have reported feeling socially isolated, experiencing financial difficulties, and dealing with the burden of caring for themselves and infected children. However, research has suggested that psychological distress mainly occurs in the context of stressful life situations indirectly related to HIV, such as poverty, burden, and stigma [1]. Similar results have been found in children infected with HIV. Rates of clinically significant behavioral and emotional problems are higher in children with HIV than the general population, but when these children are compared to groups with similar backgrounds (e.g., ethnicity, socioeconomic status), rates of maladjustment are actually lower. This finding suggests that risk factors such as poverty, lack of insurance, and stressful life experiences have more of an impact on maladjustment than having the diagnosis of HIV. Most studies have found no significant differences in self-reported adjustment of children with HIV compared to children who have not been exposed [1]. Changes in behavior and emotional functioning can be related to the effects of the virus or the side effects of medications. Behavioral changes have been reported in children with CNS encephalopathy, and physical changes such as
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small stature related to wasting, skin disturbances, ringworm, tube insertion for medication, and descended stomach can be experienced by some children. Physical changes in children’s bodies can have related psychological problems, such as fear about being perceived as “different” from others. Side effects of medications include mood changes such as depression and anxiety, lipodystrophy, lipoatrophy, impaired concentration, appetite changes, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and changes in sleep patterns. However, these effects are not experienced by all children with HIV, and can be exacerbated or worsened by frequent hospitalizations, disruptions in normal routine, and medical procedures [1]. Disclosure of HIV status to children is an important issue, as nondisclosure has been associated with an increase of behavioral problems. There is no agreement as to when caregivers should tell a child about his/her HIV status, but the child’s age, maternal depression, social support, stressful life circumstances, and severity of disease have been cited as factors related to caregiver’s decision to disclose. The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric AIDS has recommended that a child’s age and psychosocial maturity should be taken into account when considering disclosure of HIV. Once informed about HIV status, many children are told to keep their status a secret due to the negative social stigma associated with HIV. For some children, the burden of keeping HIV status a secret, feelings of shame, and feelings of being different from others can have negative effects on psychological functioning [1]. One of the primary challenges identified for children treated with HAART is medication adherence. HAART regimens can be complicated and time-demanding, and even partial non-adherence is associated with consequences such as increased viral load and resistance to drug combinations. Numerous barriers to adherence have been reported, including scheduling difficulties, food interactions, refusal and behavioral problems, and difficulty swallowing pills. Strategies that promote adherence include written medication schedules, visual aids and rewards, and allowing children to participate in the development and implementation of their treatment regimens. Counseling focused on tailoring specific regimens to the needs of families and cognitive-behavioral pain management strategies have also been demonstrated to be beneficial [1]. Research on HIV/AIDS is prolific and continues to evolve rapidly. The future will yield new developments in prevention and treatment of this virus, for children and adults alike. Since HAART medication has allowed people to live longer, healthier lives, research has begun to focus more on the long term effects of therapy and living with the HIV virus.
References 1.
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Armstrong, F. D., Willen, E. J., Sorgen, K., & Roberts, M. C. (2003). HIV/AIDS in children and adolescents. In M. C. Roberts (Ed.), Handbook of pediatric psychology (3rd ed., pp. 359–374). New York: Guilford Press. Blalock, A. C., & Campos, P. E. (2003). Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. In L. Cohen, D. McChargue, & F. Collins (Eds.), The health psychology handbook (pp. 383–395). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Body Health Resources Foundation. (2006). HIV medications: When to start and what to take. Retrieved December 22, 2008, from http:// img.thebody.com/hivmed/hivmed.pdf Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1997). Trends in AIDS incidence, deaths, and prevalence-United States. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 46(08). Retrieved July 9, 2008, from http://www. cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046531.htm Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006). Achievements in public health: Reduction in perinatal transmission of HIV infection, United States, 1985–2005. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 55(21). Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://www.cdc.gov/ mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5521a3.htm Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006). HIV/AIDS surveillance report: Cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States and dependent areas, 2006 (Vol. 18). Retrieved June 3, 2008, from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/ resources/reports/ 2006report/default.htm Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UN AIDS]. (2008). 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic. Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/ GlobalReport/2008/2008_Global_report.asp Batki, L. S., & Selwyn, P. A.: 37.TIP 37: Substance abuse treatment for persons with HIV/AIDS. SAMHSA/CSAT treatment improvement protocols. DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 3400–3410.
Human Subjects Review Boards ▶Institutional Review Boards
Humanism ▶Humanistic Perspective
Humanistic Perspective CHRIS LEETH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Existentialism; Humanism
Humanistic Therapy
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Definition
Definition
The humanistic perspective posits that people strive to achieve meaning, purpose, or actualization in their lives. Humanistic theorists and practitioners acknowledge the finality of life as well as the role of anxiety and suffering. Humanistic practitioners empathize with people as those people work through difficulties while trying to obtain goals.
A genuine, non-judgmental, and empathic model of therapy that uses open-ended responses, reflective listening and tentative interpretations to promote client selfunderstanding.
Description The humanistic perspective, also known as Existentialism, is a theoretical orientation related to counseling and development. It has had several contributors throughout time, most notably Victor Frankl, Abraham Maslow, and Rollo May. This school of thought does not possess any specific techniques of its own, but rather, draws on the techniques of other counseling theories, namely those of person-centered counseling. The humanistic perspective’s primary stance on human development and behavior is that anxiety and suffering is an inevitable and necessary part of the human condition. Further, this perspective maintains that people inherently want to grow and achieve meaning in their lives. However, obstacles can impede progress towards meaning and that is when people begin to suffer emotionally. Practitioners empathize with their clients and help them to determine life goals, how to achieve them, and how to handle possible obstacles.
References 1. 2.
Corey, G. (2005). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (7th ed.). Belmont: Brooks/Cole – Thomson Learning. Lambie, G. W. (2006). Burnout prevention: a humanistic perspective and structured group supervision activity. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development, 45, 32–44.
Humanistic Psychology ▶Humanistic Therapy
Humanistic Therapy MICHAEL BLOCK Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Synonyms Client centered therapy; Depth therapy; Gestalt therapy; Holistic health; Humanistic psychology; Person-centered therapy
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Description Humanistic Therapy overlaps considerably with other existential approaches and emphasizes the growth and fulfillment of the self (self-actualization) through self-mastery, self-examination and creative expression. It holds a hopeful, constructive view of human beings and the individual’s substantial capacity to be self-determining. By and large, this therapeutic approach works with present (rather than past) occurrences and attitudes with a goal of client growth and fulfillment. Humanistic psychology acknowledges that an individual’s mind is strongly influenced by ongoing determining forces in both their unconscious and in the world around them, specifically the society in which they live. The origin of humanistic therapy came out of the humanistic psychology movement in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory. Although the influences of the unconscious and society are taken into account, freedom of choice in creating one’s experience is at the core, and is often referred to as “self determination.” The intent of the humanistic approach is to look beyond the medical model of psychology in order to open up a non-pathological view of the individual. This usually implies that the therapist downplays these pathological aspects in favor of healthy aspects. The focus is on the client’s ability to initiate change. Much of humanistic therapy is to help the client approach a stronger and healthier sense of self, also called selfactualization. All this is part of Humanistic psychology’s motivation to be a science of human experience, focusing on the actual lived experience of persons. In the late 1950s, psychologists concerned with advancing a more holistic vision of psychology convened two meetings in Detroit, Michigan. These psychologists, including Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Clark Moustakas, were interested in founding a professional association dedicated to a psychology that focused on uniquely human issues, such as the self, self-actualization, health, hope, love, creativity, nature, being, becoming, individuality, and meaning – in short, the understanding of “the personal nature of the human experience.” Several humanistic approaches to counseling and therapy emerged out of this movement. The developmental theory
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of Abraham Maslow, emphasized a hierarchy of needs and motivations; the existential psychology of Rollo May acknowledging human choice and the tragic aspects of human existence; and the person-centered or clientcentered therapy of Carl Rogers, which is centered around the clients’ capacity for self-direction and understanding of his/her own development. Critics of humanistic theory contend that it lacks a cumulative empirical base, and that some directions encouraged self-centeredness. While proponents have not presented it as a science, they recognize that rather than being objective, science is the least subjective understanding of the world of which the largest number of people are aware. Humanistic psychology addresses the nature of the human experience, calling into question the nature of objectivity and the role of objective knowledge in the personal experience of life.
Huntington’s Chorea ▶Huntington’s disease
Huntington’s Disease BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Huntington’s chorea
References
Definition
1.
Huntington’s disease was first objectively described in 1872 by an American physician, George Huntington, whose name the condition now bears; Huntington termed the disease an inherited “heirloom” he had observed amongst his patients [6]. Although earlier descriptions had been presented, none had the detail of the observations recorded by Huntington himself along with longitudinal data provided by two prior generations of Huntington’s, who were also medical professionals [8]. This degenerative brain disorder, which is also classified as a subcortical dementia, was first known as Huntington’s chorea, as in “choreography,” with chorea being a Greek word for dance [2, 9]. Huntington’s disease, as a rare progressive subcortical dementia, afflicts about 5–10 in 10,000 people; Huntington’s has a host of symptoms but is known for the prominent disordered-movement symptoms, characterized by the term chorea: Involuntary, twisting, writhing movements of the body and limbs, and grimacing of the face that become progressively more extreme and impairing [9]. The disordered movements result from the loss of neurons in a subcortical (below the cerebral cortex) structure, the caudate nucleus, which itself is a component structure of the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia is a movement-modulation structure and the neurons that are lost utilize the neurotransmitter known as GABA, or Gamma Amino Butyric Acid [1, 3, 9]. As Huntington’s disease advances, more brain structures and regions show signs of the loss of neurons that release different neurotransmitters and the afflicted person shows signs of cognitive decline, psychotic symptoms and extreme emotional variability and disturbances, with depression being the most common disturbance of affect. Huntington’s disease sufferers have a suicide rate that is
2. 3. 4.
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Aanstoos, C., Serlin, I., & Greening, T. (2000). History of division 32 (humanistic psychology) of the American psychological association. In D. Dewsbury (Ed.), Unification through division: Histories of the divisions of the American psychological association (Vol. 5). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Bohart, A. C., & Greening, T. (2001). Comment: Humanistic psychology and positive psychology. American Psychologist, 56(1), 81–82. Bugental, J. F. T. (1964). The third force in psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 4(1), 19–25. Clay, R. A. (2002). A renaissance for humanistic psychology. The field explores new niches while building on its past. American Psychological Association Monitor, 33(8). Ernst, S., & Goodison, L. (1981). In our own hands, a book of self help therapy. London: The Women’s Press. Mouladoudis, G. (2001). Dialogical and Person-Centered approach to therapy: Beyond correspondences and contrasts toward a fertile interconnection. The Person-Centered Journal, 8(1). Schneider, K. J. (2008). Existential-integrative Psychotherapy: Guideposts to the core of practice. New York: Routledge. Schneider, K. J., Bugental, J. F. T., Pierson, J. F. (eds.). (2001). The handbook of humanistic psychology: leading edges in theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 0-76192121-4. Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14.
Humor ▶Mood
Hunger ▶Malnutrition
Hydrocephalus
greater than other degenerative brain syndromes. The afflicted person typically dies in 15 or 20 years after the onset of symptoms, usually from causes of death seen in a bed-ridden dementia patient. There are no therapies for Huntington’s disease [2, 4, 5, 9]. Huntington’s disease is an inherited and autosomal dominant disorder, meaning only the genetic error needs to be inherited from only one parent and the children of afflicted individuals have a 50% chance of inheriting the disease; Huntington’s is known to be due to a defect in the gene ITI5 on chromosome 4 [9]. Individuals with normal versions of this gene have between 11 and 34 repeats of the codon or trinucleotide CAG. This means the DNA composing this gene has a recurring pattern of three component molecules (cytosine, adenine and guanine for CAG). Between 11 and 34 repetitions of this three molecule code are normal. Having between 35 and 40 repetitions is considered an at risk predisposition for pathology. Individuals with symptoms of Huntington’s have as many as 100 repeats of the CAG trinucleotide, but the greater the number of repeats, the earlier the onset of symptoms and greater severity of symptoms [2, 9]. The onset of symptoms is typically observed between the ages of 30 and 50 but in a small number of cases a juvenile onset occurs that has an accelerated progress [7]; the typical age for onset occurs in midlife, often after marriage and children and the dominant nature of the inherited defect, means that many people at risk have seen their parents go into decline and die from Huntington’s. A genetic test for Huntington’s was developed in 1993 and only those with a family history would need to seek testing; the majority of individuals with a family history of Huntington’s disease have not undergone the genetic test. The ambivalence and uncertainty of not knowing is no doubt difficult but may be preferable to knowing one is faced with a terrible demise [9].
References 1. 2.
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Brodal, P. (2004). The central nervous system: Structure and function (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Campellone, J. V. (2007). Huntington’s disease. Medical Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 18, 2008 from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ MEDLINEPLUS/ency/article/000770.htm Carlson, N. R. (2007). Physiology of behavior (9th ed.). New York: Pearson. Farer, L. A. (1986). Suicide and attempted suicide in Huntington’s disease: Implications of preclinical testing for person’s at risk. American Journal Medical Genetics, 24, 305–311. Gusella, J. F. (2004). Huntington’s disease. In G. Adelman & B. H. Smith (Eds.), Encyclopedia of neuroscience (3rd ed.). Elsevier, CD-ROM 2004 release. Huntington, G. (1872). On chorea. The Medical and Surgery Reporter, 26, 317–321.
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Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2009). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (6th ed.). New York: Worth. Neylan, T. C. (2003). Neurodegenerative disorders: George Huntington’s description of hereditary chorea. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 15, 108. Zillmer, E. A., Spiers, M. V., & Culbertson, W. C. (2008). Principles of neuropsychology (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson.
Hurl ▶Purging
H Hydrargyrum ▶Mercury
Hydrocephalus JOHN JOSHUA HALL1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Communicating hydrocephalus; Non-communicating hydrocephalus; Non-obstructive hydrocephalus; Obstructive hydrocephalus
Definition A condition that results from the ventricles in the brain becoming enlarged due disturbances and/or abnormalities in the flow, production, and/or absorption of cerebrospinal fluid [6, 10].
Description Hydrocephalus results from an excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles. The accumulation of CSF often increases intracranial pressure and the ventricles become enlarged which can result in the disruption of subcortical and cortical functions [10]. Males seem more prone to hydrocephalus with 62% of sufferers of the disease being male [10]. Various types of hydrocephalus have been theorized. Communicating hydrocephalus refers to difficulties with
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the production or reabsorption of CSF [4]. Obstructive or noncommunicating hydrocephalus results from a blockage within the ventricular system [10]. Although relatively rare, hydrocephalus can also occur from oversecretion of CSF which is often caused by a tumor on the choroids plexus. Most children with symptoms of hydrocephalus often receive a shunt. A shunt is a medical procedure where excess CSF is drained away from the ventricular system into the stomach [10]. A shunt procedure involves causing a lesion to the brain which typically occurs in the parietal lobe of the right hemisphere.
Relevance to Childhood Development Hydrocephalus can occur at any developmental stage and can be particularly damaging to the developing brain. It is estimated that 27 out of every 100,000 newborns suffer from hydrocephalus and if untreated can result in mental retardation [10]. Premature infants also appear to be at risk for hydrocephalus due to the increased rate of intraventricular hemorrhage which can interfere with CSF reabsorption [4]. Traumatic brain injury can result in hydrocephalus due to interference in the reabsorption of CSF. Similarly, Periventricular leukomalacia, which results in atrophy around the tissue surrounding the ventricles, can lead to excess CSF accumulation [4]. Finally, congenital disorders such as spina bifida, myelomenignecele, an A Chiari malformation, and Dandy Walker Syndrome have all been linked to increased rates of hydrocephalus. The functional effects of hydrocephalus have been reported throughout the literature. Deficits associated with a varying etiologies of hydrocephalus in children have be seen in gross and fine motor functioning [7]; visual-motor and spatial abilities [5]; specific language skills [5]; isolated domains of memory (Yeates et al. [9]; attention and executive functioning [5]; and, behavioral regulation and control [3]. While such deficits are noted, these have been seen inconsistently as they appear largely dependent upon etiology [6]. Regarding actual cognitive sequelae, this also appears to depend on age at the time of insult or injury, severity of the injury, and the presence of other comorbid disorders [4]. For example, children with hydrocephalus secondary to a brain tumor had poor cognitive abilities than children with brain tumors without hydrocephalus; however, children with spina bifida with hydrocephalus performed equally to children with spina bifida without hydrocephalus [2]. In terms of achievement skills, Hoppe-Hirsch et al. [8] found that 60% of children with shunted hydrocephalus were placed in regular classrooms; however, half of these children lagged 1 or 2 years behind their same-aged peers. Barnes and Dennis [1] found that reading abilities of
children with hydrocephalus were often within the normal range; however, arithmetic was a relative weakness. Zillmer and Spiers [10] commented that calculation, spelling, and reading comprehension or tasks that require increased attention and focus of concentration are often most affected.
References 1. Barnes, M. A., & Dennis, M. (1992). Reading in children and adolescents after early onset hydrocephalus and in normally developing age peers: Phonological analysis, word recognition, word comprehension, and passage comprehension skills. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 17, 445–465. 2. Brookshire, B., Copeland, D. R., Moore, B. D., & Ater, J. (1990). Pretreatment neuropsychological status and factors in children with primary brain tumors. Neurosurgery, 27, 887–891. 3. Donders, J., Rourke, B. P., & Canady, A. I. (1992). Behavioral adjustment of children with hydrocephalus and of their parents. Journal of Child Neurology, 7, 375–380. 4. Erickson, K., Baron, I. S., & Fantie, B. D. (2001). Neuropsychological functioning in early hydrocephalus: Review from a developmental perspective. Child Neuropsychology, 7, 199–229. 5. Fletcher, J. M., Brookshire, B. L., Bohan, T. P., Brandt, M. E., & Davidson, K. C. (1995). Early hydrocephalus. In B. P. Rourke (Ed.), Syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities: Neurodevelopmental manifestations (pp. 206–238). New York: Guilford Press. 6. Fletcher, J. M., Dennis, M., & Northrup, H. (2000). Hydrocephalus. In K. O. Yeates, M. D. Ris, & H. G. Taylor (Eds.), Pediatric neuropsychology: Research, theory, and practice. New York: Guilford Press. 7. Hetherington, C. R., & Dennis, M. (1999). Motor function profile in children with earl onset hydrocephalus. Developmental Neuropsychology, 15, 25–51. 8. Hoppe-Hirsch, E., Laroussinie, F., Brunet, L., Sainte-Rose, C., Renier, D., Cinalli, G., et al. (1998). Late outcome of the surgical treatments of hydrocephalus. Child’s Nervous System, 14, 97–99. 9. Yeates, K. O., Enrile, B., Loss, N., Blumenstein, E., & Delis, D. C. (1995). Verbal learning and memory in children with myelomeningocele. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 20, 801–812. 10. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of Neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Hyperactivity R. MATT ALDERSON, KRISTEN L. HUDEC Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Fidgety; Hyperkinesias; Restlessness
Hyperkinesis;
Hyperkinetic;
Definition Motor activity that is developmentally inappropriate and significantly excessive relative to same-aged peers.
Hyperactivity
Description Hyperactivity is frequently first identified as a problem in children as they enter preschool or kindergarten, and demands of the classroom environment (e.g., sitting still during lessons) are incompatible with excessive motor activity. Clinical interviews of parents that present with concerns of hyperactivity in their children, however, often reveal a pattern of excessive activity that was present since a much earlier age. For example, retrospective reports from parents recount their children climbing on kitchen cabinets, jumping on furniture, and struggling to sit still while getting dressed. Notably, extant studies suggest that individual differences in activity level are first apparent at the 28th week of gestation, and continue along a curvilinear developmental trajectory [12]. That is, children that exhibit hyperactivity during the school-aged years likely exhibited elevated levels of activity as toddlers, relative to same-aged peers. Collectively, whether or not a child’s behavior is hyperactive depends largely upon the context of environmental demands, social/cultural norms, and appropriate expectations given the child’s age and development. Measurement of hyperactivity is most frequently obtained from parent, teacher, and caregiver (e.g., daycare provider, babysitter) reports on objective ratings scales; clinical interviews with parents and other caregivers; behavioral observations by clinicians; and sometimes the child’s self-report. Selfreports from hyperactive children, particularly those with ADHD, provide minimal diagnostic value since they frequently exhibit limited insight about their behavioral problems. Additional objective measures may include pedometers, stabilimetric cushions, and actigraphs.
Relevance to Childhood Development Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) occurs in an estimated 3–7% of school-age children and is characterized by difficulties with attention, impulsivity, and of course hyperactivity [3]. Presence of the disorder conveys increased risk for several pejorative outcomes including long-term scholastic underachievement and interpersonal peer problems [4], long-term impairments across more major life activities than most other disorders seen in outpatient mental health clinics [5], and an estimated annual societal cost that ranges between $36 billion and $52.4 billion [9]. The etiology of hyperactivity in ADHD is remarkably varied in extant models of the disorder. For example, Barkley’s [3] behavioral inhibition model suggests that children with ADHD exhibit hyperactivity due to deficient inhibitory processes that limit children’s ability to maintain task goals, avoid the execution of a response when presented with a prepotent stimulus, or stop a response once it has been initiated. A recent meta-analytic review [1] and
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subsequent experimental examination [2] of the stopsignal task – the primary measure used in clinic- and laboratory-based research to investigate behavioral inhibition in children with ADHD – both found that performance on the stop-signal task may be downstream of higher order cognitive processes such as working memory. The impact of these findings transcends stop-signal research and raises important concerns regarding the central role of behavioral inhibition in extant models of ADHD, and ultimately hyperactivity. A second model suggests that children exhibit hyperactivity in an attempt to minimize the aversive nature of waiting for external-delayed reinforcement [13]. In contrast, the functional working memory model of ADHD suggests that children with ADHD exhibit hyperactivity to increase arousal needed for task demands [11]. A recent study examined 23 boys (11 typically developing children and 12 children with ADHD) between 8 and 12 years of age who completed phonological and visuospatial tasks that placed increasing demands on the working memory system [10]. While all children exhibited significant increases in activity during working memory relative to control conditions, children with ADHD became significantly more active relative to the typically developing children. This is the first experiment to demonstrate a functional relationship between working memory and children’s activity level. Hyperactivity is not pathognomic to ADHD and is frequently observed in other childhood disorders. For example, children diagnosed with early onset bipolar disorder often exhibit excessive activity, pressured speech and impulsivity. The association between increased activity and the presence of manic episodes is reflected in current DSM-IV diagnostic criteria as psychomotor agitation (e.g., restlessness, pacing) and increased goal-directed activity [6]. Restlessness and fidgeting are commonly observed in children diagnosed with anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder [8]. For example, Glod and Teicher [7] found that children diagnosed with PTSD (n = 19) were 10% more active and associated with a greater likelihood of developing problems of hyperactivity, relative to healthy controls (n = 15). Interestingly, increased anxiety-related activity may result from an over-arousal of physiological systems common to those implicated in children with ADHD.
References 1. Alderson, R. M., Rapport, M. D., & Kofler, M. J. (2007). Attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder and behavioral inhibition: A metaanalytic review of the stop-signal paradigm. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 745–758.
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2. Alderson, R. M., Rapport, M. D., Sarver, D., & Kofler, M. J. (2008). ADHD and behavioral inhibition: A re-examination of the stopsignal task. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 989–998. 3. Barkley, R. A. (2006). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Handbook for diagnosis and treatment (3rd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. 4. Barkley, R. A., Fischer, M., Smallish, L., & Fletcher, K. (2006). Young adult outcome of hyperactive children: Adaptive functioning in major life activities. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 45, 192–202. 5. Barkley, R. A., Murphy, K. R., & Fischer, M. (2008). ADHD in adults: What the science says. New York: Guilford Press. 6. Birmaher, B., Axelson, D., Strober, M., Gill, M. K., Yang, M., Ryan, N., et al. (2009). Comparison of manic and depressive symptoms between children and adolescents with bipolar spectrum disorders. Bipolar Disorders, 11, 52–62. 7. Glod, C. A., & Teicher, M. H. (1996). Relationship between early abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, and activity levels in prepubertal children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35(10), 1384–1393. 8. Jarrett, M. A., & Ollendick, T. H. (2008). A conceptual review of the comorbidity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and anxiety: Implications for future research and practice. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 1266–1280. 9. Pelham, W. E., Foster, E. M., & Robb, J. A. (2007). The economic impact of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32(6), 711–727. 10. Rapport, M. D., Bolden, J., Kofler, M. J., Sarver, D. E., Raiker, J. S., Alderson, R. M. (2009). Hyperactivity in boys with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A ubiquitous core symptom or manifestation of working memory deficits? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37, 521–534. 11. Rapport, M. D., Kofler, M. J., Alderson, R. M., & Raiker, J. S. (2008). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In M. Hersen & D. Reitman (Eds.), Handbook of psychological assessment, case conceptualization and treatment, Vol. 2: Children and adolescents (pp. 349–404). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 12. Rapport, M. D., Kofler, M. J., & Himmerich, C. (2006). Activity measurement. In M. Hersen (Ed.), Clinician’s handbook of child behavioral assessment (pp. 125–157). New York: Elsevier Academic Press. 13. Sonuga-Barke, E. J., Taylor, E., Sembi, S., & Smith, J. (1992). Hyperactivity and delay aversion: I. The effect of delay on choice. Journal of Child Psychology Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 33, 387–398.
Hyperkinesia Syndromes ▶Dyskinesia
Hyperkinesias ▶Hyperactivity
Hyperkinesis Synonyms Hyperactivity
Description Hyperkinesis is a state of over-active restlessness sometimes referred to as hyperactivity. Hyperkinetic disorders are a group of psychiatric diagnoses listed in the International Classification of Diseases, Volume 10. Hyperkinesis is a recent phenomena in medicine. The roots of the diagnosis and the treatment of this entity are found earlier, however. Hyperkinesis was known in the first half of the twentieth century as minimal brain dysfunction, hyperactive syndrome, hyperkinetic disorder of childhood and several other diagnostic descriptions. Although the symptoms and the presumed etiology vary, in general the behaviors are quite similar and overlap. Typical symptom patterns include extreme and excessive motor activity, restlessness, fidgeting and, for some, mood swings.
Hyperkinetic ▶Hyperactivity
Hyperarousal ▶Anxiety
Hyperkinetic Disorder ▶Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Hypercoagulability ▶Thrombophilic Disorders
Hyperkinetic Syndrome ▶Attention Deficit Disorder
Hypnosis
Hyperlexia ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Precocious reading language disorder [1]
Definition The advanced ability to decode and read single words without comprehension, well beyond expectations for chronological age, sometimes accompanied by fascination or preoccupation with numbers and letters. Hyperlexic children tend to have difficulty with oral or verbal communication and social interactions and are often considered to have an autistic-like presentation. There is disagreement at the present time whether Hyperlexia should be considered a form of learning disability or “superability” [2].
References 1. 2.
American Hyperlexia Association. Retrieved January 15, 2010, from http://www.hyperlexia.org/ Grigorenko, E. L., Klin, A., & Volkmar, F. (2003). Annotation: Hyperlexia: disability or superability. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44(8), 1079–1091.
Hypnogen ▶Ambien (Zolpidem)
Hypnosis BRIAN VANDENBERG University Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
Definition Hypnosis is a procedure involving suggestions for imaginative experiences that may entail alterations in memory, perception, emotions, thoughts and behavior. Hypnotic suggestions can be offered by another or by oneself, in self hypnosis. The experience of hypnosis is facilitated by “letting it happen,” rather than “making it happen,” and
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involves a wakeful alertness, focused absorption, attenuated critical rational functions, and diminished peripheral awareness. These are often accompanied by the experience of nonvolition; that behaviors and experiences “happen to me,” rather than “initiated by me” [4, 5].
Description Hypnosis has befuddled investigators for over two centuries, and attempts to explain its unusual phenomena have been instrumental in the development of seminal psychological concepts and practices. Hypnosis sits on the fault line of mind and body; a brief communicative exchange can cure warts, enable major surgery without pain, and improve healing of burns and wounds. Hypnosis also can alter basic psychological experiences that beg explanation; loss of a sense of volition, forgetting compelling events that just happened (amnesia), responding in unusual ways, previously suggested in hypnosis, but without awareness (post hypnotic suggestion). The use of hypnosis by physicians in the nineteenth century to treat physical ailments gave rise to the “talking cure,” or psychotherapy, in the twentieth century, pioneered by Freud. Psychosomatic medicine, originating in the first decades of the twentieth century, was given impetus by earlier medical use of hypnosis. Unconscious processes, the object of speculation in the nineteenth century, were given empirical credibility by hypnotic phenomena, becoming a cornerstone feature in the theories of Freud, Janet and Jung in the early twentieth century, and introduced into experimental psychology by Hilgard in the mid-to-late twentieth century [1]. Although the name, hypnosis, is derived from the Greek word hypno, meaning sleep, and common hypnotic procedures invoke drowsiness, it is not a form of sleep. Wakeful alertness is one of its hallmark characteristics. There is also a long history of suspicion that people are strategically feigning responses; that there is no such thing as hypnosis. This, too, is untrue, as the nonvolutional experience of hypnotized individuals attests. Many fear that hypnosis involves the surrender of will, loss of control, or helpless domination by the hypnotist. In fact, individuals are co-participants who cannot be induced to perform acts that conflict with their values, and can independently choose to end their hypnotic involvement. Another longstanding misconception is that hypnosis can provoke superhuman feats of physical strength, perceptual acuity and memory recall. These, however, cannot be enhanced beyond that which can be achieved through nonhypnotic means, and in the case of memory, hypnosis may facilitate false recollections and memory
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distortions. Finally, individuals vary considerably in hypnotic responsivity, which is a stable trait not related to any personality factors, including gullibility, conformity, suggestibility, and intelligence, save for a modest relation to absorption in imaginative involvements [1, 2, 4]. Hypnosis is effective for ameliorating acute pain associated with surgery, dental procedures, debridement of burns and wounds, and childbirth, as well as chronic pain accompanying cancer, tension headaches, irritable bowel syndrome and other chronic pain conditions. It is also effective for reducing nausea and vomiting preceding chemotherapy and treatment of some dermatological conditions. Hypnosis is also a useful adjunct procedure to cognitive behavioral treatment of phobias, anxiety disorders and insomnia [3]. Hypnotherapy with children has been particularly helpful in coping with painful medical procedures associated with the treatment of cancer and burns, and managing symptoms associated with chronic pain [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development Hypnotic responsivity has been found to emerge around the age of five, reach a peak in early adolescence and slowly decline in the later adult years. This developmental trajectory has been assessed using adult scales of responsivity. The lack of responsivity found in young children is challenged by some who question the viability of adult-based measured that involve sophisticated cognitive and linguistic abilities that exceed the capabilities of young children, who fail, not because they are unresponsive, but because they don’t understand the requests. Practitioners argue that young children are more easily engaged in play and fantasy, and if the procedures appropriately utilize these abilities, young children are better candidates for hypnosis than adults. Hypnotic procedures developed for young children in clinical settings are less verbally complex and more overtly engaged, closer to play therapy than the sedentary, cognitively complex involvement that is presupposed in the adult-based measures and procedures. Clinical reports suggest that such procedures may effectively address a host of medically related difficulties that confront young children [7].
References 1. 2.
Gauld, A. (1992). A history of hypnosis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Kihlstrom, J. F. (1998). Hypnosis and the psychological unconscious. In R. Schwarzer, R. C. Silver, D. Spiegel, N. A. Adler, R. D. Parke, C. Peterson, & H. Friedman (Eds.), Encyclopedia of mental health (Vol. 2, pp. 467–477). New York: Academic Press.
3.
4. 5. 6.
7.
Kirsch, I., & Lynn, S. J. (2006). Essentials of clinical hypnosis: An evidenced-based approach. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Nash, M. R. (2001). The truth and the hype of hypnosis (pp. 47–55). July: Scientific American. Olness, K., & Kohen, D. P. (1996). Hypnosis and hypnotherapy with children (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Grune and Stratton. Society of Psychological Hypnosis, Division 30 American Psychological Association (2005). New definition: Hypnosis. Accessed Oct 18, 2008, from http://www.apa.org/divisions/div30/ define_hypnosis.html. Vandenberg, B. (2002). Hypnotic responsivity from a developmental perspective: Insights from young children. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 50(3), 229–247.
Hypoactivity JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Synonyms Lethargic; Underactive
Definition Less active than usual.
Description Information regarding hypoactivity, or children being underactive, may be difficult to obtain as an internet search frequently leads to hyperactivity rather than hypoactivity. Hypoactivity may be due to a disease, physical limitation such as blindness or obesity. Lethargy in children may be caused by an illness such as the flu or a chronic condition such as diabetes. If a normally active child becomes hypoactive or lethargic, a physician should be contacted to determine the cause. According to a study conducted by [1, p. 107] children with various medical conditions may perceive certain exercises to be more intense than healthy children of the same age. Children with an abnormality such as a heart murmur may be hyposactive due to the presumption of illness. The reduction of activity may be based upon the perception of the physician’s diagnosis rather than a directive that the child should not be active. Obviously, disease may cause hypoactivity in children and adolescents and this may cause the child to be less physically active. Additional causes of hypoactivity may include: pain, fear of seizure or attack such as asthma, lack of opportunities to be active, or isolation (p. 108).
Hypotonia
While many of the above reasons for hypoactivity may be valid, it is important that all children and adolescents achieve some type of physical activity as their physical conditions permit. As always, checking with the child’s physician and asking for specific physical activities in which the child may engage is imperative.
References 1.
1.
2.
2. 3. 4. 5.
3.
4. 5. 6. 7.
Hypothalamus EDALMARYS SANTOS1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. Filley, C. M. (2001). Neurobehavioral anatomy (2nd ed.). Colorado: University of Colorado Press. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Shore, R. (2002). Baby teaching: Nurturing neural networks from birth to age five. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Hypotonia DAVID RITCHIE, BARRY NIERENBERG Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
The Hypothalamus is one portion of the Diencephalon that plays a vital role in nearly all aspects of motivated behavior, including feeding, sexual behavior, sleeping, temperature regulation, emotional behavior, endocrine function, and movement [4].
Floppy baby syndrome; Floppy infant syndrome; Infantile hypotonia
Description
Definition
The Hypothalamus, in combination with the Thalamus and Epithalamus, make up the Diencephalon. While as a functional hole, the Diencephalon energizes and sustains behavior [4], the hypothalamus is specifically entrusted with the regulation of nearly all aspects of motivated behavior, including feeding, sexual behavior, sleeping, temperature regulation, emotional behavior, endocrine function, and movement [4]. It is also essential to the general arousal of the nervous system [1]. The way in which the hypothalamus achieves these end goals is through its control of the Autonomic Nervous System, with its sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions, and its connections with the Pituitary gland that mediates the neural control of the endocrine system [2, 3]. Anatomically, the hypothalamus is a small, subcortical structure at the base of the brain, composed of
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subdivisions, or nuclei. Specifically, it is located in front of the midbrain, above the amygdala, and next to the pituitary gland it controls [6]. It forms the floor and part of the lateral wall of the third ventricle [5, 7].
References Bar-Or, O., & Rowland, T. W. (2004). Pediatric exercise medicine: from physiologic principles to health care application. Oxford: Oxford Medical. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/hypoactivity http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site623/mainpageS623P0.html http://www.webmd.com/search/search_results/default.aspx?source Type=undefined&query=lethargic%20children http://www.mychildhealth.net/causes-of-lethargy-in-children.html
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Synonyms
Hypotonia is defined as a decrease in muscle tone and usually strength, due to a congenital disorder, trauma or environmental factors.
Description Hypotonia will present differently based upon the etiology and subsequent severity of the muscle flaccidity. Hypotonia is not a specific disorder, but mostly a symptom of a number of other disorders which cause deterioration of the muscle fibers [2, 5, 6, 11]. A child afflicted with hypotonia will present visually like a “rag doll” because their limbs and head appear to “flop” to their sides [3]. The child’s head will hang to the sides or slouch to the chest or back because the muscles of the neck are not strong enough to hold the head erect. Upon picking up a child with hypotonia, the child might slip through the
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grasp because the arm muscles do not keep the arms flexed. An infant suffering from hypotonia will have hyperflexibility in their limbs enabling them to stretch farther than normally possible [9, 10]. While not in every case, a majority of cases of hypotonia diagnosed in childhood at least partially remits, with muscle tone and controllable movement returning over time [9, 10]. The etiology of hypotonia can be difficult to diagnose. Many disorders which affect the central nervous system can be responsible for decreasing muscle tone and causing paresis. Hypotonia is usually a manifestation of a number of other disorders, with Prader-Willi syndrome being the most common cause of hypotonia in children [11]. The most common cause of hypotonia disorders is congenital defects including genetic disorders such as: Prader-Willi syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, Marfan’s syndrome, Tay-Sachs disease and others [1, 4, 7, 8]. Other causes of hypotonia can occur through acquired disorders, infections, metabolic disorders and trauma. Traumatic brain injuries in children, occurring because of automobile accidents and Shaken Baby syndrome, are common occurrences in children which can lead to hypotonia. Treatment of hypotonia typically centers on finding, diagnosing and treating the underlying disorder which would alleviate the hypotonic symptoms [7, 9]. Unfortunately, accurate diagnosis in some cases can be difficult to impossible; therefore alternative treatments are sometimes necessary. Physical therapy is most prescribed to treat the lack of movement and strengthen what muscle may be left. Occupational therapy is utilized to help the patient live independently and cope with the disorder into adulthood if the hypotonia does not dissipate [9]. In more severe cases, speech therapy is necessitated to help the patient swallow, feed themselves and speak [9].
Relevance to Childhood Development Long-term impairment for the development of the child can be difficult to determine due to the plethora of etiologies of the disorder. The hypotonia itself usually has a good prognosis with early diagnosis and treatment through occupational and physical, only if the underlying pathology does not interfere with recovery [2, 9]. Therapy is mostly concerned
with helping the patient compensate for the loss in neuromuscular strength in order to function independently. Due to the loss of muscle control and coordination at key critical periods in development, the typical hypotonic child will experience delays in reaching developmental milestones [2, 6, 9, 10]. Because of the general paresis, sometimes paralysis of the muscles, the child will have the most difficulty reaching motor milestones such as rolling over, sitting, crawling, standing and walking [9]. The hypotonic child will also have impairments with language due to muscle incoordination; which can lead to, or exacerbate, learning and attention problems. Although hypotonia does not affect intellect, other disorders affecting cognitive abilities may surface due to the disorder. However, hypotonic children are only at a higher risk for learning and attention problems, not all of these children will develop such difficulties [3, 5, 6, 8, 9].
References 1. Birdi, K., Prasad, A., Prasad, C., Chodirker, B., & Chudley, A. (2005). The floppy infant: retrospective analysis of clinical experience (1990–2000) in a tertiary care facility. Journal of Child Neurology, 20, 803–808. 2. Carboni, P., Pisani, F., Crescenzi, A., & Villani, C. (2002). Congenital hypotonia with favorable outcome. Pediatric Neurology, 26, 383–386. 3. Harris, S. (2008). Congenital hypotonia: Clinical and developmental assessment. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 50, 889–892. 4. Moss, R., Subramaniam, S., Kelts, A., Forno, S., & Lewiston, N. (1979). Chronic neuropathy presenting as a floppy infant with respiratory distress. Pediatrics, 64, 459–464. 5. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: National Institutes of Health. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hypotonia/ hypotonia.htm. 6. National Organization for Rare Disorders. (2007). Nord compendium of rare diseases and disorders. New Rochelle: Mary Ann Leibert. 7. Premasiri, M., & Lee, Y. (2003). The myopathology of floppy and hypotonic infants in Singapore. Pathology, 35, 409–413. 8. Richer, L. P., et al. (2001). Diagnostic profile of neonatal hypotonia: an 11-year study. Pediatric Neurology, 25, 32–37. 9. Roland, L. (Ed.). (2005). Merrit’s neurology: Integrating the physical exam and echocardiography. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 10. Shah, S., & Kelly, K. (2003). Principles and practice of emergency neurology: Handbook for emergency physicians. Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge University Press. 11. Trifiro, G., et al. (2003). Neonatal hypotonia: Don’t forget the PraderWilli syndrome. Acta Paediatrica, 92, 1085–89.
I I.Q. Assessment
Id Definition
▶Creativity Assessment
The id is part of Sigmund Freud’s three part psychic apparatus (id, ego, and superego) in his psychoanalytic theory of development. In Freud’s theory, the id represents the mind’s unconscious and unorganized basic drives, and primarily seeks to avoid pain by increasing pleasure.
Iconic Memory
Description
ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Information persistence
persistence;
Sensory
register;
Visual
Upon birth the id is formed and infants are driven by instincts and seek to have their basic needs met. The basic drives that the id controls are food, water, and sex. The id is selfish, moral-less, infantile, illogical, primarily sexual, without sense of time, and is completely ruled by the pleasure-pain principle. As the child develops, the id comes into conflict with the ego (reality principle) and societal constraints.
Definition The short visual sensory trace of a briefly presented visual stimulus, lasting several hundred milliseconds after removal of the stimulus. Often described as a “fading” image, iconic memory is differentiated from short term visual memory by a larger storage capacity and by it’s disruption by an immediate presentation of a contrasting or intense visual stimulus.
References 1.
2.
Keysers, C., Xiao, D.-K., Foldiak, P., & Perrett, D. I. (2005). Out of sight but not out of mind: The neurophysiology of iconic memory in the superior temporal sulcus. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 22, 316– 332. Pashler, H., & Carrier, M. (1996). Structures, processes and the flow of information. In E. L. Bjork & R. A. Bjork (Eds.), Memory. New York: Academic Press.
Identical Twins ▶Monozygotic (MZ) Twins
Identification ▶Projection
Identity KENNETH FOSTER Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA
Icterus ▶Jaundice
Synonyms Personal identity; Reference group orientation; Sense of self; Social identity
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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The term identity is derived from the Latin identitas, which means “the same.” This notion of sameness or similarity, however, falls short of providing comprehensive utility or explanation, given the myriad implications of identity. For example, fictional literature uses emotionladen words or contexts such as loneliness, or alienation, to convey identity. That is, by emphasizing the emotional or affective value of one’s sense of loss or absence of identity, the concept itself is conveyed. As a historian, Gleason [3] provides a “semantic history” which informs us that for a half century after psychology’s debut, identity remained virtually absent from the social science literature. Today, a cursory search of a typical database generates countless references, including those focused on identity in a myriad of contexts such as academics, consumption, dance and the arts, success and failure, survival, and so on, ad infinitum. Many would agree that Erik Erikson’s conceptualization of identity has impacted the social sciences in a way this is akin to the impact that Freud has had on the discipline of psychology. Even his understanding of the term, however, was, in his own words, as “something vague and hard to grasp” [3] and he saw the concept as separate and apart from simply answering the question, “Who am I?” In articulating the complexities of defining identity, he emphasized that identity development is an integrative process. This process is viewed by theorists as premised by notions of roles and the ways in which one makes meaning of their world. As such, one’s overall selfconcept can be viewed as a gestalt, comprised of their unique personality attributes (personal identity) and their repertoire of orientations to various reference groups (social identity). It is this idea of group and role(s) identification that frame a nexus between general identity and social identity. From a developmental perspective, the self-concept evolves first from infancy through pre-adolescence, where the drafting and designing of identity attributes and components begins. As these attributes and components evolve, mature and take hold, the child becomes more self-reflective, which is a powerful, fundamental quality. It is here that the integrated self [2, 7] begins. Setting aside discussion of genetic predisposition, we see that one’s environment provides for and allows the genesis of their being, i.e., interests, preferences, and the like, which over time becomes particularistic. As a person develops the capacity to self-reflect, her/ his sense of individuality as well as their “groupgroundedness” becomes more apparent. Each of many personal identity attributes and each of many social identities become integrated as the person’s composite
“identity.” Issues of psychopathology aside, most people, by late adolescence, experience a phenomenological wholeness, or integrated self. That is, through reflexivity or awareness that one has certain capacities, the individual begins to connect the dots (albeit not necessarily in a linear fashion) that lead to a relatively stable interpretation of self.
The Person and the Situation One of the most challenging issues for conceptualization and assessment of identity is that of situational context. A basic tenet of the sociopsychological approach is, after all, giving primacy to the social context of one’s situation, in order to understand, predict, and potentially alter behavior. Typically the result of symbolic or environmental cues, situational context influences one’s cognitive processes of meaning making which in turn impacts their behaviors and experiences. Among the virtually infinite array of examples for how identity may be situationally contextualized are issues such as political behavior. For instance, one researcher [5] cites examples including “leadership, nationalism, consensus formation, social protest, stereotyping, and so on” (p. 825) and points to the increasingly pertinent implications for voter decision-making and identification with a political party as logical applications to be examined. Situational context embeds other important conceptual issues, including salience and centrality. Identity salience (the extent to which an identity is a relevant aspect of one’s self-concept at a particular moment in time), for example, is systematically examined in a variety of contexts. A particularly robust exemplar is ▶stereotype threat research [11, 12], wherein a person’s racial, gender, or other social identity is made salient and such salience serves to negatively impact performance. Numerous publications highlight this robust approach to exploring how and why, for example, an Asian American woman might perform relatively well on a math test when her ethnic identity is made salient, and more poorly when her gender identity is highlighted [10]. Unlike salience, centrality typically implies a stability less affected by temporal or contextual factors. Using race as an identity case in point, racial identity centrality refers to the degree to which a person perceives themselves with respect to race. With respect to relevance, it is important to note that a basic premise in much of identity research – particularly research on social identity – is that identity is assumed to consist of both situationally determined (salience) and stable (centrality) properties.
Identity
Social Identity Theory Social identity is a robust concept that helps us to predict, explain and possibly alter social behavior. It is a medium through which we can internalize the degree to which our group is similar to or different from other groups. The most cited definition of social identity is “The individual’s knowledge that he belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him of the group membership” ([13], p. 292). Henri Tajfel’s social identity theory [14] is largely about intergroup processes, such as discrimination and cooperation, and Tajfel offered that one’s group or social identity serves to maintain and enhance an individual’s self-esteem. A number of identity researchers also emphasize that at the core of social identity is the notion of the individual’s identity management strategies and how, when, and with whom such strategies are implemented.
Reference Group Theory Like social identity theory, reference group theory (RGT, [6]) is about intergroup relations. The RGT approach to social identity is a phenomenological perspective that makes conceptual room for the target to exercise agency with respect to how they are socially delineated. This approach allows a particular comprehension of the range of identity perspectives one finds in a large sample, a range not limited to the social categories typically assumed, assigned or ascribed by the larger society. So it is that if, for example, a person born in the United States is nominally Black, one of her/his ostensible group or social identities is that of “Black” or “African American.” This is, at least initially, a socially ascribed identity and may or may not be a self-ascribed identity. Such an individual may in fact choose to identify primarily as “American,” or “gay,” or “Christian,” or as “a psychologist,” and the fact that he/she is nominally Black may be a less meaningful or central personal category. There is a rather broad consensus that inherent relationships exist between social identity and group membership, subjective well-being, political affiliation and the like. The process by which one makes meaning of and enacts their singular and multiple social identities, however, tends to be less clear. Factors such as psychohistorical antecedents and temporal motivations, the difficulties of measurement, and the fragility and tenuous nature of identity conspire to make a consensual theoretical framework and assessment strategy elusive. By adolescence, people can provide, through interviews or surveys, fairly reliable and valid insights into
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the personal identity and ▶reference group orientation or social identity attributes that make up their selfconcept. Erikson’s dominant psychosocial approach to identity was heavily influenced by the work of Freud. Erikson viewed identity as something a young, developing person has “more or less of,” and that they advance across a continuum of identity that must be negotiated via exploration and commitment. The Eriksonian theoretical model, like most process models, represent a stage or process approach to “a general pattern of development from a diffuse stage of psychological immaturity to more advanced and well-formed stages of maturity” ([1], p. 11). James Marcia operationalized Erikson’s identity development theory. Marcia’s [8] Identity Status Interview assesses an individual’s across set of distinct stages (diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, achievement) that need to be resolved. In terms of social identity measurement, we have known for a long time that because of its complexity and diversity, identity often cannot be assessed simply in a dichotomous fashion, as if one’s political identity is as simple as political party membership, or that their racial identity is no more complicated than being Black or White. For example, although we study Jewish identity, Black identity, and female identity, there are various ways of orchestrating or having a sense of being Jewish or Black or female, as well as being Jewish and Black and female. Examples of some innovative assessments strategies include a scales developed to measure, simultaneously, personal and social identity [9]. These constructs are operationalized in general terms, i.e., focusing more on general centrality and stability, and less on the influence of situational context. Another promising strategy [4] uses a reference group approach as an identity assessment procedure. While not without inherent challenges, such innovative tools have yielded impressive results across multiple studies.
References 1. Denton, S. E. (1985). A methodological refinement and validational analysis of the developmental inventory of Black consciousness (DIB-C). Unpublished dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh. 2. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. Oxford, England: Norton & Co. 3. Gleason, P. (1983). Identifying identity: A semantic history. The Journal of American History, 69(4), 910–931. 4. Hooper, M. (1976). The structure and measurement of social identity. Public Opinion Quarterly, 40(2), 154–164. 5. Huddy, L. (2002). Crossing the methodological and disciplinary divide: Political stability, political change and research method. In K. Monroe (Ed.), Political psychology (pp. 271–292). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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6. Hyman, H. (1942). The psychology of status. Archives of Psychology, 38, 269. 7. James, W. (1890). The consciousness of self. In W. James (Ed.), The principles of psychology (Vol. I, pp. 291–401). New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co. 8. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558. 9. Nario-Redmond, M. R., Scott Eidelman, M. B., & Palenske, D. J. (2004). The social and personal identities scale: A measure of the differential importance ascribed to social and personal self-categorizations. Self and Identity, 3, 143–175. 10. Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance. Psychological Science, 10(1), 80–83. 11. Steele, C. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52(6), 613–629. 12. Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811. 13. Tajfel, H. (1972). Experiments in a vacuum. In J. Israel & H. Tajfel (Eds.), The context of social psychology: A critical assessment. Oxford, England: Academic Press. 14. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole.
how do fit into the larger worldview.” The identity crisis includes cognitive development, familial relationships and relational cultural issues. Relevance to Childhood Development: This is a time of tumult and exploration that if negotiated deftly can lead to psychological well being, high self-esteem, and flexibility in the world.
References 1. 2.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558.
Identity Diffusion RAY WOOTEN St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Apathetic; Avoidance; Overwhelm
Identity Crisis RAY WOOTEN St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition Phase or status of individual who has not resolved identity issues.
Description Synonyms Internal conflict with one’s views of the world; Struggle with self identity
Definition Developmental status based on an adolescence struggling with them self identity and their self perception of themselves in the world (e.g., occupational, religious, political).
Description This is a term often associated with Erik Erikson and James Marcia when describing an adolescent period of challenging views of themselves and the world they live in. The struggle is in developing a coherent definition of self and grappling with “who I am, where I am going, and
This is a phase or status defined by James Marcia describing the avoidance, apathy and overwhelm often associated with identity development. The adolescent is avoiding or lacks the volition to explore alternatives of self in the world. Example of high school senior experiencing identity diffusion “I haven’t really thought much about what I want to do when I get out high school.”
Relevance to Childhood Development This is part of the identity development process that is characterized as avoiding uncomfortable feelings and exploration in the world. The result retards identity development and psychological adjustment.
References 1. 2.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558.
Identity Formation
Identity Foreclosure RAY WOOTEN St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Characterized by commitment to something without personal exploration; Hold fast to another’s view
Definition State where an individual has accepted their parent’s or authorities’ views and has not thought of other opinions or views.
Description This is a phase or status outlined by James Marcia characterizing an avoidance of identity crisis by adhering to parental or authorities’ views or plans of the future. What is lacking is individual volition in investigating and exploring their own sense of identity and preferences in life. This lack of crisis and exploration leads the individual to commit to identities suggested to them by others. Example of a foreclosed identity: “My parents are physicians and always wanted me to be a physician also. I am enrolled in pre-med in college.”
Relevance to Childhood Development Identity foreclosure is a commitment to something without personal exploration of self. This often results in delays of optimal psychological health and self esteem.
References 1. 2.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558.
Identity Formation WILLIAM E. HERMAN The State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY, USA
Definition Identity formation has to do with the complex manner in which human beings establish a unique view of self and is
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characterized by continuity and inner unity. It is therefore highly related to terms such as the self, self-concept, values, and personality development. The goal of personal identity formation is to establish a coherent view of self through the process of normal human development. Abnormal development could be viewed as the establishment of an incoherent self and characterized by discontinuity or the lack of inner unity. Although the benchmarks of identity formation are most easily observed at the adolescent and adult levels of development, a fledgling identity for a person develops during his/her childhood experiences. At the core of identity formation is the human personality, but psychologists have also employed this term to speak of subcategories such as racial, ethnic, social class, gender role, spiritual, and sexual identity. The term identity formation implies both a process and end-product orientation. In other words, how an identity is established becomes important, as well as what characteristic form the identity takes. The process elements are described by developmental theories. Research studies have attempted to outline what identity formation can actually look like. For example, identity statuses such as identity achieved, foreclosure, moratorium, identity diffusion or confusion, and negative identity have been used by theorists and researchers to denote healthy/unhealthy personality outcomes (see [5]).
Description Erik Erikson (1902–1994) was a psychoanalyst and the most prominent architect of the psychosocial construct of identity formation (see [1, 2]). He accepted many of the ideas proposed by Sigmund Freud, rejected or modified some of Freud’s premises, and explored different areas of personality development as compared to Freud (identity rather than sexuality). For example, Erikson accepted the ideas of a dynamic interaction of the three parts of the personality proposed by Freud (id, ego, and superego) and conscious/unconscious motivation for behaviors. Erikson advanced the study of personality by drawing upon much of Freud’s work and reinventing a personality theory that both draws upon Freud’s model and offers new insights. Readers are cautioned regarding conceptualizing Freud’s psychosexual theory and Erikson’s psychosocial theory as totally distinct and unrelated perspectives, for oftentimes it is what these two great thinkers shared in common that is most crucial in helping us understand identity formation. For example, Erikson is known as an ego psychologist because of his focus upon the “ego” functions (logical/ rational decision making, defense mechanisms, etc.) in Freud’s personality model. Thus Erikson paid somewhat less attention to the “id” and “superego.”
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According to psychosocial development and the epigenetic principle, as a human being moves through the lifespan the most salient issues center around the person’s relationships with others, identity formation, and how the self contextually develops in the cultural milieu. In this way, we can see that Erikson’s theory contains elements of biology (genetic endowment), psychology, sociology, and anthropology. There is also a strong interactionist element in Erikson’s psychosocial theory, since each issue of biological heritage, expressions of self, interactions with others, and cultural setting can influence the other issues and the personality of the developing person. The formation of a person’s identity is central during the fifth of eight stages of psychosocial development. All 8 stages extend over the entire lifespan and comprise the centerpiece of Erikson’s theory. Although identity formation is the major task of adolescence, Erikson’s developmental theory implies that the origins of identity lie in critical childhood experiences (earlier stages) and that the re-organization of identity will take place during later stages of psychosocial development and throughout the lifespan. As with the other psychosocial stages, Erikson juxtaposes a relatively mentally healthy ego state (identity achieved) with a less mental healthy state (identity diffusion). Tension is created at different points in the lifespan regarding such healthy versus unhealthy decision points at each stage. Identity achieved involves the experience of a psychosocial crisis (a personal reflective and reorganizational circumstance caused by a challenge in life) with exploration components that result in commitment. The outcome is a life characterized by personally chosen values, the ability to take calculated risks and make good decisions under stress, and the capability to adapt to change without sacrificing individuality, fidelity, and integrity. Erikson saw adolescence as marking the end of childhood. This transitional benchmark implies that a person takes what he or she has learned from childhood in order to chart a course for the future as an adult in society with new obligations and responsibilities. He claimed that “identity formation. . . begins where the usefulness of identification ends” ([2], p. 159). Adolescence changes the playing field in the biological domain (physical/sexual maturity), psychological domain (cognitive/emotional maturity), social domain (interactions with others), and cultural domain (expectations for membership and taboos) and demands new survival tools for the human personality. Children consciously and unconsciously adopt beliefs espoused by parents and significant others through the identification process. Modeling behavior is similar except for the fact that imitation or modeling is a much more
conscious process. Identification offers a healthy learning tool during a period of development whereby children can reduce stress, please others, and survive in a complicated world. For example, children might incorporate behaviors, values, and rituals observed in childhood into personal ways of doing things without being able to think critically about the origins, meanings, or implications of such events. Childhood identifications cannot be somehow summed up and collectively employed by a mentally healthy adult personality. Therefore, such unexamined identifications are of limited usefulness during adolescence and later adulthood. Erikson [1] stated that ego identity “is the accrued experience of the ego’s ability to integrate these identifications with the vicissitudes of the libido, with aptitudes developed out of endowment, and with the opportunities offered in social roles” (p. 228). It is therefore suggested that a mentally healthy adult depends upon the reinvention of his/her self and this ideally starts around adolescence. Conscious ego strength allows a person to explore the legitimacy and value of childhood identifications for possible inclusion in a newly emerging adult personality. Ideally, some of these identifications might be maintained (if deemed personally valuable); others deleted (to the extent this is possible, given that they may be under the grip of unconscious processes); and still others modified (in order to provide personal relevance and ownership as society changes). The human potential for modifying beliefs about the world that were etched in childhood as identifications allows the personality to adapt to changes in society and within the person over the lifespan. In this manner, young people grow into healthy adults who are, in certain ways, like their parents. But they can also individuate themselves in order to become unique individuals. In what appears to be a paradox, they ideally maintain a portion of their parents’ views and historical legacy while at the same time establishing themselves as unique individuals separate from their parents and at odds with certain cultural stereotypes or expectations. This becomes the crux of healthy adolescent identity development. Herman [3] offered a transmission and development of values theory to understand how Erikson’s theory nicely fits with other major theories as an explanation of adolescent development. The foreclosure (unhealthy) ego status where commitment occurs without crisis or exploration reminds us that healthy identity formation is not inevitable or an outcome experienced by all adults. Hoare [4] further suggested that identity achievement should include the ability to work from within a set of personal cultural values while at the same time being able to accept and include others from cultures that hold differing values.
Identity Status
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Definition
Although identity formation is considered the hallmark of adolescence and not childhood, the childhood period of the lifespan is viewed as absolutely critical in terms of identity formation. Childhood offers the necessary, but not sufficient, foundation for a mentally healthy adolescence and adulthood. Erikson’s theory suggests that a healthy adolescent and adult identity depends upon the further development of values and beliefs transmitted during childhood. Psychosocial development offers a built-in possibility that in later stages of development, the person may be able to overcome, or at least ameliorate, even the negative impact of maltreatment and trauma that may have occurred during childhood. This offers some realistic hope for all who survive childhood, while not denigrating the importance of people’s experiences during childhood and their discovery of the trends and expectations of their society.
A phase or status in which a person is actively exploring alternatives towards solidifying a sense of identity.
References
Relevance to Childhood Development
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Identity moratorium is an active identity development stage characterized by exploration or crisis without a commitment to a solid sense of self. Proper guidance can help the individual move towards the next step of identity achievement.
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Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: W. W. Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: W.W. Norton. Herman, W. E. (2005). Values acquisition and moral development: An integration of Freudian, Eriksonian, Kohlbergian, and Gilliganian viewpoints. Forum on Public Policy: Child Psychology, 1(4), 391–410. Hoare, C. H. (1991). Psychosocial identity development and cultural others. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70(1), 45–53. Marcia, J. E. (1994). The empirical study of ego identity. In H. A. Bosma, T. L. G. Graafsma, H. D. Grotevant, & D. J. de Levita (Eds.), Identity and development: An interdisciplinary approach sage focus editions (Vol. 172, pp. 67–80). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Identity Formation and Development ▶Bicultural Identity
Description This is a phase or status outlined by James Marcia characterizing exploration and progress towards identity achievement. The individual is currently experiencing an identity crisis and is looking for answers of the questions that have been raised. These questions are usually occupational, relational and cultural and the individuals place within these domains. Example of identity moratorium: “I have been spending lots of time analyzing my occupational interest inventories that I took at school. There are so many opportunities and I have so many questions. One day I want to be an attorney the next day a chef. I guess I will have to continue talking to people and doing research to figure out what I want to do.”
References 1. 2. 3.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558. Meilman, P. W. (1979). Cross sectional age changes in ego identity status during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 15, 230–232.
Identity Status AMANDA BOZACK University of New Haven, West Haven, CT, USA
Definition
Identity Moratorium RAY WOOTEN St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Active exploration without achieving identity
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A term originating from the psychosocial theory of development that describes adolescents’ exploration of and commitment to values, beliefs, and roles.
Description Erik H. Erikson’s psychosocial theory proposes that ego development occurs throughout the lifespan in a series of stages (trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role
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confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair). It suggests that ego identity continuously changes based on our experiences and interactions with others and that specific challenges (or crises) arise at different points in life. During these times of crises old values and choices are re-examined. The outcome of each crisis leads to a commitment to a certain value, belief, or role [1]. James E. Marcia’s contribution to psychosocial theory elaborates on stage resolution and, in particular, the identity versus role confusion (or diffusion) stage that occurs during adolescence. Erikson’s theory proposes that adolescence is marked by a crisis between identity and confusion in life domains such as work, politics, religion, and gender roles. Successfully navigating the conflict will result in an ability to stay true to one’s self, while failure will lead to confusion and low self-esteem. Marcia extended this idea by developing the Identity Status Interview [2]. He proposed four possible stages, or statuses, based on his findings, that mark adolescents’ navigation through the identity versus role confusion stage: identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, identity moratorium, and identity achievement. ● Identity diffusion is characterized by adolescents who have not yet experienced a crisis of identity and have not committed to an identity. These adolescents may eventually plot a course toward moratorium and achievement, resign to a foreclosed identity, or maintain the diffused status over time. ● Identity Foreclosure is characterized by adolescents who are committed to specific beliefs about their identity without going through a crisis. These adolescents have not considered an identity for themselves outside of the identity of their youth or outside the identity desired by others. ● Identity moratorium is characterized by adolescents who are experiencing a crisis. They are in the process of exploring their identity. They have not yet committed to any future path, but are open to, thinking about, and exploring possible options. Adolescents in moratorium are usually on the path to identity achievement. ● Identity achievement is characterized by adolescents who have gone through a crisis and made a commitment. These adolescents have explored identity options and, based on that exploration, have committed to the specific beliefs and values they hold [3]. Marcia is most widely known for his work on identity statuses in the identity versus role confusion stage. However, identity status work has extended into other psychosocial
stages as well. Marcia and colleagues have proposed that within each adult stage people may cycle through moratorium and achievement identity statuses. They suggest that while some parts of our identity that are formed in youth remain throughout our lives, much of our identity changes through the course of life experiences. When experiences are discordant with our beliefs we may shift from an identity achievement status to an identity moratorium status. This exploration and integration of our experiences may lead to a revision of beliefs. This moratorium-achievement-moratorium-achievement cycle is represented by the acronym MAMA [4, 5].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
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Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551–558. Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159–187). New York: Wiley. Marcia, J. E. (2002). Identity and psychosocial development in adulthood. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 2(1), 7–28. Stephen, J., Fraser, E., & Marcia, J. E. (1992). Lifespan identity development: Variables related to Moratorium-Achievement (MAMA) cycles. Journal of Adolescence, 15, 283–300.
Identity Styles STACY A. S. WILLIAMS State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY, USA
Definition Identity style is a theoretical construct used to refer to the manner in which individuals construct and manipulate their identities [3].
Description Identity exploration often begins in adolescence. It was Erick Erickson who argued that adolescence is a period of psychosocial moratorium: an opportunity for adolescents to forestall adulthood by exploring different identities in order to select a stable construct by which the self can be defined. For adolescents enrolling in college, matriculation affords a period of exploration that may not be available to those whose next destination is not a college. Erickson’s theory of identity development is based on his psychosocial model of human development. Successful resolution of the adolescent phase is based on successful ego resolutions at the earlier stages of development [4].
Identity Styles
Marcia’s Model Though Erickson is ultimately the father of identity research, it was James Marcia who operationally defined his theoretical construct. Marcia’s research focused on the outcome of the identity process [2], arguing that differences in identities could be accounted for by two processes: commitment and exploration. Marcia defined commitment as personal investment, sacrifice, sustaining interest in values, goals, and ideals [1]. Additionally, exploration was defined as involvement in a period of engagement and searching for acceptable goals, values, and ideals, with the intention of making a commitment. Marcia argued that commitment provided the motivation to adhere to one’s values whereas exploration provided the process by which the construction of one’s identity could be established. Marcia’s concept of identity is often represented as two orthogonal dimensions to denote four identity styles which incorporate varying levels of commitment and exploration: diffused identity, foreclosed, moratorium, and identity achieved [1]. Diffused identity outcome is characterized by low exploration and low commitment. An adolescent who has a diffused identity is said to have not explored any particular social or personal goals and has made no commitment to any values. Diffused identity state is often referred to as an unhealthy identity state and is correlated with conformity to peer influences. A diffused identity is usually found very early during the identity exploration phase [4]. In addition, numerous studies have suggested a relationship between this identity state and psychological states, or mind-sets that prevent or limit a healthy adaptation to fulfilling personal and social goals [1]. Individuals with low exploration and high commitment are said to be foreclosed in their identity style. Adolescents in this state experience no identity crisis. They have yet to explore acceptable goals, values or ideas and often prematurely commit to an occupation or ideology based on the suggestions of others [4]. There are many different types of foreclosed adolescents and these individuals often live quiet and orderly lives [1]. Adolescents who experience high crisis (i.e., exploration) and no commitment are said to be in a moratorium state. These individuals are intensely exploring acceptable goals, values, and ideas but have yet to commit to any of the selected goals or values. Erickson suggests that a moratorium youth is doing exactly what typical youths tend to do: he or she is actively seeking out alternatives, with the goal of finding a compatible value system to integrate in their construction of self [1, 4]. The final identity outcome of Marcia’s model is called identity achievement. An achieved identity is marked by
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high exploration and high commitment. After exploring different social identities, the adolescent commits deeply to a particular ideology and career path. The positive outcome of identity development and the successful resolving of the crisis at this stage of development lends itself to the positive outcome of identity achievement [1, 4].
Berzonsky’s Model While Marcia’s identity development is outcome focused, current theories of identity style focus more on Berzonsky’s cognitive model. Berzonsky argued that identity development should be conceptualized through a socio-cognitive perspective and accordingly developed a process-oriented model that emphasizes the process of exploration. Berzonsky argued that during the exploration phase, individuals are often coping and adapting to the crises that are invoked in creating and constructing an achieved identity. Through these social cognitions, the adolescent perceives and processes reality. In this process-oriented model, Berzonsky identified three process orientations: information, normative, and diffuse/ avoidant [1]. There are strong parallels between Berzonsky’s and Marcia’s models of identity styles. There are similarities between informational and moratorium-achievement, normative and foreclosure, and diffuse-avoidant and diffusion identities [1]. Information-oriented individuals deal with identity issues by actively seeking out and evaluating values, goals, or opportunities before making commitments. When confronted with information that is different from their perceptions of self, informationoriented individuals often revise their self-conceptions [2, 5]. This orientation has been found to be associated with effortful self-exploration, introspection, selfawareness, problem-solving, coping styles, and cognitive complexity. In addition, this orientation is positively related to effective life management skills and mature relationships with others [3]. Adolescents with this process orientation were also found to perceive their parents as authoritative and engaging in open discussions. Additionally, this style was positively predicted by adolescents who perceived their parents as warm, involved and responsive to their needs in times of stress (i.e., parental support). However, the style was also related to adolescents who perceived their parents as controlling often using manipulative and intrusive strategies (i.e., psychological control) [5]. Normative-oriented individuals rely on the social norms and expectations of significant others when confronted with identity crises. These individuals rigidly
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adhere to the existing identity structure, into which they assimilate all identity relevant information. Due to their rigid adherence to the accessible identity structure, the probability of cognitive distortions is increased. This identity style has been associated with intolerance for ambiguity and a need to maintain structure and closure [1]. Furthermore, Berzonsky noted adolescents with this copying style perceived their parents to be authoritarian and found their family lacking in expressiveness. Unexpectedly, this identity style also related positively to authoritative parents and found family relations to be trusting and cohesive [5]. Furthermore, this style was positively predicted by parental support and adolescents’ perception of their parents as providing them with clear expectations for behaviors and monitoring behaviors (i.e., behavioral control) [5]. Diffuse-avoidant individuals are similar to Marcia’s diffused identity state. These individuals avoid personal issues and delay decisions until environmental demands dictate their behavior, which often results in a fragmented identity structure. This fragmented state is also a function of situation specific identification by which individuals define themselves mainly in external terms (i.e., my reputation, my popularity). Diffuse avoiding adolescents have been found to engage in procrastination, embrace an external locus of control, and engage in emotionalfocused coping behaviors [1, 2]. This style was found to relate to authoritarianism and permissive parenting styles. In addition, family environments were often characterized by lack of expressiveness and communication [5]. Additionally, this style is positively predicted by parents who exert psychological control and negatively influenced by maternal behavioral control [5].
Identity Styles and Minorities A discussion of identity styles would be incomplete without paying particular attention to racial identity development, which is one aspect of identity exploration for people of color. William Cross Jr. and Janet E. Helms are often respectively cited in the exploration and examination of Black and White racial identity styles. Furthermore, Cross’ model is often used as the framework in exploring other racial identities. Both Cross’ and Helms’ models are presented as stage-like theories. However, their models are not linear and individuals recycle through the stages at different points in the life cycle. Cross’ model is operationally defined as a five-stage model: pre-encounter, encounter, immersion/emersion, internalization, and internalization/commitment stage. The pre-encounter stage represents the identity that individuals are born with. This stage is highly influenced by
parents and social upbringing. A person in this stage may not be aware of racism and may have internalized negative racial stereotypes. The encounter stage of identity is characterized by an event that forces the person to acknowledge racism. It is during this stage that the individual begins to identify with his or her race. This event also encourages the individual to seek out experiences to support his or her developing awareness of race identification. This stage is referred to as the immersion/emersion stage. During this stage, the individual avoids symbols of Whiteness and surrounds himself/herself with symbols of his or her race. At the end of the immersion stage, the individual emerges with an internalized identity. During the internalization phase, the person is secure with their racial identification. A person is this stage is more open to joining with other racial groups due to a strong sense of racial identity. The final stage of the model is the internalized-commitment stage where the individual sense of racial self is grounded and there is a general sense of commitment to the concerns of people of color and social justice issues in general [6]. Helms’ concept of White racial identity consists of six stages: contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudoindependent, immersion/emersion, and autonomy stage. In the first stage of the model, an individual lacks an awareness of racism and one’s own White privilege. Additionally, the person internalizes negative stereotypes about persons of color. During the disintegration phase, the lack of awareness of racism is replaced by discomfort, shame and/or guilt as individuals begin to become aware of racism. At the end of this stage, individuals attempt to help other Whites see that racism exists. During the reintegration stage, a person’s desire to be accepted by his or her group leads to a reshaping of beliefs that are more accepting of the group, which in turn may lead the individual to be more accepting of racism. Helms argues that individuals may become stuck at this stage if they can avoid contact with people of color [6]. The fourth stage (i.e., pseudo-independent) is characterized by an abandonment of the belief in White superiority but may unintentionally perpetuate the status quo. Helms argues that the person may feel alienated from Whites and rejected by people of color. It is at this stage that individuals seek out antiracist White allies. During the immersion/emersion stages, a person searches for a new and comfortable way to be White. The person works to replace myths and stereotypes with accurate information about what it means and has meant to be White in America. The final stage of the model is the autonomy stage. In this stage, a newly defined sense of Whiteness energizes one’s effort to confront racism in
Identity Versus Role Confusion
daily life. A person in this stage is often open to new ways of thinking about race [6]. In summary, identity style is a concept used to define individuals as they interact with the world around them in hopes of creating and maintaining an achieved identity. It’s a process by which information is manipulated in seeking one’s values, goals, and ideals. Although identity is often presented as a stage like theory, individuals tend to recycle through the stages at different times during their life cycle.
References 1.
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Adams, G. R., Munro, B., Doherty-Poirer, M., Munro, G., Petersen, A. R., & Edwards, J. (2001). Diffuse-avoidance, normative, and informational identity styles: Using identity theory to predict maladjustment. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 1, 307–320. Duriez, B., Smits, I., & Goossens, L. (2008). The relation between identity styles and religiosity in adolescence: Evidence from a longitudinal perspective. Personality and Individual Difference, 44, 1022–1031. Matheis, S., & Adams, G. R. (2004). Family climate and identity style during late adolescence. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 4, 77–95. McMartin, J. (1995). Personality psychology: A student centered approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Smits, I., Soenens, B., Luyckx, K., Duriez, B., Berzonsky, M., & Goossens, L. (2008). Perceived parenting dimensions and identity styles: Exploring the socialization of adolescents’ processing of identity-relevant information. Journal of Adolescence, 31, 151–164. Spradlin, L. K., & Parsons, R. D. (2008). Diversity matters: Understanding diversity in schools. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Identity Versus Role Confusion MICHAEL BLOCK Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Definition As articulated by Erik Erikson, Identity versus Role Confusion is the fifth of eight stages of psychosocial development that take place between the ages of 12 and 19. During this stage adolescents need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to oneself, while failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self. In the latter phases of this stage, the child develops a sense of sexual identity.
Description Erik Erikson explains eight stages through which a healthy developing human should pass from infancy to late
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adulthood. In each stage the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds on the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future. The Identity versus Role confusion (or diffusion) stage is characterized by the adolescent question of “Who am I,” during which time they are conflicted with dozens of values and ideas of who they should be and what they should think. The adolescent challenge is to establish a sexual, political, moral, religious, and vocational identity that is mature, stable, and consistent. Rapid physical and psychological changes assure that virtually nothing is stable and consistent and yet we must merge from this period of turmoil with a clear sense of who we are, what we believe in and what we want to do with our lives. Gaining independence of identity and dealing with physical and hormonal changes is stressful. Our inner unrest may lead to rebelliousness, impulsiveness and outer turmoil. Peers provide security and role models. Interaction and communication give us the opportunity to discover ourselves as adults rather than as our parents’ child. According to Erikson, we may achieve a clear identity, become confused and apathetic, find a negative identity, or foreclose early and take on an identity given by others. The adolescent identity crisis involves developing values and beliefs about many areas of social, political, religious, sexual and career factors. It involves an inner and outer struggle to consider the many alternatives and choose a belief system, friendships, career and way of life we can be comfortable with on our path in life. The adolescent has entered into the exciting and confusing cognitive development stage of formal reasoning, where one can attempt to consider many alternative paths and compare and contrast possible futures. Adolescents tend to become “egocentric” and selffocused in their search for truth, believing that they know so much more than their parents or any other generation previously living on the planet. Their logic fails in areas of egocentric thought such as “It cannot happen to me – whether it is getting pregnant or getting oneself in a car accident” or whether it is in egocentric thinking that everyone is noticing that one has an acne blemish. They are “always on stage” with an “audience” and needing to establish their own views, they are quick to reject the views of their parents. Peer groups often give adolescents a temporary identity and they often form “cliques” in high school to bolster their lack of a strong personal identity. For example, peers
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become critical in establishing an identity and girls spend endless time on the phone and in the bathroom trying on new selves and searching to become comfortable with who they are. They consult their peers, teen magazines and teen idols for their values and seem to often reject the values of their parents, a critical stage in establishing their own personal identity. Often college can serve as a “moratorium,” a safe place to continue the adolescent identity struggle to find the self. Students often do not feel the pressure to “commit” to marriage or even to a major and do not have to settle down to a job, a family and a career that tends to establish their identity. College students in the teens and early 20s may take another 4–8 years of school to explore many options for establishing a firm identity in the world. This can be a very good thing as the human lifespan is much longer in the new millennium and the search for self is a critical stage in development.
References 1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Clifton, A., & Davis, D. (1995). Psychosocial theory: Erikson. Retrieved January 28, 2008, from Haverford University, Department of Psychology Web site: http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/ erikson.stages.html Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Sheehy, G. (1976). Passages: Predictable crises of adult life. New York: E. P. Dutton. Stevens, R. (1983). Erik Erikson: An introduction. New York: St. Martin’s.
retardation) with an advanced skill, often in mathematical and memory abilities [1, 2]. Approximately 10% of individuals with autism are idiot savants. Common abilities are remembering the days of weeks of dates from the distant past (e.g., being able to state that October 21, 1963 was a Monday), recalling long strings of numbers, and performing complex musical compositions after only one exposure. The “idiot” portion of the term is based on use of the term in the medical community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to refer to individuals with IQs less than 20. As this term is no longer used, “autistic savant” and simply, “savant,” are terms more in use today. Although savantism can be genetic or acquired, the cause and neurological basis are unclear.
References 1. 2.
Miller, L. K. (1998). Defining the savant syndrome. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 10, 73–85. Treffert, D. A. (1988). The idiot savant: A review of the syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 563–572.
IDM ▶Juvenile Diabetes
IEP Idiot Savant
▶Individual Education Plans
JUDAH B. AXE Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
Synonyms Autistic savant; Savant syndrome; Savantism
Illegal Drug Use/Abuse ▶Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence
Definition A person with a developmental disability and an area of genius or brilliance.
Description Idiot savant is the term used to describe a person with a developmental disability (e.g., autism, mental
Illegal Substance Use/Abuse ▶Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence
Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence
Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence SHARON MORGILLO FREEMAN Center for Brief Therapy and Indiana/Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN, USA
Synonyms Illegal drug use/abuse; Illegal substance use/abuse; Illicit substance use/abuse
Definition Illicit/illegal: Unlawful Drug : 1. A substance other than food intended to affect the structure or function of the body use. 2. Often an illegal substance that causes addiction, habituation, or a marked change in consciousness. Addiction: Compulsive need for and use of a habitforming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly: persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful. Limbic system: A group of subcortical structures (as the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala) of the brain that are concerned especially with emotion and motivation. Prefrontal cortex: The gray matter of the anterior part of the frontal lobe that is highly developed in humans and plays a role in the regulation of complex cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning.
Description Illegal drug use refers to the use of substances that are obtained and used without a prescriber’s permission by a person between the ages of 12 and 21 for purposes of altering their mood, consciousness and sensorium.
Relevance to Childhood Development Brain development does not reach full “adult” capability, or completion, until approximately age 24 or 25. Therefore the brain is an organ that is still in the process of growing, changing and developing during adolescence. Specific areas of the brain that are immature during the adolescent years are the nucleus accumbens, the limbic centers and the prefrontal cortex. These areas of the brain are implicated in pleasure, reward and impulse control. The prefrontal cortex is involved in what scientists call “executive function.”
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Brain Function Components of executive function include memory, planning and decision making. In other words the prefrontal cortex is involved in remembering consequences of actions, deciding whether or not a person wants to experience certain consequences and then making a plan of action based on consequences. The prefrontal cortex in essences weighs out risks/benefits of decisions and chooses between actions/behaviors. The nucleus accumbens contains reward areas in the brain. This area of the brain usually “fights” with the prefrontal cortex in making decisions in the adolescent. This is due to the immature connection between the two areas. The nucleus accumbens is very strong in “GO!” function being “pleasure oriented” and therefore tends to over-ride the “STOP!” function of the prefrontal cortex. This immaturity explains why many adolescents like to engage in activities that provide rapid or immediate gratification such as computer games, roller coasters, fast cars, text messaging, and drug/alcohol experimentation.
Brain Damage The adolescent brain may be more resilient to toxins due to its youth and continued development. However research shows that adolescents who are heavy users of alcohol have much more difficulty in school learning new skills and new material. This is due to the effect of alcohol on the specific area of the brain responsible for memory, the hippocampus. In fact, studies at the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia have shown that hippocampal volume can be reduced from 10 to 35% with extensive chronic alcohol consumption. Adolescents who use drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine directly alter the structure and development of neurons in the limbic system of the brain. These changes make it very difficult and sometimes impossible for the individual to experience pleasure without using the drug. Over time the changes to the brain may result in tolerance and cause the adolescent to depend on the drug resulting in drug addiction. In some cases the brain changes themselves may become permanent although science has not completely uncovered all of the data behind this question. Some studies have shown that adolescents that have abstained from chronic marijuana use continued to show evidence of impairment in memory, abstract thinking and ability to focus attention for up to 12 weeks.
Environmental Issues In addition to the primary effect of the chemical on the adolescent brain there are other factors at play when
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one considers the idea of “illegal” involvement. Any child exposed to an environment where illegal activity is involved has been exposed to several factors immediately: lying, hiding information, sneaking around, disrespect of authority, insufficient parental supervision, insufficient or ineffective communication between parent/child, lack of respect for boundaries, potential legal consequences, potential impact on continuation in school involvement, potential for violence. At best these factors are stressful. At most they can be life altering. Adolescents who begin the cycle of illegal involvement often begin to tell themselves that “everybody does it.” This is primarily due to the fact that they start to eliminate friends/family etc., who do not participate in the same behaviors that they participate in order to continue their use of drugs. This provides them with “permission” to continue their behavior. If their parents are the ones who introduce them to the drugs it is even harder to convince an adolescent that drugs are potentially dangerous/damaging
Specific Illicit Drugs The entry point for illegal drug use is often marijuana. Marijuana is also one of the most difficult drugs to discontinue. Research has shown that the risk of marijuana dependence increases six times for individuals who begin use prior to age 15 than for those who try marijuana after age 18. A growing area of concern is inhalant abuse in teen years. Solvents are readily available and parents are often unaware that common household chemicals are being abused by their child. Breathing in chemical solvents is called “huffing” and rapidly cause the user to become high. Common chemicals include glues, nail polish remover, spray paints (silver and gold metallic especially), lighter fluid, felt tip markers, hair sprays, some deodorants, gasoline, butane, cleaning fluids and most commonly whipped cream canisters (whippets). Inhalants can disrupt cardiac conduction and cause death very rapidly or lower blood oxygen levels causing serious harm to the brain, liver, kidneys and heart. The National Institute of Drug Abuse sponsored a study in 2006 that uncovered startling statistics that 16.1% of eighth graders, 13.3% of tenth graders and 11.1% of 12th graders had used inhalants at least once. Another common source of illegal drugs is the medicine cabinet. Teens are looking in their parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles and neighbors medicine cabinets for medications that they can “try” or sell. Most commonly these medications include: oxycodone, hydrocodone, phenobarbitol, lorazepam, oxazepam and a variety of
other medications including antidepressants. Many medications can be ordered over the internet. Heroin is making a huge comeback among the middle and upper-middle class. Adolescents that are Ivy-league bound are finding that heroin is a cheap substitute for the expensive Oxycontin that they may have found themselves addicted to courtesy of “friends.”
Availability of Illicit Drugs According to the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the overall use of illicit drugs is declining by teens age 12–17 since 2002 (Fig. 1). Of the youth who did use illicit drugs in both 2006 and 2007, over half aged 12 and older said they got the drugs they used most recently “from a friend or relative for free.” In a follow-up question, the majority of these respondents indicated that their friend or relative had obtained the drugs from one doctor. Among persons aged 12 or older in 2007 who abused pain relievers 56.5% said they got the pain relievers from a friend or relative for free. Another 8.9% bought them from a friend or relative, and 5.2% reported stealing them from a friend or relative. In 2007, 44.3% of past year methamphetamine users aged 12 or older reported that they obtained the methamphetamine they used most recently from a friend or relative for free. Another 30.4% bought it from a friend or relative. Around one in five users (19.8%) bought it from a drug dealer or other stranger.
Risk Factors Illicit drug use in childhood or adolescence is usually predicted by several risk factors, or variables. A risk factor is defined as any condition that if present increases the probability that a certain unfavorable outcome will occur. Research supports that in most cases multiple risk factors must be in place for an adolescent to actually develop substance related problems however the greater the number of risk factors, the higher the likelihood of developing substance use or abuse problems. Some common risk factors include: 1. Permissive or favorable parental attitudes 2. Actual parental substance use/abuse (even if the child is not aware of actual use) 3. High family conflict 4. Inconsistent family discipline/boundaries 5. Difficult temperament 6. Low sociability 7. Rejection by peers 8. Academic failure 9. Aggressiveness
Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence
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Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence. Fig. 1 Past month use of selected illicit drugs among youths aged 12–17:2002–2007 [1].
10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
Peers who use drugs Low self esteem Negative mood Impulsivity High arousal needs High need for social approval Low assertiveness Low harm avoidance Disregard for authority (disrespect for authority) Biological predisposition Maladaptive coping responses to stress Sexual victimization in childhood or adolescence Lack of parental support/monitoring
Protective Factors Protective factors for prevention of illicit substance abuse in children and adolescents include those factors likely to limit, prevent or reduce a negative outcome. These factors serve as a “buffer” between potential risk factors and substance use choices. Some common protective factors include: 1. Parents that talk to their children about drugs and alcohol and the dangers of use openly 2. Involvement in academic and extracurricular activities 3. Involvement in religious activities 4. Academic achievement 5. Strong attachment to school 6. Positive learning environment
7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
Low conflict with parents and teachers Peers that do not drink or use drugs Prosocial bonding and behaviors Strong family relationships High self esteem or self-acceptance Self-efficacy Harm avoidance Commitment to societal norms Low family conflict Affectionate parental relationship Parental monitoring Clear, consistent standards and expectations from parents 19. Long term life goals 20. Clear communication within the family 21. Structure in the family setting
Progression of the Disease Treatment centers are noticing that individuals who are coming in for treatment have started using at a much younger age, therefore their length of time using drugs or alcohol is much longer. Studies have shown that adolescents who start drinking before the age of 15 are 4 times more likely to develop an addictive disease than adolescents who do not, regardless of genetic or environmental factors.
How to Tell if an Adolescent is Using Drugs 1. Change in overall function from previous year or two 2. Obvious presence of drugs or alcohol
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3. Change in grades, motivation, skipping classes 4. Significant change in mood (especially irritability and suicidal thoughts) 5. Decreased interest in social activities and/or favorite hobby 6. Significant change in sleep habits 7. Difficulty paying attention and concentrating 8. Change in appetite (much more or less) and/or hygiene 9. Associate with different peer group that does not want to socialize with family activities 10. Legal problems, gang involvement 11. Disregard for authority, rules One or two of the above (with the exception of #2) does not constitute cause for alarm, however any combination of three or more should point toward a formal assessment for drug abuse evaluation. Any change in mood especially suicidal ideation should include evaluation for significant mood disorder as part of the evaluation.
References 1.
2.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies (2008). Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings (NSDUH Series H-34, DHHS Publication No. SMA 08-4343). Rockville, MD. Warren, L. (2007). A Disease of Young People. In J. Hoffman & S. Froemken (Eds.), Addiction: Why can’t they just stop? (pp. 84–113). New York: Rodale.
Suggested Resources Faces and Voices of Recover is a National campaign of people in long-term recovery advocating the end of discrimination and assisting understanding of addiction as a national health crisis: www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org Join Together is a program of the Boston University School of Public Health and the Nation’s leading provider of information, assistance and leadership regarding substance abuse and addiction: www. jointogether.org The Addiction Technology Transfer Centers are funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and are dedicated to identifying opportunities and advancing addition treatment: www.naatc.org The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) is Canada’s national addictions agency with a mission of providing evidence based information to help reduce problems associated with substance abuse: www.ccsa.ca The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment promotes quality community based substance-abuse treatment services under the substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant: www.csat.samhsa.gov The National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information provides extensive information about prevention, treatment and recovery in both Spanish and English: www.ncadi.samhsa.gov The National Institute on Drug Abuse brings the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction and supports most of the worlds research in this area: www.nida.nih.gov
The Office of National Drug Control Policy – Parents: The anti-drug was created by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign to equip parents with tools they need to raise drug-free kids: www. theantidrug.com The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is focused on building resilience and facilitating recovery for people at risk for substance addiction: www.samhsa.gov
Illicit Drugs Illicit or illegal drugs include those that are made to be sold legitimately with a physician’s prescription but are marketed illegally without a prescription or some more common street drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.
Illicit Substance Use/Abuse ▶Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence
Images ▶Imaging Techniques
Imaginary Audience MARIE-ANNE ISSA, KEVIN L. NADAL John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Adolescent egocentrism; Egocentrism; Personal fable
Definition The concept of imaginary audience refers to the tendency of adolescents to see themselves as objects of others’ attention and evaluation.
Description The idea of imaginary audience was originally proposed by Elkind in 1967 [2], as a part of the adolescent’s egocentrism, which refers to a lack of differentiation between the ego and the external world. Therefore, the adolescent
Imaginary Audience
cannot distinguish between what other people are actually thinking, and what he or she is preoccupied with. Elkind proposed that imaginary audience emerges with the start of formal operational thought, in which young adolescents can conceptualize their own thoughts, as well as other people’s thoughts. However, the adolescents, now able to conceptualize other people’s thoughts, may think that others are being critical or admiring of them, as the adolescents may be of themselves. As a result of worrying about others’ perceptions, the adolescents may become self-conscious. Imaginary audience has been found to be associated with many behaviors and psychological constructs, such as self-consciousness, dating behavior, peer group conformity, susceptibility to peer pressure, parent-child interactions, and problem behaviors [7]. Generally, females have been shown to score higher on imaginary audience than males, and imaginary audience should decrease by the age of 15 or 16, the age where formal operational thought becomes strongly established [1]. There are a few critiques to the concept of imaginary audience. One critique is the lack of an operational definition. Research has supported that the measures that have been developed have been unreliable and are in need of revisions [7, 9, 10]. The most widely used scale, the imaginary audience scale (IAS; [3]), is made of two subscales: the transient self (TS) and the abiding self (AS). The TS scale contains six potentially embarrassing situations, while the AS scale contains six potentially selfrevealing situations. Subjects answer from three possible choices, ranging from 1 (low) to 3 (high). However, the IAS has been criticized due to the lack of strong psychometric properties, its measure of self-consciousness rather than imaginary audience, and its reliance on hypothetical situations. In addition, the audience the scale refers to is not defined and its meaning can vary with different age groups, rendering the results unreliable. The second measure is the new imaginary audience scale (NIAS; [5]), which contains 42 items measuring how much adolescents engage in object relational ideations and personal fantasies. Adolescents rate the items on a fourpoint Likert scale (ranging from never to often), with higher scores depicting higher sensitivity to imaginary audience. The third measure is the adolescent egocentrism scale (AES; [4]) consisting of descriptive statements that subjects rate in terms of importance; the higher the score, the higher sensitivity to imaginary audience. Given the lack of operational definition, research focusing on imaginary audience has been inconsistent. For example, several studies have failed to consistently show a relationship between the concept and formal operational
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thought, as well as an inverse relationship with age. For instance, recent research has shown that imaginary audience has been seen in late adolescents, and even in young adults going into college, which might indicate that imaginary audience might re-emerge when a person is going into a new social context or life event [6, 8]. Lapsley and his colleagues proposed an alternative theoretical framework, the “new look,” whereby imaginary audience is viewed in the context of social-cognitive development. The “new look” proposed that the concept is a consequence of separation-individuation. Separationindividuation happens when the adolescent de-idealizes the parent, which creates “mourning reactions” where the adolescent is left empty and isolated. In order to fill in this void, narcissism ensues to protect the ego, until the adolescent is able to regulate from internal sources (regardless of the parent). Therefore the “new look” suggested that imaginary audience is an ideation pattern that actually helps ego development; it restores the adolescent’s selfesteem when he or she faces “mourning reactions.” This theoretical framework has found more empirical support among researchers. Future research needs to focus more on operationalizing the concept, and developing measures that are more valid and reliable. Also, to better understand the developmental unfolding of the concept, longitudinal studies need to be conducted. Finally, cross-cultural research should shed more light on the importance of familial, environmental, and physiological aspects in the emergence and subsidence of imaginary audience.
References 1. Bell, J. H., & Bromnick, R. D. (2003). The social reality of the imaginary audience: A grounded theory approach. Adolescence, 38(150), 205–219. 2. Elkind, D. (1967). Egocentrism in adolescence. Child Development, 38(4), 1025–1034. 3. Elkind, D., & Bowen, R. (1979). Imaginary audience behavior in children and adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 15(1), 38–44. 4. Enright, R., Lapsley, D., & Shukla, D. (1979). Adolescent egocentrism in early and late adolescence. Adolescence, 14, 687–695. 5. Lapsley, D. K., FitzGerald, D. P., Rice, K. R., & Jackson, S. (1989). Separation-individuation and the “new look” at the imaginary audience and personal fable: A test of an integrative model. Journal of Adolescent Research, 4, 483–505. 6. Peterson, K. L., & Roscoe, B. (1991). Imaginary audience behavior in older adolescent females. Adolescence, 26(101), 195–200. 7. Ryan, R. M., & Kuczkowski, R. (1994). The imaginary audience, selfconsciousness, and public individuation in adolescence. Journal of Personality, 62(2), 219–238. 8. Schwartz, P. D., Maynard, A. M., & Uzelac, A. M. (2008). Adolescent egocentrism: A contemporary view. Adolescence, 43(171), 441–448. 9. Vartanian, L. R. (2001). Adolescents’ reactions to hypothetical peer group conversations: Evidence for an imaginary audience? Adolescence, 36(142), 347–380.
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10. Vartanian, L. R., & Powlishta, K. K. (2001). Demand characteristics and self-report measures of imaginary audience sensitivity: Implications for interpreting age differences in adolescent egocentrism. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 162(2), 187–200.
considerations. Younger children may likely have difficulty recalling images given their abstract properties. Thus this tool should be reserved for students who possess some skill in strategy use to which this technique may be incorporated.
References
Imaginative Play ▶Pretend Play
Imaginativeness ▶Creativity
Imaging Techniques NORMA S. GUERRA University of Texas, San Antonio, TX, USA
1. 2.
Anderson, J. R. (2005). Cognitive psychology and its implications (6th ed.). New York: Worth. Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational psychology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Imitation ▶Social Learning Theory
Imitation Syndrome ▶Echopraxia
Synonyms Images
Definition
Imitation Training ▶Behavior Modeling
Images are representations based on the composition and look of information [1]. Imaging techniques refer to the methods in which a person stores and recalls images.
Description Imaging techniques are often used as a tool to facilitate learning. As images are created, we try to recall the tangible characteristics and spatial formation of information. Not all researchers agree on how memory stores images: some believe images are stored as pictures while others believe propositions are stored in long-term memory then transformed to pictures in working memory and recalled as needed. It is however generally accepted that both processes are involved: some recollection of images and some of verbal descriptions. Mentally transforming and rotating images can be used in abstract reasoning and practical decisions [2]. In terms of application, imaging techniques provide opportunity for the development of creative associations. In using imaging techniques there are maturation
Immediate Memory ▶Short-term Memory
Immigrant Children CARRIE L. CASTAN˜EDA-SOUND, CYNTHIA G. GONZA´LEZ Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms First-generation immigrant children; Immigrant youth; Refugee
Immigrant Children
Definition Immigrant children were born in their native country, but migrated and reside in a foreign country.
Description Migration According to United States Census Bureau data, one of every five children in the U.S. is a member of an immigrant family, and the majority of those accounted for were either of Latino or Asian descent. Specifically, immigrant children from Mexico account for the largest group at 40% [10]. Most of these children reside across the six states of California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas with more than 75% attending school in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas according to Department of Education records [4]. Legal immigrants accounted for 85% of census totals with reason and mode of migration varying greatly [4]. Immigrant children often migrate with their parents, but in some instances these children migrate with relatives, friends, or strangers to reunite with family members. Both pre-migratory and migratory conditions will affect children’s well-being once they arrive to the host country. For instance, some immigrant children come from impoverished and/or war-torn and politically unstable countries and may be referred to as refugees. Sluzki conceptualized the immigration experience as including the preparatory stage and the act of migration [18]. The preparatory stage involves planning and the ability to say good-bye to family and friends. The act of migration is an experience that varies for each child and family and will be influenced by factors such as socio-economic status, the requirements for permission to leave the country of origin, and the possession of documents of legal residency within the new country. In cases where immigrant children must leave and enter countries without authorization, or as refugees, the process may be traumatizing if they have witnessed acts of violence or experienced imminent fear of being harmed. Children who have migrated under these circumstances may show symptoms of psychological disorders, social maladjustment and health issues [8].
Acculturation and Acculturative Stress Upon arrival to the new country, the changes immigrant children experience have been conceptualized as acculturation [14]. The migration experience is thought to influence the individual’s mode of acculturation [8]. Therefore, the directionality of the assimilation process as being either unidirectional or bidirectional has met with controversy [3]. Acculturation requires changes at all levels of
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an immigrant family including changes in language and culture [20]. Immigrant children often acculturate to the new country more quickly than the adults in their life. Researchers have attributed this to the influence of attending school. When the transition to the new country is difficult and there seems a lack of “goodness of fit”, the child may experience acculturative stress. Acculturative stress has been found to be greater after the age of 14, and to negatively impact physical health and mental health outcomes [3, 11, 13]. Factors that may contribute to acculturative stress include the context of the family’s arrival to the new country and the environment where they choose to reside. For example, the status of the government’s policy toward that specific immigrant group may influence services received or the family’s documentation status (e.g., refugee, legal permanent resident, or undocumented). Also, society’s sentiment toward that particular group and the location of residence can create an atmosphere ranging from alienation to validation and support [19]. A supportive community of residence may provide cultural brokers to the newly immigrated child and family who can make the transition much easier. Cultural brokers speak the language of the immigrant family and of the host country and are able to explain the customs and laws of the new country to the family.
Impacts of Language Early language minority immigrant groups within the U.S. experienced hostility and open discrimination [22]. The larger society tried to blend in the overwhelming numbers of immigrants by teaching them the majority language while not accepting the native language [9, 22]. Many experienced alienation from mainstream culture as a function of limited proficiency. Additionally, limited language proficiency was often precluded by low SES, limited literacy and education, and poor social support [8].
Language and Family Adding to the complexity of issues related to family structure is language. It poses one of the greatest struggles in the immigrant parent’s attempt to maintain ‘control’ over their children’s sense of values and heritage. Because language proficiency and competence are means to accessing services and meeting needs, it often creates a dynamic which can either strengthen family bonds or alienate from the new culture [8, 12]. Because immigrant children often learn the language of the new country more quickly than their parents and relatives, they often serve as language brokers. This role involves the responsibility for
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translating and interpreting for family members and often other monolingual individuals in their community. Researchers have identified that on average immigrant children begin language brokering at the age of 9 or 10 [6].
Language and School Literacy skills and educational background are thought to contribute to the rate of language acquisition. Lower levels of literacy make it more difficult to profit from formal educational opportunity [8]. Immigrant children bring experiences, language variation and levels of literacy that greatly influence their readiness for second language acquisition and equip them for formal education and learning. Characteristics and social factors such as motivation, attitude, and native language proficiency can also lead to enhancing or deterring second language acquisition. “Pragmatic language skills” greatly contribute to adapting and accessing social interactions by serving as rules of interpersonal communication [5]. Such organizational cues as eye contact, body language, conversational etiquette serve the common purpose of engaging and sustaining acceptable social interaction [5]. The visual, verbal, and kinesthetic cues referred to as the “thematic redundance approach” are considered multimodal approaches and are as important as language itself in creating a platform for sociolinguistic development through repetitive language use and social and cultural context for interaction [5, 16]. The rate of second language acquisition can be influenced greatly by social, emotional and cultural factors. Immigrant children are likely to respond to the degree of social pressure created and alienation created for both family and community [1]. However, there is strong evidence that ‘home language use’ can have a positive effect on and improve academics and achievement [2]. Ada et al. also refer to the family and community as “social capital” and suggest that schools should use it to improve rather than alienate and negatively impact the second language learner’s achievement [2]. Similarly, language acquisition for first and second language learners has been found to be affected by age of arrival and length of residency for immigrants. Generally, research has found that children become literate at different rates and in different ways [7, 21]. For example, oral language proficiency requires 2–3 years to establish and 5–7 for higher levels of competency [7]. Literature on English language learner immigrants also suggests that the diversity of skill levels is expanding so greatly that needs may be best served through individualized educational planning rather than through existing general language development programs. This approach may require
that a more “student-centered pedagogy” be in place to meet such great needs [15, 17].
Relevance to Childhood Development Although at risk for psychological problems and delays in language acquisition, immigrant children and their families can also be viewed as resilient with much strength related to daily survival in a foreign country. Indeed, language proficiency of immigrant children is a key factor in educational success; however, greater proficiency can increase access to learning and opportunity, increasing the likelihood of better daily functioning while fostering confidence and hope of success in their new society [8].
References 1. Ada, A. F., Campoy, F. I., & Zubizarreta, R. (2001a). Assessing our work with parents on behalf of children’s literacy. In S. R. Hurley & J. V. Tinajero (Eds.), Literacy assessment of second language learners (pp. 167–169). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 2. Ada, A. F., Campoy, F. I., & Zubizarreta, R. (2001b). Assessment and intervention with culturally and linguistically diverse learners. In S. R. Hurley & J. V. Tinajero (Eds.), Literacy assessment of second language learners (p. 170, 171). Needingham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. 3. Aponte, J. F., & Barnes, J. M. (1995). Impact of acculturation and moderator variables in the intervention and treatment of ethnic groups. In J. F. Aponte, R. Y. Rivers, & J. Wohl (Eds.), Psychological interventions and cultural diversity (pp. 19–38). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 4. Board on Children and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. (1995). Immigrant children and their families: Issues for research and policy. Critical Issues for Children and Youths, 5(2), 72–89. 5. Brice, A. E. (2002). The Hispanic child: Speech, language, culture, & education (pp. 106–111). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 6. Buriel, R., Perez, W., DeMent, T. L., Chavez, D. V., & Moran, V. R. (1998). The relationship of language brokering to academic performance, biculturalism, and self-efficacy among Latino adolescents. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 20(3), 283–297. 7. Collier, V. (1987). Age and rate of acquisition of second language for academic purposes. TESOL Quarterly, 21(4), 617–640. 8. Gopaul-McNichol, S., & Thomas-Presswood, T. (1998). Working with linguistically and culturally different children: Innovative clinical and educational approaches (pp. 8, 9, 15–22, 35–37). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. 9. Hartmann, E. G. (1948). The movement to Americanize the immigrant. New York: Columbia University Press (pp. 24–27). In A better chance to learn: bilingual-bicultural education. Clearinghouse Publication #51. Washington, DC: U.S. Commission of Civil Rights. 10. Hernandez, D. J., Denton, N. A., & Macartney, S. E. (2007). Children in immigrant families – The U.S. and 50 states: National origins, language, and early education. Publication #2007-11. Child Trends and the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, University at Albany, SUNY: 2007 Research Brief Series. 11. Lee, J., Koeske, G. R., & Sales, E. (1994). Social support buffering of acculturative stress: A study of mental health symptoms among Korean international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 28, 399–414.
Impulse Control 12. Lynch, E. W. (1992). From culture shock to cultural learning. In E. W. Lynch & M. J. Hanson (Eds.), Developing cross-cultural competence (pp. 19–34). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing. 13. Morrow, R. D. (1994). Immigration, refugee and generation status as related to behavioral disorders. In R. L. Peterson & S. IshiiJordon (Eds.), Multicultural issues in the education of students with behavioral disorders (pp. 196–207). Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books. 14. Padilla, A. M., & Perez, W. (2003). Acculturation, social identity, and social cognition: A new perspective. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 25, 35–55. 15. Reyes, P., Scribner, J., & Paredes-Scribner, A. (1999). Lessons from high performing Hispanic schools: Creating learning communities. New York: Teacher College Press. 16. Roseberry-McKibbin, C. (2002). Principles and strategies in intervention. In A. E. Brice (Ed.), The Hispanic child: Speech, language, culture, and education (p. 216, 217). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. 17. Ruiz De Velasco, J. (2005). Performance based school reforms and the federal role in helping schools that serve language minority students. In A. Valenzuela (Ed.), Leaving children behind: How Texas style accountability fails Latino youth (p. 38). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 18. Sluzki, C. (1979). Migration and family conflict. Family Process, 18, 379–390. 19. Sua´rez-Orozco, C., & Sua´rez-Orozco, M. M. (2001). Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 20. Thomas, T. N. (1995). Acculturative stress in the adjustment of immigrant families. Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, 4(2), 131–142. 21. Tinajero, J. V., & Hurley, S. R. (2001). Assessing progress in second language acquisition. In S. R. Hurley & J. V. Tinajero (Eds.), Literacy assessment of second language learners. Needingham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. 22. U.S. Commission of Civil Rights. (1975). A better chance to learn: Bilingual-bicultural education. Clearinghouse Publication #51. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
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Immunologic Deficiency Syndrome Acquired ▶Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
Impaired Language ▶Aphasia
Implicit Knowledge ▶Analytic Intelligence
Imprinting ▶Bonding
Impulse Control Immigrant Youth ▶Immigrant Children
Imminent Justice ▶Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
BROOKE A. BAILER1, JENNIFER J. LINDWALL1, BRIAN P. DALY2 1 Temple University Health Sciences Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA 2 Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Synonyms Cognitive control; Deferred gratification; Delay of gratification; Self-control; Self-regulation
Definition The ability to resist the impulse, drive, or temptation to perform an action.
Immunodeficiency Syndrome Acquired ▶Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
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Description Impulse control, or the ability to resist a drive to perform an action, is an ability that develops over time in an
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individual. The factors contributing to the development of impulse control are complex and involve multiple domains including biological, developmental, psychological, and cultural factors [1]. The biological/anatomical aspects of the development of impulse control primarily relate to the development of specific brain structures. The cortical regions of the brain, generally the ▶prefrontal cortex and more specifically the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), are thought to be responsible for regulation of impulse control. Lower volume of the orbitofrontal cortex, located in the lower region of the frontal cortex close to the orbital region of the skull, has been associated with greater impulsivity [2]. It is notable that the brain continues to develop through age 25, which accounts for the gradual appearance of impulse control over the course of development as the brain becomes better equipped to resist certain drives. In addition to anatomical or physiological explanations for the development of impulse control, psychological factors, including child temperament and parenting style, also have been implicated in the development and expression of impulse control. Several dimensions of temperament have been assumed to influence impulse control including irritability, unsoothability, or stimulation seeking [3]. Researchers also found that responsive and cognitively stimulating mothering tended to be associated with improved impulse control and delay of gratification in their 2-year-old children. Findings also revealed that security of mother attachment predicted better impulse control in boys [3]. A child’s ability to control his/her impulses may have important later-life consequences. For example, in longitudinal studies looking at delay of gratification, 4-year-old children who were able to delay a reward in a lab setting were described as more academically and socially competent than their peers, and as having higher frustration tolerance and a better ability to resist temptation when they were described 10 years later. These children also were generally more effective communicators, had better reasoning skills, and seemed to be more skilled at tasks involving concentration and planning. Better outcomes also were seen in psychological domains, in that these children developed more effective coping skills, were better able to manage stress and were described as more selfassured [4].
away when they are finished eating. These acts are performed with no regard for the consequences and are simply in response to an impulse [5]. In the second year of life, a child may have some regard for consequences or limits set by an adult, such as responding to a parent’s request to stop doing something. The child will also learn about the things that he or she has been told not to touch or do and acknowledge the acquisition of this knowledge although he or she may still engage in the discouraged behavior. For example, a child may look at an object (such as a lightbulb) and say “no touch” while reaching for the object. Children also may look at their parent while reaching for the object and saying “no touch”, awaiting the parent’s reaction to determine whether it is safe to reach for the object. The beginnings of impulse control are starting to be expressed in this developmental stage [5]. During the third year of life, a child may begin to voluntarily control their behavioral impulses and expression of emotion. For example, a child will begin to share, even though their impulse is to keep the object for themselves. The child also may voluntarily use gentle touch with an animal, instead of having to be reminded [5]. ▶Cognitive control begins to develop at 18 months of age and continues to develop throughout childhood, as the child’s cognitive abilities become more sophisticated, not reaching full maturity until after age 12. During this time, it is possible to see significant individual differences in a child’s ability to control his/her impulses [6]. Adolescence marks a critical developmental stage for the development and application of impulse control. During this time period, there tends to be an increase in risky and impulsive behaviors. Two important brain structures, the accumbens and the prefrontal cortex, develop during adolescence and are implicated in the regulation of impulse control. The accumbens, which develops first, is responsible for reward anticipation. The prefrontal cortex is associated with increased cognitive efficiency and control and develops at a slower rate. Therefore, adolescents experience increased anticipation for rewards while not having the brain structures associated with cognitive control. This leads to the development of impulsive behavior, or, a strong drive for seeking out rewards with little regard for the consequences [7].
Impulse Control Disorders Relevance to Childhood Development Impulse control is present in varying degrees throughout a child’s development. During the first year of life, an infant acts on impulses. Infants may pull hair, reach for a toy that is being used by another child, or push a bottle
Several psychological disorders characterized primarily by a loss of control are included in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual-IV-TR [8]. The DSM-IV-TR details the following impulse control disorders: Intermittent Explosive Disorder; Kleptomania; Trichotillomania; Pyromania;
Impulse Control
Pathological Gambling; and Impulse Control Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified. Impulse control disorders are experienced by approximately 5–15% of the US population. From a developmental perspective, children and adolescents are thought to be affected by intermittent explosive disorder, pyromania, and trichotillomania, while adults would be more likely to be diagnosed with kleptomania or pathological gambling. The defining characteristics of intermittent explosive disorder (IED) include recurrent episodes of a failure to resist aggressive impulses that frequently result in serious assault against persons or in the destruction of property. Notably, these violent and aggressive outbursts occur in significant disproportion to any precipitating psychosocial stressors or events that trigger them. The aggressive outbursts tend to have a sudden onset, and are short-lived, typically lasting less than 30 minutes. Individuals diagnosed with IED often report feelings of relief and eventual remorse following their impulsive and aggressive behavior. Most of the aggressive outbursts are associated with a minor provocation from a close partner, friend, or associate; however, there are instances with no identifiable provocation [9]. IED typically first appears in adolescence or the young adult years with a mean age of onset at 15 years; however, there are some cases that begin as early as childhood. The average duration of diagnosis is approximately 20 years [10]. There is a significant gender disparity in diagnosis, with males being three to four times more likely than females to be diagnosed with IED. Genetics play a significant role in IED, as individuals with this diagnosis often have multigenerational histories of family violence. Trichotillomania is characterized by recurrent, persistent, and excessive pulling out of one’s own hair resulting in noticeable hair loss. Individuals may engage in trichotillomania during both relaxed and stressful times, but often report feeling a sense of tension before the hair pulling, and a feeling of release, pleasure, or gratification following the act. This disorder must result in clinical distress or impairment in life functioning. The primary target for hair pulling involves hair on the scalp, although hair from other parts of the body (e.g., eyelashes, eyebrows, beard, torso) also may be pulled. The recurrent nature of the hair pulling often results in bald patches to the affected area. Hair pulling may occur for short repeated episodes or for longer periods that may last several hours. In childhood, the observance of trichotillomania among males and females is approximately equal; in adults, it is much more common in females than in
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males. Determining an accurate prevalence rate is challenging because of frequent denial of the disorder and the failure of many individuals with the disorder to seek professional intervention. In the most well-cited study of college students, approximately 1–2% had past or current symptoms of trichotillomania [11]. The primary ages of onset are between 5 and 8 years of age and 13 years, with an average duration of 21 years. Astute clinical evaluation is necessary for younger children because trichotillomania is often mistaken for a short-term habit of hair pulling. In fact, the behavior must last several months to be considered trichotillomania. Although the etiology of trichotillomania continues to be unknown, several lines of research suggest a neurological link to high rates of glucose metabolization, a possible serotonin deficiency, and it also is thought to have a genetic component. Pyromania is a disorder characterized by deliberate fire setting on more than one occasion. Pyromaniacs set fires for pleasure, and often experience a sense of relief or gratification from the experience. Individuals with this disorder also have an intense fascination with fire and burning objects, as well as with watching firefighters and their efforts to put out fires. Pyromaniacs are not motivated to set fires for financial gain, to hide criminal activity, or to express anger or revenge; rather, their impulsive behavior is primarily driven by their fascination with watching things burn. The majority of pyromaniacs have a history of fire setting that began in childhood. Pyromania is considered to be rare at any age and even rarer in childhood. Indeed, the incidence of pyromania is less than 1% in most studies. Further, in those instances when children and adolescents are arrested for pyromania, only a very small percentage qualifies as true pyromaniacs. The gender distribution is skewed heavily male, with over 90% of those diagnosed with pyromania being male. Pyromaniacs frequently have comorbid behavior, attention, and learning problems. In some cases, there is a positive history of sexual abuse and/or cruelty to animals. Common biological characteristics associated with pyromaniacs include abnormalities in the levels of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin, as well as low blood sugar levels. Although not a defining symptomatic feature, poor impulse control may be present in children and adolescents diagnosed with externalizing disorders such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), or Conduct Disorder (CD), as well as obsessive–compulsive spectrum disorders. Impulse control disorders may be treated using a number of methods, including psychological and
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pharmacological interventions. Psychological interventions include behavioral techniques taught to the child as well as the parents that address the impulsive behaviors and identify any associated triggers associated, delineate the negative consequences of acting on those impulses, and learn ways to resist the impulse [12]. Because some research suggests that low serotonergic levels are implicated in the onset of impulse control disorder, pharmacologic medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been shown to reduce impulsive behaviors associated with many of the previously described impulse control disorders. There is some evidence that other pharmacologic agents such as lithium, buspirone, and anticonvulsants also are effective in managing impulsivity. In children with ADHD, psychostimulant agents may be utilized to reduce impulsivity [13]. Pharmacological and psychological interventions may be used separately or together in the treatment of impulse control disorders.
References 1. Sadock, B. J., & Sadock, V. A. (2003). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences, clinical psychiatry (9th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins. 2. Hill, S. Y., Wang, S., Kostelnik, B., Carter, H., Holmes, B., McDermott, M., et al. (2009). Disruption of orbitofrontal cortex laterality in offspring from multiplex alcohol dependence families. Biological Psychiatry, 65, 129–136. 3. Olson, S. L., Bates, J. E., & Bayles, K. (1990). Early antecedents of childhood impulsivity: The role of parent–child interaction, cognitive competence, and temperament. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 317–334. 4. Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriquez, M. (1989). Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244, 933–938. 5. California Department of Education. (2009). Foundation: Impulse control. Retrieved September 28, 2009, from http://www.education. ca.gov/sp/cd/re/itf09socemofdimpc.asp?print=yes. 6. Eigsti, I., Zayas, V., Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., Ayduk, O., Dadlani, M., et al. (2006). Predicting cognitive control from preschool to late adolescence and young adulthood. Psychological Science, 17, 478–484. 7. Casey, B., Getz, S., & Galvan, A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Developmental Review, 28, 62–77. 8. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington: Author. 9. Grant, J. E. (2008). Impulse control disorders: A clinician’s guide to understanding and treating behavioral addictions. New York: W.W. Norton. 10. Cocarro, E. (2000). Intermittent explosive disorder. Current Psychiatry Reports, 2, 67–71. 11. Christenson, G. A., Pyle, R. L., & Mitchell, J. E. (1991). Estimated lifetime prevalence of trichotillomania in college students. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 52, 415–47. 12. Jongsma, A. E., Peterson, M., McInnis, W. P., & Berghuis, D. J. (2007). The child psychotherapy progress note planner. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
13. Yudofsky, S. C., & Hales, R. E. (2008). The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of neuropsychiatry and behavioral neurosciences (5th ed.). Washington: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
Impulsive Aggression ▶Hostile Aggression
Impulsivity DESPINA STAVRINOS, DAVID C. SCHWEBEL University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Disinhibition; Temporal discounting
Definition Impulsivity refers to a behavior pattern in which individuals demonstrate deficient control over their behavior. Multiple biological and environmental sources are believed to contribute to this temperament dimension. Extreme impulsivity that impairs one’s level of functioning has been characterized as a hallmark of a number of childhood behavioral disorders. A variety of assessment techniques have been employed to measure impulsivity, including observer-rating scales, self-report, and neuropsychological tasks.
Description Impulsivity is a dimension frequently included in theories of child temperament, behavior, and personality. While there is no widely adopted definition of impulsivity, there are a number of behaviors and behavioral tendencies universally identified as characterizing the construct, including executing action without thinking, having difficulty withholding or inhibiting action, and having the tendency to seek out immediate gratification at the expense of longer-term goals [10]. In the hierarchy of temperament factors, impulsivity is suggested by most theorists to form part of the higher order concept extraversion, together with sociability and sensation seeking [6].
Impulsivity
Many believe the construct of impulsivity includes both cognitive and behavioral components [2, 5]. There are a number of factors that may cause one to have difficulties with impulsivity. Cognitive and behavioral factors hypothesized to be involved include attentional functioning, task comprehension, processes involved in initiating and executing responses, processes involved in delaying, inhibiting, or interrupting responses, and mechanisms of processing feedback from the environment, including the processing of reward and punishment. Environmental events may also trigger problems with impulsivity, including brain injury or other central nervous system insults, exposure to teratogenic agents, early traumatic experiences including social deprivation, child abuse and neglect, or genetic vulnerabilities that give rise to deficient executive control over behavior [3]. Although many researchers and practitioners focus on the extreme of high impulsivity, most theorists consider impulsivity to be a continuum, and therefore children fall at all levels of it. Extremely low levels of impulsivity may manifest themselves in extreme shyness, anxiety, or submissive behavior patterns. Within the normal range of functioning, impulsivity plays an important role in child development. Impulsive behavior patterns allow children to take risks, try new things, and learn and explore the world around them. Most of these outcomes are positive but at times, impulsive behavior patterns among normally developing children can lead to negative outcomes. For example, impulsive children may be at greater risk for unintentional injury [11]. Children with high levels of impulsive behavior may also experience difficulty learning or increased disciplinary action in classroom settings. Developmental psychopathology models suggest that impulsivity during the preschool years may represent the first stage in a trajectory that can progress to early onset delinquency and other antisocial behavior patterns [8]. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; [1]), impulsivity is a feature of some personality disorders (i.e., borderline personality disorder) and certain behavior disorders including conduct disorder, disruptive behavior disorder, and the Combined and Hyperactive/Impulsive subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In ADHD, impulsivity is manifested by the tendency to blurt out answers before questions are finished, to be impatient (i.e., difficulty in waiting one’s turn), and to interrupt others – all of which have implications for successful engagement in applied settings such as developing healthy peer relationships and succeeding in school and
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home environments [7, 13]. It has been well documented that stimulant medications along with behavioral interventions focusing on parent training and child behavior management may reduce impulsive behaviors in children with ADHD (e.g., [4, 9, 12]). Assessment of impulsivity in children is performed through multiple methods, including observer-rating scales (e.g., Child Behavior Questionnaire, Child Behavior Checklist, Conners Rating Scales), self-report measures (e.g., Eysenck I.6 Impulsiveness scale), and neuropsychological tests and cognitive tasks (e.g., Continuous Performance Test, Stroop word-color test, Trail Making Test). Given the multifaceted nature of impulsivity, it is advisable for clinicians and researchers to use multiple assessment methods completed by multiple reporters.
References 1. American Psychiatric Association (APA). (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association (APA). 2. Barratt, E. S., & Patton, J. H. (1983). Impulsivity: Cognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological correlates. In M. Zuckerman (Ed.), Biological bases of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and anxiety (pp. 77–121). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 3. Beauchaine, T. P., & Neuhaus, E. (2008). Impulsivity and vulnerability to psychopathology. In T. P. Beauchaine & S. P. Hinshaw (Eds.), Child and adolescent psychopathology (pp. 129–156). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 4. Conners, C. K. (2002). Forty years of methylphenidate treatment in attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Attention Disorders, 6, S17–30. 5. Derryberry, D., & Rothbart, M. K. (1997). Reactive and effortful processes of the organization of temperament. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 633–652. 6. Eysenck, H. J. (1970). The structure of human personality. London: Methuen. 7. Gomes, L., & Livesey, D. (2008). Exploring the link between impulsivity and peer relations in 5- and 6-year-old children. Child: Care, Health, and Development, 34, 763–770. 8. Granic, I., & Patterson, G. R. (2006). Toward a comprehensive model of antisocial development: A dynamic systems approach. Psychological Review, 11, 101–131. 9. Kaiser, N. M., Hoza, B., & Hurt, E. A. (2008). Multimodal treatment for childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 8, 1573–1583. 10. Schachar, R., & Logan, G. D. (1990). Impulsivity and inhibitory control in normal development and childhood psychopathology. Developmental Psychology, 26, 710–720. 11. Schwebel, D. C. (2004). The role of impulsivity in children’s estimation of physical ability: implications for children’s unintentional injury risk. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 74, 584–588. 12. Werry, J. S. (1976). Medication for hyperkinetic children. Drugs, 11, 81–89. 13. Zaparniuk, J., & Taylor, S. (1997). Impulsivity in children and adolescents. In C. D. Webster & M. A. Jackson (Eds.), Impulsivity: Theory, assessment, and treatment (pp. 158–179). New York: The Guilford Press.
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In Danger: in Jeopardy, Threatened, Susceptible
In Danger: in Jeopardy, Threatened, Susceptible
Inclination ▶Mood
▶At Risk
Inclusion In Residence
▶Mainstreaming
▶Group Homes
Inclusive Education Inadequate Growth
▶Full Inclusion ▶Mainstreaming
▶Failure to Thrive Syndrome
Inconsolable Inattention
▶Grieving
▶Distractibility
Independent Decision Making ▶Autonomy
Inattentiveness ▶Distractibility
Independent Variables ▶Variables, in Experimental Developmental Research
Incentives ▶Motivating Operations ▶Motivation
Incest ▶Sexual Abuse
Indifferent Parenting Style MARIA-EVA TSOLA, XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms Disengaged parenting style; Neglectful parenting style; Nonconformist parenting; Rejecting parenting style; Uninvolved parenting style
Indifferent Parenting Style
Definition One of two subtypes of the general style of permissive parenting. (Definition 1: Permissive parenting is a style of parenting identified by the research of Diana Baumrind that is characterized by few demands, excessive permissiveness and lack of structure, rules and limitations.) Parents whose behavior fits in this category are uninvolved with their children and fail to provide adequate support and structure.
Description Theoretical definitions of neglect vary, in part, depending on the purpose for which the definition is used. In general, neglect is conceptualized by most experts as parental behaviors that result in negative consequences to the child [5]. Unlike other forms of child abuse, neglect is an act of omission in care rather than commissions that endanger or harm children. Neglectful parents demonstrate a failure to provide adequate medical care, nutrition, education, and ageappropriate supervision for their children, as well as safety, emotional contact, and sufficient environmental stimulation and structure. Definitions of neglect also involve exposure of children to spousal abuse, as well as permitted substance abuse and other maladaptive conduct by a child [1]. These elements can occur in combination with each other and with other forms of abuse. The most pervasive feature characterizing indifferent parents appears to be a variety of parenting skills deficits. Indifferent parents are described as neither demanding nor responsive to the child. They engage in fewer positive interactions with children, less overall interaction, and more insensitive interactions. The indifferent parent is disengaged and emotionally distant from the child, is not dedicated to parenting roles and is disinterested in helping foster optimal development of the child. This type of parent tends to view parenting as a burden and may consequently limit both the quality and quantity of time dedicated to the child. Additionally, indifferent parents fail to implement guidelines and set regulations to control the child. Even though research is not conclusive, biological, personality-emotional, socio-cultural, and experiential factors have been proposed in the etiology of the behavior termed indifferent parenting. Experts agree that there is no single cause of child neglect; rather, a variety of factors are thought to be implicated in the production of behaviors that are typical of neglect. Several studies have indicated that indifferent parents are deficient in parenting skills, have more inappropriate expectations of their children, and lack both information concerning child development,
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and knowledge of the complexities of the parent–child bond [5, 11, 12]. Further parental characteristics that have been found to be associated with an indifferent parenting style include impulsivity, confusion, apathy, emotional detachment, and mental illness. In terms of personal demographics, parents who neglect their children are more likely than controls to be female, single, older, younger, and undereducated [12]. The absence of the father that has been observed in a significant number of neglectful families means lower income and less tangible resources to provide for children’s needs [5]. Additional factors involved in the etiology of child neglect include poverty, unemployment, social isolation, loneliness, low socio-economic status, and substance abuse [3, 5, 6, 12].
Relevance to Childhood Development The idea that early, maladaptive parent–child relations play a fundamental role in psychopathology has long been central to developmental theorizing. A substantial body of research suggests a strong relation between family dynamics and psychological adjustment. Parenting styles have been found to have a significant impact on a child’s physical well-being, psychosocial adjustment, academic achievement, and involvement in drugs or alcohol [1–3, 5, 12]. Indifferent parenting has been shown consistently to have detrimental effects on the adolescent’s mental health and development, leading to a variety of emotional and behavior problems. Children from neglectful environments experience developmental, neurological, emotional, and behavioral disturbances that prevent healthy growth and development [12]. In terms of physical health, neglected children have been found to suffer more problems, including malnutrition, failure to thrive, special needs, impaired visual and motor skills, poor hygiene, and substance abuse [12]. During infancy and childhood, sustained neglect can result in maladaptive socio-emotional patterns: neglected children demonstrate greater dependency, tend to have poor social skills and insecure attachment relationships, and show little concern for their peers’ distress. Neglected children also tend to express more negative emotions and to exhibit more avoidance, noncompliance, and conduct disorder. They have more difficulty monitoring and regulating their emotions [1, 6, 12]. Numerous studies indicate that indifferent or neglectful parenting tends to foster higher rates of impulsivity and involvement in delinquent behavior [4, 7–9, 11, 13]. Insufficient parental involvement, guidance and supervision have been shown to produce a disrupted and atypical attachment pattern between the child and the parent [10]. In turn, these early
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disturbances in attachment relations appear to lay the foundation for disturbances in developmental processes that can lead to various forms of psychopathology.
Indirect Aggression ▶Relational Aggression
References 1. Azar, S. T., & Cote, L. R. (2005). Cognitive-behavioral interventions with neglectful parents. In P. F. Talley (Ed.), Handbook for the treatment of abused and neglected children (pp. 145–181). New York: Haworth Press. 2. Barber, B. K., Olsen, J. E., & Shagle, S. C. (1994). Associations between parental psychological and behavioral control and youth internalized and externalized behaviors. Child Development, 65(4), 1120–1136. 3. Crittenden, P. M. (1999). Child neglect: Causes and contributors. In H. Dubowitz (Ed.), Neglected children: Research, practice and policy (pp. 47–68). CA: Sage. 4. Fischer, D. G. (1983). Parental supervision and delinquency. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 56(2), 635–640. 5. Gaudin, J. M. (1993). Child neglect: A guide for intervention. US Department of Health and Human Services Washington, DC: Westover Consultants, Inc. 6. Gaudin, J. M., Polanski, N. A., Kilpatrick, A. C., & Shilton, P. (1993). Loneliness, depression, stress, and social support in neglectful families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 63(4), 597–605. 7. Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1986). Family factors as correlates and predictors of juvenile conduct problems and delinquency. Crime and Justice, 3, 29–149. 8. McCord, J. (1983). A forty year perspective on effects of child abuse and neglect. Child Abuse & Neglect, 7, 265–270. 9. McCord, J. (1991). Family relationship, juvenile delinquency and adult criminality. Criminology, 29(3), 397–417. 10. Patterson, G. R., DeBaryshe, B., & Ramsey, E. (1990). A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior. American Psychologist, 44, 329–335. 11. Polansky, N. A., Chalmers, M. A., Buttenwieser, E. W., & Williams, D. P. (1983). Damaged parents: An anatomy of child neglect. Illinois: University of Chicago Press. 12. Smith, M. G., & Fong, R. (2004). The children of neglect: When no one cares. NY: Brunner-Routledge. 13. Steinberg, L., Lamborn, S. D., Darling, N., Mounts, N. S., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1994). Over-time changes in adjustment and competence among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful families. Child Development, 65(3), 754–770.
Individual Education Plans ANITRA SHELTON-QUINN University of Houston-Victoria, Sugar Land, TX, USA
Synonyms IEP; Individual Education Programs The Individual Education Plan/Program also called, IEP is a solid, legally binding commitment of resources spelled out in measureable goals and objectives that the district must provide to meet the child’s needs reflective of the special education eligible disability [1]. As such, the IEP is conceptualized as both a product and a process [4], that is developed, reviewed, and revised that must include the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals, specific special education and related services, extent of the student’s participation in regular education programs, initial dates and duration of services; and criteria, procedures, and schedules for evaluating attainment of the short-term objectives ([5]; IDEA.Ed.gov). In simpler terms, an IEP includes a statement of the special education and related services to be provided to the student and a statement of the program modification to be implemented, in order that the student can progress appropriately toward attainment of the annual goals, be involved and matriculate through the general curriculum with opportunities to participate with other students [7].
Description Historical Overview
Indifferent Parents ▶Uninvolved Parents
Indigent Family ▶Homeless Families
During 1977, it became a matter of federal law that every child in the United States that has a disability and needs special education was entitled to a “free and appropriate education” (FAPE) under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) [1]. Within the IDEA framework, the IEP is likened to the centerpiece or heart and soul of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that is described as the legally prescribed mechanism for designing and monitoring students receiving special education services [5]. According to [4], the IEP should
Individual Education Plans
be conceptualized as both a product and a process that includes written elements that govern the implementation of a uniquely appropriate education specific to the student’s needs, as mandated by the All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (PL 94–142) [5]. According to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, an individualized education program/plan or IEP is a written statement for each child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised that must include the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals, specific special education and related services, extent of the student’s participation in regular education programs, initial dates and duration of services; and criteria, procedures, and schedules for evaluating attainment of the short-term objectives ([5]; IDEA.Ed.gov). Furthermore, any child that is determined eligible for special education services according to IDEA, is entitled to an IEP which is individualized to meet the child’s needs that allow the child to benefit educationally, as specified by the IEP team [1]. Conclusively, there are three main components of the IEP: (1) the IEP Team, (2) The IEP Meeting and, (3) the IEP document.
IEP Meeting The IEP meeting is conducted by the IEP Team, who has sole authority according to IDEA, of deciding what services a child will receive [1]. The IEP team should legally include people who are important to the student’s education including the student’s regular and special education teachers, an administrator with authority to commit educational agency’s resources to implement the IEP; and one or both parents [5]. The key responsibility of the IEP team, also called the Core Team or ARD (Admission, Review and Dismissal) committee is to plan an individualized education program consisting of special education and regular education services that includes related services such as modifications and accommodations implemented in the regular education classroom. A primary component of the IEP meeting is the mandated parent participation, which should foster a tone of mutual cooperation and problem solving that parents may fully and effectively engage in the IEP meeting. Prior to the IEP meeting, parents must receive a statement of the parents’ procedural protections upon each notification of an IEP meeting. In order for the IEP team to discuss and deliberate the student’s needs, the IEP meeting setting should be physically comfortable and free of distractions. Although a part of the IEP team, there is no requirement that they be present when the official version of the IEP is finalized [7].
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The IEP problem-solving process involves the development, implementation, and evaluation of the IEP, in order to determine the specialized needs of students with disabilities [5]. The first step of the IEP process is identification and clarification of the presenting problem [2]. In such, all of the child’s unique and multifaceted needs must be addressed across all domains affecting educational progress. According to Grzywacz et al. [7]), the IEP development is defined as a three-fold inquiry made by the IEP team: (1) What are the child’s unique educational characteristics/needs,(2) What will the district do/provide in response to each of these characteristics/needs, (3) What services are effective, what goals and objectives will the child reach? After considering the above, it is important to note that the availability of services should not be considered in composition of the IEP document. Therefore, if a service is needed, it must be written on the IEP and if the district does not have it available, the service must be provided by an alternate agency, as mandated in early rulings requiring availability of services be disregarded in writing of the IEP [7].
IEP: The Document The IEP is a written working document designed to uniquely meet the education needs of a student in special education, in efforts to guide the educational programming for students in special education. In order for a child to receive special education and related services specified, an IEP must be in effect and implemented as soon as possible following the IEP meeting Specifically, in [3], the US Supreme Court included in the criteria for appropriate education of students with disabilities the existence of an IEP that is “reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits” [6]. Further, the IEP should build on information obtained in the comprehensive evaluation, consisting of the behaviors most central to the student’s education, and not containing more than ten annual goals [9]. The annual goals of an IEP represent the amount of progress a student is expected to make in a single year. In composition of the goals, the IEP must include the amount, the location, the beginning date, and the duration of related services to be provided, with the best practices that such components be composed in measurable terms. Specifically, each goal must have two to three measurable benchmarks or objectives, that indicate “how far toward the goal, by when” the child will progress. The written IEP should also include positive behavioral interventions and discipline strategies to address behavioral concerns, while focusing on accommodations and adjustments an individual child needs for appropriate access and participation in the general curriculum [1].
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As mandated by IDEA the IEP must explain the extent to which a student will not participate with nondisabled students in the general education curriculum and a statement of any individual modifications needed for the student to participate in state or local student achievement testing [7]. The IEP meeting outcome, is that that the IEP team reach an agreement regarding the provisions of the IEP, with the district being the party responsible for ensuring the decided upon services are provided. In the instance that the team fails to reach a consensus, the district is required to give the parents prior written notice of its proposal and/or refusal s relative to the child’s programming and placement [1].
8.
9.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (2009). Individualized Education Program (IEP). Retrieved December 30, 2009, from http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CTopicalBrief%2C10%2C Weisenfeld, R. B. (1986). The IEP’s of down syndrome children: a content analysis. Education and Training of the Mentally Retarded, 21, 211–219.
Individual Education Programs ▶Individual Education Plans
Relevance to Childhood Development The IEP is relevant to childhood development due to Public Law 99–457, “Child Find” which focuses on children from birth to age 5, requiring a mandate to identify children with disabilities and those at-risk for school failure. The essence of the IEP serving as a compilation of resources to address the educational needs of children who may be experiencing atypical development further informs its relevance to childhood development. Specifically, weaknesses in a child’s attainment of age-specific developmental milestones often identified prior to kindergarten, may impact learning, thus leading to the IEP process. It is further important to note that early identification of such weaknesses is invaluable is its role in helping to develop an individualized education program.
Individualized Education ▶Special Education
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) SHARON JUDGE Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
References 1.
2.
3.
4. 5.
6.
7.
Bateman, B. D., and Linden, M. (1998). Better IEP’s: how to develop legally correct and educationally useful programs (3rd edn.). Longmont: Sopris West. Bergan, J. R., & Tombari, M. L. (1976). Consultant skill and efficiency and the implementation and outcomes of consultation. Journal of School Psychology, 14, 3–14. Board of Education v. Rowley, 458 U.S. 176 (1982). Retrieved December 30, 2009, from http://www.listen-up.org/dnload4/rowley. pdf. Kaye, N. L., & Ascerlind, R. (1979). The IEP: the ultimate process. Journal of Special Education, 13, 137–143. McKellar, N. A. (1995). Best practices in individualized education programs. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology – III (pp. 661–666). Washington: National Association of School Psychologists. Smith, S. W. (1990). Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) in special education – from intent to acquiescence. Exceptional Children, 57, 6–14. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2001). In P. Grzywacz, S., McEllistrem, and J. A. Roth (Eds.), Students with disabilities and special education (pp. 35–59). Birmingham: Oakstone Legal and Business.
Synonyms 2004 Education for All Handicapped Children Act; 2008 Education for All Handicapped Children Act; Special education
Definition The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal law that ensures that children with disabilities receive a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment (LRE).
Description For over 30 years now, a law that Congress enacted in 1975 has governed the education of children with disabilities. That law is called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and is known as IDEA. In the years that followed,
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
IDEA was amended a number of times with the most recent revisions occurring in 2004 through P.L. 108-446, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act [2]. Over the course of the years since it first enacted IDEA in 1975, Congress has expanded the group of students who have a right to special education. At first, the group consisted of students ages 6–18, but now it includes infant and toddlers from birth though age two, young children ages 3 through 5, and older students ages 6 through 21. This law started into motion a movement that even today continues to impact the lives of children with disabilities and their families. This legislation was designed to ensure that all children with disabilities receive an appropriate education through special education and related services. This law established six major components that have a direct effect on children with disabilities: (1) a free appropriate public education, (2) nondiscriminatory evaluation, (3) procedural due process, (4) individualized education program, (5) LRE, and (6) parental participation. All children, regardless of the severity of their disability, must be provided an education appropriate to their unique needs at no cost to the parent(s)/guardian(s). Educators sometimes use the term “zero reject” to describe this mandate of enrolling all students. With this law, children with disabilities have a right to attend a local school as well as receive services that support their education in general education classes or most natural settings. To accomplish this, each state has in place what is called a child find system, a set of procedures for alerting the public that services are available for children with disabilities and for distributing print materials, conducting screening, and completing other activities to ensure that children are identified. The child find procedures include children with disabilities attending private and religious schools and highly mobile children with disabilities (such as migrant and homeless children). Nondiscriminatory evaluation attempts to eliminate discrimination in the classification and placement of children suspected to have disabilities. Prior to placement, a child must be evaluated by a multidisciplinary team in all areas of suspected disability by tests that are not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis. The law requires that children be evaluated by trained professionals who must administer validated tests and administer tests in the child’s first language or other mode of communication (Braille, sign language). The evaluation must not consist of only a single general intelligence test but must be tailored to assess specific areas (language, cognitive, motor, etc.) of education. Professionals cannot
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use a single procedure as the sole criterion for determining a special educational program for a child. Procedural due process affords parent(s)/guardian(s) several safeguards as it pertains to their child’s education. IDEA ensures that any decisions made concerning children with disabilities are done so with parent input and in compliance with clear procedures. Parents must give written consent for their children to be assessed to determine if they have a disability. Similarly, parents must be invited to attend any meetings regarding their child, and they must give written permission for the child to receive special education. Further, written notice must be made prior to any change in placement. All records are confidential, and if parents do not agree with any evaluation or special education placement, they have the legal right to go to court. If disagreements occur between parents and school professionals related to placement or any other part of special education, mediation is an informal strategy that must be offered to parents to try to resolve the disagreement. If mediation is not successful, a due process hearing occurs. IDEA requires that an individual education program (IEP) or an individualized family service plan (IFSP) be developed for each child with special educational needs. The plan for students ages 3 through 21 is called an IEP. The IEP is based on the student’s evaluation and is outcome-oriented. The IEP must include the child’s present level of educational performance, measurable annual goals, special education and supplementary aids and services, participation in general education and state- and district-wide assessment programs, dates and frequency of services, placement, transition services, and a statement about how the child’s progress in meeting annual goals will be measured and how the child’s parents will be informed. The IEP must be reviewed and updated annually. Of course, it may be revised more often if necessary. IFSPs are created for infants and toddlers and their families when eligibility for early intervention is established [1]. This requirement underscores the significant role of the families. This legal document is the early intervention analog to an IEP, but is more holistically conceived than the latter. Each IFSP must include present levels of child’s developmental status, the family’s resources, priorities, and concerns related to enhancing the child’s development, expected major outcomes, specific services provided, projected dates of initiation and duration of services, name of the service coordinator, and steps taken to support the transition to the preschool program. Under Part C, family members other than the child with a disability may be receiving services. Reflecting the rate
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of change in infants and toddlers, IFSPs are reviewed at least every 6 months or more often if needed. The principle of the least LRE is based on the requirement that schools must offer a variety of settings that provide the most appropriate placement options for students with disabilities and from which these students can benefit. The LRE is the setting most like that of nondisabled children that also meets each child’s educational needs. It is now presumed that the general education setting is the LRE for the majority of children with disabilities, and educators must justify any instance in which a child with a disability is not educated there. Young children with disabilities receive special education and related services in a variety of school and community sites. The team developing the child’s IEP or the IFSP determines the appropriate placement based upon the child’s needs. However, a full continuum of educational services must be available for children with disabilities. These include general education classes, resource rooms, special classes, special schools, and homebound or hospital placements. Parents and students bring added knowledge about the student’s problem and expertise in helping to create solutions. This legislation requires that parents participate fully in the decision-making process that affects their child’s education. IDEA explicitly calls for the active involvement of parents in all aspects of educational programming for their children with disabilities. When the provisions of IDEA are fully implemented, both letter of the law and the spirit of the law are protected. When this is the case, there is a supportive and mutually respectful relationship between families and professionals from the start.
Relevance to Childhood Development The field of special education service delivery is entering a new era of accountability. The recent alignment of the IDEA Amendments of 2004 (P.L. 108-446) with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; P.L. 107-110) places more emphasis on the achievement outcomes of special education students than ever before. Language in IDEA 2004 recognizes the previous lack of expectations and low achievement levels of students with disabilities. Both pieces of legislation include the expectation that students with special needs will achieve the same academic standards as children without disabilities. IDEA requires that students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum (the same curriculum that students without disabilities have) to the maximum extent possible. Further, IDEA strengthens the role of parents and
ensures that they have meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their child. IDEA defines special education as specially designed instruction, at no cost to the child’s parent(s)/guardian(s), to meet the unique needs of a student with a disability. Special education is individualized to the student to meet a student’s needs. To be eligible for special education services, (a) a student must have a disability and (b) that disability must adversely affect the student’s education performance. IDEA describes 14 categories of disability. Some states follow these federal categories, whereas others use slightly different terms and definitions for describing disabilities. Since the needs of and services provided to infants and toddlers are so different from the needs and services for older students, IDEA is divided into two parts. Part B of IDEA contains the requirements for providing special education and related services to children with disabilities from 3 through 21 years of age whereas Part C authorizes grants to states to develop and maintain early intervention programs for infants and toddlers with disabilities, birth to age 3 years and their families. Part C, the infants and toddlers program, has parallels with the provisions and requirements of Part B; however, these provisions and requirements differ in important respects from those of Part B. For example, while Part B eligibility is based on categories of disabilities, eligibility for Part C programs are often based on a diagnosis of “development delay” that requires early intervention services. Instead of an IEP, Part C programs have IFSP in recognition that services must be provided to the family as well as to the infant or toddler. Since very young children are served in a variety of locations (including the home), Part C services are to be provided in “natural environments” which are the types of settings in which infants and toddlers without disabilities would participate.
References 1. 2.
Lerner, J. W., Lowenthal, B., & Egan, R. W. (2003). Preschool children with special needs. Boston: Pearson Education. Turnbull, H. R., Huerta, N., & Stowe, M. (2009). What every teacher should know about the individuals with disabilities education act as amended in 2004 (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.
Individuation ▶Autonomy
Infancy
Inductive Parenting
Synonyms parenting;
Definitions A supportive style of parenting that involves the use of reason during the establishment and enforcement of child behavior limits.
Inductive reasoning is the type of reasoning involving moving from a set of specific facts to a general conclusion. Inductive reasoning involves drawing conclusions from objects or entities that have been examined to establish a conclusion about an object or entity that has not been examined. Inductive reasoning is also used to build theories in which specific facts are used to create the theory, explain the relationships between facts and thereby allow prediction of future knowledge. Inductive reasoning is the primary philosophical method used to examine phenomena such as morality, faith and existence.
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Description Popularly considered the most balanced parenting style, inductive parenting involves the utilization of clear limits, rules and consequences with a certain level of flexibility in order to maintain responsiveness to a child’s fluctuating emotional status. Inductive parenting encourages autonomy and open communication in the child, while maintaining a high level of parental demand regarding conduct and behavior. Child security is provided through adherence to consistent routines and schedules while the value of a child’s input encourages independence. The decision-making process is a collaborative effort between parents and children that involves negotiation and understanding, although the final decision remains with the parent. According to studies, the effects of inductive parenting style extend through childhood indo adolescence. Due to the encouragement of open communication and independence, children raised in this parenting style develop less problem behaviors, higher self-confidence, higher control over aggression, exhibit higher degrees of academic success, function well in social environments and display a high measure of social responsibility.
References 1. 2.
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ROBERT SEAN BANNON Emporia State University, Emporia, KS, USA
Authoritative parenting; Child-centered Reasoning-oriented parenting
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Baumrind, D. (1966). Effects of authoritative parental control on child behavior. Child Development, 37(4), 887–907. Baumrind, D. (1967). Child care practices anteceding three patterns of preschool behavior. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 75(1), 43–88. Bradley, N. (2006). Authoritative parenting: An overview. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://parenting.families.com/blog/ authoritative-parenting-an-overview Eysenck, M. W. (2004). Psychology: An international perspective. New York: Psychology Press Inc.
Indulgent Parenting Style ▶Permissive Parenting Style
Infancy JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Synonyms Baby; Babyhood; Early childhood; Formative year; Newborn; Tot
Definition Infancy is generally considered to be the year of life.
Description Physical Development Motor development during infancy advances in an ordered manner from head down (cephalocaudal) and trunk of the body outwards (proximodistal). In other words, the infant will first gain control of their head and lift it. As the child ages, they are able to control the neck, trunk, legs and feet. Likewise, they acquire control of their shoulders, then arms, hands, and finally fingers ([2], p. 236). Reflexive actions are the primary types of motor skills the newborn exhibits. Most of the reflexes are considered
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to be related to survival. For example, sucking, rooting for the breast or bottle, grasping, and eye blink ([2], p. 236). From ages 1 to 4 months the infant’s average length is 20–27 inches and the average weight is about 8–16 lb. The infant can grasp objects with their entire hand, raise their upper body and head when the arms are in the prone position, and can turn their head from side-to-side when lying down ([2], p. 236). From ages 4–8 months the infant can use the pincer grasp, reaches with one arm rather than both, can transfer objects from one hand to the other, shakes and pounds objects, and puts most things into their mouth. In addition, the child can hold their own bottle, sit alone, pull into a crawling position, and at the end of this period begins to crawl ([2], p. 239). Children of this age gain approximately 1 lb each month and 1/2 in. in length. Teeth being to appear thus increasing drooling, chewing, and biting ([2], p. 236). From 8 to 12 months children gain about 1 lb and 1/2 in. each month (p. 237). At this age children reach with one hand when offered an object, pokes with one finger to explore objects, puts objects into containers, and releases objects by dropping or throwing them. Also, children begin to pull up to a standing position, cruising by holding onto furniture, crawls up and down stairs, and walks while holding an adult’s hand. Some children may walk alone at this age [2, p. 239].
Cognitive and Language Development During the first month of life, the infant begins to study their own hand, may put body movements in rhythm to adult speech patterns, and prefers the primary caregiver’s voice to that of a stranger. Additionally, the infant communicates through crying and may prefer certain voices, sounds or music [2, p. 254]. During months 1 through 4 the infant begins to recognize familiar objects, does not search for objects that fall or otherwise disappear, and imitates gestures such as byebye. The child also reacts to familiar voices, babbles or coos when spoken to, and laughs out loud (p. 254). From 4 months through 8 months the infant begins to focus on smaller objects and reaches for them. The child also imitates actions such pat-a-cake and peek-aboo. If an object is hidden the child will search for it and drops one toy when handed another. The infant will bang objects together, play with small toys, and coordinates eyes, hand and mouth to explore an object. Responding to name and simple commands such as “Wave bye-bye,” occurs during these months. The infant can now respond to the voice of others, produce vowel
sounds and some consonants, and babble by repeating syllables (p. 254). From 8 to 12 months the child points to objects, follows simple directions, drops toys intentionally, as well as puts blocks into a cup when asked. In addition, the infant can put a spoon in their mouth and turn pages of a book. Further, the child babbles to initiate socialization, shakes head “no,” enjoys simple songs, and hand a toy to an adult when asked (p. 255).
Social/Emotional Development During the infant stage bonding and attachment are critical. Bonding refers to the process where the adults in the infant’s life become emotionally attached to the child. While attachment is the emotional bond the infant forms with the primary care givers in her life (Morrison, p. 253). These two concepts are critical for the infant to develop secure emotional relationships for the rest of their lives. Emotional self-regulation is another aspect of the infant’s social/emotional development. This refers to the ways humans are able to adjust to their emotional states. During the first few months of life, infants do not have much ability to regulate their emotions. They become overwhelmed by stimuli and may turn away or begin to suck or cry when their emotions become too intense. By 2–4 months of age the infant gains in the ability to tolerate more stimulation. Caregivers can build upon this growth by adjusting the pace of their interactions with the baby to help the child not become overwhelmed with stimulation. At the end of the first year of life the baby can begin to selfregulate by crawling or walking away from unpleasant stimuli ([1], p. 403).
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Berk, L. E. (2006). Child development (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Charlesworth, R. (2011). Understanding child development. Belmont: Wadsworth. Deiner, P. L. (2009). Infants and toddlers: development and curriculum planning. Clifton Park: Delmar Cengage Learning. McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Child development and education (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River: Merrill. Trawick-Smith, J. (1997). Early childhood development: a multicultural perspective. Upper Saddle River: Merrill Prentice Hall.
Infant Death ▶Infant Mortality
Infant Mortality
Infant Mortality ANGELINA STAVROU, XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms Infant death
Definition The term infant mortality is used to describe the number of deaths of new-born children aged 1 year and younger.
Description Infant mortality refers to deaths of infants under the age of 1 year and measured by the infant mortality rate, expressed in number of deaths of children under the age of 1 year for each 1,000 live births. The infant mortality is used to compare the health and well-being of populations within one country and between countries of different socio-economic development. Infant mortality numbers also provide important information about level of medical services, child-rearing behavior, and sanitation and help estimate communities at risk. In relation to timing of death the infant mortality is divided into four categories [3]. 1. Perinatal mortality only includes deaths between the fetal viability (22 weeks gestation) and the end of the 7th day after delivery, and has obstetric origins, similar to those leading to stillbirths. World Health Organization reports over 6.3 million perinatal deaths a year, almost all of which occur in developing countries, and 27% of them in the least developed countries alone. Stillbirths account for over half of all perinatal deaths. One third of stillbirths takes place during delivery, and is mostly avoidable. 2. Intrapartum deaths (i.e., those occurring during delivery) are closely linked to place of, and care at, delivery. According to WHO reports, in developing countries, just over 40% of deliveries occur in health facilities and little more than one in two takes place with the assistance of a doctor, midwife, or qualified nurse. 3. Neonatal involves death through the end of the 27th day of life and usually reflects physiological problems during pregnancy that cause pregnancy complications and premature delivery. Various reports state, that in developing countries the risk of death in the neonatal period is six times greater than in developed countries;
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in the least developed countries it is over eight times higher. 4. Post-neonatal is death of infant from day 28 of life up to 1 year. Post-neonatal mortality is usually associated with social and environmental factors early in the infant’s life, even though deaths from birth defects also occur in this period.
Causes The most common cause of infant mortality worldwide include premature birth, low birth weight, birth defects, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), pneumonia and dehydration from diarrhea. Infanticide, abuse, abandonment, and neglect are other factors behind why some infants die before their first birthdays [1].
Methods of Estimation Empirical data is used to estimate infant mortality in a given region. When no survey or registration data point is available, the neonatal mortality rate is estimated from the under-5 mortality using a regression adjusted for AIDS [10]. The reliability of infant mortality estimates depends on accuracy and completeness of reporting and recording of births and deaths. Underreporting and misclassification are common, especially for deaths occurring early on in life.
Disaggregation A full report presents infant mortality data by race, origin of the mother, birthweight, period of gestation, sex of infant, plurality, trimester of pregnancy prenatal care began, maternal age, maternal educational attainment, live-birth order, mother’s marital status, mother’s place of birth, maternal smoking during pregnancy, age at death, and underlying cause of death [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development The survival of infants in their first year of life is very important factor that is widely accepted as an indicator of the general health and wellbeing of a given population. According to the latest UNICEF report almost 10 million children under five died worldwide in 2006, of which 4 million die within the first month of life, half of these within the first 24 h. Many of these deaths are related to the lack of adequate medical and nursing intervention at the time of birth [9]. The five countries with the highest rates of infant mortality were Sierra Leone, with 270 deaths per 1,000 live births; Angola with 260; Afghanistan with 257;
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Niger with 253; and Liberia with 235. In contrast, Sweden and Iceland were among the countries with the lowest mortality rates – 3 deaths per 1,000 live births [3]. The report notes, that in developing counties: “Pneumonia kills more children than any other disease – more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. It is a main cause of deaths in every developing region.” The report goes on to note how other factors such as malnutrition and environmental conditions play a crucial role in heightening the vulnerability of children to pneumonia [6]. While considering the efforts on reduction in infant mortality in a given country, it is essential to know the top leading causes and underlying causes of mortality in children in the country, the policies and strategies to address them, and progress of work in those areas [7]. Income levels and education, both at the societal and individual levels, are closely associated with infant mortality.
6. Guyer, B., Freedman, M. A., Strobino, D. M., & Sondik, E. J. (2000). Annual summary of vital statistics: Trends in the health of Americans during the 20th century. Pediatrics, 106, 1307–1317. 7. Hertz, E., Hebert, J. R., & Landon, J. (1994). Social and environmental factors and life expectancy, infant mortality, and maternal mortality rates: Results of a cross-national comparison. Social Science & Medicine, 39(1), 105–114. 8. Hummer, R. A., Biegler, M., DeTurk, P. B., Forbes, D., Frisbie, P. W., Hong, Ying, et al. (1999). Race/ethnicity, nativity, and infant mortality in the United States. Social Forces, 77, 1083–1118. 9. UNICEF. (2006). The state of the world’s children. New York, NY: UNICEF. 10. Vintzileos, A., Ananth, C. V., Smulian, J. C., Scorza, W. E., & Knuppel, R. A. (2002). The impact of prenatal care on postneonatal deaths in the presence and absence of antenatal high-risk conditions. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 187(5), 1258–1262.
Prevention
MARIA PERDIKOGIANNI1, XENIA ANASTASSIOUHADJICHARALAMBOUS2 1 Center for Therapy, Training and Research (KESY), Nicosia, Cyprus 2 University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
In developing countries simple movement against infant mortality, especially post neonatal mortality can reduce infant deaths due to diarrhea and infectious disease and other causes. This can be achieved through basic public health actions like promoting health care, providing nutrition, and non-formal education to preschool children and to pregnant and lactating women, offering sex education, adolescent clinic services, and community support and involvement [4]. Finally, early and continuous prenatal care helps recognize conditions and behavior that may result in low birth weight babies, such as smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, inadequate weight gain during pregnancy and repeat pregnancy in 6 months or less [5, 8].
References 1. Armstrong, R. J. (1972). A study of infant mortality from linked records by birthweight, period of gestation, and other variables. Vital Health Statistics, 20(12), 1–80. 2. Carolan, M. (2003). The graying of the obstetric population: Implications for the older mother. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 32, 19–27. 3. Department of Measurement and Health Information Systems (MHI), Evidence and Information for Policy (EIP). (2005). WHO under-five mortality: Unpublished country estimates computed for the World Health Report 2005. Geneva: World Health Organization. 4. Gage, T. B., Fang, F., O’Neill, E., & Stratton, H. (2008). Maternal age and infant mortality: A test of the Wilcox–Russell hypothesis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 169, 294–303. 5. Garrett, E. (2007). Infant mortality: A continuing social problem. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate Publ. Co.
Infantile Amnesia
Synonyms Childhood amnesia
Definition The inability to recall events from early childhood.
Description Infantile amnesia is characterized by a relative absence of memory before the ages of 3 or 4 [1, 5]. This term does not refer to a complete absence of memories but rather a scarcity of memories during infancy, memories that can later be influenced by individual experiences and cultural factors as well as how these early events are remembered and relayed to the children by parents [2, 9]. A few people can apparently recall momentous experiences that occurred when they were as young as 2 years old, such as the birth of a sibling but not earlier. Of course we all retain procedural memories from our toddler years, when we first learned to use the spoon, drink from a cup and take our first steps, just as we can retain semantic memories acquired in early life (the rules of counting, names of people and things, etc.). However, as
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adults we can no longer remember being fed as an infant by our parents, taking the first steps or saying our first words. That’s the result of infantile amnesia [5].
Explanations for Infantile Amnesia Infantile amnesia was first formally studied in 1893 by the psychologist Caroline Miles [1] but it was Sigmund Freud who offered one of the most famous and controversial explanations of infantile amnesia when he tied the phenomenon in with his other psychological theories [1, 5, 8, 9]. Freud theorized that infantile amnesia is the result of the mind’s attempt to repress memories of traumatic events that occur in the psychosexual development of every child. These memories, according to Freud, have disturbing sexual and aggressive content and that’s why they are suppressed. This would lead to the repression (Definition 1: Repression according to Freud is the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious.) of the majority of the first years of life [1, 4, 5, 8, 9]. Cognitive developmentalists claim that adults have trouble recalling the events of childhood because they no longer think as children do. As adults we use very different cognitive schemas (Definition 2: A schema is an outline or image universally applicable to a general conception, under which it is likely to be presented to the mind (five dots in a line are a schema of the number five; a preceding and succeeding event are a schema of cause and effect.)) from those we use in early childhood, and these adult schemas are not useful in restructuring early events from the memories stored at that time. As preschoolers we may encode our experiences far less elaborately since our information processing abilities are still limited and thus have very few cues for retrieving early memories later on in life. Only after we begin school do we learn to think as adults do, use language to organize memories and store not only events but thoughts about those events [9]. Researchers who argue that the development of the cognitive self is crucial in the establishment of autobiographical memory do not disagree that developments in language, socioemotional and memory factors are also play an important role in autobiographical memory. Research has shown that what’s lacking in early infant memory is not simply a memory capacity or a language system but rather the development of self as a cognitive entity, a personal frame of reference that constitutes memory autobiographical in a unique way [5]. According to this theory, children develop self-awareness by about 2 years of age and memories are inherently associated with one’s sense of self. When memories are encoded before
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self-awareness develops they are not comprehensible to the individual even though some information is stored in the brain. Biological researchers believe that the brain and the nervous system are not entirely formed in young children and thus do not allow for the development of adequate memory stores and effective retrieval strategy. Evidence for this comes from three different sources. First, that the hippocampal region of the forebrain is immature in young children. Second, that the prefrontal cortex is immature at birth and undergoes a period of rapid synaptogenesis (Definition 3: Synaptogenesis is a process involving the formation of a neurotransmitter release site in the presynaptic neuron and a receptive field at the postsynaptic partners, and the precise alignment of pre- and postsynaptic specializations.) toward the end of the first postnatal year along with the improvement of other cognitive tasks. Finally, the third source states that these changes in synaptic efficiency or hormonal modulation that follow certain types of stimulation may only become functional beyond infancy [5, 9]. Another explanation attributes the cause of infantile amnesia to the incomplete development of language in young children. This theory states that infants do not have the language capacity to encode autobiographical memories in such a way that their adult selves can interpret correctly. Research by Gabrielle Simcock and Harlene Hayne showed children’s inability to translate early, preverbal experiences into language because they lacked the language skills to do so. As a result these experiences could not become part of autobiographical memory since they could not be encoded [4, 8]. This theory seems to be supported by the typical process of language development. The language of 1-year olds is limited to one-word utterances and childhood amnesia predicts that adults have very few, if any, memories of this time. By the age of three children utter two or three word sentences and by their fifth year their speech resembles that of an adult. This language development seems to correspond to infantile amnesia because most adults’ earliest recallable memories go back to the age of 3 or 4. Recent research has found patterns in the extent of infantile amnesia and the most prominent ones are gender and race. Research has shown that in general the earliest recollections of females are earlier and more vivid than those of males, and this pattern is due to differences in how males and females interact as children, especially the types of conversations they have [3, 6]. Race has also been shown to play a role in the effect of infantile amnesia as in certain studies Asian adults reported significantly later memories than European
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adults, while Maori (Definition 4: Maori are one of the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand; Maori was also the original language of New Zealand.) adults, whose traditional culture puts an emphasis on the past, reported significantly earlier memories than adults in the other two cultural groups. In all three cultures the memories reported by females contained a lot more information than those reported by men [6].
Relevance to Childhood Development Infantile amnesia provides an explanation to the adults’ inability to recall events and experiences from their early years. People often find infantile amnesia difficult to accept and often claim to remember events from the first or second year of life. Researchers who explore childhood cognitive development, and continue to research infantile amnesia aim to identify new characteristics and possible explanations for this phenomenon. Whatever the explanation for infantile amnesia, scientists agree that our first memories may provide some useful insight into our personalities and they prove to be an important social tool.
References 1. Bauer, Patricia, J. (2004). Oh Where, Oh Where Have Those Early Memories Gone? A Developmental Perspective on Childhood Amnesia. Psychological Science Agenda – APA Online, Volume 18: No. 12. 2. Eacott, M. J., & Crawley, R. A. (1998). The offset of childhood amnesia: memory for events that occurred before the age of 3. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 127(1), 22–33. 3. Fivush, R., & Schwarzmueller, A. (1999). Children remember childhood: implications for childhood amnesia. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 12(5), 455–473. 4. Hayne, H. (2004). Infant memory development: Implications for childhood amnesia. Developmental Review, 24, 33–73. 5. Howe, M. J., & Courage, M. L. (1993). On resolving the enigma of infantile amnesia. Psychological Bulletin, 113(2), 305–326. 6. MacDonald, S., Uesiliana, K., & Hayne, H. (2000). Cross-cultural and gender differences in childhood amnesia. Memory, 8(6), 365–376. 7. McKee, R. D., & Squire, L. R. (1993). On the development of declarative memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 19(2), 397–404. 8. Simcock, G., & Hayne, H. (2002). Breaking the barrier? Children fail to translate their preverbal memories into language. Psychological Science, 13(3), 225–231. 9. Usher, J., & Neisser, U. (1993). Childhood amnesia and the beginnings of memory for four early life events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122(2), 155–165. 10. Vander, Z., & James, W. (1993). Human Development (5th ed.). The Ohio State University: McGraw Hill. 11. Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (1996). Psychology (4th ed.). Dominican College of San Rafael: Harper Collins College Publishers.
Infantile Hypotonia ▶Hypotonia
Infant–Mother Attachment Studies, of Ainsworth DOUGLAS K. SYMONS Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Attachment theory
Definition Mary Ainsworth’s seminal research on infant–mother attachment built upon John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory to describe different patterns of infant-caregiver attachments. It led to the development of a classification system of these relationships, the Ainsworth Strange Situation, which serves as a “gold standard” for attachment classification in infancy [6]. Basing her work on extensive homebased observations and cross-cultural data paid testimony to the universality of the development of early social relationships in humans.
Description Thousands of studies in child development have been published on infant–mother attachment formation, and all are based on the seminal research of Mary Ainsworth and her academic descendents whom conducted research under her supervision and training workshops [7]. Attachment Theory was based on principles from psychiatry, ethology, evolution, and personality development, but Ainsworth is credited with emphasizing the developmental elements of the theory and building on the observational methodology required to assess relationships. Her research in the 1960s [1, 3, 5] was a foundation for John Bowlby’s trilogy on Attachment, Separation, and Loss, which delineated Attachment Theory. Ainsworth initially conducted hundreds of hours of observations of infant–mother pairs in Uganda [2] and Baltimore [6] to investigate how relationships develop in two distinct cultures. Parent–child pairs ultimately balance the competing demands of proximity-seeking, which a relatively helpless infant requires for survival, and exploration, which an infant needs to interact with
Information Persistence
the environment and maximize her or his own development. She observed that infants exhibited different kinds of behavior during naturalistic separations and reunions with their mothers [5], and consequently developed the Strange Situation as a laboratory procedure to systematically observe this behavior, classify the relationship, and thus examine individual differences. The Strange Situation consists of eight sequential episodes in which an infant plays with its mother, a stranger enters the room and joins the interaction, the mother leaves, the mother returns for a first reunion, the mother then leaves the baby alone in the room, the stranger returns, and then the mother returns for the second reunion while the stranger leaves. This sequence is recorded and detailed behavioral coding takes place later that focuses on proximity- and contact-seeking behavior, contact-maintaining behavior, resistance behavior through poor distress resolution, avoidance of the mother during reunion, search behavior during separation, and positive social signaling from a distance. These ratings are used to classify babies into three groups that are wellknown in child development: insecure-avoidant, secure, and insecure-resistant. What was essential to this research was that this lab-based behavior was related to other home-based observations, as well as observations of how sensitive mothers were to infant cues and needs. But she carefully distinguished infant–mother attachment from other developmental processes such as cognitive abilities of the infant. Building on its ethological roots, Ainsworth’s research emphasized the importance of detailed and extensive observations of social behavior both in the home and in laboratory behavior. The scripted social interaction of the Strange Situation stressed the importance of standardized methodology and objective scoring criteria. The classification system emphasized the developmental aspects of Bowlby’s attachment theory, gave researchers a way of examining individual differences in early relationships, and served as a model to examine different kinds of intimate relationships later in childhood and even into adulthood [4]. Participants in the initial wave of attachment research of the 1970s are now entering mid adulthood, and thus long term predictive validity studies have been published in the past 10 years, and more are on the way. What constitutes a threat to a person and thus activates the attachment system changes radically across age, as do the means by which proximity-seeking and avoidance are displayed, and the internalization of relationship processes into the cognitive domain necessitates other means of assessment. But Attachment Theory is
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relevant from “cradle to grave,” and Ainsworth’s research dominates how we conceptualize the cradle end of things.
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
6. 7.
Ainsworth, M. D. (1964). Patterns of attachment behaviour shown by an infant in interaction with his mother. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 10, 51–58. Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1967). Infancy in Uganda: Infant care and growth of love. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1969). Object relations, dependency, and attachment: A theoretical review of the infant-mother relationship. Child Development, 40, 969–1025. Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709–716. Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behaviour of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41, 49–67. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1977). Attachment as an organisational construct. Child Development, 48, 1184–1199.
Inference Inference is a process of drawing conclusions by applying logic and reasoning to observations to predict future phenomena. The conclusion drawn is also referred to as an inference. Human inference is traditionally studied within the field of cognitive psychology.
Infix ▶Morpheme
Inflexible-Explosive Children ▶Temper Tantrums
Information Persistence ▶Iconic Memory
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Information Processing ▶Critical Thinking
Ingestion ▶Drinking
Inhalants PRECIOSA CALDERON San Bernardino, CA, USA
Synonyms Dusting; Huffing; Poppers; Whippets
Definition Breathing in vapors or gas through the nose or mouth for a soothing effect.
Description Inhalants are breathable chemicals that are commonly found within the home (ex. cleaning fluids, air fresheners, and gasoline). Chemicals are inhaled in the nose or mouth (known as, huffing) with the purpose of having a mindaltering experience. Intoxication last only a few minutes which causes the user to continue use over long sessions to remain intoxicated. Common effects of intoxication are: lack of coordination, dizziness, slurred speech, and possible aggression. Some users may also experience hallucinations and delusions. Physical side effects caused by inhalants are vomiting, nausea, and confusion. Longterm abuse of inhalants may cause permanent damage to the lungs, brain and central nervous system. When inhalants are consumed in high dosages heart failure may also occur. This is known as “sudden sniffing death”. Inhalants are easily available and legal to have for any environment. Most at risk uses are young children and adolescents.
References 1.
National Institute of Drug Abuse (June 2009). NIDA info facts. National Institutes of Health – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (pp. 1–5).
O’Leary-Moore, S. K., Galloway, M. P., & McMechan, A. P. (2009). Neurochemical changes after acute binge toluene inhalation in adolescent and adult rats: A high-resolution magnetic resonance spectroscopy study. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 31, 382.
Inhibition DESPINA STAVRINOS, KATHERINE W. BYINGTON University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Repression; Self-control; Self-restraint; Suppression
Definition Inhibition refers to an active suppression process that functions to help people refrain from giving in to an urge when doing so could result in undesired consequences [14]. Having extreme difficulty with inhibiting behavior in a way that impairs daily functioning is a hallmark of the common childhood behavioral disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). A variety of assessment techniques are employed to measure inhibition, including observer-rating scales, neuropsychological tasks, and cognitive tasks.
Description Effective daily functioning often requires behavioral inhibition and the role of inhibition is particularly important in childhood. For example, a very young child might struggle to resist the urge to eat a cookie before dinner and a school-aged child might struggle to resist the urge to cheat off of a classmate’s paper. The processes involved in resisting such urges are commonly referred to as selfregulatory or inhibitory control processes [12]. Inhibition is a construct that is frequently included in models of executive functioning - a higher order concept that describes the control of thought and behavior. While there is no widely adopted definition of inhibition, there are a number of behaviors and behavioral tendencies that most scholars use to describe the construct. Such behaviors might include suppressing an active or prepotent process, having the tendency to withdraw in a new situation, or reacting to something unfamiliar with initial avoidance, distress, or subdued affect [2, 3, 9]. Inhibition is measured on a continuum; that is, some people are generally more inhibited than others [4]. At the lower extreme are those who are described as inhibited, or
Inhibition
who tend to exhibit more restraint and self-control when faced with the urge to engage in an undesirable behavior in range of different situations. At the upper extreme are those who are described as uninhibited, or who have a tendency to react spontaneously or almost as if without thinking in nearly all situations [8]. Although a person may be consistently described as generally inhibited or uninhibited from childhood through adulthood, for most individuals, the ability to inhibit oneself tends to sharpen to some extent across development [15]. Within the normal range of functioning, inhibition plays an important role in child development. Behaviorally, uninhibited children are more likely to try new things, act independently, and learn and explore more aspects of the world around them than their inhibited, shy, and less risk-taking counterparts. Although this type of exploration and independence is often positive and can foster a child’s development, being uninhibited can, at times, lead to unwanted outcomes. Specifically, uninhibited children may be at greater risk for unintentional injury [13]. For example, an uninhibited child who sees a ball roll into the street may be less likely to consider the outcomes of running into the street and may dart out in traffic to get the ball. A child with an uninhibited behavioral profile may also encounter difficulties in the school and home environments. Children who are less inhibited may have a harder time attending to and learning new material and may require increased discipline and redirection. A child who has a harder time resisting the urge to talk to his friend in class is also likely to miss his teacher’s instructions for a task or miss the explanation of an academic concept while he is talking. These types of behaviors can not only decrease a child’s ability to progress academically, but can, at times, result in social disapproval by classmates due to the frequent negative attention the child receives. However those who fall on the inhibited end of the spectrum tend to be more shy, which is particularly evident not only in social situations with peers but also in unfamiliar situations. These children may also be less likely to speak up to ask questions in class or when something is making them uncomfortable. Clinical levels of inhibition or disinhibition can contribute to child psychological disorders. Specifically, extreme disinhibition is a prominent characteristic of children with ADHD. It has been proposed that the principal cause of ADHD is a deficit in behavioral inhibition or in the ability to suppress a prepotent or ongoing response [1]. On the other end of the spectrum, extreme inhibition is a common characteristic of children with anxiety disorders. Psychotherapeutic treatments of
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such disorders are widely accepted, and longer-term cognitive and behavioral treatments have proven quite useful in the remediation of such conditions (e.g., [10]). However, research indicates that because the development and manifestation of inhibition is so complex, it is not easily improved or “cured” with simple “quick-fixes” (e.g., [5, 12]). Given the multifaceted nature of inhibition, it is advisable for clinicians and researchers to use multiple assessment methods completed by multiple reporters to adequately assess inhibition. Assessment of inhibition in children is typically performed through observer-rating scales completed independently by parents and teachers (e.g., Child Behavior Questionnaire, Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function), neuropsychological tests, and cognitive tasks. Researchers have also utilized a number of pencil-and-paper cognitive tasks measuring behavioral inhibition for many years. Measures such as the “Draw-A-Line” and “Draw-A-Circle” task require participants to draw a line or circle as slowly as possible without stopping or lifting their pencil. These tasks present a restraint challenge in that participants are expected to experience the urge to quickly complete the circle. Those with lower levels of inhibitory control are expected to have a more difficult time resisting the impulse to complete the circle quickly [6, 11, 13]. Although paper-and-pencil methods such as the ones described above are still used, computerized neuropsychological tasks have become increasingly popular measures of inhibition due to their ease of use. One common instrument is a stop-signal paradigm which has been used frequently in pediatric inhibitory control research (e.g., [7, 15]). Two prominent examples of this type of task include the Go-Stop task and the Go/NoGo task. In both of these tasks, participants are asked to respond to visual stimuli (e.g., letters) in a controlled manner. That is, they are asked to respond (i.e., “go”) almost immediately only after seeing specified stimuli and not to respond (i.e., “stop”/“no-go”) to other stimuli. The more dominant “go” stimuli are presented more frequently than the “nogo” stimuli and thus create a more powerful tendency to respond. As participants become more engaged in the task, it becomes increasingly difficult to inhibit incorrect responses.
References 1. Barkley, R. A. (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions. Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 65–94. 2. Bjorklund, D. F. (2005). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning.
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3. Boyd, D., & Bee, H. (2006). Lifespan development (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. 4. Eisenberg, N., & Spinrad, T. L. (2004). Emotion-related regulation: Sharpening the definition. Child Development, 75, 334–339. 5. Evenden, J. L. (1999). Varieties of impulsivity. Psychopharmacology, 146, 348–361. 6. Gilpin, A. R., & Larsen, W. (1981). Conceptual and motoric impulsivity in college students. The Journal of General Psychology, 105, 207–214. 7. Gomes, L., & Livesey, D. (2008). Exploring the link between impulsivity and peer relations in 5- and 6-year-old children. Child: Care, Health, and Development, 34, 763–770. 8. Kagan, J. (2008). Behavioral inhibition as a risk factor for psychopathology. In T. P. Beauchaine & S. P. Hinshaw (Eds.), Child and adolescent psychopathology (pp. 157–180). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 9. Kagan, J., & Snidman, N. (1991). Infant predictors of inhibited and uninhibited behavioral profiles. Psychological Science, 2, 40–44. 10. Kaiser, N. M., Hoza, B., & Hurt, E. A. (2008). Multimodal treatment for childhood attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 8, 1573–1583. 11. Kochanska, G., Murray, K., & Coy, K. C. (1997). Inhibitory control as a contributor to conscience in childhood: From toddler to early school age. Child Development, 68, 263–277. 12. Schmajuk, M., Liotti, M., Busse, L., & Woldorff, M. G. (2006). Electrophysiological activity underlying inhibitory control processes in normal adults. Neuropsychologia, 44, 384–395. 13. Schwebel, D. C. (2004). The role of impulsivity in children’s estimation of physical ability: implications for children’s unintentional injury risk. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 74, 584–588. 14. Sylwan, R. P. (2004). The control of deliberate waiting strategies in a stop-signal task. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 37, 853–862. 15. Tillman, C. M., Thorell, L. B., Brocki, K. C., & Bohlin, G. (2008). Motor response inhibition and execution in the stop-signal task: development and relation to ADHD behaviors. Child Neuropsychology, 14, 42–59.
Initiative Versus Guilt MATTHEW C. LAMBERT, HEATHER M. KELLEY Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Synonyms Erikson’s preschool development
stage
of
social-emotional
Definition In Erickson’s theory of social emotional development, the psychosocial conflict encountered during the preschool years, which is resolved by engaging in playful, creative, and or novel expressions and experiences. The degree to which children develop a sense of initiative is closely
associated with the degree to which caregivers allow children to express themselves without being overly critical or punitive toward novel expressions.
Description Initiative versus guilt is the third stage in Erikson’s 8-stage theory of social-emotional development. This stage, also referred to as the preschool stage, can include many children in the age range of 3–6. During this period, Erikson postulated that children are faced with psychosocial conflicts about expressing themselves in unique, creative, and purposeful manners. He suggested that the extent to which parents or caregivers allow and encourage these types of expression contributes to the child’s sense of initiative. Conversely, the extent to which parents or caregivers restrict or punish novel expressions contributes to the child’s sense of guilt. Erikson (1998), as well as numerous subsequent researchers, define initiative as “an emotional state, often acquired during the preschool years, in which children assert themselves, make creative attempts, take risks, and reach out to peers [2, 3].” The construct of guilt can be conceptualized as an emotional state in which children feel as though their actions are wrong or that they themselves are bad and lack worth [2, 5]. Remember that Erikson’s work was influenced by the psychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud [4]. It is during this stage that Erikson hypothesized that the superego, or conscience, is beginning to develop. He believed that the superego is shaped by experiences that young children have during this stage of his theory. He believed that a child’s sense of initiative and a child’s superego were closely related. Creative activities such as instances of pretend play influence the development of a healthy superego [1]. However, caregivers who are overly strict or overly punitive can lead to a guilt-ridden superego and a child who is overly critical of themselves and less inclined to make novel efforts in the future limiting a child’s repertoire. Although an overly guilt-ridden superego is a detriment to future development, a sense of guilt is necessary for children to develop a healthy conscience.
Relevance to Early Childhood Education Learning is discovering and to discover, one may fail before succeeding. A healthy sense of exploration or initiative is an advantageous characteristic to possess for success in any learning context. For example, active learning pedagogies such as inquiry learning or project-based learning require children to be motivated to engage in novel, but purposeful behaviors and accept failure and error as part of the learning process. Children who posses
Inner City Poverty
more initiative are also more likely to approach peers in attempts to engage in collective activities such as sociodramatic play.
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physical and psychological distress, economic hardship, and high crime rates.
Description References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bee, H. (1999). The growing child: An applied approach (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. Berk, L. (2007). Development through the lifespan (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Erikson, E. (1998). The life cycle completed. New York: Norton. Nabors, M., & Edwards, L. (1994). Creativity and the child’s social development. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 23(1), 14–16. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Inkblot Test ▶Rorschach Inkblot Method ▶Rorschach Test
Innate Language Acquisition ▶Nativist Theory
Inner City Destitution ▶Inner City Poverty
Inner City Poverty TONY WU Walden University, Diamond Bar, CA, USA
Synonyms Inner city destitution; Low socio-economic status; Urban poverty
Definition Poverty occurring in inner cities and urban areas that affects millions of people and has been associated with
Poverty has detrimental consequences for quality of life, especially for inner city or urban residents. Children and families living in poverty have more stressful life events, higher unemployment rate, crime incidents, medical and mental illnesses, economic hardship, less access to education and health care, as well as less satisfaction with employment [8]. Given these chronic distress, strains, inadequate social support, coupled with distraught family relationships, incidents of psychological illnesses are widespread for the poor. For instance, Haring et al. [4] found that low socio-economic status is associated with depression and other mental illnesses, and lowered psychological well-being. Study has documented that urban poverty is more harmful than rural poverty due to the nature of urban environment [6]. Wilson and Aponte [9] found that 81% of African– American female-headed families lived in urban areas in which 57% of these families were below the poverty line. It was also estimated that close to one-half of the poor in the United States are single mothers with children [2]. It appears that urban poverty is especially harmful for single mothers, given they are required to raise children in bad neighborhoods, with limited resources and support. Similar trend continues to be observed more than 2 decades later. In a review of national data, Brooks-Gunn and Duncan [1] found dismal outcomes for inner city children. For example, poor children have higher incidences of medical problems, developmental delays, low birth weight, growth delay, lead poisoning, lower IQ and grades, higher dropout rates, severe emotional and behavioral problems, and higher number of teenage out of wedlock childbearing. One of the major concerns for inner city poverty is the educational equity and quality for urban children. One challenge facing urban school district is recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers. Studies have found that inner city teachers have tended to graduate from less prestigious training institutions, are less likely to have specialized subject areas, and have lower grades in universities. They are also less likely to have advanced degrees than teachers of more affluent school districts [3, 5]. For teachers, determining whether to teach at urban schools is a difficult one due to the implications for teachers, school districts, the poor, and the larger community. However, the unfortunate trend is that highly qualified teachers tend to avoid poor schools, while experienced teachers are leaving inner city schools at a record rate [7].
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References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
Brooks-Gunn, J., & Duncan, G. J. (1997). The effects of poverty on children. The Future of Children, 7(2), 55–71. Garfinkel, I., & McLanahan, S. S. (1986). Single mothers and their children: An American dilemma. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press. Guarino, C., Santibanez, L., Daley, G., & Brewer, D. (2004). A review of the research literature on teacher recruitment and retention. Santa Monica, CA: Rand. Haring, M., Stock, W. A., & Okun, M. A. (1984). A research synthesis of gender and social class as correlates of subjective well-being. Human Relations, 37, 645–657. Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 499–534. Krupat, E., & Guild, W. (1980). Defining the city: The use of objective and subjective measures for community description. Journal of Social Issues, 36, 9–28. Smith, T. M., & Ingersoll, R. M. (2004). Reducing teacher turnover. American Educational Research Journal, 41, 20. Williams, D. R. (1990). Socioeconomic differentials in health: A review and redirection. Social Psychology Quarterly, 53, 81–99. Wilson, W. J., & Aponte, R. (1985). Urban poverty. Annual Review of Sociology, 11, 231–258.
and monitor their cognitive processing, and derive a deeper understanding and appreciation of their own thinking processes [1].
References Tools of the Mind pp. 69–70 1. Moffett, J. (1985). Liberating inner speech. College Composition and Communication, 36(3), 304–308. 2. Journal of Education & Human Development Volume 1, Issue 2, 2007. 3. Metacognition and the Use of Inner Speech in Children’s Thinking: A Tool Teachers Can Use. 4. Andrea Zakin, Assistant Professor, Lehman College, The City University of New York,
[email protected] 5. http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/articles/1179.pdf MdDevit pgs 212–213.
Innovation ▶Creativity
Inner Landscapes ▶Art Therapy
Inpatient Care for Preschool Children Inner Speech
▶Hospitalization of Preschoolers
JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Inquisitive Behavior Synonyms Self-talk
▶Active Exploration
Definition Talking to oneself but not uttering words aloud.
Description Inner speech may include all of the ideas of verbal speech but in abbreviated form. In other words inner speech is a type of self-talk that assists children in organizing their cognitive processes. As children grow and mature this type of self-talk helps them to monitor their behavior or accomplish challenging tasks. Metacognition can be facilitated by the use of inner speech, a kind of self-talk that enables students to direct
Inquisitiveness ▶Curiosity
Insanity of Early Life ▶Childhood Psychosis
Insecure-Resistant Attachment
Insecure Attachment ▶Ambivalent Attachment ▶Avoidant Attachment ▶Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment
Insecure-Ambivalent Attachment ▶Insecure-Resistant Attachment
Insecure-Resistant Attachment DOUGLAS K. SYMONS, ALICIA L. SZIELASKO Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Ambivalent attachment; Insecure-ambivalent attachment; Insecurity; Preoccupied attachment
Definition Insecure-resistant (aka anxious-ambivalent) attachment is an attachment classification developed within attachment theory and initially described in the work of Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby. Infants of this attachment category have excessive distress upon separations from an attachment figure such as a caregiver, and when the caregiver returns, tend to continue their distress and do not use their caregivers as a secure base [2]. Distress can take the form of crying, tantrums, and angry behavior toward the caregiver. In other words, the infant resists parent attempts to sooth the distressed child, is distrustful and uncertain that he or she serves as a secure-base. This creates insecurity, anxiety, and dependency that can continue within intimate relationships throughout the lifespan.
Description The attachment system balances child needs to proximityseek for protection and explore the environment. It is activated in times of distress and attachment figures are needed to serve as a secure-base. It is felt that insecureresistant attachment is related to insensitive parenting that is inconsistent. This can be because parents are intrusive, not aware of what the specific needs are of a child at a given
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moment, or insensitively ignore or misread infant cues [4, 6]. Sometimes parents are available to serve as a securebase, sometimes they are not. Over time, the infant learns that they cannot be sure if their needs will be met by the caregiver, and thus they are distrustful and over-solicitious of care. Preoccupation with care means exploration is restricted, and the emotional tone of the relationship is indicated by anxiety and insecurity. Because they are not sure if they have a secure-base, more events are seen as threatening, and the attachment system becomes hyperactivated. While a secure child can be soothed by a parent when distressed, a resistant child is difficult to sooth, although at the same time they are more dependent on or clingy with the parent [7]. Attachment style appears to arise from a parenting environment and is not a simple function of either temperament nor genetic influence [8]. In infancy, anxious-resistant attachment is assessed using behavioral observations of the strange situation and some of its variants. Normative samples show that 7–15% of infants are classified in this group in the United States with similar percentages in other countries. By the preschool age, attachment begins to be reflected in behavior which is more representational, and doll-play tasks, sentence completion tasks, and story-telling tasks have been developed. Figure 1, for example, shows a parent dropping off a child on her or his first day of school from the Separation Anxiety Test, and children are asked a series of questions about this scenario that probe for attachment-relevant information. Within each kind of task, the absence of secure-base themes can be examined, and the presence of excessive distress, worry and distrust about a parent’s support, dependency and clinginess, and anxiety are present. In fact Bowlby’s original formulation of this form of attachment was used to account for anxiety disorders and interpersonal problems later in life, and anxious-resistant attachment is predictive of these kinds of clinical problems. The percentage of children classified as insecure-ambivalent is similar to that in infancy, but there may be a shift in gender toward girls being more and boys being less likely to be in this category (insecure boys shift toward avoidance) [5]. In adolescence and adulthood, common methodology to assess attachment uses discourse methods to address the present state of mind with respect to attachment events [1]. Feeling unloved and inability to move beyond relationship events with parents is indicative of preoccupied attachment, which has conceptual and empirical continuity with anxious-resistant attachment. The other common approach is to use self-report methodology about either recollections of the caring and overprotection received from their own parents during childhood, or
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Insecure-Resistant Attachment. Fig. 1
anxiety and avoidance reflected in their current romantic relationship. Bowlby initially proposed that attachment is really about yea/nea answers to two questions fundamental to interpersonal processes: Am I loved? Am I lovable? In romantic relationship research, answers to these two question lead to a two-dimensional model of attachment style, and individuals with an anxious-resistant background are not sure whether they are loved or not [3]. In other words, the uncertainty they have about using others as a secure base continues into adulthood, and leads to dependency within relationships. Constant affirmation that they are indeed loved is sought, but does not seem to have a lasting impact.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
6.
7.
Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709–716. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cassidy, J., & Berlin, L. J. (1994). The insecure/ambivalent pattern of attachment: Theory and research. Child Development, 65, 971–991. DeWolff, M. S., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1997). Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment. Child Development, 68, 571–591. Guidice, M. D. (2008). Sex-biased ratio of avoidant/ambivalent attachment in middle childhood. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 26, 369–379. Harel, J., & Scher, A. (2003). Insufficient responsiveness in ambivalent mother-infant relationships: Contextual and affective aspects. Infant Behavior and Development, 26, 371–383. Mayseless, O. S. A. (2000). Mothers of anxious/ambivalent infants: Maternal characteristics and child-care context. Child Development, 71, 1629–1639.
8. 9.
O’Connor, T. G., & Croft, C. M. (2001). A twin study of attachment in preschool children. Child Development, 72, 1501–1511. Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Kroonenberg, P. M. (1988). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: A meta-analysis of the Strange Situation. Child Development, 59, 147–156.
Insecurity ▶Insecure-Resistant Attachment
Insight-Oriented Approaches ▶Psychodynamic Approaches
Inspective Behavior ▶Active Exploration
Inspiration ▶Motivation
Institutional Review Boards
Institutional Review Boards MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Committees for the Protection of Human Subjects; Human Subjects Review Boards; IRBs; Research Ethics Review Boards
Definition Institutional committees that review research proposals to determine whether those proposals meet legal and ethical standards for protection of human subjects.
Description The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [2] defines research involving human subjects as any research that involves one or more of the following activities: communication or interaction between a researcher and a participant; manipulation of a participant’s environment by a researcher; observation and/or recording of a participant’s behavior in a manner that leaves the participant identifiable to others; and/or gathering identifying information from records or other data sources. While innumerable advances in a variety of scientific and technological disciplines can be credited to research involving human subjects, such practices often involve risk to the individuals who participate. In addition to the risks inherent in the use of experimental treatments, a review of the history of human subjects research reveals many examples of studies involving either ethically ambiguous or clearly unethical practices on the part of researchers. These practices range from intentionally creating stressful situations for subjects (e.g., Stanley Milgram’s research examining subjects’ willingness to inflict pain at the direction of an authority figure), to knowingly withholding treatment likely to benefit participants, even when doing so is likely to lead to sickness and/ or death (e.g., the Tuskegee Syphilis Study), to actively causing physical harm or death to subjects (e.g., Nazi experimentation). Since World War II, many government agencies and international organizations have developed policies and regulations designed to protect individuals who participate in research studies. In 1979, the U.S. National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research [3] published “Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of
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Human Subjects of Research” (also known as the Belmont Report), which identified three basic principles of ethical research: respect for persons; beneficence, or maximizing benefit and minimizing harm to subjects; and justice, or using equitable and fair practices to select individuals to participate in and benefit from research. HHS subsequently developed enforceable regulations designed to implement the findings and recommendations of the Commission. One of these regulations mandates the review of any proposed study at institutions where research is conducted (such as universities or hospitals) by trained committees that are specifically charged with the task of protecting subjects. These committees are known as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). To determine whether a research project is consistent with HHS guidelines, an IRB committee reviews both the actual materials to be used in the study (e.g., surveys, assessment instruments, consent forms) and a description, provided by the researcher(s), of the rationale for the study, the experimental procedure to be used, and the precautions taken to protect participants. Specifically, the researcher(s) must demonstrate that the proposed study involves or includes: either minimal risk to, or a positive risk-to-benefit ratio for, participants; fair and non-coercive procedures for subject selection; procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants (or their guardians, if applicable); and concern for the safety and confidentiality of participants. HHS regulations state that IRBs must comprise at least five members from varied professional backgrounds. At least one member of the IRB should be a community member with no other affiliation with the institution. Diversity in IRB committee membership, both in areas of professional expertise and in demographic characteristics, is encouraged in order to incorporate a variety of perspectives into the review process. HHS requires that IRB approval be sought for federally-funded research projects, but does not mandate IRB approval for privately-funded or non-funded research projects. Additionally, HHS exempts several specific types of federally-funded research projects from its IRB review requirement. Exempted projects include: studies conducted in schools or other educational settings examining educational practices that would be implemented whether or not the research was being conducted; research examining existing (i.e., archival) data, documents, records, or specimens; and studies conducted by agencies or organizations examining the benefit of programs that they administer. In each of these cases, data on human subjects must be recorded in a way that leaves human subjects unidentifiable; if subjects can be identified by
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the data collected in a study, that study is no longer exempt, and must undergo the IRB review process. Despite HHS’s limited IRB review requirements, the vast majority of institutions require that all proposed studies using human subjects, whether or not they are federallyfunded or appear to meet exemption criteria, be submitted for IRB review. In a recent study of researchers’ experiences with their institutions’ IRBs conducted by Ashcraft and Krause [1], 99% of respondents reported that all research using human subjects conducted by researchers affiliated with their institutions must be approved by their IRBs. Protocols that meet the federal exemption criteria referred to above may be reviewed using a streamlined process (sometimes referred to as an exempt review). Similarly, protocols that appear to pose minimal risk (i.e., no more risk than would generally be experienced by an individual during the completion of routine activities) to human subjects may be reviewed using an expedited review process. Research involving non-human animal subjects is reviewed by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs), in accordance with the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act (Public Law 89-544), rather than by IRBs. IACUCs review and monitor research protocols involving animals to ensure that such research is conducted under appropriate conditions by qualified staff, and that pain and/or distress to animal subjects is minimized, and that veterinary care is provided. In addition to their research-related responsibilities, IACUCs are charged with monitoring the facilities and conditions in which animal subjects are kept to ensure that the animals are cared for appropriately and humanely.
References 1.
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Ashcraft, M. H., & Krause, J. A. (2007). Social and behavioral researchers’ experiences with their IRBs. Ethics and Behavior, 17(1), 1–17. Department of Health and Human Services. (2005). Protection of human subjects (Title 45 CFR Part 46). Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/45cfr46.html National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. (1979). Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/ belmont.html National Institutes of Health. (2004). Guidelines for the conduct of research involving human subjects at the National Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/ GrayBooklet82404.pdf Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare. (2002). Institutional animal care and use committee guidebook. Retrieved November 15, 2008, from http://grants.nih.gov/grants/OLAW/GuideBook.pdf Steneck, N. H. (2007). Office of Research Integrity introduction to the responsible conduct of research. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http://ori.hhs.gov/documents/rcrintro.pdf
Instruction ▶Discipline
Instructional Hierarchy DEREK D. REED1, JAMES K. LUISELLI2 1 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA 2 The May Institute, Inc., Randolph, MA, USA
Definition A theoretical model of skill acquisition used as a basis for instructional placement and decision-making.
Description The instructional hierarchy is a model of skill acquisition premised on the theory that children will best acquire skills through progressive instructional techniques beginning with content accuracy (see [1, 4]). Upon demonstrating adequate competency of the content (i.e., accuracy), instruction should then focus on training the learner to become fluent in the skill (i.e., high rates of accurate responding during timed probes). As fluency is achieved, the instructional hierarchy progresses to the promotion of the generalization of the skill to meaningful educational contexts. The final goal of the instructional hierarchy is to foster adaptation of the target skill to novel contexts and demands.
Relevance to Childhood Development Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, the United States federal government set in “response to intervention” model of determining special education placement in public schools. As such, students identified “at risk” are to be provided with empirically-supported treatments with their progress continually monitored to determine the degree to which their academic skills improve under more intensive teaching strategies. Failing to respond dictates that more intensive empirically-supported treatments be provided. Ultimately, if students fail to respond to highly intensive, individualized, and empirically-supported treatment, the student may then be referred to special education services. The instructional hierarchy aids in this process by providing educators and clinicians with a framework to identify
Instrumental Aggression
the instructional level of the at-risk student. Teaching atrisk students at their instructional level – utilizing the instructional hierarchy model – has proven successful in areas such reading (e.g., [3]) and mathematics (e.g., [2]) difficulties. Thus, the implications of this approach are that when students’ instructional levels are identified, teaching them at their individual levels may keep them in general education and prevent unnecessary expenditure of special education resources.
References 1.
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Ardoin, S. P., & Daly, E. J., III. (2007). Introduction to the special series: Close encounters of the instructional kind – how the instructional hierarchy is shaping instructional research 30 years later. Journal of Behavioral Education, 16, 1–6. Cates, G. L., & Rhymer, K. N. (2003). Examining the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance: An instructional hierarchy perspective. Journal of Behavioral Education, 12, 22–34. Daly, E. J., III, & Martens, B. K. (1994). A comparison of three interventions for increasing oral reading performance: Application of the instructional hierarchy. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27, 459–469. Haring, N. G., Lovitt, T. C., Eaton, M. D., & Hansen, C. L. (1978). The fourth R: Research in the classroom. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Instrumental Aggression
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behavior in which aggression is learned through vicarious reinforcement and maintained by the expectation that this behavior will result in a reward [3]. Instrumental aggression is also associated with callous-unemotional traits such as lack of guilt and empathy and it can be either physical or relational. Instrumental aggression predicts later delinquent behavior, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder [6]. Early hostile aggression predicts later instrumental aggression; however, the opposite direction of association between the subtypes has not been supported. This finding that hostile aggression precedes instrumental aggression is considered to be due to the difficulty young children have in modulating their emotional and impulsive behaviors. As these abilities develop, children can better moderate their behavior and engage in more controlled pro-social and anti-social behaviors [5]. The dichotomous view of aggression has been debated with some questioning whether there are two distinct subtypes of aggression. The argument against the subtypes contends that hostile aggression can also have instrumental goals such as retaliation or restoration of status [2]. In addition, instrumental aggression can be both hotblooded and premeditated; the two concepts are independent [2]. Moreover, it is unclear how much planning should occur before a behavior is considered premeditated.
Relevance to Childhood Development TAMARA DEL VECCHIO St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA
Synonyms Proactive aggression
Definition Instrumental aggression is harmful behavior engaged in without provocation to obtain an outcome or coerce others.
Description One of the most robust distinctions within the field of aggression is between hostile and instrumental aggression [4]. In contrast to hostile aggression, in which the perpetrator is impulsive, emotion driven and reactive, instrumental aggression is conceived as proactive, premeditated and cold-blooded [1, 3]. The goal of instrumental aggressive behavior is to obtain a preferred outcome or to coerce others. Instrumental aggression is founded in the social learning model of aggressive
Aggression is often considered age-normative for very young children due to its frequency. Moreover, the frequency at which children engage in aggressive behaviors decreases with age as children develop better pro-social behavior skills. However, a small subset of children will persist in their engagement of instrumentally aggressive behavior eventually resulting in negative outcomes such as conduct disorder and delinquency. Instrumental aggression is also associated with callous-unemotional traits which are considered important for development of an anti-social pattern of behaving. The relative stability of aggressive behavior and associated negative outcomes emphasize the significance of this behavior.
References 1. 2.
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Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2002). Human aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 27–51. Bushman, B. J., & Anderson, C. A. (2001). Is it time to pull the plug on the hostile versus instrumental aggression dichotomy? Psychological Review, 108, 273–279. Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1996). Social information processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression. Child Development, 67, 993–1002.
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Instrumental Aggressors Polman, H., de Castro, B. O., Koops, W., van Boxtel, H. W., & Merk, W. W. (2007). A meta-analysis of the distinction between reactive and proactive aggression in children and adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 522–535. Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M., & Barker, E. D. (2006). Subtypes of aggressive behaviors: A developmental perspective. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30, 12–19. Vitaro, F., Gendreau, P. L., & Oligny, P. (1998). Reactive and proactive aggression differentially predict later conduct problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 377–385.
Integrative Classroom ▶Classroom Integration
Intellectual Ability ▶Mental Age
Instrumental Aggressors ▶Proactive Aggressors
Intellectual Disability Instrumental Conditioning ▶Conditioning ▶Operant Conditioning
Insulin Dependent Diabetes ▶Juvenile Diabetes
▶Developmental Disabilities ▶Mental Retardation ▶Mild Mental Retardation ▶Moderate Mental Retardation ▶Profound Mental Retardation ▶Severe Mental Retardation
Intellectual Testing/Assessment ▶Intelligence Testing
Integrated Education ▶Classroom Integration
Intelligence ▶Media
Integrated Language ▶Whole Language Approach
Intelligence Norms MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Integration Synonyms ▶Mainstreaming
Norm-referenced intelligence testing
Intelligence Quotient
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Definition
Description
Intelligence test performance data collected from a sample of individuals that is thought to be representative of the general population for which the test is intended.
Deviation IQ; Full scale IQ; IQ; Ratio IQ
Intelligence quotients (more commonly referred to as IQ scores) provide quantitative information on an individual’s overall performance on measures of cognitive ability. Early intelligence tests quantified cognitive ability in the form of “mental quotient” scores, which were calculated by dividing an individual’s “mental age” (MA), or the age group in which the typical individual demonstrated the same level of ability as the test-taker, by that individual’s chronological age (CA). In 1916, test developer and intelligence researcher Lewis Terman adapted this calculation method by multiplying the MA/CA ratio by 100 to yield an integer rather than a decimal; he referred to the resulting scores as an “intelligence quotient.” In Terman’s schema, typical performance for one’s age was represented by equivalence between mental and chronological ages (i.e., by a ratio IQ of 100). Most modern tests of cognitive ability permit calculation of an overall score, though not all tests explicitly refer to this score as an intelligence quotient or IQ score (e.g., the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities – Third Edition yields a general intellectual ability, or GIA, score rather than an IQ score). Modern tests of cognitive ability generally yield ▶deviation IQ rather than ratio IQ scores; while these scores are derived using different calculation methods than those involved in ratio scoring, they are similar to Terman’s scores in that typical performance is represented by a score of 100. IQ scores have been found to predict achievement in a variety of domains (e.g., academic achievement, occupational success) and remain relatively stable over time. However, they do not represent exact measurements of cognitive ability. A variety of factors (including the specific test administered, the individual’s mood or motivation level, or chance responding) may cause variability in scores. For this reason, IQ scores are often reported in the context of a confidence interval, which provides a range of values around a given score and indicates the percentage of times that the reported range should contain an individual’s true score. For example, a 95% confidence interval of 95–105 reported for an IQ score of 100 would indicate that, 95% of the time, the test-taker’s score on that test would likely fall between 95 and 105. Reporting scores in this manner emphasizes that IQ scores are not absolute measures of cognitive ability, and provides a more accurate representation of performance.
Definition
References
A score representing overall level of performance on psychological tests of intelligence or cognitive ability.
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Description Most modern tests of intelligence or cognitive ability are norm-referenced testing instruments. The norm samples for such tests are generally stratified, rather than random; in other words, they are selected to match the characteristics of the larger population with which the test will be used on variables of interest. For example, the developers of an intelligence test designed for nationwide use will likely attempt to recruit a norm sample in which the proportions of various demographic variables (e.g., age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability status, and educational attainment, among others) resemble those found in the general population, as indicated by census data. The test data gathered from the norm sample are subsequently used as a basis for assessing the performance of other testtakers.
References 1. 2. 3.
Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Groth-Marnat, G. (2003). Handbook of psychological assessment (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Suen, H. K., & French, J. L. (2003). A history of the development of psychological and educational testing. In C. R. Reynolds, R. W. Kamphaus, & C. N. Hendry (Eds.), Handbook of psychological and educational assessment of children: Intelligence, aptitude, and achievement (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Intelligence Quotient MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms
Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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Intelligence Testing Floyd, R. G., Clark, M. H., & Shadish, W. R. (2008). The exchangeability of IQs: Implications for professional psychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39(4), 414–423. Groth-Marnat, G. (2003). Handbook of psychological assessment (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Suen, H. K., & French, J. L. (2003). A history of the development of psychological and educational testing. In C. R. Reynolds, R. W. Kamphaus, & C. N. Hendry (Eds.), Handbook of psychological and educational assessment of children: Intelligence, aptitude, and achievement (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Intelligence Testing R. STEVE MCCALLUM University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Synonyms Cognitive testing; General cognitive aptitude testing; Intellectual testing/assessment; IQ testing; Mental ability testing
Definition Intelligence testing refers to the process of identifying, quantifying, and characterizing cognitive abilities by administration and scoring items designed for that purpose. Typically, methods and tasks used to assess intelligence are first investigated in the experimental laboratory and later adapted for administration according to a prescribed and standardized protocol. Standardized assessment allows individual-difference comparisons to peers. Some of the more common abilities assessed by intelligence tests include working and long-term memory, processing speed, vocabulary knowledge, numerical facility, and auditory and visual processing.
Description Meaningful assessment of intelligence requires that the construct be carefully defined. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary [12] describes intelligence as the capacity for learning, reasoning, and understanding; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.; and mental alertness or quickness of understanding. Modern efforts to define intelligence began in earnest in the late 1800s. In 1921 a classic symposium was convened by the editors of the Journal of Educational Psychology entitled “Intelligence and Its Measurement,” and attended by many of the prominent theorists of the day. It was not
until 1985 that a similar event occurred, when Sternberg and Detterman recreated the earlier symposium by asking current expert the same questions (as those put to the expert in 1921) regarding the nature of intelligence. A book chapter written by Sternberg [17] provided over 20 definitions shared by these experts (in 1985). Many of the characteristics mentioned by the experts in 1921 and again in 1985 are similar to those listed in the dictionary definition provided above (e.g., ability to learn, knowledge, speed of mental processing, higher order components including abstract reasoning); however, there are salient differences (e.g., the experts also listed physiological mechanisms, executive processes, adaptation to the environment). Currently, there is not a consensus on the definition of intelligence, i.e., not all experts agree on its characteristics. Differences across definitions depends on the extent to which theorists focus on within-individual characteristics (e.g., working memory capacity, speed of processing, neural latency time) versus environmental variables (e.g., cultural expectations, rules), and the interaction between the two influences. Obviously, intelligence is a multi-faceted and complex construct, and it is inferred from behaviors. Consequently, the measurement of intelligence is also complex. Just as there is no one controversy-free definition of intelligence, there is no single widely accepted measure of intelligence. And, to make the situation even more complicated, behaviors that might be considered intelligent in one culture may seem less so in another, depending on the extent to which the two cultures have developed different expectations for success. To understand the controversies and the contributions associated with use of intelligence tests, an awareness of testing history may be helpful.
History of Intelligence Testing Although practically useful intelligence tests were not developed until late in the nineteenth century, the concept of intelligence is much older [8]. The Chinese recognized that varying levels of intelligence could be predictive of career success as early as 2000 BC, and Hindu scholars discussed intelligence in the Bhagavadgita around 500 BC, as did Aristotle (400 BC). But, the first really useful intelligence tests were developed based on the efforts of a number of educators and mental health workers from western Europe (4). For example, in France Esquirol, Itard, Sequin, and Binet focused on the study, treatment, and evaluation of the insane and mentally deficient, established the use of sensory-based evaluation and treatment strategies, defined the need for a classification system to diagnose mental retardation, and then used it to aid in making admission decisions to special schools and to
Intelligence Testing
select civil servants. In England, Sir Frances Galton constructed simple tests of memory, motor, and sensory functions in an attempt to differentiate highly successful from less successful individuals, and was one of the first to use quantitative mathematical data analysis procedures. As a result, some refer to him as the father of mental testing [4]. In Germany, Ebbinghaus, Wundt, Wernicke, Kraepelin, and Cattell emphasized individual differences in a variety of sensory-motor tasks, as well as tasks of attention, memory, and higher order cognitive functions (e.g., ability to recognize similarities and differences among objects). In addition, these pioneers recognized the need for rigorous control in the testing situation and began to emphasize the use of standardized administration procedures. Many of these early innovations culminated in the development of the first useful intelligence test by Binet and colleagues (e.g., Simon, Henri) in 1895. The 1905 version, known as the Binet-Simon Scale was the first to acknowledge age-based cognitive development, contained items arranged by difficulty, was capable of diagnosing degrees of mental retardation, and became the prototype for subsequent scales [16]. The BinetSimon Scale was used in Paris to identify children who had mental retardation, and particularly those who were less likely to profit from the typical educational curricula. Importantly, Binet was among the first to challenge the view that intelligence was genetically fixed at birth; he argued in favor of the view that intelligence is fluid, and is influenced significantly by environmental and cultural factors [7]. The testing movement flourished in the United States after the introduction of the Binet-Simon Scales. There were several revisions of the Binet-Simon Scale [1], the first of which occurred in 1908 by Henry Goddard and the second by Lewis Terman of Stanford University in 1916. This second version, called the Stanford Extension and Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale (shortened to the Stanford-Binet), included Louis Stern’s concept of mental quotient, which is obtained by dividing the mental age by the chronological age. Terman and his associates renamed this ratio the intelligence quotient (IQ). This ratio IQ was used until 1972 when the deviation quotient replaced it in a newly normed version of the Stanford-Binet. The deviation quotient is obtained from direct comparison of an examinee’s performance with same-age peers and specifically by comparing the examinee’s score with the mean and variance of the population (of same-age peers). The Stanford-Binet is now in its fifth edition [18]. The newest version of the Stanford-Binet has incorporated a number of innovations, some of which were introduced in scales of intelligence first developed by Wechsler in 1939
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(e.g., pooling like items into subtests, pooling subtests together to form global scores subordinate to the most global score). Wechsler also integrated into the first Wechsler scale, called the Wechsler-Bellvue Intelligence Scale, Form I, ideas for items taken from existing tests (e.g., Information and Comprehension subtests from the Army Alpha; Arithmetic, Digit Span, Similarities, and Vocabulary subtests from the 1916 Stanford-Binet; Block Design subtest from the Kohns Block Design Test; and Coding and Digit Symbol from the Army Beta test). This test was the prototype for other similar tests (e.g., Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children), and modern versions of these tests are still available. Tests like the Stanford-Binet, the Wechsler scales, and other commonly used scales (e.g., Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities-III; Diagnostic Ability Scales-Revised) are used when an examinee needs to be assessed using a psychometrically sound measure of intelligence. Most of these tests yield a general score, a cognitive ability composite, based on differential weighting of subtests, each of which measures a somewhat narrow component of intelligence. Many experts use a statistical procedure called factor analysis to help them determine the nature of the psychological constructs assessed by the tests they use. Factor analysis relies on correlation coefficients as a starting point. These coefficients express the strength of the relationship between two variables, and will be described in more detail below. When scores from several subtests are entered into a factor analysis correlation coefficients are created first, then the procedure aligns scores to maximize similarities within the data set such that subtests assessing the same or similar subconstructs combine, forming factors. For example, a test containing 12 subtests may assess primarily six factors, with two subtests defining or loading on a particular factor (e.g., working memory), two more on another factor (e.g., processing speed), and so on. This strategy is used to identify the number of factors within a battery, and a more sophisticated version of the process, called confirmatory factor analysis, is used to test the extent to which the factor structure of an intelligence test conforms to a theoretical model presumed by test authors to underlie the particular test. Factor analytic procedures are commonly used to determine the subconstructs assessed and the relationship between various subconstructs. For example, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV assesses primarily four basic factors or subconstructs of intelligence: verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, processing speed, and working memory. Another commonly used test of intelligence, the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, is based
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on the theoretical and experimental work of Raymond Cattell, John Carroll, and John Horn (CHC Model), and assesses comprehension-knowledge, long-term retrieval, visual-spatial thinking, auditory processing, fluid reasoning, processing speed, and short-term memory. Confirmatory factor analysis provides considerable evidence in support of the WJ-III’s ability to assess these abilities [20]. Most current individually administered intelligence tests are model-based, meaning that they were developed to assess the subconstructs of intelligence considered important by the test authors. For example, as mentioned above, the WJ III was designed to assess the CHC model of intelligence. Similarly, the Cognitive Assessment System, or CAS, was developed by Naglieri and Das [11] to assess the following subconstructs of intelligence: planning, attention, simultaneous processing, and successive processing (i.e., PASS model). Other commonly used individually administered tests include the various Wechsler scales designed for either preschoolers, children, or adults, the Differential Ability Scales [3], the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-II [6] and the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Scale.
Relevance to Childhood Development Originally, tests of intelligence were developed primarily to predict academic functioning. And, they perform that role well [16], in part because authors of the most widely used tests are careful to incorporate into the test development process procedures that ensure strong psychometric properties (e.g., reliability, validity). In addition, intelligence tests predict relatively well other important outcomes (e.g., job success). Evidence in support of these conclusions comes from studies reporting correlation coefficients. As mentioned above, these coefficients are statistical indicators that define the magnitude of the relationship between any two variables. Correlation coefficients reflect the power of one variable to predict another, and range from 1.0 to +1.0. A value of 0 indicates a complete lack of relationship between two variables and consequently, no predictive relationship. On the other hand, 1.0 defines the maximum overlap between two variables, and consequently, perfect prediction. The literature contains hundreds of studies showing relationships between various measures of intelligence and academic and job performance. Most of these studies show moderate to moderately strong correlations coefficients, typically ranging from 0.50–0.70 for academic measures and 0.30–0.60 for job-related measures. Because of the large data base, educators know that children with high scores on intelligence tests will likely earn concomitantly high scores on measures of academic success and grades.
Likewise, those who earn low scores on intelligence test are also likely to earn low academic achievement test scores and grades. One traditional interpretation of these data is that academic performance is influenced by intelligence. Of course, the relationship is somewhat reciprocal. Those who excel academically gain knowledge that can then be displayed on cognitive subtests designed to assess retention of vocabulary, relationships among objects, and so on. For years, test of intelligence have been prized for their predictive power. However, many of those who use intelligence tests currently expect more from these tests. In particular, the goal of many examiners is to use the pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses obtained from the testing process to partly explain current academic failures/ successes and to use this knowledge to help inform intervention strategies. The basic assumption that underlies this expectation rests on the aptitude x treatment model. This model assumes that educators can use cognitive strengths to plan academic interventions. For example, using result from administration of the CAS (which assesses planning, attention, and simultaneous and successive processing) an examiner might find that simultaneous processing is a relative and normative strength. Because simultaneous processing relies on the ability to understand relationships among elements of to-be-learned content in a holistic pattern, as opposed to processing these elements in serial order, it is assumed to rely significantly on visualspatial patterning. Consequently, an examinee with a simultaneous processing strength might profit more from use of visual aids, such as flowcharts, maps, diagrams, and so on, than on a presentation relying on a auditory, sequential presentation (e.g., auditory lecture). Of course, recommendations built on such theoretical assumptions should be tested for each child assessed rather than assumed. This aptitude x treatment paradigm is intuitively appealing and logical, and although there is some research support for this approach [8], much of the literature is equivocal; more research is needed. Another use of intelligence tests relies on the ability of short group-administered tests to screen students who function at the extremes of the intellectual distribution. Because intelligence is roughly normally distributed [5] those that function two or more standard deviations below the mean are often identified as mentally retarded assuming they have concomitant deficits in adaptive behavior; similarly, those who function two or more standard deviations above the mean are sometimes identified as gifted/ talented. These individual are among the most extreme, approximately within the bottom and top 3% of the population, respectively, and consequently may profit from
Intelligence Testing
specialized intervention (e.g., special education services). Individuals who are identified as significantly low or high by a group testing process may go on to be tested using individually administered intelligence tests. Results from the individually administered tests may then be used at the identification stage for identifying those who have mental retardation and those who are gifted/talented. Because intelligence tests have been used to help identify children for special education services and because there has been overrepresentation of minority children in these classes in many states intelligence tests came under intense scrutiny, particularly since the 1970s. Tests were accused of being biased against minority children by many educators and policy makers. In the main, these accusations have not been supported by careful statistical analyses [14], though many of the most widely used intelligence tests produce lower mean scores for members of minority groups. As analyses have shown, differential mean scores across groups do not necessarily indicate bias against the lower scoring group, though a lower mean score is often taken as a red flag, and invites more scrutiny of the tests producing such scores. One of the beneficial outcomes of the increased attention devoted to producing fair(er) tests has been the development recently of a spate of really good nonverbal intelligence tests. These tests are based on the assumption that language may not provide a good window on the intellect for all individuals, although it does for many. Language may be a barrier for examinees who are deaf or have limited hearing, those who have other language-based deficits, those who are from non-mainstream cultures, and those who may be emotionally impaired (e.g., pathologically shy). Some individually administered multi-dimensional nonverbal tests include the Leiter International Performance ScaleRevised [15], the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) [2], and the Wechsler Nonverbal Intelligence Scale [19]. Some group administered tests include the General Ability Measure of Adults (GAMA) [10], the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) [9], and the various versions of the Raven Progressive Matrices [13]. In summary, although humans have made informal judgments about the intellectual ability of those in their environment for thousands of year, practically useful formal tests of intelligence tests have been around only since the late 1800s. In some ways modern tests are very different from their early predecessors. For example, they are more sophisticated psychometrically, assess more functions associated with intelligence, are more likely to be based on theoretically conceptualizations of intelligence, are amenable to computer-based interpretation, and can provide more explanations for the cognitive abilities that
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underlie real-world performance (e.g., academic strengths/weaknesses). However, in other ways they are very similar to the early versions in content, administration format, and usefulness, i.e., they are still better at predicting performance than they are at providing remediation suggestions, though there is significant progress along this dimension. Innovations have not been linear, That is, most innovations have occurred within the past 25 years (since the early 1980s). In the future, authors of intelligence tests likely will continue to focus on relating intelligence to theories of intelligence, implications for treatment of academic and work-related deficits, and on discovering brain-behavior relationships related to intellectual performance.
References 1. Binet, A., & Simon, T. (1916). The development of intelligence in children. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins. 2. Bracken, B. A., & McCallum, R. S. (1998). The universal nonverbal intelligence test. Chicago: Riverside. 3. Elliott, C. D. (1990). Differential ability scales. San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation. 4. Goodenough, F. L. (1949). Mental testing. New York: Rinehart. 5. Jensen, A. R. (1980). Bias in mental testing. New York: The Free Press. 6. Kaufman, A. S., & Kaufman, N. L. (2004). Kaufman assessment battery for children (2nd ed.). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. 7. Kelley, M. F., & Surbeck, E. (2007). History of preschool assessment. In B. R. Bracken & R. J. Nagle (Eds.), Psychoeducational assessment of children. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. 8. Naglieri, J. (1996). Cognitive assessment: Traditional. In T. K. Fagan & P. G. Warden (Eds.), Historical encyclopedia of school psychology. Westport, CT: Greenwood. 9. Naglieri, J. A. (2003). Naglieri nonverbal ability test. New York: Harcourt. 10. Naglieri, J. A., & Bardos, A. N. (1997). The general ability measure of adults. New York: Pearson. 11. Naglieri, J. A., & Das, J. P. (1997). Cognitive assessment system. Itasca, IL: Riverside. 12. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. (1992). Intelligence New York: Random House. 13. Raven, J. (1938). Progressive matrices. London: Lewis. 14. Reynolds, C. R., Lowe, P. A., & Saenz, A. L. (1999). The problem of bias in psychological testing. In C. R. Reynolds & T. B. Gutkin (Eds.), The handbook of school psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley. 15. Roid, G. H., & Miller, L. J. (1997). Leiter international performance scale-revised. Wooddale, IL: Stoelting. 16. Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (4th ed.). San Diego, CA: Sattler Publisher. 17. Sternberg, R. J., & Detterman, D. K. (1986). What is intelligence? Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing. 18. Thorndike, R. L., Hagen, E. P., & Sattler, J. M. (2003). The StanfordBinet intelligence scale (5th ed.). Chicago: Riverside Publishing. 19. Wechsler, D., & Naglieri, J. A. (2006). The Wechsler nonverbal scale of ability. New York: Pearson. 20. Woodcock, R. W., McGrew, K. S., & Mather, N. (2001). WoodcockJohnson III tests of cognitive abilities. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.
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Intelligence Testing Without Verbal Communication ▶Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test
Intentionality
purposeful behavior to ambiguous situations than their non-aggressive counterparts suggesting a deficit in cognitive processing or cue identification in aggressive children [2]. These cognitive biases are thought to predict the aggressive behavioral response. For example, if a child believes that they have been acted upon negatively on purpose, they would be more likely to believe a retaliatory response was justified and act accordingly.
References TAMARA DEL VECCHIO St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA
1. 2.
Synonyms
3.
Deliberate; Purposeful
Definition A state of being or action that is deliberate or purposeful.
4.
Bargh, J. A. (1990). Goal 6¼ intent: Goal-directed thought and behavior are often unintentional. Psychological Inquiry, 3, 248–277. Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social-information-processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101. Feinfield, K. A., Lee, P. P., Flavell, E. R., Green, F. L., & Flavell, J. H. (1999). Young children’s understanding of intention. Cognitive Development, 14, 463–486. Phillips, W., Baron-Cohen, S., & Rutter, M. (1998). Understanding intention in normal development and in autism. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 16, 337–348.
Description Intentionality is purposeful and conscious action or state, and differs from desire which can be impossible to fulfill or fulfilled accidentally. Determining whether an action is right or wrong requires a more complex cognitive process than simply evaluating whether the outcome of the action is positive or negative. Therefore, differentiating the outcome from the intention is an integral part of child development. Children develop an understanding on intentions during the preschool years, and can distinguish intentions from desires by an average of 4 years of age [3]. Understanding intention is an important component for the development of theory of mind, moral thinking, and pro-social behavior. Theory of mind development is dependent on children’s ability to infer intentions, desires, and emotions of others based, at least partly, on their understanding of their own. In addition, understanding intentionality enables children to develop more complex conceptions of moral responsibility in which the determination of blame is based not only on the severity or wrongness of the outcome but also the actor’s intentions [4]. Moreover, a mismatch between a positive intention and negative outcome could result in feelings of sadness or guilt [1]. Furthermore, intention plays a role in planning and deliberate pro-social and anti-social action. Assessments of intentionality are considered necessary mechanisms within cognitive models of aggressive thinking and behavior. Negative intentionality bias refers to the tendency to attribute hostile intent to a perpetrator in an ambiguous situation that lacks clearly hostile or benign cues. Aggressive children endorse more negative
Interaction Theory of Language Development LORETTA C. RUDD, MATTHEW C. LAMBERT Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition The theory that language is acquired from an interaction of a human’s innate biological capabilities to acquire language with exposure to language in the environment in which the child is developing.
Description The interaction theory of language development is a compromise between the nativist theory and the behaviorist theory of language development. The interaction theory recognizes that both environmental and biological factors are important in language development [2]. Within this theory of compromise are theorists who are closer to one end of the extreme than the other. However, all interactionists believe that language acquisition occurs as a result of the natural interaction between children and their environment, more specifically, their parents or caregivers. For example, interactionists believe that language is a byproduct of children’s social interactions with the important people in their lives. Vygotsky [4] believed
Internal Motivation
that children developed thought and language by actively interacting with adults. He stated, “The child’s concepts have been formed in the process of instruction, in collaboration with an adult” (p. 191). Like Vygotsky, interactionists believe that language develops as a natural consequence of these interactions and that it progresses to more complex levels as the interactions mature [1]. The more mature interactions provoke more complex language structures from parents and caregivers, and this cycle continues until children’s language and social skills reach adult levels.
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Internal Conflict with One’s Views of the World ▶Identity Crisis
Internal Dialogue ▶Self-Talk
Relevance to Childhood Development While interactionists agree with behaviorists that parents and caregivers play a significant role in language acquisition they also agree with nativists that children come to the language acquisition process with innate cognitive and linguistic abilities. They do not believe that either of these ideas is the most important aspect in language acquisition. Instead, interactionists believe that the single most important influence on language acquisition is children’s interactions with the important people in their environment. Indeed, it has been determined empirically that children reared in language-rich environments with adult caregivers whose language styles match their focus of attention, have enhanced vocabulary skills at and early age [3]. These enhanced vocabularies in turn prove to enhance reading abilities in elementary grades.
Internal Monologue ▶Self-Talk
Internal Motivation LINDSAY LENNERTZ Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Autonomous motivation; Intrinsic motivation
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Piaget, J. (1956). The language and thought of a child. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace and Co. Saxon, T. F. (1997). Interaction styles and language competence. First Language, 17, 271–281. Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Interethnic Friendships ▶Cross-Race Friendships
Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce ▶Sleeper Effect of Divorce
Definition Internal motivation describes the engagement in or attraction to an activity for the sake of enacting the activity, such that there is no known external incentive for said activity.
Description Two types of internal motivation have been discussed in the literature: that which arises out of direct enjoyment for engaging in a given task, and that which comes from a sense of internalized obligation or responsibility to engage in a task [6]. In order to fully understand internal, or intrinsic, motivation it is necessary to gain a working knowledge of its conceptual opposite: external motivation. External motivation is the result of external reward or incentive. Also referred to as extrinsic motivation, this occurs when a person acts in order to obtain something, such as praise or tangible rewards [6]. Several theories have sought to clarify the determinants of internal motivation. Self-determination theory (SDT) describes internal motivation as a form of
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autonomous motivation. This line of research has shown that people have an inherent need to feel competent, autonomous, and connected to others, and are best off when allowed opportunities to engage in goal-directed activities that serve these ends [1]. A behavioral explanation for internal motivation is also provided by operant theory, which asserts that one always performs an activity due to some type of incentive or reward [2]. This reward may be a tangible reinforcer or even a feeling that one has as a result of engagement in a task. The developmental progression or elicitation of motivational states has been studied extensively. Some examples of researchers and their respective theories include: Bernard Wiener’s Attribution Theory; self-efficacy studies by Albert Bandura; locus of control and goal orientation discussed by Julian Rotter and others; and scaffolding for the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as demonstrated by Lev Vygotsky [2]. Substantial research conducted by Deci and Ryan on SDT has demonstrated that human well-being is based upon the provision for the essential needs of competence, autonomy, and self-determination [5, 7]. Their research has proposed that intrinsically motivated behaviors are engaged in to meet these emotional needs and fulfill our sense of well-being. In summary, essential needs are linked to intrinsic goals, such that intrinsic goal pursuit is inherently associated with providing for one’s needs which enable a sense of well-being [4]. Healthy personality development and integration is likewise positively correlated with one’s fulfillment of intrinsic needs or goals, and personal value found in daily activities can therefore be said to enhance one’s sense of well-being [5, 7]. Internal motivation has been said to be responsible for the drive toward mastery of a task, and is associated with greater interest, excitement, and confidence for the given task [7]. Greater achievement of goal progress, and increased quality of life, in terms of self-fulfillment and satisfaction in general, have similarly been found to be a product of internalized motivation [4]. Altruistic or selfless behavior is also associated with internal motivation, as such behaviors are pursued in the absence of tangible rewards [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development "
Intrinsic motivation has emerged as an important phenomena for educators – a natural wellspring of learning and achievement that can be systematically catalyzed or undermined by parent and teacher practices (Ryan & Stiller, as cited in [6]).
For an educator, knowing how to foster the internalization of goals valued by teachers and schools is a key aspect of student success. Motivation and its internal and external
subtypes have been studied thoroughly by educational psychologists since the 1970s [2]. Internal motivation has been correlated with enhanced academic achievement and student satisfaction [8]. Furthermore, it has been shown that individuals with increased internal motivation believe that their behavior is responsible for their success [2]. As a result, they view their abilities as non-fixed structures that are changeable. It follows that those with sufficient internal motivation will likely hold the perception that they play a valuable role in whether or not they can or will reach their goals. This internal locus of control (LOC) is hypothesized as an aspect of one’s sense of selfcompetence [2]. Many have debated whether extrinsic rewards weaken internal forms of motivation. Self-determination theorists argue that providing rewards will undermine the natural interests a child has in her or his own goals or activities. Other theorists have opposed this argument, and provided evidence that certain forms of reward work to stimulate one’s internal motivation [3]. Teachers who utilize methods that encourage student autonomy, choice, and self-direction, instill more intrinsically-based motives for achieving one’s potential [6, 7, 10]. These results can be generalized to settings outside of the classroom. For example, parents who have supported autonomy in their children find related increases to their children’s grades and tests of achievement. Greater autonomy in the parent–child relationship has likewise been linked to healthier lifestyle choices, and strengthened social and career goals for children [6, 7]. Both internal and external motivation for school performance has been shown to be greater in children who are also enjoying school [9]. It has been furthermore deduced that school children who lack positive social interactions are not as likely to enjoy school, which in turn leads to lowered motivation for school-related activity [10]. Likewise, children who are raised in home environments that provide support and education in a non-controlling manner, motivate a child, internally, to fall in suit with household rules and expectations [10]. Theories of motivation have proposed to understand how this concept it is engendered and maintained. A largely researched area, the effect of reward and incentive, has been studied to determine the most effective intervention strategies for influencing children’s behavior and supporting the development of motivation.
References 1. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across life’s domains. Canadian Psychology, 49(1), 14–34.
Intimacy Versus Isolation (Erikson’s Young Adult Stage) 2. NationMaster.com. (n.d.). Retrieved January 5, 2009 from http:// www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Intrinsic-motivation#Intrinsic_ Motivation 3. Intrinsic Motivation Doesn’t Exist, Researcher Says. (2005). Retrieved January 5, 2009 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2005/05/050509173611.htm 4. Powers, T. A., Koestner, R., & Zuroff, D. C. (2007). Self-criticism, goal motivation, and goal progress. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 26(7), 826–840. 5. Reis, H. T., Sheldon, K. M., Gable, S. L., Roscoe, J., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). Daily well being: The role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 419–435. 6. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54–67. 7. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and wellbeing. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. 8. Unrau, N., & Schackman, J. (2006). Motivation and its relationship with reading achievement in an urban middle school. The Journal of Educational Research, 100(2), 81–102. 9. Valiente, C., Lemery-Chalfant, K., & Castro, K. S. (2007). Children’s effortful control and academic competence: Mediation through school liking. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 53(1), 1–25. 10. Wentzel, K. R. (1999). Social-motivational processes and interpersonal relationships: Implications for understanding motivation at school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 76–97.
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Interpersonal Intelligence ▶Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Interpersonal Problem Solving ▶Social Problem Solving
Interpersonal Processes ▶Relationships
I Interpersonal Skills ▶Social Skills
Interpersonal Understanding Internal Symbols ▶Symbolic Thought
▶Perspective-Taking
Interracial Friendships ▶Cross-Race Friendships
Internal Working Models ▶Ainsworth’s Procedure
Intervention Satisfaction ▶Social Validity
Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving
Intimacy Versus Isolation (Erikson’s Young Adult Stage)
▶Social Problem Solving GREGORY C. ELLISON II Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Interpersonal Engagement ▶Joint Attention
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Definition “When childhood and youth come to an end, life, so the saying goes, begins” ([4], p. 100). According to Erik
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Erikson, the young adult’s life begins with the development of intimacy, the capacity to commit oneself “to concrete affiliations and partnerships and to develop the ethical strength to abide by such commitments, even though they may call for significant sacrifices and compromises” ([1], p. 263). Intimacy requires a firmness of ego strength or identity formation, as a central feature of Erikson’s sixth stage is the ability to find oneself by losing oneself in another. Erikson is careful to not limit intimacy to affiliations of a sexual nature, but also includes friendship, combat, and inspiration as potential sites for intimate encounters.
Description In the third chapter of Identity, Youth and Crisis, Erikson individually introduces and explains each of the first five stages of the life cycle (from infancy to adolescence). However, the three succeeding adulthood stages are addressed collectively under the subtitle “Beyond Identity.” While one might consider the aggregate treatment of adulthood as evidence of Erikson’s preferential treatment of the early stages of life, one need only examine the significance of the subtitle – “Beyond Identity” – to understand the grouping of the life cycle’s latter stages. The intimacy of young adulthood tests the firmness of identity established in adolescence. The psychosocial transition to adulthood begins in adolescence, as the youth is challenged to achieve a sense of ego identity. Adolescents emerging from the fifth stage and in search of identity are often eager to fuse with the identity of others, but an appropriate ego strength is vital to withstand and endure the intimate encounters of young adulthood. The deep involvement required for intimacy with another demands ego strength to put one’s own individual identity at risk ([5], p. 51). Hence, the earliest stage of adulthood is marked by movement beyond an adolescent fragile identity, threatened by role confusion, to a more secure identity in young adulthood that is capable of taking chances with itself to explore and develop intimate relationships. Erikson posits that the young adult who has evolved beyond the identity crises of adolescence is capable of experiencing intimacy in working or studying for a specified career, socializing with the other sex, engaging in erotic encounters, entering into marriage, or starting a family. Consistent with the psychoanalytic tradition of emphasizing genitality as a condition for maturity, Erikson views erotic encounters with the opposite sex as a particular developmental milestone of intimacy. He highlights that though sexual intimacy may precede true
and mutual psychosocial intimacy, sexual maturity requires a sense of mutual devotion. He explains: "
Before such genital maturity is reached, much of sexual life is of the self-seeking, identity hungry kind; each partner is really trying only to reach himself. Or it remains a kind of genital combat in which each tries to defeat the other. All this remains as part of adult sexuality, but it is gradually absorbed as the differences between the sexes become a full polarization within a joint lifestyle ([3], p.137).
The tenets of mutual devotion and shared identity, vital elements of both sexual maturity and intimacy, provide a framework for Erikson to introduce the virtue of love as the human strength assigned the sixth stage of the life cycle. Erikson defines love as a “mutuality of devotion forever subduing the antagonisms inherent in divided function” ([2], p. 129). In Insight and Responsibility, he identifies love as the greatest and most dominant of the human virtues, and explains why love is assigned to a particular stage. Indeed, love could be seen as the virtue binding other stages together; love can be observed in instances ranging from the infant’s attachment to the mother to the “adolescent’s passionate and desperate infatuation” ([2], p. 127). However, Erikson believes that love evolves and transforms from receiving love throughout preadolescence to intentionally caring for others in adult life. Adult love is marked by mutuality as mates and partners develop a shared identity and engage in a process of “mutual verification through an experience of finding oneself, as one loses oneself, in another” ([2], p. 129). In this sense, love, like intimacy, is strongest when identity can be risked to enter into relationship with another. As intimacy with others is the result and test of firm identity formation, true engagement is challenged when ego strength is weak. Since intimacy, in its best sense, requires selfless devotion to another, persons with weak egos who attempt intimate relationships are in jeopardy of “interpersonal fusion amounting to a loss of identity” ([4], p. 134). Lacking such true engagement causes the ego to lose its flexible capacity to risk itself in the affections of others. Over time, repeated unsuccessful attempts at intimacy may lead to isolation, the inability to make sacrifices and compromises in order to intimately affiliate with others. A form of such isolation and a counterpoint of intimacy in Erikson’s sixth stage is distantiation: “the readiness to repudiate, isolate, and if necessary, destroy those forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to one’s own” ([3], p. 136). In its worst sense, distantiation results when individuals struggling to maintain identity
Intimate Friend
differentiate sharply and cruelly between the familiar and the foreign. This framework moves beyond competitive and combative attempts at creating intimacy to extreme polarization and blind prejudice. Though a distantiated person may develop relationships with persons familiar to them, the quality of these relationships is still marked by isolation and is antithetical to intimacy. Erikson further explains, Intimacy with one set of people and ideas would not be really intimate without an efficient repudiation of another set. Thus, weakness or excess in repudiation is an intrinsic aspect of the inability to gain intimacy because of an incomplete identity ([3], p. 135). Though distantiation and isolation pose significant obstacles to the young adult, even these negative outcomes can have desirable attributes that are necessary for continued development throughout the life cycle. For instance, even persons with strong egos must exhibit boundaries when intimately committing themselves to ideas and to others. Furthermore, in foreshadowing the seventh stage of generativity and its virtue of care, the ability to subsume oneself in the intimate act of caring for others poses great danger to the caregiver who lacks self-awareness and is unable to isolate or distance herself enough to establish healthy boundaries.
Relevance to Childhood Development The goal of intimacy is to develop relationships marked by true engagement, shared identity, and mutual devotion. These characteristics, undergirded by the virtue of love, provide the groundwork for generative persons who are committed to guiding and establishing the next generation. Isolation, however, thwarts the process of connecting intimately to others, notwithstanding succeeding generations. The inability to develop intimate and loving relationships during young adulthood threatens the livelihood of developing children because young adults are those most often engaged in procreation and the raising of young children. Additionally, distantiated young adults are likely to become distantiated older adults, and will have the power to influence succeeding generations to also be blinded by prejudice and consumed with polarized notions of community.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and Society. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1964). Insight and responsibility: Lectures on the ethical implications of psychoanalytic insight. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: Norton. Stevens, R. (1983). Erik Erikson: An introduction. New York: St. Martins Press.
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Intimate Friend JULIE NEWMAN KINGERY, TYSON R. REUTER Hobart and William Smith Colleges Developmental and Clinical Psychology, Geneva, NY, USA
Synonyms Best friends; Chums; Close friend; Mutual friend
Definition A reciprocal positive relationship between two individuals who typically view themselves as equals. This relationship is characterized by self-disclosure and trust.
Description Friends share a mutual, dyadic relationship involving positive features such as cooperation, positive affect, guidance and support, effective conflict resolution, and companionship [10]. Researchers who study children’s peer relationships evaluate friendship quality, or the extent to which particular friendships possess these characteristics. One key qualitative aspect of mutual friendships is intimacy, which involves disclosure of personal information, sharing feelings, and emotional support [11]. Friendships characterized by high levels of intimacy serve as a context in which youth can engage in self-exploration and solve personal problems. With intimate friends, youth experience loyalty, mutual understanding, and trust.
Developmental Changes in Friendship From childhood through adolescence, the level of intimacy in close friendships increases significantly. In early childhood, children’s views of friendship tend to be concrete, with friendships focusing on shared activities and parents facilitating and supervising social interactions. The role of intimacy in friendship becomes increasingly important during adolescence when youth emphasize the importance of loyalty and share intimate thoughts and feelings with their friends. Throughout adolescence, individuals acquire more intimate knowledge about their friends’ lives, increase in levels of sharing and cooperation with friends, and are more sensitive to their friends’ feelings [4]. In addition to increased levels of intimacy with age, friends become more similar to each other with respect to attitudes and values, personality characteristics, and academic performance.
Gender Differences in Friendship The friendship feature of intimacy plays an important role in distinguishing girls’ same-sex friendships from those of
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boys. During late childhood and adolescence, girls report higher levels of emotional closeness and intimate selfdisclosure in their friendships in comparison to boys [5]. The friendships of adolescent girls tend to focus on mutual goals and concerns, and exchange of feelings. In contrast, the friendships of adolescent boys center on activities such as sports and video games and involve higher levels of competition and conflict. One disadvantage of the higher levels of intimacy in girls’ friendships is that girls tend to engage in corumination, which involves repeated discussions of problems and negative feelings with friends. Although these conversations contribute to greater feelings of closeness between friends, corumination is also associated with increased levels of anxiety and depression [12]. Because girls are more likely to exchange intimate information with their friends, at times they may use this information to engage in relational aggression, which involves harming another’s reputation or sense of belonging. Ironically, the intimacy of girls’ friendships may contribute to these friendships being more fragile [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development Theoretical Background Harry Stack Sullivan [13] was one of the first developmental theorists to emphasize that involvement in friendship makes vital contributions to children’s and adolescents’ psychological development. Sullivan outlined a progression of specific interpersonal needs that emerge across various stages of development. During the preadolescent stage (9–12 years), there is an emergent need for intimacy and consensual validation, which is fulfilled primarily through involvement in same-sex friendships or “chumships.” With friends or “chums,” youth learn to divulge and receive private information and to build a friendship that is based on loyalty and trust. Through interactions with intimate friends, the preadolescent builds a foundation of skills (e.g., cooperation, compromise, competition, empathy, mutual self-disclosure, perspective taking) to implement in same- and opposite-sex relationships during adolescence and adulthood. Whereas Sullivan believed that the development of intimacy occurs before an adolescent’s sense of identity is fully established, Erik Erikson [7] asserted that intimate relationships cannot occur until after an adolescent has developed a coherent sense of identity. According to Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, it is not until early adulthood that individuals who have established their identity during adolescence can participate in a truly intimate relationship. There is empirical support for both Sullivan’s and Erikson’s theories, with
some individuals developing an identity before becoming involved in intimate relationships with friends or romantic partners, and other individuals establishing a sense of self by participating in intimate relationships.
Contemporary Research Involvement in intimate friendships serves several key functions throughout development, including selfvalidation and ego support, emotional support, guidance and assistance, and reliable alliance [1]. In terms of selfvalidation and ego support, intimate friends enhance one another’s self-esteem by providing compliments, expressing feelings of concern, listening, and seeking advice. Friends also serve as a source of emotional support, providing reassurance and a sense of security in new situations such as school transitions. Children and adolescents also turn to their friends for guidance and assistance, as friends devote a considerable amount of energy to helping accomplish each other’s goals by providing advice and information. Friendship also promotes feelings of reliable alliance, which includes loyalty, faithfulness, and being available to provide assistance when help is needed. Friendships characterized by positive features such as intimacy and support are associated with higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of anxiety among youth [6]. Children and adolescents involved in friendships characterized by lower levels of intimacy and emotional support are at risk for internalizing difficulties such as loneliness and depression [9]. Friendship has also been linked to aspects of school adjustment, including academic performance, achievement motivation, attitudes toward school, and more positive emotional and academic adjustment across school transitions [8]. The influence of close friendships during childhood is also associated with relationship quality, feelings of selfworth, and mental health extending into adulthood [2]. Overall, intimate friendships during childhood and adolescence serve many important functions that impact both concurrent and long-term adjustment. Based on this research, interventions aimed at increasing the level of intimacy in friendships would likely lead to more positive emotional, social, and academic adjustment.
References 1. Asher, S. R., & Parker, J. G. (1989). Significance of peer relationship problems in childhood. In B. H. Schneider, G. Attili, J. Nadel, & R. P. Weissberg (Eds.), Social competence in developmental perspective (pp. 5–23). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishing. 2. Bagwell, C. L., Schmidt, M. E., Newcomb, A. F., & Bukowski, W. M. (2001). Friendship and peer rejection as predictors of adult adjustment. In D. W. Nangle & C. A. Erdley (Eds.), New directions for child
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3.
4.
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6.
7. 8.
9. 10. 11.
12. 13.
and adolescent development: The role of friendship in psychological adjustment (pp. 25–49). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Benenson, J., & Christakos, A. (2003). The greater fragility of females’ versus males’ closest same-sex friendships. Child Development, 74, 1123–1129. Buhrmester, D. (1990). Intimacy of friendship, interpersonal competence, and adjustment during preadolescence and adolescence. Child Development, 61, 1101–1111. Buhrmester, D. (1998). Need fulfillment, interpersonal competence, and the developmental contexts of early adolescent friendship. In W. M. Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb, & W. W. Hartup (Eds.), The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescence (pp. 158–185). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Erdley, C. A., Nangle, D. W., Newman, J. E., & Carpenter, E. M. (2001). Children’s friendship experiences and psychological adjustment: Theory and research. In D. W. Nangle & C. A. Erdley (Eds.), The role of friendship in psychological adjustment (pp. 5–23). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Kingery, J. N., & Erdley, C. A. (2007). Peer experiences as predictors of adjustment across the middle school transition. Education & Treatment of Children, 30, 73–88. Ladd, G. W. (2005). Children’s peer relations and social competence: A century of progress. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Newcomb, A. F., & Bagwell, C. L. (1995). Children’s friendship relations: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357–389. Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1993). Friendship and friendship quality in middle childhood: Links with peer group acceptance and feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction. Developmental Psychology, 29, 611–621. Rose, A. J. (2002). Co-rumination in the friendships of girls and boys. Child Development, 73, 1830–1843. Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York, NY: Norton.
Intimate Relationships ▶Sexual Relationships
Intimidators ▶Bullies
Intoxication ▶Drinking
Intrapersonal Intelligence ▶Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
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Intrauterine Growth Restriction Synonyms Intrauterine growth retardation; IUGR
Definition Intrauterine growth restriction refers to the poor growth of a baby while in the womb. Specifically, it refers to a fetus whose weight is below the 10th percentile for its gestational age.
Description Many different things can lead to intrauterine growth restriction. An unborn baby may not get enough nutrition due to heart disease in the mother, high altitudes, multiple pregnancies (twins, triplets, etc.), placenta problems, preeclampsia or eclampsia. Congenital or chromosomal abnormalities are often associated with below-normal weight. Infections during pregnancy that affect the fetus, such as rubella, cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis, and syphilis my also affect the weight of the developing baby. Risk factors in the mother that may contribute to IUGR include alcohol abuse, drug addiction, high blood pressure or heart disease, poor nutrition and smoking. Depending on the cause of IUGR, the fetus may be symmetrically small, or have a head that is normal size for gestational age, while the remainder of the fetus is growth restricted. If the mother is small, is may be normal for her to have a small fetus, but this is not due to IUGR. Intrauterine growth restriction may be suspected if the uterine fundal height, or the measurement of the size of the uterus, is less than expected for gestational age. This condition is usually confirmed by ultrasound. Further tests may be needed to screen for infection or genetic problems if intrauterine growth restriction is suspected. Intrauterine growth restriction increases the risk for intrauterine death. If this condition is suspected, the pregnant woman will be closely monitored with several pregnancy ultrasounds to measure the baby’s growth, movements, blood flow, and fluid around the baby. Non-stress testing will also be done. Depending on the results of these tests, delivery may be necessary.
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The prognosis for normal newborn growth and development varies by the degree and cause of intrauterine growth restriction. Depending on specific cause, intrauterine growth restriction increases the risk for a variety of pregnancy and newborn complications. Infants may have a non-reassuring fetal heart rate during labor, requiring delivery by c-section. Avoiding alcohol, smoking and drug use, along with receiving regular prenatal care can help control the risk factors associated with intrauterine growth restriction during pregnancy.
References 1.
Baschat A. A., Galan, H. L., Ross, M. G., & Gabbe, S. G. (2007). Intrauterine growth restriction. In: Gabbe, S. G., Niebyl, J. R., Simpson, J. L., eds. Obstetrics: Normal and Problem Pregnancies. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone; chap 29.
Intrauterine Growth Retardation ▶Intrauterine growth restriction
They tend to engage in tasks willingly and are more eager to spend time to learn the material, and are more likely to process information and achieve at a higher level. Children may develop intrinsic motivation due to the following reasons: curious about their world, interest in the activity, and value for the task. Children who are more competent in the task also have more intrinsic motivation.
Relevance to Childhood Development Young children are often excited about going to school to learn new things and tend to have more intrinsic motivation to learn. As children get older, they become less intrinsically motivated. They become less confident as they encounter failures and become increasingly aware of how they perform as compared to their peers. In elementary school, children are given more opportunity to choose activities that they perceive to be enjoyable. During the transition from elementary to secondary school, children often experience anxiety and lose their intrinsic motivation. This is especially true when secondary educators focus on competition and the importance of good grades.
References 1.
Intrinsic Motivation
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PEI-HSUAN HSIEH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA 3.
Synonyms
Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., & Schiefele, U. (1998). Motivation to succeed. In W. Damon (Editor-in-Chief) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol 3: Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 1017–1095). New York: Wiley. Gotfried, A. E., Fleming, J. S., & Gotfried, A. W. (2001). Continuity of academic intrinsic motivation from childhood through late adolescence: A longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 3–13. Pintrich, P., & Schunk, D. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/ Prentice Hall.
Internal motivation
Definition Intrinsic motivation is when children engage in activities because they find the activities enjoyable.
Description When individuals engage in activities that are personally enjoyable to them without the incentive of an external reward, they exhibit intrinsic motivation. For example, when a child has intrinsic motivation for a task, he will commit to the activity with enjoyment (such as a hobby), regardless of whether there are rewards or not. When a child practices piano simply because he enjoys it, he exhibits intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated learners seem to have the most positive learning outcomes.
Involuntary Swallow ▶Swallowing Reflex
IQ ▶Deviation IQ ▶Intelligence Quotient ▶Mental Age
IUGR
IQ Testing ▶Intelligence Testing
IRBs ▶Institutional Review Boards
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Isolation Aphasia ▶Childhood Aphasia
IUGR ▶Intrauterine growth restriction
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J Jacking Off ▶Masturbation
James, William JOHN SNAREY, ASHLEY E. COLEMAN Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Life Dates 1842–1910
Biography William James was the oldest of five children born to wealthy, liberal New England parents Henry James, Sr., and Mary Walsh. His siblings were novelist Henry James, Jr., diarist Alice James, and Civil War officers Garth and Robert James. Henry, Sr., had a complex and difficult relationship with his own father, William of Albany, New York, an Irish immigrant. This pattern of a conflicted father–son relationship continued on a more subdued level in William’s generation. William James’s variety of vocational aspirations (art, medicine, science, philosophy) was the source of many interpersonal struggles with his father. His father’s geographic unsettledness, which kept his family traveling between Western Europe and the United States, may have further added to William’s educational and vocational identity confusion.
Introduction William James is known as the “father of American psychology” and the “most American philosopher.” His early, pioneering work on consciousness, emotions, habit, memory, the will, and the self, changed the way the American psychological community perceived and studied the human mind. James’s biographers provide an unusually detailed portrait of his life because of the many letters he wrote to family and friends, and his journal entries, in which he expressed lucidly his innermost thoughts and ideas in their developing stages. Born on January 11, 1842, in New York City, James was an ardent believer in the importance of experiential learning in the construction of knowledge. Robert Richardson, the author of a major biography of James, has written about James’s “love of spontaneity and activity and his positive fondness for chaos and chance” ([10], p. xiv). William James lived between multiple worlds (New England, various countries in Europe) and between multiple fields of study (art, medicine, psychology, philosophy); his academic and geographic transience fit well with his openness to ascertaining life’s enduring lessons. James’s diverse academic pursuits and innovative thinking made him a cultural pioneer. He was able to fuse his multifarious interests into a dynamic philosophical system and made lasting contributions to the study of religion and psychology.
Educational Information According to biographer Richardson [10], James attended nine schools before he enrolled in the Geneva Academy in Switzerland at age 17 in 1859. Even though his formal studies at the academy focused on anatomy and mathematics, James’s interests extended well beyond the then conventional realms of education. The next year in 1860, the James family returned to New England so that William could study art with the renowned William Morris Hunt; despite his son’s passion and talent, Henry Sr. considered art a hobby and not an appropriate or acceptable career for William. In 1861, at the age of 19, William decided against a career as an artist (perhaps acquiescing to his father’s wishes) and entered Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University to study chemistry. Although he later decided to switch his course of study to anatomy and physiology, he found life at Harvard quite agreeable. James was in many ways self-taught. Following the end of this third term he took a respite from the Scientific School, during which he studied the classic works of some of history’s greatest thinkers (e.g., Darwin, Comte, Quetelet, Spinoza, and Pythagoras). James systematically composed and compiled abstracts of what he read, beginning with Max Mu¨ller’s “Lectures on the Science of Language” and continuing with Henry T. Buckle’s essay on John Stuart Mill, and Jonathan Edwards’ “Great Christian
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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Doctrine of Original Sin Defended.” The beginning of James’ self-education took place against the backdrop of the Civil War, in which his brother, Garth (Wilky) James, was gravely wounded in duty as a soldier for the Union Army. In 1864, he enrolled in Harvard medical school, but the opportunity for new life experiences and travel remained alluring. In 1865, James embarked on an 8-month expedition to Brazil, where he helped Harvard professor Louis Agassiz conduct field research along the Amazon River. The study focused on species of fish, as well as insects, reptiles, and larger animals. James traveled 2,000 miles up the river before he returned to medical school in the United States. Not long after his return, he traveled to Europe to attend physiology lectures in Berlin. His studies were interrupted as he experienced intervals of unhappiness, depression, and the residual effects of the smallpox that he had contracted in Brazil. In November of 1868, after a few more years of restless travel, William returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and passed his Harvard medical exams in June of 1869. Yet, for William James, M.D., this academic milestone did not fully resolve his occupational confusion. As James biographer Howard Feinstein [1] notes, “William still lingered indecisively amid the lost Atlantis of art, the necessity of science, and the allure of philosophy” well into the 1870s (p. 250).
Family and Professional Life While he continued to independently study physiology, psychology, and philosophy, James was offered a 1-year position to teach physiology at Harvard College in 1872. Teaching was clearly therapeutic for James, defeating his demons of depression; he was popular with the students and his appointment was renewed. A half-dozen years after he began his career as a professor, he also began his life as a family man. He married Alice Howe Gibbens in 1878, and their first child, Henry, was born in 1879. He and his wife had four more children: William (b. 1882); Herman (b. 1884), who died 5 months after his birth; Peggy (b. 1887); and Aleck (b. 1890). In addition to James’s lifelong cross-disciplinary interests, his “partiality for biography and memoir – for narrative and of personal experience – stayed with him, feeding what, over time, became a central structural principle in some of his best writing” (Richardson, [10], p. 126). James’s uncommonly poetic style of expressing his ingenious theories contributed to his distinguished career. This approach earned him enduring respect and admiration in the fields of both psychology and philosophy. James died of heart failure on August 30, 1910, at his summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire, at the
age of 68. His ashes were buried in his family’s plot in Cambridge Cemetery.
Accomplishments Work in Psychology There are many streams of thought in James’s work. Each succeeding book possesses a more profound exploration of previously broached topics, magnifying ideas that were previously quick sparks of intellectual imagination. His major publication was the 1890 two-volume work entitled The Principles of Psychology [2], which revolutionized the study of the mind and states of consciousness. This book project took James more than 10 years to complete and is comprised of 28 chapters on such topics as “brain activity,” “habit,” “the methods and snares of psychology,” “the stream of thought,” “the consciousness of self,” “the emotions,” and the “will.” In Principles, James creatively combined natural science with the wisdom of a philosopher. In the chapter on emotions, he wrote that “the varieties of emotion are innumerable. Anger, fear, love, hate, joy, grief, shame, pride, and their varieties, may be called the coarser emotions, being coupled as they are with strong bodily reverberations” ([3], p. 241). Such insights demonstrate James’s understanding of the intricate relationship between the mind and the body. James is recognized by psychologists as being the first to champion the revolutionary idea of a coherent connection between the immaterial and material spheres of the human being. For this reason, Principles earned him the title “father of American psychology.” William James’s theories continue to inspire the field of psychology today, especially through the shorter and more widely read version of the book, Psychology: The Briefer Course. The issues that he presented in The Principles of Psychology assuredly inspired his next major publication, The Will to Believe [4], a compilation of ten works, including articles and lectures, in which James discussed the importance of belief to the human mind. He argued that humans make a particular choice to believe in a universe where good and truth exist, and he defends the right to believe. Linda Simon [11] noted that the essays “contain some of his most eloquent statements on the intellectual and emotional risks of religious belief; the philosopher’s contribution to a society’s moral life; the genesis and importance of genius; and the accomplishment of psychical research” ([11], p. 274). James’s writing on the right or will to believe was a hinge between his psychological and religious studies.
James, William
Study of Religion James experienced a series of unfortunate events in the last 2 decades of the nineteenth century, including the death of two of his younger siblings (Wilky, d. 1883, and Alice, d. 1892) and several dear friends, as well as his own health complications – both physical ailments and bouts of depression. These experiences likely prompted his reflective turn toward religious matters and, in particular, his search for the functions or fruits of religious experiences. In addition, James’s complex relationship with his father, who, in defiance of his own strict Calvinist upbringing, had adopted a personal and detached spirituality, influenced William’s search for a distinct perspective on religion. Around the turn of the twentieth century, James began to make more frequent use of theological ideas in the lectures he gave in the United States and abroad. In 1901 and 1902 James delivered a famous series of lectures in Edinburgh, Scotland, as a part of the Gifford Lectures; the two-part series focused on natural religion or the idea that there is an organic, unprompted religious feeling common to all people. He argued that philosophers cannot fully capture human experience in their rhetorical thoughts and stories. Instead, he asserted that full human nature is demonstrated through religious experience, namely, engagement with whatever one considers the divine. James’s career constantly straddled the fence between the rigor of hard science and the importance of recognizing the variability of experience through philosophy and art. Throughout his Gifford lectures, James applied reason to the inexplicable parts of human existence and applied the scientific method to the study of religious experience, which he considered separate from institutionalized religion. His lectures were published as The Varieties of Religious Experiences: A Study in Human Nature (1902) [6]. The collection demonstrated the commonalities of religious experience across cultures throughout time and space, and became one of James’s most important and influential works. It remains a foundational work in the study of religion.
Philosophical Pragmatism In addition to his groundbreaking work in psychology and religion, William James was also a founder of the influential philosophy called Pragmatism, which arose from the post-Civil War struggle to redefine American culture in the absence of slave society and in the midst of what took its place, namely, ideological warfare, demagoguery, and the vivid appearance of class, racial, and gender conflicts. Pragmatists faced the challenge of relating ideas to practical material outcomes [13]. Americans needed a new way
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of thinking – a scheme – to help them make sense of modernity. William James, along with Charles Pierce, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Dewey, developed such a way of thinking and with their ideas, transformed the way Americans saw the world [9]. Pragmatism began as a method for mediating the contrasting philosophical approaches of these four men and their colleagues: the “tender minded” theorists who employ rationalism (“the habit of explaining the parts by wholes”) and the “tough minded” theorists who use empiricism (“the habit of explaining wholes by parts”) ([8], p. 7). It is also a philosophical approach to delineating truth. Philosophy must have an empirical modus operandi, and “make some positive connection with this actual world of finite human lives” ([7], p. 14). Pragmatism held that truth, in order for it to be so, must be verifiable through tested hypotheses and must remain so in a variety of circumstances. Theories, therefore, are instruments for abstracting the truth through a practical mode of understanding; truth is able to be repeatedly proven. James writes, “true ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate and verify” ([7], p. 88). James’s move away from a narrowly defined scientific perspective toward more religiously and philosophically informed work in his last decade of life could also mark a means of redeeming the numerous family misfortunes he encountered in mid-life and later. “James not only survived numerous crises, but also achieved the kind of wisdom that only comes from suffering” ([12], p. 338). James wrestled with the mysteries of life through his writings, with each one showing his growth toward who he was and what his interests were, and away from the identity path constructed for him by his father.
Contribution to Child Development In 1892, James addressed a group of teachers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a series of psychology lectures that were later published as Talks to Teachers [5]. This was arguably his most significant work in the field of child development and learning. In these lectures, he drew from the theoretical basis he had already established in The Principles of Psychology. Using general human psychological principles and applying them to students in classrooms, James discussed the child as a “behaving organism,” practically oriented and acting out his or her thoughts within a stream of consciousness. He described “native reactions,” or innate, automatic responses to outside stimuli. James encouraged those who work with children to use these responses as tools for teaching and learning in the elementary classroom. For example, fear, love, imitation, curiosity, and emulation are natural
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components of the human developmental process. Beyond “fear of punishment” James urged that “love” (the instinctive desire to please those whom we love), “curiosity” (the impulse towards better cognition), and “imitation” (learning by observing role models) also be used in the classroom, making the most of the instinctual tendencies of even the youngest of children. James discussed habit formation, memory, attention, and association of ideas as important tools for the classroom, each one harnessing what is natural in child development.
References 1. Feinstein, H. M. (1984). Becoming William James. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2. James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology (Vols. I and II). New York: Henry Holt. 3. James, W. (1892/1961). Psychology: The briefer course. Norte Dame, IN: University of Norte Dame Press. 4. James, W. (1897). The will to believe and other essays in popular philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 5. James, W. (1899/1958). Talks to teachers on psychology: And to students on some of life’s ideals. New York: W.W. Norton. 6. James, W. (1902). The varieties of religious experience. New York: Longmans, Green. 7. James, W. (1907/2000). Pragmatism and other writings. New York: Penguin Books. 8. James, W. (1909/1996). A pluralistic universe. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 9. Menand, L. (2001). The metaphysical club. New York: Frarar, Straus and Giroux. 10. Richardson, R. D. (2006). William James: In the maelstrom of American modernism. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books. 11. Simon, L. (1998). Genuine reality: A life of William James. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. 12. Snarey, J. (Ed.). (2003). William James: The varieties of religious experience and moral formation. Special issue of the Journal of Moral Education, 32(4), entire issue. 13. West, C. (1989). The American evasion of philosophy: A genealogy of pragmatism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
James-Lange Theory of Emotion ASHLEY E. COLEMAN, JOHN SNAREY Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Definition First proposed by American psychologist James [5] and independently developed by Danish psychologist Lange [8], the James-Lange theory of emotion states that the immediate, primary cause of an emotion is physical. Bodily changes and physiological processes, which occur
as a result of environmental stimuli, evoke certain feelings in the conscious mind. In this sense, emotions are bodily sensations or processes variously combined.
Description The James-Lange theory can be illustrated by the following anecdotes. A child sees her father walk into the room carrying her toys. She begins to grin, her heart beats a little faster, her pupils dilate, and she runs toward him. These bodily changes represent the emotion of excitement. In a different instance, a man walking down a deserted street at midnight hears footsteps behind him. He looks back and sees a large figure approaching. The man converts his walk into a run, he breathes more rapidly, his nostrils flare, his eyes widen, and adrenaline flows through his veins. These bodily changes represent the emotion of fear. The emotions that these two individuals experience are different, of course, but the way each one responds physiologically plays an important part in both situations. The girl felt excitement because she smiled and charged ahead, the man felt afraid because he ran away, and not conversely [5].
History of the Theory William James was the first psychologist to delineate the imperative role of physiological changes in emotional experience. For James, “The bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exiting fact and that of feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion” [5, p. 189]. Before his revolutionary 1884 publication, “What Is an Emotion?” [5], the scientific community widely believed that the reaction to a stimulus was cognitive, and that the bodily changes that resulted were primarily reactions to a thought. Only a year after James’s work on this topic was published, Carl Lange independently published an article stating similar views on the importance of the physiological mechanisms of emotions [8]. Thus, the hypothesis of emotion became known as the James-Lange theory. Before this theory gained credence, an emotion was assumed to begin when a person interpreted an emotion-inciting stimulus, which was then followed by a bodily reaction. As an alternative, the James-Lange theory proposed that after the stimulus is interpreted, a bodily reaction occurs, which is followed by an emotional response [3]. In James’s words, “quick as a flash, the reflex currents pass down through their pre-ordained channels, alter the condition of muscle, skin and viscus; and the alterations, apperceived like the original object, in many specific portions of the cortex, combine with it in consciousness and transform it from an object simply-apprehended into an
James-Lange Theory of Emotion
object-emotionally felt” [5, p. 203]. Though only a small modification in the order of events, this proposition changed the face of the field of psychology. Many research studies have demonstrated how emotions are induced after the body makes corresponding muscle changes. Today it is not uncommon for the instructor of an introductory course in psychology to conduct a demonstration in which half of the class members are asked to hold a pencil in their mouth sideways, like a dog with a bone, and half are asked to hold a pencil in their mouth longways, like a straw; while all class members rate how funny they find a set of cartoons. Students who engaged the muscles used to smile invariably find the cartoons funnier than students who engaged the muscles used to frown.
Critiques of the Theory German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt, often cited as the founder of modern psychology, was one of the first critics of the theory of emotion proposed by the founder of American psychology. Wundt believed that feelings were primary and, thus, similar to other hard-wired primal sensations. Other critics, however, often overlooked a qualification made by the James-Lange theory, which is that a stark distinction can be made between the “coarser” emotions and the “subtler” emotions. James writes, “the varieties of emotion are innumerable. Anger, fear, love, hate, joy, grief, shame, pride, and their varieties, may be called the coarser emotions, being coupled as they are with strong bodily reverberations” [6, p. 241].What is important to note is that in the James-Lange theory, not all emotions are said to initiate strong physiological reactions. James clarifies that “softer” emotions such as “moral, intellectual and aesthetic feelings” do not have the same type of bodily response. For the latter type of emotion, there is a “thinness and paleness of these feelings, (and) when unmixed with bodily effects, is in very striking contrast to the coarser emotions” [5, p. 251]. But, as was James’s pattern, his qualification followed his strongly expressed generalization. For James, nevertheless, incitation of the nervous system and the instantaneous physiological changes in the body are imperative for strong (or coarse) emotions and best represent the theory. A common misconception of the James-Lange theory has incited considerable denunciation and refutation [3]. Many scholars have wrongly assumed that James meant that emotion is only the physiological changes, which is quite different from the arguments he presents in his publications on emotion [5], (James, 1884). Although the bodily changes are necessary for emotion, they are not the only component of an emotion [3]. (Unlike
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James, Lange stated without qualification that the actual physical changes, such as the constriction of blood vessels, are emotions.) Nevertheless, for both James and Lange, emotions do not just magically emerge in the mind and simply stay there, occasionally inciting physical manifestations of their existence. Strong (coarse) emotions without the physiological transformations incited by the perception and interpretation of a stimulus have little to no meaning. James writes that “a purely disembodied human emotion is a nonentity. . .emotion dissociated from all bodily feelings is inconceivable” [5, p. 194]. Moreover, “if we fancy some strong emotion and then try to abstract from our consciousness of it all the feelings of its bodily symptoms, we find that we have nothing left behind” [6, p. 246]. Emotion is physical in its truest sense, causing bodily changes that are autonomic and instantaneous. Through the lens of the theory, emotion must be felt – in a physiological sense – in order to truly have a significant impact on the human psyche. Perhaps the James-Lange theory of emotion is best understood in the context of James’s interests in philosophy, psychology, and physiology. As shown in many of his writings, James revolutionized the conceptual framework for the mind-body connection as the basis from which to derive other psychological claims. For almost a century, many theorists either completely or partially rejected the James-Lange theory due to its radical stance on the physiological bases of emotion. For James, however, it was a testable hypothesis. If emotion is, in fact, the bodily responses to an outside stimulus, then it should be true that voluntarily executing actions that are normally associated with an emotion will cause that emotion. James, that is, realized that reactions to particular events as stimuli are, at least in part, taught by association and, as he expected, empirical research has supported the expected correlation for facial expressions, autonomic arousal, and instrumental behaviors. Not until the 1980s, however, did “neuroscience research on the role of peptides and receptor cells establish that (both) James-Lange and their critics were right in that emotions originate in both the body changes and mental perceptions” [1, p. 28]; cf. [2]. As Laird and Bresler [7] summarize, “through a self perception process, individuals “construct” their emotional experience from a variety of sources, including physiological responses, expressive behavior, instrumental behavior, and contextual elements” [7, p. 636]. Though the realm of emotion is still somewhat mysterious, the James-Lange theory first established that the body and the brain are coupled in emotional reactions; this discovery has sparked successive generations of scholars to contribute to understanding emotion in normal adults.
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Relevance to Childhood Development As a corollary of his theory, James writes, “it ought to be that any voluntary arousal of the so-called manifestations of a special emotion ought to give us the emotion itself ” [5, p. 197]. If this is true, then children’s lack of ability to control physical manifestations of emotion causes them to have less control over their emotions. Younger children, in particular, demonstrate this precise claim. James explains, “each fit of sobbing makes the sorrow more acute, and calls forth another fit stronger still, until that last repose only ensues with lassitude and with the apparent exhaustion of the machinery” [5, p. 197]. Inevitably, during the years of healthy development from childhood to adulthood, the brain and its behavior mechanisms mature, and a greater equilibrium is achieved in emotional regulation. Among the early critics of this hypothesis with regard to children and adult differences was psychoanalyst Ferenczi [4]. He argued that the JamesLange theory of emotion is not relevant for adults, but has only relevance to the construction of emotion in children. Ferenczi agreed that early childhood emotions do largely originate from bodily sensations, but he believed that, as older children and adults develop new capacities to control their emotions, everything changes. If, in fact, a direct connection exists between physiological events and the production of emotion, a way to synthesize emotion should exist as well. In a reciprocal cause-andeffect process, emotions and bodily reactions have an interdependent relationship. It should thus be possible to intentionally synthesize emotion from conscious physical changes, or to act out an emotion in order to produce the emotion.
References 1.
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Bridgers, L. (2001). Contemporary varieties of religious experience: James’s classic in light of resiliency, temperament, and trauma. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Craig, A. D. (2004). Human feelings: Why are some more aware than others? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(6), 239–241. Ellsworth, P. C. (1994). William James and emotion: Is a century of fame worth a century of misunderstanding?. Psychological Review, 101, 2. Ferenczi, S. (1949). Notes and fragments. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 30, 231–242. James, W. (1884). What is an emotion? Mind, 9, 188–205. James, W. (1961). Psychology: The briefer course. Norte Dame, IN: University of Norte Dame Press. (Original work published 1892) Laird, J. D., & Bresler, C. (1990). William James and the mechanisms of emotional experience. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 4. Lange, C. G. (1912). The mechanism of the emotions (B. Rand, Trans.). In B. Rand (Ed.), The classical psychologists (pp. 672–684). Copenhagen (Original work published 1885, Om Sindsbevaegelser et Psyko-Fysiologisk Studie).
Jaundice IOANA BOIE University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Icterus
Definition Jaundice is a condition characterized by the yellow discoloration of a person’s skin and the sclerae of the eyes. This condition is a result of an increased level of bilirubin, the bile pigments in the blood resulting from various pathological conditions described below.
Description Jaundice can present in a light lemon-yellow hue, indicative of haemolysis, or a green hue, indicative of severe hepatic disease or biliary tract obstruction. Jaundice can occur at any age, and the presentation and causes vary somewhat across age.
Jaundice in Adults There are three types of jaundice in adults: (1) Haemolytic jaundice, in which the amount of bilirubin exceeds the liver’s capacity to process it, and where the bilirubin is caused by an abnormal level of hemoglobin from the destruction of red blood cells; (2) hepatocellular jaundice, in which the bilirubin levels increase in the blood because the liver cells are either damaged or died as a result of viral infection or liver failure; (3) obstructive jaundice, or cholestatic, in which the bile cannot be discharged from the liver because the bile ducts are blocked by gallstones, an abnormal growth, or the ducts may be absent. There are many causes of jaundice, including starvation, circulating infections, medications, and liver and pancreatic diseases. In adults, the causes of jaundice can be determined through a systematic historic evaluation and examination; jaundice can be associated with carcinoma of the pancreas, liver, and billiary tract in younger patients, and gallstones, hepatoma and hepatic metastases in middle-aged and older individuals. The deterioration of these organs can be a result of Hepatitis A, B, C, hematological disorders. Jaundice may be associated with ethanol and drug use.
Relevance to Childhood Development Physiological jaundice is present in 60% of healthy newborn infants, and in 80% of pre-term infants, and it occurs
Joint Attention
after the age of 24 h, with a peak on the third or fourth day of life, and it tends to disappear by the seventh to tenth day of life. Although physiological jaundice will not last past a couple of weeks, its persistence may indicate the need for further investigation of the origin of pathology. Some of these causes may be haemolysis, in the case of rhesus disease, or ABO incompatibility, red cell defects, extravascular blood, sepsis, increased enterohepatic circulation, galactosemia, hypothyrodism, decreased conjugation, bile duct obstruction, biliary hypoplasia, or neonatal hepatitis. Breast milk jaundice is associated with breast-fed babies due to the existence of b-glucoronidase in the maternal milk, which contributes to deconjugating the bilirubin in the bowel, and increases its circulation in the blood. Crigler–Najjar syndrome is a moderate to severe form of hereditary jaundice due to decreased conjugation.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Billson, A., Pearce, A. V., & Tuffrey, C. (1998). Key topics in paediatrics. Oxford/Herndon: BIOS Scientific Publishers. Longe, J. L., & Blanchfield, D. S. (2002). The Gale encyclopedia of medicine (2nd ed.). Detroit: Detroit Gale Group. Marcovitch, H. (2005). Black’s medical dictionary (41st ed.). London: London AC Publishers Limited. Ong, Y. Y. (2001). A clinical approach to medicine. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
Jealousy Complex ▶Sibling Rivalry
Jigsaw Classroom (JC) ▶Cooperative Learning
Joint Attention LYDIA AYDLETT Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA
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Definition Joint attention appears in infancy, is a form of social cognition, and is characterized by the capacity of infants to coordinate their attention with that of a social partner [13].
Description Joint attention occurs when two people are focused on the same attribute of their environment at the same time and both are aware of the other’s focus on and interest in that attribute ([16]). Evidence for joint attention is demonstrated when the infant is able to share attention with, follow the attention of and direct the attention of another [4]. Infants engage in joint attention when they understand that other people have goals and that people are able to direct their personal attention in the pursuit of those goals. Each of the expressions of joint attention (sharing attention, following attention, directing attention) requires that the infant understand that other people are intentional. Shared attention is basic to all forms of joint attention and involves the infant and adult attending to an object of interest for a period of time. In addition, it requires that the infant look from the object to the person and back to the object. The alternation of gaze indicates intentionality on the part of the infant in incorporating another’s attention into their own interests. When infants begin to follow the attention of another, one can make a stronger case for the infant’s ability to understand the other as an intentional agent. For example, when an infant looks where an adult points or looks where the adult looks, the infant indicates an understanding that the adult is intentionally focusing his attention on an object of interest. When infants direct the attention of others, their own communication is judged to be intentional when it is goal oriented. Goal orientation is demonstrated when the infant persists until the goal is reached and alternates gaze between the other person and the goal [4]. Burner [3] suggests that the most sophisticated form of joint attention is the “meeting of the minds,” the act of sharing full understanding with another person of an object, event, or action. The meeting of the minds requires understanding of the object or event within its context which comes from the joint participation of both individuals in a common culture.
Synonyms
Relevance to Childhood Development
Directing attention; Gaze following; Interpersonal engagement; Joint focus of attention; Shared attention; Shared focus; Social referencing
Joint attention is fundamental to the development of social cognition and language. How infants come to understand that others have minds, intentions, and goals
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and that language is the vehicle for communicating intentions and goals is intricately entwined in the development of joint attention. Although discussion continues in the field regarding the timing of the emergence of joint attention in infants, enough evidence has accumulated to specify when components of joint attention emerge [1]. The development of joint attention begins at birth; when infants are alert and oriented to another person they are available for shared attentiveness with an adult. From 6 to 8 weeks of age, interpersonal engagement emerges as infants engage in affective reciprocity with others during face-to-face interactions. At 5 to 6 months of age, the next step in the development of joint attention takes the form of object engagement. In object engagement, infants show interest in objects and the manual skills to manipulate them and adults support their object exploration. The early stage of true joint attention emerges at 9–10 months of age when infants point, social reference, and request and refer to objects. Joint attention skills are consolidated at 13 months with the appearance of the infant’s first words and with sustained episodes of joint engagement. By 18 months, symbols emerge in infants’ interactions and infants are able to share with others a focus on objects that are absent and events other than present ones. This developmental sequence demonstrates the overlap of joint attention skills with other developmental domains and the dependence of the adaptive development infants on the presence of joint attention skills. When children have deficits in joint attention, the consequences are profound. For example, children with autism do not share attention with others unless it is to obtain something that they want. They do not seek affective reciprocity, do not share their interest in objects, and do not engage in social referencing. Children who do not engage in joint attention are typically severely impaired in language development [15]. Further, faulty joint attention predicts later difficulty understanding what others might be thinking when they say something or otherwise interact [14]. In summary, joint attention is developmental skill that emerges over infancy and forms the basis of social cognition and language development. The consequences of the disruption of joint attention skills are profound.
2. Baldwin, D. A. (1995). Understanding the link between joint attention and language. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 131–158). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 3. Bruner, J. (1995). From joint attention to the meeting of minds: An introduction. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 1–14). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 4. Carpenter, M., Nagell, K., Tomasello, M., Moore, C., & Butterworth, G. (1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 5. Corkum, V., & Moore, C. (1995). Development of joint visual attention in infants. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 61–83). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 6. Dunham, P. J., & Dunham, F. (1995). Optimal social structures and adaptive infant development. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 159–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 7. Dunham, P. J., & Moore, C. (1995). Current themes in research on joint attention. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 15–28). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 8. Emery, N. J., Lorincz, E. N., Perrett, D. I., Oram, M. W., & Baker, C. I. (1997). Gaze following and joint attention in rhesus monkeys (macaca mulatta). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 111(3), 286–293. 9. Flom, R., Lee, K., & Muir, D. (2006). Gaze-following: Its development and significance. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 10. Flom, R., & Pick, A. D. (2007). Increasing specificity and the development of joint visual attention. In R. Flom, K. Lee, & D. Muir (Eds.), Gaze following: Its development and significance (pp. 95–111). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 11. Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., Henning, A., Striano, T., & Tomasello, M. (2004). Twelve-month-olds point to share attention and interest. Developmental Science, 7(3), 297–307. 12. Mundy, P., & Gomes, A. (1998). Individual differences in joint attention skill development in the second year. Infant Behavior and Development, 21(3), 469–482. 13. Mundy, P., Block, J., Delgado, C., Pomares, Y., Van Hecke, A. V., & Parlade, M. V. (2007). Individual differences and the development of joint attention in infancy. Child Development, 78(3), 938–954. 14. Scaife, M., & Bruner, J. S. (1975). The capacity for joint visual attention in the infant. Nature, 253(5489), 265–266. 15. Sigman, M., & Kasari, C. (1995). Joint attention across contexts in normal and autistic children. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 189–203). NJ: Hillsdale. 16. Tomasello, M. (1995). Joint attention as social cognition. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 103–130). NJ: Hillsdale.
References 1. Adamson, L., & McArthur, D. (1995). Joint attention, affect, and culture. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 205–221). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Joint Family ▶Extended Families
Joint Legal Custody
Joint Focus of Attention LORETTA C. RUDD, LEAH E. JOHNSON Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Synonyms Joint attention
Definition Joint focus of attention is a triadic episode of interaction involving a caregiver, an infant/toddler and an object.
Description During joint attention caregiver and infant share attention to an object thus providing a didactic experience for the infant (e.g., the caregiver names the object – “ball” while the infant is visually attending to the ball) [1]. At around the 1-year birthday infants begin to look to where the important adult is looking. In addition, infants begin to direct adult attention to external objects using gestures; thus, a triangle is formed in which the infant and parent or caregiver focuses her attention on an external object or event [3, 4]. The ability to focus attention on external objects and events provides the infant with the initial means by which to share experiences with others [8]. By allowing for the sharing of experiences, joint attention has a central role in the child’s development of both social and communicative skills [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development Research indicates that language acquisition is fostered by joint attention [9, 10, 11]. Specifically, when adults engage in attention-following behaviors for longer periods of time, language acquisition is enhanced [7]. The optimum time to engage in these specific types of joint attention is when the child is between the ages of 18 and 24 months [5]. Those children whose mothers engage in more frequent and longer bouts of joint attention during the period between 18 and 24 months score higher on vocabulary measures [7]. A strong correlation exists between vocabulary and reading ability, thus indicating that joint attention is a necessary developmental milestone in the future academic success of children [12].
References 1. Adamson, L. B., & Bakeman, R. (1991). The development of shared attention during infancy. Annals of Child Development, 8, 1–41. 2. Bates, E. (1976). Language and context: The acquisition of pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.
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3. Butterworth, G., & Cochran, E. (1980). Towards a mechanism of joint visual attention in human infancy. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 19, 253–272. 4. Corkum, V. L., & Moore, C. (1998). The origins of joint attention. Developmental Psychology, 34, 28–38. 5. Dunham, P. J., Dunham, F., & Curwin, A. (1993). Joint-attentional states and lexical acquisition at 18 months. Developmental Psychology, 29, 827–831. 6. Moore, C., & Dunham, P. J. (1995). Joint attention: Its origins and role in development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 7. Morales, M., Mundy, P., Delgado, C. E. F., Yale, M., Messinger, D., Neal, R., et al. (2000). Responding to joint attention across the 6- through 24-month age period and early language acquisition. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21(3), 283–298. 8. Scaife, M., & Bruner, J. S. (1975). The capacity for joint visual attention in the infant. Nature, 253, 265–266. 9. Tomasello, M. (1988). The role of joint attentional processes in early language development. Language Sciences, 10, 69–88. 10. Tomasello, M. (1992). The social bases of language acquisition. Social Development, 1(1), 67–87. 11. Tomasello, M., & Farrar, J. M. (1986). Joint attention and early language. Child Development, 57, 1454–1463. 12. Tomasello, M., & Todd, J. (1983). Joint attention and lexical acquisition style. First Language, 4, 197–212.
Joint Legal Custody DOUGLAS K. SYMONS Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Guardianship
Definition Joint legal custody is a situation in which separated or divorced parents of a child share joint decision-making power over significant decisions in a child’s life with respect to education, religion, medical care, and major activities requiring parental permission.
Description Custody of children is either held by both parents, one parent as in sole custody, or a legal guardian such as an extended family member or children service agency. If parents are divorcing, there must be final dispensation of all outstanding assets of the marriage and a determination of the custody arrangement for the children. Prior to divorce, disputing parents may petition the court to determine custody matters in a separation agreement. Joint legal custody ends when children reach the age of consent, which in some jurisdictions is at 18 years.
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Joint legal custody requires that parents be able to communicate with one another with respect to children’s needs. This can be problematic if there is residual anger and conflict associated with the marital breakdown. A common source of confusion for parents is the difference between custody, which is legal decision-making, and access, which is where the child resides and the nature of contact with each parent. Joint legal custody does not mean that children reside with each parent an equal amount of time, for example, spending alternate weeks with one parent and then the other. In fact, joint legal custody is independent of access arrangements, although in sole custody decisions, the children would almost certainly reside with the custodial parent. There have been trends for joint legal custody to be more common and sole custody less common than decades ago. Sometimes psychologists are asked by the court to conduct a custody and access assessment. The guiding principles of these assessments are to assess children’s developmental needs and make recommendations on what arrangements would best meet these needs [4, 8]. These are required when parents and their respective legal counsel cannot come to an agreement suitable to both parties, so they can be contentious for parents. Accordingly, various psychology professional associations have written formal guidelines for their members to follow when conducting these assessments so that ethical, professional, and empirically-based standards are followed. The American Psychological Association has such standards [1], as do several provinces in Canada [7]. Around 40% of first marriages end in divorce in a variety of Western Countries, and children from the marriage are often involved, so it is not surprising that there are considerable self-help resources on the internet and in the popular press. Custody battles over children of public figures such as Hollywood stars garner considerable attention, but are atypical. A custody and access assessment is not always needed when parents can avoid conflict and come up with their own arrangements. Professional assistance in the form of mediation may help with this for some couples [9]. Divorce is not easy on children, but it is harder when parents have their own psychological issues, there is ongoing conflict between parents, and financial support issues have not been worked out [2]. There is a positive impact on children of minimising conflict between divorcing parents and promoting positive mental health of each parent [6]. An understanding of child development, divorce, custody arrangements, and access scheduling is therefore very helpful [3, 5]. Joint custody can be advantageous in some situations, and children’s adjustment in
joint custody situations is generally more positive than in sole custody situations. The process by which parents can make joint decisions about important aspects of a child’s life and share access is called co-parenting. Conflict within the co-parenting relationship is stressful for parents and children, and can serve to disrupt effective decision-making and access transitions. It is important that parents separate their potentially negative feelings towards the other parent and their respect for the relationship between the other parent and the children. While marriages sometimes come to an end, a child will have the same biological parents for their whole lives.
References 1. 2.
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APA (1994). Guidelines for child custody evaluations in divorce proceedings. American Psychologist, 49, 677–680. Bauserman, R. (2002). Child adjustment in joint-custody versus sole- custody arrangements: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 91–102. Byrne, J. P., O’Connor, T. G., Marvin, R. S., & Whelan, W. F. (2004). Practitioner Review: The contribution of attachment theory to child custody assessments. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 115–127. Hagen, M. A., & Castagna, N. (2001). The real numbers: Psychological testing in custody evaluations. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 32, 269–271. Kelly, J. B., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Using child development research to make appropriate custody and access decisions for young children. Family and Conciliation Courts Review, 38, 297–311. Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., & Thompson, R. A. (2005). The effects of divorce and custody arrangements on children behaviour, development, and adjustment. Family Court Review, 35, 393–404. Nova Scotia Board of Examiners in Psychology (2006). Custody and Access Evaluation Guidelines. [http://www.nsbep.org/downloads/ NSBEPCustodyandAccessGuidelines.pdf] Stahl, P. M. (1994). Conducting child custody evaluations: A comprehensive guide. London: Sage. The Coalition for Collaborative Divorce: Los Angeles and Ventura Counties (2008). [http://www.nocourtdivorce.com/]
Journals ▶Personal Narratives
Juvenile Crime ▶Delinquency
Juvenile Diabetes
Juvenile Delinquency Synonyms Crime, Adolescence; Delinquency
Definition Participation in illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit.” (Siegel & Welsh, p. 6) Approximately 1.5 million youths under the age of eighteen are arrested each year for crimes ranging from drunk driving and drug use to gang violence and murder (Siegel & Welsh). The increase in violence and delinquency among youth has been a focus of study in the 20th century in addition to the creation and study of the juvenile justice system including all correctional agencies developed to address juvenile delinquency. (Siegel & Welsh) Many delinquent behaviors are attributed to breakdowns in family structure, reports of abuse and neglect, impoverished living conditions, and inadequate health care. (Siegel & Welsh) Programs addressing rehabilitation and treatment of juvenile delinquency as well as prevention have been developed but their efficacy is still under scrutiny. (Siegel & Welsh)
References 1.
Juvenile Delinquency: The Core, 3rd Edition, Siegel, L.J, & Welsh, B.C, (2008) Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, CA
Juvenile Diabetes DAVID A. FEDELE Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Childhood-onset diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; IDM; Insulin dependent diabetes; Type 1 diabetes
Definition Juvenile diabetes is a disorder of the autoimmune system that causes the body to cease the production of insulin. Pancreatic islet cells within the pancreas are destroyed, resulting in deregulation of blood glucose levels.
Description The American Diabetes Association (ADA) states that the exact causes of diabetes are still uncertain, however, both
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environmental and genetic causes have been implicated [1]. Juvenile diabetes, or type I diabetes, is an autoimmune disorder that occurs as a result of the immune system attacking the insulin producing beta cells within the pancreas. These pancreatic islet cells are destroyed resulting in a lack of insulin within the body. Insulin is a hormone that converts sugar or glucose and starches into energy and is essential for survival.
Symptoms A lack of insulin due to juvenile diabetes can lead to hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar that is typically marked by excessive thirst and urination, blurry vision, and increased sugar levels in urine. Furthermore, hyperglycemia can lead to a loss of consciousness and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) if untreated [2]. Alternatively, hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar is evidenced by increased perspiration, dizziness, confusion, nausea, and shaking. Hypoglycemia is usually the result of not eating, physical overexertion, or excessive insulin treatments [6].
Prevalence In regards to prevalence, the ADA estimates juvenile diabetes to be one of the most common disorders in childhood with 1 case in every 400-600 children [1]. Additionally, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that worldwide, 65,000 new cases of juvenile diabetes are expected annually in children under the age of 14 [3]. It has also been estimated that the national cost of diabetes (type 1 and 2 diabetes collectively) in the United States was $174 billion in 2007 when considering medical expenses and estimated loss of productivity [1].
Treatment The treatment for juvenile diabetes is multifaceted [6]. Individuals are asked to closely monitor their dietary intake, monitor and test their blood glucose levels, receive varying amounts of insulin injections, limit physical overexertion, and reduce stress. Since carbohydrates greatly affect blood sugar levels, counting and accurately monitoring the amount of carbohydrates an individual consumes during meals and snacks is paramount. To inform the individual if any changes in dietary intake and/or insulin administration need to be implemented, testing of blood glucose levels is conducted. Blood glucose is usually tested via multiple finger pricks at set times throughout the day, such as before meals and bedtime. Insulin can also be administered through an insulin pump.
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Complications Adhering to this regimen limits short term complications through ensuring that individuals avoid low or high blood glucose levels. Potential long term complications of juvenile diabetes include damage to nerves and possible amputation of appendages, retinopathy and possible blindness, renal failure, and even cardiac damage. There is also some evidence that individuals with juvenile diabetes may experience some resulting cognitive difficulty. Specifically, individuals with diabetes may experience learning disabilities, difficulties with long term memory, processing speed, and executive functioning (e.g., [4, 5]).
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Association with HbA1c, age of diagnosis and sex. Diabetologia, 45, 108–114. Wysocki, T., Greco, P., & Buckloh, L. M. (2003). Childhood diabetes in psychological context. In M. C. Roberts (Ed.), Handbook of pediatric psychology (pp. 304–320). New York, NY: Guilford.
Juvenile Diabetes Mellitus ▶Diabetes
References 1.
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3. 4.
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American Diabetes Association. (2008). Total prevalence of diabetes & pre-diabetes. Retrieved June 14, 2008, from http://www.diabetes. org/diabetes-statistics/prevalence.jsp Delamater, A. M. (2000). Critical issues in the assessment of regimen adherence in children with diabetes. In D. Drotar (Ed.), Promoting adherence to medical treatment in childhood chronic illness: interventions and methods (pp. 173–179). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. International Diabetes Federation. (2005). Incidence. Retrieved June 14, 2008, from http://www.eatlas.idf.org/Incidence/ McCarthy, A. M., Kindgren, S., Mengeling, M., Tsalikian, E., & Engvall, J. (2003). Factors associated with academic achievement in children with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes Care, 26, 112–117. Schoenle, E. J., Schoenle, D., Molinari, L., & Largo, R. H. (2002). Impaired intellectual development in children with type 1 diabetes:
Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML) ▶Childhood Leukemia
Juvenile Offending ▶Crime, Adolescence
K KABC-II ▶Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition
Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition JOHN JOSHUA HALL1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms KABC-II
Definition The KABC-II is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive abilities of children ranging from ages 3-years, 0-months to 18-years, 11-months. It is a revision of the original KABC [1].
Description The KABC-II was constructed using dual theoretical models: the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model (see [7]) and [4–6] neuropsychological model. Administration time for the core battery varies based upon age from 30 to 70 min using the CHC model and 25 to 55 min using the Luria model. When interpreted using the Luria model, the KABC-II yields a Mental Processing Index (MPI) that excludes acquired knowledge [2]. Therefore, the Luria model of the KABC-II measures sequential processing, simultaneous processing, learning ability, and planning ability [3]. The CHC model of the KABC-II measures five broad abilities: short-term memory (Gsm), planning ability (Gf), long-term storage and retrieval (Glr), visual processing (Gv), and crystalized ability (Gc). However, planning ability is only included in ages 7–18 because
a factor corresponding to planning was not discovered in children younger than 7 [3]. The FCI and MPI indices have a mean standard score of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. The CHC model is the default model except in cases where the examiner believes that crystallized ability will compromise validity [2]. This could occur if a child has limited English language proficiency, has a language disorder, or has been diagnosed with Autism [2]. The KABC-II also provides a Nonverbal index (NVI) that is intended for use with children who are not fluent in English. The NVI can be administered in pantomime and responded to by pointing or other motor responses [3]. Kaufman and Kaufman [3] recommend that the NVI only be used when assessing children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, children with moderate to severe speech impairments or language disorders, and children who are non-English-speaking. The NVI should never be used as a replacement for the FCI or MPI if a child does not have any of the aforementioned conditions. The KABC-II demonstrated internal consistency in that the manual reports mean split-half reliability coefficients of 0.95 for ages 3–6 and 7–18 for MPI, 0.96 for ages 3–6 and 0.97 for ages 7–18 for FCI, and 0.90 for ages 3–6 and 0.92 for ages 7–12 for NVI. Results of confirmatory factor analysis provided construct validity for the KABCII in that a four-factor model emerged for ages 4 and 5–6, and five factors emerged for ages 7–12 and 13–18. Correlations between the KABC-II FCI and WISC-IV full scale IQ was 0.89. KABC-II FCI and Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities General Intellectual Ability correlated at 0.78.
Relevance to Childhood Development Kaufman et al. [2] outline many significant benefits of using the KABC-II to evaluate children. The authors note that the dual theoretical perspective offered by the KABC II is the first benefit to the assessment of children. The CHC model allows an examiner to examine cognitive strengths and weaknesses which can assist in developing specific intervention strategies which has proved useful in the assessment of specific presentations (e.g., learning disabilities). For example, Baddeley (1986) found that
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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working memory, and accepted aspect of short-term memory (Gsm), is correlated with many areas of academic performance. In fact, both verbal and visual-spatial working memory tasks appear to correlate with math ability [9]. Therefore, if an individual appears to have a significant discrepancy between his or her short-term memory than other skills, it may provide evidence of the need for further assessment of math achievement. The KABC-II has also been shown to provide fairer assessment to minorities using the MCI index that excludes measures of acquired knowledge [2]. Finally, as noted previously, the KABC-II provides a nonverbal index that can be utilized with children who are deaf or hard of hearing, have language disorders or other speech difficulties, or are not fluent in the English language. Providing three separate scales not only provides the examiner increased flexibility but also alleviates the cost of purchasing a nonverbal cognitive assessment. Critics have argued that the KABC-II does not properly represent fluid reasoning and suggest that supplementing the Gf measures from the KABC-II with measures of Gf from other intelligence tests batteries may be beneficial [8]. The authors themselves argued that some of the supplemental subtests may not clearly assess what they purport to measure. For example, Kaufman and Kaufman [3] themselves state that story completion measures visual-spatial and crystallized abilities as well as fluid reasoning abilities. Aside from noted complaints, the KABC-II remains a reliable and valid measure of cognitive abilities and provides many benefits to clinicians and others.
References 1. 2.
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Kaufman, A. S., & Kaufman, N. L. (1983). K-ABC interpretive manual. Circle Pines: American Guidance Services. Kaufman, J. C., Kaufman, A. S., Kaufman-Singer, J., & Kaufman, N. L. (2005). The Kaufman assessment battery for children-second edition and the Kaufman adolescent and adult intelligence test. In D. P. Flanagan & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment: theories, tests, and issues (2nd ed., pp. 344–370). New York: Guilford. Kaufman, A. S., & Kaufman, N. L. (2004). Manual for the Kaufman assessment battery for children-second edition (KABC-II), Comprehensive form. Circle Pines: American Guidance Services. Luria, A. R. (1966). Human brain and psychological processes. New York: Harper & Row. Luria, A. R. (1970). The functional organization of the brain. Scientific American, 222, 66–78. Luria, A. R. (1973). The working brain: an introduction to neuropsychology. Harmondsworth: Penguin. McGrew, K. S. (2005). The Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of cognitive abilities: past, present, and future. In D. P. Flanagan & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), contemporary intellectual assessment: theories, tests, and issues (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
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Reynolds, M. R., Keith, T. Z., Fine, J. G., Fisher, M. E., & Low, J. A. (2007). Confirmatory factor structure of the Kaufman assessment battery for children-second edition: consistency with Cattell-HornCarroll THEORY. School Psychology Quarterly, 22, 511–539. Wilson, K. M., & Swanson, H. L. (2001). Are mathematics disabilities due to a domain-general or a domain-specific working memory deficit? Journal of Learning Disabilities, 34, 237–248.
Ketamine (Ketaset) ▶Depressants
Ketipinor ▶Quetiapine
Kinesthesia or the Kinesthetic Sense ▶Proprioception
Kinetic Family Drawing ▶Family Drawing
Kinship Care ▶Foster Care
Kinship Group ▶Extended Families
Kohlberg, Lawrence
Klonopin (Clonazepam)
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Relevance to Childhood Development
Clonazepam (generic)
The safety and effectiveness of using Klonopin to treat children and adolescents suffering from panic disorders or other psychiatric conditions are not well established. Though some reports claim overall efficacy in treating pediatric patients, these studies are not long-term. Most concerning is the risk of physical or psychological dependence. For children being treated for seizure disorder, benefit-risk considerations should be made.
Definition
References
LAUREN CONNELL PAVELKA University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms
Klonopin is an anticonvulsant that belongs to a class of medications called benzodiazepines, which act on the central nervous system (CNS) to produce a calming effect by producing gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), a naturally occurring chemical in the body. The generic form of Klonopin is Clonazepam.
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Description Klonopin is used to treat seizure disorders or panic disorder. It can be used alone or as an adjunct in the treatment of the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (petit mal variant), akinetic and myoclonic seizures. It may also be useful in patients with absence seizures (petit mal), who have failed to respond to succinimides. Klonopin is also indicated for the treatment of panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia, as defined in DSM-IV. Unlabeled uses of Klonopin include treatment of insomnia, nystagmus, and restless leg syndrome. Some side effects of Klonopin may include: drowsiness, dizziness, memory problems, fatigue, muscle weakness, loss of balance/coordination, slurred speech, drooling or dry mouth, sore gums, runny or stuffy nose, changes in appetite, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, blurred vision, headache, nervousness, insomnia, skin rash, or weight changes. More serious side effects, which require immediate medical care include: confusion, hallucinations, unusual thoughts or behavior, hyperactivity, agitation, hostility, involuntary eye movements, weak or shallow breathing, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, chest tightness, irregular heartbeat, painful urination, bruising/bleeding, or new or worsening of seizures. This drug and other benzodiazepines may produce psychological and/or physical dependence. Due to these concerns, in addition to the potentially serious side effects and interactions with other medications, Klonopin should be used only under supervision of a medical professional. This review of Klonopin contains general information. For complete information about Klonopin and individual use, a health care professional should be consulted.
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Dahlin, M. G., Amark, P. E., & Nergardh, A. R. (2003). Reduction of seizures with low-dose clonazepam in children with epilepsy. Pediatric Neurology, 28, 48–52. DailyMed, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. (2010). Clonazepam tablet, orally disintegrating [barr laboratories inc.]. Retrieved from http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/ drugInfo.cfm?id=17140. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. (2010). Clonazepam compound summary. Retrieved from http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/summary/summary.cgi?cid=2802&loc=ec_rcs. Witek, M. W., Rojas, V., Alonso, C., Minami, H., & Silva, R. R. (2005). Review of benzodiazepine use in children and adolescents. Psychiatric Quarterly, 76, 283–296.
Klopoxid ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Knowledge ▶Wisdom
Kohlberg, Lawrence JOHN SNAREY, ANDREA GREEN Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Life Dates 1927–1987
Introduction American developmental psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg spent his life in pursuit of universal justice. “Kohlberg
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opened the eyes of psychologists and educators to the fact that people’s moral thinking changes as they grow up, and that these changes continue to follow predictable stages of development as they grow older” [12]. He is best known among psychologists for his six-stage model of moral cognition and development. Kohlberg also developed three methods of moral education: adult role models as moral exemplars, peer interaction through moral dilemma discussions, and democratic participation in a morally grounded democratic school community, which he referred to as Just Community programs. Laurence (original spelling) Kohlberg was born in Bronxville, NY, an affluent suburb of New York City, on October 25, 1927. His father, Alfred Kohlberg, was a wealthy textile importer with production facilities in China during World War II (Sino-Japanese War) and the Cold War. Alfred later became known as the head of the “China Lobby” due to his support of Chiang Kai-shek and right-wing politics (e.g., he was a fierce supporter of Joseph McCarthy and a founding director of the John Birch Society). Laurence’s mother and Alfred’s second wife, Charlotte Kohlberg (nee Albrecht), was a chemist who would later become a noted inventor in the field of plastics.
Early Life and Education “Laurie,” as his family called him, was the youngest of four children born to his nominally Jewish father and Christian mother. He attended Public School No. 8 in Yonkers and Mark Twain Middle School in Bronxville. In terms of his home life, his early years were marked by the privileges of wealth and an unusual degree of upheaval and dispersion. Just before Laurie was 4 years old, his parents separated; his father (who held temporary legal custody) and mother maintained a rotating 6-month custody arrangement from 1933 to 1938. In 1938 Charlotte sued to break the shared custody arrangement with Alfred. In 1941, however, a judge dissolved the custody order and allowed each Kohlberg child to choose the parent with whom he or she wanted to live. Fourteen-year-old Laurence and his older sister Roberta chose their father as their custodial parent. Alfred Kohlberg hired a tutor to coach Laurence in Greek and Latin in order to prepare him to enter Phillips Academy, an elite preparatory high school in Andover, MA. His classmates there remembered him as a genuine intellectual who rebelled against arbitrary social conventions, such as rules that prohibited visiting girls on nearby campuses, and who often was placed on probation. As a high school student during World War II, he witnessed incidents of anti-Semitism, closely followed current events involving the Nazis’ treatment of European Jews, and
began to identify with his Jewish heritage. Alfred too had become involved in aiding European Jews through the United Jewish Appeal, but he also founded the American Jewish League against Communism (AJLAC). He loathed socialistic Zionism and was ashamed of Jews who had become communists. After Laurie finished high school in 1945, he joined the US Merchant Marine. For the next 2 years he sailed on the U.S.S. George Washington and traveled to Europe, where he witnessed the aftermath of World War II and met Holocaust survivors. By the time his tour of duty ended, he had become a Zionist sympathizer and a nonviolent activist on behalf of victims of the war. As documented by Kohlberg’s biographer, Robert E. Herzstein, the relationship between Alfred and Laurence was quite complex [2]. Laurence joined the Haganah, the Jewish defense organization in Palestine, and returned to Europe on the ship Paducah. Renamed the S.S. Redemption for its role for the Haganah, the vessel was outfitted to smuggle European Jewish refugees through the British blockade and relocate them in Palestine, then a British-controlled territory. Kohlberg served as its second engineer. He willingly broke British laws, which he saw as unjust, to assist desperate refugees. While en route to Palestine in October 1947, he and his fellow crew members, along with many refugees, were captured by the British and taken to an internment camp on Cyprus. Three months later, the Haganah provided the British with forged papers with false names and obtained the release of Kohlberg and others. Kohlberg made his way to Palestine but refused to participate in the fighting; he lived on a kibbutz until he was able to return to the US in 1948. Kohlberg’s first published article appeared in the Menorah Journal in 1948. In this article he relayed his experiences on the S.S. Redemption. The account was entitled “Beds for Bananas,” which alluded to the crew’s cover-story to explain the dozens of wooden shelves lining the cargo area of the ship. The ship’s cargo hold, outfitted for smuggling Jewish refugees, was said to be for hauling bananas. In the fall of 1948, Kohlberg enrolled in the Hutchins College of the University of Chicago. He studied the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant, and the pragmatism of John Dewey. “Larry,” as he now identified himself, concentrated his studies in philosophy, psychology, and sociology and acquired his A.B. degree in just 1 year by successfully completing a series of examinations. In 1950, at age 23, Kohlberg began his graduate work in academic psychology at the University of Chicago. His choice resulted in part from the continued influence of the great philosophical questions he pondered aboard the S.S. Redemption, in Palestine, and at the
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University of Chicago: “What is virtue?” and “What is justice?” Kohlberg was dissatisfied with the answers provided by the dominant schools in psychology: Freudianism and Behaviorism. Kohlberg proposed that the foundational virtue is justice, which he defined as equity or equal respect for all people.
Research and Theory Development As early as 1950, Kohlberg began refining his quest to elaborate a universal, non-relative theory of justice and eventually integrated into his theory the views of developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980), who found that cognitive development was implicated in moral development. The amalgamation led Kohlberg to search for the cognitive-developmental foundations of universal moral principles. He began the empirical work for his dissertation in 1955, using a sample of 84 Chicago boys aged 10–16 years. With an interest in the structuraldevelopmental model Piaget had employed to delineate his theory of cognitive development in children [10], Kohlberg conducted interviews in which he used moral dilemmas to test whether children possessed an underlying developmental framework for reasoning about morality. The most famous dilemma concerned a man named Heinz, whose wife was dying. Kohlberg asked the boys, “Should Heinz steal a life-saving drug or let his wife die for lack of the drug? Why or why not?” As Kohlberg examined the boys’ reasons, he discovered distinct agerelated differences in the complexity of the moral reasoning they used to arrive at and justify their answers. His 1958 dissertation proposed six stages of moral development – in contrast to Piaget’s two – and took a bold stand for the validity of universal justice-oriented moral principles. Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development were organized into three levels – preconventional, conventional, postconventional – with two stages each; each stage reflects a moral philosophy or moral worldview that is independent of the specific contents and questions of moral decision making. In short, Kohlberg posited that the six stages were universal and not culturally specific. Kohlberg called Stages 1 and 2 the preconventional stages because children, ages 4–10 years, pass through them before they become aware of socially customary or conventional forms of moral reasoning. In Stage 1, which Kohlberg, like Piaget, called heteronymous morality, a younger child unquestioningly obeys authority figures. Children at Stage 1 avoid breaking rules set by external authorities because they are afraid of punishment or external physical consequences. In Stage 2, termed
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individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange, schoolaged children follow rules only when it is in their immediate interest to do so. What is moral is a reciprocal type of concrete exchange (“You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”). Stages 3 and 4 are the conventional stages. They are the stages in which the majority of people spend most of their lives – conforming, in several ways, to societal or group expectations. People usually enter Stage 3, mutual interpersonal expectations and conformity, during pre-adolescence and adolescence. People at Stage 3 equate what is morally right with what is perceived to be “good” and “nice” by others; they conform to the rules and expectations of others so that others will like or approve of them. Kohlberg referred to Stage 4 as social system and conscience maintenance because at Stage 4 people believe that the “moral right” stems from their allegiance to a particular social system. Thus they equate morality with what a legal system says is right or wrong, or with the moral rules of a social institution (see Chapter Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development). Kohlberg termed Stages 5 and 6 postconventional because moral reasoning at these stages goes beyond the moral reasoning used by most social groups or institutions. Stage 5 is characterized by a focus on prior rights, human rights, and the social contract. Moral reasoning at Stage 5 is motivated by the kind of thinking John Locke used to describe his social contract theory of government [9]. Locke held that people have certain basic rights, such as rights to life and to property ownership, which exist prior to society. Like Locke, people reasoning at Stage 5 believe the purpose of society is to protect individuals’ rights and to promote communal welfare. The moral reasoning that characterizes Stage 6 employs universal ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas. Stage 6 thinkers function from a universal ethical principle that views all human beings as free and autonomous. People are ends in themselves and not simply the means to an end. Persons at Stage 6 take the perspective of the oppressed, to ensure that they receive fair, just, and principled treatment (see Chapter Postconventional Morality). On the basis of his dissertation, Kohlberg received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1958. The theories and findings on which he elaborated in his dissertation formed the foundation of his distinguished career, which was marked by pioneering ideas and landmark publications. Kohlberg died on January 17, 1987, in Boston, MA. His cremated remains were subsequently scattered into the ocean at Wellfleet, a harbor community on Cape Cod, MA.
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Accomplishments Lawrence Kohlberg’s stage model of moral development is his greatest contribution to developmental psychology. Furthermore, his pedagogical models for moral education and the practice of democratic-community schools created a lasting framework for the formation of justiceoriented future citizens [8, 11]. Kohlberg’s developmental conception of the aims and nature of moral education challenged the then-current indoctrination approaches to character education in the classroom from kindergarten through grade 12. His three-pronged approach to moral education – moral dilemma discussion, moral exemplars, and Just Community schools – taught that effective pedagogy must attend to both the moral judgment development of the individual and the moral atmosphere and democratic development of the community. Kohlberg’s dissertation [3], early professional articles [4], and popular publications [5] on his six-stage theory eventually initiated a new field of study, the psychology of moral development and education. He went to Yale University as an assistant professor in 1958 and returned to the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1962. During this time, he advocated for his developmental stage model, for moral development as a discrete field of psychological inquiry, and for the validity of universal moral principles. He joined the faculty of Harvard University as a full professor in the Graduate School of Education in 1968. Subsequently, in 1974, he founded the Center for Moral Education and Development, which became a hub of research, training, and educational activities in the new field. In 1981, he published the first volume of his collected essays on moral development, The Philosophy of Moral Development [6]. The empirical findings from his 20year longitudinal study were published in 1983 as a Society for Research on Child Development Monograph. The next year, the second volume of his collected essays, The Psychology of Moral Development, was published [7]. Also in 1984, with Anne Colby and several other colleagues, he published the long-awaited two-volume moral stage scoring manual, The Measurement of Moral Judgment. With Clark Power and Ann Higgins, he completed the work for their volume on moral education, which was published in 1989 as Lawrence Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Education [11].
Contribution to Understanding Childhood Development Lawrence Kohlberg saw children and adolescents as moral philosophers, capable of forming their own moral judgments. His six stages of moral development, which encompassed childhood through adulthood, followed the
characteristics of the Piagetian structural stage model [10]. He based these stages of sociomoral reasoning on a theory of evolving mental structures or cognitive schemata within the developing brain. Each stage represents a qualitatively different way people resolve moral dilemmas. The six stages form an invariant sequence: people do not skip stages or reverse their order. Similarly, Kohlberg theorized that the six stages were hierarchically integrated – higher stages are better in the sense that a person reasoning at a higher stage can understand the moral reasoning used by those at lower stages, but the converse would not be true. Kohlberg also hypothesized that these six stages were universal: that they apply to all human beings at all times, even though many persons do not progress through all of the stages. Kohlberg began an intense reflection on moral education in the late 1960s, when he became convinced that achieving a just society would require proactive intervention to enable children to become more likely to reach postconventional moral development. Kohlberg developed methods of moral education that would promote moral development and mature character through exposure to information about moral exemplars, classroom moral dilemma discussion, and Just Community programs in which democratic education was a normative feature. Like pragmatist educator John Dewey, Kohlberg taught that school communities were uniquely capable of providing a democratic context in which to facilitate moral development [1]. His three approaches to moral education, which integrated socialization and developmental methods, strengthened a community’s moral climate as well as the moral reasoning of the individuals within the community. He advocated focusing on the lives of moral exemplars who would embody, through their words and deeds, the ideal of universal ethical principles. He and his colleagues implemented a method of integrating moral dilemma discussions (like those he piloted during his dissertation research) into humanities and social studies programs. Children are best equipped to help one another achieve moral maturity since they often reason within one stage of one another, and their interaction provides optimal dilemmas for discussion and resolution, articulated in a language they understand. A central feature of the Just Community approach was the weekly community meeting, which would help students and participants acquire the democratic habits of thinking and acting according to a standard of fairness for all. Kohlberg’s attention to moral, educational, and political philosophies began with taking seriously the moral dilemmas in his own history and background. His innovative responses to these moral dilemmas led to the
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development of what is now considered the field of moral psychology and education, and changed the shape of conversation about the development of moral maturity in psychology and philosophy. He created lasting frameworks for approaching the study of the development of moral cognition and education and inspired programs to prepare citizens for living in a participatory democracy.
References 1. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Macmillan. 2. Herzstein, R. E. (2008). The extremist and the redeemer: Alfred Kohlberg, his son Lawrence, and the worlds they made, 1887–1987. Unpublished manuscript, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. 3. Kohlberg, L. (1958). The development of modes of thinking and choices in years 10 to 16. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago. 4. Kohlberg, L. (1963). The development of children’s orientations toward a moral order: Sequence in the development of moral thought. Vita Humana, 6, 11–33. 5. Kohlberg, L. (1968). The child as a moral philosopher. Psychology Today, 7, 25–30l. 6. Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development: The philosophy of moral development: Moral Stages and the idea of justice (Vol. 1). San Francisco: Harper & Row. 7. Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development: The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages (Vol. 2). San Francisco: Harper & Row. 8. Kohlberg, L., & Turiel, E. (1971). Moral development and moral education. In G. Lesser (Ed.), Psychology and educational practice. Chicago: Scott Foresman. 9. Locke, D. (1986). A psychologist among the philosophers. In S. Modigil & C. Modigil (Eds.), Lawrence Kohlberg: Consensus and controversy. Philadelphia: Falmer Press. 10. Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child. New York: The Free Press. 11. Power, F., Higgins, A., & Kohlberg, L. (1989). Lawrence Kohlberg’s approach to moral education. New York: Columbia University Press. 12. Snarey, J., & Samuelson, P. (2008). Moral education in the cognitive developmental tradition. Handbook on moral and character education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
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Description Kohlberg’s theory was developed by presenting ethical and moral dilemmas to children in a short story format, followed by questions to elicit their feelings and decisions about the character’s actions. After studying the responses, he concluded there are three levels of moral development, each with two stages, as described below.
Level I: Preconventional Morality In this initial level, children make decisions based on external consequences to their behavior, without consideration of the feelings of others. This level is typical of elementary school aged children. Stage 1: Punishment and Obedience Orientation Decisions are rule based to avoid punishment. The physical consequences of an action determine if it is right or wrong. Stage 2: Individualism, Instrumental Purpose, and Exchange Decisions are based on meeting one’s own needs, with the beginning understanding that you should do things that lead to a reward and avoid behaviors leading to punishment. Others are helped only if it benefits the child himself.
Level II: Conventional Morality At this level, children shift to decision making based on rules or norms of the group to which they belong. Conformity to the expectations of others and general social norms is most important. External rules begin to be internalized. This level begins to emerge in adolescence. Stage 3: Interpersonal Conformity Sometimes referred to as the “Good-Boy/Nice Girl” phase, children begin to think that being “good” is what pleases others and living up to expectations is important. There is the beginning thinking about intention as well as outward behavior. Stage 4: Social System and Conscience Also called the “Law and Order” orientation, rules are not questioned and the shift is toward respecting authority and maintaining the social order, and away from pleasing others.
Level III: Postconventional Morality
Definition Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development conceptualizes the sequential cognitive and developmental process of moral reasoning in children.
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At this level, moral values have been individualized and internalized, independent of social or norm group membership. Kohlberg considered this level (especially at Stage 6) to be rare, with most adults’ moral reasoning typical of Stages 3 and 4.
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Stage 5: Social Contract Rules are perceived as necessary and promoting fairness, but individual rights are emphasized, leading to perceptions that rules and laws can be ignored or changed in some circumstances. Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles Behavior is based on more abstract and personalized principles that are considered “acts of conscience” for the individual, but that are related to universal concepts such as freedom, justice and respect.
Accomplishments Dr. Kolb developed the first course in human neuropsychology in Canada. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Montreal Neurological Institute at the time. Dr. Kolb’s later research on the plasticity of the brain, or how new brain cells grow, has informed many new treatments for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, brain injury and drug abuse problems. Dr. Kolb has received numerous international honors and is a long-standing member of the Group of One Hundred [1]. This International Neuropsychology Symposium assembles together the most eminent behavioral neuroscientists in the world.
References 1.
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Kohlberg, L., & Kramer, R. (1969). Continuities and discontinuities in childhood and adult moral development. Human Development, 12, 83–120. Kohlberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization: The cognitivedevelopmental approach. In T. Lickona (Ed.), Moral development and behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
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Contributions Dr. Kolb’s outstanding contribution was the discovery that we can grow new brain cells. He and his team demonstrated how the growth of new brain cells can restore cerebral and, therefore, behavioral functions [2]. An important focus of Dr. Kolb’s research was the identification of factors that effect the cerebral cortex in an embryo and during early childhood development. Strategies for improving the recovery from early brain injury, as well as precautions for pregnant mothers were consequently identified by Dr. Kolb and his research team.
▶Postconventional Morality
Current Involvement
Kolb, Bryan TRACEY MCLELLAN University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Introduction Dr. Kolb is considered one of the world’s most influential neuroscientists and distinguished researchers of behavioral neuroscience. He is regarded as a “founding father of behavioral neuroscience” in which the focus is on the interaction of neuronal changes and behavior [1].
Educational Information Dr. Kolb was awarded a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Calgary. In 1973, he received his doctorate of philosophy from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Kolb completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Western Ontario and at the Montreal Neurological Institute.
Currently, Dr. Bryan Kolb is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He also holds adjunct appointments at the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. In addition, Dr. Kolb is an Associate Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Experiencebased Brain and Biological Development program. Dr. Kolb is a Killam Fellow, a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Kolb has authored several books, including An Introduction to Brain and Behaviour and Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology [3]. The latter is employed internationally as a standard text [4].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Retrieved August 28, 2008, from http://www2.cifar.ca Kolb, B., & Gibb, R. (2007). Brain plasticity and recovery from early cortical injury. Developmental Psychobiology, 49(2), 107–118. Kolb, B. & Whishaw, I. (2001). An Introduction to Brain and Behaviour. New York: Worth Publishers. Kolb, B. & Whishaw, I. (2003). Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
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Ladd-Franklin, Christine KELLI VAUGHN-BLOUNT York University, Toronto, Canada
Life Dates (1847–1930)
Introduction Christine Ladd-Franklin, American psychologist and logician, was best known in psychology for her theory of color vision and as a strong proponent for women’s equality within psychological science and academia.
Educational Information Christine Ladd-Franklin, like many of her psychological female cohort, found the road to higher education to be a rocky one. Ladd-Franklin began her collegiate career at Vassar College. However, unlike many at the time, she did not come with extensive financial resources. She entered Vassar in the fall of 1866 but was only able to complete one year before financial problems forced her to withdraw. After a year of teaching, and with some assistance from an aunt, Ladd-Franklin returned to Vassar in 1868 and completed her A.B. in 1869. It would be some years, though not unproductive ones, before Christine LaddFranklin would continue her formal education. Between 1869 and 1876 she unofficially continued her education by attending courses as a non-admitted student at
Washington College, Jefferson College, and Harvard [10]. Her studies at Washington and Jefferson focused primarily on mathematics. Her Harvard studies are still controversial; although, it is agreed that she spent at least one summer there pursuing botany studies. It was also during this period that she was teaching science and mathematics in girls’ high schools [8, 9]. In 1876, aware of the potential detriment of her sex, Ladd-Franklin wrote to the world-renowned mathematician James J. Sylvester at the newly formed Johns Hopkins University to inquire if her sex might in fact be a detriment to her admission [7]. Receiving Sylvester’s support, and that of the newly developed fellowship program, she submitted her application for graduate studies to the university. The application was submitted under the name C. Ladd (her maiden name) with impeccable credentials. She was officially accepted. That was until the trustees’ of the university discovered that C stood for Christine at which point Sylvester had to intervene on her behalf. Ladd-Franklin was finally admitted as a full time student, with special provisions, and three years of support from the fellowship but would not be formally recognized as equal to her peers for many years. While attending Hopkins, Christine Ladd-Franklin studied mathematics under Sylvester and symbolic logic under physicist Charles S. Pierce. She was the first American woman to formally receive graduate instruction in both [4, 8]. Like Mary Whiton Calkins at Harvard and Lillien Jane Martin, fellow Vassar alum, at Go¨ttingen, Christine Ladd-Franklin completed all of the requirements for the Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in 1882. She was however denied the degree, based solely on her sex, until 1926. Ladd-Franklin was seventy eight years old when she finally received her doctorate but she was still the one of the three pioneers mentioned above to do so. To date neither Harvard nor Go¨ttingen has officially recognized Calkins or Martins degrees. Lillien Martin was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn in 1910 allowing her to be officially referred to as doctor in her life-time. Mary Whiton Calkins, however, was offered only an alternative degree from Radcliffe in 1903 (Harvard’s women’s college during that period), which she refused on the grounds that she had attended Harvard and not Radcliffe.
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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Christine Ladd-Franklin and Lillien Martin also shared one other similarity in their pursuit of higher education, G. E. Mu¨ller. Ladd-Franklin was the first female student and first American student of Georg Elias Mu¨ller at Go¨ttingen in 1891 [3]. However, she spent only one year at the university. Lillien Martin followed in 1894 and would become the first woman and only American student to pursue a full five years of study under Mu¨ller at Go¨ttingen. In later years, Ladd-Franklin would further her studies in color vision at the University of Berlin under Herman Von Helmholtz while Martin would go on to study mental imagery under Oswald Ku¨lpe at the University of Bonn.
Accomplishments Christine Ladd to her detriment married fellow student and mathematician Fabian Franklin upon completion of her studies. Her marriage is important in that it not only exemplifies her feminist leanings, with the use of a hyphenated name, but also because the choice to marry would forever hinder her career. Christine Ladd-Franklin taught logic, mathematics, and psychological science throughout her career. In the early 1900s she primarily taught courses in logic and mathematics at Johns Hopkins. The bulk of her career, from 1915 until her death, would however be focused on psychology and philosophy at Columbia University. Due to her marital status, Columbia never provided her with a full professorship contract. A professional slight that was common to married women of the early twentieth century [7–10]. Christine Ladd-Franklin began publishing early. Her first recorded works on mathematics were published during her undergraduate years at Vassar. Between 1873 and 1871 she published mathematical formulas in the London Educational Times, The Analyst: A journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, and the American Journal of Mathematics. It has been noted by historians that Ladd-Franklin’s 1877 publication in The Analyst is the first by a woman to appear in a mathematics journal [4, 8]. She is also considered a pioneer in the study of symbolic logic with her dissertation, The Algebra of Logic, appearing in the now seminal 1883 work edited by Pierce titled Studies in Logic by Members of the Johns Hopkins University. Philosophy historians have noted that Christine Ladd-Franklin reduced syllogism to a single formula and developed the primary principle for a recognized validation of forms of syllogisms [7]. LaddFranklins earliest foray into psychology through symbolic logic be seen in the 1889 edition of the American Journal of Psychology. Her influence on study of logic continues and has been widely recorded (See [12]).
Contributions to Psychology It was in Germany that Ladd-Franklins earlier studies in botany, biology, and logic began to come together under a psychological umbrella of color vision. Her exposure to the two prominent color theories of the time: Helmholtz (later Young-Helmholtz) and Ewald Hering would alter the course of her already promising career. Christine Ladd-Franklin developed her own cumulative theory of color vision proposing that rather than the now classic, three or four, static color perception framework (e.g., Helmholtz or Hering) that a process existed whereby the ability to perceive color combinations evolved over time. The earliest version of her theory on color sensation was presented at the Second International Congress of Psychology in 1892 and published in the German Journal Zeitschrift fur Psychologie that same year. The American introduction to Ladd-Franklin’s theory, in a formal publication, appeared in Science in 1893. The bulk of the theory can be reviewed in Christine Ladd-Franklin’s book Colour and Colour Theories, which included many of her publishing’s on the topics [6]. This original text offers several colored images providing accessible visual summations of the theory. Ladd-Franklin’s theory included the only evolutionary postulate for the recognition of color sense perception with increased differentiation of photochemical receptors during that time [13]. Many considered her theory to be superior to both Helmholtz and Hering (See [2, 11]). Yet, the former continue to be cited in psychologies introductory texts while Ladd-Franklins is omitted. Ladd-Franklin published approximately 400 articles and books in mathematics, logic, and psychology in her life-time but is often remembered for the strength of her feminist ideologies rather than the insightfulness of her research. She was not known to let a sexist slight pass her by. She was one of the first two women, the other being Calkins, to be elected to the American Psychological Association, in 1893, but her tendency to buck the patriarchy within the discipline omitted her inclusion on prominent committees. She also often published on issues of equality for women within the academy. In 1903, Christine Ladd-Franklin had been listed in Catell’s Men of Science volume and was one of only three women psychologists starred that year, indicating eminence in the field. The most prominent of her publishing’s on women appeared the following year with her 1904 paper on Endowed Professorships for Women [5]. Ladd-Franklin’s battle of wills with Edward Titchner regarding the Society of Experimentalists is an often-cited example of her refusal to recognize female psychological scientists as anything other than equals. Titchner’s refusal
Language Acquisition
to admit women to the Experimentalists meeting is well recorded – as is Ladd-Franklin’s constant letters to him debating the decision. Margaret Floy Washburn and June Etta Downey were the first women officially admitted to the society, after Titchners death, but Christine LaddFranklin was the first to attend the meetings. Ludy Benjamin [1] has noted that at the 1914 meeting in New York, where Ladd-Franklin resided, she attended one session of the meeting. Titchner noted in a letter to Robert Yerkes that Ladd-Franklin had threatened some manner of a scene at the event and possible public protests in print. She had warned Titchner prior to the meeting that action was forthcoming and kept her word. Christine Ladd-Franklin’s contributions to the history of women in psychology finally began to be recognized in the 1980s. The height of which culminated in the Association of Women in Psychology’s (AWP) Christine Ladd Franklin Award in 1992. The award is given to the member with the most significant contribution to the AWP. The organization provides this description for the award “in honor of Christine Ladd-Franklin. . . an early scientist whose career provided a painful example of the way institutional sexism operated to exclude women from careers in psychology and the sciences.” It could also be added that she also showed what the women in nineteenth and early twentieth century managed to accomplish in spite of it.
References 1. Benjamin, L. T. (2006). A history of psychology in letters (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell. 2. Cadwallader, T. C., & Cadwallader, J. V. (1990). Christine Ladd-Franklin. In A. O’Connell & N. Felipe Russo (Eds.), Women in psychology: A biobibliographic sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 3. Haupt, E. J. (1995). G. E. Mu¨ller: The Shaper of experimental psychology. Paper presented at the 1995 meeting of the American Psychological Association. http://www.chss.montclair.edu/psychology/ haupt/shaper2a.html. Retrieved 20 October 2005. 4. Jacob, K. (1976). How Johns Hopkins protected women from the rougher influences. Newsletter of the Association for Women in Mathematics, 7(4), 2–4. 5. Ladd-Franklin, C. (1904). Endowed professorships for women. Publications of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, 3(9), 53–61. http:// psychclassics.yorku.ca/Ladd-Franklin/professorships.htm. Retrieved November 15 2008. 6. Ladd-Franklin, C. (1929). Colour and colour theories. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 7. Parshall, K. H., & Rowe, D. E. (1997). The emergence of the American mathematical research community, 1876–1900: J. J. Sylvester, Felix Klein, and E. H. Moore. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. 8. Rossiter, M. W. (1982). Women scientists in America: Struggles and strategies to 1940. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 9. Scarborough, E., & Furumoto, L. (1987). Untold lives: The first generation of American women psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press.
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10. Stevens, G., & Gardner, S. (1982). The women of psychology (Vol. 1): Pioneers and innovators. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman. 11. Stevens, G., & Gardner, S. (1982). The women of psychology. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman. 12. Waithe, M. E. (Ed.). (1987). A history of women philosophers (Vol. 3): Modern women philosophers 1600–1900. Boston, MA: Springer. 13. Woodworth, R. S. (1930). Review of colour and colour theories. Psychological Bulletin, 27(2), 130–132.
Language ▶Verbal Skills
Language Acquisition AMY BURGER, IVY CHONG Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
L Synonyms First language acquisition; Language learning; Native language acquisition
Definition Language acquisition refers to the processes by which humans learn their native language(s) as children.
Description For typical children, the foundations for language acquisition are laid before birth when the developing fetus is exposed to adult speech sounds. After birth, infants show signs of attending to speech and show a preference for their caretakers’ speech sounds [1]. As an infant matures, he or she will begin experimenting with vocalizations and various forms of babbling (Babbling consists of strings of random sounds composed of vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel combinations. Babbling is likely essential for speech development [1].) will begin around the age of 4 months. Between 7 and 12 months, an infant will begin to look at an object when its name is spoken and show other signs of word recognition [1]. Between the ages of 8 and 12 months, the infant begins to imitate the speech and communicative gestures of adults and older children: the emergence of echolalia (Echolalia is defined as the immediate imitation of another speaker’s speech [1].) is considered an important part of speech development. The child’s use of his or her first adult word will begin around
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12 months of age. The use of two-word sentences will begin around 18 months, and by the age of 24 months, a typical child will have a vocabulary of 200–300 words and will be able to form short sentences. Parents and caretakers often respond to their child’s developing language with a speech style known as motherese or parentese (Motherese, also known as parentese or baby-talk, is the style of speaking to young children and infants which typically involves slower speech, sentences that are shorter and simplified, and exaggerated pitch changes and stress patterns [1].). The shorter length of utterances typical of motherese may help to improve some types of language skills in young children [1]. After age 2, the child’s language acquisition increases rapidly. The vast majority of children will achieve basic competency in their language by age 5 [2]. Around age 6, typical children will begin to use all parts of speech, and sentences will become more complex. Between the ages of 8 and 12, children gain the ability to verbalize problems and ideas, including abstract concepts. The breadth of vocabulary and use of subtle, complex, and creative language will increase during adolescence and continue to develop throughout the lifespan [1].
Theories of Language Acquisition There are numerous theories of language acquisition. Three major theories of language acquisition are the behavioral theory, sociolinguistic theory, and the psycholinguistic or nativist model. The behavioral theory of language acquisition, developed by the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, proposes that language is learned when other persons in the child’s environment respond to the child’s use of language [1]. According to Skinner, reinforcement is defined as an event that follows a behavior and increases the future probability of that behavior. When children make speech sounds, others respond in a positive way to these sounds, which reinforces these behaviors and causes the child to engage in them more often [1]. According to this theory, adults gradually shape (Shaping refers to the training of a behavior through the reinforcement of behaviors that are increasingly close approximations of the desired behavior. After a closer approximation is acquired, the other approximations are no longer reinforced. This process continues until the organism acquires the desired behavior [1].) children’s language use by initially reinforcing the production of any sounds, then reinforcing only specific sounds that can be used to form words in the child’s native language, and later only reinforcing adult words used correctly. As the child matures, other people gradually stop reinforcing language use acceptable in young children
and begin to reinforce only the acceptable adult uses of language. This process continues until the person has achieved the language competency accepted in his or her environment. This theory has been criticized because studies of parent–child interaction have not found evidence that this type of reinforcement of language use actually occurs consistently [2]. However, most scientists recognize that environmental input is essential for language acquisition and can influence and improve language use [1]. The psycholinguistic or nativist model, first developed by Noam Chomsky, proposes that all human beings have an innate ability to learn language. Chomksy referred to the mechanism that facilitates language acquisition as the language acquisition device (LAD). According to this theory, all typical humans are hard-wired to use basic, universal rules of language which exist in all languages [1]. However, transformational rules, which govern grammar, word order, and other differences that are specific to each language, must be learned by the child as he or she matures. According to this theory, children gradually learn the transformational rules of their own language by hearing the speech of other adults and testing out the patterns of speech when they create their own utterances. This explains why children make mistakes by overusing common rules of their language: for example, children may say “mans” instead of the correct term “men” because they have learned to add a final “s” to pluralize a word. However, this theory has been criticized because it fails to recognize the effects that social interactions and the environment can have on language acquisition and use [1]. The sociolinguistic theory proposes that language is learned through social interactions which cause the child to associate meanings with words used in social contexts. According to this theory, language acquisition begins when a child begins to learn language as caregivers imbue a child’s actions with meaning when they respond to early communication attempts [1]. After social communication is established, caregivers model speech and, when the child imitates their speech, provide feedback that confirms, corrects, or expands the meaning and function that various utterances have when used in a social context. Thus, the communication of intentions and desires first begins in nonverbal forms; after this is established, the child learns to use verbal language to communicate. This theory accepts the view that an innate LAD may exist, but proposes that a social support system is necessary for language acquisition to occur successfully [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development Clearly, language use is one of the most important skills learned in childhood. Knowledge of theories and
Language Development
developmental milestones related to language acquisition can be helpful to parents, caretakers, and educators who wish to design educational and play activities that are suited to specific age groups. Appropriate use of milestone information also can be helpful for identifying problems with speech, language, or hearing. However, parents should also consider the fact that developmental milestone charts provide only approximate information and that individual variation is expected [1]. Understanding the different theories of language acquisition also can aid parents and guardians in selecting interventions for children with language delays or disorders and evaluating the different interventions offered by professionals.
References 1. 2.
Owens, R. E. (2001). Language development: An introduction (5th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Reisberg, D. (2006). Cognition (3rd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Language Development LORETTA C. RUDD, HEATHER M. KELLEY Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition Language development is a higher level cognitive skill involving audition and oral abilities in humans to communicate verbally individuals’ wants and needs.
Description Language is a complex system involving several components. The components of language include phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. Language development occurs in a fairly predictable fashion. Most typically developing children acquire the skills in each of the four areas by the end of their ninth year of life. While some children may develop more quickly than this, others may develop a bit slower. The important issue is that language develops in a typical sequence across all four areas. The area of phonology includes the sounds of speech. Most typically developing children have acquired all speech sounds of their first language by the end of their ninth year. The typical order of phonological development begins with the sounds produced at the front of the month and progresses to complex blends of sounds.
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The second component of language development is semantics, or the meaning of words. It is remarkable that infants begin with no words at birth and typically produce upwards of 250 words by the end of the second year of life. By the time children are 6 years old, they typically have a working vocabulary of 10,000 words! Children who are growing in language-rich environments may have even larger vocabularies. Syntax, or sentence structure, is the third component of language development. As children develop language they begin to use more complex sentence structures. They progress from using one-word utterances (12–18 months), to two-word utterances (18–24 months), to three-word utterances (24–30 months), and finally they are capable of using complex sentences that join more than one thought or event. Most typically developing children have mastered the rules of adult syntax by age 5. The final component of language development is pragmatics. Pragmatics is an understanding of how we use language to communicate with others. Pragmatics includes the social conventions of a culture, such as, politeness, turn-taking routines, non-verbal cues that indicate the listener understands, and cultural variations of these.
Relevance to Childhood Development Language development does not begin when children utter their first words around the end of the first year of life. Indeed, language development begins even before birth! There is evidence to indicate that newborns prefer human voice to other sounds and can even recognize their own mother’s voice over voices of other humans. The amount of talk directed at the young child is strongly linked with children’s vocabulary growth and in turn their future reading and writing skills. Children who are reared in language-rich environments do significantly better in reading and writing than children reared in impoverished environments. The critical element of language development to child development is that language development is at the root of most cognitive, social and emotional tasks associated with later success in school.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Berk, L. E. (2006). Development through the lifespan (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Essa, E. L. (2003). Introduction to early childhood education (4th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Learning. Gleason, J. B. (Ed.). (2001). The development of language. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Early child development: Multicultural perspective (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
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Language Disorders
Language Disorders ▶Central Auditory Processing Disorder ▶Communication Disorders
Latent Variables ▶Variables, in Experimental Developmental Research
Laterality Language Impairments in Children ▶Central Auditory Processing Disorder
ANNA MAZUR-MOSIEWICZ, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Cerebral lateralization; Handedness; Lateral dominance; Split brain; Unilateral hand preference
Definition
Language Learning ▶Language Acquisition
Language Variety ▶Dialect
Laterality, which is often referred to as unilateral hand preference or handedness, is the preference for one side of the body over the other. Examples include righthandedness and left-footedness. Laterality is related to cerebral lateralization. Laterality is crucial to understanding language functions because of their association with the dominant hemisphere of the brain. In most cases, handedness is genetically determined; however, early trauma or prenatal events are known to affect the adult and preference. Left hand preference that is due to an early hemisphere lesion is referred to as pathological left-handedness [1].
Description
Language-Based Reasoning ▶Verbal Intelligence
Laplace-Gaussian Curve ▶Normal Curve
Latent Learning ▶Learning
The reason for hand preference is not completely understood; however, there are small but significant anatomic differences between the dominant and non-dominant hemispheres. For example, the planum temporale tends to be larger in the dominant hemisphere. Also the sylvian fissure and occipital horn tends to be longer in the dominant cerebral hemisphere. Even though there is no clear explanation as to why left-handedness occurs, traditional hypothesis suggest that the left-hand preference is a result of the left-hemispheric disease in early life, which also explains why there is more left-handed individuals among the learning-disabled or cognitively impaired populations than among right-handed individuals [1, 3]. Laterality reflects the functional supremacy of one of the cerebral hemispheres. The majority of humans displays the left cerebellar dominance. Generally, each cerebral hemisphere controls the contralateral side of the body (i.e., left cerebral hemisphere is controls the right side of the body) including muscular control, sensory input, and
Laterality
other lateralized functions that are associated with a particular hemisphere. This pattern is not clearly established in all individuals. In fact, many individuals are mixed-dominant and not completely right-handed or left-handed, but they tend to favor one hand for complex tasks [1]. Studies estimate that about 90–95% of all adults display general right-handed preference. In early childhood, only 70% of children present right-handedness; yet, in middle and late adulthood, the percentage of righthanded individuals increases to 99%. This change is explained partially by the practice of forcible repression of left-handedness and the accommodation of lefthanders to tools and norms of the right-handed environment. About 95–99% of right-handers have lefthemispheric language representation. The majority of non-right-handed (nondexteral) individuals present left cerebral language dominance; however, they are more likely to have atypical language representation (right or bilateral) with the familial history of left-handedness. The incidence of the right cerebral dominance is harder to estimate due to bilateral hemispheric distribution in these individuals. Yet, the incidence of right-hemispheric language dominance in lefthandedness increases linearly with the degree of left-handedness, form 4% in strong right-handers to 15% in ambidextrous individuals and 27% in strong left-handers. General estimations indicate that in nondexterals, 78% is left-hemispheric dominant, 15% have bilateral language distribution, and about 8% present right-hemispheric dominance [1]. In right-handed individuals, aphasia is usually related to left-cerebral lesion. In these individuals, aphasia due to pure right-hemispheric lesion happens only in 1% of cases. Cerebral dominance in ambidextrous and lefthanded individuals is rarely so uniform. In fact, in 60% of left-handed individuals, aphasia is due to lesions in the left hemisphere, and a majority of right-hemispheric aphasias is reported in left-handers. Moreover, language disorders in left-handed patients with right hemispheric lesions are usually less severe and enduring than in righthanded individuals. Thus, it is often proposed that nonright-handed individuals have bilateral representation of language functions [4]. There are several ways that help to determine which hemisphere of the brain is the dominant one: (1) behavioral outcomes of the brain lesion (the loss or impairment of language functions is usually associated with lesions in the dominant hemisphere); (2) the preference for greater facility in the use of the right or left hand; (3) the preference for greater facility in the use of the right or left foot; (4) the arrest of speech in association with a focal seizure
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or after electrical stimulation of the anterior language area during a surgical procedure; (5) injection of sodium amytal into the left internal carotid artery, which produces a one or 2-min-long period of mutism that is followed by misnaming, and paraphasic speech if the left hemisphere is the dominant one; (5) dichotic listening test in which different words are presented simultaneously to two ears, yields ear-hemisphere advantage for the dominant cerebral hemisphere; (6) observing the increase in cerebral blood flow during language processing tasks; (7) and lateralization of speech and language functions following the commissurotomic procedure [1].
Laterality and Cognitive Development Left-handers tend to perform better than right-handers on visuo-spatial tasks. These group differences are likely related to the fact that left-handers have visuospatial functions mediated in a more diffuse manner by both hemispheres and not localized in the right hemisphere, while right-handers have the visuospatial functions more localized in the right hemisphere. Laterality also is related to cognitive abilities and gender. Left-handed males tend to perform similarly to right-handed females in their superiority on tests of verbal skills and sequential processing, and left-handed females and right-handed males appear to have advantageous visuo-spatial skills and nonverbal auditory processing abilities [4]. Higher proportion of nondexterals than right-handers present extreme cognitive functions. At the lower end of the distribution are individuals whose left-handedness was caused to early brain injury. At the other end are individuals with superior intellectual abilities. These individuals tend to become skilled mathematicians, professional athletes, architects, lawyers, and chess players. Additionally, more left-handers enjoy artistic (manual and graphic) and musical talents [1, 4].
References 1. 2.
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Adams, R. D., & Victor, M. (1993). Principles of neurology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fasmer, O. B., Akiskal, H. S., & Hugdahl, K. (2008). Non-righthandedness is associated with migraine and soft bipolarity in patients with mood disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders, 108(3), 217–224. Geschwind, N., & Behan, P. O. (1982). Left-handedness: Association with immune disease, migraine, and developmental learning disorder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 79, 5097–5100. Howieson, D. B., Loring, D. W., & Hannay, H. J. (2004). In M. D. Lezak, D. B. Howieson, & D. W. Loring (Eds.), Neuropsychological assessment. New York: Oxford University Press. Marian, A. (2002). Handedness and brain asymmetry: The right shift theory. New York: Taylor & Francis. McKeever, W. R., & Rich, D. A. (1990). Left handedness and immune disorders. Cortex, 26, 33–40.
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Laughter TAWNIE CABALLERO, BRETT R. NELSON, LAURA PARRES California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
Synonyms Cackle; Chuckle; Chortle; Giggle; Guffaw; Snicker
Definition An explosive sound that is the sign of amusement. Origin: From the Old English hliehhan, is of onomatopoeic (sound-imitating) origin.
Description Laughter is the communication of emotion in a social situation and part of the universal human vocabulary. Laughter may express various emotions such as joy, amusement, nervousness, fear, shame, and even aggression. Laughter is one of the few vocalizations that is shared by humans and non-human primates. Tickling is one of the most common and reliable triggers to human and primate laughter. Researchers have found that laughter is not consciously controlled. It is defined by a specific repeated vowel sound such as “ha ha ha” or “he he he.” Different laugh types differ with respect to emotional dimensions. An associated term “schadenfreude” is defined as laughing at another’s misfortune.
Relevance to Childhood Development As early as the first few weeks of life, infants begin experiencing the world through auditory and visual channels. During the first months of development, babies may smile and produce “laughter-like” vocalizations at the sight of a familiar face. The close interaction between mother or caregiver and child fosters healthy attachment. Laughter vocalizations are a naturally occurring part of child development. “Cooing,” cuddling, and tickling will elicit the laughter response in very young infants. As children reach toddler age, they continue to develop socialization by using laughter in communication. Children will often play and laugh to express amusement and silliness with family members and friends. Children usually find humor in silly sounds of cartoons and physical humor. During the schooling years, children may quickly learn the social “norms” among their peers in regards to laughter. Laughter can be used either to include or exclude children from a social group. Humor is often used in a therapeutic way to elicit laughter. Laughter is associated with the reduction of
stress and provides a brief escape from stressful events. The phrase “Laughter is the best medicine” is based on current research of the many health benefits. Laughing can reduce vasoconstriction (the narrowing of blood vessels) and may decrease levels of the “stress” chemicals Cortisol and epinephrine. Doctors, such as Patch Adams, M.D., have used humor therapy and clowning in their medical practice for treatment of terminally ill patients to provide coping techniques. In regard to parenting, functions of laughter can vary according to an individual’s perception of their child (ren) and specific kinds of interaction. Skilled therapists can observe interactions between parent and child to identify how laughter is used in relationships. Laughter may be used as a means to negotiate tensions or while discussing delicate issues (nervous laughter). A parent may also use laughter to calm concerns they have about his/her child(ren).
Conclusion Laughter is a commonly overlooked, yet universal function of human social communication. The meanings of different types of laughter are relative to human development. In humans as young as toddlers, laughter can be used to include or exclude peers from a specific social group. Health benefits of laughter include stress reduction and the reduction of vasoconstriction and stress chemicals.
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
Alasuutari, M. (2009). What is so funny about children? Laughter in parent-practitioner interaction. International Journal of Early Years Education, 17(2), 105–118. Klein, A. (1998). The courage to laugh: Humor, hope and healing in the face of death and dying. NY: Penguin Putman. Provine, R. P. (2000). Laughter: A scientific investigation. NY: Penguin Books. Szameitat, D. P., Szameitat, A. J., Wildgruber, D., Dietrich, S., Alter, K., Darwin, C. J., et al. (2009). Differentiation of emotions in laughter at the behavioral level. Emotion, 9(3), 397–405.
Law of Effect ELIZABETH G. E. KYONKA West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
Synonyms Principle of reinforcement
Law of Effect
Definition The Law of Effect is E. L. Thorndike’s description of the principle of connectionism: an individual is more likely to repeat behaviors that are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction and less likely to repeat behaviors that are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort in a particular situation, when that situation recurs.
Description Thorndike’s Law of Effect At the end of the nineteenth century, Edward L. Thorndike pioneered a means of measuring learning. He constructed several chambers, each equipped with an escape hatch that could be opened by a particular mechanism such as depressing a lever or pulling a string. He would place a cat (dog, or chick) in the same “puzzle box” several times and recorded escape latency – the amount of time it took the cat to execute the required mechanism and exit the chamber. Upon succeeding, cats were rewarded with access to food for a brief period. Thorndike deemed a decrease in escape latency over successive trials evidence of “animal intelligence,” or learning. The first time a cat experienced a puzzle box it would explore the box, guided by impulse or instinct, and usually took a long time to escape. Once they had escaped successfully from a puzzle box several times, most cats executed the required escape response quickly. Thorndike [5] attributed the decrease in escape latency to a strengthening of the association between stimulus (puzzle box) and response (whatever action was required to escape). Thorndike [6] described the improvement of performance upon repeated trials as the Law of Effect: "
Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be more likely to recur; those which are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort to the animal will, other things being equal, have their connections with that situation weakened, so that, when it recurs, they will be less likely to occur. The greater the satisfaction or discomfort, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond (p. 244)
According to Thorndike, the effect of reinforcement is a strengthening of the association between stimulus and response. The corollary effect of punishment is a weakening of the association between stimulus and response. Thorndike’s Law of Effect does not provide any insight into how the association comes about in the first
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place. As such, the law of effect can be considered a definition of positive reinforcement (and positive punishment), a key concept for theories of learning in respondent and operant behavior: a reinforcer is anything that strengthens a preceding behavior.
Theories of Matching: The Quantitative Law of Effect Herrnstein [4] conducted an ▶operant conditioning experiment in which pigeons pecked at two concurrently-presented options that were reinforced at different rates. For several different reinforcement ratios, the percent of pecks to a particular alternative equaled the percent of reinforcers obtained on that alternative: the relationship between rates of responding and rates of reinforcement was proportional. This observation is a restatement of the law of effect as a description of choice between different alternatives that made it possible for Herrnstein to express the relationship as a mathematical equation: B1 kR1 ¼ B1 þ B2 kðR1 þ R2 Þ
ð1Þ
In Eq. 1, Bs denote rates of responses, Rs denote rates of reinforcement, k is a constant multiplier that drops out and subscripts 1 and 2 refer to different types of responses (alternatively, a target behavior and all other possible behaviors). The relationship between rates of responses and reinforcement is known as the “matching law” and often appears in its most general form [2]: B1 R1 ¼ s log þ log b ð2Þ log B2 R2 In Eq. 2, Variables B, R and their subscripts are as in Eq. 1. The parameter s refers to the sensitivity of responding to reinforcer ratio, and the parameter log b to bias, a constant preference for one alternative that is independent of reinforcer ratio. The original matching law described by Herrnstein is a special case of the generalized matching law. The generalized matching law provides a good description of behavior in a variety of experimental choice procedures [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development The law of effect and the generalized matching law are best understood in experimental conditions where both response and reinforcer are concrete, discrete and easily measurable. However, the principle applies to all circumstances in which learning occurs, in humans of all ages as well as in cats and pigeons.
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The matching law has been used as a means of describing behavior in applied settings notably including classroom environments. It enables psychologists and educators to quantify and assess on-task or appropriate behavior relative to off-task or inappropriate classroom behavior. Results of empirical studies [1] have produced strategies for reinforcing, both individually and classroom-wide, appropriate behaviors such as homework completion that “may allow educators to increase the probability of students choosing to engage in assigned tasks.” A practiced understanding of the law of effect can be particularly useful when teaching preverbal or nonverbal children. Consistent positive reinforcement of a behavior encourages that behavior, whether it is desirable or no. Many parents will identify with those in this case study of a toddler [7]: While the toddler had been sick for an extended period as an infant, one of his parents or a caregiver would monitor him at bedtime until he fell asleep. If the toddler cried or fussed after he was left alone in his bedroom, an adult would return to tend to him. At bedtime, the toddler’s crying response was strengthened by the satisfaction he received from his parents’ attention. It is no wonder his crying continued after his health returned! When his parents stopped reinforcing the toddler’s unnecessary crying, his tantrums ceased with no apparent ill effects.
References 1.
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6. 7.
Billington, E., & DiTommaso, N. M. (2003). Demonstrations and applications of the matching law in education. Journal of Behavioral Education, 12, 91–104. Davison, M., & McCarthy, D. (1988). The matching law: A research review. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Grace, R. C. (1995). A contextual model of concurrent-chains choice. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 61, 113–129. Herrnstein, R. J. (1961). Relative and absolute strength of response as a function of frequency of reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 4, 267–272. Thorndike, E. L. (1898). Animal intelligence: An experimental study of the associative processes of animals. Psychological Review Monograph Supplement, 2, 1–107. Thorndike, E. L. (1911). Animal intelligence. New York: Macmillan. Williams, C. D. (1959). The elimination of tantrum behavior by extinction procedures. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 269.
Law of Independent Assortment ▶Mendelian Genetics
Law of Segregation ▶Mendelian Genetics
LBW ▶Low Birth Weight
Lead Poisoning AMBER R. WHITED, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Plumbism; Saturnism
Definition Lead poisoning is a medical condition in which the body contains toxic levels of lead.
Description Lead has been put to many uses throughout history. It was mixed into cosmetics and medicines, as well as added to pottery enamel and glass used to make food containers. In more recent times, lead was used for soldering the edges of tin sheets together in order to make cans for preserving food. Lead has been used in pipes for household plumbing, as well as in household paints. It was also added to gasoline. As a result, children and adults were often exposed to toxic levels of lead. In modern times, the primary source of exposure for children is lead in paint. Contaminated dust and soil is the second most common source. Young children are at higher risk of exposure, as they engage in hand-to-mouth activities more frequently than older children and adults [3, 8]. Lead levels are typically measured in micrograms per deciliter (mg/dL) in the blood. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [6] recommends individual intervention for children with a blood level of 15 mg/dL or higher and community interventions in areas where many children have blood levels of 10 mg/dL or higher. The average blood lead level in the United States is 2 mg/dL. Symptoms of early or mild lead poisoning (about 25–60 mg/dL) often include digestive problems, such as nausea, loss of appetite, or constipation. Fatigue and difficulty sleeping may be noted. Individuals may develop
Learned Helplessness
anemia. More severe levels of lead poisoning (above 80 mg/ dL) can include kidney disease, encephalopathy, paralysis (lead palsy), or partial or total blindness. Some individuals may have a blue line along the gum line, faintly at mild levels and more pronounced with severe exposure, which is unique to lead poisoning; however, many individuals do not develop this symptom. If left untreated, severe lead poisoning may result in convulsions, coma, or death [1–3, 5, 7, 8]. The primary method of treating lead poisoning is chelation therapy. The most common chelating agents used are penicillamine, mese-2,3-dimercaptosuccinicacid (DMSA), ethylenediaminetriacetate (EDTA), and 2,3dimercaptopropanol (BAL). Penicillamine and DMSA are taken orally and are more commonly prescribed for mild or chronic cases and when treating children. EDTA and BAL are administered by injection and are used for acute lead poisoning. When used with children, injections are typically intramuscular. Proper nutrition is very important during chelation therapy, as the agents used can bind to essential minerals, such as zinc and iron [2, 9].
Relevance for Childhood Development Prenatal exposure to lead has been associated with spontaneous abortions and premature births [10]. Although 80 mg/dL is typically identified as severe exposure, encephalopathy has been found as low as 65 mg/dL. Signs of encephalopathy in children may include restlessness, drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, headache, and vomiting. Seizures may also be noted [4]. Lead poisoning has been found to have a negative impact on the performance on intelligence tests, even at mild levels. Deficits in visual-motor coordination are common. Behavior disorders may develop, with signs of aggressiveness or destructiveness. Children with lead poisoning have been found to be absent from school more frequently, as well as to have higher rates of school failure. Academically, children often perform more poorly on school work, especially verbal activities, such as reading and vocabulary. Auditory processing skills may be weakened. Reaction times tend to be slower for children with lead poisoning [4, 8]. Research has been inconsistent in determining the permanence of deficits for children following treatment for lead poisoning. Some studies have found children can improve with reduction of lead levels, while other studies have found continued deficits. Reduction of environmental exposure is critical to treatment of lead exposure, as reexposure is more likely to cause permanent damage to the central nervous system, even when the second exposure is at a low level [4, 9].
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References 1. Anzelmo, V., & Bianco, P. (1995). Gastrointestinal and hepatic effects of lead exposure. In N. Castellino, P. Castellino, & N. Sannolo (Eds.), Inorganic lead exposure: Metabolism and intoxication (pp. 419–422). Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers. 2. Castellino, N. (1995a). Clinical presentation of human lead poisoning. In N. Castellino, P. Castellino, & N. Sannolo (Eds.), Inorganic lead exposure: Metabolism and intoxication (pp. 287–296). Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers. 3. Castellino, N. (1995b). The history of lead poisoning and uses of lead over the centuries. In N. Castellino, P. Castellino, & N. Sannolo (Eds.), Inorganic lead exposure: Metabolism and intoxication (pp. 3–11). Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers. 4. Castellino, P., Anzelmo, V., Bianco, P., Mattei, O., & Castellino, N. (1995). The neurological toxicity of lead. In N. Castellino, P. Castellino, & N. Sannolo (Eds.), Inorganic lead exposure: Metabolism and intoxication (pp. 297–337). Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers. 5. Castellino, P., Bologna, L., & Castellino, N. (1995). Lead and the kidney. In N. Castellino, P. Castellino, & N. Sannolo (Eds.), Inorganic lead exposure: Metabolism and intoxication (pp. 339–367). Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers. 6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2005). Preventing lead poisoning in young children. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 7. Fabri, G., & Castellino, N. (1995). Lead and the erythropoietic system. In N. Castellino, P. Castellino, & N. Sannolo (Eds.), Inorganic lead exposure: Metabolism and intoxication (pp. 369–401). Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers. 8. Farquhar, D. (1994). Lead poisoning prevention: A guide for legislators. Denver, CO: National Conference of State Legislatures. 9. Millstone, E. (1997). Lead and public health. Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis. 10. Sabatelli, G., Sacco, A., & Castellino, P. (1995). Lead and the reproductive system. In N. Castellino, P. Castellino, & N. Sannolo (Eds.), Inorganic lead exposure: Metabolism and intoxication (pp. 423–436). Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers.
Learned Helplessness LEAH E. JOHNSON, MATTHEW C. LAMBERT Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition The pattern of attributions and behaviors that leads an individual to see no connection between the behavior and the outcomes resulting in feelings of hopelessness, depression, and passivity [5].
Description Learned helplessness is the perception of little or no relation between one’s behaviors and outcomes. Learned helplessness theory assumes individuals seek explanations for events, particularly negative events such as school failure,
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interpersonal problems, poor health, or loss in sports. These explanations and the attributions that underlie them affect expectations for future events. These future expectations then determine behavioral responses, including passivity, anxiety, and depression. Children who develop learned helplessness tend to attribute their failures to a lack of ability. However, when these children succeed they attribute it to external factors, such as luck, rather than ability [5]. The theory of learned helplessness was first proposed in 1967 by Steven Maier and Martin Seligman when they were graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania. The students were involved in a series of experiments concerning negative reinforcement using dogs. In these experiments, a group of dogs received uncontrollable shocks. These dogs were then placed in a situation when they could control the shocks received. The dogs did not display any learning in the new situation- lying passively in the box while receiving shocks that could be controlled, unlike the control group and the dogs that received controllable shocks through the duration of the experiment. Similar results were found in later experiments with rats, monkeys, cats, and humans. From these first experiments, Seligman and others developed their theory of learned helplessness. Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness is composed of three components: contingency, cognition, and behavior. Contingency is the outcome of a person’s actions; that is the result experienced due to a person’s behavior. Cognition is the person’s perception and explanation of the outcome or contingency. Thirdly, behavior is the action a person takes in response the contingency and cognition. Learned helplessness is similar to Weiner’s attributional model, particularly the cognition piece of the theory. Under the theory of learned helplessness, Seligman proposed that people differ in their explanatory, or attributional, style. Research shows that there are consistent individual differences in explanatory style. Some people tend to attribute events to internal, stable, and global causes. Such a student may explain a failure on an exam by saying that he or she is stupid and just cannot learn that subject. Explanatory style appears to generalize to new situations. The generalizability of explanatory style or cognition is more like a trait. The generalizability of learned helplessness along with uncontrollability of events can help explain depression in some people. Seligman proposed that the uncontrollability of an aversive event enhances the fear-arousing characteristics of the event and leads to depression if the experience is prolonged, intense, or becomes frequent. Seligman also contended that the helplessness he observed in his experiments with the dogs was
parallel with severe depression in humans. Some similarities include the failure to solve problems that are solvable and a lack of initiation of action. He also noted that like chronic depression, helplessness can be difficult to break up once it established. Learned helplessness cannot explain all facets of every case of depression, but it may identify a set of cognitions that are involved in at least some cases.
Relevance to Childhood Development When children with learned helplessness encounter a difficult task, they experience an anxious loss of control and do not persist. Over time, the ability of children with learned helplessness does not predict their performance [1]. These children do not develop the metacognitive and self-regulatory skills necessary for high achievement because they do not recognize the relationship between behaviors and outcomes. Children who have developed learned helplessness become involved in an ongoing cycle of a lack of effective learning strategies, reduced persistence, and a sense of loss of control [1].
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Berk, L. E. (2007). Development through the Lifespan (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Mook, D. (2004). Classic experiments in psychology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Overmier, J. B. (2002). On learned helplessness. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science, 37(1), 4–8. Peterson, C., Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. (1993). Learned helplessness: A theory for the age of personal control. New York: Oxford Press. Schunk, D. H., Pintrich, P. R., & Meece, J. L. (2008). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Learning DANIEL PATANELLA New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Behaviorism; Cognitive-behaviorism; Conditioning; Latent learning; Literacy; Neo-behaviorism; Social learning
Definition Learning refers to changes in behavior and cognition as the result of experience. Traditional learning theory is
Learning
closely associated with behaviorism, cognitive-behavioral research, and an empiricist-associationist philosophy.
Description As a psychological discipline, learning refers to changes in behavior and changes in cognition as the result of experience. Traditional learning theory is closely associated with behaviorism, cognitive-behavioral research, and an empiricist-associationist philosophy. A broad distinction may be drawn between conditioning, as represented by Watson [10] and Skinner [7] and the eclectic cognitive-behavioral learning perspectives of such psychologists as Tolman [9] and Bandura [1]. Regardless of their theoretical diversity, all learning theorists subscribe to the behaviorist maxim that the proper dependent variables in psychological research should be observable, verifiable behaviors.
Conditioning Conditioning refers to any process by which an organism acquires new behaviors through repeated experience. There are two main types of conditioning. The first is known as classical conditioning, represented by such researchers as Pavlov [5] and the Watson [10], who popularized the term “behaviorism.” The second, known as operant or instrumental conditioning, derives from the works of Skinner [7] and his followers. Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which an organism comes to associate one stimulus with another, usually prompting a behavior previously associated only with the first stimulus. It is concerned with the re-association of a reflexive behavior to a formerly neutral stimulus. Operant conditioning is a form of learning primarily concerned with the effects of reinforcement and punishment upon behaviors. The behaviors addressed by operant conditioning are much broader in scope than the reflexes of classical conditioning. Within classical conditioning, several components of the conditioned response may be measured and serve as the dependent variable of interest. The amount of time it takes for an organism to respond to a conditioned stimulus is referred to as “latency,” the strength of the response is referred to as “magnitude,” and the likelihood that the conditioned response will occur at all is called “probability.” Examination of these three aspects of learned behaviors has partially led to two important and influential elaborations of our understanding of classical conditioning, namely opponent-process theory, and the RescorlaWagner theory. The opponent-process theory, largely developed by Solomon [8], provides an associationist context for explaining certain instances (such as habituation to drugs) in which the conditioned response becomes
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the opposite of the unconditioned response. The RescorlaWagner theory, created by Rescorla and Wagner [6] allows for mathematical prediction of responses based upon the given trajectory of a learning curve, offers a possible learning-based explanation on habituation to repetitive stimuli and also helps explain how organisms distinguish among multiple conditioned stimuli at any given time. Operant conditioning, in contrast, is not as dependent upon reflexive behavior and is primarily concerned with the effects of reinforcement and punishment upon behaviors. Operant conditioning focuses on the consequences of behaviors, and what makes learned behaviors stronger or weaker. Behaviors that are reinforced are likely to persist whereas lack of reinforcement will likely result in a decrease in the behavior. Ferster and Skinner [2] distinguished among four different schedules of reinforcement in Schedules of Reinforcement (1957), and their definitions have become part of standard operant conditioning lexicon. These schedules of reinforcement have been observed in both the laboratory and the real world, and behaviors reinforced using unpredictable schedules are not only highly resistant to extinction but will also continue long after reinforcement has ceased. Series of discrete behaviors can be combined in lengthy chains, resulting in very complex learning and the actual reinforcements used can be far removed from the typical biologically-based primary reinforcements that one normally associates with laboratory research. The Skinnerian concept of “radical behaviorism” conceptualizes even thought processes as subject to the rules and laws of conditioning.
Neo-Behaviorism and Social Learning In contrast to the orthodoxy of classical and operant conditioning, neo-behaviorism is a set of diverse theories that allows for the inference of nonobservable constructs such as motivation and internal states. (As is evident from both the Rescorla-Wagner and opponent-process theories, however, classical and operant conditioning do include complex and abstract theorizing.) Social learning bridges the gap between behaviorism and social psychology. The work of both Guthrie [3] and Hull [4] is primarily of historical interest, yet both neobehaviorists introduced important concepts to learning theory. Guthrie stressed the role of contiguity in learning, elaborating upon the necessity of properly linking the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli during classical conditioning and reconceptualizing forgetting as the establishment of new contiguities that successfully competed against the old ones. Hull attempted not only to incorporate the mathematical rigor of proofs and postulates into learning, but also stressed the importance of intervening variables, such as drive, habit
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strength, and incentive value of the reinforcement. The work of both researchers helps point the way toward contemporary neural network cognitive psychology. Tolman [9] is considered the father of cognitive behaviorism. Set apart from both classical and operant conditioning, Tolman’s system examined learning aside from the confines of strict minimalist environments, preferring to use mazes rather than puzzles or Skinner boxes in the laboratory. Tolman reported that his lab rats were able to learn the routes of their mazes even prior to reinforcement, as evidenced by their shorter than expected latencies when reinforcement was finally introduced; he referred to this non-reinforced learning as “latent learning,” a concept that is still current. Tolman also introduced the study of insight into behavioral learning. While insight had been a topic explored by Gestalt psychologists, Tolman studied insight learning within the context of rats in a maze. Both latent learning and insight learning are similar in that neither seems to be strict stimulus-response learning, and both make use of what Tolman called a “cognitive map,” a broad purely mental schematic of the immediate environment to be utilized in order to behave efficiently and solve problems. Social learning theory, as introduced by Bandura and elaborated upon by subsequent researchers, is even more removed from traditional behaviorist tradition. According to social learning theory, it is not necessary to be a participant in an activity in order to learn. Rather, by observing the actions of others, one can learn vicariously through modeling. This is largely learning through imitation, an aspect of learning previously overlooked by other theorists. Initially, the theory focused on the acquisition of antisocial behavior in children but the utility of social learning theory has broadened considerably, and social learning theory is not only an integral part of contemporary learning theory but also an essential component of many behavior modification programs.
Acknowledgement This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
References 1. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press. 2. Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. 3. Guthrie, E. R. (1935). The psychology of learning. New York: Harper and Brothers.
4. Hull, C. (1943). Principles of behavior. New York: Appleton-CenturyCrofts. 5. Pavlov, I. P. (1902). Lectures on the work of the digestive glands (W. H. Thompson, Trans.). London: Charles Griffin. 6. Rescorla, R. A., & Wagner, A. R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and non-reinforcement. In A. H. Black & W. F. Prokasy (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 4). New York: Academic Press. 7. Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts. 8. Solomon, R. L. (1980). The opponent process theory of acquired motivation. American Psychologist, 35, 691–712. 9. Tolman, E. C. (1932). Purposive behavior in animals and men. New York: Century. 10. Watson, J. B. (1924). Behaviorism. New York: Norton.
Learning Difficulty ▶Learning Disabilities
Learning Disabilities TAMARA BOWLIN, SHERRY MEE BELL University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Synonyms Developmental dyslexia; Learning difficulty; Learning disorder; Spelling disabilities
Definition The most influential definition of learning disabilities is found in the United States federal law Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) 2004: The term “specific learning disability” means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of mental retardation; of emotional disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage [5].
Learning Disabilities
Description Samuel Kirk first proposed the term “learning disabilities” in 1963. When the initial United States federal special education law was passed in 1975, learning disabilities were included as one of the disability categories [3]. The definition remains the same today. The percentage of students identified with learning disabilities rose markedly in the early years following implementation of the federal law, leveling off in the late 1980s. Data from the U.S. Department of Education indicate that students with learning disabilities represent approximately one half of all students receiving special education services and about 5% of the overall school population [17]. There are several potential causes for learning disabilities. Traditionally, learning disabilities have been viewed as resulting from underlying neurological causes [8]. In fact, the term minimal brain dysfunction was used in the 1960s and 1970s as a synonym for learning disabilities [7]. Recent neuroimaging technologies (functional magnetic resonance imaging or fmri) have enabled scientists to pinpoint brain activity associated with academic tasks such as reading. There are documented differences in the brain functioning of individuals with learning disabilities, specifically dyslexia while reading [15]. These findings provide evidence that brain functioning differences are associated with learning disabilities. In addition, there is growing evidence linking learning disabilities to genetics. For example, learning disabilities has a recurrence rate of approximately 35–45% in susceptible families. This finding indicates that a single gene may be a contributing factor [10]. For some individuals, there appears to be a connection between genetic and environmental factors. Specifically, parents who have experienced reading difficulties may be likely to read less to their children [8]. Other environmental factors (e.g., children ingesting lead paint and alcohol and/or drug abuse by an expectant mother) can also lead to a child being at-risk for learning problems. The federal law recognizes eight specific academic areas in which a student can exhibit a learning disability: (1) listening comprehension (receptive language), (2) oral expression, (3) basic reading skills (i.e., decoding and word recognition), (4) reading comprehension, (5) reading fluency, (6) written expression, (7) mathematics calculation, and (8) mathematics reasoning [5]. Dyslexia, a reading disorder characterized by poor decoding, poor spelling, and slow and dysfluent reading, is the most common type of learning disability [15]. However, many state departments of education do not use the term dyslexia in favor of the more general term, learning disability. Learning disabilities may co-occur with each other along
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with deficits in social and emotional disorders, and disorders in attention [4]. In addition, researchers have documented a nonverbal learning disability (NVLD), characterized by difficulties with fluid reasoning, spatial difficulties, organizational difficulties, poor problem solving skills, related mathematical weaknesses, and the lack of social ability to comprehend nonverbal communication cues [12]. Nonverbal learning disabilities are not specifically included in the federal definition.
Characteristics Individuals with learning disabilities may encounter a range of problems in learning. However, no single individual likely displays all of the following characteristics. Individuals with learning disabilities may exhibit difficulty with language, memory, processing speed, and/or motor skills. These difficulties may result in poor cognitive strategies for learning, oral language difficulties, reading difficulties, writing difficulties, mathematical difficulties and/ or poor social skills [7]. Attention problems are symptomatic for many students. Some characteristics are more likely to be exhibited at certain ages (e.g., children are more likely to be hyperactive than adolescents). Boys are four times more likely to be identified with a learning disability than girls, although there may be an equal number of girls with learning disabilities who go unidentified due to biological causes, cultural factors, or expectation pressures [7]. Learning disabilities become evident at different stages of life with the greatest impact occurring between the ages of 9 and 14 [7].
Assessment and Eligibility for Special Education Services According to the guidelines of IDEA 2004, states may choose from a select number of assessment methods, including the IQ-achievement discrepancy method and the response to intervention method, to determine if a student is eligible for special education services under the learning disability category [5]. Prior to 2004, the IQ-achievement discrepancy model was used to identify a “gap” between a student’s achievement and intellectual ability. Using this method, a child may be identified with a learning disability if he/she exhibits a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in one or more of several academic areas under the learning disability category. However due to criticism that the IQ-achievement discrepancy model is a “wait to fail” method that does not yield information useful for academic interventions, beginning in 2004, states are no longer required to employ the IQ-achievement
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discrepancy model. Instead, states “must permit the use of a process based on the child’s response to scientific, research-based intervention”; and “may permit the use of other alternative research-based procedures for determining whether a child has a specific learning disability” [11]. The percentage of students identified as having a learning disability varies depending on the criteria used to determine eligibility. With increased pressure to implement response to intervention (RTI) strategies prior to referral for special education, it is hoped that the percentage of students in need of special education services will decrease. Ideally, insuring that all students receive appropriate instruction, beginning in kindergarten, and monitoring progress routinely will result in more effective instruction. Despite controversy over the best way to assess learning disabilities, the construct of learning disabilities as characterized by intraindividual cognitive and academic strengths and weaknesses is valid [6]. “Fundamental to the concept of [learning disability] is the idea of ‘unexpected’ underachievement [13]. That is, individuals who are generally capable experience unexpected difficulty, based on specific cognitive processing weaknesses, in mastering certain academic tasks. For example, dyslexia has been characterized as a weakness “in a sea of strengths” [15, p. 58]. According to Wolf, individuals with learning disabilities can often also be highly creative thinkers or artists [18].
The National Organization on Disability provides information on transition to adulthood for individuals with learning disabilities, including post secondary education and employment [9]. Although individuals with disabilities are twice as likely not to complete college as peers without disabilities, there are special services provided for individuals with disabilities at the post secondary level. The employment rate (full or part time) for individuals with disabilities is only 35% as compared to the employment rate of individuals without disabilities at 78%. By promoting self-advocacy skills, educators can help students make successful transitions from high school to adulthood. IDEA, Section 504, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provide overlapping protections to help ensure individuals have equal opportunities, are able to fully participate in their community, live independently and become economically selfsufficient [1, 14]. Learning disabilities are not isolated to the United States, but have been observed across cultures and languages. For example, there is documented evidence that individuals may experience difficulty learning both alphabet-based languages (such as English) and logographic or pictorial systems (such as Chinese) of written language [7]. Many famous, talented individuals are reported to have learning disabilities, including: Alexander Graham Bell, Winston Churchill, Cher, Tom Cruise, Walt Disney, and Magic Johnson.
Effective Education of Students with Learning Disabilities
References
Early, effective instruction is important for minimizing the impact of learning disabilities. For early childhood students, researchers recommend embedding learning opportunities by incorporating practice into daily activities, and capitalizing on student’s interests and motivation [2]. To successfully meet the needs of students with learning disabilities across all grades, teachers can differentiate instruction by using more than one instructional methodology. In order to meet the various academic needs of individuals, intervention strategies may include: increasing a student’s access to instructional materials in a variety of formats, expanding test-taking options, extended time on tests, adjusting the complexity and nature of content material, providing accommodations, peer tutoring, direct instruction, explicit teaching, active and authentic learning opportunities, scaffolded instruction, reciprocal teaching and learning strategy instruction [7, 16]. Increasingly, technology (such as text-to-speech software and word processing programs) are useful for students with learning disabilities.
1. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). (1990). (PL 101–336). 2. Bricker, D., Pretti-Frontczak, K., & McComas, N. (1998). An activity based approach to early intervention (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Brookes. 3. Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (1975). 20 U. S. C. } 1401 et seq., Pub. L. No. 94–142 , 94th Congress, First Session. 4. Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R., Fuchs, L. S., & Barnes, M. A. (2007). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention. New York: The Gilford Press. 5. Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. Public Law 108th Cong., 2nd session. (December 3, 2004). 6. Learning Disabilities Roundtable. (2005). 2004 Learning disabilities roundtable: Comments and recommendations on regulatory issues under the individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 Public Law 108–466. Retrieved December 18, 2006, from http:// www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=278 7. Lerner, J., & Johns, B. (2009). Learning disabilities and related mild disabilities: Characteristics, teaching strategies, and new directions (11th ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 8. Lyon, G. R., Fletcher, J. M., Shaywitz, S. E., Shaywitz, B. A., Toregesen, J. K., Wood, F. B., et al. (2001). Rethinking learning disabilities. In C. E. Finn, A. J. Rotherham, & C. R. Hokanson (Eds.), Rethinking special education for a new century. Washington, DC: Fordham Foundation.
Learning Readiness 9. National Organization on Disability. (2004). N.O.D./Harris survey of Americans with disabilities. (Study No. 20839). New York: Harris Interactive. 10. Pennington, B. (1995). Genetics of learning disabilities. Journal of Child Neurology, 10(1), S69–S77. 11. Regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2006). U.S. Office of Education. Federal register, August 14, 2006. 12. Rourke, B. P. (1995). Syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities: Neurodevelopmental manifestations. New York: Guilford Press. 13. Scruggs, T. E., & Mastropieri, M. A. (2006). Response to “Competing views: A dialogue on response to intervention”. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 32(1), 62–64. 14. Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973. (PL 93–112). 15. Shaywitz, S. (2003). Overcoming dyslexia. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 16. Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R., & Wehmeyer, M. L. (2007). Exceptional lives: Special education in today’s schools (Vol. 5). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 17. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs. (2007). 27th Annual (2005) Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Washington DC. 18. Wolf, M. (2007). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. New York: Harper Collins. Suggested Resources Council for Exceptional Children http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/ Template.cfm?Section=Home Learning Disabilities Association http://www.ldanatl.org/ Journal of Learning Disabilities http://ldx.sagepub.com/ Learning Disabilities Quarterly http://www.cldinternational.org/ Publications/LDQ.asp
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Learning Goals ▶Mastery Orientation
Learning Potential Assessment ▶Dynamic Assessment
Learning Readiness MOLLY MILLIANS Marcus Autism Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Synonyms Academic readiness; Early academic skills; Pre-academic skills; School-entry skills
Definition Learning readiness is the physical, motor, socioemotional, behavioral, linguistic, and cognitive skills indicating preparedness to receive formal educational instruction.
Description
Learning Disabilities (as Chiefly Used in the United Kingdom) ▶Developmental Disabilities
Learning Disability in Math ▶Dyscalculia
Learning Disorder ▶Developmental Dyslexia ▶Learning Disabilities
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The terms learning readiness and school readiness were derived from educational reforms and the outcomes from model early childhood programs. Learning readiness is the observable traits that indicate young children are ready to receive early academic instruction. The term learning readiness is associated with school readiness. However, learning readiness and school readiness refer to different aspects of early learning and education. School readiness refers to the wide range of the skills children need to acquire to enter and to be successful in a school setting. Learning readiness indicates young children’s ability to receive purposeful instruction. In 1989, the National Education Summit was convened to discuss ways to improve education in the United States. The outcome from the National Education Summit was the formation of the National Education Goals Panel and the proposal of the National Education Goals. The National Education Goals are comprised of six objectives to improve education from preschool through twelfth grade in the United States. Learning readiness was included into Goal 1 that stated “by the year 2000, all
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children in America will start school ready to learn” [5, p. 3]. The National Education Goals were incorporated into the Educate America Act of 1994. In 1992, the National Education Goals Panel attempted to define learning readiness. The National Education Goals Panel identified five dimensions that indicate children are ready to learn and to enter school [10]. The five dimensions were physical well being and motor development, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language development, and cognition and general knowledge [10, p. 23]. The premise was that adequate development in each of these domains would indicate that children would be ready to learn in school. The National Education Goals Panel dimensions of learning provided a broad description of learning readiness embedded within the term school readiness. Model programs for early child education have attempted to define the skills children need to learn. Many of these programs were designed to prepare economically disadvantaged children for school. The Abecedarian Project in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has been active since the 1970s. The purpose of the Abecedarian program is to provide quality services in an attempt to prevent developmental delays and low cognitive skills as a result of early deprivation. The program addresses the needs of children 3–6 months of age through early elementary school. Parent involvement and parent education are primary components of the program. Curriculum is geared to address children’s linguistic and communication skills, as well as their cognitive, early academic, social, emotional, and motor skills. The program has been successful in preventing academic failure [9]. Since its inception in 1965, the Head Start Program has provided a comprehensive program to children of low income and at-risk families. This includes children of migrant, homeless, and refugee families. The early goals of the Head Start Program were to encourage ties to the communities, strengthen family interactions, and to ensure the overall well-being of children. This included early educational instruction to prepare children to enter school [10]. More recently, goals for Head Start have shifted to focus on developing children’s cognitive and pre-academic skills. This includes providing language instruction for children who do not speak English as their primary language. In 2007, the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act (P.L. 110–234) was signed into law. The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 required Head Start Programs to adjust their programs to align with the educational standards established by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2003. The adjustments to the
Head Start programs called for systematic monitoring of children’s progress and program accountability through the use of standardized measures, similar to the requirements for public schools outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2003. The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 indicated that children need to have acquired adequate language, listening comprehension, pre-literacy, and early mathematic skills before entering kindergarten. The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 stated that children need to demonstrate the use of critical thinking and problem solving skills, such as categorization. In addition, the law indicated that children need to be able to interact appropriately with peers and adults in order to function in a school environment. The focus of Head Start and other programs for economically disadvantage children has shifted from developing strong community ties to attempting to close the achievement gaps that emerge later in school [8]. As indicated through educational reforms and early childhood educational programs, children require adequate physical, motor, linguistic, behavioral, social and cognitive skills to be prepared to receive formal instruction. Specifically, children need to have developed the abilities to self-regulate, to pay attention, and to interact appropriately with peers and adults. Children need to exhibit the abilities to use language to express ideas, to think through problems systematically, and to begin to acquire early literacy and mathematic concepts [11, 12]. Self-regulation is a foundation for early learning and influences the other components of learning readiness. Self-regulation is the modulation of behavior, emotions, and responses according to the surroundings. Children who are ready to learn are able use self-control and organize their behavior in a structured setting. Self-regulated children are able to comply with rules and follow the expectations of a classroom. Children who are ready to receive formal instruction are motivated to learn more about topics and their surroundings. They demonstrate a lessening of exploratory behavior and begin to move through their environment in an organized manner [4]. Internal motivation includes taking the initiative, setting and reaching a goal, and evaluating performance. Children who are ready to learn exhibit the ability to pay attention. Children, who are able to sustain attention, exhibit an increase in persistence to complete a task or activity. They begin to filter out distractions and inhibit impulsive responses [4]. Interpersonal skills affect learning readiness. Children need to be able to work and play cooperatively with peers. Necessary interpersonal skills include sharing, waiting,
Learning Styles
and taking turns. Interpersonal skills include listening to the teacher and peers to learn from their ideas [1, 2]. Language, cognitive functioning, and pre-academic skills are primary components for learning readiness. Children need to be able to express their ideas, needs, and wants in order to maneuver a learning environment. Language is also used to mediate children’s responses to their environment. Cognitive skills include the ability to apply and to adjust problem-solving techniques, to make inferences and predictions through thoughtful observations, and to develop an understanding of symbolic relationships [7]. Experience with early literacy and mathematics prepares children for classroom instruction. The acquisition of early literacy and mathematics are predictive of later academic achievement. Pre-reading skills that prepare young children for formal literacy instruction include exposure and use of a rich vocabulary, exposure to the different uses of language, and experiences with the uses of print [3, 8]. Early mathematic knowledge incorporates number skills such as counting using one-to-one correspondence, cardinality, and identifying amounts as more, less, or the same. Through play and interactions children learn to alter values by combining and taking away amounts. Also, preacademic skills need to support formal mathematic instruction that include the ability to distinguishing shapes, patterns, and to recognize spatial relationships [6, 12]. In addition to cognitive and pre-academic factors, the readiness to learn is affected by children’s physical and emotional well being. Children’s readiness to learn is shaped by interactions with caregivers, their environment, and individual predispositions [13, 14]. Research, educational reform movements, such as the call for universal preschool, and comprehensive early childhood programs indicate the need for children and families to have access to quality interventions and programs to assist in preparing children to be ready to learn.
5. Copple, C., Deich, S., Brush, L., Hofferth, S., Anderson, S., Schiffman, J., et al. (1993). Learning readiness: Promising strategies. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services. 6. Duncan, G., Dowsett, C., Claessebs, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A., Klebanov, P., et al. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 46(6), 1428–1446. 7. Howes, C., Burchinal, M., Pianta, R., Bryant, D., Early, D., Clifford, R., et al. (2008). Ready to learn? Children’s pre-academic achievement in pre-kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 27–50. 8. Pianta, R. (2007). Early education in transition. In R. Pianta, M. Cox, & K. Snow (Eds.), School readiness and the transition to kindergarten in the era of accountability (pp. 3–10). Baltimore: Brookes. 9. Ramey, G., & Ramey, S. (2004). Early educational interventions and intelligence: Implications for head start. In E. Ziegler & S. Styfco (Eds.), The head start debates (pp. 3–17). Baltimore: Brookes. 10. Schrag, R., Styfco, S., & Ziegler, E. (2004). Familiar concept, new name: Social competence/school readiness as the goal of head start. In E. Ziegler & S. Styfco (Eds.), The head start debates (pp. 19–25). Baltimore: Brookes. 11. Snow, K. (2007). Integrative views of the domains of child function: Unifying school readiness. In R. Pianta, M. Cox, & K. Snow (Eds.), School readiness and the transition to kindergarten in the era of accountability (pp. 197–216). Baltimore: Brookes. 12. Snow, K. (2006). Measuring school readiness: Conceptual and practical considerations. Early Education and Development, 17(1), 7–41. 13. Zigler, E., Gilliam, W., & Jones, S. (2006a). School readiness. In E. Ziegler, W. Gilliam, & S. Jones (Eds.), A vision for universal preschool education (pp. 19–36). New York: Cambridge. 14. Zigler, E., Gilliam, W., Jones, S., & Malakoff, M. (2006b). The need for universal preschool for children in poverty. In E. Ziegler, W. Gilliam, & S. Jones (Eds.), A vision for universal preschool education (pp. 69–88). New York: Cambridge.
Learning Skills ▶Cognitive Skills
References 1. Bagdi, A., & Vacca, J. (2005). Supporting early childhood socialemotional well being: The building blocks for early learning and school success. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(3), 145–150. 2. Bierman, K., Torres, M., Domitrovich, C., Welsh, J., & Gest, S. (2008). Behavioral and cognitive readiness for school: Cross-domain associations for children attending head start. Social Development, 18(2), 305–323. 3. Bowman, B., Donovan, M. S., & Burns, M. S. (Eds.). (2001). Eager to learn: Educating our preschoolers. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 4. Bronson, M. (2000). Self-regulation in early childhood: Nature and nurture. New York: Guildford.
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Learning Strategies ▶Memory Strategies
Learning Styles ▶Cognitive Styles
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Left Dominant ▶Left Handedness
Left Handedness RAYMOND S. DEAN, MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Left dominant; Sinistral
Definition Left-handedness is the expressed consistent preference for the use of the left hand over the right for germane activities in daily life.
Description Handedness is defined and categorized in different ways. Most people define handedness as the hand that is preferred for the task of writing. Some researchers define handedness as the hand that is faster for manual tasks. Others define it as the preferred hand, regardless of its abilities. Whereas some people always use their right hand or their left hand for most activities, others use one hand or the other depending on the activity. Still other people have mixed hand usage for most functions. At one time it was thought that left-handedness was a behavioral sign of right cerebral hemispheric dominance for language. Lefthanders usually prefer using their left hand for tasks; however, there is sound method for predicting which hand a lefthander will choose for a given task. Rarely, if ever, is a left handed individual entirely dependent upon using their left hand to accomplish all tasks. Typically, left-handed children usually are more flexible in their hand usage than right-handers; this may be because they are forced to function in a world designed for righthanders. Left-handed children can be placed at a disadvantage due to the prevalence of right-handed tools typical in society. For example, scissors, a very common tool in many children’s lives are often molded in a way that makes them difficult to use for a left-handed child. Additionally, items such as school desks and
computer mouse have been traditionally made with right handed individuals in mind.
Demographics It has been estimated that 90–95% of the general population is right-handed, making left-handedness relatively uncommon. Overall, left-handedness appears to occur more frequently in men than in women, as well as occurring more frequently in both mono and dizygotic twins. Additionally, research has shown a higher than normal percentage of left-handedness in a number of childhood disorders including autism, mental retardation, and dyslexia. Researchers generally agree that the causes of lefthandedness are commonly considered to be part genetic and part environmental. However, Dean and Rattan [2] and others showed the existence of genetic and pathologic left-handedness. With congenital problems being more likely with pathologic lefthanders over right. There is no standard measure for determining degrees of handedness. Some scientists believe that there are only two types of handedness: right and non-right. These researchers believe that true left-handedness is rare and that most lefthanders are really mixed-handed. Others believe that ambidexterity – the equal use of both hands – is a third type of handedness, and some think that there are two types of ambidexterity. Other scientists believe that handedness should be measured on a continuum from completely right-handed to completely left-handed. Traditionally, this has been measured on a lateral preference scales with very few people exhibiting a pure preference for either left or right handedness. Much of the debate centering on research findings having to do with handedness comes back to the issue of how handedness was determined. With the variety of methods that are available to researchers in defining handedness there has been little consistence in the research.
Basis of Handedness The physical evidence for a basis in handedness is not wellunderstood by researchers. Over the years left-handedness has been associated with physical and psychological causes. Additionally, in many cultures left-handedness is regarded with superstitious beliefs and considered due to supernatural occurrences. Until the 1960s, the general theoretical consensus of handedness was that it predicted brain lateralization. Each hemisphere of the brain has some specific functioning that is lateralized to that hemisphere. For example, in the nineteenth century Paul Broca identified the left hemisphere as the major area of speech production in the brain.
Left Inferior Frontal Lobe (Anatomically Different Areas, But Regarded as Broca’s Area by Different Sources)
Carl Wernicke later identified another region in the left hemisphere that was responsible for language comprehension. These findings help perpetuate the idea that handedness was indicative of brain lateralization. In 1987, Geschwind, Behan, and Galaburda (GBG) published the Theory of Left-Handedness that attributed left-handedness to brain injury or trauma suffered inutero. GBG also suggested that chemical variations in the womb such as higher levels of testosterone could influence handedness.
Lifespan Development It is commonly believed amongst researchers that handedness is not a clearly established trait in infants. In fact, many believe that babies are born as ambidextrous, and that changes in handedness can occur several times over the first few years of life. Toddlers usually go through a phase in which the use of one hand is preferred for some activities and not for others. Typically, handedness is decided by the time a child reaches 3 years of age; although it is not uncommon for a child to continue to switch handedness preferences through preschool.
Problems Associated with LeftHandedness There are a number of difficulties associated with being left handed and interacting with a predominately right handed environment. Many of these problems are simply annoying, but a few can cause physical injury or serious problems. Due to the overwhelming percentage of people who are right handed, most systems and tools are designed with right-handed individual in mind. For example, most screws are designed for left-to-right turning, which is easier for right handed individuals to accomplish. Some other items that are designed specifically for right-handed individuals are: scissors, calculators, sports equipment, musical instruments, computers, desks, and telephones. Writing is another area that is generally a problem for children with left-handedness. In many cultures, the avoidance of left-handedness has led to pressure for children who are left handed to learn to write right handed. In the U.S. this was a problem, but seems to be dwindling at least on the part of parents and teachers. Children may still feel pressure to perform tasks such as writing right handed because of peer pressure. Teachers may still label a left-handed child’s writing as sloppy or illegible due to an unconscious reaction to writing that looks different from other children’s. Additionally, children who are left-handed may be more prone to
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difficulties with writing as they may hook their wrist to be able to see what they are writing; which can produce sloppy handwriting. There is a general trend over the course of history to attribute a number of bad things to left-handed individuals. For example, in history there are numerous instances where left-handed individuals were association with physical, emotional, and behavioral disorders. While not seen in the same extent today, left-handedness has been shown by researchers to put people more at risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, migraine headaches, and language processing disorders such as dyslexia and stuttering.
References 1.
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Clementz, B. A., Iacono, W. G., & Beiser, M. (1994). Handedness in first-episode psychotic patients and their first-degree biological relatives. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103(2), 400–403. Dean, R. S., & Rattan, G. (1986). Cerebral laterality and paired associate learning in young children: A dual processing model. International Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology, 8(4), 145–148. Fasmer, O. B., Akiskal, H. S., & Hugdahl, K. (2008). Non-righthandedness is associated with migraine and soft bipolarity in patients with mood disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders, 108(3), 217–224. Geschwind, N., & Behan, P. O. (1982). Left-handedness: Association with immune disease, migraine, and developmental learning disorder. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 79, 5097–5100. Marian, A. (2002). Handedness and brain asymmetry: The right shift theory. New York: Taylor and Francis. McKeever, W. R., & Rich, D. A. (1990). Left handedness and immune disorders. Cortex, 26, 33–40. Schachter, S. C., & Devinsky, O. (1997). Behavioral neurology and the legacy of Norman Geschwind. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Left Inferior (Third) Frontal Convolution (Gyrus) ▶Broca’s Area
Left Inferior Frontal Lobe (Anatomically Different Areas, But Regarded as Broca’s Area by Different Sources) ▶Broca’s Area
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Leiter International Performance Scale: Revised
Leiter International Performance Scale: Revised DAVID MICHALEC Nationwide Children’s Hospital/The Ohio State University, Westerville, OH, USA
Definition The Leiter International Performance Scale – Revised (Leiter-R) is an individually administered instrument designed to assess the cognitive functioning of children and adolescents ages 2 years, 0 months to 20 years, 11 months of age. The Leiter was revised in 1997. The Leiter-R was specifically developed for children and adolescents with communications disorders, cognitive delays, English as a second language, hearing impairments, motor impairments, traumatic brain injury, attention-deficit disorder and certain types of learning disabilities as well as other populations (e.g., autism spectrum disorders) for which traditional intelligence tests may not be appropriate or valid.
Description The Leiter-R includes two groupings of subtests. The Visualization and Reasoning Battery contains ten subtests and generates Brief IQ (ages 2–20), Full Scale IQ (ages 2–20), Fluid Reasoning Index (ages 2–20), Fundamental Visualization Index (ages 2–4) and Spatial Visualization (ages 11–20) scores. The Attention and Memory Battery also contains ten subtests and generates Memory Screener (ages 2–20), Associative Memory (ages 6–20), Memory Span (ages 6–20), Attention (ages 6–20), Memory Process (ages 6–20) and Recognition Memory (ages 6–20) scores. Additionally, the Leiter-R includes four rating scales, which can be completed the by the examiner, parent, the child or adolescent being tested (Self) and teacher, which provide multidimensional behavioral observations. The current revision of the Leiter-R was organized around four primary issues: the need for early identification of cognitive delays, the need for measurement of small increments of improvement in cognitive ability, the need for a reliable and valid scale of intelligence regardless of language or motor ability and the need for transition planning for entering the world of work. In fitting with the primary focus of the most recent revision, The Leiter-R is particularly useful in the assessment of younger children with little or no language skills including those with expressive and receptive language
deficits and those with Autism Spectrum Disorders. This measure allows the evaluator to obtain an estimate of intellectual functioning without being overly concerned that the oral language or verbal mediation required of a verbally administered measure (e.g., traditional measures of intellectual functioning) is negatively impacting the child’s performance. Although many of the tasks from the Visualization and Reasoning Battery are based on a matching paradigm and therefore may not generalize broadly to other cognitive skills, the ability to demonstrate clear cognitive strengths and weaknesses outside of the influence of language functioning is a huge asset for treatment planning. The Leiter-R offers several updates from the earlier version including new normative data (based on 1993 census data), light weight, laminated picture cards and foam shapes that are brightly colored and child friendly and an easel format for administration. The total normative sample matches the US population well on important stratifying variables. Internal consistency reliabilities are adequate although test – retest changes for the composite scores have been found to be somewhat large. Factor analytic studies have supported the theoretical underpinnings of the test. The Leiter-R correlates well with other accepted measures of intellectual functioning including the WISC-III. The Leiter-R is also felt to be largely culturally free and studies have found the measure to be valid across a number of cultural and ethnic groups.
References 1.
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Roid, G. H., & Miller, L. J. (1997). Leiter international performance scale – revised: Examiner’s manual. In G. H. Roid & L. J. Miller (Eds.), Leiter international performance scale – revised. Wood Dale, IL: Stoelting, Co. Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (4th ed.). San Diego, CA: Jerome M. Sattler, Publisher, Inc.
Lesbian ▶Homosexuality
Lethargic ▶Hypoactivity
Leukemia
Leukemia MARGAUX BARNES, AVI MADAN-SWAIN University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Acute leukemia
Definition Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and blood forming organs, including the bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen.
Description Leukemia is the most common pediatric cancer diagnosis, comprising approximately 30% of all childhood cancers. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) accounts for about 80% and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) about 15% of pediatric leukemias; while chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) are infrequent. Annually approximately 3,000 new cases of ALL and 500 of AML are diagnosed in the United States [3]. The hallmark of leukemia is bone marrow dysregulation. The bone marrow makes red blood cells which carry oxygen, white cells, which fight infections, and platelets, which help clot blood. Leukemia is a cancer of the early blood forming cells and most commonly affects the white blood cells, also known as leukocytes. Sometimes certain types of immature white blood cells, often known as blasts, undergo a random mutation that can cause the cells to grow and multiply unchecked. The blasts suppress normal bone marrow function, which results in decreased red blood cells, decreased platelets, and decreased functional white blood cells. Leukemia is diagnosed in all age groups with peak incidence between ages 2 and 5 years of age. Leukemia rates vary by age, gender and race. For example, males are more likely to be diagnosed with ALL as compared to females in children under the age of 15. Similarly, ALL rates are significantly lower in African American children than Caucasian children; but no ethnic differences are noted among children diagnosed with AML [3]. There are no known causes for ALL. However, increased risk for ALL is associated with genetic conditions such as Down syndrome, neurofibromatosis, Schwachman syndrome, Bloom syndrome, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, or if a child has received
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medications to suppress the immune system such as after organ transplantation. There also is a 2–4 times higher incidence of ALL in siblings than in children in the general population. Finally, children who have received prior chemotherapy or radiation treatment for other types of cancer are also at risk for developing leukemia. Clinically, children may present with low-grade fever, signs of infection, fatigue, increased bruising or bleeding, and facial pallor. When the diagnosis of leukemia is suspected the child is referred to a Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist for a full evaluation, which includes a thorough physical examination, blood tests, and a needle aspirate of the bone marrow. Based on this work-up, the specific leukemia type is confirmed, and chemotherapy is begun to treat the condition. At diagnosis children are categorized as having low, intermediate, or high risk based on both the child’s clinical features, chromosomal abnormalities noted in the leukemia cells, and response to chemotherapy. Higher risk factors include low or high age (i.e., children under the age of 1 year or older than 10 years of age), a white blood cell count greater than 50,000, leukemia subtype, central nervous system disease (i.e., blasts in the spinal fluid), certain chromosomal alterations in the leukemia cell, and slow response to initial treatment. These factors would require more aggressive treatment. Medical treatment protocols for ALL typically include the following stages: Induction, Consolidation, Delayed Intensification, and Maintenance. The Children’s Oncology Group (COG) conducts randomized clinical trials to determine the best therapy for each treatment phase. The goal of clinical trials is to increase cure rate for leukemia and reduce the toxicity of the therapy. Current ALL standard risk treatment protocols are 2 to 2-and-a-half years for girls and 2-and-a-half to 3 years for boys. After the first 6 months most of the chemotherapy is generally administered on an outpatient basis. High risk ALL protocols may require more frequent inpatient chemotherapy admissions. Treatment for AML usually requires 4–5 months of intensive chemotherapy administered as an inpatient. Some AML patients may receive a bone marrow transplant. Induction is the initial treatment phase for ALL and usually lasts 4 weeks. Children receive chemotherapy orally, intravenously, as well as intrathecally (i.e., injected into the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord). The goal of this phase is to induce remission. Remission is defined as an absence of signs and symptoms of leukemia, a return to normal of blood and bone marrow values, and less than 5% leukemia cells in the bone marrow. Approximately 95% of children with ALL achieve remission
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within 4 weeks of beginning therapy. Once in remission the consolidation phase of therapy is initiated and lasts from 4- to -6 months. During this period the child receives repeated cycles of systemic chemotherapy agents as well as continued intrathecal chemotherapy to eliminate any remaining leukemia cells. For certain types of leukemia, or if leukemia cells were present in the spinal fluid at the time of diagnosis, radiation therapy may be given to the brain and the spinal column. During delayed intensification the child receives chemotherapy agents similar to those received in the first 6 months of treatment (i.e., during induction and consolidation). Research shows that both low and high-risk ALL patients benefit from Delayed Intensification. Maintenance therapy is the final phase of treatment and generally lasts 2–3 years. Maintenance is much less intensive than the previous treatment and consists mostly of oral medications administered at home, as well as intermittent intravenous and intrathecal medications given in the outpatient clinic. Bone marrow transplant may be necessary for children with high-risk features including relapse, and treatmentresistant diseases, or other disease subtype factors that increase the likelihood that standard treatment will be unsuccessful. Currently, approximately 75% of children are cured (i.e., they remain disease free 2 years after completion of treatment). More relapses or recurrences occur either on therapy or within 2 years after completion of therapy. Late relapses (beyond 5 years) are rare. If the leukemia returns, another remission will often be achieved with more aggressive medical therapy. Many children will stay in remission with additional chemotherapy, but a bone marrow transplant may be recommended for some children. Approximately 50% of children will be cured from AML with chemotherapy and, if available, a bone marrow transplant using a matched related donor.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children vary in the way they cope with the news of their cancer diagnosis and treatment [3, 4]. Coping responses may include withdrawal, becoming very scared or worried, and/or lashing out in anger. During induction the child learns to deal with painful procedures, cope with the physical symptoms and side effects (e.g., nausea, vomiting, fatigue), adjust to interruptions in school and social activities, adjust to the hospital environment, and manage emotional reactions and responses. During the middle to later phase of treatment the child learns to deal with physical side effects (e.g., weight gain on steroids, hair loss), adhere to treatment regimen, and try to maintain academics, social activities, and communication with
close friends. After completion of treatment the child learns to acknowledge concerns over relapse or recurrence, make meaning of their cancer experience and shift roles from being a “cancer patient” to being a survivor [1]. Due to improved medical treatment more children are surviving and consequently increased emphasis is being placed on medical, psychological, and learning late effects. Potential medical late effects include short stature, delayed pubertal development, infertility problems, and neurocognitive deficits. Neurocognitive late effects secondary to intrathecal chemotherapy and radiation therapy include problems with executive function including short attention span, problems with organization, decreased processing speed, difficulties with visual-spatial and visual-motor tasks, problems with visual memory, and academic difficulties with reading comprehension and math calculation [2]. Some ALL survivors also are at risk for development of anxiety, symptoms of posttraumatic stress, problems with identity, and decreased self-esteem [4]. However, there also is some evidence of positive growth from going through the cancer experience.
References 1.
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Marsland, A. L., Ewing, L. J., & Thompson, A. (2006). Psychological and social effects of surviving childhood cancer. In R. T. Brown (Ed.), Comprehensive handbook of childhood cancer and sickle cell disease: A biopsychosocial approach (pp. 237–261). New York: Plenum Press. Mulhern, R. K., & Butler, R. W. (2006). Neuropsychological late effects. In R. T. Brown (Ed.), Comprehensive handbook of childhood cancer and sickle cell disease: A biopsychosocial approach (pp. 262–278). New York: Plenum Press. Smith, M. A., Gloeckler-Ries, L. A., Gurney, J. C., & Ross, J. A. (1999). Leukemia. In L. A. Gloeckler-Ries, M. A. Smith, J. G. Gurney, M. Linet, T. Tamra, J. L. Young, & G. R. Bunin (Eds.), Cancer incidence and survival among children and adolescents: united states SEER program, 1975–1995. Bethesda, MD: SEER. Weiner, L. S., Pao, M., Kazak, A. E., Kupst, M. J., & Patenaude, A. F. (Eds.). (2009). Quick reference for pediatric oncology clinicians: The psychiatric and psychological dimensions of pediatric cancer symptom management. Charlottesville, VA: IPOS Press.
Lexapro® ANISA FORNOFF Drake University, Ankeny, IA, USA
Synonyms Escitalopram
Life Events
Definition
References
A prescription medication FDA approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorders.
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Description This medication is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor available in a tablet or as an oral solution. The recommended starting dose for this medication is 10 mg taken once a day. Maximum suggested dose is 20 mg a day. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor. This medication may need to be taken for four weeks before improvement in symptoms is seen. This medication should be taken with or without food. Avoid drinking alcohol. Tell your doctor if you have a history of a seizure disorder or liver disease. Concomitant use in patients taking monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors is not advised. Serotonin syndrome may occur with the use of certain other serotonergic drugs. Some side effects are listed here: headache, drowsiness, constipation, difficulty sleeping, decreased sexual desire, decreased appetite and weight loss, diarrhea, and dizziness. Certain side effects may go away during treatment. Tell your doctor immediately if you notice the following: confusion, irregular heartbeat, muscle pain, shortness of breath, or swelling. If you choose to stop taking Lexapro®, you are encouraged to tell your doctor and slowly taper this medication to prevent withdrawal symptoms. This medication should be stored out of reach of children and pets and away from light, heat, and moisture.
Relevance to Childhood Development Lexapro® is not FDA approved for use in children. A medication guide must accompany this medication containing information related to the increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults compared to those not taking the medication. Doctors will monitor patients closely for worsening of symptoms, change in behavior, and thoughts of suicide. Patients are strongly encouraged to notify their health care provider to report sudden changes in mood, behavior, thoughts, or feelings. Women should let their doctor know if they are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. Talk with your doctor if you plan to breastfeed, as this medication enters the breast milk.
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Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language (USP DI, Vol. II, 27th ed., pp. 675–677). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex, 2007. AHFS drug information (24th ed., pp. 2344–2346). Maryland: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc., 2008. Lexi-drugs online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp Inc. Accessed August 5, 2008.
Lexical Configuration ▶Syntax
Library Therapeutics ▶Bibliotherapy
Librelease ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Libritabs ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Librium ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Life Events BEATRIZ OLAYA GUZMA´N1, CECILIA A. ESSAU2 1 Edifici B. Universitat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Spain 2 Roehampton University, London, UK
Synonyms Negative life events; Stressful life events; Undesirable life events
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Life Events
Definition Life events have been defined as a social experience or change with a specific onset and course that has a psychological impact on the individual [7]. This definition makes no assumption about the type, duration and effects of the events. Some common examples of life events include parental divorce or separation, school change, house relocations, and bereavement.
Description All individuals experience hundreds of life events throughout their life time that differ in magnitude, duration and meaning. Some of these events are major and involve high level of change (e.g., death of a love one), and some events are minor and have little impact on their own (e.g., minor accident). Life events are important as they could facilitate positive growth and adaptation, or they could contribute to illness and disturbances. Studies on life events have focused on two major areas: (1) Description of events throughout the life span: This line of research has focused on the developmental nature of life events and has identified several characteristics of life events. First, some biological (e.g., physical growth) and social events (e.g., school transitions) are age-related in that they occur frequently during childhood and adolescence. Although such life events are part of development, they may be problematic if they occur at different (than expected) point in the life span. Second, although some events are unique of particular individuals, some (e.g., war) may affect on the entire culture. Finally, developmental approach also stresses the importance of historical or cohort effects of events. For example, those who experienced adolescence during the 1930s economic depression have a different event history than those who experienced adolescence during the 1960s economic affluence. (2) Impact of life events during childhood and adolescence: This line of research is concerned with the relationship between life events and psychological/ physical disorders. Some studies investigated the mechanisms through which exert their effects on individuals, and some examined factors that predicted the outcomes of life events on the individual’s development.
Assessment of Life Events Impact of life events have traditionally been examined using self-report questionnaires or life events checklists. In such studies, the number of events experienced over
a given period of time can be counted. The problem of this method is an assumption that all events have the same effect. Although this problem could be reduced by giving a stress score which lead to change in the child’s life such life change units have been reported to be insensitive to individual differences that surround life events. Another important issue is to determine whether the events are the cause, consequences of psychological disorders, or of it is an illness-related behaviour [15]. A major advantage of using checklists is that they are easy to administer without much training requirement. As such they are economical. Some examples of life events checklists are: Life Events Checklist (LEC; [11]); Life Event Record (LER; [3]), Brief Adolescent Life Event Scale (BALE; [17]), Adolescent Perceived Events Scale (APES; [4]). Another approach to measure life event is through interviews. The use of interview is time consuming, however, this factor is outweighted by the quality of information collected [9]. The ability to collect information surrounding a life event enables the evaluation of the personal meaning that a life event contains [2]. When studying children, it is unclear from whom the information about life event should be collected. For the under 8-year olds, parent’s report is regarded as the most reliable informant because of children’s lack of cognitive skills to recall information in an accurate way, and children’s awareness of important sources of life events. When studying adolescents, adolescents themselves have been considered as the best source of information [13]. Some examples of commonly used interviews for the assessment of life events are: Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS; [2]), and Stressful Life Events Schedule (SLES; [18]).
Relevance to Childhood Development Research conducted during the past few decades have shown life events to be related to the onset of a wide range of psychiatric disorders, such as depressive, anxiety, substance use, and conduct disorders. For example, since the 1970’s, studies have noted the influence of negative/ stressful life events on the onset of depression, and research has shown that stress is specifically predictive of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents [9, 14]. Life events predict subsequent depressive disorder, and those which are chronic in nature (e.g., chronic family turmoil) also influence the persistence of depressive symptoms [6]. The types of life events which act as risk factors for major depressive disorder seem to differ in boys and girls. In Reinherz et al.’s study [16], for example, the death of a parent before age 15, pregnancy, and an early onset of
Life Satisfaction
health problems (e.g., respiratory disorders, mononucleosis, arthritis and headaches) which interfered with daily functioning were antecedent risks for major depressive disorder in females; in males it was the remarriage of a parent [16]. In a study by [1], depressed adolescents tended to use more negative alternatives (e.g., becoming intoxicated, isolating themselves, or running away from home), whereas the non-depressed adolescents generally used positive alternatives (e.g., minimizing the importance of the events) in dealing with the life events experienced. According to several other authors, major depressive disorder was generally positively correlated with emotion-focused strategies [4] and cognitive avoidance [5], and negatively correlated with problem-focused coping [4]. In Nolen-Hoeksema et al.’s study [14], the association between life events and depressive disorders was related to chronic disruption in the child’s environment; among older children, the impact of life events on depressive disorders was mediated by pessimistic explanatory style, and among girls by selfperceived body image, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Children who were exposed to high stress levels were especially likely to become depressed if the mothers were currently symptomatic [10]. Thus, the presence of the mother to help buffer the ill effects of stress may moderate the impact of stressors on children’s probability to develop depressive disorders. In Goodyer et al.’s study [8], adolescents whose mothers had a history of psychiatric disorder were exposed to more negative events than those whose mothers had no such history. Thus, both lifetime maternal psychiatric disorder and increased exposure to undesirable life events significantly exerted an increased risk for major depressive disorder in adolescents. It should, however, be stated that life events appear to be a nonspecific risk factor for major depressive disorder; that is, negative life events increase the risk of both depression and a number of other psychiatric disorders. As shown by [12], parental loss before the age of 17 years was significantly related to the presence of five major psychiatric disorders.
5. Ebata, A. T., & Moos, R. H. (1991). Coping and adjustment in distressed and healthy adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 12, 33–54. 6. Garrison, C. Z., Addy, C. L., Jackson, K. L., McKeown, R. E., & Waller, J. L. (1992). Major depressive disorder and dysthymia in young adolescents. American Journal of Epidemiology, 135, 792–802. 7. Goodyer, I. (1991). Life events, development and childhood psychopathology. Chichester: Wiley. 8. Goodyer, I. M., Cooper, P. J., Vize, C. M., & Ashby, L. (1993). Depression in 11-16-year-old girls: The role of past parental psychopathology and exposure to recent life events. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 1103–1115. 9. Goodyer, I. M., Wright, C., & Altham, P. M. (1988). Maternal adversity and recent stressful life events in anxious and depressed children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 29, 651–667. 10. Hammen, C., & Goodman-Brown, T. (1990). Self-schemas and vulnerability to specific life stress in children at risk for depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 215–227. 11. Johnson, J. H., & McCutcheon, S. M. (1980). Assessing life stress in older children and adolescents: Preliminary finding with the life events checklist. In I. G. Saranson & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Stress and anxiety Vol. 7 (pp. 111–125). Washington, DC: Hemisphere. 12. Kendler, K. S., Neale, M. C., Kessler, R. C., Heath, A. C., & Eaves, L. J. (1992). Childhood parental loss and adult psychopathology in women. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 109–116. 13. Monck, E., & Dobbs, R. (1985). Measuring life events in an adolescent population: methodological issues and related findings. Psychological Medicine, 15, 841–850. 14. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1992). Predictors and consequences of childhood depressive symptoms: A 5-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 405–422. 15. Paykel, E. S. (1983). Methodological aspects of life events research. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 27, 341–352. 16. Reinherz, H. Z., Giaconia, R. M., Pakiz, B., Silverman, A. B., Frost, A. K., & Lefkowitz, E. S. (1993). Psychosocial risks for major depression in late adolescence: A longitudinal community study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 1155–1163. 17. Shahar, G., Henrich, C. C., Reiner, I. C., & Little, T. D. (2003). Development and initial validation of the Brief Adolescent Life Event Scale (BALES). Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 16, 119–128. 18. Williamson, D. E., Birmaher, B., Ryan, N. D., Shiffrin, T. P., Lusky, J. A., Protopapa, J., et al. (2003). The stressful life events schedule for children and adolescents: development and validation. Psychiatry Research, 119, 225–241.
References 1. Adams, A., & Adams, J. (1991). Life events, depression, and perceived problem solving alternatives in adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 811–820. 2. Brown, G. W., & Harris, T. O. (1978). Social origins of depression: A study of psychiatric disorder in women. London: Tavistock. 3. Coddington, R. D. (1972). The significance of life events as etiologic factors in diseases of children. I. A survey of professionals. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 16, 205–213. 4. Compas, B. E., Davis, G. E., Forsythe, C. J., & Wagner, B. M. (1987). Assessment of major and daily stressful events during adolescence: The adolescent perceived events scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 534–541.
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Life Satisfaction DAVID N. MILLER University at Albany, SUNY Division of School Psychology, Albany, NY, USA
Synonyms Quality of life; Well-being
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Life Satisfaction
Definition Life satisfaction is a cognitive appraisal process in which individuals subjectively assess life quality on the basis of their own unique set of criteria.
Description In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on examining the positive aspects of human nature. This movement, known as positive psychology, has been defined as “the scientific study of ordinary human strengths and virtues” ([10], p. 216). One topic within the domain of positive psychology that has attracted substantial interest is how and why individuals, including children and adolescents, experience their lives in positive ways [5]; that is, there has been increased interest in examining those variables that contribute to the development of subjectively perceived life satisfaction. Research on life satisfaction has been conducted from social indicators, marketing, and quality of life perspectives [11]. However, much of the recent research in this area has been most influenced by the work of Diener and his colleagues [1, 2], who conceptualize life satisfaction as one of three important components (the others being positive and negative affect) within the larger domain of subjective well-being. This perspective conceptualizes life satisfaction as “a cognitive judgmental process in which individuals assess the quality of their lives on the basis of their own unique set of criteria” ([9], p. 164). Although the appraisal of life satisfaction is a cognitive one, it is largely based on the positive experiences and emotions that collectively contribute to subjective wellbeing. However, these cognitive judgments are largely independent from an individual’s immediate and emotional interpretation of a particular event; reports of life satisfaction “are believed to transcend momentary emotional experiences within and across life situations and are thus considered more stable than affective states when assessing life quality over time” ([11], p. 28). That said, researchers are recognizing that life satisfaction is tied to specific, concrete experiences, and that it yields unique variance not accounted for by assessing more global life satisfaction indices alone. This has lead to the development of measures that assess satisfaction within specific domains, such as students’ perceptions of school satisfaction [11]. Most of the research on life satisfaction to date has been conducted with adults, with research involving child and adolescent samples having begun only recently. Research suggests that although most children and
adolescents are generally satisfied with their lives, a minority appear very dissatisfied [7]. Low life satisfaction is associated with several adverse outcomes, including those related to internalizing problems (e.g., depression, anxiety) and school adjustment. In contrast, high life satisfaction functions as a psychological strength and actively fosters resilience and well-being [7]. For example, in a study examining the characteristics of adolescents who reported high levels of global life satisfaction, Gilman and Huebner [6] found that high life satisfaction was associated with mental health benefits that were not found among youth reporting comparatively lower life satisfaction levels. Moreover, school experiences can strongly influence life satisfaction in children and adolescents. Behavioral contexts (e.g., grades received; in-school conduct), social contexts (e.g., school climate), and cognitive contexts (e.g., academic personal beliefs; attachment to school) associated with schools are all linked to students’ global life satisfaction [11]. Some research has suggested that academic achievement in school is moderately correlated with adolescents’ global life satisfaction [6] and school satisfaction [3]. Suldo and Shaffer [12] found that middle-school students with the highest reported levels of subjective well-being had superior grades in courses and superior scores on standardized achievement tests. In contrast, lower levels of life satisfaction have been associated with problem behaviors in school, including disruptive and acting-out behaviors [11]. Over the past decade, several psychometrically sound life satisfaction scales for children and adolescents have been developed on the basis of unidimensional or multidimensional models. Most reviewed measures to date have adequate internal consistency reliability and acceptable test-retest reliability across several time frames (up to a year), and have also demonstrated strong evidence of various types of validity [4, 11]. To date, most measures have been self-reports and have been primarily used to illustrate similarities and differences between life satisfaction and related psychological constructs, such as self-concept [7]. The assessment of life satisfaction in children and adolescents is still in its beginning stages and more research is needed. It is clear, however, that assessing constructs such as life satisfaction provides a broader, more comprehensive perspective of psychological functioning, and that assessing problems in the absence of strengths provides an incomplete and distorted picture of children and youth [8]. Given that life satisfaction is a meaningful indicator and determinant of well-being in
Limbic System
children and adolescents, school and clinic-based mental health professionals should become well-versed in its assessment as well as interventions to promote it.
References 1. Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–575. 2. Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302. 3. Gilman, R. (2006). Students who like and dislike school. Applied Quality of Life Research, 1, 139–150. 4. Gilman, R., & Huebner, E. S. (2000). Review of life satisfaction measures for adolescents. Behaviour Change, 17, 178–192. 5. Gilman, R., & Huebner, E. S. (2003). A review of life satisfaction research with children and adolescents. School Psychology Quarterly, 18, 192–205. 6. Gilman, R., & Huebner, E. S. (2006). Characteristics of adolescents who report very high life satisfaction. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 311–319. 7. Huebner, E. S., Suldo, S. M., & Gilman, R. (2006). Life satisfaction. In G. G. Bear & K. M. Minke (Eds.), Children’s needs III: Development, prevention, and intervention (pp. 357–368). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. 8. Miller, D. N. (2010). Assessing internalizing problems and wellbeing. In G. Gimpel Peacock, R. A. Ervin, E. J. Daly, & K. W. Merrell (Eds.), Practical handbook of school psychology: Effective practices for the 21st century (pp. 175–191). New York: Guilford. 9. Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Psychological Assessment, 5, 164–172. 10. Sheldon, K. M., & King, L. (2001). Why positive psychology is necessary. American Psychologist, 56, 216–217. 11. Suldo, S. M., Huebner, E. S., Friedrich, A. A., & Gilman, R. (2009). Life satisfaction. In R. Gilman, E. S. Huebner, & M. J. Furlong (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology in schools (pp. 27–35). New York: Routledge. 12. Suldo, S. M., & Shaffer, E. J. (2008). Looking beyond psychopathology: The dual-factor model of mental health in youth. School Psychology Review, 37, 52–68. 13. Suldo, S. M., Shaffer, E. J., & Riley, K. N. (2008). A social-cognitivebehavioral model of academic predictors of adolescents’ life satisfaction. School Psychology Quarterly, 23, 56–69.
Life Style ▶Adler, Alfred
Lifestyle Mores ▶Cultural Difference
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Limbic System CHAD A. NOGGLE1, JOHN JOSHUA HALL2 1 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA 2 The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA
Definition The Limbic System is a network of brain structures that together play a pivotal role in emotional processing and regulation as well as aspects of memory.
Description The Limbic System represents one of the three divisions of the Telencephalon, in addition to the Basal Ganglia and the Cerebral cortex. Anatomically, the Limbic System is a network of structures that surround both the basal ganglia and the thalamus [1]. These structures include, but are not limited to, the Hippocampus, Dentate Gyrus, Cingulate Gyrus, Septal areas, Amygdala and aspects of the Diencephalon [4]. From a functional standpoint the Limbic System is best conceptualized as a holistic system as few one-to-one structure-function relationships have been established. Rather, many of the structures included within the system demonstrate overlapping roles in the modulation of the various functions regulated by the limbic system. Specifically, the Limbic System, in concert with aspects of the Frontal lobes and Temporal lobes, are involved in the control of memory and emotion [2]. This corresponds with aspects of emotional processing and regulation as well as aspects of recent memory [4]. Beyond these areas, which are most commonly linked with the interconnections and workings of this network of structures, the Limbic System has also been associated with autonomic functions (e.g., arousal), and olfaction [4]. Furthermore, the limbic system has been found to play a pivotal role in mediating the drives or instincts that assist in the attainment of fundamental biological needs [2]. In terms of the Limbic Systems role in memory, explicit memory, including semantic and episodic memory, represents the domain of memory that is dependent upon the network. However, there is greater reliance on the actions of the Hippocampal formation, Amygdala and Rhinal cortices in comparison to other structures of the Limbic System [3]. In addition, the Prefrontal cortex as well as additional structures of the Temporal lobe that do not fall under the umbrella that is the Limbic System, are linked to the aforementioned domains of memory [3]. Yet, the key component still remains to be the Hippocampal
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formation as it has been specifically linked to memory acquisition [5]. The role of the Hippocampal formation in memory has been best seen in individuals with bilateral injuries of the Hippocampus, such as the classic case of H. M. who following bilateral Hippocampal resection presented with dense anterograde amnesia in which he had severe difficulties in learning new information. Aside from those structures included as part of the network, the Limbic System has also been closely related to the Hypothalamus. It is this connection that provides for the integration and organization of autonomic processes related to the emotional expression of behavior [5]. In terms of those structures viewed as playing more prominent roles in the regulation of emotions, the Cingulate gyrus and Amygdala constitute those of greatest interest. While the Amygdala has been linked to aspects of fear conditioning, in addition to strengthening stored memories by linking emotional cues to the information to be recalled, the Cingulate gyrus plays a vital role in controlling the experience of emotion [2]. Again, this is related to its projections to the Hypothalamus, which is then responsible for directing the autonomic and endocrine effectors of emotion [2]. However, while this relationship and the workings of the Hypothalamus may impact the experience of emotion, higher cortical areas, such as the Frontal lobes, constitute the gateway that in turn determines what behavior is exhibited in response to the emotional experiences. This is the basis of inhibition. Finally, the manner in which the Limbic System is involved in mediating drive and/or instincts for basic survival is largely related to the bidirectional nature of the Limbic-Hypothalamus link. Specifically, while emotional reactivity, as processed by the Limbic system, transmits to the Hypothalamus to mediate concurrent organization of autonomic responses to the emotionally stimulating environment, the Hypothalamus is the starting point in terms of signaling when there is a biological need, this impulse is then passed along to the Limbic System to assist in increasing arousal and processing the nature of the stimuli.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Filley, C. M. (2001). Neurobehavioral Anatomy (2nd ed.). Boulder: University of Colorado Press. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning.
Limbitrol ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Limited Play ▶Restrictive Play
Linguistic Determinism ▶Whorfian Hypothesis
Linguistic Intelligence ▶Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic Relativity ▶Whorfian Hypothesis
Literacy STACY A. S. WILLIAMS State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY, USA
Synonyms Book Learning; Learning; Reading/Writing Proficiency; Scholarship
Definition Literacy is the ability to articulate one’s thoughts, listen, read and write.
Description The National Literacy Trust (NLT), a non-profit organization for the enhancement of an individual’s life through literacy, defines literacy as the ability to speak, listen, read,
Literacy
and write in order to fulfill one’s potential. The NLTargues that speech, language, and communication skills are essential in developing reading and writing competency [5]. Literacy does not refer to a single ability but to different types and levels of skills. At one end of the spectrum are the early developing skills in young children that are essential to literacy growth. These are referred to in the literature as emergent and early literacy skills. At the other end of the spectrum are the essential skills for functioning adults, identified by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) as prose, document, and quantitative literacy [4]. Much of the research in the last decade has focused primarily on the reading development of young children. According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report, approximately one fourth of fourth graders fail to exhibit basic levels of reading skills and one tenth of fourth graders fail to demonstrate basic writing skills. In particular, children in low-income households display disproportionate literacy and writing skills [3, 7]. Furthermore, the NAAL 2003 report indicates that there are 11 million adults in the United States who are illiterate. Furthermore, 14% of adults (30 million) are performing below basic at the most simple and concrete literacy level [4].
Emergent and Early Literacy Understanding the multidimensional aspects of literacy is crucial to reducing the illiteracy rate. At the beginning level, researchers often refer to two types of literacy skills that are considered to be the precursors to literacy development: emergent and early literacy. Emergent literacy refers to a broader concept of literacy that starts prior to formal instruction and leads to an awareness of print. Embedded within this concept are specific skills that relate to reading development. These skills are an awareness of print, relationship of print to speech (i.e., understanding the differences between oral and written language), comprehension of text structures (i.e., knowledge of grammar and organization of stories), phonological awareness (i.e., sensitivity and awareness of sounds in oral language), and letter knowledge (i.e., knowledge of the alphabet and related sounds) [2]. The other type of literacy skill, early literacy, refers to the discrete basic skills that are the foundation for reading success. Researchers have examined skills such as letter knowledge, phonological awareness, concepts of print, and naming of letters, colors, and objects to determine acquisition rates and prediction of later achievement [2]. Students are expected to learn the aforementioned skills during the first formal years of education. Knowledge of
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letters and phonemic awareness have been found to bear a strong and direct relationship to the success and ease of reading acquisition [1, 6]. This relationship is strong despite the instructional approach used. The predictive strength of these two skills suggests that the letter-tosound relation is of special interest to beginning readers [1]. The letter-to-sound relation is referred to in the literature as phonological awareness, which refers to the sensitivity of sounds in spoken words as well as the ability to manipulate the sounds. Phonological awareness is but one skill within the abilities of phonological processing. The ability to manipulate sounds in oral language encompasses a broad range of skills that are hierarchically arranged. In the beginning, phonological awareness activities may include rhyming or identifying words with similar beginnings or endings. Later phonological activities require more manipulation at the phoneme level (i.e., segmenting or blending activities). Phonological processing abilities include three types of skills: phonological awareness, phonological coding, and retrieval of phonological codes. Phonological coding refers to the ability to hold phonological information in working memory, while retrieval of phonological codes refers to the rate at which an individual can access the phonological information. Each of these processing abilities is implicated in the varying levels of literacy achievement. In addition to being able to manipulate sounds in oral language, knowledge of the written symbols that represent sounds in language is also important. Letter naming fluency in particular has been found to be a good predictor of reading success. The acquisition of letter knowledge typically follows a gradual accumulation of alphabet knowledge from 3 to 7 years old. During the formative years of literacy acquisition, students are learning to read. By the time students reach third grade, they are reading to learn. Accordingly, the building blocks of later years focus primarily on fluency and comprehension. Developing reading fluency is critical to becoming a competent reader. Research suggests that fluent readers are more likely to comprehend what they read and are more likely to seek out reading opportunities [2].
Adult Literacy The skills necessary for developing fluent reading are the building blocks for literacy activities in adulthood. While literacy in earlier years focuses on learning the skills necessary for fluent reading, literacy in teen to adulthood years focuses on functional literacy. The NAAL, in its assessment of adult literacy, addresses prose, document, and quantitative literacy. Prose literacy is defined as the ability to search, comprehend, and use information from
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continuous texts such as news articles and instructional materials. Document literacy is the ability to search, comprehend, and use information from noncontinuous texts such as job applications, maps, and food labels. Quantitative literacy refers to the ability to identify and perform computations using numbers embedded in printed materials (e.g., balancing checkbooks). These literacy tasks require seven types of literacy skills: the ability to search text efficiently, to infer from texts, to decode and read fluently, to apply knowledge, to understand the structure and meaning of sentences, to identify the calculations required to solve a problem, and to perform the calculations [4]. In summary, literacy refers to the range of skills that are essential for an individual to realize his or her potential. It is the ability to understand oral and written materials and communicate one’s intentions clearly.
References 1. 2.
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Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Daly III, E. J., Chafouleas, S., & Skinner, C. H. (2005). Interventions for reading problems: Designing and evaluating effective strategies. New York: The Guilford Press. Justice, L. M., Kaderavek, J. N., Fan, X., Sofka, A., & Hunt, A. (2009). Accelerating preschoolers’ early literacy development through classroom-based teacher–child storybook reading and explicit print referencing. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, 67–85. Kutner, M., Greenberg, E., Jin, Y., Boyle, B., Hsu, Y., & Dunleavy, E. (2007). Literacy in everyday life: Results from the 2003 national assessment of adult literacy (NCES 2007-480). National Center for Education Statistics: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC. The National Literacy Trust. (2008). Viewpoint. Literacy Today, 55, 15–17. Turan, F., & Go¨zde, G. (2008). Early precursor of reading: Acquisition of phonological awareness skills. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 8, 279–284. Walker-Dalhouse, D., & Risko, V. J. (2008). Homelessness, poverty, and children’s literacy development. The Reading Teacher, 62, 84–86.
Definition Literacy typically includes the two areas of reading and writing. Literacy development refers to the on-going development of skills needed to successfully communicate through written communication.
Description Communication through written texts is a two-sided conversation. Writers capture their thoughts and ideas in written text and the reader actively receives and responds to written texts. Reading for understanding requires an active thinking process that is influenced by the reader’s prior knowledge and experiences [6]. This active thinking process develops over time in a natural state that “mimics children’s natural development of oral language skills” [7]. Literacy development is reported to be a natural process that begins at birth. The “pre-reading stage” [3] or stage 0, involves caretakers reading to, speaking to, and modeling writing. Chall describes this stage as the moment in literacy development where children are acknowledging the surrounding print and spoken language. The next stage is referred to as stage 1. This stage begins in the early primary years when children learn about the alphabetic principle and is referred to as the “Initial Reading or Decoding Stage.” The next stage is referred to as stage 2, which involves readers building automaticity with the associations acquired in stage 1. During stage 2, readers participate in continual practice and are exposed to an abundance of print at an independent or easy level, which assists readers with acquiring automaticity. Stage 3 begins reading to learn during grades 4–8 where children are refining their print skills and stage 4 occurs during the High School years as students are developing multiple perspectives, Finally, stage 5 transpires during college years and beyond.
Relevance to Childhood Development
Literacy Development ROBERTA SIMNACHER PATE1, STEPHANIE A. GROTE-GARCIA2 1 Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX, USA 2 University of the Incarnate Word College of Education, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Synonyms Reading development; Writing development
Literacy Development encompasses perspectives inclusive among theorists over the past 80 years, from the 1930s to present. Several different theories of development include: Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development (1969), Maturation Theory (1931), Holdaway’s Theory of Literacy Development (1969), Stage Models of Reading (1983), Emergent Literacy Theory (1985), and Family Literacy Theory (1983). The culmination of these theories is relevant to child development as they impact the teachers’ knowledge and understanding of child development. This realm of knowledge is essential in providing appropriate literacy instruction.
Lithium
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6.
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Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: thinking and learning about print. Cambridge: MIT Press. Barr, R. (1984). Beginning reading instruction: from debate to reformation. In P. D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook of reading research. New York: Longman. Chall, J. (1983). Stages of reading development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Holdaway, D. (1979). The foundations of literacy. Sydney, Australia: Ashton Scholastic. Distributed by Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH. Morrow, L. M. (2001). Literacy development in the early years (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. National Excellence in Reading Initiative. (2000). Report of the national reading panel: teaching children to read. Washington: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Tracey, D. H., & Morrow, L. M. (2006). Lenses on reading: an introduction to theories and models. New York: Guilford. Smith, F. (2004). Understanding reading (6th ed.). Mahwah: Erlbaum. Venezky, R. L. (1995). Literacy. In T. L. Harris & R. E. Hodges (Eds.), The literacy dictionary: the vocabulary of reading and writing. Newark: International Reading Association.
Literatherapy ▶Bibliotherapy
Literature Based Instruction ▶Whole Language Approach
Lithane ▶Cibalith-S
Lithane® ▶Lithium
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Lithium ANISA FORNOFF Drake University, Ankeny, IA, USA
Synonyms Cibalith-S; Eskalith®; Eskalith-CR®; Lithane®; Lithobid®; Lithonate®; Lithotabs®
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the management of bipolar disorder and treatment of mania in patients with bipolar disorder.
Description This medication works in the central nervous system, but the exact way this medication works is not known. Lithium is available in short acting capsules, short acting tablets, and short acting syrup. It is also available in both long acting capsules and tablets. Other reasons this medication may be taken, which are not FDA approved, are as an augmenting agent for depression, aggression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and conduct disorder in children. The recommended starting dose for this medication in short-acting form is 300–600 mg taken three times a day. For long-acting dosage forms, the recommended starting dose is 300–600 mg three times a day or 450–900 mg twice a day. Maximum suggested dose is 1,800 mg a day. Doses for children over the age of 12 are generally similar to doses for adults. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor. It may take 1 or 2 weeks to see the effects of this medication. Lithium may be taken with food if it upsets your stomach. It is recommended to limit caffeine intake and avoid drinking alcohol. It is recommended to drink two or three liters of water daily. Use caution in hot weather and in activities that may make you sweat. Inform your doctor if you have heart disease or kidney disease. Also, tell your doctor if you are dehydrated or have low sodium. It is very important that you do not take more of this medication than your doctor prescribed. Your doctor will monitor lithium levels in your blood. The slow release or sustained release products must be taken whole, do not crush or chew. Some side effects are listed here: swelling, changes in heart rhythm, dizziness, sedation, restlessness, headache, fatigue, dry or thinning hair, changes in thyroid function, upset stomach and diarrhea, increase in urination, weight
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gain, and blurred vision. Certain side effects may go away during treatment. Tell your doctor immediately if you notice the following: diarrhea, tremors, lack of coordination, muscle weakness, blurred vision, seizures, or slurred speech. These may be signs of an overdose of this medication. If these should occur, seek medical attention immediately. This medication should be stored out of reach of children and pets and away from light, heat, and moisture.
Relevance to Childhood Development Lithium is not FDA approved for use in children younger than 12 years old. This medication may cause weakened bones in children. Women should let their doctor know if they are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. This medication has been shown to cause adverse effects to the fetus. Talk with your doctor before breastfeeding.
References 1.
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American Management Association. (2008). AHFS drug information (24th ed., pp. 2629–2638). Maryland: American Society of HealthSystem Pharmacists. Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp. Accessed August 26, 2008. Medical Economics Staff. (2007). Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language. USP DI Vol II. (27th ed., pp. 1006–1008). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex.
Lithonate ▶Cibalith-S
Lithonate® ▶Lithium
Lithotabs ▶Cibalith-S
Lithotabs® ▶Lithium
Little People ▶Dwarfism
Lithizine ▶Cibalith-S
Locke, John ERIN HAMBRICK University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
Lithobid ▶Cibalith-S
Lithobid® ▶Lithium
Life Dates 1632–1704
Introduction John Locke, an English politician, doctor, and philosopher, was a forerunner of British ▶Empiricism and is referred to by some as the father of cognitive psychology. Locke’s view of the mind and the origin of knowledge and ideas was reductionist and individualistic; he believed that at birth no innate ideas exist and that all knowledge is derived from personal experience.
Locke, John
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Contributions
Locke, similar to most wealthy children of his era, was homeschooled until he was granted admission to Westminster school. Westminster was a private grammar school for privileged and intelligent adolescents and was where he became proficient in many different languages, such as Latin and German. Locke was named the Westminster School King’s Scholar and was subsequently granted admission to Oxford University. After achieving his undergraduate degree, Locke received his master’s in medicine and indulged in other educational interests such as philosophy (Locke was especially well read in both Plato and Descartes) and government. By 1650, he had obtained his master’s and decided to stay at Oxford to teach for the next few decades. Though the schools Locke attended largely influenced his education, Locke’s father, Locke’s bent toward travel, and the political zeitgeist of his time had just as large an impact. Locke’s father was a respected political radical who believed in ▶parliament rule (or rule by the people) instead of monarchical rule. Locke grew up in what has been named the “Glorious Revolution”: a time in English history when political unrest and change inspired many to become radical thinkers and to challenge not only political but philosophical hegemony.
Locke’s contributions to psychology are prodigious. Locke, in contrast to many of his philosophical contemporaries, abandoned the question of whether or not there is an actual reality and assumed the workings of the mind were real and could be studied. In order to understand the way the mind worked, Locke took an historical, reductionist approach. Locke derived his understanding of knowledge acquisition by breaking knowledge down into its smallest parts (sensory experiences) and by considering the developmental history of each person (at birth people have little or no knowledge and then accumulate it as they develop). Lockean thought marked a philosophical shift from the use of logic to understand reality to empiricism, or the use of systematic observation to understand reality. For example, Locke decided that because at birth we require other people and sensory experiences to grow, that each person is born a blank slate and this blank slate is influenced solely by experience. Or, that all knowledge and ideas are derived from observable, concrete sensory input instead of from innate or genetically predisposed tendencies. Locke asserted that if we are willing to attend to stimuli, then sensory input is acquired passively. Once this input has reached our mind, then our mind actively reflects on (or perceives) the input and associates this new input with previous experiences. This process of reflection and association results in complex thoughts, and throughout our lives we have increasingly more sensory input that gives rise to more complex thoughts and thus more knowledge. Locke’s delineation of the process of association has especially influenced psychology. In cognitive psychology, association has influenced memory research; many cognitive psychologists believe that we retrieve memories by thinking of an idea that is associated with past experiences and/or by having new experiences that are associated with past experiences. In behavior psychology, the principle of association was applied learning theory. Behaviorists assert that we associate certain behaviors with particular outcomes and thus either increase or decrease that behavior depending on that behavior’s associated consequences. Locke’s “blank slate at birth” or “▶tabula rasa” belief also had strong humanitarian implications. To say that each person is born a blank state essentially means that all people are equal at birth. Thus, Locke’s view of the nature of knowledge caused him to antagonize the patriarchal views of his time and possibly jump-start the feminist movement [3]. Also, this belief landed Locke on the nurture side of the ubiquitous nature-nurture debate in psychology, a debate that may never be fully
Accomplishments Locke’s most well known accomplishments are his writings, which were largely penned during the 1690s. Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding has widely influenced philosophical and psychological thought pertaining to the processes of the mind and the origin knowledge. Locke’s Two Treatises on Government was partly a polemic against monarchy and influenced the decision of America’s founding fathers to establish a democracy instead of a monarchy in the New World. Locke also wrote religious pieces, such as Letters Concerning Toleration, which influenced the Protestant Reformation in England and which precipitated America’s laws on the separation of church and state. A lesser-known piece by John Locke is Some Thoughts Concerning Education, which is a compilation of letters Locke wrote to friends on how to parent their children. Though Locke was never a father, he believed that his ideas on knowledge acquisition made him a resource for parents in search of how to help their children develop appropriately. In addition to his writings, Locke was an influential leader at Oxford. He was named the Censor of Moral Philosophy and opened an experimental lab on Oxford’s campus. Though Locke was a trained physician, medicine was more of a hobby to him than a profession.
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resolved but that will always be important to both clinical and experimental work. Possibly the most important contribution Locke had to psychology was his role in founding British Empiricism, a scientific school of thought that believed knowledge can only come from observable experiences. Empiricists also believed that the further one’s conclusions moved from directly observable experiences, the more likely one was to make a thinking error. Though Locke would not have been a proponent of the psychological method of ▶introspection that succeeded him (which depended on the self-report of private, unobservable thoughts), his empirical work did encourage the study of the mind simply because he was one of the first to unequivocally claim that the mind was real and could be studied. Further, several of Locke’s theories on how to raise children are still present in child rearing practices today. For example, because Locke believed that all knowledge is learned via experience, he encouraged parents to provide young children with as many sensory experiences as possible. We now know that certain sensory experiences must be present during critical and sensitive periods in the first years of life to facilitate normal development. In older children, Locke believed knowledge was the path to reason, and that if one had multiple divergent experiences then one would be capable of reasoning in a moral, upright fashion [1]. According to Locke, gaining knowledge via experience was the ultimate path toward righteous, pro-social actions. Thus, Locke influenced many human rights movements. Further, Locke may have influenced person-centered, Humanistic thought by his contention that because everyone has had different sensory experiences, differences between people must be tolerated. Further, Locke thought that when trying to understand and tolerate others we must make an effort to understand their phenomenological worldview. Locke can also be credited for promoting public collections of items, which are today called museums, zoos, and encyclopedias. Because he believed that sensory experiences gave rise to complex ideas, he encouraged collections that would provide experiential learning.
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References
References
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Benjamin, L. T. (2006). A history of psychology in letters (pp. 15–26). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Billig, M. (2008). The hidden roots of critical psychology (pp. 28–72). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Butler, M. A. (2007). Early liberal roots of feminism: John Locke’s attack on patriarchy. In N. J. Hirschmann & K. M. McClure (Eds.), Feminist interpretations of John Locke (pp. 91–121). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Cope, K. L. (1999). John Locke revisited. New York: Twayne. Woolhouse, R. (2007). Locke: A biography. Cambridge: New York. Yolton, J. W. (1985). Lock: An introduction. New York: Basil Blackwell.
Locus Coeruleus CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition ▶Locus Coeruleus: The Locus Coeruleus is a cluster of neurons in an area of the hindbrain known as the Pons that contains over half of the norepinephrine-based neurons of the central nervous system.
Description The Hindbrain represents the lowest and most posterior division of the human brain. The Pons is a structure within the Hindbrain, that in addition to its’ link with motor and sensory action, houses the Locus Coeruleus, which lies just beneath the fourth ventricle. The Locus Coeruleus is a grouping of neurons that contains over half of the Norepinephrine neurons in the Central Nervous System [3]. Norepinephrine is an essential neurotransmitter of the Central nervous System that plays a vital role in regulating sleep-wake cycles, memory, attention, hormones through its influence on the Hypothalamus, Cerebral blood flow, and motor behavior [4]. One of the catecholaminergic neurotransmitters [2], norepinephrine’s influence can be either inhibitory or excitatory [1]. In addition, Norepinephine is commonly indicted with Serotonin in the manifestation of depressive and anxiety disorders as it plays a vital role in the regulation of mood. The holistic impact Norepinephrine has on the CNS is directly related to the widespread ascending noradrenergic projections from the Locus Coeruleus and rostral tegmental area to aspects of the Forebrain, Cerebellum and Spinal Cord [1], that thus correspond with Norepinephrine’s influence on the broad aforementioned functions.
2. 3. 4.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experiemental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Locus of Control (External and Internal)
Locus of Control (External and Internal) DAVID BRANDWEIN Kean University, Union, NJ, USA
Synonyms Locus of control reinforcement
Definition The internal-external locus of control construct ([8]), describes the extent to which one perceives there to be a causal connection between one’s behavior or cognition and subsequent outcomes.
Description The concept of locus of control was developed by ▶Julian Rotter in the 1960s. In looking to bridge two different branches of psychology (behavioral and cognitive), he believed that behavior was greatly influenced by rewards and punishments, and these rewards and punishments shaped how people understand the results of their own actions. Rotter ordered people on a continuum according to how much they attribute the cause of events in their lives to their own actions, motivations, or competencies (internal control) versus how much they assume the cause of these events to be determined by other forces such as luck, chance, or powerful others (external control). Based on Rotter’s conception of locus of control, Nowicki and Strickland [4] developed the Locus of Control Scale for Children, which is still in use today. An important aspect of locus of control has to do with the concept of expectancy, which is related to events that will happen in the future. Locus of control is grounded in expectancy-value theory, which describes human behavior as determined by the perceived likelihood of an event or outcome occurring contingent upon the behavior in question, and the value placed on that event or outcome. More specifically, expectancy-value theory states that if (a) someone values a particular outcome and (b) that person believes that taking a particular action will produce that outcome, then (c) they are more likely to take that particular action. An alternative conception of locus of control was proposed by Levenson [3]. Instead of conceiving locus of control along a one-dimensional continuum (internal to external), Levenson proposed three independent dimensions: Internality, Chance, and Powerful Others.
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According to Levenson’s view of locus of control, a person can choose each of these dimensions of locus of control independently as well as together. For example, a person might simultaneously believe that both oneself and powerful others influence outcomes, but that chance does not. Researchers in ▶health psychology have embraced Levinson’s conceptualization, and Wallston, Wallston & Devillis [10] developed the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales to evaluate how locus of control relates to health and illness.
Relevance to Childhood Development The variable of locus of control is of significant influence on child behavior and development. Research completed in academic contexts ([2]) found that a belief in destiny was a major determinant in school achievement. In short, internal students feel outcomes (both negative and positive) are derived from a basis of empowerment, whereas external students view such outcomes from a basis of disengagement. Other research ([6]; [9]; [1]) revealed that an external locus of control was associated with increasing tendencies for lower levels of academic achievement, negatively associated with performance in areas of reading, mathematics, and teachers ratings of study habits, and reading attitudes and aptitudes, while internality was found to be a positive factor in predicting academic performance, particularly with regard to attitudes about the reading experience. Locus of control has also been shown to be associated with other psychological characteristics and perceptions. Nunn [5] found significant relationships between an internal locus of control and positive perceptions of adjustment within the home, school, and peer relations., and Nunn & Nunn [7] have also shown that students who are considered at-risk for educational failure have developed more external views of themselves, are more anxious, have lower self-esteem, and exhibit more symptoms of depression than students who are successful. Tesiny et al. [9] also found that external locus of control was significantly associated with both depression scores and academic achievement measures, e.g., reading, math, teacher rating of study habits, and peer nominations of children who exhibited symptoms of depression.
References 1. Blaha, J., & Chomin, L. (1982). The relationship of reading attitudes to academic aptitude, locus of control, and field independence. Psychology in the Schools, 19, 28–32.
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2. Coleman, J. S., Campbell, E. Q., Hobson, C. J., McPartland, J., Mood, A. M., Weinfeld, F. D., et al. (1966). Equality of educational opportunity. Washington DC: United States Office of Education. 3. Levenson, H. (1973). Multidimensional locus of control in psychiatric patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41(3), 397–404. 4. Nowicki, S., & Strickland, B. (1973). A locus of control scale for children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 40, 148–154. 5. Nunn, G. D. (1988). The relationship between children’s locus of control and Perceptions of home, school, and peers. Journal of Human Behavior and Learning, 5, 18–21. 6. Nunn, G. D., Montgomery, J. D., & Nunn, S. J. (1986). Criterionrelated validity of the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale with academic achievement. Psychology: A Quarterly Journal of Human Behavior, 23, 9–11. 7. Nunn, G. D., & Nunn, S. J. (1993). Locus of control and school performance: some implications for teachers. Education, 113(4), 636–640. 8. Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80(1, Whole No. 609). 9. Tesiny, E. P., Lefkowitz, M. M., & Gordon, N. H. (1980). Childhood depression, locus of control, and school achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 506–510. 10. Wallston, K. A., Wallston, B. S., & Devillis, R. (1978). Development of the multidimensional locus of control scales. Health Education Monographs, 6, 161–170.
Lone/Single Parent/Caregiver Families ▶Single Parent Families
Longitudinal Methods XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS, MARIA STYLIANOU University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Definition The term longitudinal methods represent a research design in which participants are repeatedly assessed over an extended period with repeated evaluations which are often spread across at least several years.
Description It is quite common to distinguish between two types of longitudinal designs: the panel study and the cohort study.
Locus of Control Reinforcement ▶Locus of Control (External and Internal)
Logagraphia ▶Spelling Disabilities
Logical Reasoning ▶Critical Thinking
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence ▶Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Panel Study In the Panel Study a sample, often a national representative sample is evaluated at different points in time [6]. Studies utilizing this approach can potentially reveal behavioral patterns and attitudes that could not be addressed by other designs. Depending on the aim of the study the participants could be evaluated on the assessments on a regular basis (i.e., continuous panel) or on certain assessments during predetermined intervals (i.e., interval panel). This approach allows the utilization of sophisticated statistical analyses that may potentially determine causal influences over time and therefore offers unique information for the investigation of the developmental aspect of a phenomenon. For instance, is parental stress implicated in the child’s development? Is parental psychopathology implicated in the child’s psychopathology? How does it develop? Does anxiety symptomatology precede depressive symptomatology or vice versa? What is the developmental course? An illustration of a panel study is the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) which started in 1991 [8]. The wave 1 panel consisted of a national representative sample of 10, 300 participants in 5, 500 households drawn from 250 areas of Great Britain. Assessments are carried out in an annual basis annually
Longitudinal Methods
across six main areas of interest: health, household organization, labor market behavior, income and wealth, housing and socioeconomic values. The resulting data base is a key data resource for social science researchers.
Cohort Study In a cohort study a sample of at least one cohort (sometimes the entire cohort) is evaluated across at least two points in time [6]. For research purposes, a cohort consists of individuals who share a significant life event or a characteristic within a given time period. This characteristic could be of varied nature. For instance, being born in 1940–1945, having a certain disease, having a certain education, and having a certain employment status and so on. Cohort studies are often a useful alternative to randomized control studies in which ethical concerns are applicable. For example a randomized control study for the investigation of the impact of inept parental discipline practices on the child’s development and well being would be unethical. Consequently an ethical alternative would be to identify parents who generate incompetent practices and follow them across time to determine whether inept parental practices are implicated in the child’s psychopathology. A classic illustration of a cohort study is the National Child Development Study (NCDS) which was initially motivated by the concern for perinatal mortality [9]. The NCDS follows all children born in Great Britain between 3 and 9 March 1958 (about 17,000 participants) and monitors their physical, educational and social development. The study aims to improve understanding of the factors affecting human development over the whole lifespan and it is a popular database for social science research.
Advantages The significant advantage of the longitudinal methods lies upon their unique ability to trace developmental trajectories [2, 3]. Given that each individual has his/her unique genetic makeup the longitudinal design allows intraindividual variability to be minimized.
Drawbacks A significant drawback of longitudinal methods is the problem of attrition or loss of participants across time due to factors such as decision of participants to withdraw, unexpected life events such as death, movement and so on [7]. The problem with attrition lies in the possibility that the individuals who withdraw from the study may vary in a systematic way from those who remain in the study, making the generalisability of the results hard to
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make. For instance in the USA those individuals that are more likely to move from place to place, are at the same time those individuals who derive from lower socio-economic status. Menard [1] refers to a study of adolescent drug abuse in the USA in which 55% of participants withdrew from the study making the results difficult to interpret. Of course attrition rates do not typically reach as high as 55%, but when the attrition is high caution should be exercised in the interpretation of the results. A further problem inherent in the longitudinal design is that a panel conditioning effect is plausible [3–5]. In other words, the possibility that ongoing participation in a longitudinal study could itself potentially affect how participants behave. Menard [1] cites a study of caregiving in families and reports that 52% of the participants reported that their participation in the study drove them toward providing different care for the family. A third problem inherent in the longitudinal methods is the significant financial cost coupled sometimes with poor planning of the design which often results in large data pools without valuable research output. Finally a further shortcoming inherent in the longitudinal methods are the normative and nonnormative changes that occur in society across a given time threshold that are always different to the conditions of another time point in history [3–5]. For instance individuals born in 1940 and followed for 20 years had different historical conditions to those born in 1990 and again followed for 20 years. It is not only the individual that changes, the world itself changes as well. For example, if the results of a longitudinal design found that individuals born between 1990–1995 reported different opinions about energy conservation in the first wave of data collection, that occurred in 2000, in relation to the fourth wave of data collection, that occurred in 2009; Does this indicate a developmental change of these individuals or a change in the world? Consequently in interpretations of the findings of longitudinal designs historical conditions need to be taken into consideration.
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5.
Menard, S. (1991). Longitudinal research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Davies, R. B., & Pickles, A. R. (1985). Longitudinal versus crosssectional methods for behavioural research: A first-round knockout. Environment and Planning A, 17, 1315–1329. Menard, S. (2002). Longitudinal research (2nd ed.). London: Sage. Ruspini, E. (2002). An introduction to longitudinal research. London: Taylor & Francis. Skinner, C. J. (2003). Introduction to part D: Longitudinal research. In R. L. Chambers & C. J. Skinner (Eds.), Analysis of survey data (pp. 197–204). New York: Wiley.
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Longitudinal Research Hagenaars, J. A. P. (1990). Categorical longitudinal data: Log-linear panel, trend and cohort analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Taris, T. W. (2000). A primer in longitudinal data analysis. London: Sage. http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/survey/bhps http://www.esds.ac.uk/longitudinal/access/ncds/
Longitudinal Research AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Definition Longitudinal research refers to the analysis of data collected at multiple points in time.
points of time. For example, to examine the effects of poor nutrition in early life on aging, data could be collected from a group of young poorly nourished individuals who could then be followed over time. In this example, one of the advantages of using a longitudinal design would be that it would enable the researchers to identify what changes were due to aging compared to those that are due to other factors such as the habits of the individual i.e., smoking. An example of one well known study which uses is longitudinal design is the Baltimore Longitudinal study which was initiated in 1958 and has examined a number of issues related to aging (e.g., [1]). The Baltimore Longitudinal study has over 1,400 volunteers (age between 20–90 years). The aim of this study is to examine what happens as people age.
Cross-Sectional Design
Description Longitudinal Design Using this longitudinal research it is possible to examine changes over time. As shown by the yellow squares in Fig. 1, in research that uses a longitudinal design a single group of participants is followed and assessed at multiple
By comparison, in cross-sectional design information from different subgroups is collected a single point in time (see Fig. 2). A major disadvantage of a cross-sectional design which collects data at a single point in time is that any findings may be compromised by cohort effects. Cohort effects refer to findings that are due to factors e.g., education, religion, or cultural expectations.
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Longitudinal Research. Fig. 1 Shows how a longitudinal design can be used to examine the effects of aging. The participants in this design were first assessed between 0–30 years of age. The same individuals were assessed on five separate occasions, the final assessment taking place when they were between 70–80 years of age.
Loss of Ego Boundaries
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Longitudinal Research. Fig. 2 Shows how a cross-sectional design can be used to examine the effects of aging. In the design depicted above sub-groups of participants between 0–80 were evaluated at one point in time (1945).
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McCrae, R. R., Costa, P. T., & Arenberg, D. (1980). Constancy of adult personality structure in males: Longitudinal, cross-sectional and times-of-measurement analyses. Journal of Gerontology, 35, 877–883.
enhanced synaptic transmission, or the improvement in the ability of two neurons to communicate with oneanother across a synapse.
Description
Long-Term Effects of Divorce ▶Sleeper Effect of Divorce
Long-Term Memory ▶Autobiographical Memory ▶Declarative Memory
Long-term potentiation is an example of synaptic plasticity; the ability of the connection, or synapse, between two neurons to change in strength. It may help explain how short-term memories are encoded into long-term memory, as well how some types of human and animal learning occur. Evidence for its role in learning has been found in humans where long-term potentiation has been demonstrated to be characteristic of the cells in the neocortex and hippocampus.
References 1.
Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. (2009). Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology. Worth Publishers: New York, NY.
Long-Term Potentiation Definition In neuroscience, long-term potentiation refers to a longlasting change in synapse transmission that results from the simultaneous activation of two neurons. The result is
Loss of Ego Boundaries ▶Childhood Psychosis
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Loss of Privileges
Loss of Privileges ▶Response Cost
Loss of Reinforcement ▶Response Cost
Lovaas, Ole Ivar JOY JANSEN Neurology, Learning, and Behavior Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Contributions Through his work, Dr. Lovaas developed a model known as the Lovaas Model of ABA. The Lovaas Model utilizes the principles of ABA, however, he expands beyond the classic ABA model by considering the time of implementation relative to a child’s unique needs.
Current Involvement Currently, Dr. Lovaas is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology and continues to teach at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In addition, Dr. Lovaas has authored more than 70 publications throughout his career and is the author of two books, Teaching Developmentally Disabled Children: The Me Book in 1981 and, in 2002, wrote, Teaching Individuals With Developmental Delays: Basic Intervention Technique.
References Life Dates
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Introduction Dr. Lovaas is an internationally-renowned and influential clinical psychologist who has devoted the last forty years in establishing, implementing and evaluating programs to help children with autism develop essential life skills to improve the quality of life.
Educational Information Originally from Norway, Dr. Lovaas came to the United States to advance his knowledge and research at the University of Washington, where he received his doctorate of philosophy. Dr. Lovaas’ focus of study was the environment and how it affects behavior and in the early 1950s began working with children with autism. His approach autism was influenced by Dr. Skinner and used the underlying concept of behaviorism, also known applied behavior analysis (ABA). Using the ABA method, Dr. Lovaas has demonstrated, through consistent and dedicated work, ABA is a valuable and effective tool in assisting children with autism as well as children with other psychological conditions.
Accomplishments Early in his career Dr. Lovaas founded the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention (LIFE) and took a professorship at the Unicles (UCLA). LIFE is internationally recognized organization for its success in working with children with autism.
Lovaas Institute. (2007). Retrieved October 24, 2007, from http:// www.lovaas.com/ Lovaas, O. I. (1987). Behavioral treatment and normal intellectual and educational functioning in autistic children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 3–9.
Low Birth Weight ANNA MAZUR-MOSIEWICZ, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms LBW
Definition Low birth weight (LBW) is defined as a birth weight of 2,500 g or less in a liveborn infant. The LBW infants further subdivided into two groups: very low birth weight (VLBW) infants, who are born with birth weight equal or below 1,500 g, and extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants, who are born weighting 1,000 g or less [1, 3]. LBW indicates an increased risk of mortality and morbidity.
Description Infants with LBW belong to two general categories: infants who have LBW due to premature birth, and infants with
Luria, Alexander Romanovich
intrauterine growth restriction (low for gestational age), which is typically related to problems with placenta, maternal health, or to birth defects. To differentiate premature LBW from mature growth-retarded LBW several types of data are necessary and include obstetrical history, newborn physical examination, and examination for maturational age. In general, the LBW infants are four times likely than infants born with normal weight to die in their first month of life. These who survive are two to three times more likely to suffer from short and long-term disabilities [2–4]. The percentage of all newborns born with low weight in the United States is around 7%. However, percentage of the LBW infants is higher in minority groups, particularly African-Americans, and the percentage of the AfricanAmerican babies born with LBW is more than double of that for the Caucasian-American newborns [1, 3]. Risk factors for LBW are largely preventable. They include poor maternal nutrition, adolescent pregnancy, use of alcohol and drugs, premature births, smoking, multiple births, and sexually transmitted diseases. The use of assisted reproductive technology additionally accounts for a disproportionate number of LBW and VLBW infants in the United States, which is partially due to increases in multiple gestations and higher rates of LBW among singleton infants conceived with this technology.
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References 1.
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Amon, E. (1995). Preterm labor. In E. A. Reece & J. C. Hobbins (Eds.), Medicine of the fetus and mother (pp. 1529–1581). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott. Hay, J. C., & Persaud, T. V. N. (1999). Normal embryonic and fetal development. In E. A. Reece & J. C. Hobbins (Eds.), Medicine of the fetus and mother (pp. 29–47). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott. Kabler, J. L., & Delmore, P. M. (1997). Alterations on health status of newborns. In I. F. H. Nichols & E. Zwelling (Eds.), Maternal-newborn nursing: Theory and practice (pp. 1352–1354). Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders Company. Novak, J. C., & Broom, B. L. (1995). Maternal and child health nursing. St Louis, MO: Mosby. Schieve, L. A., Meikle, S. F., Ferre, C., Peterson, H. B., Jeng, G., & Wilcox, L. S. (2002). Low and Very Low Birth Weight in Infants Conceived with Use of Assisted Reproductive Technology. The New England Journal of Medicine, 346, 731–737.
Low Social Status Children ▶Rejected Children
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Relevance to Childhood Development Children born with LBW are at high risk of several types of neonatal complications. Generally, the lower the weight of infants, the greater the risk for complications. Clinical problems most commonly associated with LBW are hypothermia; hypoglycemia; aphnea; metabolic acidosis; hypoglycemia; perinatal asphyxia; respiratory problems, particularly the Respiratory Distress Syndrome and aphnea of prematurely; fluid and electrolyte imbalances, which increases risk of dehydration, fluid overload, hypernatremia, hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, hypocalcemia, and hypermagnedemia; hyperbilirubinemia; anemia; impaired nutrition; infections; and sudden infant death syndrome [1, 3, 4]. Additional long-term problems related to LWB include chronic neurological problems such as intraventricular hemorrage, periventricular leukomalacia, and increased risks for cerebral palsy; developmental delay ; ophthalmologic complications; hearing deficits; lung disease; adult-onset diabetes; coronary heart disease; high blood pressure; intellectual problems; sensory disabilities; physical disabilities; and psychological and emotional distress [2, 5].
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Low-Accepted Children ▶Rejected Children
Ludes ▶Depressants
Luria, Alexander Romanovich DAVID MORRISON, MARY JOANN LANG Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Life Dates (1902–1977)
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Introduction Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902–1977) is a worldrenowned Russian psychologist/scientist who is best known for his theories about localization and cerebral organization of mental functions. Luria’s impact on the Western scientific community continues to be significant three decades after his death. Luria has left an enduring legacy that is widely respected in the scientific community [2]. Although he is often referred to as the father of neuropsychology, this interest developed much later in his professional career. Luria has been widely celebrated and honored outside of the Soviet Union, yet his contributions have not been fully recognized by his native country of Russia [3]. Luria was born in Kazan, Russia in 1902. He died in Moscow of heart failure in 1977. In 1933, Luria married Lana Linchina, also a scientist, and together they had one daughter, Elena Alexandrovna Luria, herself a distinguished microbiologist. Luria is highly regarded in the field of neuropsychology. Despite extraordinary advances in the field of neuroscience, his contributions have been so significant that, according to Tupper [11], he is the most cited soviet scholar in North American literature. Due to this distinction, he is sometimes regarded as the father of neuropsychology. Luria is described by his student, friend and colleague, Goldberg [2] as a “complex man living in a complex time.” A.R. Luria came from a well-educated family. His father and mother were both well-respected physicians. His father taught at the Kazan Medical School. Luria identifies his family as being part of the Russian “intelligentsia.” Luria was greatly impacted by the tumultuous times of pre-revolution Russia and the subsequent chaotic postrevolution cultural shift on Russian society. Luria identifies that the revolution freed the younger generation, regardless of social standing, to explore and discuss new philosophies and social systems. However, Luria indicates that despite the openness to these new opportunities, it was not necessarily conducive to “highly organized scientific inquiry.” Luria’s expansive and shifting intellectual pursuits and interests are considered to be a result of the social and political culture in which he lived [8]. Despite the challenges that confronted him, Luria is considered one of the most influential Soviet scientists of his time. His collaboration with Lev Vygotsky led to extensive and enduring contributions that are recognized throughout the world. Luria is best known for his contributions in developing a comprehensive theory of brain functioning, which remains as the cornerstone for
brain-behavior research. His influence in the field of neuropsychology continues to be foundational for many academic programs of study. He is frequently cited in neuropsychology literature, and is best known for his conceptualization of brain organization. However, during the course of his career, his interest went well beyond the more narrow recognition of neuropsychology, and included such areas as child development, educational and rehabilitative interventions, instructional methods, mental retardation, and linguistic phenomena such as aphasia [3, 11].
Educational Information Luria’s education started within the tumultuous political backdrop of the Russian Revolution. From 1912 to 1918 he attended the gymnasium, a secondary school, preparing him for university studies. He completed his secondary studies at the age of 16, at which time he received his diploma. In 1918 he entered Kazan University and pursued studies in the Social Sciences. He describes his studies at Kazan University as being chaotic. He became absorbed with questions concerning man’s role in shaping society. In 1921 he completed his studies in the Social Sciences and continued his studies in the Medical Department of Kazan University. In addition, he pursued his interest in psychology and concurrently enrolled at the Pedagogical Institute, as well as the Kazan Psychiatric Hospital. Luria was influenced by such notable scholars as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Jung, and Pavlov. His interest in psychoanalytic research led to the formation of the Kazan Psychoanalytic Association. He later joined the staff of the Moscow Institute of Psychology. His work with Vygotsky, which started in 1924, clearly shaped and greatly influenced his life’s work. His regard for Vygotsky as a genius is well documented. Weekly collaborations with Vygotsky, Leontiev and Luria led to the development of research questions in cognitive psychology, such as perception, memory, attention, speech, problem solving, and motor activity. These weekly meetings, known as the “troika,” laid to the foundation for a new comprehensive approach to human psychology, which would incorporate the notion that, as higher processes take shape, the entire structure of behavior is changed [8, 10]. The late 1930s are considered to be a critical turning point in Luria’s career [2]. At this time Luria added a medical degree to his full professorship, became more involved with the biological aspects of psychology, which led to his contributions in neuropsychology. Luria’s interest in cognitive, cultural, and developmental research most certainly influenced his approach to neuropsychology.
Luria, Alexander Romanovich
Luria returned to Moscow in 1934. At that time, he worked in the Moscow Medical Genetic Institute as head of the Laboratory of Psychology. He also headed the Laboratory of Pathopsychology in the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine. His research focus at the Moscow Medical Genetic Institute was on twins, where he studied the role of heredity and external factors in the development of mental processes. World War II was particularly devastating on the citizenry of the Soviet Union. Luria was commissioned to organize a rehabilitation hospital to treat soldiers with brain and peripheral nerve injuries. The task of the hospital had two primary goals: Devise methods of diagnosing local brain lesions and of recognizing and treating complications such as inflammation and secondary infection that were caused by wounds. Second, he was to develop rational, scientifically-based techniques for the rehabilitation of destroyed functions. The extensive and dedicated effort by Luria and his staff led to the development of his theories of brain function and methods for the remediation of focal brain lesions. It was during this time that he developed the systematic approach to the brain and cognition, which has come to be known as the discipline of neuropsychology. Following the war, Luria continued his research activities in neuropsychology.
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standardized tests to gauge students’ intelligence. He believed that when exploring what the child knows to determine intellectual ability, it is more beneficial to explore the student’s ability to solve problems independently. Through his efforts, Vygotsky became a major figure in Luria’s life from the beginning of their interactions. Luria’s writings and scientific research were slowly influenced by Vygotsky. Luria based his concepts of higher order psychological functions on the theories of Vygotsky. Luria further expanded on Vygotsky’s model, using qualitative analysis to help both in depth and breadth, in order to further explain higher order thinking that has impacted the fields of neurology, psychology, and neuropsychology [1, 10].
Functional Units of the Brain
David E. Tupper, in an article discussing Luria’s influence on worldwide neuropsychology, discussed Luria’s contributions. Basically, according to Tupper, Luria has provided contributions in at least five major areas. These areas include: Cultural-historical Development of Higher Psychological Functions; Functional Units of the Brain; Qualitative Analysis of Neurodynamic Factors; Syndrome Analysis; Systemic Localization of Brain Function, and Verbal Regulation of Behavior [11].
Luria’s most enduring contribution to the field of neuropsychology is his theory on the functional organization of the brain. According to Luria, the brain is made up of three main blocks or functional units incorporating basic functions. Luria conceptualized the cortex as working in the following way: Sensory input enters the primary sensory zones, is elaborated in the secondary zones, and is integrated in the tertiary zones of the sensory, or posterior, unit. Luria (1974, p. 43) also proposed that each of these units is “hierarchical” in structure and consists of at least three cortical zones built one above the other. A primary “projection” area receives impulses. A secondary “projection-association” area processes incoming information and programs information for projection to efferent pathways. The tertiary “zones of overlapping” area is last to develop and is responsible for complex forms of mental activity, which requires the integrated participation of many cortical structures. According to Luria, these units and zones, when functioning properly, work together to regulate all of our behaviors, from waking and sleeping, to hearing and seeing, and thinking and problem solving [4, 5].
Cultural Historical
Syndrome Analysis
Luria and Vygotsky’s lifespan overlapped 32 years. Vygotsky began his research on issues in education, and focused on the education of handicapped and retarded individuals. He believed in the interaction between the mind (internalized modes of behavior) and the environment. One of Vygotsky’s major theories is titled the zone of proximal development, which discusses the difference between what a student can actually do without help and what he/she can do with help. This model was developed by Vygotsky to argue against the use of
One way that Luria assisted in the diagnosis and treatment of patients was his ability to use syndrome analysis (see Luria, 1980, pp. 392.). He was among the first neuropsychologist to clearly state that no simple, unequivocal relation between symptom and localization can be proved. There is, as a rule, no specific way to determine which areas of the cortex could be affected on the basis of a neuropsychological symptom, such as specific disturbances of gnosis or praxis (Online Book).
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Luria, Alexander Romanovich
If mental activity is a complex functional system, involving the participation of a group of concertedly working areas of the cortex. . .a lesion of each of these zones or areas may lead to disintegration of the entire functional system, and in this way the symptom or “loss” of a particular function tells us nothing about its “localization.” (Luria, 1972, p.35)
Understanding neurodynamic factors that may precipitate a patient’s signs and symptoms is facilitated by Luria’s concept of syndrome analysis and qualitative analysis. These applications to clinical thinking provide for a discussion regarding “neurodynamic change.” Currently, this process, with regard to the practice of neuropsychology in North America, is used in concert with a more quantitative approach to understanding brain behavior relationships.
Systematic Localization of Brain Function Luria structured the neuropsychological assessment of brain functioning on the basis of a systemic way of thinking. Two questions guide this approach as presented by (Online Book): 1. Which processes are involved in the cognitive functions in consideration? 2. What cerebral structures support the functional system and constitute the neuronal basis for the function in consideration? The relationship between symptom and localization can be very complex. A symptom can result from lesions in both the anterior and posterior cortical areas of the brain [7]. A circumscribed cortical lesion can simultaneously affect many functional systems and, as a result, lead to various manifestations of symptoms. In summary, this concept of complex brain behavior relationships is essential to understand for practitioners and researchers exploring neuropsychological problems and correlating these problems to brain function.
Summary It is important to understand the theoretical and methodological differences between a qualitative approach to understanding brain function as proposed by Luria, and the North American approach, which is more quantitative, to understanding brain behavior relationships. Luria based his theories on clinical experience, and his research focused on attempts to develop a theory of neuropsychological functioning based on analyzing and synthesizing information into a meta-theory. Luria often based this process on Vygotsky’s earlier work and
theories. In contrast, in North America neuropsychology has been derived from a more psychometric or quantitative approach to understanding brain behavior relationships. Standardized tests are the norm in terms of understanding brain behavior relationships in clinical populations. Despite his disregard for methodological considerations such as standardization, quantification, validation and reliability, several standardized tests have been or are being developed that incorporate both the qualitative approach supported by Luria and the quantitative information that has been historically used in North America [2, 9].
Publications Much of Luria’s work has yet to be translated from Russian to English. The following is a partial list of books that have been translated into English. Ape Primitive Man and Child: Essays in the History of Behavior (1992) Cognitive Development: Its Cultural and Social Foundations (1976) The Making of Mind: A Personal Account of Soviet Psychology (1979) Higher Cortical Functions in Man (1980) The Man With a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound (1987) The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About a Vast Memory (1987) The Human Brain and Psychological Processes (1966) Nature of Human Conflicts (1981) The Neuropsychology of Memory (1976) Traumatic Aphasia: Its Syndromes, Psychology and Treatment (1970) Working Brain: An Introduction to Neuropsychology (1973)
References 1. Friedgut-Kotik, B. (2006). Development of the Lurian approach: A cultural neurolinguistic perspective. Neuropsychology Review, 16(1), 43–52. 2. Goldberg, E. (1990). Contemporary neuropsychology and the legacy of Luria. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates. 3. Kuzovleva, E., & Das, J. P. (1999). Some facts from the biography of A. R. Luria. Neuropsychology Review, 9(1), 53–56. 4. Languis, M. L., & Miller, D. C. (1992). Luria’s theory of brain functioning: A model for research in cognitive psychophysiology. Educational Psychologist, 27(4), 493–511. 5. Luria, A. R. (1970). The functional organization of the brain. Scientific American, 222(3), 66–78. 6. Luria, A. R. (1972). The man with a shattered world. New York: Basic Books.
Lying 7. Luria, A. R. (1974). The working brain: An introduction to neuropsychology. New York: Basic Books. 8. Luria, A. R. (1979). The making of mind: A personal account of Soviet psychology (M. Cole & S. Cole, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 9. Luria, A. R. (1980). Higher cortical functions in man (2nd ed., Rev.). New York: Basic Books. 10. Nell, V. (1999). Luria in Uzbekistan: The vicissitudes of cross cultural neuropsychology. Neuropsychology Review, 9, 45–52. 11. Tupper, D. E. (1999). Introduction: Alexander Luria’s continuing influence on worldwide neuropsychology. Neuropsychology Review, 9(1), 1–7.
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Lustprinzip (German) ▶Pleasure Principle
Lying ▶Dishonesty
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Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRI, which could affect pacemakers, artificial limbs, and other medical devices.
Relevance to Childhood Development As previously indicated, serious and long-lasting health concerns have not been reported with MRI. Similarly, there are no known risks uniquely to children. However, because it is essential for children to keep still during the procedure in order to attain clear imaging, mild sedatives are commonly administered.
LAUREN CONNELL PAVELKA University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
References
Synonyms
2.
1.
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI) 3.
Bandettine, P. A. (2007). Magnetic resonance imaging. In F. G. Hillary & J. DeLuca (Eds.), Functional neuroimaging in clinical populations (pp. 33–38). New York: Guilford. Brown, M. A., & Semelka, R. C. (1999). MRI: Basic principles and applications (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Liney, G. P. (2006). MRI in clinical practice. London: Springer.
Definition Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique that uses high-strength magnetic fields and pulses of radio wave energy to investigate internal structures and functions of the body.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Synonyms
Description The MRI scanner contains a magnet that forces hydrogen atoms in the body to align, which produces recordable, measurable images. These images are called slices, and are used to diagnose abnormal structures or functioning within the body. The quality of MRI is often superior to x-ray, computerized tomography (CT), or ultrasound, in providing cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, neurological, and oncological imaging. Important in neuropsychology, MRI is useful in detecting problems of the nervous system such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, tumors, aneurysm, nerve injury, herniated discs, and neurological damage caused by stroke. Unlike x-ray and CT, MRI does not use radiation or have any known carcinogenic effects. Though generally safe, caution is given with the powerful magnetism of
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI); Magnetic resonance tomography (MRT)
Definition Magnetic resonance imaging is a form of medical imaging that measures the response of the atomic nuclei of body tissues to high-frequency radio waves when placed in a strong magnetic field, and that produces images of the internal organs.
Description Magnetic resonance imaging is a medical imaging technique most commonly used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structure and limited function of the body. In many cases MRI gives different information about structures in the body that can be see with an X-ray, ultrasound, or computed tomography (CT) scan.
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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Magnetic Resonance Tomography (MRT)
MRI also may show problems that cannot be seen with other imaging methods. Magnetic resonance imaging provides much greater contrast between the different soft tissues of the body than computed tomography (CT) does, making it especially useful in neurological (brain), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and oncological (cancer) imaging. MRI uses a powerful field to align the nuclear magnetization of hydrogen atoms in water in the body. Radio frequency fields are used to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization, causing the hydrogen nuclei to produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the scanner. This signal can be manipulated by additional magnetic field to build up enough information to construct an image of the body. Magnetic resonance imaging is a relatively new technology with the first image being published in 1973. The first studies performed on humans were published in 1977. Magnetic resonance imaging was developed from knowledge gained in the study of nuclear magnetic resonance. In its early years the technique was referred to as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI). However, because the word nuclear was associated in the public mind with ionizing radiation exposure, it is now generally referred to simply as MRI. However, scientists still use the term NMRI when discussing non-medical devices operating on the same principles. MRI contains no ionizing radiation. To date, there have been no documented significant side effects of the magnetic fields and radio waves used on the human body. Depending on the area being studied, a patient may be asked to not eat or drink anything for 4-6 hours. Other preparations are usually not needed. The strong magnetic fields created during an MRI can interfere with certain implants, particularly pacemakers and cochlear implants. Persons with cardiac pacemakers cannot have an MRI and should not enter an MRI area. Brain aneurysm clips, certain artificial heart valves, and artificial joint or older types of vascular stents may prevent patients from having an MRI. Since the MRI contains a magnet, all metalcontaining objects such as watches, jewelry, credit cards, hairpins, etc., are not allowed into the scanner area and can be dangerous if overlooked.
Magnetic Resonance Tomography (MRT) ▶Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Mainstreaming GRACE BOYD, ANDREA MORILLAS-BROWN, BRETT R. NELSON California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA
Synonyms Full inclusion; Inclusion; Inclusive education; Integration
Definition Mainstreaming is most generally defined as the practice of educating students with disabilities in age-appropriate general education classes including specialized instruction [10, 12] without regard to the severity of the child’s disability [13].
Description In schools today there has been a shift in having children with disabilities participate in a natural setting with their typical peers [3, 11]. This practice is known in the educational setting as mainstreaming. According to a report from the United States Department of Education [6], 95% of students with disabilities are enrolled in a traditional school, with 52% included in the general education curriculum. The decision to use mainstreaming is dependent on the individual child’s needs and level of functioning and therefore it is not effective with all students with disabilities (NASP). Several other important factors must be considered before placing a student with a disability in an inclusive environment [8]. These factors include family goals, professional advice, willingness and level of experience of the school staff, and adaptability of the curriculum [1]. Once the decision has been made to place a child into an inclusive environment, modifications to the general education curriculum may be necessary to help support the educational needs of the student with a disability. According to the National Association of School Psychologists (1993), there are a variety of steps to consider in order for mainstreaming to be successful. The first important element is to identify the individual student’s approach to learning as well as their strengths. The next factor is to evaluate the learning environment to determine if there are things that would hinder the academic success of the child (i.e., seating, lighting, noise). An additional step in this process is to consider the student’s educational goals and incorporate them into the curriculum when appropriate. A final component of including a child through adaptation of the curriculum is to modify
Mainstreaming
the instruction in various ways including teaching style, subject content, and assistive materials.
Relevance to Childhood Development Varying Standpoints of Inclusion or Opposing View of Inclusion Since the start of the practice of inclusion in the early 1990s [7], various studies have examined the outcomes of students with disabilities placed in general education and have found positive results (e.g., [5, 13]). However, the use of inclusion has become a highly controversial educational issue with a mixed amount of support and opposition [10]. The Criticisms of Inclusion. The individuals that oppose the inclusion of children with disabilities in general education feel strongly about maintaining separate provisions within the schools [7]. It is argued that this separation between general education and special education must be preserved in order to continue to increase the academic standards within the schools (Farrell). This group believes that a child with a disability will have more educational success if they are placed in special education classrooms because of the more intensive and specialized instruction as compared to a general education classroom [4]. Additionally, it is claimed that in a school system that evaluates children on the basis of academic ability, it seems conflicting to have a classroom of students with different academic potentials placed together (Farrell). Some feel that even when children with disabilities are put into inclusive education they will continue to be segregated among the nondisabled students because of the differences in abilities within the classroom and will consequently not be included in the education with others [9]. In light of the criticisms of the use of inclusion in schools, others hold a positive viewpoint of this approach and the research bolsters these optimistic claims. The Benefits of Inclusion. The empirical findings have shown many encouraging outcomes for students with disabilities who would otherwise be placed in special education classrooms. For example, in a 2-year longitudinal study Cole and Meyer [4] compared children with a variety of developmental disabilities in segregated and inclusive classrooms. They found that the educational skills of both groups did not differ, however, the social competence of the children in the fully inclusive classroom exceeded those of the segregated students. Other studies have revealed that inclusion has led to positive influences in the development of important and meaningful relationships that otherwise may have ceased to occur, including
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increased acceptance of others, higher expectations, a greater potential to become independent, improved social competence, and higher amounts of social support [2, 9]. Additionally, findings suggest that the potential to improve academic and social skills is facilitated with the nondisabled peers acting as role models and positively influencing his or her disabled counterpart [14]. Furthermore, it has been found that inclusion benefits children with disabilities in conjunction with the typical children in the classroom by encouraging a greater sense of awareness and understanding of others with disabilities [13]. In order to ensure that combining students with disabilities with their typical peers is a positive experience, it is important to explain to the typical peers about others with disabilities and encourage these students to ask questions regarding this topic [11]. As an effect of the positive impact of inclusion on the progress and the ultimate wellbeing of students with disabilities several influential associations contend that inclusive education is an important system [7] and thus seems to be a valuable component to continue pursuing in the school setting.
Conclusion On the whole, the practice of mainstreaming is leading an important path to improve the educational opportunities of many students with disabilities. In order for this practice to be successful, the classroom environment must be individualized to tailor the needs for each student. Although there are differing opinions on the use inclusion and its benefits, hopefully in the years to come it will continue to develop within the educational setting and provide various advantages for all children with disabilities.
References 1. Bailey, D. B., McWilliam, R. A., Buysse, V., & Wesley, P. W. (1998). Inclusion in the context of competing in early childhood education. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13, 27–47. 2. Beninghof, A. M. (1998). Inclusion of students with disabilities: A handout for teachers. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. 3. Carey, K. T. (2004). Social inclusion for young children with disabilities: A guide for early educators. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. 4. Cole, D. A., & Meyer, L. H. (1991). Social integration and severe disabilities: A longitudinal analysis of child outcomes. The Journal of Special Education, 25, 340–351. 5. DiPietro, E., Luiselli, J. K., Campbell, S., Cannon, B., Ellis, J. T., & Taras, M. (2002). A parent survey approach to evaluate public school education of children with autism/pervasive developmental disorder following center-based behavioral treatment. Special Services in the Schools, 18, 119–131. 6. Farrell, P. (2004). School psychologists: Making inclusion a reality for all. School Psychology International, 25, 5–19.
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7. Guralnick, M. J., Neville, B., Hammond, M. A., & Conner, R. T. (2008). Continuity and change from full-inclusion early childhood programs through the early elementary period. Journal of Early Intervention, 30, 237–250. 8. Harrower, J. K. (1999). Educational inclusion of children with severe disabilities. Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions, 1, 215–230. 9. Havey, J. M. (1998). Inclusion, the law, and placement decisions: Implications for school psychologists. Psychology in the Schools, 35, 145–152. 10. Klotz, M. B. (2004). Inclusion of students with disabilities: Strategies for parents and teachers. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. 11. Lerner, J. (2003). Learning disabilities: Theories, diagnosis, and teaching strategies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 12. National Association of School Psychologists. (1993). Position statement on inclusive programs for students with disabilities. Retrieved February 25, 2009, from http://www.nasponline.org/about_nasp/ pospaper_ipsd.aspx 13. United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. (2002). Twenty-fourth annual report to congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Retrieved February 25, 2009, from http://www.ed.gov/about/ reports/annual/osep/2002/index.html 14. Williams, S. K., Johnson, C., & Sukhodolsky, D. G. (2005). The role of the school psychologist in the inclusive education of school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of School Psychology, 43, 117–136.
Malabsorption ▶Malnutrition
Maladaptive Self-Reflection ▶Negative Academic Self-Evaluation
Male Bonding ▶Bonding
Male Gamete ▶Sperm
Major Depression ▶Unipolar Depression
Male Germ Cell ▶Sperm
Major Depressive Disorder or Clinical Depression ▶Unipolar Depression
Malnourishment ▶Anorexia Nervosa
Major Tranquilizer ▶Thorazine®
Malnutrition Synonyms Failure to thrive syndrome; Hunger; Malabsorption
Make-Believe Play ▶Fantasy Play
Definition Malnutrition occurs when your body does not get enough nutrients. The condition may result from an inadequate
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
or unbalanced diet, digestive difficulties, absorption problems, or other medical conditions. Malnutrition can occur because of the lack of a single vitamin in the diet, or it can be because a person isn’t getting enough food. Starvation is a form of malnutrition. Malnutrition also occurs when adequate nutrients are consumed in the diet, but one or more nutrients are not digested or absorbed properly. Malnutrition may be mild enough to show no symptoms. However, in some cases it may be so severe that the damage done is irreversible, even though the individual survives. Symptoms of malnutrition may include dizziness, fatigue, loss of weight and metabolic imbalances. Treating malnutrition usually involves means to replace the missing nutrients back into the body. Worldwide, malnutrition continues to be a significant problem, especially among children who cannot fend adequately for themselves. Poverty, natural disasters, political problems, and war all contribute to conditions – even epidemics – of malnutrition and starvation, and not just in developing countries. According to the Lancet, Malnutrition, in the form of iodine deficiency, is "the most common preventable cause of mental impairment worldwide." Even moderate iodine deficiency, especially in pregnant women and infants, lowers intelligence by 10 to 15 I.Q. points, shaving incalculable potential off a nation’s development.
Manic-Depressive Illness ▶Bipolar Disorder
Marriage and Family Therapist ▶Child and Family Therapist
Martin-Bell Syndrome ▶Fragile X Syndrome
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs MICHAEL BLOCK Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Definition Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, which he subsequently extended to include his observations of humans’ innate curiosity [2].
Description Abraham Maslow is a humanistic psychologist who developed a theory of personality that has influenced a number of different fields, including education. This wide influence is due in part to the high level of practicality of Maslow’s theory. This theory accurately describes many realities of personal experiences. Humanists do not believe that human beings are pushed and pulled by mechanical forces, either of stimuli and reinforcements (behaviorism) or of unconscious instinctual impulses (psychoanalysis). Humanists focus upon potentials. They believe that humans strive for an upper level of capabilities. Humans seek the frontiers of creativity, the highest reaches of consciousness and wisdom. This has been labeled “fully functioning person,” “healthy personality,” or as Maslow calls this level, “selfactualizing person.” Maslow has set up a hierarchic theory of needs often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as being associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs (Fig. 1). Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met, seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are satisfied. Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized. If a lower set of needs is no longer being met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs by focusing attention on the unfulfilled needs, but will not permanently regress to the lower level. For instance, a businessman at the esteem level who is diagnosed with cancer will spend a great deal of time concentrating on his health (physiological needs), but will continue to value his work performance (esteem needs) and will likely return to work during periods of remission.
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The need for selfactualisation
Experience purpose, meaning and realising all inner potentials. Esteem need The need to be a unique individual with self-respect and to enjoy general esteem from others. Love and belonging needs The need for belonging, to receive and give love, appreciation, friendship.
Security need The basic need for social security in a family and a society that protects against hunger and violence.
The physiological needs The need for food, water, shelter and clothing
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Fig. 1
Maslow’s basic needs are as follows: ● Physiological needs These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person’s search for satisfaction.
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging. ● Needs for esteem
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
● Needs of love, affection and belongingness
● Needs for self-actualization
● Safety needs
Mastery Orientation
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person’s need to be and do that which the person was “born to do.” “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write.” These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization. The hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-actualization. Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of selfactualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society. He states that education is one of these hindrances. He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches. Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a selfactualizing person of his/her own kind. Ten points that educators should address are listed: 1. We should teach people to be authentic, to be aware of their inner selves and to hear their inner-feeling voices. 2. We should teach people to transcend their cultural conditioning and become world citizens. 3. We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or destiny. This is especially focused on finding the right career and the right mate. 4. We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living. 5. We must accept the person as he or she is and help the person learn their inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what to build upon, what potentials are really there. 6. We must see that the person’s basic needs are satisfied. This includes safety, belongingness, and esteem needs. 7. We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty and the other good things in nature and in living. 8. We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas.
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9. We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain, suffering, and death. 10. We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in making good choices.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
Lim, C., & Khruschev, V. (2002). “Maslow’s Pyramid – a necessity?”, 12, 15–17. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370–396. Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality (p. 236). Harper: New York. Maslow, A. H. (1971). The farther reaches of human nature, Chap. 3. In Self-actualizing and beyond (p. 41). New York: Penguin Compass. Wahba, A., & Bridgewell, L. (1976). Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 15, 212–240.
Mass Media ▶Media
Mastery Orientation PEI-HSUAN HSIEH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Learning goals; Task goals; Task involvement; Task orientation
Definition Mastery orientation is defined as having the goal of learning and mastering the task according to self-set standards. Learner is focused on developing new skills, improving, and acquiring additional knowledge.
Description Detailed in the literature are two types of goal orientations. The first is a mastery goal, where students focus
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on mastery of a task and have the desire to acquire new skills. The second is a performance goal, where learners’ main concern is demonstrating competence and focus on receiving favorable judgments of ability from others. Mastery orientated students find satisfaction with the work and are not influenced by external performance indicators such as grades. Students who have mastery goals tend to engage in activities that will increase their knowledge. They pay more attention, are more likely to process information at a higher level, and are not afraid to ask for help.
Relevance to Childhood Development Learners are likely to have both mastery and performance orientation. However, research shows a comparative prevalence of the two types of goals between learners of different age groups. Young children are typically more mastery oriented. By second grade, they begin to focus on performance. Adopting performance goals become more apparent as they move into adolescence. This shift in goal orientation may be due to both children’s increasing awareness social comparison and teachers’ emphases on grades and other forms of formal assessments.
References 1.
2.
3.
Dweck, C. S., & Elliot, E. S. (1983). Achievement motivation. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (4th ed.). New York: Wiley. Eccles, J. S., & Midgley, C. (1989). Stage-environment fit: Developmentally appropriate classrooms for young adolescents. In C. Ames & R. Ames (Eds.), Research on motivation in education: Vol. 3. Goals and cognition. San Diego, CA: Academic. Elliot, A. J., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (1996). Approach and avoidance achievement goals and intrinsic motivation: A mediational analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 461–475.
Masturbation STEUART T. WATSON, CHRISTINE GRIFFES Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH, USA
Synonyms Autoeroticism; Jacking off; Pleasuring oneself; Servicing oneself; Whacking off
Definition Self-stimulation of the genitals to achieve sexual arousal and pleasure, generally to the point of orgasm.
Description Masturbation is achieved via touching, stroking or massaging the penis, vagina, or clitoris until orgasm is reached. Approximately 95% of males and 89% of females masturbate on a regular basis. Masturbation is a normal, healthy activity that generally begins in adolescence, although it is not uncommon for young children to masturbate as they grow and begin to explore their bodies [2]. Masturbation can serve many purposes including relieving sexual tension, stress, and inducing a state of general relaxation [2]. Although masturbation is a normal, healthy activity when it occurs at the appropriate times and places, it becomes problematic when people choose to masturbate in public places or at such a high frequency that it disrupts other behaviors, such as going to work, completing homework assignments, and/or socializing [2]. It is very common for people with cognitive impairments and pervasive developmental disabilities to masturbate. It is estimated that as many as 60–75% of people with Autism and cognitive impairments masturbate on a regular basis [1]. It is suggested that this behavior be considered normal and to not be concerned unless it is occurring too frequently (i.e., every time the student uses the restroom) or in inappropriate places (i.e., the hallway or classroom). If these concerns arise, an intervention may need to be put into place to reduce the frequency and environment in which the behavior occurs [1].
Relevance for Childhood Development Although masturbation among both males and females is a normal aspect of growth and development, many parents believe that it is harmful or indicates some type of psychological problem with their child. Culturally, there may be taboos against masturbation. Some use religious teachings to discourage masturbation. There is no evidence that children and adolescents who masturbate are experiencing any kind of distress because of their masturbating. The primary problems surface when the child fails to discriminate when it is appropriate to masturbate (e.g., alone in their room) and when it is not (i.e., in the living room during a large family gathering). In such cases, masturbation should not necessarily be discouraged; rather the child should be taught the appropriate time and place for masturbation.
Maternal Alcohol Consumption
References 1. 2.
Gabriels, R. L., & Hill, D. E. (2007). Growing up with autism: Working with school-age children and adolescents. New York: Guilford. Philips, R. S. (2008). Your guide to masturbation. Retrieved December 16, 2008, from WebMD Website: http://www.webmd.com/sexrelationships/guide/masturbation-guide
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consumption of alcohol which is characterized by impaired control over drinking, frequent episodes of intoxication, and preoccupation with alcohol and the use of alcohol despite adverse consequences” (http://www. who.int/substance_abuse/terminology/who_lexicon/en/ index.html)).
Description
Mate Selection ▶Sexual Relationships
Mateine ▶Caffeine
Maternal ▶Femininity
Maternal Alcohol Consumption RANIA D. HADJICOSTA, XENIA ANASTASSIOUHADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Definition The term “maternal alcohol consumption” refers to the adverse behavior of women who tend to use or abuse alcohol (Alcohol is defined as “a colorless volatile flammable liquid, C2H5OH, synthesized or obtained by fermentation of sugars and starches and widely used, either pure or denatured, as a solvent and in drugs, cleaning solutions, explosives, and intoxicating beverages” (http:// www.thefreedictionary.com/alcohol).) before, during, or after the gestation of a child. Alcohol consumption may range between light to heavy/alcoholic drinking; however, there is no universal consensus as to how much quantity of alcohol denotes light, moderate, or heavy drinking/ alcoholism (World Health Organization (WHO) defines alcoholism as “chronic continual drinking or periodic
During the 1970s national estimations of alcohol use and abuse in the United States indicated that about 18 million Americans were heavy consumers of alcohol, consuming about 5–6 drinks per day, every day. Within these estimations it was obvious that the majority of heavy drinkers were male, however, sex differences in the amount and frequency of alcohol consumption seemed to gradually disappear since female rates of drinking began to rise rabidly; so did the drinking rates among pregnant women [2]. More recent estimations of the phenomenon indicate that rates of alcohol use during pregnancy tend to decrease, with estimates for 2001 ranging between 15 and 20% while in 2005 the rates for using some alcohol ranged between 12 and 15% [6]. The decreasing tendency of women to reduce alcohol use during pregnancy is also documented by Grant and colleagues [13]. These researchers found that between 1989 and 2004 alcohol use during pregnancy decreased from 30 to 12% in all demographic categories [13]. Estimates for binge drinking (using >3 drinks at one occasion) showed that 3–4% of pregnant women continue to consume alcohol, despite the fact that its detrimental effects on the fetus have been established since the eighteenth century [6]. Furthermore, Grant and colleagues [13] also noted that binge drinking in the month before pregnancy increased across all demographic categories, except Native Americans, a pattern which can predict alcohol use during early gestation too. Generally, the scientific community is most concerned with maternal alcohol consumption exhibited shortly before and during pregnancy, especially due to the teratogenic effects that such behaviors can have on the fetus. Even though it seems that the severity of deficiency on the child depends on the amount of alcohol consumed [2, 15, 26], the period of gestation during which exposure occurred [2, 15, 26], and the pattern of consumption (binge or steady) [15, 26] these difficulties may manifest themselves even when alcohol consumption occurs at the level of social drinking (1 or 2 drinks, two times weekly) [26]. Regarding the period of gestation during which exposure occurs, four mechanisms by which ethanol can affect the central nervous system (CNS) of the developing fetus
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have been suggested. At the time of conception and during the first weeks of development ethanol may act cytotoxically or as a mutagenic agent and cause cell death or lethal chromosomal aberration, resulting to spontaneous abortion. During the following 4–10 weeks of gestation ethanol may cause excessive cell death in the CNS as well as abnormalities in nerve cell migration from cell damage, leading to disorganization of tissue structure and microcephaly. From the eighth to tenth weeks onwards, ethanol continues to cause disorganization or delays in cell migration and development, leading to abnormal synaptic formations [25, 26]. In the third trimester, alcohol exposure has been associated with damage in the cerebellum, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex [25]. Additionally, ethanol can interfere with neurotransmitter production in the CNS causing neuroendocrine abnormalities and especially growth deficiencies [25, 26]. These effects are caused to the fetus mainly because ethanol can freely cross the placenta, thus the concentration of ethanol in the fetus is equal or even higher than in the maternal blood. However, ethanol remains in the amnionic fluid for a relatively longer period of time making it possible for the fetus to be exposed to it even if there is no ethanol concentration in maternal blood [26]. That is due to the fetus’s decreased ability to metabolize ethanol compared to the mother [6].
Risk Factors Associated with Maternal Alcohol Consumption Several epidemiological studies throughout the years have identified a number of risk factors that are associated with higher maternal alcohol consumption rates and the resulting alcohol related birth disorders. These factors can be collectively divided into four major categories: those that are more likely to increase the risk for heavy maternal drinking (e.g., family traits and early onset of drinking); those that could be the consequence of alcohol abuse (e.g., unemployment and premature mortality); those that are more biologically based (e.g., advanced maternal age, previous pregnancies); and those that represent behavioral patterns of the mother (e.g., smoking) or psychological difficulties (e.g., stress and depression) [22]. The National Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, during 2000–2001, identified two different groups of women at risk [6]. The first group has 6–15% probabilities of using alcohol during pregnancy and refers to women above the age of 35, with high socioeconomic status and educational level, not being users of any other illicit drug, and being non-Hispanic, white and married. The second group has 1–3% probabilities of using alcohol during pregnancy and refers to women below the age of
30, single, smoking cigarettes, using other substances (including marijuana, cocaine and opiates), and binge drinking [6]. More recently, Grant and colleagues [13], examining the tendency for alcohol use before pregnancy, reported that women in their study who were more likely to drink in the month before pregnancy were 31–35 years old, had at least 16 years of education, and were smokers. On the other hand, women who were less likely to drink in the month before pregnancy were younger than 21 years old, had less than 12 years of education, were Asian, and had more than one child. In addition, they found that women who were more likely to binge drink in the month before pregnancy, were 21–25 years old, Native American or black race, unmarried, and smokers [13]. Related to heavy and binge drinking is the assumption that heavy and binge drinkers are also more likely to have multiple unprotected sexual encounters resulting in unexpected and unwanted pregnancies. Heavy and binge drinking women also seem to fail to recognize that they have conceived in the early stages of gestation, thus exposing the child to the detrimental effects of alcohol from very early in development without even being aware of it [13]. In all, the risk factors identified to be associated with elevated levels of maternal alcohol consumption include: advanced maternal age, having three or more children, smoking, use of other drugs, low socioeconomic status, transience and low employment, frequent binge drinking, living in a social environment which tolerates or promotes drinking [6, 22] and having personal history of physical or sexual abuse [6]. Poor nutrition, environmental deprivation, poverty and homelessness [6, 22], physical stress, obstetric complications, fetal tissue sensitivity, and genetic susceptibility are also reported as risk factors for increasing maternal alcohol consumption [26].
Relevance to Childhood Development Concern over the deleterious effects of alcohol on the developing fetus can be traced back to the Old Testament when Judges warned women to “Beware, and drink no wine or strong drink. . . .for lo, you shall conceive and bear a son” [25, 26] and during the time of Aristotle as well, who observed that alcoholic women often bore feebleminded children [2, 29]. Similar observations have been noted several times in the literature since then, especially during the England gin epidemic of the eighteenth century (between 1720 and 1750), relating maternal alcohol consumption with high rates of fetal and neonatal mortality, low birth weight and an array of other deleterious effects [29, 33]. However, it was not until the early 1970s that the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and birth
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defects became the object of serious scientific and medical interest [2] and awareness of the teratogenic effects of alcohol was raised [26]. The first scientific study regarding the potentially deleterious effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol was reported from Sullivan in 1899, who reported an increased rate of stillbirths and infant deaths in children of alcoholic mothers [26]. However, for the following decades scientists assumed that the abnormalities exhibited by children of alcoholic mothers were secondary to environmental challenges and interest in the relationship between prenatal alcohol exposure and birth defects was silenced until the early 1970s [26]. Nowadays, and despite the above mentioned vagueness, it is consensually admitted that exposing a child to alcohol while still in the uterus has aversive effects on its physical and mental development, leading to childhood growth deficiency, IQ, motor skills, attention, and school performance difficulties. In 1972, Ulleland [32] demonstrated that a group of children born to alcoholic mothers were typically underweight at birth, had small head circumference, and exhibited delayed growth and development. Shortly after this report, in 1973, Jones and his colleagues [18, 19] identified and described in more details a pattern of anomalies in a number of children born to alcoholic mothers. Jones and colleagues were the first to recognize these malformations as a distinct clinical entity and this distinct pattern of congenital malformations of altered growth and dysmorphogenesis associated with prenatal exposure to alcohol was subsequently termed the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Based on Jones and colleagues’ observations, escorted by subsequent scientific studies in human and animals, FAS is characterized by three main clusters of symptoms. These clusters are: (1) prenatal and/or postnatal growth deficiency, (2) CNS dysfunction reflected in mental deficit, and (3) a distinctive pattern of facial dysmorphology [1]. Pre and postnatal growth deficiency is evidenced in the birth weight and height of the child being below the tenth percentile for age or gestational age [26, 33], while head circumference is characteristically below the third percentile [26]; and these features seem to be consistent even at the age of 14 [10]. CNS dysfunction becomes obvious through behavioral/cognitive impairment including fine motor dysfunction and mental retardation, which is the most detrimental effect of prenatal alcohol exposure [26]. The distinctive pattern of facial and physical malformations include microcephaly [2], short eye lip openings (short palpebral fissures), flat midface, thin
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upper lip, a flat or absent groove between the nose and the upper lip (philtrum) [16], a short upturned nose [2], flat cheeks (maxilla), and flattened nasal bridge [26]; small teeth with defective enamel is an additional possible defect [15]. This clusters of deficiencies must occur together in order to allow for the diagnosis of FAS. In fact, each component alone is nonspecific and only the amalgamation of these allows for the diagnosis of FAS [1, 14]. Hence, experts in the field soon realized that some children exhibited some but not all the features of FAS or the same symptoms in various degrees of severity. For example, some children even thought they were exposed to alcohol prenatally and showed developmental delay along with behavioral abnormalities they did not have signs of facial dysmorphology. In the face of the need for a new terminology, then, which would be able to describe these differentiations and denote that these abnormalities were congruent with prenatal alcohol exposure but not sufficient to permit the diagnosis of FAS, the term suspected fetal alcohol effects (FAE) was adopted [1, 14]. Subsequently, the Institute of Medicine suggested the distinction between three forms of FAE [16]. Thus, the terms partial fetal alcohol syndrome (partial FAS), alcohol related birth defects (ARBD), and alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) were introduced [16]. Partial FAS refers to children who have confirmed history of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and show some components of the characteristic alcohol related facial dysmorphology, as well as physical growth and neurodevelopmental deficiencies [16]. ARBD applies to children with confirmed heavy prenatal alcohol exposure accompanied by one or more congenital defects, typically cardiac, skeletal, renal, ocular, or auditory [16] without having the characteristic facial features of FAS though [22]. Finally, ARND refers to children with confirmed heavy prenatal alcohol exposure who also exhibit measurable but milder neurobehavioral deficits than those seen in children with FAS [16], there is, however, lack of the characteristic facial defects and the growth deficiency associated with FAS [22]. Nowadays, the term fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) has been employed as an umbrella term describing the wide range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy, but this term cannot be applied as a clinical diagnosis [7, 30]. The effects encompassed in FASD generally include physical, mental, behavioral and learning disabilities associated with prenatal alcohol exposure with lifelong implications [7].
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Prevalence Generally, it is estimated that 40% of children born to alcoholic mothers and 11% of children born to moderately drinking, but not alcoholic, mothers exhibit some difficulties related to FASD [17]. Prevalence estimates for FAS range from 1 to 3 per 1,000 live births, but rates may vary between populations. Estimates of the prevalence of FAS among chronically alcoholic women are 25 per 1,000. FAE is more prevalent than FAS, occurring at rates 3–4 times higher [26]. Finally, all the FASD together are 10 times more prevalent than FAS alone [6]. In one meta-analytic study contacted by May and colleagues [22], the overall rates of prevalence for FAS were estimated between 0.5 and 2 per 1,000 live births and for FAS and ARBD combined 10 per 1,000 live births in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. It is also reported that in families where there is one child diagnosed with FAS, the incidence rate can be even 405fold higher compared to the worldwide average [33]. Finally, the prevalence of FASD in the United States has been reported as 9.1 per 1,000 live births [7]. Nonetheless, these estimates are tentative since the diagnosis of any of these conditions is very difficult and thus may often be delayed or missed entirely [7].
Physiological Problems Evident in Affected Children Physiological conditions experienced by children prenatally exposed to alcohol include cleft palate heart, kidney, visual [26, 29], renal and orthopedic defects [20]. Cardiovascular defects include septal anomalies and hypoplastic pulmonary arteries; renal defects may include pyelonephritis, painless hematuria, and hydronephrosis; and orthopedic anomalies may be manifested in radioulnar synostosis, camptodactyly of the fingers, and brachydactyly and clinodactyly of the toes [20]. Additionally, dental and ocular anomalies, accompanied by otitis mefia may be present [26], as well as hemangiomas, micrognathia, and eye and ear abnormalities [8]. Furthermore, sensory problems involving ocular, auditory, and vestibular problems caused by abnormal development of the CNS due to early alcohol exposure have also been reported. These sensory difficulties can consequently lead to permanent speech, language, and cognitive deficits, as well as impaired academic performance [2]. Further physiological problems, which have not been widely studied, include childhood leukemia [24] and cryptorchidism in boys [9]. High risks for premature placenta separation [29], spontaneous abortion [3, 15, 29] and stillbirth [2, 3, 29] have also been documented. In a retrospective study
contacted by Abel [3], estimates for spontaneous abortion ranged, according to ethic groups and geographic places, between 18.8 and 81%. It has been also proposed that in the United States women diagnosed with alcohol abuse disorders are two times more likely to have experienced more than three spontaneous abortions [3]. Finally, maternal alcohol consumption poses an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, which is increased even more when combined with additional risk conditions, such as smoking [12].
Neurological, Cognitive and Behavioral Problems Early post-mortem autopsy investigations on individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol have reported a wide range of neuroanatomical abnormalities. These abnormalities include: hydrancephaly, anencephaly, hydroncephale, microcephaly, cerebral dysgenesis, abnormal neural migration, and severe CNS disorganization. Additional abnormalities of the basal ganglia, the cerebellum, and the hippocampus were also noted [30]. Contemporary neuroimaging studies have demonstrated specific neuroanatomical defects. For example, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques researchers have identified reductions in the cranial, cerebral, and cerebellar vaults in individuals diagnosed with an alcohol related disorder. In addition, others have reported hypoplasia in the temporal, frontal and especially in the parietal lobes. These abnormalities are thought to be related to executive functioning problems, such as poor planning, cognitive inflexibility, reduced response inhibition, and special memory problem [30]. White matter hypoplasia and increased gray matter density in inferior parietal regions and superior temporal lobes were also evident in the brains of affects children. White matter hypoplasia and increased gray matter in the brain have been associated with deficits in language processing and object recognition. Moreover, reduced surface area and volume of the cerebellum, as well as damage localized to particular areas of the cerebellum, which are consistent with difficulties in balance, bimanual coordination, verbal learning and memory, have also been reported [30]. Finally, studies investigating the corpus callosum have identified hypoplasia of this structure, as well as changes in its shape, a finding which is related to bimanual coordination, attention, executive functioning, and verbal learning deficits. Studies referring to the basal ganglia have reported reduced volume of this structure in affected individuals, and this is associated with problems in movement, procedural learning, and cognitive, affective and
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motivational functioning, while others have reported asymmetrical hippocampal formations, which are linked to memory deficiencies [30]. Developmentally, neurological deficit manifestations vary according to the age of the child and the circumstances activated in one’s environment. Generally, however, evidence suggest that during the neonatal period these neurological deficits manifest in poor sucking, disturbed sleep states, low levels of arousal, tremulousness, unusual body orientation, excessive mouthing, abnormal reflexes, hypertonia, and poor habituation [33]. Newborns have also been described as difficult to feed and soothe as well as irritable. They may also experience withdrawal symptoms and delays in achieving speech and motor milestones [26]. In older infancy, difficulties are evident in disturbed sleep-wake patterns [31], poor visual recognition, and delays in mental and motor development, spoken language, and verbal comprehension [33]. During the pre-school years, children display attention deficits, delayed reaction times, and problems in fine and gross motor performance. In adolescence, affected children tend to portray more overt psychological problems, while in adulthood they fail to achieve adaptive living and self-sufficiency [33]. More specifically, one of the most detrimental effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol and FAS is mental deficit, ranging from borderline to severe mental retardation [2], with children diagnosed with FAS usually demonstrating an average IQ between 60 and 65, even though there is a wide range of individual IQ scores [25, 26]. Furthermore, it has been generally suggested that maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy may lead to an array of further cognitive effects in the exposed child. Such effects include hyperactivity and attention problems, learning and memory difficulties, as well as challenges referring to social and emotional development [16]. Attentional difficulties are more evident in certain aspects of attention, such as executive functioning [27], cognitive flexibility, planning, strategy use, verbal reasoning, inhibition, set shifting, fluency, working memory, emotion-related learning [25], and focused attention [16] which seems to be more pervasive in deficits in the ability to focus and sustain attention to visual stimuli and deficits in the ability to sustain attention to auditory stimuli over long intervals [21]. Deficits in language are, on the other hand, found to be specific to production and pragmatics, resulting in defects in the comprehension and use of grammatical markers and in the processing and memorizing linguistic elements [26] as well as in both receptive and expressive
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language abilities [23]. These language and speech problems appear to be independent of the individual’s mental ability [15, 23] and are more likely to impact children’s social interactions and behavioral adjustment [23]. As far as social and adaptive behavior is concerned, children with FAS appear outgoing, socially engaging, affectionate, excessively friendly, and they enjoy bodily contact. FAS children also seem not to be able to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people, a behavior that raises concerns regarding their safety [25, 26]. These children, additionally, appear to have difficulties with the “theory of mind” (i.e., not being able to infer another’s perspective) [25]; and have been found to exhibit poor socioemotional development, which cannot be attributed to their IQ scores [16]. Generally, the cognitive and behavioral profile of children prenatally exposed to alcohol include: communication and speech difficulties, such as speaking too much and/or too fast, and interrupting others; problems with personal manners, such as clumsiness, disorganization, and loosing things; emotional lability, such as rapid mood changes and overreacting; motor defects; poor academic performance caused by their short attention span and their difficulty completing tasks; impaired social interactions, including their lack for awareness of consequences of one’s actions and their poor judgment; and unusual physiological responses, such as hyperactivity and sleep difficulties [7, 25].
Comorbid Psychopathology The most frequently reported behavioral disorder associated with FAS is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affecting approximately 85% of preschool FAS children [25, 26]. On the other hand, research suggests that hyperactive children often come from homes where one or both parents are alcoholics, thus FAS children are more likely to be raised in unstable home settings. Furthermore, it seems that mothers who have problems related to alcohol consumption were drinking before their pregnancies and are more likely to continue drinking during as well as after that, thus posing the question of whether the difficulties experienced by affected children are due to the combination of pre-, peri- and post-natal maternal alcohol consumption [2] or due to the combination of these. Other psychological difficulties that have been associated with FAS include: eating problems resulting in failure to thrive, something which can also be associated with the inhibition of the milk ejection reflex in the mother due to alcohol consumption and thus the inability of the mother to feed the child adequately [2]. Moreover, sleeping
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disturbances, ticks, phobias, temper tantrums, enuresis and encopresis, and psychosocial difficulties [25, 26], as well as fetal distress and neonatal depression are also common outcomes related to prenatal alcohol exposure [29]. There has also been noted that maternal alcoholism affects the parent-child relationship, since withdrawal symptoms in the mother may affect her behavior toward the child [2] and since alcoholic mothers often fail to assume maternal responsibilities [26]. For example, children prenatally exposed to alcohol appear to be irritable during infancy, which is a temperamental variable, acknowledged to be involved into poorer mother-child attachment and more behavioral problems in childhood [16]. It is well documented that the early attachment relationship is the basis upon which the child develops representations of the self and others and determines the ways a child relates to others and resolves interpersonal issues later in life [28]. Thus, problematic early attachment relationships can have detrimental effects in the child’s interpersonal development. Research contacted with children of alcoholic mothers indicated that children of mothers who admitted drinking more before and during pregnancy were judged to be insecure [28]. These children also appear to be less socially competent and more aggressive in the classroom and during adolescence they fail to consider the consequences of one’s actions, they are unable to respond appropriately to social cues, and have poor interpersonal relations [16]. It is also very common that children born by alcoholic mothers to be raised in foster homes or adoptive placements, not only because their mothers are unable to care for them adequately but also because these mothers are at increased risk for premature mortality due to their drinking habits [22], thus posing additional risk factors to their development [26]. Nevertheless, the structural abnormalities observed in the brains of children with FASD cannot be attributed to any of the adverse environmental factors described above. Therefore, even though the environment may be a factor of blocking cognitive development, environment alone cannot be held responsible for the deficits exhibited by affected individuals [2].
FASD in Adulthood The defects delineated above, unfortunately, continue into adulthood, pinpointing the profound, pervasive, and persistent nature of these disorders. Is has been reported that affected individuals continue to experience cognitive functioning deficiencies, especially with
mathematics, abstract reasoning, generalization, attention, concentration, memory, judgment, and comprehension [8]. Behaviorally, they exhibit hyperactivity, impulsivity, stubbornness, and oppositional behavior. Most cases also fail to achieve age-appropriate social and communication skills, resulting to maladaptive social functioning as evidenced in failure to consider consequences for their actions, failure to respond to appropriate social cues, lack of reciprocal friendships, mood lability, and bullying [8]. Moreover, these individuals are more likely to experience psychological difficulties related to substance dependency, inability to develop appropriate sexual behavior and they are also more likely to have related legal problems [8]. More specifically, Famy and colleagues [11] have reported that from a sample of 25 individuals diagnosed with FAS and FAE, who were older than 18 years old, 15 had a diagnosis of alcohol or drug dependence, 11 had major depressive disorder, 10 had diagnoses of a psychotic disorder, 5 had bipolar I disorder, 5 had anxiety disorders, and 4 had eating disorders. Famy and colleagues also reported that a substantial percentage of the individuals also had an Axis II diagnosis; 6 had avoidant personality disorder, 4 had antisocial personality disorder, and 3 had dependent personality disorder.
Assessment, Diagnosis and Management So far, it has become apparent that the adverse effects related to maternal alcohol consumption are neither rare nor simple and that FAS is only a restricted representative of these effects [4]. Since FAS was first described in 1973, it has become obvious that this spectrum of disorders is multifaceted. Affected individuals demonstrate a wide spectrum of symptoms, ranging from severe growth restriction, intellectual disability, birth defects and characteristic dysmorphic facial features to normal growth, facial features and intellectual abilities but with lifelong deficits in several domains of brain function [7]. Moreover, FASD is a condition that has implications for everyone; the affected person, the mother, the family and the community. FASD is the most prevalent cause of non-genetically based mental retardation and is the only completely preventable and avoidable form of mental defects [33]. In addition, research has indicated that the difficulties evidenced in alcohol exposed children are long-lasting [26] and that these children remain handicapped for the duration of their lives [15]. Thus, an early diagnosis, based on sound assessment, is essential since this is the only vehicle that can allow access to interventions and resources that may alleviate the development of subsequent
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“secondary disabilities” (such as unemployment, mental health problems, trouble with the law, inappropriate sexual behavior) among affected individuals. Furthermore, an early diagnosis will also allow suitable intervention, counseling and treatment for the mother and may prevent prospective births of more children with the same difficulties [7]. Most importantly, accurate and timely diagnosis is essential to improve outcome, as misdiagnoses result in unsuitable interventions, high risk for the development of secondary disabilities, failure to provide prevention and finally inaccurate estimates of incidence and prevalence. In addition, it is well documented that FAS is difficult to identify, especially at birth, because the signs and symptoms of the syndrome are milder and undifferentiated. Furthermore, the expressed signs of FAS may resemble the patterns of deficiency evident in other conditions such as the DeLange syndrome, Williams syndrome, Dubowitz syndrome, Stickler syndrome, X-linked mental retardation [20, 26], Aarskog syndrome, maternal PKU effects, Noonan syndrome, and Toluene embryopathy [20]. Therefore, differential diagnosis between conditions is of utmost importance. Differential diagnosis however requires a clinical assessment contacted by multidisciplinary teams experienced in the field. Contemporary knowledge of the complexity of the difficulties associated with prenatal alcohol exposure impose that a comprehensive, multidisciplinary assessment is necessary to make an accurate diagnosis and provide sensible advice for management [7]. The special physical, emotional, and mental needs [15] of children pre- and postnataly exposed to the detrimental effects of alcohol must be adequately assessed and recognized within the context of a multidisciplinary approach so that appropriate residential, educational, mental health, and vocational rehabilitation management programs be developed to facilitate individuals’ development to the degree possible [26]. Thus, the core team for such a multidisciplinary assessment ideally should consist of: the coordinator for case management (e.g., nurse, social worker), a physician specifically trained in FASD diagnosis, a clinical psychologist, an occupational therapist, and a speech-language pathologist. Supplementary members, such as addiction counselors, childcare workers, cultural interpreters, mental health workers, parents or caregivers, probation officers, psychiatrists, teachers, vocational counselors, nurses, geneticists or dysmorphologists, neuropsychologists, family therapists can also be included [7]. Following sound assessment accurate diagnosis should be made. The complex and wide variety of the
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symptoms experienced by children prenatally exposed to alcohol poses great challenge in the development of adequate diagnostic and classification systems. Since alcohol-related abnormalities gained recognition several schemes of diagnosis and classification have been presented. Some of these classification schemes are the one proposed by Majewski and colleagues in 1976 [26] and that proposed by Burd and Martsolf in 1989 [26]. More recent efforts have led to the development of the Institute of Medicine Guidelines [14], the 4-Digit Diagnostic Coding System [4, 5], the Centers for Disease Control Guidelines [20], and the Canadian Guidelines for diagnosis [7]. The decision of which of these systems should be applied can be made only by the clinician since debate upon the qualities of the schemes is still in progress and there is no consensus reached yet as to which is the most appropriate. Finally, prevention is the only protective measure against FASD and this can be accomplished only by abstinence during pregnancy, since a “safe” limit of alcohol consumption during pregnancy has not been defined [8, 17, 33]. Therefore, policy makers as well as communities should focus on prevention programs such as public health education and public health campaigns advising women to abstain from alcohol use during pregnancy or even while considering pregnancy [13]. Such educational programs should also be applied into school settings [8]. Moreover, prenatal counseling is a strategy widely used in several prevention programs along with screening tools in prenatal clinics for early identification of alcohol use with women at risk, which should also be followed by providing preventive and supportive counseling [8, 13] to identified women.
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prenatally exposed to alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 27(4), 647–656. O’Connor, M. J., Sigman, M., & Brill, N. (1987). Disorganization of attachment in relation to maternal alcohol consumption. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(6), 831–836. Sokol, R. J. (1981). Alcohol and abnormal outcomes of pregnancy. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 125, 143–148. Spadoni, A. D., McGee, C. L., Fryer, S. L., & Riley, E. P. (2007). Neuroimaging and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 31(2), 239–245. Troese, M., Fukumizua, M., Sallinen, B. J., Gilles, A. A., Wellman, J. D., Paul, J. A., et al. (2008). Sleep fragmentation and evidence for sleep debt in alcohol-exposed infants. Early Human Development, 84, 577–585. Ulleland, C. N. (1972). The offspring of alcoholic mothers. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 197, 167–169. Warren, K. R., & Bast, R. J. (1988). Alcohol related birth defects: An update. Public Health Reports, 103, 638–642.
Maternal Smoking LOUIZA MICHAEL CHRISTODOULOU, XENIA ANASTASSIOUHADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Definition The term “maternal smoking” refers to the adverse behavior of women who tend to smoke (Smoke refers to inhaling of burned tobacco) before, during, or after the gestation of a child.
Description Maternal smoking has detrimental effects on both the mother and the offspring. Inevitably, the offspring of a mother who is a smoker is exposed to the damaging effects of smoking. Therefore, maternal smoking constitutes a significant risk for the development of children from the time they are a fetus [7] since women that smoke are at risk for ectopic (Ectopic pregnancy occurs when the fertilized egg grows outside the uterus) pregnancies and spontaneous abortions [9]. More specifically, although in the uterus, the fetus is still affected by the smoking mother. Studies have suggested that maternal smoking has a detrimental impact on fetal development and is related to increase in perinatal morbidity and mortality [4, 9]. Furthermore, many studies have provided corroborative evidence that maternal smoking is associated with preterm delivery (i.e., delivery before 37th week) and with Smallness-for Gestational-Age (SGA), a condition where “the birth weight is below tenth centile for
Math Disorder
gestational age at deliver” [3, 13]. In addition smoking during pregnancy and low birth weight have been indicated as risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (Sudden infant death syndrome refers to the unexpected death of an infant during the first year of life) [10]. Opportunities for breastfeeding are diminished in children of mothers who smoke relative to those who do not. It has been reported that smoking mothers are less likely to breastfeed their infants or breastfeed for a shorter period of time than nonsmoking mothers [5]. Breastfeeding has well documented beneficial effects not only on the physical health of the developing infant but also on his/her cognitive development and psychological well being. Consequently the diminished opportunity for breastfeeding places the children of mothers who smoke in a more disadvantageous position. Harmful outcomes of being exposed to smoking while in the uterus may become evident much later in a child’s life. Maternal smoking has been shown to have an impact on many aspects of the developing child, such as his/her mental and physical health and behavior. More specifically, maternal smoking has been implicated in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [11], in the development of cognitive and behavioral problems in offspring [2, 12], as well as in pediatric obesity [1, 6]. Furthermore, exposure to maternal smoking is associated with immune system dysfunction, increasing the risk for childhood cancers, asthma [8] and the development of acute lower respiratory infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia [8]. Contemporary research started to explore the risk that being exposed to “thirdhand smoke” (residual tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette is extinguished) [14] places on the developing child. That is, children may be exposed to “thirdhand smoke,” even when they are not directly present when their mother smokes. Therefore, old beliefs about smoking being harmless to the children if they are not present are now being challenged. Educating women on the risks that smoking imposes on the health of their children, is a promising way for limiting maternal smoking. In addition, stricter smoking bans are required for better protection of children.
References 1. Al Mamun, A., Lawlor, D. A., Alati, R., O’Callaghan, M. J., Williams, G. M., & Najman, J. M. (2006). Does maternal smoking during pregnancy have a direct effect on future offspring obesity? Evidence from a prospective birth cohort study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 164(4), 317–325. 2. Batstra, L., Hadders-Algra, M., & Neeleman, J. (2003). Effect of antenatal exposure to maternal smoking on behavioural problems
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and academic achievement in childhood: Prospective evidence from a Dutch birth cohort. Early Human Development, 75, 21–23. Chiolero, A., Bovet, P., & Paccaud, F. (2005). Association between maternal smoking and low birth weight in Switzerland: The EDEN study. Swiss Medical Weekly, 135, 525–530. Figueras, F., Meler, E., Eixarch, E., Francis, A., Coll, O., Gratacos, E., et al. (2008). Association of smoking during pregnancy and fetal growth restriction: Subgroups of higher susceptibility. European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 138, 171–175. Giglia, R., Binns, C. W., & Alfonso, H. (2007). Maternal cigarette smoking and breastfeeding duration. Acta Paediatrica, 95(11), 1370–1374. Huang, J. S., Lee, T. A., & Lu, M. C. (2007). Prenatal programming of childhood overweight and obesity. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 11, 461–473. Kleiman, J. C., Pierre, M. B., Jr., Madans, J. H., Land, G. H., & Schramm, W. F. (1988). The effects of maternal smoking on fetal and infant mortality. American Journal of Epidemiology, 127(2), 274–282. Ng, S. P., & Zelikoff, J. T. (2007). Smoking during pregnancy: Subsequent effects on offspring immune competence and disease vulnerability later in life. Reproductive Toxicology, 23, 428–437. Saraiva, M., Berg, C. J., Kendrick, J. S., Straus, L. T., Atrash, H. K., & Ahn, Y. W. (1998). Cigarette smoking as a risk factor for ectopic pregnancy. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 178(3), 493–498. Schoendorf, K. C., & Kiely, J. L. (1992). Relationship of sudden infant death syndrome to maternal smoking during and after pregnancy. Pediatrics, 90(6), 905–908. Thapar, A., Fowler, T., Rice, F., Scourfield, J., Van den Bree, M., Thomas, H., et al. (2003). Maternal smoking during pregnancy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in offspring. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 1985–1989. Weitzman, M., Gortmaker, S., & Sobol, A. (1992). Maternal smoking and behaviour problems of children. Pediatrics, 90(3), 342–349. Windham, G. C., Hopkins, B., Fester, L., & Swan, S. (2000). Prenatal active or passive tobacco smoke exposure and the risk of preterm delivery or low birth weight. Epidemiology, 11, 427–433. Winickoff, J. P., Friebely, J., Tanski, S. E., Sherrod, C., Matt, G. E., Hovell, M. F., et al. (2009). Beliefs about the health effects of “Thirdhand Smoke” and home smoking bans. Pediatrics, 123, 74–79.
Math Deficit ▶Dyscalculia
Math Difficulties ▶Dyscalculia
Math Disorder ▶Dyscalculia
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Math Dyslexia
Math Dyslexia ▶Dyscalculia
Mather, Nancy SHERRY MEE BELL University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Life Dates February 4, 1950–Present
Educational Information Nancy Mather is a renowned expert in the field of learning disabilities. Dr. Mather earned a Bachelor’s degree in English in 1972 and a teaching certificate in 1974 from the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1976, she earned a Master of Arts degree in special education from the University of Northern Arizona. Following 3 years of teaching students with learning disabilities in Santa Cruz, CA, Dr. Mather earned the Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1984 with a major in special education and minors in school psychology and reading. Following graduation, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona. Dr. Mather was mentored by and completed her dissertation under the direction of Dr. Samuel Kirk, pioneer in the field of learning disabilities, attributed with coining the term learning disabilities.
Accomplishments Author or coauthor of over a dozen books and over a dozen book chapters, Dr. Mather is perhaps best known for her works on interpretation and educational implications of the Woodcock–Johnson cognitive and achievement tests (e.g., Woodcock–Johnson III: Recommendations, Reports, and Strategies [10]). In addition to several works on use of the Woodcock–Johnson instruments, Dr. Mather has coauthored several tests including the Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability and Achievement (3rd ed.). [9], the Woodcock–Johnson Diagnostic Reading Battery [8], and the Woodcock–Munoz Bateria III [4]. An expert in reading and writing learning disabilities, she has also coauthored tests focusing specifically on reading fluency (Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency [3]) and orthographic skills (Test of Orthographic Competence [5]). A respected scholar, Dr. Mather has conducted research on topics including teachers’ knowledge of literacy
instruction, effective strategies for literacy instruction, test accommodations for students with learning disabilities, and other issues related to effective teaching of students with learning disabilities. Recent endeavors include coauthoring reading programs including Phonics Reading Lessons: Skills [1] and Phonics Reading Lessons: Practice [7]).
Contribution Drawing on her early work as a teacher of students with learning disabilities, Dr. Mather has made major contributions to the field of learning disabilities. Dr. Mather’s professional contributions include service on editorial boards of numerous professional journals including Journal of Learning Disabilities, Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, Learning Disabilities Quarterly, and Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal. In-depth knowledge, an effective communication style, and passion for the field have made Dr. Mather a sought-after speaker at professional conferences, Dr. Mather has served as keynote or highlighted speaker at numerous international, national and regional professional conferences, including Learning Disabilities Association International, National Association of School Psychologists, and International Dyslexia Association.
Current Involvement In 2003, Dr. Mather earned full professor status at the University of Arizona where she continues to teach and serve on faculty in the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology. In addition, she has a long history of service to individuals with learning disabilities, as a learning disabilities teacher, as a diagnostician, and educational consultant. Two of her most recent scholarly texts include Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviors: A Guide to Intervention and Classroom Management (2nd ed.). [2] and Evidence-Based Interventions for Students with Learning and Behavioral Challenges [6].
References 1. Kirk, S. A., Kirk, W. D., Minskoff, E., Mather, N., & Roberts, R. (2007). Phonic reading lessons: Skills. Novato, CA: Academic Therapy. 2. Mather, N., & Goldstein, S. (2008). Learning disabilities and challenging behaviors: A guide to intervention and classroom management (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. 3. Mather, N., Hammill, D., Allen, E., & Roberts, R. (2003). Test of silent word reading fluency. Austin, TX: PRO-ED. 4. Mather, N., & Jaffe, L. (2002). Woodcock-Johnson III: Recommendations, reports, and strategies. New York: Wiley. 5. Mather, N., Roberts, R., Allen, E., & Hammill, D. (2008). Test of orthographic competence. Austin, TX: PRO-ED. 6. Morris, R., & Mather, N. (Eds.). (2008). Evidence-based interventions for students with learning and behavioral challenges. New York: Routledge.
Maxi Task 7. Roberts, R., & Mather, N. (2007). Phonic reading lessons: Practice. Novato, CA: Academic Therapy. 8. Woodcock, R. W., Mather, N., & Schrank, F. (2004). WJ III diagnostic reading battery. Itasca, IL: Riverside. 9. Woodcock, R. W., McGrew, K., & Mather, N. (2001). WoodcockJohnson tests of cognitive abilities and tests of achievement (3rd ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. 10. Woodcock, R. W., Munoz-Sandoval, A., McGrew, K., Mather, N., & Schrank, F. (2005). Bateria III Woodcock-Munoz. Itasca, IL: Riverside.
Maturation PAMELYN M. MACDONALD Emporia State University, Emporia, KS, USA
Genetic blueprint; Growth
Definition Maturation is the predetermined unfolding of genetic information.
Description The concept of maturation was pioneered by the American psychologist Arnold Gesell [3]. Maturation stresses the importance of nature or genetics in human development, as opposed to nurture or environment. Maturational development occurs in fixed sequences or stages that are governed by genes. This “genetic blueprint” for development determines the sequence, timing and form of emerging action-patterns [4].
Relevance to Childhood Development Gesell observed that the motor skills of children developed in a fixed, or stage-like, pattern that were mostly unaffected by external influences. He called this process maturation. Maturation can first be seen in the developing embryo, where development occurs in the same pattern for every human without variation. In the embryo, the heart and cardiovascular system develop first, quickly followed by the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), with the extremities, such as arms and legs, developing last [2, 5]. Sequential development continues after birth in a cephalocaudal (head-to-foot) pattern. Infants first control their mouths, then eye movements, followed by control over the neck, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, trunk, legs and feet. As infants continue to grow into toddlers, they learn to sit up, stand, cruise, walk and
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then run, with all of these developing in a specific order that emerge with the maturational growth of the nervous system. Rates of development vary from child to child, but all children proceed through the same sequence [6]. Gesell’s main scientific focus was maturational growth with regards to early motor behavior. However, Gesell believed that maturation governed growth in all areas of development: "
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[The child’s] nervous system matures by stages and natural sequences. He sits before he stands; he babbles before he talks; he fabricates before he tells the truth; he draws a circle before he draws a square; he is selfish before he is altruistic; he is dependent on others before he achieves dependence on the self. All his capacities, including his morals, are subject to the laws of growth [3].
Gesell did not completely discount the contribution of nurture or the environment in child development, but he believed that socializing forces worked best when they were in tune with inner maturational principles [1]. For example, Gesell was strongly opposed to trying to induce early walking in a child. He believed that children would walk when they were maturationally prepared to do so and efforts to speed the process could be harmful or create tension between caregivers and children. In addition, research has shown that efforts to speed up motor development produce only small and temporary effects.
References 1. 2. 3 4. 5. 6.
Anderson, C. (1995). The stages of life: A groundbreaking discovery: The steps to psychological maturity. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. Crain, W. (2005). Theories of development: Concepts and applications (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Gesell, A., & Ilg, F. L. (1949). Infant and child in the culture of today. In Child development. New York: Harper & Row. Miller, P. H. (1993). Theories of developmental psychology. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. Sroufe, L. A., Cooper, R. G., & DeHart, B. B. (1996). Child development: Its nature and course (3rd ed.). New York: Knopf. Zelazo, P. R., Zelazo, N. A., & Kolb, S. (1972). “Walking” in the newborn. Science, 176, 314–315.
Maturity ▶Psychological Age
Maxi Task ▶False Belief Task
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May Institute
May Institute FATIMA WATT Argosy University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Definition The May Institute provides research-validated services to children and adults with autism, brain injuries, mental retardation, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and behavioral healthcare needs [1].
Description The May Institute is a network of educational, behavioral, and rehabilitative programs offering a broad range of services in more than 200 sites throughout the country. Its programs blend science and practice, with a core focus on research and training. The May Institute maintains affiliations with more than forty hospitals, universities, and human service agencies worldwide. The May Institute was founded in Chatham, MA, by Dr. Jacques M. May and his wife, Marie Anne, in 1955. The Institute’s first school was created in order to provide treatment and a supportive environment for the couple’s twin boys with autism. Dr. May and his wife envisioned a program that would allow children with disabilities to lead the fullest lives possible. Today, the May Institute is among the largest, most respected, and innovative behavioral healthcare organizations in the country. May provides comprehensive services to children and adolescents with autism, brain injury, developmental disabilities, and behavioral disorders. They have various programs ranging from research-based services for children with autism, to behavioral therapy techniques, and homebased and school consultation services. The Institute maintains four schools for children and adolescents with autism, PDD, and other developmental disabilities located in: Randolph, West Springfield, and Woburn, MA; and Santa Cruz, CA. A supplementary school serves children and adolescents with brain injuries. In addition, the May Institute has developed a unique program that combines behavior support techniques and instructional practices to reduce discipline problems and enhance academic commitment in schools throughout the country. A child abuse prevention program, Safety Protection Education and Assertiveness for Kids (SPEAK), was also developed in order to educate youth about the topic of abuse. The May Institute offers day program services to adults with autism, mental retardation, developmental
disabilities, and behavioral disorders. The Institute also provides community living services including: supported employment environments, employment training, behavioral therapies to assist with daily routines, and 24-h-a-day supervision. For adults with behavioral health concerns ranging from anxiety, eating disorders, and marriage problems to acute psychiatric illnesses, the May Institute offers a full range of mental health services. The Institute has an empirically based orientation with training and research as a major component. Since 1978, professionals at the May Institute have collectively authored hundreds of articles and book chapters in the following domains: autism, behavioral medicine, behavioral healthcare, brain injury, severe behavioral disorders including conduct disorder, child development, developmental disabilities, eating disorders, forensic psychology, mental illness, mental retardation, organizational behavior management, public schools, quality management, rehabilitative services, self-injurious behavior including suicide, special education litigation, staff training and supervision, and violence prevention. The May Center for Applied Research was created in 1997 to supervise and coordinate research activity at the May Institute. The Center directs and supports research initiatives within the educational and healthcare services. Current research initiatives at the May Institute focus on evaluations of instructional and treatment methods, systems analyzes, comparative outcome assessments, clinical efficacy studies, documentation of large-scale program design, and behavior support and preventive interventions within public schools.
Reference 1.
The May Institute. (2007). May institute. Retrieved December 17, 2008, from www.mayinstitute.org
McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities ELIZABETH LEVIN Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada
Definition The McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities refer to a standardized psychological test that assesses a young child’s general cognitive abilities.
McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities
Description The McCarthy [3] Scales of Children’s Abilities developed by Dorothea McCarthy debuted in 1972. The test was developed based on McCarthy’s teaching and clinical experience and took into account what she called functional considerations. The McCarthy was one of the first assessment tools to be developed as an alternative to the better known Wechsler scales, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and the StanfordBinet. For its time, the McCarthy was considered to be a psychometrically sound instrument; while it maintained its popularity through the 1990s, because it has never been re-normed it has fallen out of favor in recent years [2]. The McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities are designed as an individually administered test of intelligence for children between the ages of 2½–8½ years of age. Test administration time ranges between 45 min and 1 h depending on the age and ability of the child. In lieu of yielding an IQ score as the measure of intellectual functioning, the McCarthy provides a general cognitive index (GCI). This was designed to avoid the misleading connotations that have been attributed to IQ scores [1]. The GCI provides an index of current functioning that does not mark anything as permanent about the child or indicate causal factors. In addition, information is provided on the child’s verbal and nonverbal ability, numerical aptitude, short-term memory and coordination. The McCarthy Scales contain 18 subtests that compose six scales. The Verbal Scale measures maturity of verbal concepts and includes tests of Pictorial Memory, Word Knowledge, Verbal Memory, Verbal Fluency and Opposite Analogies. Taken together, the scale is thought to measure the ability to comprehend verbal information and to express oneself through language. The PerceptualPerformance Scale measures nonverbal reasoning ability and visual-motor coordination. Its seven subtests include Block Building, Puzzle Solving, Tapping Sequence, RightLeft Orientation, Draw-A-Design, Draw-A-Child and Conceptual Grouping. The Quantitative Scale provides information on the child’s ability to use and understand number concepts using the three subtests of Number Questions, Numerical Memory, and Counting and Sorting. The total score based on these 15 subtests yields the GCI or overall assessment of the child’s cognitive abilities. The fifth scale, the Memory Scale is based on the four subtests which focus on auditory and visual short-term memory. These are the Pictorial Memory, Tapping Sequence, Verbal Memory and Numerical Memory subtests. The sixth scale, the Motor Scale provides an
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estimate of the child’s gross and fine motor coordination. It includes the Draw-A-Design and Draw-A-Child subtests as well as measures of Leg Coordination, Arm Coordination and Imitative Action. Raw scores on all scales are converted into standard scores so that the scale scores have means of 50 and standard deviations of 10. The GCI has a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of 16. The McCarthy was considered to be a well standardized test when it was published [4]. Its norms mirrored the 1970 US census data and 1,032 children were tested. The sample was stratified by gender, color (white/nonwhite), geographic region and father’s occupation. The test was determined to be reliable both over 1 month and 1 year intervals. Reliability coefficients for the GCI ranged from 0.90 to 0.85, respectively, although individual tests were not as reliable. The McCarthy was also considered valid when compared to other intelligence and achievement tests; however individual children sometimes showed discrepant scores and thus GCI scores may not be equivalent to IQ scores as found on either the Stanford-Binet or Wechsler tests [2]. When it was published in 1972 the McCarthy was a welcome addition to the field. It provided a test that could be used with children as young as 2½ years and its play like qualities made it an attractive test to use with such young children. The manual was considered thorough, the instructions for administration were clear and the test contents were not only well constructed they were easy for examiners to use and fostered interaction with the child. The test was especially suitable for assessing young children with learning problems or other delays. The McCarthy appeared to be a leading contender in the burgeoning field of child assessment, however, because the McCarthy has never been re-normed it has become outdated. Furthermore because the GCI was not equivalent to similar IQs its use for placement decisions has always been questionable. Had the McCarthy been renormed its limitations could have been addressed. These include the lack of any measures of social judgment or abstract reasoning, weak reliability of individual subtests and weak support for the scales as independent factors.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Bracken, B. (1991). The Psychoeducational assessment of preschool children (2nd ed.). Toronto: Allyn & Bacon. McCarthy, D. (1972). The McCarthy scales of children’s abilities. New York: The Psychological Corporation. Sattler, J. (1988). Assessment of children (3rd ed.). San Diego, CA: Jerome M. Sattler.
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Mean ▶Norms
Measurement Theory ▶Psychometrics
Media ASHLEA SMITH Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Synonyms Advertising; Announcement; Billboards; Books; Broadcast; Cable; Commercials; Communication; Correspondence; Intelligence; Magazines; Mass media; Medium; Music; News; Press; Print; Publishing; Radio; Television
Definition Media is a form of communicating a message or information to the public that comes in a variety of forms.
Description Media is the plural form of the word medium. Media also refers to the term mass media commonly utilized to describe an outlet for the means of communication; thus is associated with the press and news reporting agencies. The media is one of the greatest driving forces in society. We are all products and producers of our environment which is greatly shaped and molded by the information we receive from the press. Once this information is disseminated it is then interpreted based on one’s sensory perception (i.e. five senses sight, taste, touch, sound, and smell), and worldview of the messages sent. We must also take into account that ‘one’s perception is their reality’ which is intertwined with how an individual interprets and understands the barrage of messages sent out by the media. In addition, once an individual deciphers the data it has the potential to shape and mold individual’s thoughts, actions, behaviors, emotions, and ideals. This multi-billion dollar a year powerhouse is responsible for delivering information through a variety of avenues such as: television, Internet, mail, telephone, radio, news, magazines, books, billboards, and music etc.
Advertisements alone which in fact is “the most important aspect of mass media” produces over $40 billion a year in revenue through the mode of television and radio, and an estimated $30 billion a year in revenue from newspapers and magazines [3, p. 35]. The advertising industry can create a false sense of security and hope by marketing a product or concept that is disguised as something that will meet our basic human instinctual needs and desires. Kilbourne [2] stated that “advertisers know us better than we know ourselves, and they use this knowledge to take advantage of us” (p. 77). On the other hand these public institutions collectively deliver news that without this source of communication would leave people less informed. Media involves not just different methods to relay the information, but also key counterparts for example: broadcasters, entertainers, journalists, the paparazzi, newscasters, movie stars and celebrities, photojournalists, marketing and advertisement executives, photographers, news crews, and radio deejays just to name a few.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children are like sponges absorbing information they encounter in their environment from a variety of sources which includes the media to make sense of the world around them. Media exposure is something that begins in childhood, and continues as one advances through the lifespan. With this young innocence comes the ability to be easily influenced. The media not only targets adults as consumers, but children as well. Kilbourne [3] reported that these young consumers spend “$130 billion dollars a year of their parents spending to $8 billion dollars of their own money annually” (p. 44). With children’s spending habits reaching into the billions a year it is creating a market where companies and organizations customize their messages through various outlets of the media to reach their little consumers. The information broadcasts according to age-related interests such as toys, clothing, junk food, music, video games, and movies. As a child is moving through the different stages of development he or she can interpret these messages and the abundance of information as an integral part of their self identity on cognitive, emotional, and social levels with a particular focus on the ability to relate to others. Ward [5] discussed how media not only affects one’s beliefs about themselves, aggression, sexuality, and weight, but that television exposure also impacts the structure and functioning of the brain; thus providing a link between excessive television viewing and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (e.g., ADHD). Media use contributes to the modeling and the shaping of behaviors particularly
Mediated Learning
surrounding those related to the defining characteristics of what is considered feminine or masculine. Society defines what is acceptable for one to be considered ‘feminine or masculine’ based on the images portrayed by the media. If a child or adolescent deviates from what is socially acceptable this can increase the odd for social isolation and exclusion early on in childhood because of not “fitting in” to these specific molds outlined by societal standards of what is acceptable. Ward [5] further posits that "
Nearly every media portrayal, scene, and storyline conveys a message about normative and expected behaviors of women and men. From these portrayals, much can be learned about what types of women are considered attractive, which male behaviors draw scorn, and which life choices are rewarded. (p. 65)
Almost every home household at least in the United States has at least one television set in the home and children from lower income families where the parents have less education levels are more likely to watch more television than children from middle to upper socioeconomic status. The repeated television exposure can result in these children being exposed to the messages brought about by the media as the primary source of education both inside and outside the home. On the other hand, Linebarger and Piotrowski [4] found that since television is a popular and easily accessible medium it can assist children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds with parents with lower levels of education related to the processing of literacy skills, conceptual knowledge, vocabulary development, and even the early development of social skills by watching and listening to narrative-based television stories. This is particularly important when the parents of these children are unable to assist in the education preparation and school readiness due to a lack of financial resources and education. Fouts et al. [1] reviewed several television cartoons and Disney films to assess the use of the word “evil” when referring to a character and reported that 74% of the Disney animated movies and 44% of the television cartoons “indicated the modeling of demonizing for young viewers” (e.g., a person engaging in hurting someone else or to be considered as an evil person, monster, devil, demon, or wicked) (pp. 15–23). Fouts et al. [1] suggests that “watching Disney animated movies may influence children’s acquisition of demonizing labels and stereotypes as well as subsequent imitation of the use of such labeling behavior” (p. 20). The findings presented by Fouts et al. have a variety of implications not only for parents, but professionals working with children such as (a) the importance of parents and professionals being critics of children’s media, (b) educate children how to
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be savvy consumers, (c) professionals need to address the stereotypes highlighted in these different types of children’s media, and (d) both parents and professional need to take into consideration the beliefs children may adopt around “perceived wrong-doing may be influenced by observing demonizing in the media” (p. 21). Research findings show inconsistent data related to the usefulness or harm in using the media as an educational outlet for both children and adolescents. The first step begins with parents and professionals taking on active roles as critical consumers of media by monitoring the programs youth frequently view today. It is also important to take on active roles by creating media literacy programs to increase insight and create dialogue with children on these different messages, labels, or stereotypes that may be presented in different forms of media. By creating these types of programs can create a generation of young consumers who are able to “analyze and evaluate the media so that they may less vulnerable to the impact of media’s messages” as an integral part of understanding their place in the world, self-worth, and how to relate to others ([1], p. 21).
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
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Fouts, G., Callan, M., Piasentin, K., & Lawson, A. (2006). Demonizing in children’s television cartoons and Disney animated films. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 37, 15–23. Kilbourne, J. (1999). Deadly persuasion. New York: Free Press. Kilbourne, J. (2000). Can’t buy my love: How advertising changes the way we think and feel. New York: Touchstone. Linebarger, D. L., & Piotrowski, J. T. (2009). TV as storyteller: How exposure to television narratives impacts at-risk preschoolers’ story knowledge and narrative skills. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27, 47–69. Ward, L. M. (2005, Fall). Children, adolescents, and the media: The molding of minds, bodies, and deeds. New Direction For Child and Adolescent Development, 109, 65–71.
Media Influence ▶Social Learning Theory
Median ▶Norms
Mediated Learning ▶Dynamic Assessment
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Mediators ▶Variables, in Experimental Developmental Research
Medical Terms: AnabolicAndrogenic Steroids (AAS) ▶Anabolic Steroids
Medium ▶Media
Medulla CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Medulla oblongata
Definition The Medulla represents the lowest portion of the brainstem and plays a vital role in the regulation of functions such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.
Description The Medulla represents the lowest structure of the brainstem. It lies just below the Pons and just above the Spinal cord. The Medulla is the site at which the Vagus, Hypoglossal and Glossopharyngeal cranial nerves arise [1]. Functionally, the Vagus nerve controls the transmission of impulses to and from the CNS from and to the body [2]. In comparison, the Hypoglossal nerve corresponds functionally with the control of the tongue muscles while the Glossopharyngeal nerve corresponds with aspects of taste on the posterior portion of the tongue, tongue control and swallowing [2]. It is also the case that where the Medulla and Spinal Cord a structural region known as the Pyramidal Decussation originates. It is at this point that the majority of the fibers in the
Corticospinal tract, which is an essential sensory and motor pathway, cross over to the other side [1]. The functional impact of this is seen in the strong contralateral (i.e., opposite side) presentation of the sensory and motor systems. Specifically, due to this crossing over, sensory and motor functioning of one side of the body is controlled by the opposing side of the brain. As such, lesions above the Pyramidal Decussation (i.e., within the brain) produce contralateral (i.e., opposite-side) impairments [1]. For example, infarction (i.e., stroke) in the region of the right Middle Cerebral Artery may well produce paresis (i.e., weakness) of the left arm. However, lesions (i.e., injuries) below the Pyramidal Decussation will produce ipsilateral (same-side) impairment, as the tracts have yet to cross over [1]. For example, a right-sided lesion below the Pyramidal Decussation (within the spinal cord or peripheral limbs) would produce right-sided impairment in lieu of left, as would occur if the lesion was above the Pyramidal Decussation. Given it houses the Pyramidal Decussation, which is the site at which the brain and spinal cord truly join one another, the Medulla can be conceptualized as the point at which the back-andforth communication between these two main components of the CNS (i.e., brain and spine) really takes place [4]. Aside from being the origin site of the aforementioned cranial nerves and the Pyramidal Decussation, the Medulla itself, often referred to as the Medulla Oblongata, is charged with the functional duty of regulating vital functions such as respiration, blood pressure and heart rate, and basic muscle tone [4]. Given the Medulla’s role in these functions, in combination with its’ aforementioned relationship with key sensory and motor pathways, the types of outcomes following lesions (i.e., injuries) of the Medulla may range from subtle deficits of sensory and/or motor functioning to death [2]. In regards to its relationship to child development, the Medulla is one of the first areas of the CNS to develop, becoming functional in the early portions of the second trimester and is generally fully developed by the end of the second trimester [3]. This is essential given the vital functions the Medulla controls. As the Medulla activates in the early weeks of the second trimester, the fetus will begin to display critical reflexes such as continuous breathing movements that involves contractions of the diaphragm and chest muscles as well as sucking and swallowing reflexes. As the Medulla continues to develop over the course of the second trimester these reflexes become stronger and stronger. By the time the infant is born, these reflexes are now strong enough to allow them to breathe and feed outside of the womb.
Meehl, Paul Everett
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: Norton. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Medulla Oblongata CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Medulla
The Medulla Oblongata is one portion of the brain stem which regulates life sustaining functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
References 2. 3.
Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: Norton. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
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Description The Medulla Oblongata constitutes one of the four parts of the brainstem that also includes the Pons, structures of the Midbrain (i.e., Tectum and Tegmentum), and structures of the Diencephalon (i.e., Thalamus and Hypothalamus) [3]. It is part of the Hindbrain, which is the point at which the brain and Spinal Cord join together [1]. Functionally, it represents the area where communication between the brain and spinal cord takes place [3]. Through this line of communication, the Medulla’s pathways carry motor (i.e., movement and tone) and sensory (i.e., perception) information back-and-forth between the brain and Spinal Cord [1]. In addition to it being the juncture between the brain and spinal cord, the Medulla Oblongata can likely be called the most essential anatomical structure of the entire Central Nervous System as it plays a crucial role in life sustainment. Specifically, the Medulla Oblongata controls vital functions such as respiration, blood pressure and heart rate, and basic muscle tone [3]. Although minor damage to the Medulla Oblongata may only produce impairments of sensory and/or motor functioning, by disrupting the lines of communication between the brain and the Spinal Cord, at times damage to the Medulla Oblongata may actually lead to death due to disruption of those life sustaining functions previously noted [1].
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Developmentally, the Medulla is one of the most developed areas of the brain at birth and is important to the breathing and feeding capabilities of infants. The Medulla begins to develop towards the end of the first trimester, becoming functional by the beginning of the second trimester [2]. As neurons begin to activate in the Medulla, the fetus will begin to engage in critical reflexes including continuous breathing that involves contraction of the diaphragm and chest muscles as well as sucking and swallowing reflexes. These reflexes continue to strengthen throughout the second and, subsequently, the third trimester. As a result, when an infant is born most are capable of breathing and feeding because of the reflexive strengthening brought about by the development of the Medulla. This is in addition to the important role the Medulla plays in the control of blood pressure and heart rate, as well as basic muscle tone [3].
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Definition
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Meehl, Paul Everett MICHAEL C. CASSANO1, DOUGLAS W. NANGLE2 1 The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA 2 University of Maine, ME, USA
Life Dates 1920–2003
Introduction Dr. Meehl was a leading psychologist whose work profoundly influenced methods of psychological inquiry and the understanding of psychopathology and personality. A true philosopher of science, he addressed wide ranging issues including the identification of symptom categories, the validation of test procedures, statistical significance testing, the analysis of cause, the mind-body problem, and applications of metascience, and is credited with inducing actual paradigm shifts in several of these areas. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century [6]. It has been written that “Meehl’s contributions to psychopathology and personality research are without parallel” [1].
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Educational Information Meehl was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he remained to attend the University of Minnesota, completing his bachelor’s degree (1941) and doctorate of philosophy (1945). Among several prestigious faculty and applied positions, Meehl spent his career as Regents’ Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.
Accomplishments Suggestive of the breadth of his expertise and influence, Meehl served in faculty positions at the University of Minnesota in the departments of psychology, psychiatry, philosophy, neurology, and law. His corpus of published works has been praised for both its quantity and quality. Many of his almost 200 articles and books continue to rank amongst the most frequently cited publications. He has received countless honors and awards, including lifetime achievement awards from the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Foundation, and the American Association of Applied and Preventative Psychology, and served as the President of the American Psychological Association in 1962. An active clinician as well as researcher, he maintained his professional psychology license and was a Diplomate and Board Member of the American Board of Professional Psychology [9].
Contributions Meehl’s work was not just ahead of his time. Rather, in multiple areas of inquiry, he set standards for the profession that are still being strived for some 50 or more years later and thus remain at the cutting edge of the field today. For instance, in 1962 when environmental explanations for the etiology of schizophrenia were predominate, he took the stage at the annual American Psychological Association meeting and offered a presidential address positing that symptoms of schizophrenia result from an underlying neurological condition with a genetic basis [10]. In doing so, he predated current gene-environment paradigms by decades. In 1955, along with Lee Cronbach, he outlined a procedure for measuring psychological constructs that has been largely unmodified since its inception and remains a benchmark lesson for doctoral students in the field [3]. Similarly, his work in the areas of taxonomy, clinical versus statistical prediction, and significance testing are as relevant today as ever, if not more so given the expansion of applied psychology in recent decades [4, 5, 10]. His identification of “schizotaxia” or a schizoid taxon revolutionized the field of psychopathology. Puzzled by the great phenotypic diversity exhibited by patients
diagnosed with schizophrenia, Meehl proposed that the seeming heterogeneity of symptoms was actually consistent with a taxonomic model and followed an identifiable and distinct pattern [8]. Demonstrating the existence of such a “taxon” is critical because it supports categorical rather than dimensional distinctions between various diagnoses and thereby sets the stage for positing specific causes, most often biological in nature. For instance, unearthing the schizoid taxon allowed Meehl to propose that schizophrenia had a basis in genetics and that the phenotype was multidetermined, being influenced by genes, nonshared environmental influences, etc. [1]. In doing this work, Meehl developed taxometric procedures that questioned the precision of current diagnostic classifications and offered alternatives to the existing body of statistical procedures used to identify symptom clusters. Taxometrics involve complex mathematical procedures and algorithmic tests and reveal that, in addition to being a psychologist and philosopher of science, Meehl was also a very talented mathematician. The procedures and associated consistency tests developed by Meehl are now widely applied in the study of psychopathology [2, 10]. Along with colleague Lee Cronbach, Meehl helped to set the standards by which we measure and validate measures of hypothetical constructs [3]. In psychology, the focus of study is most typically phenomena that cannot be directly measured or verified, such as intelligence, creativity, personality, and the like. Objective measures like those used in other branches of science (e.g., thermometers, scales, and rulers) do not exist. This hampers progress in the field and has led to questions about whether psychology is indeed a “hard” science. In response, Cronbach and Meehl outlined a systematic process for establishing “construct validity” or the extent to which an instrument actually measures what it claims to measure. Central to this process was the establishment of a “nomological network.” That is, to establish that a given measure has construct validity, one would have to propose a theoretical framework for the construct behind the measure, an empirical basis for how it is to be measured, and specific links between the theoretical framework and any empirical findings. Though extraordinarily useful as a heuristic for guiding assessment, Meehl realized that ultimately the process of “evaluating” the extent to which a given measure exhibited construct validity was left to subjective analysis and statistical significance testing. As part of his broader work in metascience, Meehl described the many limitations of traditional nullhypothesis significance testing and offered alternative quantitative models for theory evaluation. For example, he described how various indexes, such as predictive
Mellaril®
accuracy, novelty, and reducibility, could be developed and used to compare theories in a more objective, actuarial manner [4]. Questions about traditional significance testing continue to pose major challenges to the field and Meehl’s contributions in this area have been credited with perhaps inspiring, and increasing receptivity to, recent developments such as effect size estimates, goodness-offit estimates, and investigation of structural models [1]. Not afraid of stirring controversy, Meehl also questioned the subjective nature of clinical decision making [7]. He reasoned that the majority of clinical decisions, such as prognosis and treatment selection, are based on predictions that are made by considering data from various sources, including interviews, tests, and observations. This consideration most often entails “clinical” combinations of the data that are informal, inferential, and subjective. In contrast, he described a “statistical” approach to data combination relying on more formal, mechanical, and algorithmic methods. Partly because of their consistent application of the data combination rules, Meehl argued that the statistical approaches would outperform the clinical approaches in making predictions and he provided supportive evidence in a review of the empirical literature. His conclusion that “heads” were outdone by “formulas” in the vast majority of cases still stands largely unchallenged and his book on the subject [7] has become a citation classic [5].
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Melancholy ▶Anhedonia
Mellaril Concentrate® ▶Mellaril®
Mellaril® ANISA FORNOFF Drake University, Ankeny, IA, USA
Synonyms Mellaril concentrate®; Mellaril-S®; Thioridazine
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the management of schizophrenia.
Description References 1. Baker, T. B., Chapman, L. J., & Chapman, J. (2006). Paul Meehl: Past and future lessons for the field. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 191. 2. Beuchaines, T. P. (2003). Taxometrics and developmental psychopathology. Development & Psychopathology, 15, 501–507. 3. Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281–302. 4. Faust, D. (2006). Paul Meehl as methodologist-philosopher of science: The formulation of metascience. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 205–209. 5. Grove, W. M., & Lloyd, M. (2006). Meehl’s contribution to clinical versus statistical prediction. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 192–194. 6. Haggbloom, S. J., Warnick, R., Warnick, J. E., Jones, V. K., Yarbrough, G. L., Russell, T. M., et al. (2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6, 139–152. 7. Meehl, P. E. (1954). Clinical versus statistical prediction: A theoretical analysis and a review of the evidence. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson (Original work published 1954). 8. Meehl, P. E. (1962). Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia. American Psychologist, 17, 827–838. 9. University of Minnesota (n.d.). Paul E. Meehl. Retrieved January 28, 2009 from http://www.tc.umn.edu/pemeehl/. 10. Waller, N. G. (2006). Carving nature at its joints: Paul Meehl’s development of taxometrics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 210–215.
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This medication is a typical antipsychotic available in an oral tablet, oral solution, or oral suspension. The recommended starting dose for adults and teenagers is 50–100 mg given one to three times a day. The recommended maximum daily dose is 800 mg. For children 6–12 years of age the recommended starting dose is 10–25 mg given two or three times a day. Dosages for children may be based on body weight and size. This medication may be taken with or without food. Avoid drinking alcohol and taking antacids within 2 h of taking this medication. Inform your doctor if you have kidney disease, heart disease, history of seizure disorder, or other medical conditions. Mellaril® may cause QTc prolongation, a potentially serious heart problem. Some side effects are listed here: twitching or muscle movements you cannot control, muscle spasms, increased blinking, sleepiness, blurred vision, dizziness, dry mouth, constipation, and dark urine. Tell your doctor immediately if you notice the following: fainting, loss of balance control, trembling of hands and fingers, or stiffness. This medication may cause lightheadedness when going from a lying or sitting position, so it is recommended to get up slowly. This medication may make you more sun sensitive. Your doctor
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may monitor your cholesterol, weight, blood sugar level, heart, mental status, and potassium level. This medication should be stored out of reach of children and pets and away from light, heat, and moisture.
Relevance to Childhood Development Mellaril® is FDA approved for use in children older than 2 years of age. Children and adolescents will be monitored closely. Women should let their doctor know if they are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. Talk with your doctor before breastfeeding.
References 1. 2.
Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. (2008). Hudson, OH: LexiCompany. Accessed September 3, 2008. USP DI. (2007). Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language (Vol II, 27th ed., pp. 1302–1310). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex.
Mellaril-S® ▶Mellaril®
Memorization STEPHANIE A. GROTE-GARCIA1, DOUGLAS J. LOVELESS2 1 University of the Incarnate Word College of Education, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA 2 Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
a remembrance of the sense of past experiences that constructs the foundation of new understandings of texts. Memories are linked in a vast hypertext held within the mind, organized into an intricate and internally consistent working model of the world. Memorization creates summaries of experiences so that not only is each fact, word, or experience remembered, but they are also categorized within the mind and integrated into a coherent whole allowing new facts, words, and experiences to be ascertained. Chunking information into groups capitalizes on connecting prior knowledge to new knowledge, which enhances learning. Therefore, memorization is a constructive process justifying the summaries of past experiences. Memorization is aided by discrepant events or emotional connection. Integrating and accessing emotional memory through music, art, and drama creates more links in the mental hypertext and increases the accessibility of information. Memorization must combine information with conceptualization and meaningful practice otherwise it is insufficient. Principles and techniques used to assist in memorization include: ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
References 1. 2.
Synonyms Cognitive Retention
structure;
Remembrance;
Reminiscence;
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Definition Memorization is a mental process that is used to deliberately store items in memory for later recall. Individuals may memorize items such as experiences, names, addresses, and grocery lists for later use.
Rote learning Mnemonic Mnemonic link system Peg system Major system Method loci Art of memory
5. 6. 7.
Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: a study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Improving adolescent literacy: content area strategies at work. Upper Saddle River: Pearson. Flavell, J. H., Friedrichs, A. G., & Hoyt, J. D. (1970). Developmental changes in memorization processes. Cognitive Psychology, 1(4), 324–340. Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct: how the mind creates language. New York: Harper Perennial. Richardson, J. S., & Morgan, R. F. (1997). Reading to learn in the content areas. Albany: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Routman, R. (2000). Conversations: strategies for teaching, learning, and evaluating. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Smith, F. (2004). Understanding reading. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Description Memorization does not merely mean creating an accumulation of facts or vocabulary words to be carried in the mind. This stereotype is too simplistic. The knowledge possessed by a reader that facilitates comprehension of written language is a part of long-term memory. It is
Memory ▶Critical Thinking
Memory Strategies
Memory Strategies RUSSELL N. CARNEY Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA
Synonyms Cognitive strategies; Learning strategies; Memory techniques; Mnemonic devices
Definition Memory strategies refer to any of a broad set of techniques that are designed to help one remember. Such strategies range from everyday, external aids (e.g., using a planner) to internal memory strategies (e.g., mnemonic devices) that facilitate storage and retrieval from long-term memory.
Description External Memory Strategies Memory strategies can be divided into two main categories: external and internal. External memory strategies tend to be everyday things we do that cue us to remember things [4]. McPherson [9] lists several common ones, including: using a calendar or blackberry, placing things in conspicuous places, jotting down reminder notes, making a shopping list, asking someone to help you remember, and setting a timer.
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a degree of cuing, simply saying the letters verbatim may not be enough of a clue to recover the name from longterm memory storage. Mnemonic devices: Mnemonic devices are specific, cognitive cuing strategies designed to aid memory. They change difficult material into more easily remembered material [11]. Bellezza [1] divided mnemonic devices into two general categories: encoding mnemonics and organizational mnemonics. Encoding mnemonics facilitate paired-associate learning, such as associating unfamiliar terms with their definitions, or associating names with faces. In this regard, popular encoding mnemonics are the keyword method and the face-name mnemonic, respectively. In particular, the keyword method has proven to be a versatile and effective technique in a variety of schoolrelated memory tasks, including the learning of states and their capitals (e.g., [5]). Organizational mnemonics tie together several bits of information in an ordered manner to facilitate serial learning. A simple example of an organizational mnemonic is the popular first-letter mnemonic. Students often learn the order of the colors in the spectrum by remembering ROY G. BIV (i.e., red, orange, yellow, etc.). Additional organizational mnemonics include the pegword method and the method of loci. These systematic techniques provide a set of visualizable “pegs” or “locations,” respectively, wherein to store a list of ordered information by way of interactive images. Mental imagery serves as the “glue” in many mnemonic techniques to hold things together (e.g., [8]).
Relevance to Childhood Development Internal Memory Strategies Simple techniques: Internal memory strategies take place mentally. Perhaps the most familiar of these techniques is rehearsal. Repeating something over and over in working memory is one way to retain information and to facilitate its storage in long-term memory. While rote rehearsal is often discounted in favor of other memory techniques involving elaboration, rehearsal is none-the-less a natural way for us to store information in memory. Further, rehearsing something beyond initial acquisition (i.e., overlearning) helps to stamp in the information. In this vein, testing oneself (i.e., retrieval practice) seems to be an especially effective technique, with expanding retrieval practice being an even better approach [2]. Expanding retrieval practice means testing oneself at ever-increasing intervals. Another common internal technique for, say, trying to recall someone’s name, is going down the alphabet to see if a letter “strikes a chord.” While this approach provides
As Thorne [13] has observed, the “memory demands for school-age children are much greater than they are for adults.” Thorne goes on to say that “an effective and efficient memory is critical for school success.” Indeed, research has shown that more successful students tend to make use of learning and memory strategies. And, knowledge and use of such strategies is closely tied to whether parents and educators have encouraged strategy use. For this reason, Pressley and McCormick [12] propose that memory strategies be taught directly in schools. A particular limitation of children in using imagerybased memory strategies is that, through the age of 8, children have difficulty in generating images linking two things together [10]. Additional difficulties have to do with maintenance and transfer. Difficulty in maintenance means that children may not continue to use a particular strategy, even after experiencing first-hand how useful it is. Transfer has to do with using a previously acquired
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memory strategy in a situation somewhat different from the original one in which the strategy was applied. Children (and even college students) have difficulty in this regard. Despite these difficulties, encouraging the use of memory strategies in the classroom has much to recommend it (e.g., [5]). A variety of memory improvement books are available, including Lorayne and Lucas’ [6] classic, The Memory Book, Higbee’s [3] Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It, and McPherson’s [9] The Memory Key: Unlock the Secrets to Remembering. McPherson also has a helpful website on memory at www.memory-key.com/ index.htm. In terms of special education applications, Mastropieri and Scruggs [7] have written a guide titled Teaching Students Ways to Remember: Strategies for Learning Mnemonically.
Memory Techniques ▶Memory Strategies ▶Mnemonic Device
Mendelian Genetics DANIEL PATANELLA New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms References 1. Bellezza, F. S. (1981). Mnemonic devices: Classification, characteristics, and criteria. Review of Educational Research, 51, 247–275. 2. Bjork, R. A. (1988). Retrieval practice and the maintenance of knowledge. In M. M. Gruneberg, P. E. Morris, & R. N. Sykes (Eds.), Practical aspects of memory: Current research and issues (pp. 396–401). New York: Springer. 3. Higbee, K. L. (1988). Your memory: How it works and how to improve it. New York: Prentice-Hall. 4. Intons-Peterson, M. J., & Newsome III, G. L. (1992). External memory aids: Effects and effectiveness. In D. Herrmann, H. Weingartner, A. Searleman, & C. McEvoy (Eds.), Memory improvement: Implications for memory theory (pp. 101–121). New York: Springer. 5. Levin, J. R. (1993). Mnemonic strategies and classroom learning: A 20-year report card. Elementary School Journal, 94, 235–244. 6. Lorayne, H., & Lucas, J. (1974). The memory book. New York: Ballantine Books. 7. Mastropieri, M. A., & Scruggs, T. E. (1991). Teaching students ways to remember: Strategies for learning mnemonically. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books. 8. McDaniel, M. A., & Pressley, M. (Eds.). (1987). Imagery and related mnemonic processes: Theories, individual differences, and applications. New York: Springer. 9. McPherson, F. (2000). The memory key: Unlock the secrets to remembering. New York: Barnes and Noble. 10. Pressley, M., & Levin, J. R. (1978). Developmental constraints associated with children’s use of the keyword method for foreign language vocabulary learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 26, 359–372. 11. Pressley, M., Levin, J. R., & Delaney, H. D. (1982). The mnemonic keyword method. Review of Educational Research, 52, 62–91. 12. Pressley, M., & McCormick, C. B. (1995). Advanced educational psychology for educators, researchers, and policymakers. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers. 13. Thorne, G. (2008). 10 strategies to enhance students’ memory. Retrieved August 18, 2008, from http://www.cdl.org/resourcelibrary/articles/memory_strategies_May06.php?type=recent&id=Yes
Law of independent assortment; Law of segregation; Mendelian inheritance
Definition Mendelian inheritance refers to the properties of inherited single traits, as described by the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment.
Description Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884) was an Austrian monk who conducted botanical experiments in plant hybridization in the garden of his monastery. Although a contemporary of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), Mendel’s [2] published work Experiments in Plant Hybridization (1865) failed to attract scientific notice until 1900, when it then became apparent that Mendel’s genetic discoveries helped to explain the mechanisms of inheritance necessary for Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection. Mendel experimented with seven easily identifiable traits of common flowering pea plants. His logic and methodology are elegant. First, he bred several consecutive generations of pea plants via self-fertilization to ensure that the observed traits were constant and the respective plants were pure strains. Then, he would cross-fertilize the plants and record the appearances of the offspring. This first generation of offspring was referred to as the first filial or F1 generation. He would cross-fertilize examples of the F1 generation and record the appearance of the new offspring once more. This second generation of offspring was referred to as the second filial or F2 generation. Mendel would then breed several subsequent generations of pea plants using self-fertilization, repeating the process for all seven traits he studied. While other researchers had attempted the study of plant hybridization before, Mendel
Mental Ability Testing
was the first to quantify his results, thereby discovering a constant rate of segregation in the F2 generation later known as the Mendelian ratio. As an example, consider that Mendel cross-bred pea plants with purple and white flowers. In the F1 generation, all the flowers appeared purple (and not pink as other researchers might have predicted). In the F2 generation, three out of four of the plants had purple flowers, and one out of four had white flowers. The white flower trait appeared to vanish entirely in the F1 generation, only to reappear in a predictable ratio in the F2 generation. From this, Mendel inferred that the trait never truly vanished, but was present and not expressed in the F1 generation. This inference was an important scientific step, because in Mendel’s time chromosomes were not understood and DNA had not yet been discovered. Mendel made his breakthrough by studying the careful tabulation of his data, making logical inferences, and replicating his results. Mendel discovered that genes possess alternate forms known as alleles. Some alleles will be displayed in an organism whenever they are present; these are referred to as “dominant.” Some alleles will only be displayed in an organism when both copies of the gene are present; these are referred to as “recessive.” Thus, Mendel made an important distinction between genotype (the genetic makeup of a living thing) and phenotype (the appearance of a living thing). Just because an organism displays a trait does not mean that it is pure; living things whose alleles match are called “homozygous” and living things with different alleles are called “heterozygous.” According to the Mendelian ratio, in the F2 generation three out of four offspring will display the dominant phenotype and is referred to as the law of segregation. Furthermore, Mendel experimented with combining the seven different traits. He learned that the inheritance of each trait was independent of the inheritance of other traits. In other words, possessing a dominant genotype for one trait does not influence the probability of possessing a dominant genotype for a different trait. This is referred to as the law of independent assortment. Not all traits can be understood within the framework of Mendelian inheritance. The traits Mendel studied were all single-factored, whereas most traits in most organisms are multi-factored and subject to the influence of multiple gene interactions. Furthermore, a variety of traits are sexlinked. In humans, this means that the trait occurs on the X version of the sex chromosome and will be displayed either if it is present on both members of the X chromosome pair (if the organism is female, possessing
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an XX pair) or if the organism is male (thereby possessing an XY chromosome pair by definition).
Relevance to Childhood Development The study of Mendelian inheritance is important for students of childhood development because it provides the essential building blocks for understanding more complex patterns of inheritance. While most human traits cannot be reduced to a single gene, several childhood diseases (such as Tay-Sachs disease and cystic fibrosis) are recessive and inherited via Mendelian genetics. Acknowledgement This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
References 1.
2. 3.
Corcos, A., & Monaghan, F. (1990). Mendel’s work and its rediscovery: A new perspective. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 9, 197–212. Mendel, G. (1865/1965). Experiments in plant hybridization (English translation). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Morgan, T. H. (1910). Sex-limited inheritance in Drosophila. Science, 32, 120–122.
Mendelian Inheritance ▶Mendelian Genetics
Menrium ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Mental Ability ▶Mental Age
Mental Ability Testing ▶Intelligence Testing
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Mental Age
Mental Age AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
(IQ) was developed [3]. An IQ could be generated by dividing the mental age of the child by the child’s actual age and multiply the result by 100. The concept of IQ is now most commonly used to identify the level of intellectual functioning of a child [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development Synonyms Academic ability; Intellectual ability; IQ; Mental ability
Definition Mental age, often abbreviated MA, is a measure of mental ability as determined by intelligence tests.
Description Mental age (mental level) was developed as a means of measuring a child’s mental ability using intelligence tests. The concept was devised by Alfred Binet and his colleague Theodore Simeon, who had been commission by the French government to investigate education for children with mental disability and specifically, to develop a method of distinguishing the normal child from the child with intellectual disability whom would not benefit from normal schooling [3]. The subsequent scales that were developed by Binet and Simeon used a variety of tests items that they selected as being suitable to assess a particular ability. The test performance of 300 normally functioning French children between 3 and 13 years was used to determine the age at which a child could be expected to pass a particular test item [4]. The test levels were determined by whether 80– 90% of normal children of this age could pass the test items [4]. For example, items passed by the majority of 4 year olds were placed on a 4 year level, whereas those items passed by the majority of 5 year olds were placed on a 5 year old level. Using the different levels of test items that they had developed, a child’s mental level could then be determined as the highest mental level achieved. However, children more often had a scatter of scores. Therefore the concept of basal was often used, and was the highest level at which all tests were passed (basal level), with months of credit added for areas of where the child had passed at a higher age level [2]. The term mental age was substituted for mental level, as it was considered an easier concept [2]. The first major revision of the testing developed by Binet and Simeon was conducted by Lewis Terman [5] who translated the test into English, and developed the test items for American use, renaming it the Stanford – Binet. At this point the concept of an Intelligence Quotient
The development of the concept of mental age and IQ has had a significant impact on educational methods used, and also on how many of the existing childhood psychiatric disorders are conceptualized. In terms of benefits, the evaluation of mental age and IQ provides an objective and standardized way to assess a child’s overall intellectual ability. Further, it enables a child’s strengths and weaknesses to be identified, and thereby providing a means to target appropriate intervention and or extension. The identification of a child’s IQ or mental age provides a common language for professionals and is a core diagnostic feature of a many of psychiatric disorders that occur in childhood. That is, for example, diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder requires that the child’s behavior be more excessive than would be expected for their mental age. Moreover IQ is also used to determine whether a child’s intellectual deficits are of sufficient severity to warrant a diagnosis of mental retardation [1]. However, there are also a number of disadvantages associated with the concept of mental age and IQ. Many tests contained in these batteries have been criticized as culturally insensitive [4]. This is an extremely important issue when one considers the impact that an IQ score can have on a child’s educational opportunities. Further, as has been pointed out previously, intelligence testing provides a “snap shot” of an individuals functioning, which may be affected by other factors such as mood and motivation.
References 1.
2. 3. 4. 5.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Text revision (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cianciolo, A. T., & Sternberg, R. J. (2004). Intelligence a brief history. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Jacoby, R., & Glauberman, N. (1995). The bell curve debate. New York: Random House. Lewis M. Terman (1916). The measurement of intelligence. New York: Boston.
Mental Computation ▶Computational Skills
Mental Retardation
Mental Deficiency ▶Mental Retardation ▶Mild Mental Retardation ▶Moderate Mental Retardation ▶Profound Mental Retardation ▶Severe Mental Retardation
Mental Disorders ▶Psychological Disorders ▶Psychopathology
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Mental Models ▶Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)
Mental Retardation SARA E. HOFFENBERG Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Cognitive impairment; Developmental disabilities; Intellectual disability; Mental deficiency
Definition
Mental Health ▶Psychological Disorders
Mental retardation is defined as significantly subaverage ▶intellectual ability and concurrent delays in ▶adaptive functioning which present prior to the age of 18.
Description
Mental Health Counselors ▶Child Counselors ▶Counselors
Mental Illness ▶Psychological Disorders ▶Psychopathology
Mental Illness/Disorder ▶Emotional Disturbance
Mental Mapping ▶Abstract Mapping
The term “Mental Retardation” has come to be associated with a negative stigma; therefore, it is now commonly referred to as an “intellectual disability.” Mental retardation (MR) or intellectual disability is characterized by both the American Association for Mental Disorders (AAMR) and the Diagnostic and Statistical ManualFourth Edition-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) as significantly subaverage intellectual ability and concurrent delays in adaptive functioning, which present prior to the age of 18 [1, 2, 3]. Adaptive functioning is generally defined as one’s general independence level (i.e., independent self care, communication, socialization, coping, academic functioning, work functioning, etc.) given age expected developmental population norms, which should be based on the individual’s sociocultural and community background [8, 9]. Standardized measures of adaptive behavior, such as the Vineland Adaptive Behavior ScalesSecond Edition and Scales of Independent Behavior – Revised, are often used to assess adaptive behavior through caregiver report or interview. The DSM-IV discusses five categories or degrees of severity that describe the individual’s level of intellectual impairment. The appropriate category for an individual is based upon his or her performance on one of several intelligence measures, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) or Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales – Fifth Edition. Significantly subaverage intellectual functioning
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is defined as an IQ score below 70, which corresponds to approximately two standard deviations below the population mean. These categories include: mild mental retardation (IQ score: 50–55 to 70), moderate mental retardation (IQ score: 35–40 to 50–55), severe mental retardation (IQ score: 20–25 to 35–40, profound mental retardation (IQ score: below 20–25), and severity unspecified (strong belief of intellectual impairment, although the person cannot be assessed through standard intelligence testing) [2]. The AAMR definition is similar; however, it places further emphasis on examining each individual’s limitations and conducting a valid assessment that considers the individual’s context (i.e., age, peers, cultural background, communication abilities, sensory skills, motor skills, and behavioral factors). It also places emphasis on examining the individual’s strengths, level of needed support, and the importance of recognizing that with intervention/support the individual’s overall functioning will improve [1].
syndrome [4, 8]. While there are numerous known etiologies of MR, no definitive etiology can be determined in approximately 30–40% of individuals with MR [2].
Associated Features
The prevalence of MR is thought to range between 1 and 3% of the general population. Approximately 85% of those with MR fall within the mild range, 10% fall within the moderate range, 3–4% fall within the severe range, and 1–2% fall within the profound range. MR is more prevalent in males. The male to female ratio is approximately 1.5:1 [2]. There is no known difference in prevalence of MR due to genetic factors in the different socioeconomic statuses. However, MR due to environmental factors, such as malnutrition or premature birth is more common among individuals in the lower socioeconomic range [2].
The behavior patterns and personality characteristics of those with MR are not consistently different from the behavior and personality of those with average cognitive ability. However, often times the behavior and personality characteristics of individual’s with MR more closely match the characteristics of those with a younger chronological age [9]. For instance, those without functional communication may display aggressive behavior in an attempt to communicate, which is often seen in children who have not yet developed language [2]. The specific behavioral and cognitive patterns seen in individuals with MR often correlate more highly with the specific etiology, rather than the general diagnosis of MR [5]. However, various life experiences that decrease one’s motivation and self esteem may be more likely for those with MR, which in turn may lead to a number of negative outcomes affecting many areas of one’s personality, behavioral style, and subsequent life experiences [9]. The prevalence of comorbid disorder is significantly higher than within the general population. This may be due in part to a common etiology, although this varies case by case. The most common comorbid disorders are Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Mood Disorders, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Stereotypic Movement Disorder, and Mental Disorders Due to a General Medical Condition [2].
Etiology
Relevance to Childhood Development
MR has been linked to many known etiologies while many continue to be unknown. It is linked to several genetic disorders, including Tay-Sachs Disease, Tuberous Sclerosis, Fragile X Syndrome, and Down’s Syndrome. It is also associated with ▶pervasive developmental disorders, including, Autistic Disorder, Rett’s Disorder, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder [8, 9]. A combination of genetic and nutritional factors during the prenatal period or in early childhood is also linked to the development of MR [6]. Problems during the prenatal period include, but are not limited to, hypoxia, fetal malnutrition, maternal drug use, untreated maternal phenylketonuria, fetal stroke, chemical exposure, prematurity, low birth weight, viral infections, and trauma [4, 8]. Problems during early childhood include, but are not limited to, infection, toxic exposure, injury, and neglect/deprivation. The most common causes of MR are Down’s Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, and Velocariofacial
Children with MR typically show global delays in most areas of development; including communication, gross and fine motor, self-care, socialization, academic, and coping skills. The level of delay typically correlates with the severity of the child’s cognitive impairment and subsequent age at diagnosis. An appropriate assessment of cognitive functioning, needs assessment for treatment, and subsequent intervention are vital to assist the child in meeting his or her optimum potential. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA, 1997) continues to improve the educational opportunities for children with MR and other disabilities. It requires that each child receive an appropriate education/curriculum with support in the least restrictive environment. During early childhood, prior to age 3, each state is required to provide intervention. This begins by developing an individualized family service plan (IFSP), which outlines specific goals and interventions for a given child [7].
Prevalence
Mercury
Once the child reaches the age of 3, the public school system staff and parents will develop an individualized education plan (IEP), which outlines goals (i.e., academic, social, vocational, etc.) and interventions to assist the child in reaching those goals [7]. The type of environment depends on the needs of the child. For many children with mild MR this environment may be one of full inclusion or partial inclusion with their typical peers, while children with more significant impairments may participate in a self-contained classroom. It is always necessary to consider the benefits and costs of each child’s educational plan for their learning [8].
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. 7.
8. 9.
American Association on Mental Retardation. (2004). Fact sheet: Frequently asked questions about mental retardation. Accessed Dec 16, 2009, from http://www.aamr.org/content_104.cfm American Psychological Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Center for Disease Control. (2005). Developmental disabilities: Intellectual disability. Accessed Dec 16, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/ ncbddd/dd/ddmr.htm Daily, D. K., Ardinger, H. H., & Holmes, G. E. (2000). Identification and evaluation of mental retardation. American Family Physician, 61, 1059–1067. Farah, M. J., & Feinberg, T. E. (Eds.). (2006). Patient-based approaches to cognitive neuroscience (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A., & Rojahn, J. (Eds.). (2007). Handbook of intellectual and developmental Disabilities. New York: Springer. National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. Intellectual disability (formerly mental retardation). Accessed Dec 16, 2009, from http://www.nichcy.org/Disabilities/Specific/Pages/ IntellectualDisability.asp Roberts, M. C. (Ed.). (2003). Handbook of pediatric psychology (3rd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Sattler, J. M. (2002). Assessment of children: Behavioral and clinical applications (4th ed.). San Diego, CA: Jerome M. Sattler.
Mental Retardation with Osteocartilaginous Abnormalities ▶Coffin-Lowry Syndrome
Mentalizing ▶Mindblindness
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Meprobamate (Mil-Town) ▶Depressants
Mercury MADELINE GROSS Fordham University, Mount Vernon, NY, USA
Synonyms Hydrargyrum; Quicksilver
Definition Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg, named for the Latin Hydrargyrum, meaning watery or liquid silver. Mercury, with an atomic number 80, is a heavy, d-block metal, and is the only metal liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. Though used for the manufacture of industrial chemicals, electrical and electronic applications, and thermometers, mercury is now recognized as a neurotoxin and has been slowly fazed out of use by changes to health and safety regulations noticeable hazard to human health and the environment.
Description Mercury has an atomic number of 80, indicating the presence of 80 protons and 80 electrons in a neutral atom, and an atomic weight of 200.59 g/mol. Mercury is located in period number 6, group number 12, and is a dblock transitional metal with an Electron configuration [Xe] 4f14 5d10 6s2 and two valence electrons. Mercury is a liquid at room temperature, with a melting point of 234.32 K ( 38.83 C or 37.89 F) and a boiling point of 629.88 K (356.73 C or 674.11 F). The element has a density of 13.534 g/cm3, a Heat of fusion of 2.29 kJ/mol, a Heat of vaporization of 59.11 kJ/mol, and a Specific heat capacity (at 25 C) of 27.983 J/mol·K. There are seven stable isotopes of mercury with Hg202 being the most abundant (29.86%). The longest-lived radioisotopes are 194Hg with a half-life of 444 years, and 203 Hg with a half-life of 46.612 days. Most of the remaining radioisotopes have half-lives that are less than a day. Mercury dissolves to form amalgams (compounds containing mercury) with gold, zinc and many metals. When heated, mercury also reacts with oxygen in air to form mercury oxide, which then can be decomposed by
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further heating to higher temperatures, and reacts with atmospheric hydrogen sulfide. Mercury does not react with most acids, such as dilute sulfuric acid, though it does react with strong oxidizing acids such as concentrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Mercury reacts with solid sulfur flakes, which may be used in mercury spill kits to absorb mercury vapors (spill kits also use activated charcoal and powdered zinc).
Prevalence Mercury is an extremely rare element in the Earth’s crust, having an average crustal abundance by mass of only 0.08 ppm. Mercury ores, however, can be extraordinarily concentrated considering the element’s abundance in ordinary rock, with the richest mercury ores contain up to 2.5% mercury by mass, and even the leanest concentrated deposits are at least 0.1% mercury (12,000 times average crustal abundance). Natural sources such as volcanoes are responsible for approximately half of atmospheric mercury emissions. The human-generated half comes primarily from stationary combustion due to coal-fired power plants (65%). 11% of the mercury emissions are due to gold production, and 3% is a result of waste-disposal and incineration.
Uses Mercury is most well known for its use in thermometers, though it is also used in other types of scientific apparatuses. Mercury-vapor lamps have been used as a source of ultraviolet light and for sterilizing water. Mercury combines with all the common metals except iron and platinum to form alloys that are called amalgams, often used in dentistry. This element is also used commercially for the creation of disinfectants and germicides, the pigment vermillion, and electrodes and electrical systems. Because of the extremely toxic effects of mercury, the use of the metal and its compounds has been reduced in several industries, including pharmaceuticals, dentistry, and agriculture.
Toxicity Mercury is a toxic and hazardous substance that can be inhaled and absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes, or through direct ingestion. Short-term, limited contact with mercury can cause acute symptoms such as bleeding gums, vomiting, and stomach pain. Mercury poisoning, due to prolonged and severe mercury exposure, is potentially fatal and can cause irreversible brain, liver, and kidney damage. Research has demonstrated that unsafe levels of mercury can cause neurological damage, particularly in young children and fetuses. Repeated
exposure to small amounts mercury can also result in later mercury poisoning due to the ability for the element to accumulate in the cells of the body. Ingestion can occur through contamination of the food sources. Concern over the potential health hazards of mercury levels in the environment led the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue consumption guidelines in March 2004, indicating notice that pregnant women, children, nursing mothers, and women who may become pregnant should not eat certain foods known to contain some levels of mercury, including shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish.
Relevance to Childhood Development Studies have demonstrated that exposure to mercury during fetal development can have serious effects on brain and body development. In a study of a widespread mercury exposure in Minamata, Japan, pregnant women who consumed the contaminated fish manifested mild or no symptoms but gave birth to infants with severe developmental disabilities, including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and seizures. Mercury exposure may be more commonplace than assumed. Neonates and infants may be particularly sensitive to exposure. Toddlers may come in contact with or ingest mercury from spills (such as from thermometer breakage) that collect on the floor after inappropriate cleaning. The Food and Drug Administration has also indicated that on the basis of current fish consumption patterns among pregnant women of childbearing age in the United States, over 60,000 children are born each year at risk for adverse neurodevelopmental effects due to mercury exposure. While there is negligible evidence that the low-level mercury in some vaccinations can lead to later brain damage, some members of the global community are forgoing having their children immunized fearing exposure to mercury from the vaccines. Such practices occurring on a large enough scale, however, could seriously compromise disease control, leading to a greater risk to child health and development than mercury might present.
References 1. 2.
Davidson, P. W., Myers, G. J., & Weiss, B. (2004). Mercury exposure and child development outcomes. Pediatrics, 113(4), 1023–1029. de Laeter, J. R., Bo¨hlke, J. K., de Bievre, P., Hidaka, H., Peiser, H. S., Rosman, K. J. R., et al. (2003). Atomic weights of the elements. Review 2000 (IUPAC Technical Report) – Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses. Pure and Applied Chemistry, 75(6), 683–800 and Atomic Weights Revised (2005). http://www.ec.gc.ca/ MERCURY/EN/bf.cfm
Meta-Analysis 3.
4. 5. 6.
7.
8.
Harada, Y. (1968). Congenital (or fetal) Minamata disease. In Study Group of Minamata Disease (Ed.), Minamata disease (pp. 93–118). Kumamoto, Japan: Kumamoto University. Mercury and the environment – Basic facts. Environment Canada, Federal Government of Canada, 2004. National Research Council. (2000). Toxicological effects of methylmercury. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Pacyna, E. G., Pacyna, J. M., Steenhuisen, F., & Wilson, S. (2006). Global anthropogenic mercury emission inventory for 2000. Atmospheric Environment, 40(22), 4048–4063. doi:10.1016/j. atmosenv.2006.03.041. Trasande, L., Schechter, C. B., Haynes, K. A., & Landrigan, P. J. (2006). Mental retardation and prenatal methylmercury toxicity. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 49, 153–158. Wang, X., Andrews, L., Riedel, S., & Kaupp, M. (2007). Mercury is a transition metal: The first experimental evidence for HgF4. Angewandte Chemie International Edition (Weinheim: WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA), 46(44), 8371–8375.
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existing research literature in a non-biased manner by using a quantitative approach.
Description Meta-analysis was first employed by the field of psychology to assist in determining the effectiveness of interventions, but has been widely applied in the fields of medicine and education. To conduct a meta-analysis the investigator must:
– define the range of years from which to draw studies, typically a 10–20 year time period
– define the problem to investigate – define the participants, (i.e., age, diagnoses, geographical region)
– specify the treatment or intervention to evaluate – collect all the published articles that meet the criteria through rigorous research
Mercy-Killing ▶Active Euthanasia
Messenger RNA Messenger RNA or ribonucleic acid is a molecule of RNA encoding a chemical blueprint for protein products. Messenger RNA is transcribed from a DNA template and carries coding information to the sites of protein synthesis known as ribosomes. In messenger RNA as in DNA, genetic information is encoded in the sequence of nucleotides arranged into codons consisting of three bases each. Each codon encodes for a specific amino acid. This process also requires transfer RNA which mediates recognition of the codon, provides the corresponding amino acid and ribosomal DNA which is the central component of the ribosomes protein manufacturing machinery.
Meta-Analysis Synonyms Meta-analytic review
Definition In statistics, a meta-analysis or meta-analytic review synthesizes and describes the results from a large number of studies on a common topic. It provides a summary of the
– conduct a statistical analysis The statistical analysis compares the pre-treatment or baseline data to the post-treatment data. This requires the use of z-score transformations of the data which set the baseline data points to zero. This procedure allows for comparisons between baseline and post-treatment data from various dependent measures. The transformations also allow the researcher to compare treatments by effect size, a measure of the strength or magnitude of the independent variable on the dependent variable. More simply, an effect size assigns a numerical value that describes how effective a treatment is. Meta-analytic results are typically reported in effect sizes. There are several statistical methods used to report effect sizes. The most common is Cohen’s d, which compares the baseline phase and treatment phase means. It is calculated by subtracting the mean of the treatment phase from the mean of baseline phase and dividing this value by the standard deviation at baseline. Values close to zero suggest that the intervention or independent variable had little effect on the dependent variable, whereas values closer to 1.0 describe very large changes possibly attributable to the independent variable or intervention. Other statistical methods for calculating effect sizes include Percentage of Non-Overlapping Data Points (PND), Busk and Serlin’s No Assumptions Method, and Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses; some are known to be more strict and thus produce conservative estimates while others may overestimate effects. This is a common criticism of analyzing effect sizes. Another problem with meta-analyses is the “file drawer problem”. This refers to the fact that most
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published research papers only report positive intervention findings, leaving studies with null findings unpublished. Therefore, when one goes to conduct a meta-analysis the results may reflect only positive intervention results, failing to account for an unknown number of studies suggesting less favorable results. Nevertheless, meta-analysis is a powerful tool for summarizing results across studies.
References 1.
Sternberg, R. J. (2009). Cognitive Psychology, 5th Edition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning: Belmont, CA.
Metacognitive Awareness ▶Metacognition
Meta-Analytic Review ▶Meta-Analysis
Metacognition Synonyms
Metacognitive Strategies ▶Metacognition
Metadate CD (Methylphenidate)
Critical thinking; Metacognitive awareness; Metacognitive strategies
ANNA L. LOPEZ University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition
Synonyms
Simply defined, metacognition is thinking about one’s own thinking. More technically, metacognition involves the ability to evaluate one’s own comprehension of subject matter and use that evaluation to predict how well one might perform a task. It refers to our understanding and control over our own thinking processes including awareness, control, and regulation.
Description Considered a subcomponent of metacognition, metamemory involves reflecting on our own memory processes with the goal of improving our memory. Metacognitive abilities appear to increase with age through early adulthood and are associated with improvements in encoding and retrieving memories and processing speed. The allocation of attention and ability to hold and manipulate information in one’s working memory are also heavily dependent on metacognitive thinking strategies. For example, these strategies include mnemonic devices, rehearsal, and response inhibition. In the domain of cognitive neuroscience, metacognitive monitoring and control has been viewed as a function of the prefrontal cortex, which receives and monitors sensory signals from other cortical regions and implements control.
Metadate CD®; Metadate ER®; Methylphenidate
Definition Metadate® is a stimulant medication FDA approved for children 6 and older for the treatment of ADHD.
Description This medication is a psychostimulant. Similar to most other stimulant medications, the active ingredient in Metadate® is methylphenidate. The medication is available in two forms of extended release capsules. Metadate CD® provides 30% of the methylphenidate dose by immediate release beads and 70% by extended-release beads and is reported to have an 8 h duration of action. Metadate CD® (available in 10, 20, and 30 mg) capsules can be opened and the medication spheres can be sprinkled into applesauce. Metadate® is also available in a slowly absorbed tablet (Metadate ER®) with methylphenidate incorporated in a wax matrix tablet, allowing gradual diffusion reported to have a 6–8 h duration of action. Metadate ER® (available in 10 and 20 mg) is usually administered twice daily and must be taken whole. There is no universally agreed-upon method for dosing with stimulants; doses are individualized according to the child’s clinical response. Some clinicians utilize the
Microcephaly
child’s weight as a guideline and others begin at the approved dose range until a clinical response occurs. The approved dosage starts at 20 mg and increases by 10–20 mg/day at weekly intervals as needed. The maximum daily dose of Metadate® is 60 mg. Possible side effects include insomnia, appetite loss, weight loss, rebound hyperactivity, headache, tachycardia, precipitation or exacerbation of tic disorders, and possibly growth delay.
Relevance to Childhood Development Methylphenidate, the active ingredient in Metadate®, is the most commonly used stimulant prescribed for children with ADHD. Beneficial effects of psychostimulants may include reduced hyperarousal, reduced motor restlessness, enhanced concentration, and less aggressive and antisocial behavior. Metadate® is not FDA approved for children under the age of 6.
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Methaqualone (Quaalude) ▶Depressants
Methylphenidate ▶Metadate CD (Methylphenidate) ▶Ritalin® ▶Stimulant Medications
Methylphenidate (Generic) ▶Concerta® (Methylphenidate)
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
Greydanus, D. E., Feucht, C., & Tzima-Tsitsika, E. (2008). Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In D. E. Greydanus, J. L. Calles, & D. R. Patel (Eds.), Pediatric and adolescent psychopharmacology: a practical manual for pediatricians (pp. 77–102). New York: Cambridge University Press. Marangell, L. B., & Martinez, J. M. (2006). Stimulants. In L. B. Marangell & J. M. Martinez (Eds.), Concise guide to psychopharmacology (pp. 171–200). Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing. Paykina, N., & Greenhill, L. (2008). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In R. L. Findling (Ed.), Pediatric psychopharmacology (pp. 33–97). Washington: American Psychiatric Publishing. Sadock, B. J., & Sadock, V. A. (2003). Psychiatric treatment of children and adolescents. In B. J. Sadock & V. A. Sadock (Eds.), Kaplan and Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry (pp. 1295–1307). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Metadate CD® ▶Metadate CD (Methylphenidate)
Metadate ER® ▶Metadate CD (Methylphenidate)
Metalloprotein ▶Hemoglobin
Methyltheobromide ▶Caffeine
Methyprylon (Noludar) ▶Depressants
Microcephaly BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Definition Microcephaly is a cephalic disorder, or a disorder resulting from damage or abnormal development of the developing nervous system [6]; it is a clinically diagnostic term assigned to a head circumference significantly smaller then what is considered normal or average for a given individual’s sex and age [11]. There is some disagreement as to the defining features of a diagnosis of microcephaly. Abuelo [1] stated most researchers consider microcephaly to be present when person’s head circumference is two
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standard deviations ( 2 SD) below normal for a given age and sex. Others argue that a head circumference of three standard deviations ( 3 SD) below the age and sex appropriate norm is the cut-off point for defining microcephaly [3, 10, 11]. The disagreement about diagnostic criteria also leads to differences in the estimates of its incidence. If the criterion of 2 SD is adopted, then roughly 2% of the population has microcephaly; adhering to the 3 SD criteria means that only about 0.1% of the population display microcephaly [1].
Deficits of Brain Development Individuals born with this cephalic disorder display a significantly smaller ▶brain; head circumference is a useful but indirect measure of the size of the brain [3]. The brain that is present is missing the ▶cerebral cortex (the neocortex) of the cerebral hemispheres, the greatest share of the mass of the cerebral hemispheres [2]. Microcephaly can be separated into primary microcephaly in which the brain fails to reach expected correct size in prenatal development and secondary microcephaly in which the brain does attain an expected normal size at birth but fails to subsequently undergo normal postnatal brain development and growth [10]. Primary microcephaly is thought to be due to insufficient cellular division to produce the appropriate number of brain neurons during prenatal neurogenesis and secondary microcephaly is the result of a significantly reduced growth and branching of neuronal fibers, primarily the dendrites and a reduction in the number of synaptic connections amongst the neurons [10]. Hence, primary microcephaly is considered to be present at birth or ▶congenital and secondary microcephaly has a later onset [1]. Some researchers have proposed that the descriptive term “primary” should be used to imply a genetic causation while the term “secondary” should be reserved for cases where the etiology is environmental [7]. This distinction, however, cannot always be maintained so others have concluded that these terms should not be used and instead the microcephaly be classified in terms of its onset (present at birth or postnatal) and its presumed etiology (genetic or environmental [1]. There are multiple possible genetic conditions as well as environmental variables that can lead to microcephaly [1, 10]. The clinical significance of the reduced brain size is that microcephaly is highly correlated with mental retardation [3], however individuals with a head circumference of 3 SD and normal intelligence have been occasionally reported [11] but individuals with a head circumference of 4 SD (or less) and normal intellectual ability are exceedingly rare [9, 11].
A website maintained by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (the NINDS) describes anencephaly in the following:
Etiology Microcephaly is a medical condition in which the circumference of the head is smaller than normal because the brain has not developed properly or has stopped growing. Microcephaly can be present at birth or it may develop in the first few years of life. It is most often caused by genetic abnormalities that interfere with the growth of the cerebral cortex during the early months of fetal development. It is associated with Down’s syndrome, chromosomal syndromes, and neurometabolic syndromes. Babies may also be born with microcephaly if, during pregnancy, their mother abused drugs or alcohol, became infected with cytomegalovirus, rubella (German measles), or varicella (chicken pox) virus, was exposed to certain toxic chemicals, or had untreated phenylketonuria (PKU). Babies born with microcephaly will have a smaller than normal head that will fail to grow as they progress through infancy. Depending on the severity of the accompanying syndrome, children with microcephaly may have mental retardation, delayed motor functions and speech, facial distortions, dwarfism or short stature, hyperactivity, seizures, difficulties with coordination and balance, and other brain or neurological abnormalities. Some children with microcephaly will have normal intelligence and a head that will grow bigger, but they will track below the normal growth curves for head circumference [5]. A website maintained by the Centers for Disease Control provide standardized growth curves of head circumference for infants from birth up to age 3 at http:// www.cdc.gov/growthcharts. As stated above, the clinical significance of microcephaly is that the reduced head circumference is likely accompanied by mental retardation, with more severe retardation being the product of more significant reduction in brain size [6]; there are however rare cases of individuals with greatly reduced brain size not only being spared retardation but having normal intelligence [9]. While no treatment can restore brain size [5] the symptoms of mental retardation, hyperactivity and other behavior problems can be remediated with applied behavior analytic interventions [4, 8].
References 1. Abuelo, D. (2007). Microcephaly syndromes. Seminars in Pediatric Neurology, 14, 118–127. 2. Bond, J., Roberts, E., Mochida, G. H., Hampshire, D. J., Scott, S., Askham, J. M., et al. (2002). ASPM is a major determinant of cerebral cortical size. Nature Genetics, 32(2), 316–320.
Midbrain 3. Cox, J., Jackson, A. P., Bond, J., & Woods, C. G. (2006). What primary microcephaly can tell us about brain growth. Trends in Molecular Medicine, 12(8), 358–366. 4. Fisher, W., Piazza, C. C., Bowman, L. G., Hagopian, L. P., Owens. J. C., & Slevin, I. (1992). A comparison of two approaches for identifying reinforcers for persons with severe and profound disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 25(2), 491–498. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ articlerender.fcgi?artid=1279726 5. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes. (2008). NINDS microcephaly information page. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/microcephaly/ microcephaly.htm 6. National Institutes of Health. (1998). Cephalic disorders. Washington, DC: National Institutes of Health. 7. Opitz, J. M., & Holt, M. C. (1990). Microcephaly: General considerations and aids to nosology. Journal of Craniofacial Genetics and Developmental Biology, 10, 175–204. 8. Repp, A. C., & Dietz, S. M. (1974). Reducing aggressive and selfinjurious behavior of institutionalized retarded children through reinforcement of other behaviors. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 7, 313–325. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from http://www.pubmedcentral. nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1311970&blobtype=pdf 9. Teebi, A. S., Al-Awadi, S. A., & White, A. G. (1987). Autosomal recessive nonsyndromal microcephaly with normal intelligence. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 26(2), 355–359. 10. Woods, C. G. (2004). Human microcephaly. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 14, 112–117. 11. Woods, C. G., Bond, J., & Enard, W. (2005). Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly (MCPH): A review of clinical, molecular, and evolutionary findings. American Journal of Human Genetics, 76, 717–728.
Microevolution ▶Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
Midbrain CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Brain stem
Definition The Midbrain is one portion of the brainstem that contains the Tectum and Tegmentum, which together coordinate visual and auditory information to assist in the regulation of spontaneous movement.
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Description The Midbrain represents one of three divisions of the brain, in addition to the Hindbrain and Forebrain. Anatomically, it lies just above the brainstem and just below the Diencephalon, which contains the Hypothalamus and Thalamus [6]. From a functional standpoint, the midbrain has been linked to spontaneous movement in response to visual and auditory stimuli as well as aspects of other automatic and voluntary movements ranging from grooming to behaviors such as standing, walking, turning, jumping, climbing [4]. The Midbrain is made up of two structures called the Tectum and Tegmentum [6]. The tectum is also made up of two structures known as the Inferior and Superior Colliculi. Whereas the Inferior Colliculi coordinates aspects of hearing, the Superior Colliculi is more prominently involved in the coordination of vision [4]. The two colliculi also influence reflexive actions. Specifically, the Inferior Colliculi corresponds with auditory reflexes such as orienting oneself to a loud noise, whereas the Superior Colliculi corresponds with visual reflexes such as blinking [2]. The Tegmentum is also made up of two structures called the Substantia Nigra and Red nucleus, which are both crucial motor nuclei [2]. While the Substantia Nigra is part of the Tegmentum, it is often viewed as part of the Basal Ganglia due to its’ close ties with the functioning of this region. Please see Basal Ganglia for more in-depth description. Specifically, the Substantia Nigra is crucial to motor activity as it represents a site of origin of the vast majority of Dopamine-containing neurons within the system which help initiate movement [1]. As a result, depletion of the Substantia Nigra leads to a corresponding deficit in Dopamine which, in turn, leads to a lack of excitatory action and thus a lack of motor initiation. This is best exemplified in Parkinson’s disease. In this disease, the Substantia Nigra deteriorates. As this occurs, there is a lack of movement initiation because of low Dopamine levels. In which degradation of the Substantia Nigra leads to a paucity of movement due to diminished excitation and thus greater inhibition, in turn corresponding with the diseases bradykinetic (slowed motor movement) manifestations. Developmentally, the midbrain begins to grow around the 27th week of the fetal development. As this area begins to activate, the fetus will demonstrate reflexive responsiveness to vibration and acoustics. While the process begins at the 27th week, the colliculi continue to develop up until the 36th week. This allows the infant to more easily make auditory discriminations and react to sound. This has been demonstrated in infants’ heart rates differing in
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response to their mother’s voice over other voices (i.e., auditory discrimination) as well as in reflexive head turning to sound heard in the womb [5]. While these reflexes remain throughout childhood, in some instances they weaken as purposeful movement predominates, although some, such as reflexive blinking, remain a strong reflex throughout the lifespan.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: Norton. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth. Santrock, J. W. (2005). A topical approach to life-span development (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Midpoint ▶Norms
Milan Therapist ▶Family Therapist
Mild Mental Retardation SARA E. HOFFENBERG Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
Description According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual- fourth edition-text revision [2], mild mental retardation (MR) is characterized by individuals with cognitive impairments that correspond to an IQ score between 50–55 and 70 and deficits in adaptive functioning that present before the age of 18. Mild MR is the most common type of MR; approximately 3% of the general population has mild MR [5]. Approximately 85% of individuals with MR fall within this range.
Relevance to childhood development Children with mild MR often are not diagnosed until later childhood, as they typically develop minimal impairments in communication, social skills, and motor skills during early childhood [1, 2, 6]. However, they may have mild developmental delays in the areas of language development, motor development, self-care skills, early academic skills, social skills, and coping skills during early childhood [1, 3, 4]. Children with mild MR often are able to participate in an inclusion classroom with their typical peers [6]. By late adolescence most teens with mild MR are able to acquire academic skills up to a sixth grade level; however, they are usually not able to acquire high school level material and need special education which focuses on vocational training [2, 6]. During adulthood, individuals with mild MR are often capable of living independently or in supervised settings. With appropriate vocational training, individuals with mild MR typically only need intermittent to limited support in the employment setting. They may need supervision, guidance, and assistance particularly during times of stress [2]. Employment opportunities have significantly increased for individuals with mild MR during the past several decades due to increased awareness within the general community and federal policies, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which promotes employment for those with disabilities. [5].
References Synonyms Cognitive impairment; Developmental disabilities; Intellectual disability; Mental deficiency
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Definition Mild mental retardation is defined as significantly subaverage ▶intellectual ability, which ranges between 50–55 and 70, and concurrent delays in ▶adaptive functioning that present prior to the age of 18.
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American Association on Mental Retardation. (2004). Fact sheet: Frequently asked about mental retardation. http://www.aamr.org/Policies/faq_mental_retardation.shtml American Psychological, Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed. – text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Center for Disease Control. (2005). Developmental disabilities: intellectual disability. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dd/ddmr.htm National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. Intellectual disability (formerly mental retardation). http://www.nichcy. org/Disabilities/Specific/Pages/IntellectualDisability.aspx
Milgram, Stanley 5. 6.
Roberts, M. C. (Ed.). (2003). Handbook of pediatric psychology (3rd ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Sattler, J. M. (2002). Assessment of children: Behavioral and clinical applications (4th ed.). San Diego, CA: Jerome M. Sattler, Publisher.
Milgram, Stanley DANIEL PATANELLA New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA
Life Dates 1933–1984
Educational Information Milgram attended Queens College as an undergraduate and earned his Ph.D. at Harvard.
Accomplishments Milgram was a professor at Yale, Harvard, and the City University of New York, where he ultimately earned his tenure and spent the bulk of his academic career. Milgram worked within the conceptual social psychology framework of his mentor Solomon Asch (1907–1996), and researched topics such as conformity, factors that influence obedience and disobedience, and the unspoken norms that define city dwelling. Situationism was his primary theoretical influence. It was at Yale in the early 1960s that Milgram conducted his most famous research, which would later be summarized in his book Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (1974) [11]. Milgram designed an ingenious experiment in which naı¨ve adult male participants recruited from the general community, and each tested individually, believed they were delivering painful and sometimes lethal electrical shocks to a fellow research participant in a memory study. In actuality, the perceived victim in the study was an actor (or confederate) paid by the researcher to feign the effects of electrical shock. As part of the script as reproduced in its entirety in Obedience to Authority, the actor informed the research participant near the beginning of the study that he had been diagnosed with a heart condition. All the coercion in the study came from adherence to role playing and norms, yet a surprising number of participants demonstrated behaviors that could have resulted in injury or death had the electric shocks been genuine. In the initial and best known version of this experiment, a lab assistant (yet another of Milgram’s confederates) stayed in the same room as the
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research participant and politely yet firmly reiterated that the experiment must continue; the perceived victim could be heard but not seen by the participant and there was only voice contact between them during the experiment. In this version of the study, 62.5% of Milgram’s 40 participants believed they were administering a 450-volt shock to the victim, who by this point had stopped responding and was presumably unconscious [8]. These initial findings were replicated with many variations, including explorations on the effect of having the perceived victim in closer proximity to the research participant and the introduction of dissenting lab assistants. Milgram also documented his findings, which at the time seemed unbelievable to many, in a film called Obedience released in 1965 [10]. It is important to note that Milgram’s research techniques and theoretical leanings were well within the bounds of contemporary social psychology. The use of deception within a research study was practiced notably by both Asch and Sherif [2, 15] within pseudopsychophysical context requiring participants to estimate the lengths of lines or the distance a point of light moved in the darkness of a psychology lab. Confederates were used in those studies to deceive the research participant into voicing observations that conformed to a perceived group. Kurt Lewin (1980–1947), one of the earliest social psychologists, helped to pioneer the experimental manipulation of the social situation to elicit differing prosocial and antisocial behaviors; Lewin, Lippit, and White’s study on leadership styles in children’s clubs (1939) demonstrated the lack of initiative and other negative behaviors resulting from authoritarian-style social structure [7]. Milgram differed from all of these in that the entire social structure of his initial experiment consisted of the participant and the confederates impersonating the experimenter and the learner. Milgram demonstrated participants’ compliance to requests from an authority figure (and not an organization or a perceived social group) to do harm to another human being. Milgram’s other work was considerably less controversial by comparison and is not cited as frequently within the literature. Nevertheless, this diverse assortment of citybased studies shares with the obedience research a commitment to the exploration of situationist variables and their relation to rule-based behavior. Among the areas Milgram explored were the formations of crowds of observers and the etiquette of cutting into waiting lines in public places [9, 12]. Milgram also published research on the “Small World” problem based on communication and social networking theory, in which persons were asked to indirectly forward a package to a stranger in a different city by mailing the package to someone they thought
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might know the stranger [6]. While the research is inconclusive due to the large number of unsuccessful completions, in successful completions, Milgram found that the average length of a chain consisted of five to six people and in this sense Milgram’s results anticipated the “six degrees of separation” theory that is popularly known on the Internet today.
Contributions While not a prolific publisher, Milgram’s body of research on obedience to authority is exceptionally important not only within psychology, but for society in general. Milgram’s core research on obedience is almost universally cited within introductory psychology textbooks, making it one of the best-known research studies of all time. Milgram’s research, while disquieting, also illuminated issues of conformity, depersonalization, authoritarianism, and willingness to engage in destructive behavior as a function of the situation. Milgram himself publicly suggested the obedience studies helped explain institutional atrocities of the twentieth century, especially the extermination programs of Nazi Germany. Although Milgram almost certainly did not intend it, the obedience studies also drew necessary attention to research ethics of psychologists. Although no participants were physically harmed, and Milgram maintained that none experienced psychological trauma, the psychological research community at large reassessed the appropriateness of deception as a methodological tool and the importance of written informed consent and debriefing. This began as early as 1964, when developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind (born 1927) published her critique of Milgram’s initial obedience study [3]. Rather than focus on Milgram’s reassurance that no harm had been done, Baumrind concentrated on the potential harm that might have occurred; her concerns are echoed in contemporary guidelines for Institutional Review Boards who must consider and heavily weigh the potential for harm and protection of human subjects in research studies in deciding if the research should be approved or denied (Belmont report, 1978). The American Psychological Association’s ethics code (2002) is another post-Obedience document that not only shares the Belmont Report’s position on the prevention of possible harm but also strongly discourages the use of any experimental deception in modern research [1]. Acknowledgement This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
References 1. American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principals of psychologists and code of conduct. http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/ code.pdf. Accessed February 2, 2010. 2. Asch, S. E. (1940). Studies in the principals of judgments and attitudes: II. Determination of judgments by group and by ego standards. Journal of Social Psychology, 12, 433–465. 3. Baumrind, D. (1964). Some thoughts on the ethics of research. After reading Milgram’s “Behavioral study of obedience.” American Psychologist, 19, 421–423. 4. Belmont report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research. (1978). DHEW Publication No. (OS) 78-0012. 5. Blass, T. (2004). The man who shocked the world: The life and legacy of Stanley Milgram. New York: Basic Books. 6. Korte, C., & Milgram, S. (1970). Acquaintance networks between racial groups: Application of the small world method. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15(2), 101–108. 7. Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created “social climates”. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271–299. 8. Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371–378. 9. Milgram, S. (1964). Group pressure and action against a person. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 69(2), 137–143. 10. Milgram, S. (1965). Obedience[film]. New York: New York University Film Library. 11. Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York: Harper & Row. 12. Milgram, S., Liberty, H., Toledo, R., & Wackenhut, J. (1986). Response to intrusion into waiting lines. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(4), 683–689. 13. Miller, A. G. (1986). The obedience experiments: A case study of controversy in social science. England: Praeger Publishers. 14. Ross, L. D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1991). The person and the situation: Perspectives of social psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. 15. Sherif, M. (1937). An experimental approach to the study of attitudes. Sociometry, 1, 90–98.
Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory JESSICA R. GURLEY Argosy University, Arlington, VA, USA
Synonyms Millon adolescent personality inventory; Personality testing
Definition The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) is a personality inventory for adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19.
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Description
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The MACI is a 160 question self report personality inventory (self-report personality test) that assess personality styles based on Millon’s theory of personality styles. It was designed to supplement the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI). The MACI was initially published in 1993 and is appropriate for adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19. The test items were written at a sixth grade reading level and the instrument can be completed in 25–30 minutes [1]. The MACI was specifically designed for use with adolescents in clinical settings only and should not be used with nonclinical adolescents [3, 4, 5]. The MACI was developed to correlate with diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV. It is available in both English and Spanish [3, 4].
The MACI can be scored by hand, by computer using the Q local software, by mailing the forms in, or by scanning. The manual advises against hand scoring; however, describing the procedure as “complex.” The MACI does not use t scores, like the MMPI-A. Instead, the MACI relies on base rates that are adjusted based on how the adolescent responds to the items on the test. The base rate adjustments are described in the manual and are a complex series of calculations [3, 4].
Scales The MACI has a variety of scales, including three modifying indices, 12 Personality Patterns Scales, eight Expressed Concern Scales, and seven Clinical Syndromes scales. In addition to these 30 indices and scales, the MACI contains two validity questions designed to assess the adolescent’s attention to the test items. The three modifying indices – Disclosure, Desirability, and Debasement – were designed to assess the adolescent’s attitude towards the test [3]. The 12 Personality Patterns Scales – Introversive, Inhibited, Doleful, Submissive, Dramatizing, Egotistic, Unruly, Forceful, Conforming, Oppositional, Self-Demeaning, and Borderline Tendency – were based on Millon’s theory of personality structure [2–4]. The eight Expressed Concerns scales – Identity Diffusion, Self-Devaluation, Body Disapproval, Sexual Discomfort, Peer Insecurity, Social Insensitivity, Family Discord, and Childhood Abuse – were meant to focus on attitudes and feelings that are common among adolescents involved in mental health treatment. The remaining seven indices – Eating Dysfunctions, Substance-Abuse Proneness, Delinquent Predisposition, Impulsive Propensity, Anxious Feelings, Depressive Affect, and Suicidal Tendency – form the Clinical Syndromes scales. The Clinical Syndromes scales each assess a different specific clinical syndrome, such as anxiety (Anxious Feelings) [3, 4]. In addition to these scales, the MACI software now provides Grossman Facet Scales for each of the 12 Personality Patterns Scale. Each Personality Pattern Scale has three Grossman Facet Scale intended to help to identify specific personality processes. For example, the three Grossman Facet Scales for Borderline Tendency scale are Temperamentally Labile, Cognitively Capricious, and Uncertain Self Image. Each of these is an individual personality characteristic associated with Borderline Tendencies [2].
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Psychometric Properties The MACI was standardized on 1,017 individuals between the ages of 13 and 19. The standardization sample was over 50% male. The base rates were developed on 579 adolescents. Additionally, 333 adolescents participated in cross validation studies with the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Eating Disorder Inventory-3, and the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers [3, 8]. The internal consistency of the various scales is good, ranging from 0.73 (Expressed Concerns – Sexual Discomfort) to 0.91 (Expressed Concerns – Self Devaluation). Test-retest reliability was based on 47 protocols and ranged from 0.57 (peer insecurity) to 0.92 (borderline tendencies) [3, 8].
Relevance to Childhood Development The MACI is a personality instrument that can be used with adolescents involved in mental health settings to help guide treatment [5–8].
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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McCann, J. T. (1999). Assessing adolescents with the MACI: Using the millon adolescent clinical inventory. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Millon, T. (1990). Toward a new personology: An evolutionary model. New York: Wiley. Millon, T. (1993). Millon adolescent clinical inventory manual. Minneapolis, MN: National Computer Systems, Inc. Millon, T. (2006). Millon adolescent clinical inventory manual (2nd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Pearson. Millon, T., & Davis, R. D. (1993). The millon adolescent personality inventory and the millon adolescent clinical inventory. Journal of Counseling and Development, 71, 570–574. Murrie, D. C., & Cornell, D. G. (2000). The millon adolescent clinical inventory and psychopathy. Journal of Personality Assessment, 75, 110–125. Salekin, R. T., Larrea, M. A., & Ziegler, T. (2002). Relationships between the MACI and the BASC in the assessment of child offenders. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 2, 35–50. The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory. (n.d.). In The fourteenth mental measurements yearbook. Retrieved August 15, 2008, from EBSCOHost Mental Measurements Yearbook database.
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Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory JESSICA R. GURLEY Argosy University, Arlington, VA, USA
Synonyms Millon adolescent clinical inventory; Personality testing
Definition The Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI) is a personality inventory for adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18.
The 20 scales are subdivided into eight Personality Styles scales, eight Expressed Concerns scales, and four Behavioral Correlates scales. The Personality Styles scales assess eight different personality characteristics based on Millon’s schema of personality: Introversive, Inhibited, Cooperative, Sociable, Confident, Forceful, Respectful, and Sensitive. The Expressed Concern scales assesses eight areas that adolescents typically have some level of personal concern about, including Self-Concept, Personal Esteem, Body Comfort, Sexual Acceptance, Peer Security, Social Tolerance, Family Rapport, and Academic Confidence. Finally, the Behavioral Correlates scales evaluate that adolescent’s actual behavior in four areas: Impulse Control, Social Conformity, Scholastic Achievement, and Attendance Consistency [1, 4, 6].
Description The MAPI is a 150 question self-report personality inventory that assesses personality styles based on Millon’s theory of personality types. It was initially published in 1982, designed to correlate with DSM-IIIR diagnostic criteria, and is appropriate for adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18. The test items were written at a 6th grade reading level and a typical adolescent can complete the instrument in less than 30 minutes. Unlike the other Millon personality test designed for adolescents, the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI), the MAPI was designed for use with both “normal” adolescents and adolescents involved in clinical settings [2, 4–6]. The MAPI is an update to the Millon Adolescent Inventory (MAI). It has two forms: the Clinical Form (MAPI-C) and the Guidance Form (MAPI-G). The MAPI-C was developed in order to serve as an aid to mental health professionals who work with adolescents in a clinical setting. The MAPI-G was developed to help school professionals identify students who may benefit from additional mental health services [4].
Scales The 150 true/false items on the MAPI yield 20 different scales and two validity indices. The validity indices, Reliability and Validity, each contain three items. The Validity index assesses for random responding while the Reliability index assesses the adolescent’s honesty in responding to the items. In addition to these two indices, the MAPI has a mechanism similar to the K correction on the MMPI-2 and the MMPI-A. This method of response bias incorporates the response bias (e.g. presenting self in an overly positive manner) directly into the 20 scales of the MAPI [1].
Scoring The MAPI cannot be hand-scored. Instead, users can choose between three different scoring methods: Mail In, Computer Scoring, and Scan Scoring. Each method of scoring provides a computer printout that includes the raw scores, the base rates, and an interpretation for each of the 20 scales. The response bias (e.g., presenting self in an overly positive manner) is incorporated into the base rates; however, the computer print out does not include what portion of the base rate is due to the response bias correction [1, 4].
Psychometric Properties The MAPI was standardized on 2,157 normal adolescents (1,071 males and 1,086 females), representative of various socioeconomic statuses. It is not clear in the manual whether the normative sample was representative of race/ethnicity. The clinical sample consisted of 430 additional adolescents who were receiving either outpatient or inpatient mental health treatment [4]. The internal consistency of the items on the MAPI is adequate, ranging from 0.45 to 0.84. The manual reports correlations between the MAPI and other personality measures, including the California Personality Inventory [4]. Studies examining the relationship between the MAPI and the MMPI have shown low rates of diagnostic agreement [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development The MAPI can be used by mental health professionals for use in treatment planning with adolescents. It can help to identify areas of concern for the adolescent and areas that could be addressed in therapy.
Mindblindness
References 1. 2.
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Cansler, D. (1986). Review of the millon adolescent personality inventory. Journal of Counseling and Development, 64, 469–471. David, R. D., Woodward, M., Gonclaves, A., Meagher, S., & Millon, T. (1999). Studying outcomes in adolescents: The millon adolescent clinical inventory and the millon adolescent personality inventory. In M. E. Maruish (Ed.), The use of psychological testing for treatment planning and outcome assessment (2nd ed., pp. 381–398). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Johnson, K., Archer, R. P., Sheaffer, C. I., & Miller, D. (1992). Relationships between the MAPI and the MMPI in the assessment of adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Personality Assessment, 58, 277–286. Millon, T., Green, C. J., & Meager, R. B. (1982). Millon adolescent personality inventory manual. Minneapolis: National Computer Systems. Piersma, H. L., Pantle, M. L., Smith, A., & Boes, J. (1993). The MAPI as a treatment outcome measure for adolescent inpatient. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49, 703–714. The Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory. (n.d.). In The fourteenth mental measurements yearbook. Retrieved August 15, 2008, from EBSCOHost Mental Measurements Yearbook database.
Mindblindness LEE A. WILKINSON Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Empathizing; Mentalizing; Mindreading; Perspective taking; Theory of mind
Definition The inability to attribute mental states such as thoughts, desires, knowledge, and intentions to self and others, and to make sense of and predict another person’s behavior.
Description Mindblindness theory proposes that children and adults with autism spectrum disorders are delayed in the development of what Premack and Woodruff [19] termed “theory of mind” (ToM). ToM is a cognitive (attribution) component of empathy; the ability to identify cues that indicate the thoughts and feelings of others and “to put oneself into another person’s shoes” [1]. It is also referred to as “mentalizing,” “mindreading,” and “perspective taking.” According to Baron-Cohen [2], the ability to reflect on one’s own and other people’s minds (beliefs, desires, intentions, imagination and emotions) allows us to interact effectively with others in the social world. Typical
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individuals are able to mindread relatively easily and intuitively. For example, we can read a person’s facial expression and body language, and tone of voice and recognize his or her thoughts and feelings, and the likely course of behavior. In other words, we interpret, predict, and participate in social interaction automatically, and for the most part, instinctively. This attribution of mental states is a fundamental component of social interaction and communication. An impairment in ToM results in an inability to appreciate other people’s emotions and thoughts, and to make sense of or predict another’s actions. As a consequence, the person with impaired ToM is said to have a form of “mindblindness” or a deficit in “empathizing” ability [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development The concept of ToM and mindblindness has been widely studied over the past two decades and used to explain the development of social cognition and the core social deficits of developmental disorders such as autism [6, 16]. The understanding of other people’s mental states develops early in life and becomes more complex with advancing age [7, 8]. Research suggests that typically developing children, in contrast to those with autism, are born with a set of skills which enable them to comprehend and respond to other people’s mental states and feelings [3]. For example, children can understand relationships between mental states by 3 years of age. By age four, they can understand that people can hold false beliefs (deception). Typical children at age seven begin to understand what not to say to avoid offending others. A typical 9 yearold can interpret another person’s facial expressions and figure out what they are thinking or feeling [3]. It is a deficit in this normal process of ToM or empathizing that has the potential to explain the lack of pretend play and the core social and communication problems diagnostic of children with autism [6, 15]. Children with autism are said to lack an effective ToM and thus, have a form of mindblindness. Baron-Cohen [3] has broadened the mindblindness theory to include an affective component (emotional reactivity) and a second factor termed systemizing to explain the nonsocial areas of strength often demonstrated by individuals with autism spectrum conditions. Children with ToM impairment frequently experience academic, behavioral, and emotional problems related to their social skills deficits. Indeed, impairments in social reciprocity are one of the defining characteristics of autism spectrum disorders [3, 18]. Consequently, interventions focusing on social adaptive skills are critically important to the treatment of this group of children [17]. While the research on the effectives of social skills
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intervention is still in the formative stage, several programs have been developed to promote prosocial behavior and expand ToM abilities among children with autism spectrum disorders [10]. They include: social stories [12], computer programs such as Mind Reading: The Interactive Guide to Emotions [5] and The Transporters [4]; ToM teaching programs [13, 18] and social skills programming [9, 11, 14, 20].
References 1. Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Boston: MIT Press/Bradford Books. 2. Baron-Cohen, S. (2000). Theory of mind and autism: A fifteen-year review. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 3–20). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 3. Baron-Cohen, S. (2008). Autism and Asperger syndrome: The facts. New York: Oxford University Press. 4 Baron-Cohen, S., & Drori, J. (2006). The Transporters. London: Changing Media Development Ltd (available from http://www. thetransporters.com). Retrieved on January 20, 2009. 5. Baron-Cohen, S., Golan, O., Wheelwright, S., & Hill, J. J. (2004). Mind reading: The interactive guide to emotions. London: Jessica Kingsley (Available at: www.jkp.com). 6. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a theory of mind? Cognition, 21(1), 37–46. 7. Baron-Cohen, S., O’Riordan, M., Jones, R., Stone, V., & Plaisted, K. (1999). A new test of social sensitivity: Detection of Faux pas in normal children and children with Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 407–418. 8. Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Lawson, J., Griffin, R., Ashwin, C., Billington, J., et al. (2005). Empathizing and systemizing in autism spectrum conditions. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders: Vol. 1. Diagnosis, development, neurobiology, and behavior (3rd ed., pp. 628–639). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 9. Bellini, S. (2008). Building social relationships: A systematic approach to teaching social interaction skills to children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and other social difficulties. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing. 10. Bellini, S., Peters, J. K., Benner, L., & Hopf, A. (2007). A meta-analysis of school-based social skills interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders. Remedial and Special Education, 28, 153–162. 11. Dunn, M. A. (2006). S.O.S. – Social skills in our schools: A social skills program for children with pervasive developmental disorders, including high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome, and their typical peers. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company. 12. Gray, C. (2000). The new social story book: Illustrated edition. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons. 13. Howlin, P., Baron-Cohen, S., & Hadwin, J. (1999). Teaching children with autism to mindread: A practical guide for teachers and parents. New York: Wiley. 14. Koegel, R. L., & Koegel, L. K. (2006). Pivotal response treatments for autism: Communication, social, & academic development. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing. 15. Leslie, A. M. (1987). Pretence and representation: The origins of “theory of mind”. Psychological Review, 94, 412–426. 16. Leudar, I., Costall, A., & Francis, D. (2004). Theory of mind: A critical assessment. Theory and Psychology, 14, 571–578.
17. National Research Council. (2001). Educating children with autism (committee on educational interventions for children with autism, division of behavioral and social sciences and education). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 18. Ozonoff, S., & Miller, J. N. (1995). Teaching theory of mind: A new approach to social skills training for individuals with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 23, 415–433. 19. Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1, 515–526. 20. Winner, M. G. (2005). Think social! A social thinking curriculum for school-age students. San Jose, CA: Think Social Publishing.
Mindreading ▶Mindblindness
Minimal Brain Dysfunction ▶Attention Deficit Disorder ▶Developmental Coordination Disorder
Minimal Cerebral Dysfunction ▶Developmental Coordination Disorder
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory ▶MMPI
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) CHRIS LEETH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition The MMPI-A is a structured personality inventory based on the MMPI-2. However, the MMPI-A is designed to be used with adolescents ages 14–18.
Miscarriage
Characteristics The MMPI-A is designed to measure characteristics of personality and psychopathology among adolescents. The test was published in 1992 and consists of 478 true/ false items. The person being tested can complete the test individually; it is self-administered. Scoring of the MMPI-A can be done by the administrator, by hand, or with the use of a computer program. The MMPI-A has several validity scales to detect response patterns such as defensiveness or inconsistent responding. The primary clinical scales are the same as those on the original MMPI and MMPI-2, and thus include: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria, Psychopathic Deviate, Masculinity-Femininity, Paranoia, Psychasthenia, Schizophrenia, Hypomania, and Social Introversion. There is much research on the reliability and validity of each of these scales. Since the publication of the MMPI-A, several other scales (e.g., content scales, supplementary scales) have been created to assess other components of an adolescent’s personality. As with the MMPI and MMPI-2, valid interpretation of MMPI-A scores requires a high degree of experience and expertise.
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the nervous system that converts sensory information to a motor format. This system has been hypothesized as a neural substrate for processing motor, linguistic, emotional and other higher cortical functions [6]. Mirror neurons are believed to account for aspects of empathy and ability to “read” the thoughts of others (theory of mind), social learning and understanding or inferring intention, as well as learning motor skills through imitation. They are believed to serve the adaptive function of allowing “access” to the thoughts of others, thereby promoting socialization and social behavior. Damage or deficits in this system are hypothesized to explain the absence of social behaviors in autism, as well as some symptoms of schizophrenia. There are implications for the mirror neuron system in the development of language (by processing prosody via the limbic system) and processing emotion as well. The mirror neuron construct has become less controversial over time as numerous studies, including more recent neuroimaging and neurophysiological research, have demonstrated more conclusive findings regarding the existence of these systems in the human brain.
References 1. 2.
Archer, R. P., & Krishnamurthy, R. (2002). Essentials of MMPI-A assessment. New York: Wiley. Butcher, J. N., Williams, C. L., Graham, J. R., Archer, R. P., Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S., et al. (1992). MMPI-A (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent): manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
Mirror Neurons ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
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Definition Nerve cells, first discovered in monkeys, located in the ventral premotor cortex (F5) of the macaque. These cells fire both when the animal engages in goal directed behavior and also when it observes the same behaviors performed by others. A similar system of neurons has been identified in the right inferior parietal lobe of the brain in humans using fMRI techniques, and mirror neurons are hypothesized to exist in other regions of the brain.
Description The mirror neuron system is considered to be an “observation-execution” or “self-other” matching system within
Chong, T., Cunningham, R., Williams, M., Kanwisher, N., & Mattingly, J. (2008). fMRI adaptation reveals mirror neurons in human inferior parietal cortex. Current Biology, 18(20), 1576–1580. Fabbrio-Destro, M. (2008). Mirror neurons and mirror systems in monkeys and humans. Physiology, 23(3), 171–179. Iacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 653–670. Oberman, L. M., & Ramachandran, V. S. (2007). The simulating social mind: The role of the mirror neuron system and simulation in the social and communicative deficits of autistic spectrum disorders. Psychological Bulletin, 133(2), 310–327. Ramachandra, V. S. (2009). On whether mirror neurons play a significant role in processing affective prosody. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 108(1), 30–36. Ramachandra, V. S., Depalma, N., & Lisiewski, S. (2009). The role of mirror neurons in processing vocal emotions: Evidence from psychophysiological data. The International Journal of Neuroscience, 119(5), 681–690.
Mirtazapine ▶Remeron®
Miscarriage ▶Abortion
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Misfortune ▶Bereavement
Mixed Lineage Leukemia ▶Childhood Leukemia
Mixed Models ▶Hierarchical Linear Modeling
Mixed Specific Developmental Disorders ▶Developmental Apraxia
MMPI
being tested can complete the test individually; it is selfadministered. Scoring of the MMPI-2 can be done by the administrator, by hand, or with the use of a computer program. The MMPI-2 has several validity scales that are designed to detect response patterns, such as inconsistent responding, defensiveness, or reporting extremely rare or severe collections of symptoms. The primary clinical scales are consistent across the MMPI and MMPI-2 and include: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria, Psychopathic Deviate, Masculinity-Femininity, Paranoia, Psychasthenia, Schizophrenia, Hypomania, and Social Introversion. There is much research on the reliability and validity of each of these scales, and on using the combination of different scale elevations to make predictions about personality and behavior. Since the publication of the MMPI-2, several additional scales have been created to assess other (i.e., more precise or narrowly-defined) components of a person’s personality.
References 1.
2.
Butcher, J. N., Graham, J. R., Ben-Porath, Y. S., Tellegen, A., Dahlstrom, W. G., & Kaemmer, B. (1989). The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation (revisedth ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Nichols, D. S. (2001). Essentials of MMPI-2 assessment. New York: Wiley.
CHRISTOPHER LEETH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
MMPI-2 Synonyms
▶MMPI
Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory; MMPI-2
Definition The MMPI (and the revised version, the MMPI-2) is a structured personality inventory that includes multiple validity and clinical scales in order to measure personality across numerous dimensions. It also has content scales that can be used to measure different aspects of an individual’s personality, and research continues to examine the creation and psychometric properties of additional scales. The MMPI-2 was published in 1989 [1], and this updated version capitalized on what was learned from the years of research and clinical use of the original MMPI.
Mnemonic ▶Mnemonic Device
Mnemonic Device RUSSELL N. CARNEY Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA
Description
Synonyms
The MMPI-2 is used as a measure of personality characteristics and psychopathology among adults ages 18 and older. The test consists of 567 true/false items. The person
Cognitive strategies; Memory strategies; Memory technique; Mnemonic; Mnemonic strategy; Mnemonic technique
Mnemonic Device
Definition A mnemonic device is a specific, cognitive cuing strategy designed to aid memory.
Description Mnemonic devices are memory techniques that systematically change difficult to remember material into more easily remembered material [16]. Such devices provide a cognitive cuing structure [2] by which to bring back to-be-recalled information. As a simple example, the first-letter mnemonic is a device familiar to most individuals. Many students learned to remember the names of the great lakes by remembering HOMES (i.e., Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior). Another example is using ROY G BIV to prompt recall of the colors of the spectrum (i.e., red, orange, yellow, etc.). Notably, here, the colors of the spectrum are cued in order. The downside to this simple device is that single letters serve as rather meager retrieval cues. Mnemonic devices have been around for many years, and some, like the method of loci, date back to ancient times [19]. Much of the empirical research regarding such techniques began in the mid-1970s and continued through the 1990s.
Encoding Versus Organizational Mnemonics Bellezza [2] proposed two general categories of mnemonic devices: encoding mnemonics and organizational mnemonics. Encoding mnemonics essentially facilitate pairedassociate learning, such as associating words and their meanings, states and their capitals, names and faces, and so on. Examples of encoding mnemonics include the keyword method and the face-name mnemonic. In contrast, organizational mnemonics associate several pieces of information, such as remembering the names of all the great lakes, or the order of the colors in the spectrum. Examples of organizational mnemonics include the first-letter mnemonic, the method of loci, the pegword method, and the story and link mnemonics. Organizational mnemonics are particularly useful for serial or free recall of ordered information, as in the ROY G BIV example.
Encoding Mnemonics The keyword method: Of the various encoding mnemonics, perhaps the most versatile (and most researched) is the keyword method (e.g., [1]). The technique can be described in terms of Levin’s [7] three R’s of associative mnemonic recall: recoding, relating, and retrieving. Say that one wanted to remember that the word loquacious means overly talkative. First, the word loquacious is recoded as an acoustically or orthographically similar keyword, such as liquor. Next, the keyword, liquor, is related to
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the meaning by way of an interactive visual image (e.g., imagine someone drinking liquor and becoming very talkative). So encoded, retrieval proceeds as follows: loquacious -> liquor -> the image involving liquor and talkativeness -> talkative. Visual imagery (e.g., [12]) is often called upon in mnemonic techniques to serve as the “glue” to hold things together. Extensive research has validated the keyword method as a useful device for facilitating paired-associate learning in a variety of situations, such as foreign words and their meanings, science terms and their definitions, and, using a dual-keyword approach, states and their capitals (e.g., [8, 16]). A fourth important R is rehearsal. As in learning anything, acquiring information by way of a mnemonic device benefits from overlearning. The face-name mnemonic: Another potentially useful encoding mnemonic is the face-name mnemonic. A close cousin to the keyword method, the face-name mnemonic associates a pictorial stimulus (i.e., a person’s face) with a verbal response (i.e., the person’s name). For example, imagine someone named Komer who has a prominent feature: a thick mustache. One first recodes the name Komer as a more concrete name clue (or keyword), such as comb. Then, the name clue, comb, is related to his face by interacting the comb with his mustache (e.g., imagine a comb stuck in his thick mustache). Then, upon next seeing Mr. Komer, retrieval proceeds as follows: face -> thick mustache -> image of comb stuck in mustache -> comb -> Komer. Research has provided some support for the face-name mnemonic (e.g., [14]). It can also be applied to other learning tasks where a pictorial stimulus (e.g., a painting) prompts a verbal response (e.g., an artist’s name), such as in learning to associate artists’ names and their paintings in art appreciation and art history classes (e.g., [4]).
Organizational Mnemonics The pegword method: Two of the most researched organizational mnemonics are the pegword method and the method of loci. These two strategies are quite similar in that each has a fixed set of “hooks” (i.e., either pegwords or locations) with which to interact to-be-remembered items through visual imagery. To use the pegword method, one first learns a set of easily-remembered pegwords that rhyme with numbers (e.g., 1–10). It is easy to remember that one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, and so forth up to ten is a hen. Then, to mentally store a list of things (e.g., groceries, such as milk, bread, bananas, ketchup, etc.), one simply interacts each to-be-remembered item with each of the pegwords (e.g., imagine milk being poured on a bun, a shoe squashing a loaf of bread, bananas
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hanging in a tree, ketchup splattered on a door, etc.). Remembering, then, is prompted by simply going down the list of numbers (1, 2, 3, 4 and so on). For example, saying “one” cues bun, bun cues the image involving the milk, and this, in turn, yields milk – the first item on your grocery list. The remaining items are easily recalled via this cognitive cuing structure. On a more school-related note, more abstract, ordered lists encountered in academic settings (e.g., hardness levels of minerals, the ten highest mountains, the order of events in an historical account) can also be stored this way. However, less-than-concrete to-be-learned items (e.g., minerals: talc, crocoite, antimony, wolframite, etc.) may need to be recoded as keywords (e.g., tail, crocodile, ant, and wolf) before interacting them with the pegwords. With this added step, remembering is as described previously, except that recall of the image yields the keyword, which in turn yields the actual item (e.g., wolf prompts wolframite). As with other strategies, research as generally supported use of the pegword mnemonic (e.g., [6]). The method of loci: Instead of pegwords, the method of loci uses a fixed set of locations to serve as the cognitive cuing structure. The locations might be places or things one might encounter in walking across campus or through ones home. For example, upon arriving home, one might encounter the driveway, the garage, the front door, the closet, and so forth, in that order. To-be-remembered items, such as the grocery list items mentioned earlier, can be interacted with each of the locations in a visual image. For example, one might imagine milk running down the driveway, loaves of bread stacked neatly in the garage, a banana squashed against the front door, and so forth. Then, to remember the items, one simply takes a mental walk through the locations (in order). Each location should bring back the visual image, which in turn yields the grocery item. As described above, keywords can be used in place of less than concrete to-be-learned items, such as the list of minerals. As with other mnemonic devices, research regarding the method of loci has generally supported its use (e.g., [3, 10]).
Why Mnemonic Devices Work While mnemonic strategies are sometimes discounted as mere tricks or gimmicks, they work because they are based on sound memory principles, such as rhyming, recoding, and relating. All mnemonic devices involve some form of elaboration (e.g., [18]). And, although most of the examples included here suggest visual imagery, verbal elaboration can be used as well, as in the rhyme “i before e, except after c.” Indeed, the various descriptions of images were presented verbally, and hence may be especially
memorable because of their dual representation in memory (i.e., they are encoded in memory as both imaginal and verbal units). See Paivio’s [15] dual-coding hypothesis for more on this theoretical explanation.
Relevance to Childhood Development Even in this age of instant facts via the Internet, school children are still called upon to learn and remember much information. Further, higher-order thinking is often built upon “facts” that are stored in and available from memory. While some students are blessed with good memories, others struggle with tasks that require memorization. In this regard, mnemonic strategies come highly recommended. Extensive research, particularly with the versatile keyword method, has supported the use of such techniques with children in a variety of content areas. However, the extant research does not represent a blanket endorsement. In his “twenty-year report card” based on mnemonic strategy research findings, Levin [8] assigned A’s to the use of mnemonics when applied to factual content (e.g., using the keyword method to associate a term and its definition), and to their use in special education. Next, a B was awarded when it came time for students to generate their own mnemonics (following instruction and practice). Graded a bit lower, C’s were awarded when the particular mnemonic strategy was overly complex (e.g., the digit-consonant mnemonic for remembering numbers or dates), and when different mnemonic devices were combined (again, yielding a more complex approach). Finally, a D was assigned when it came to transfer. That is, just because students learned to use a mnemonic in one situation did not mean that they would apply it in a new, slightly different situation. A final caveat is that, below the age of nine, children tend to have difficulty when directed to use mental imagery. Hence, providing pictures illustrating mnemonic interactions is preferred in working with young children. As indicated by Levin’s “A” award, mnemonic strategies have been used quite effectively with children in special education settings. Based on their research, Mastropieri and Scruggs [11] have written a guide describing the use of mnemonic techniques with such students. More generally, practical, memory improvement and memory strategy books abound (e.g., [5, 9, 13, 17]).
References 1. Atkinson, R. C. (1975). Mnemotechnics in second-language learning. American Psychologist, 30, 321–828. 2. Bellezza, F. S. (1981). Mnemonic devices: Classification, characteristics, and criteria. Review of Educational Research, 51, 247–275. 3. Bower, G. H. (1970). Analysis of a mnemonic device. American Scientist, 58, 496–510.
Modeling 4. Carney, R. N., & Levin, J. R. (2000). Mnemonic instruction, with a focus on transfer. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 783–790. 5. Higbee, K. L. (1988). Your memory: How it works and how to improve it. New York: Prentice-Hall. 6. Krinsky, R., & Krinsky, S. G. (1996). Pegword mnemonic instruction: Retrieval times and long-term memory performance among fifthgrade children. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 193–207. 7. Levin, J. R. (1983). Pictorial strategies for school learning: Practical illustrations. In M. Pressley & J. R. Levin (Eds.), Cognitive strategy research: Educational applications (pp. 213–237). New York: Springer. 8. Levin, J. R. (1993). Mnemonic strategies and classroom learning: A 20-year report card. Elementary School Journal, 94, 235–244. 9. Lorayne, H., & Lucas, J. (1993). The memory book. New York: Barnes and Noble Books. 10. Luria, A. R. (1968). The mind of a mnemonist. Oxford: Basic Books. 11. Mastropieri, M. A., & Scruggs, T. E. (1991). Teaching students ways to remember: Strategies for learning mnemonically. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books. 12. McDaniel, M. A., & Pressley, M. (Eds.). (1987). Imagery and related mnemonic processes: Theories, individual differences, and applications. New York: Springer. 13. McPherson, F. (2000). The memory key: Unlock the secrets to remembering. New York: Barnes and Noble. 14. Morris, P. E., Jones, S., & Hampson, P. (1978). An imagery mnemonic for the learning of people’s names. British Journal of Psychology, 69, 335–336. 15. Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal process. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 16. Pressley, M., Levin, J. R., & Delaney, H. D. (1982). The mnemonic keyword method. Review of Educational Research, 52, 62–91. 17. Pressley, M., & Woloshyn, V. (Eds.). (1995). Cognitive strategy instruction that really improves children’s academic performance (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books. 18. Rohwer, W. D., Jr. (1973). Elaboration and learning in childhood and adolescence. In H. W. Reese (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 8, pp. 1–57). New York: Academic Press. 19. Yates, F. A. (1966). The art of memory. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Mnemonic Strategy ▶Mnemonic Device
Mnemonic Technique ▶Mnemonic Device
Mode ▶Norms
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Modeling ELAINE A. THOMAS Argosy University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Observational learning; Social learning theory
Definition Modeling is the process through which children learn a large number of behaviors, skills and, ways of thinking and feeling without direct experience. The phenomenon of modeling, proposed by Albert Bandura recognizes that learning can take place through observation and that this learning involves cognitive processes. The term is also used to refer to techniques in cognitive behavior therapy where the therapist enacts a skill or behavior that the client will learn through observation and imitation of the therapist or where the therapist presents information in symbolic form to the child that the child may use to modify behavior.
Description Theory The process of modeling acknowledges the social cognitive aspects of learning. It goes beyond description of learning thorough operant principles to describe how children and others can learn without direct experience of consequences for their responses. Considerable learning is purported to take place through the child’s watching and listening to others’ behaviors, speech, and actions. This learning can occur through either live or symbolic models. Live models are typically parents, teachers, other adults or peers. Symbolic models include books, videotapes, films, or other media. Live modeling then describes learning by direct observation of a model or exemplar while symbolic modeling describes learning by presentation of a model or exemplar indirectly. Not only do children learn actual behaviors but also they learn the probable consequences of behaviors through vicarious reinforcement. Thus imitation, the matching of the model’s behavior, may be described separately from vicarious learning which is the increase or decrease in the observer’s behavior that is similar to that of the model whose behavior was reinforced or punished [1]. Imitation and observational learning are notably not the same according to Bandura’s conceptualization. According to Bandura, observers acquire symbolic representations of the observed behavior which is later used to guide the observer’s performance. He specifies
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the component processes involved in this process of observational learning: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation [2]. All four are necessary for observational learning to occur. Attention is key due to important features of both the observed or modeled events and the observer. First, the event must attract the attention of the observer. Important features of the modeled events related to the attention they will attract include salience, affective valence, complexity, prevalence, accessibility, and functional value. Similarly, important observer characteristics determine what will be attended to and those include cognitive capabilities, cognitive preconceptions, arousal level, and acquired preferences. Retention processes refer to the processes involved in remembering or acquiring a symbolic representation of the event so that they may be recalled at a later date. These include symbolic coding, cognitive organization, cognitive rehearsal, enactive rehearsal, cognitive skills, and cognitive structure. Motor reproduction features describe the features in the observer that are necessary for recreation after they have been attended to and retained. In sum, the observer must be able to retrieve the information from memory, organize it, engage in a reproduction of it, compare the reproduction to the conceptual model and adjust the response accordingly. Thus, important characteristics in this step include the availability of component responses, physical capabilities, self-observation and monitoring of reproduction and, accuracy of feedback. Last, motivational processes determine whether a behavior that is attended to, retained, that the observer has the capability to reproduce will in fact be performed. Performance of behavior will depend on external reinforcement, vicarious reinforcement and, selfreinforcement and self-evaluation. That is on the extent to which the observer is likely to obtain direct reinforcement for the behavior, the extent to which the observer was influenced by the reinforcement received by the model, the observer’s capacity to reinforce himself and other observer attributes such as internal standards, reinforcement preferences and social comparison bias. In later conceptualizations [4], Bandura used the concept of self-efficacy to describe an important observer characteristic influencing both learning and production of behavior. Self-efficacy, the belief that one can cause some effect in the environment, guides what behaviors are attempted and what further behaviors develop. It is a concept describing the individual’s expectation he or she will likely be successful in performing a behavior in a particular situation or context. Self-efficacy develops through a history of successes, observational learning, what others tell us about our abilities and the emotional state experienced when performing the behavior.
Applications to Child Psychotherapy Modeling is often used in child psychotherapy. Indeed, it is a technique that often appears in evidence-based child treatments and is designated as one of twenty six effective interventions known as “practice elements” by Chorpita, Daleiden and Weisz appearing in evidence-based treatment approaches [7]. Therapists demonstrate adaptive behaviors, ways of thinking etc. with the expectation that they child will learn new ways of behaving, thinking and feeling. Therapists typically provide: a live demonstration (live modeling); a video, pictorial or story demonstration (symbolic modeling,) or; an adaptation that involves asking the child to imagine a model engaging in behaviors and activities related to the target adaptive behavior (covert modeling) [7]. Additional variations include: graduated modeling (presentation of successively more difficult behaviors); guided modeling (use of physical prompting); guided modeling with reinforcement, and; participant modeling (use of contact with the therapist to guide performance) [7].
Relevance to Childhood Development Modeling is one of the fundamental mechanisms through which learning and development take place in children according to social learning and social cognitive theory. Children learn a wide variety of adaptive and maladaptive behaviors through modeling. Social skills, language, moral reasoning, and gender roles are acquired primarily through observational learning. Similarly, children’s fears can be acquired without exposure to the feared stimulus through observational learning and aggressive behaviors can be acquired through observational learning.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Bandura, A. (1989). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development (Vol. 6, pp. 1–60). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Freeman. Bandura, A. (2007). Analysis of modeling processes. In A. Bandura (Ed.), Psychological modeling: Conflicting theories (pp. 1–62). New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction. Chorpita, B. F., Daleiden, E. L., & Weisz, J. R. (2005). Identifying and selecting the common elements of evidence based interventions: A distillation and matching model. Mental Health Services Research, 7, 5–20. Matson, J. (1985). Modeling. In A. S. Bellack & M. Hersen (Eds.), Dictionary of behavior therapy techniques (pp. 150–151). Elmsford, NY: Pergamon.
Monosomy X
Modeling Technique ▶Observational Learning
Moderate Mental Retardation ASHLEY N. PETTONI Private Practitioner, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Cognitive impairment; Developmental disabilities; Intellectual disability; Mental deficiency
Definitions Moderate mental retardation is defined as significantly sub average intellectual ability, which ranges between 35–40 and 50–55 and concurrent delays in adaptive functioning that present prior to the age of 18.
Description According to the Diagnostic and Statistical ManualFourth Edition-Text Revision (2000), Moderate Mental Retardation (MR) is characterized by individuals with cognitive impairments that correspond to an IQ score between 35–40 and 50–55 and deficits in adaptive functioning that present before the age of 18. Individuals with moderate MR constitute 10% of the mentally retarded population 1–3).
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In familiar places, children with moderate MR can learn to travel independently. Throughout adolescence, difficulties in recognizing social conventions may interfere with peer relationships. As adults, a majority of individuals with moderate MR are able to perform unskilled or semi-skilled work under supervision. This can occur in sheltered workshops or within the general workplace. Adults with moderate MR can adapt to life in the community, typically in supervised settings [1, 4].
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Sattler, J. M. (2006). Assessment of children. Behavioral, social, and clinical applications (5th ed.). San Diego: Jerome M. Sattler, Publisher, Inc. Sattler, J. M. (2008). Assessment of children, cognitive foundations (5th ed.). San Diego: Jerome M. Sattler, Publisher, Inc. Wenar, C., & Kerig, P. (2000). The developmental consequences of mental retardation. In O. Spreen, A. H. Risser & D. Edgell (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: From infancy through adolescence (4th ed., pp. 259–280). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Moderators ▶Variables, in Experimental Developmental Research
Modification ▶Accommodations, Piagetian ▶Adjustment
Relevance to Childhood Development During the preschool years (between birth and age five), children with moderate MR can learn to speak and communicate; however, these children will often have poor social awareness and fair motor development [1, 2]. In addition, these children may profit from training in selfhelp skills, although moderate levels of supervision are frequently required [1, 2]. Children with moderate MR also benefit from social and occupational training; however, these children are unlikely to progress beyond the second grade level in academic subjects. Due to legislative polices, such as the Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA, 1997), which stipulates that children with disabilities receive appropriate education within the least restrictive environment, children with moderate MR are now remaining in school for longer durations than before [3].
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Molestation ▶Sexual Abuse
Monomodel Visual Amnesia ▶Agnosia
Monosomy X ▶Turner Syndrome
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Monozygotic (MZ) Twins
Monozygotic (MZ) Twins MYSTI S. FRAZIER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Identical twins; True twins
Definition Monozygotic twins are formed from the fertilization of one egg from one sperm. A split in the fertilized egg (zygote) occurs during the early part of the gestational period, within 15 days when there are just a few cells. This causes two separate but genetically equal embryos to form, which accounts for their physical, mental, and sometimes emotional similarities.
praise and admiration, while others see twins as a bad omen and thus discard and disgrace them [1]. In the United States twins are seen as unique oddities and can be singled out throughout their lives [1]. However, twins are fascinating to biologists and many studies have been conducted to find out more about them. As one recent example, a 19-year study of grey and white brain matter development in twins suggested that genetic factors play a role in similarities in brain development among twins; however, as they grow older, environmental factors play a larger role [2].
References 1. 2.
3.
Description In the last century it was estimated that 3.5 of every 1,000 births were twins [3]. However, today it is estimated that about 1 of every 70 births are twins [1]. This rise is likely a result of scientific advancement in artificial fertilization and multiple egg fertilization for women who are unable to conceive otherwise. Monozygotic twins share a placenta but have different amniotic sacs in 70% of the cases. This means that separate placentas and sacs can form, but this is more common in dizygotic twins [1]. Twins who share a placenta and sac rarely survive to birth because of the struggle for nutrients. The pioneer in twin studies is Sir Francis Galton, who accurately proposed that similar genetic makeup was the reason twins looked alike [3]. In the 1930s, Josef Mengele, a young doctor from Germany began researching similarities in twins. His research and obsession reached its peak in the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, where he experimented on twins. Mengele’s research is still unknown because it was destroyed before soviet forces could reach him, though it is assumed that it was probably used to validate the Nazi idealization of the superiority of the Aryan race [3]. In the 1970s twin research focused on similarities between the two individuals. At the University of Minnesota, Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. began a study of twins who had been reared separately to compare their uncanny similarities in speech, choice of spouse, hobbies, and everyday behavior. Bouchard found that monozygotic twins “reared apart were as much alike as – in some cases more alike than – identicals reared together” [3]. Different cultures view twin births in different, unique ways. Some cultures revere twins as god-like and worthy of
Piontelli, A. (2008). Twins in the world: The legends they inspire and the lives they lead. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Wallace, G. L., Raitano Lee, N., Prom-Wormley, E. C., Medland, S. E., Lenroot, R. K., Clasen, L. S., et al. (2010). A bivariate twin study of regional brain volumes and verbal and nonverbal intellectual skills during childhood and adolescence. Behavioral Genetics, 40, 125–134. Wright, L. (1997). Twins and what they tell us about who we are. New York: Wiley.
Mood CHRISTI SIKORA University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Affect; Disposition; Frame of mind; Humor; Inclination; Temper
Definition A continued emotional state that affects one’s outlook on life.
Description Mood is a nebulous construct but generally refers to an emotional state that influences one’s outlook on life. Within the context of child behavior and development, mood is often studied from the perspective of disturbances in mood, and the impact that these disturbances have on social, behavioral, and academic functioning. Three groups of criteria are used to diagnose issues related to mood; these groups include mood episodes, mood disorders, and specifiers that describe the current episode and recurrent course. Mood episodes are important because they describe the range of mood in children and adolescents. Mood episodes include Depressive, Manic, Mixed, and Hypomanic. A Major Depressive Episode
Moral Behavior
can be described as depressed, sad, down in the dumps, discouraged, and/or hopeless. Children and adolescents may exhibit an irritable or cranky mood during a Major Depressive Episode as opposed to sadness. This must be distinguished from irritability due to frustration. Manic Episodes are identified by an interval of time with a euphoric, expansive, or irritable mood that lasts at least one week. A Mixed Episode includes both a Major Depressive Episode and a Manic Episode. A Hypomanic Episode has the same criteria as a Manic Episode; however, criteria for this episode are met after only four days. Depending on the characteristics of the mood and the duration, a child may be diagnosed with a mood disorder; these diagnoses have very specific criteria in order to facilitate diagnostic precision.
References 1.
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (text rev) (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Hammen, C., & Rudolph, K. D. (2003). Childhood mood disorders. In E. J. Mash & R. A. Barkley (Eds.), Child psychopathology (2nd ed., pp. 233–278). New York: Guilford.
CHRISTI SIKORA University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Affective disorders
Definition
References
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (text rev.) (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Hammen, C., & Rudolph, K. D. (2003). Childhood mood disorders. In E. J. Mash & R. A. Barkley (Eds.), Child psychopathology (2nd ed., pp. 233–278). New York: Guilford.
Mood Disorders ▶Affective Disorders
Refers to a group of psychological disorders identified by a disturbance in mood.
Description Mood disorders represent a major category of the DSMIV-TR diagnostic classification system. Mood disorders include many diagnoses, specifiers that describe the current and recurrent episodes, and qualifiers for levels of severity. Mood episodes do not have their own diagnostic code; however, they are the building blocks for the diagnosis of mood disorders. Mood disorders are separated into four categories: Depressive Disorders, Bipolar Disorders, Mood Disorder Due to a General Medical Condition, and Substance-Induced Mood Disorder. Depressive Disorders include Major Depressive Disorder, Dysthymic
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Disorder, and Depressive Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. These disorders are differentiated from Bipolar Disorders based on the absence of a Manic, Mixed, or Hypomanic Episode. Bipolar Disorders include Bipolar I Disorder, Bipolar II Disorder, Cyclothymic Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder Not Otherwise Specified and normally include Manic Episodes, Mixed Episodes, or Hypomanic Episodes together with current or past Major Depressive Episodes. Historically, research on mood disorders among youth was neglected in comparison to the large amount of such research among adults. Recently, the study of mood disorders in children and adolescents has increased significantly, with particular attention given to developmental differences in the manifestation of mood disorders and whether the diagnostic criteria for mood disorders used with adults can also be applied to youth. The depressive disorders often have onset in childhood or adolescence and often have a chronic or recurrent course. Research continues to look at familial and interpersonal aspects in addition to genetic and neurobiological factors.
1.
Mood Disorders
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Moral Behavior VICTORIA TALWAR McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Definition To act according to ones moral values and standards. Children demonstrate prosocial and moral behavior when they share, help, co-operate, communicate, sympathize or in otherwise they demonstrate ability to care about others.
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Description A number of elements affect whether an individual will act morally. The ability to reason about moral issues provides a basic level of understanding necessary for moral action. According to Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, individuals progress through stages of moral reasoning with higher order reasoning including concepts of fairness, justice and welfare [7]. Through the process of reasoning and judgment, an individual is able evaluate interpret the moral situation, formulate the moral ideal and choose a course of action that corresponds to one’s moral values. Thus, higher order moral reasoning may lead to greater likelihood of moral behavior. For instance, research has found that children who cheat have lower levels of moral reasoning than those who do not. Delinquent adolescents have been found to have lower moral reasoning than non-delinquents. Higher levels of moral reasoning have also been found to be related to altruism. Matsuba and Walker [8] found adolescent moral exemplars who engaged in a high degree of moral behavior through social organizations they were involved in were more advanced in their moral reasoning [8]. However, moral reasoning does not necessarily predict behavior. There is often a discrepancy between moral judgment (perceiving an act as right or wrong) and moral choice (deciding to act in morally right way). Research has found that while we often espouse certain moral standards and values, we may act in our own self-interests in contradiction to those beliefs. In fact, in real life moral conflict situations, contextual factors may influence our actions more than logical thought and we may not use higher level reasoning abilities [2]. Selfinterests may prevail instead. For instance, Hartshorne and May’s classic study found that moral behavior does not depend on a child’s character but is a function of situational factors [6]. Thus, while a child may act morally in one situation, they may act in their own self-interests in another. Choosing which action is most moral for the situation, requires interpreting the need for a moral response to the situation at hand. However, social domain theory suggests that while some issues/dilemmas may be considered moral (i.e., related to issues of welfare, justice, rights), others may be viewed as social conventions or personal interests [12]. An individual may judge the issue to be in the moral domain and then act accordingly. However, these judgments may shift depending on the situation. By 3 years of age, most children can distinguish moral rules from social conventions. They evaluate hurting another or taking another’s possessions as serious moral transgressions. Children also view lying as wrong and that honesty is the
morally right behavior. Nevertheless, they may lie in some contexts to protect their self-interests (i.e., to avoid being punished) [10]. On the other hand, in some contexts children will lie (breach a moral code) in order to protect or help someone else (prosocial behavior). [11] Thus, children’s behavior depends on the context and their evaluation of cost-benefit ratio to themselves and others and the resulting moral or prosocial behavior may be motivated by self-interests as well as adherence to moral codes or concern for others. One of first steps toward moral behavior is the development of self-control, the ability to inhibit impulses. Preschoolers start to develop self-control and attempt to restrain their behavior to avoid temptation by distracting themselves or repeating the rules (i.e., I have to wait to play with the toy). Children’s abilities to exercise self-control and to restrain unacceptable behavior gradually increases through elementary school years. An important motivating factor for moral behavior is empathy which involves being able to identify with another as well as understanding the effect of various possible actions on others. Empathy motivates individuals to become involved and provides information about another’s distress and how it can be alleviated. As early as the preschool years, children show guilt and distress when they feel they have done something wrong and show empathy towards another when they are in distress. With increasing age, children show more empathy for others in difficulty. As children’s ability to understand the perspective of others and reason prosocially increases, so does their prosocial behavior. Children have been found to exhibit more prosocial behaviors from elementary school onwards [5]. During adolescent years, identity development becomes important factor in motivating moral or prosocial behavior. As part of that development, adolescents feel a personal moral responsibility to act prosocially. According to Blasi, judgments of responsibility develop in stages somewhat in parallel to moral judgment stages [3]. Individuals who are at higher stages are more personally responsible for their values, decisions, and actions. For instance, adolescent care “exemplars” have been found to have an understanding of self based upon systematic moral belief systems. As adolescents’ self-understanding and self-identity develop, there is an increase in the use of moral concepts to guide conduct. Children internalize the moral rules and principles by adapting the external standards of the adult authority figures around them which they learn through directing instruction, observation, rewards and punishments [1]. Authoritative, democratic, responsive parenting is associated with higher levels of moral maturity. Children’s moral
Moral Development
behavior is developed through warm caring parenting with clear consistent expectations. Adults foster moral behavior through control and communication of values, role modeling, fostering active reflection and the creation of opportunities for child to practice moral reasoning actions. In addition to the influence of parents and other significant adults, peers can also influence children’s moral behavior. Social expectations and norms of the peer group may influence children’s behavior. For instance, in high school there is sometimes the perception that cheating is prevalent. Peer norms and attitudes of friends may influence if a child engages in academic dishonesty [9]. Research has found that children’s peer debates can generate increased awareness of fairness and rights of others [4]. Other studies based on cognitive theory of moral development have found that discussions led by teacher-facilitators can also promote children’s moral maturity. Kohlberg created the Just Community programs in high schools where students developed their own rules of conduct through discussion, reason and argument about fairness. Moral development occurred when students shared in the responsibility of creating a moral environment. Results suggest that students’ complex moral reasoning increases while antisocial behavior declines.
References 1. Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Vol. 1. Theory (pp. 45–103). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 2. Batson, C. D., & Thompson, E. R. (2001). Why don’t moral people act morally? Motivational considerations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 54–57. 3. Blasi, A. (1993). The development of identity: Some implications for moral functioning. In G. Noam & T. Wren (Eds.), The moral self. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 4. Damon, W. (1990). The moral child. New York: Free Press. 5. Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. (1998). Prosocial development. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social emotional and personality development (5th ed., pp. 701–778). New York: Wiley. 6. Hartshorne, H., & May, M. (1928). Studies in the nature of character (Vol. 1. Studies in deceit). New York: MacMillan. 7. Kohlberg, L. (1986). The psychology of moral development. New York: Harper and Row. 8. Matsuba, M., & Walker, L. (2004). Extraordinary commitment: Young adults involved in social organizations. Journal of Personality, 72, 413–436. 9. McCabe, D. (1999). Academic dishonesty among high school students. Adolescence, 34, 681–687. 10. Talwar, V., & Lee, K. (2008). Socio-cognitive correlates of children’s lying behaviour: Conceptual understanding of lying, executive functioning, and false beliefs. Child Development, 79, 866–881.
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11. Talwar, V., Murphy, S., & Lee, K. (2007). White lie-telling in children for politeness purposes. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31, 1–11. 12. Turiel, E. (2002). The culture of morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moral Constraint ▶Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
Moral Decision-Making ▶Moral Judgments
Moral Development STEFANIE DOROUGH Oklahoma State University, USA
Synonyms Development of moral sense; Ethics; Moral growth; Moral maturation
Definition Moral development refers to the process whereby people form a progressive sense of what is right and wrong, proper and improper. As implied by the term development, human moral sense is commonly seen to involve a movement from simple and finite definitions of right and wrong to more complex ways of distinguishing right from wrong.
Description Throughout history, the topic of moral development has been taken up by many theologians, scientists, and philosophers. Western philosophy provides three common platforms for thinking about human morality [9]. Christianity provides the doctrine of original sin, which holds that all human beings are born with a proclivity towards concupiscence. That is to say, without salvific intervention, all people will naturally behave selfishly, improperly, without regard for the good of others [5]. The second philosophical platform is that proposed by
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Swiss-born French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that human beings are born good. Rousseau proposed that moral development required little if any societal or parental intervention, but that people would naturally develop a sense of right and wrong. Believing that societal institutions actually led people astray from naturally occurring moral development, Rousseau proposed the concept of the noble savage, a person uncorrupted by society’s moral interference [10]. English philosopher John Locke proposed a third moral philosophy – human beings are born amoral and are influenced by experience. Locke proposed the term tabula rasa, or blank slate, to convey the idea that morality is completely derived from environmental interaction [10, 17]. More recently, psychologists have proposed several theories of moral development. The two predominant theoretical orientations of moral development that have emerged from psychology are the social learning/social cognition approach, based primarily on the work of Bandura [1–4], and the cognitive structuralism approach, which will be discussed here based primarily on the work of Piaget and Kohlberg [13–15, 18, 19]. From a social learning/social cognition approach, moral development is based upon values, both those of the individual – individual values – and those held by the community or group within which the individual resides – shared values [25]. For example, a value may be “human life is to be defended above all else,” or “children should be seen, not heard.” These values may then be translated into behaviors. Successful moral development within this theoretical framework occurs when individuals consistently engage in behaviors with positive consequences – that is to say, when an individual behaves according to values, or convictions, that are also shared by the community or group to which the individual belongs. This is learned both by noting the consequences of one’s own actions, as well as the consequences of the actions of others, or environmental modeling [1–4]. Moral behavior, what is right and wrong, can be defined only relative to social context. The cognitive structuralist view conceptualizes moral development as the acquisition via experience of social rules rather than the development and internalization of values. In contrast to the contextual values of social learning/social cognition theory, within the cognitive structuralist framework, rules are not relative, but rather universal, external properties of the world [25]. Piaget describes moral development, therefore, as playing a game, the object being the discovery of these rules [18–20]. As a person plays the game, they begin to pick up on rules, first seeing the rules as basic and finite, and then learning
increasingly nuanced rules via social interaction and observation. A third theory of moral development emerging from psychology, which bears mentioning, comes from the psychoanalytic tradition. According to Freud, moral development is the result of a childhood confrontation between the demands of the id and the desire to avoid punishment and earn desired acceptance [6].
Relevance to Childhood Development Both social learning/social cognition and cognitive structuralism hold that human beings are innately amoral and stress experience as the key component of moral development. And while both theories hold that moral development occurs over the lifespan, each holds that the most significant moral development is achieved during the first two decades of life, with later development building on earlier foundations. Social learning/social cognition conceptualizes moral growth as occurring gradually throughout life. That is to say, moral development is seen as a day-to-day accumulation of moral reasoning and understanding throughout life. This stands in contrast to the stage theory approach of cognitive structuralism, which posits sharp developmental trends [9, 18–20]. Both Piaget and Kohlberg, of the cognitive structuralist school of thought, proposed stages of moral growth thought to be observable at predictable ages. These stage theories emphasize increasingly complex internal cognitive processing. As a child’s capacity for complex reasoning increases due to maturation in cognitive structures, schemas, and operation mechanisms, their moral worldview also increases in complexity [13–15, 18, 19]. Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development along with three concurrent stages of moral development. His first stage of moral development, lasting between 4 and 7 years of age, is that of heteronomous morality. Heteronomous morality is characterized by an inflexible system of rules and the absence of questioning of authority. The second stage, lasting from 7 to 10 years of age, is the transitional stage in which a child exhibits moral judgments characteristic of both the first and third stages of moral development. Piaget’s third stage is that of autonomous morality, which begins at age 10 and is characterized by a flexible rule system and concepts like equality, reciprocity and justice [18–20]. Kohlberg proposed a more detailed six stage model of moral development. Like Piaget, Kohlberg’s first stage, also termed heteronomous morality involves an unquestioning attitude towards authority. His second stage, referred to as individualistic/instrumental morality, involves
Moral Development
maximizing the benefits to oneself while minimizing consequences. Stage three is that of impersonally normative morality, in which one partakes in shared social norms. During stage four, social system morality, one makes moral decisions in pursuit of the greatest common good. Stage five, human rights and social-welfare morality, marks the beginning of the promotion of universal values and rights. Kohlberg’s sixth and final stage is that of universalizable, reversible, and prescriptive general ethical principles [13–15]. In psychodynamic theory, moral development is associated with the emergence of the superego during the Oedipal period, which occurs during the ages of 4–6. In essence, the id, the part of the mind that operates on the pleasure instinct, issues a demand that is met with prohibition. This is commonly understood as occurring in strictly Oedipal terms. That is to say, a child desires to replace the same-sex parent and possess the parent of the opposite sex. For a male child, the desire to overthrow father and possess mother results in feelings of being threatened by the same-sex competitor, namely castration anxiety. Frustrated, the child decides to ally himself with his father and begins to adopt his values and behaviors [6]. Because females are not confronted with the fear of castration, having no phallus to lose, psychodynamic theory is associated with the idea that females are weaker morally than men, having less motivation to adopt the values of the same-sex parent. However, the frustration of desire leading to the internalization of societal rules/values can easily be seen in many situations. If the superego does not emerge, and alliance with the same-sex parent does not occur, moral development may be affected throughout life. Some theorists have taken issue with the above theories of moral development, specifically those of Kohlberg and psychodynamic theory, noting that they are biased towards male-typical moral development and underestimate the moral maturation and reasoning of women [7, 8, 27, 28]. One such theorist is Carol Gilligan, a student of Lawrence Kohlberg. Gilligan proposed that women develop moral systems based upon an ethic of care rather than an ethic of justice [7]. Gilligan proposed an alternative theory of moral development based upon care focused morality. The three stages she proposed are the preconventional stage (in which morality is based upon individual survival), the conventional stage (in which selfsacrifice is seen as goodness), and the postconventional stage (in which people operate using a principle of nonviolence to self and others). More recent research in the moral development of children suggests that children begin to exhibit the
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beginnings of moral thinking much earlier than purported by traditional theories. In light of new research regarding the conceptual skills and relational abilities of infants and young children, it is increasingly believed that early childhood experiences experiences provide a foundation for moral thinking and humanistic regard in later life [26]. For instance, several studies provide evidence that, as early as 26 months, young children exhibit normalized standards for appearance and integrity by responding with distress when presented with flawed objects and showing moral emotions of embarrassment or concern in response to their image in the mirror showing a spot of rouge on their noses [12, 16]. Studies also suggest that 3- and 4-years olds distinguish between the domains of moral and socio-conventional standards, and that preschoolers prioritize fairness over convention during peer play [11, 21–24]. These and others studies suggest that the field of childhood moral development is still young and that we still have much to learn about the skills, abilities, and cognition of children [26].
References 1. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 2. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 3. Bandura, A. (1990). Selective activation and disengagement of motor control. Journal of Social Issues, 46, 27–46. 4. Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development, Volume 1: Theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 5. Chadwick, H. (1991). Saint Augustine: Confessions. New York: Oxford University Press. 6. Freud, S. (1933 [1932]). New introductory lectures in psychoanalysis. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (J. Strachey, Trans., Vol. 22, pp. 112–135). London: Hogarth Press. 7. Gilligan, C. (1977). In a different voice: Women’s conceptions of self and of morality. Harvard Educational Review, 47, 481–517. 8. Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 9. Hergenhahn, B. R. (1992). An introduction to the history of psychology (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. 10. Hergenhahn, B. R. (2001). An introduction to the history of psychology (4th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. 11. Killen, M., Pisacane, K., Lee-Kim, J., & Ardila-Rey, A. (2001). Fairness or stereotypies? Young children’s priorities when evaluating group exclusion or inclusion. Developmental Psychology, 37, 587–596. 12. Kochanska, G., Casey, R., & Fukumoto, A. (1995). Toddlers’ sensitivity to standard violations. Child Development, 66, 643–656. 13. Kohlberg, L. (1967). Moral and religious education in the public schools: A developmental view. In T. R. Sizer (Ed.), Religion and public education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 14. Kohlberg, L. (1971). From is to ought. In T. Michel (Ed.), Cognitive development and epistemology. New York: Academic.
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15. Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development. San Francisco: Harper and Row. 16. Lewis, M. (2000). Self-conscious emotions: Embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt. In M. Lewis & J. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 563–573). New York: Guilford Press. 17. Locke, J. (1690). An essay concerning human understanding. London: J. M. Dent. 18. Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child. New York: Free Press. 19. Piaget, J. (1973). The child and reality. New York: Viking. 20. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child. New York: Basic Books. 21. Smetana, J., & Braeges, J. (1990). The development of toddler’s moral and conventional judgments. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 36, 329–346. 22. Smetana, J. G. (1981a). Preschool children’s conception of moral and social rules. Child Development, 52, 1333–1336. 23. Smetana, J. G. (1981b). Parenting and the development of social knowledge reconceptualized: A social domain analysis. In J. Grusec & L. Kuczynski (Eds.), Parenting and children’s internalization of values (pp. 162–192). New York: Wiley. 24. Theimer, C., Killen, M., & Stangor, C. (2001). Preschool children’s evaluations of exclusion in gender-stereotypic contexts. Developmental Psychology, 37, 18–27. 25. Thomas, R. M. (1997). Moral developmental theories – Secular and religious: A comparative studies. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. 26. Thompson, R. A. (2006). The development of the person: Social understanding, relationships, conscience, self. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional and personality development. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 27. Van Herick, J. (1982). Freud on femininity and faith. Berkley: University of California Press. 28. Wulff, D. (1997). Psychology of religion (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
Moral Growth ▶Moral Development
Moral Judgments RAJESH K. KANA University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Moral decision-making; Moral reasoning
Definition Moral judgment refers to an evaluative assessment of others’ actions based on the agent’s motive as well as based on the consequence of the action within the context of societal and cultural values and standards.
Description Human beings have the unique ability to assess a given situation with possible alternatives and potential consequences before generating an appropriate response. Such evaluations are usually guided by the accepted values and codes of the society, especially the moral values and moral codes. Morality is considered as a set of customs and values accepted by a cultural group or society in order to guide and control social conduct of individual members of that group. The actions of an individual or a group are judged based on such values and customs. Accordingly, certain actions are considered right and certain others as wrong. Such judgments may differ from society to society and culture to culture. Morality is a product of evolutionary forces that have shaped social cognitive and motivational mechanisms, which had already developed in human ancestors, into uniquely human forms of experience and behavior [25]. Moral judgment involves an evaluative assessment of the actions of others based on the agent’s intentions and on the impact of the action on another individual or society. Moral judgments are evaluations of the actions or character of a person that are made with respect to a set of virtues held to be obligatory by a culture or subculture [12]. The ability to make moral judgments is thought to develop through several different stages. Psychological research by Piaget [23] and Kohlberg [21] on the development of moral cognition has focused on progressive stages of moral development. Their theories suggest that the progression from one stage to another is determined by experience. It is a progression from egocentric thinking to empathic thinking. It is also a progression from consequence based reasoning to intention based reasoning, where the actions and events are judged based on the consequences rather than the motive behind an agent’s actions. For example, John breaks ten cups accidentally, whereas Jim breaks one cup deliberately. Very young children might judge John’s action morally more wrong than Jim’s. This is because their judgment of these situations is dependent on the consequence of the action rather than the intention behind the action. In order to interpret and judge a moral transgression, some understanding of the transgressor’s motive is crucial. Young children’s moral judgments are determined by the action’s outcome rather than the actor’s intention [13, 23, 26, 29, 30]. However, older children develop the ability to integrate the intentionality of the agent with the consequences of the agent’s actions in making moral judgment [29, 30]. People’s beliefs about an agent’s mind serve as an input to the process by which they arrive at moral judgments about that agent’s behavior [18]. Such understanding of other people’s beliefs, desires and motives (Theory-of-Mind,
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ToM) help us not only interpret others’ actions but also predict their actions to a certain extent. Theory of Mind (ToM) and moral judgment : Processing social transgressions has been associated with activation in neural systems involved in the representation of mental states of others [4]. ToM refers to the ability to understand and attribute mental states to oneself and to others, and is critical in social cognition and social interaction. Social interactions involve the reciprocal, interactive game of understanding other minds and modifying our own beliefs and thoughts about other minds based on our understanding. Having a ToM may be related to the ability to make moral judgment. The most important connection is that understanding the intentions of an agent is critical in morally judging the agent’s actions. A recent functional MRI study of the interaction between ToM and moral judgment highlighted the importance of belief attribution during moral judgment [28]. As mentioned earlier, successfully interpreting and judging social scenarios also involves understanding a situation from multiple perspectives. Evaluation of the violation of a social norm differs depending on whether one is an agent or witness to a social transgression. Perspective-taking abilities have been found to have significant effect on moral reasoning [16]. According to Kohlberg [20], moral growth is guided not by simple brain maturation but rather by experience in role-taking or looking at a problem from multiple perspectives. Cognitive empathy, which has also been referred to as perspective-taking or role-taking, is the ability to understand the point of view of another person and is considered as an important achievement in cognitive development. Affective empathy, on the other hand, is the emotional response which often results from perspective-taking [24]. Emotion and reason in moral judgment: Moral judgment is an important aspect of human thought that sits at the intersection of cognitive and social domains as it involves the interplay of cognition and emotion. Emotion and reason have been at the center of the debate on moral cognition in philosophy, in psychology, and in neuroscience. In daily life we constantly assess a situation and make rightness or wrongness judgments. Evaluating a moral dilemma and coming up with a possible action plan involves the battle between cognition and emotion. However, the relative roles of emotion and cognition in moral judgment have been debated. Kant [17] believed emotional forces to be sources that tainted the process of moral thought, primarily because they were against the reasoning process. On the other hand, Hume [14, 15] argued that emotion is critical to moral judgment, and reason has no place in moral cognition. He believed that
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moral judgments are similar to aesthetic judgments and they are derived from sentiment, not reason. Damasio [7], through the somatic-marker hypothesis, emphasized the importance of emotions in decision-making process. He argued that emotions help to accelerate the decisionmaking process by limiting the number of possible alternatives available to the individual. This is particularly true in moral situations. For instance, an individual may not give second thought when he sees a group of teenagers pushing and shoving a blind man. Here, the immediate empathic arousal leads to a judgment which then prescribes an action. The social intuitionist model [12] proposes that moral reasoning does not cause moral judgment; rather moral reasoning is a posthoc construction, generated after reaching moral judgment. According to this view, moral judgment is caused by quick moral intuitions, as in the earlier example, and is followed by slow moral reasoning. Greene et al. [11] argued that emotions play a larger role in personal moral dilemmas than in impersonal or abstract ones. In their functional MRI study with typically developing individuals, regions associated with emotional processing were activated (medial frontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, and posterior cingulate) during personal moral dilemmas, whereas cognitive areas were activated (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) during impersonal moral dilemmas. On the whole, both emotion and reason play critical roles in moral judgment and their relative role is still a topic of debate. The relative role of emotion and reason may depend on several factors, such as the nature of moral dilemma, and the emotional or cognitive state of the evaluator. The moral brain: The human brain is best understood as a confederation of mechanisms that usually act together, but at times may compete with one another, favoring different evaluations of similar circumstances [6]. A good example of such a circumstance is evaluating a social action and making moral judgment about it. Evaluating social situations is a daily affair in one’s life and such assessments would require the integrative functioning of several processes, such as understanding a given situation, realizing the context, and integrating it with background information. The evolution of the human prefrontal cortex is intimately related to the emergence of human morality [22, 27]. The cortical areas primarily involved in moral judgment are the medial frontal cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, insula, posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus [10, 22]. Patients with lesions in the orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex have long been described as presenting high levels of aggression, lack of concern for social and moral rules
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and irresponsibility [5, 7]. Lesions of these same areas during childhood impair the development of moral knowledge and ethical judgment [2]. The evidence converging from lesion studies underscores the role of these regions in moral behavior. Studies of individuals with psychopathy reveal utilitarian moral judgment. Patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage exhibit generally diminished emotional responsivity and markedly reduced social emotions (e.g., embarrassment or guilt) that are closely associated with moral values [2, 3, 8, 9], and also exhibit poorly regulated anger and frustration tolerance in certain circumstances [19, 1]. Assessing a moral scenario involves looking at the agent’s actions within the backdrop of a larger societal setting. Therefore, moral judgment may involve the coordinated functioning of several processes, such as reason, emotion, intuition, and intentionality, and may demand flexibility in thinking. In sum, the prefrontal cortex, especially the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may play a crucial role in moral decision-making process.
References 1. Anderson, S. W., Barrash, J., Bechara, A., & Tranel, D. (2006). Impairments of emotion and real-world complex behavior following childhood or adult-onset damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 12, 224–235. 2. Anderson, S. W., Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. (1999). Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 1032–1037. 3. Beer, J. S., Heerey, E. H., Keltner, D., Scabini, D., & Knight, R. T. (2003). The regulatory function of self-conscious emotion: Insights from patients with orbitofrontal damage. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 594–604. 4. Berthoz, S., Armony, J., Blair, R., & Dolan, R. (2002). An fMRI study of intentional and unintentional (embarrassing) violations of social norms. Brain, 125, 1696–1708. 5. Blair, R. J., & Cipolotti, L. (2000). Impaired social response reversal. A case of acquired sociopathy. Brain, 123, 1122–1141. 6. Cohen, J. D. (2005). The vulcanization of the human brain: A neural perspective on interactions between cognition and emotion. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19, 3–24. 7. Damasio, A. R. (1994). DesCartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Penguin. 8. Damasio, A. R., Tranel, D., & Damasio, H. (1990). Individuals with sociopathic behavior caused by frontal damage fail to respond autonomically to social stimuli. Behavioral Brain Research, 41, 81–94. 9. Eslinger, P. J., Grattan, L. M., & Damasio, A. R. (1992). Developmental consequences of childhood frontal lobe damage. Archives of Neurology, 49, 764–769. 10. Greene, J., & Haidt, J. (2002). How (and where) does moral judgment work? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6, 517–523. 11. Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293, 2105–2108. 12. Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834.
13. Hebble, P. W. (1971). Development of elementary school children’s judgment of intent. Child Development, 42, 583–588. 14. Hume, D. (1960). An enquiry concerning the principles of morals. La Salle, IL: Open Court. (Originally work published 1777). 15. Hume, D. (1978). A treatise of human nature (L. A. Selby-Bigge & P. H. Nidditch, Eds.). Oxford: Clarendon. (Originally work published 1739). 16. Ittyerah, M., & Mahindra, K. (1990). Moral development and its relation to perspective taking ability. Psychology and Developing Societies, 2, 203–216. 17. Kant, I. (1785/1959). Foundation of the metaphysics of morals (L. W. Beck, Trans.). Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merril. 18. Knobe, J. (2005). Theory of mind and moral cognition: Exploring the connections. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 357–359. 19. Koenings, M., & Tranel, D. (2007). Irrational economic decisionmaking after ventromedial prefrontal damage: Evidence from the ultimatum game. Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 951–956. 20. Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: The cognitive developmental approach to socialization. In D. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research (pp. 347–480). Chicago: Rand McNally. 21. Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: Moral stages and the life cycle. San Francisco: Harper and Row. 22. Moll, J., de Oliviera-Souza, R., & Eslinger, P. J. (2003). Morals and the human brain: A working model. NeuroReport, 14, 299–305. 23. Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child (M. Gabain, Trans.). New York: Free Press. 24. Pizarro, D. (2000). Nothing more than feelings? The role of emotions in moral judgment. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 30(4), 355–375. 25. Schulkin, J. (2000). Roots of social sensitivity and neural function. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 26. Shultz, T. R., Wright, K., & Schleifer, M. (1986). Assignment of moral responsibility and punishment. Child Development, 57, 177–184. 27. Wood, J., & Grafman, J. (2003). Human prefrontal cortex: Processing and representational perspectives. Nature Review Neuroscience, 4, 139–147. 28. Young, L., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., & Saxe, R. (2007). The neural basis of the interaction between theory of mind and moral judgment. PNAS, 104, 8235–8240. 29. Yuill, N., & Perner, J. (1988). Intentionality and knowledge in children’s judgments of actor’s responsibility and recipient’s emotional reaction. Developmental Psychology, 24, 358–365. 30. Zelazo, P. D., Helwig, C. C., & Lau, A. (1996). Intention, act and outcome in behavioral prediction and moral judgment. Child Development, 67, 2478–2492.
Moral Maturation ▶Moral Development
Moral Realism ▶Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
Moro Reflex
Moral Reasoning ▶Moral Judgments
Morals ▶Ethics
Moro Reflex JORDANA E. MORTIMER, DENISE E. MARICLE Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA
Synonyms Embrace reflex; Startle reflex; Startle response
Definition The Moro Reflex is one of the infantile reflexes and is also known as the startle reflex. It is an involuntary response that is present prenatally and at birth, which then disappears between the ages of 3 and 6 months. The reflex is elicited when the infant is startled by a loud noise, the sensation of falling or other environmental stimuli. The reflex causes the infant to arch the back, extend the arms, legs and fingers (abduction), and in most cases to cry.
Description The Moro Reflex is characterized by a two step process in response to startling stimuli. First, the arms and legs extend and move away from the body, the spine extends which causes the head to roll back, and the fingers will fan out while the thumb and index finger form the shape of a “c.” During this initial phase, the extension of the spine may be so great that the infant may roll to one side. Next, the legs and arms will be brought back to center as if in the form of an embrace and the hands will become clenched; this physical response is then usually followed by intense crying [1, 11, 12]. The Moro Reflex can be seen as early as nine weeks in utero and a full response will become integrated between two and four months postnatally [4, 6]. As the central nervous system develops, this response should gradually disintegrate until only a simple body jerk is left in adults in response to startling stimuli [12]. Hunt [10] describes deterioration of this response occurring as early as 1 month, Mandleco [11] states that this response should
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disappear between 3–4 months, Berk [3] states 6 months, and McGraw [12] recommends that if this response occurs after 5–7 months then medical inquiry into development is needed. The Moro Reflex is considered pathological if displayed in older children or adults as it indicates neurological damage. This same concern is applicable if an infant does not exhibit the Moro Reflex completely or partially during the first few months of development. This innate reflex serves as a survival mechanism for the infant (e.g., in response to a threat such as a fall it helps the infant cling to the mother) and it is thought to be the only unlearned fear response in humans [3, 12]. One of the main purposes of this reflex is the assistance it provides during child birth. The vestibular system becomes functional around 8 months of pregnancy which allows the baby to turn itself into the head-down position. Infants that have a defect in this system are more often born breech, or feet first. This occurs because the infant may have difficulty detecting its position in space [6]. Due to the timeline of the development of the vestibular system, the Moro Reflex is often absent in preterm infants [14]. Ernst Moro (1874–1951), an Austrian pediatrician, first discovered and described this reflex. Because of his contributions to pediatrics, this response was named in his honor [12]. Gordon [8] and Sanford [16] are credited with first using this reflex as a diagnostic tool, suggesting that a continuance of the Moro reflex into childhood was indicative of cerebral or pyramidal injury and an asymmetrical pattern was indicative of injury on that side or motor paralysis. Sanford [16] used this reflex to assess injuries to the clavicle bone. The Moro Reflex is still used in infant assessment today to assess neurological development and physical injuries [8, 9, 15, 17]. Damage to the brain or spinal cord may cause infants to have a complete or partial absence of the Moro Reflex. Other injuries such as a broken shoulder or clavicle bone, cerebral anoxia, Erb’s palsy, and Erb-Duchenne paralysis may also result in a defect in the Moro Reflex in infants [14, 15]. A retained Moro Reflex in older childhood and adulthood can be an indicator of a wide range of disease processes including vestibular problems, damage to the brain and spinal cord, neuropathic lesion, maldevelopment of the pallidal area and the pyramidal tracts, and mental retardation. A retained Moro Reflex can also cause biochemical and nutritional imbalances, ear and throat infections, fatigue, and mood swings [4, 5, 12]. In addition to the traditional method of eliciting the Moro reflex by dropping an infant slightly through space, other methods include tapping the abdomen, cold or warm applications to the child’s trunk, extending the legs at the hips, blowing on the face, and bumping the
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crib where an infant lies [1, 10]. Purposefully eliciting this response should be performed only in infants who are suspected to have serious neurological abnormalities as it can be very distressing to infants [15].
References 1. Allen, K. E., & Marotz, L. R. (1999). Developmental profiles: Pre-birth through eight. Albany: Thompson Delmar Learning. 2. Bear, L. M. (2004). Early identification of infants at risk for developmental disabilities. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 51, 685–701. 3. Berk, L. (2007). Development through the lifespan (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. 4. Berne, S. (2002). A natural approach to ADD. Chicago: McGraw-Hill. 5. Berne, S. (2003). The primitive survival reflexes. Journal of Optometric Vision Development, 34, 83–85. 6. Dunbar, R., Barrett, L., & Lycett, J. (2007). Evolutionary psychology: A beginner’s guide: Human behaviour, evolution, and the mind. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. 7. Goldstein, K. (1938). A further comparison of the Moro reflex and the startle pattern. The Journal of Psychology, 6, 33–42. 8. Gordon, M. B. (1929). Moro embrace reflex in infancy. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 38, 26–34. 9. Green, T., Franklin, W., & Tanz, R. (2005). Pediatrics: Just the facts. New York: McGraw-Hill. 10. Hunt, W. (1939). Body jerk as a concept in describing infant behavior. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 55, 215–220. 11. Mandleco, B. (2004). Growth and development handbook: Newborn through adolescent. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning. 12. McGraw, M. (1937). The Moro reflex. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 54, 240–251. 13. Mupanemunda, R. H., & Watkinson, M. (1999). Key topics in neonatology. Oxford: BIOS Scientific Publishers. 14. Mupanemunda, R. H., & Watkinson, M. (2005). Key topics in neonatology (2nd ed.). London: Taylor and France Routledge. 15. Robinson, M., & Roberton, D. M. (2003). Practical pediatrics. New York: Elsevier Health Sciences. 16. Sanford, H. N. (1931). The Moro reflex as a diagnostic aid in fracture of the clavicle in the new born infant. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 41, 1304–1306. 17. Zafeiriou, D. I. (2004). Primitive reflexes and postural reactions in the neurodevelopmental examination. Pediatric Neurology, 31, 1–8.
Morpheme SHELIA M. KENNISON Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
meaning (e.g., hopelessness contains three morphemes: hope, -less, and –ness).
Description A morpheme may be an entire word or a part of a word. When a morpheme is an entire word (e.g., dog), it is referred to as a free morpheme. When a morpheme must be added to another morpheme in order to be used, it is referred to as a bound morpheme. Morphemes that can be added to the beginning of words are referred to as prefixes (e.g., re- as in rewrite). Morphemes that can be added to the end of words are referred to as suffixes (e.g., -less as in childless). Both prefixes and suffixes are common in English. Other languages also have morphemes that can be added to the middles of words. Such morphemes are referred to as infixes [1]. When bound morphemes are added to a word, the resulting word may be the same part of speech (i.e., noun, verb, adjective, etc.) as the word to which the bound morpheme is added. Such bound morphemes are referred to as inflectional morpheme (e.g., -s as in chairs and –ing as in singing). When the part of speech of the resulting word is different from the part of speech of the word to which the bound morpheme is added, the bound morpheme is referred to as a derivational morpheme (e.g., -er as in thinker because think is a verb and thinker is a noun). Research on reading comprehension has shown that when readers process words in sentences, they are processing the individual morphemes within the word. Research on reading in English has shown that words containing more than one morpheme take longer to read than words containing one morpheme [2]. Recent research has shown similar results for the reading of Hebrew [3] and Finnish [4]. These results suggest that the processes involved in identifying individual words involve a stage of processing in which the subcomponents of a word (or morphemes) are identified [5]. Languages differ in the average number of morphemes per word. Languages, such as Finnish and Hungarian, have high numbers of morphemes per word [6]. For example, in Finnish, words may contain two or more nouns that are joined together (e.g., lumi = snow, lumlpallo = snowball, lumipallosota = snowball fight, lumipallosotatantere = snowball fight field) [4].
Synonyms
Relevance to Childhood Development
Infix; Prefix; Suffix; Word
As children acquire the grammatical rules of language, they learn how to use morphemes appropriately. For example, the bound morpheme re- can be added only to words that refer to an activity that can be repeated. Children somehow learn that the combinations resleep or
Definition A morpheme is a word or part of a word that is the smallest meaningful unit; it cannot be divided into smaller units of
Morphology
reknow are not typical usages. The acquisition of morphemes typically begins during the second year of life [7]. Research by Roger Brown in 1970s showed that morphemes are acquired in a specific order. The present progressive –ing and the plural –s are acquired first and second, respectively. Contractions (e.g., he’s for he is and she’s for she has) are acquired last [8]. Difficulty in using morphemes appropriately is common in young children. For example, most children produce overregularizations, such as broked or mices, in which they add a suffix to word that has an irregular form. Overregularizations are normal and cease to occur as the child learns which words are irregular and do not take the suffix and which words are regular as do take the suffix. However, some individuals may have difficulties with morphemes throughout their life. These individuals may have a language disorder referred to as Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Because affected individuals often have family members with similar difficulties, SLI can be inheritable [9]. As children begin to learn to read, their awareness of morphemes may influence their performance. Recent research has shown that children with higher levels of awareness of morphemes (or morphological awareness) had higher levels of reading ability than children with lower levels of morphological awareness. This research also showed that reading ability was related to sensitive to the prosody of words. The children who displayed the highest levels of reading ability scored high on both morphological awareness and prosody [10].
References 1. Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hymes, N. (2007). An introduction to language (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Thomson. 2. Inhoff, A. W. (1989). Lexical access during eye fixations in reading: Are word access codes used to integrate lexical information across interword fixations? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 444–461. 3. Deutsch, A., Frost, R., Pelleg, S., Pollatsek, A., & Rayner, K. (2003). Early morphological effects in reading: Evidence from parafoveal preview in Hebrew. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 415–422. 4. Pollatsek, A., Hyo¨na¨, J., & Bertram, R. (2000). The role of morphological constituents in reading Finnish words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 820–833. 5. Rayner, K., & Pollatsek, A. (1989). Psychology of reading. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 6. Spencer, A. (1992). Morphological theory. Oxford: Blackwell. 7. Hoff, E. (2008). Language development (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth. 8. Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 9. Leonard, L. B. (2000). Children with specific language impairment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 10. Clin, E., Wade-Woolley, E., & Heggie, L. (2009). Prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness in children’s reading. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 197–213.
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Morphology LINDA R. SEALEY Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Grammar; Syllable structure; Syntax; Word structure
Definition Morphology is the study of how words are formed through the combining of minimal, meaningful units of sound (morphemes) according to the word-sound rule system of a given language.
Description Morphology is the study of the rules that tell how meaningful sounds (morphemes) are combined into words and have meaning in a language. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a language. Morphemes can be classified as free, bound, inflectional, and derivational. Free morphemes are units that have meaning and can stand alone, such as “is” or “cat.” Bound morphemes are minimal units that must be attached to free morphemes to have meaning, such as plural “-s” in “cats.” There are two types of bound morphemes, inflectional and derivational. Inflectional morphemes include bound morpheme forms that change the word to which it is attached by plurality, possession, tense, or degree. An example of an inflectional morpheme is the “-ed” inflection added to “jump,” indicating past tense by forming “jumped.” The seven inflectional forms in English are: plural “-s,” possessive “-s,” third person singular “-s,” past tense “-ed,” past participle “-en,” present progressive participle “-ing,” comparative “-er,” and superlative “-est.” A derivational morpheme is a bound morpheme form that changes the grammatical class of the word to which it is attached. An example of a derivational morpheme is the “-er” inflection added to “jump,” changing the verb “jump” to a predicate adjective in “He is a jumper.” There are 14 morphemes that are grammatical morphemes in English. These were identified by Brown [3] as important in language development based on the diary accounts of three young children’s spontaneous language production. The 14 grammatical morpheme forms are: present progressive “-ing,” prepositions “in” and “on,” plural “-s,” past tense irregular verbs, possessive “-s,” uncontractible copulas, articles, regular past tense “-ed,” regular third person singular, irregular third person singular, uncontractible auxiliary, contractible copula, and contractible auxiliary (see Table 1 below).
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Morphology. Table 1 Rank order of acquisition of Brown’s 14 grammatical morphemes [3, 4] Rank
Morpheme
Example
1
Present progressive “-ing”
Jumping
2
Preposition in
In
3
Preposition on
On
4
Regular plural inflection “-s”
Toys
5
Past tense irregular
Was
6
Possessive inflection
Mom’s
7
Uncontractible copula
Is he here?
8
Articles
A, the
9
Regular past tense
Jumped
10
Regular third person singular
She jumps.
11
Irregular third person singular
He does.
12
Uncontractible auxiliary
Is she jumping?
13
Contractible copula
She’s pretty.
14
Contractible auxiliary
He’s tall.
Development Tracking children’s understanding and use of these grammatical morphemes is a convenient and reliable method for measuring language development. As children learn the morphology of a language, they demonstrate understanding and use of grammatical morphemes. Therefore, the absence or disordered production of grammatical morphemes is often used as a marker for language disorder. In children who are typically developing, other areas of language, such as sentence structure and vocabulary, usually become more complex, or more adult-like, as they incorporate morphological units into the language they use to make their thoughts, ideas, and wants known (expressive language). Morphological development is usually measured by counting the number of morphemes, both words and grammatical morphemes, in each sentence or utterance, and is reported in a calculation of mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLUm). Though recent research has questioned the soundness of MLUm as a measure for development in grammatical morpheme usage [8], it is still commonly used as a measure of how children use language to make their wants and needs known, and continues to be considered a well-known and robust gauge of grammatical development to an MLUm of 4.0 [3, 12]. Morphological development in children who are typically developing appears to be generally predictable [3, 4]. Using language samples gathered repeatedly over time from the same children, Brown [3] documented the approximate order of acquisition of 14 grammatical
morphemes, and found that acquisition of these markers mirrored increases in MLUm. A study by DeVilliers and DeVilliers [4] demonstrated a similar order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes (see Table 1). However, recent research has indicated that different children may have a slightly different order in which they develop these markers. Therefore, the child’s achieved MLUm should be used only as a general sign of language development [7, 13]. The order and age at which a child begins to use a given grammatical morpheme appear to be influenced by how often the morpheme is used in the language the child hears on a daily basis [6] and the child’s cognitive development and emerging world knowledge [1, 5, 9, 11]. Morphological acquisition is not an all or none proposition. Children first say a grammatical morpheme on only some words followed by a “spread” of the grammatical morpheme by attaching it to other words. Further, the correct production of some grammatical morphemes disappears from children’s speech only to re-emerge in a later stage. For example, the first past tense grammatical morpheme to develop is the irregular past tense, as in “went.” Rather than adding a morphological marker to a present tense verb as in regular past tense “-ed,” irregular past tense verbs are single vocabulary words; each word’s internal structure is unique, as in “drank,” “ate,” and “thought.” Young children first produce a relatively small vocabulary of irregular past tense verbs associated with everyday actions they can see or know, as in “sat, fell, and went.” It appears these first examples of irregular past tense verbs are learned as single words and are not associated with the present tense or other tenses of the verb; “ate” is not associated with “eat.” During the developmental language period in which past tense “-ed ” emerges, children overuse the past tense “-ed ” by adding it to irregular past tense items previously learned, as in “wented.” As children learn the rule of past tense “-ed ” it is supposed that they “break the code” of when to apply the marker and to which forms it is applied [9–11]. Soon after which, they once again produce irregular past tense forms correctly, “went.” The order of acquisition, above, is presented as an approximate order of mastery of grammatical morphemes. It is important to know that toddlers can understand what these grammatical morphemes mean before they are able to use them in their speech; understanding precedes use [2, 9–11].
References 1. Barner, D., Thalwitz, D., Wood, J., & Carey, S. (2007). On the relation between the acquisition of singular-plural morpho=syntax and the conceptual distinction between one and more than one. Developmental Science, 10, 365–373.
Motivating Operations 2. Bloom, L., & Lahey, M. (1978). Language development and language disorders. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 3. Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 4. deVilliers, J. G., & deVilliers, P. A. (1973). A cross-sectional study of the acquisition of grammatical morphemes in child speech. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2, 267–278. 5. Ferenz, K. S., & Prasada, S. (2002). Singular or plural? Children’s knowledge of the factors that determine the appropriate form of the count nouns. Journal of Child Language, 29, 49–70. 6. Joseph, K. L., Serratrice, L., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2002). Development of copula and auxiliary BE in children with specific language impairment and younger unaffected controls. First Language, 22, 137–173. 7. Lahey, M., Liebergott, J., Chesnick, M., Menyuk, P., & Adams, J. (1992). Variability in children’s use of grammatical morphemes. Applied Psycholinguistics, 13, 373–398. 8. Leonard, L. B., & Finneran, D. (2003). Grammatical morpheme effects on MLU: “The same can be less” revisited. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 878–888. 9. McLaughlin, S. (1998). Introduction to language development. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group, Inc. 10. Owens, R. E. (2004). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. 11. Paul, R. (2001). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. 12. Retherford, K. S. (2007). Guide to analysis of language transcripts (3rd ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED, Inc. 13. Rollins, P., Snow, C., & Willett, J. (1996). Predictors of MLU: Semantic and morphological developments. First Language, 16, 243–259.
Mother only Families ▶Single Parent Families
Motivating Operations JAMES K. LUISELLI1, DEREK D. REED2 1 The May Institute, Inc., Randolph, MA, USA 2 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
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reinforcing value of stimuli and the behavior that has previously contacted these stimuli.
Description Learning theory, specifically operant psychology, posits that a person’s behavior is influenced by its consequences. Behavior is maintained when it produces pleasurable consequences (positive reinforcement) and avoids aversive consequences (negative reinforcement). However, the effects of positively reinforcing and negatively reinforcing consequences can change depending on a person’s motivational state. Consider, for example, conditions of hunger and thirst. If a person has eaten a full meal, the reinforcing value of food is diminished. Similarly, after drinking a large amount, liquids will be less reinforcing. The converse of these conditions also is true: the reinforcing properties of food and liquid will be potent when a person has not consumed them between meals. The preceding examples illustrate the concept of MOs. Essentially, a MO is any event, activity, or interaction that increases or decreases the effectiveness of consequences to function as reinforcement and the behavior that has been reinforced by those consequences. Some behavioral theorists have proposed that the term, establishing operations (EOs), be reserved for manipulations that increase the reinforcing value of consequences, and the term, disestablishing operations (DOs), be reserved for manipulations that decrease the reinforcing value of consequences. With this schema, EOs and DOs comprise the superordinate category of MOs. In function, MOs involve momentary changes in states of deprivation and satiation. Using the example of socially reinforcing consequences, children are more likely to enjoy attention from peers and demonstrate behavior to attract such attention when they have been away from friends and classmates. Concerning parental attention, children may be less inclined to seek contact with their mothers and fathers if they have been with them all day compared to periods of separation such as being at school or summer camp.
Relevance to Childhood Development Synonyms Establishing operations; Incentives; Motivational events
Definition Motivating operations (MOs) refer to a broad class of events that both increase and decrease the probability of behavior. These events function by changing the
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Motivation is an essential concept in human psychology and child development. Various theories have been proposed to explain why children behave in different social contexts (family, school, athletic teams) and how to motivate exemplary actions. MOs represent an empirically testable principle to account for, promote, and predict behavior.
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Motivation
References 1.
2.
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Friman, P. C., & Hawkins, R. O. (2006). Contribution of establishing operations to antecedent intervention. In J. K. Luiselli (Ed.), Antecedent assessment and intervention: Supporting children and adults with developmental disabilities in community settings (pp. 31–52). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. McGill, P. (1999). Establishing operations: Implications for the assessment, treatment, and prevention of problem behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 32, 393–418. Michael, J. (1993). Establishing operations. Behavior Analyst, 16, 191–206.
Motivation TONYA R. HAMMER University of Houston Clear Lake, Houston, TX, USA
Synonyms Drive; Incentives; Inspiration; Purpose; Reason; Stimulus
Definition Motivation is defined as the instinctual drive to accomplish a task or goal and is an incredibly important factor in determination of behavior. Such tasks or goals range from satisfying hunger to obtaining a certain job or degree. Within developmental and psychological fields, three leading theorists behind the concept of motivation are David McClelland, Abraham Maslow and J. B. Rotter.
Theories David McClelland presented a theory of motivation which is directly connected to individuals’ needs for power, affiliation and achievement. His theory has become known as acquired-needs or learned needs theory. It is an individual’s desire or lack thereof, for these three needs that drives their development and ambition over their entire lifespan [2]. Through his analysis of these three concepts, McClelland was led to develop a well known psychological needs assessment instrument entitled the Thematic Apperception Test. As children develop their need for primarily academic achievement, as well as athletic achievement, accompanied by the concepts of power and affiliation motivate their development in biological, cognitive, and emotional areas. Abraham Maslow is best known for his concept of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The premise behind the theory is that individuals, regardless of age, are motivated
by their instinctual drive to satisfy certain needs and desires [1]. The initial needs individuals are motivated to meet are the basic physiological needs of food, water, shelter and clothing. As the basic physiological needs are met, individuals are motivated to fulfill or meet other needs or desires, in particular, according to Maslow, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and finally the need for self-actualization. It is only after the basic needs are meet that individuals strive for the ultimate goal of self-actualization. Children are no exception to these motivating principles. In order to meet the basic physiological needs, children are motivated to learn how to request or cry for food, water, shelter and clothing. As they grow, they learn to adjust in order to continue to fulfill these needs. J. B. Rotter examined the ideas of internal and external factors of motivation. According to Rotter, Intrinsic motivation consists of internal factors within a person, which are defined as biological drives or instincts [3]. Intrinsic motivation is characterized as an internal desire to obtain the task or goal. The completion of such tasks or goals evokes a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. For example, when a child is learning to play a new game, intrinsic motivation for doing so would be an internal desire to obtain a goal set before them for their own personal satisfaction or feeling of success. Additionally, accomplishing the task would bring a certain sense of accomplishment, which represents an internal or intrinsic motivating factor. Extrinsic motivation represents the rewards or pressures found from external factors, such as the recognition received for completing a task or goal or the desire to avoid the disappointment that may surface from important individuals in a person’s life should the task not be completed. Extrinsic motivators are thought to be more powerful than intrinsic motivating factors. Continuing with the example of a child learning a new game, parental pride, expectations of peers, or simply having a new game to play with friends would all represent extrinsic or external motivating factors. Whether the motivation comes from intrinsic or extrinsic factors, a significant component behind the progression of motivation is the expectations of the individual, expectations of what will or will not occur should a task be completed or a goal reached. For example, in taking a standardized test, an individual’s expectations for how they will or want to score motivate the level of studying and preparation, as well as the amount of anxiety experienced going into the exam. Motivation is only one factor, but is an incredibly important factor in determining behavior.
Motor Learning Difficulties
References 1. 2. 3.
Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality. New York, NY: Harper & Row. McClelland, D. C. (1987). Human motivation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Rotter, J. B. (1954). Social learning and clinical psychology. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall.
Motivational Events ▶Motivating Operations
Motivational System ▶Token Economies
Motor Aphasia ▶Broca’s Aphasia
Motor Area of the Brain CHAD A. NOGGLE1, ANDREA R. MOREAU2 1 SIU School of Medicine, Springerfield, IL, USA 2 Indiana Neuroscience Institute/St. Vincent’s Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Synonyms Primary motor cortex
Definition The motor area of the brain, also referred to as the Primary Motor cortex, is localized to the Precentral gyrus of the Frontal lobe and is responsible for carrying out.
Description The motor area of the brain may well be a misnomer, although some use this terminology interchangeably with the Primary Motor cortex. While the latter is localized to the Precentral Gyrus of the Frontal lobe and is seen as the key player in the carrying out of purposeful movement, the full gamut of motor behavior is the end result of
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the collaboration of this region with an array other structures and neuroanatomical regions [2]. As noted, from a functional standpoint, the primary motor cortex is responsible for modulating the fine details required to carry out purposeful movement [3]. Specific cells in this region are directly linked with specific spinal motor neurons and motor nuclei in the cranial nerves [1]. This connection presents as direct pathways between cells of the primary motor cortex and output of the peripheral system such that lesions of a specific area of the motor cortex will lead to a loss of voluntary control over the specific area of the body with which that area is linked. This is arranged in a contralateral fashion such that motor actions of the right are controlled by left hemisphere functioning and motor actions of the left are controlled by right hemisphere functioning. Working closely with the primary motor cortex is the Premotor cortex. These regions together may be seen as representing the card catalog of the library of movement. In comparison to one another, the Primary Motor cortex regulates movements that are lower order than those of the Premotor cortex [2]. This is due to the Primary Motor cortex merely housing the movements whereas the Premotor cortex is entrusted with organizing the movement sequences [2]. The contribution of the Premotor cortex to motoric functioning is directly related to its connections with essential subcortical areas and structures, such as the Basal Ganglia, which are crucial to the refinement of motor coordination and organization [1]. Prior to the Primary Motor cortex and Premotor cortex initiating motor activity they receive neuronal instruction from the prefrontal cortex which is charged with the duty of mapping out/planning those movements to be carried out [2]. Throughout the motoric process, the motor areas of the brain and the somatosensory cortex are networked with one another providing a reciprocal line of communication between one another such that feedback from the somatosensory system may be integrated into the process thereby refining the motor action [3].
References 1. 2. 3.
Beaumont, J. G. (2008). Introduction to neuropsychology (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Motor Learning Difficulties ▶Developmental Coordination Disorder
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Motor Skills
Motor Skills Definition A motor skill is a learned sequence of movements that combine to produce a smooth, efficient action in order to master a particular task. Gross motor skills include lifting one’s head, rolling over, sitting up, balancing, crawling, and walking. Gross motor development usually follows a pattern. Generally large muscles develop before smaller ones, thus, gross motor development is the foundation for developing skills in other areas (such as fine motor skills). Development also generally moves from top to bottom. The first thing a baby usually learns to control is its eyes. Fine motor skills include the ability to manipulate small objects, transfer objects from hand to hand, and various eye–hand coordination tasks. Fine motor skills may involve the use of very precise motor movement in order to achieve an especially delicate task. Some examples of fine motor skills are using the pincer grasp(thumb and forefinger) to pick up small objects, cutting, coloring, writing, or threading beads. Fine motor development refers to the development of skills involving the smaller muscle groups.
Multibehavior Therapy ▶Multimodal Therapy
Multicultural Education TERESA GONZALEZ Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA
Synonyms Cultural diversity; Diversity; Equity
Definition Multicultural Education Multicultural education refers to the process of educational reform that assures that students from all groups (e.g., racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, ability, gender) experience educational equality, success, and social mobility.
Description
Mournful ▶Grieving
Mourning ▶Bereavement ▶Cross-Culture Perspective on Bereavement Springer
Movement ▶Gestures
Movement, Response ▶Behavior
As the diversity of our country continues to grow so does the number of diverse students entering our elementary and secondary schools. Multicultural education stems from the civil rights movements of the 1960s [2]. It is an educational strategy where students’ cultures are used to develop effective classroom instruction and school environments. It supports the concept of culture, diversity, equality, success, and social mobility in the school setting. Sleeter and Grant [7] in their analysis of the phrase “education that is multicultural” stated that the entire education program should be designed to address the needs of diverse groups regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, exceptionality, or gender. This Social Reconstructionist approach strives to provide students with the skills necessary to become socially active ([2], p. 50).
Relevance to Childhood Development Crushner, McClelland, and Phillip [3] suggest that developmental appropriate practice (DAP) involves providing learning environments, instructional content, and pedagogical practices that are responsive to the major attributes and salient needs and interest, which characterize and facilitate continuing development. This is accomplished through professional practices by educators who make constructive decisions about the education and
Multicultural Education
well-being of children based on: 1) what is known about child’s development and learning. 2) what is known about the strengths, interests, and needs of each individual child in the group. and 3) knowledge of the social and cultural contexts in which children live. Thus, these changing dynamics require that teachers remain as learners throughout their careers. The word education derives from the Latin word educare, meaning “to lead forth.” It is important for educators to have a strong philosophy that guides their work in order to meet the challenges that diversity brings to the classroom. Hence, State and school districts expect teachers to have proficiencies or specific knowledge, skills and dispositions related to multicultural education by the time they finish their teacher education program. In working with students who come from different ethnic background, racial language, religious groups than the teacher, the development of dispositions that are supportive of diversity and differences is important. Students quickly become aware of the educators who respect their culture, believe they can learn, and value differences in the classroom [2]. Consequently, culture and language have become one of the most powerful factors in multicultural education. It helps to define who we are and influences our knowledge, beliefs, and values. In order to reach our students and “lead them forth” we must become “culturally sensitive,” Giroux and Simon [4] spoke clearly of the importance of teachers understanding their own cultural identities and those of their students: By ignoring the cultural and social forms that are authorized by youth and simultaneously empower and disempower them, educators risk complicity in silencing and negating their students. This is unwittingly accomplished by refusing to recognize the importance of those sites and social practices outside of the schools that actively shape student experiences and through which students often define and construct their sense of identity, politics, and culture ([2], p. 58). Jodi Reiss [6] focuses on the importance of Language as a social construct. She states that its purpose is to communicate, in a process closely resembling First Language Acquisition children learning English communicate to make friends, participate in youth culture of sports, games, music etc. The following are some examples of some approaches and/ or strategies teachers may use in a classroom setting with diverse students:
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● As part of Stephen Krashen’s [5] Five hypotheses, Monitor Model of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), he proposed the existence of an emotional filter, which influences how much actual learning takes place in relation to the comprehensive input. The Affective Filter can be conceived as the emotional wall that blocks input from reaching the brain. He states that the greater the self-confidence, the more motivation to learn. Ultimately; lowering the Affective Filter and allowing for more academic input. Jim Cummins [1] mentions scaffolding instruction as a means of building upon student’s prior knowledge. By tapping into a students’ prior experiences we contribute to their cognitive demands in and outside of the classroom. Merrill Swain’s [8] concept of meaningful output has direct bearing on learning. The concept highlights the importance of small group interaction in long-term retention of both language and conceptual knowledge. Teachers can promote learning by choosing strategies that encourage students to negotiate meaning through paired or small group discussions. Lev Vygotsky [9] Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which he defines as “the distance between” (a student’s) actual development level as determined by independent problem solving, and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. ([6], pp. 4–10). In conclusion, in order to meet the multicultural educational needs of our diverse student population educators are empowering themselves and actively engaging students in the learning process. This is being accomplished integrating student experiences in and out of the classroom and providing them with the necessary tools to become socially active in a competitive environment.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
● Through the process known as Natural Acquisition and by being immersed a English-language rich environment, students can develop language skills of everyday activities.
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Cummins, J. (1984). Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment pedagogy. San Francisco: College-Hill Press. Cushner, K., McClelland, A., & Safford, P. (2006). Human diversity in education (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Cushner, K., McClelland, A., & Safford, P. (2008). Human diversity in education (6th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Giroux, H., & Simon, R. (1989). Popular culture: Schooling and everyday life. Granby, MA: Bergin and Garvey. Krashen, S. (1982). Principals and practices in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Reiss, J. (2008). 102 Content strategies for English language learners: Teaching academic success in grades 3-12. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc. Sleeter, C., & Grant, C. (1993). Making choices for multicultural education: Five approaches to race, class, and gender (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan.
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Multifinality
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensive input and comprehensive output in development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235–253). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: Development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Multifinality TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
implemented before a child’s sad mood had the chance to develop into a diagnosable disorder. The changeability of symptomatology in children is emphasized from this perspective, and caution is directed at assuming that similar histories or profiles will inevitably result in similar symptoms or disorders later on. Thus, the concept of multifinality allows us to examine individual children‘s developmental trajectories in order to improve their developmental skills, rather than making generalized assumptions about how a certain type of child might “end up” [2].
References 1.
Synonyms Developmental outcomes; Developmental pathways; Developmental trajectories
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Sroufe, L. A. (1997). Psychopathology as an outcome of development. Development and Psychopathology, 9(2), 251–268. Beauchaine, T. P. (2003). Taxometrics and developmental psychopathology. Special Issue: Conceptual, methodological, and statistical issues in developmental psychopathology: A special issue in honor of Paul E. Meehl. Development and Psychopathology, 15(3), 501–527.
Definition The concept that people can experience the same life events or have similar histories yet their developmental outcomes can vary widely.
Description Multifinality literally means “many ends.” This refers to people having similar histories (e.g., child sexual abuse, death of a parent, or a secure attachment history) yet their developmental outcomes can vary widely. For example, two children who were sexually abused could have very different outcomes despite extremely similar early experiences. One child might be well-adjusted yet another child might develop clinical depression. This concept is important because it encourages clinicians and researchers to examine entire developmental histories instead of only looking at symptom profiles. The field of developmental psychopathology (DP) brought this idea to light in its conceptualization of mental health and illness in children [1]. Researchers from the DP perspective de-emphasize a categorical diagnostic approach such as the traditional use of the DSM-IV. The traditional categorical clinical approach using the DSM-IV would require the child to have a certain number of depressive symptoms with a clear cut-off point for clinical relevance before treatment was warranted. Moreover, the symptoms must be present for a required length of time, in order for a child to be diagnosed with a “disorder” like depression. Using a DP approach, however, attention is focused on normal developmental tasks, such as the status of the child’s attachments to caregivers, emotional regulatory abilities, and peer relations. If the child has failed to accomplish these normal developmental skills, prevention efforts might be
Multigenerational Family ▶Extended Families
Multilevel Modeling ▶Hierarchical Linear Modeling
Multimodal Therapy FATIMA WATT Argosy University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Multibehavior therapy; Systematic eclecticism
Definition Multimodal therapy is a form of psychotherapy developed by Arnold Lazarus. It focuses on reducing psychological suffering and promoting personal growth as rapidly as possible. Multimodal therapy is based on the idea that humans are biological beings that think, feel, act, sense, imagine, and interact. Each of these modalities is thoroughly assessed in therapy in order to achieve a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the client and his or her social environment [2, 3].
Multiple Intelligence
Description Multimodal therapy posits that human personalities are the products of ongoing behaviors, affective processes, sensations, images, cognitions, interpersonal relationships, and biological functions (referred to as drugs/biology). The first letters of each of those modalities form the acronym BASIC I.D. The fundamental assumption is that BASIC I.D. encompasses the entire range of human personality. There is no predicament, affect, accomplishment, dream, or behavior that cannot be understood through BASIC I.D. Multimodal therapy focuses on specific difficulties within a given modality as well as the interaction between the modalities. The multimodal framework identifies individual problems along with factors that may be maintaining those problems. The clinician is then able to identify interventions by examining the interactive aspects of the identified problems [2, 3]. Arnold Lazarus developed multimodal therapy within the context of ▶behavior therapy and, later, cognitive behavior therapy. Lazarus recognized that merely addressing behaviors and cognitions in therapy was not sufficient enough to impact the many areas of psychosocial functioning. This led him to expand the traditional models to integrate additional domains for assessment and treatment. This was known as broad-spectrum behavior therapy then multi-behavior therapy prior to being termed multimodal therapy [2, 3]. Theoretically grounded in ▶social learning theory, the application of multimodal therapy relies on technical eclecticism, which is the practice of utilizing techniques from various sources without also adhering to the theories or disciplines from which they were created. Multimodal therapists use various techniques in their approach in order to effectively treat a wide range of problems and personalities. Treatment is tailored to the individual client and several methods are utilized in order to identify specific problems within the various BASIC I.D. modalities. Specific therapeutic interventions are created for each identified problem through the processes of tracking and bridging. Tracking allows the therapist to determine the interactive effects across the BASIC I.D. in order to establish the sequential order of the client’s cognitions, images, sensations, and behavior. Each client has a different sequential order or “firing order,” which will call for a different corresponding set and sequence of treatments. The client is asked to note all stimuli and events that precede and accompany any negative emotional reactions in developing the firing order. In a parallel process, called bridging, the therapist is attuned to the client’s primary modality and will access the primary modality to obtain reactions in another modality. Multimodal therapists are expected to
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consult relevant research and favor research based techniques over non researched based techniques [4]. Multimodal therapy has been applied and adapted to the treatment of children and adolescents. In Keats’s adaptation to children [1], the BASIC I.D. acronym shifts to the HELPING acronym. The seven HELPING modes are those of Health, Emotions-feelings, Learning-school, Peoplepersonal relationships, Imagination-interest, Need to know-think (Notions), and Guidance of acts, behaviors, and consequences. While the HELPING modes are the same as the BASIC I.D., the HELPING acronym is particularly useful in communicating concepts to parents, teachers, and children. The multimodal approach allows the therapist to systematically assess and formulate the child’s problems in order to determine where the child is primarily experiencing his or her difficulties. Using the HELPING acronym as a map, the main therapeutic task is to determine which interventions can be utilized in order to improve the child’s difficulties. Common treatment goals, addressing each of the seven HELPING modes, include, but are not limited to: appropriate diet and exercise; expression of feelings, joy attainment, and anxiety management; auditory appreciation, motor coordination, study skills, and sensory awareness; getting along with other children and communicating with adults; developing self-worth, awareness of imagery, and meditation; improving decision making and identifying irrational ideas; and attention-paying and assertiveness training [1].
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
Keat, D. B. (1990). Child multimodal therapy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Lazarus, A. A. (1989). The practice of multimodal therapy: Systematic, comprehensive and effective psychotherapy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Lazarus, A. A. (1997). Brief but comprehensive psychotherapy: The multimodal way. New York: Springer. Lazarus, A. A. (2008). Multimodal therapy. In R. J. Corsini & D. Wedding (Eds.), Current psychotherapies (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Multiple Intelligence ANNE FIERRO VANDERLAAN Saybrook University, Meridian, ID, USA
Definition Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences addresses the unique talents and gifts of children.
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Multisensory Teaching
Understanding multiple intelligences can help clinicians look for and identify strengths, natural pathways for learning, and alternative avenues for working with patients. Through this identification, therapists can encourage greater self-awareness and self-acceptance, and they can open doors to alternative arenas where children can succeed.
Description Gardner’s [2] definition of intelligence comprises emotional, behavioral, and mental information processes put into motion by a cultural environment; in this environment, works are produced that are highly esteemed in culture (p. 33). These intelligences emerge and respond differently than the intelligence quotient as defined by traditional operational statistical classifications. Creative people such as weavers, painters, sculptors, and glass blowers are valued because of the artifacts they produce; performances by dancers, singers, and musicians are also respected. These kinds of intelligence are not recognized in traditional definitions, however. The multiple intelligences theory allows for greater respect of creative individuals and cultures by providing empirical data that validates disciplines previously rejected in individual intelligence assessments [1]. Gardner also examined cognitive profiles of all kinds of people, including those with special needs such as learning disabilities, autism, and savant syndrome. The assessed children had extreme problems living; they might be considered cognitively unstable and possessing low intelligence, yet these children might have other strengths not manifested previously ([1], p. 8). Gardner compared how these same children would be measured using IQ assessments; such children would be considered cognitively jagged. According to Gardner, IQ tests only measure logical or logical-linguistic capacities. In this society, we are nearly “brainwashed” to restrict our notions of intelligence to the capacities used to solve logical and linguistic problems ([1], p. 14).
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner to date suggested that there are eight intelligences; these intelligences are as follows: 1. Musical: Children with musical intelligence often sing or tap out beats. They are more aware of sounds and will notice sounds that most people do not. Musical children are discriminating listeners and hear music in mundane sounds. 2. Linguistic: Children with linguistic intelligence excel at reading, writing, storytelling, and doing word puzzles.
3. Logical-mathematical: Children with this type of intelligence are interested in patterns, categories, and relationships. They are good at solving mathematic problems, conducting science experiments, and playing strategy games. 4. Body-kinesthetic: These children process knowledge through their senses. They usually excel at athletics and dance. 5. Spatial: These children think in images and pictures. They are sometimes good at mazes and jigsaw puzzles. These children spend time drawing, building (with blocks, Legos, or erector sets), and daydreaming. They also like to take things apart and put them back together. 6. Interpersonal: This type of intelligence cultivates children who are leaders among their peers. Communications with others comes easy for these children, and they understand others’ feelings. They also understand others’ motivations, and they are outgoing. 7. Intrapersonal: These children are introverted. They are aware of their own feelings, take care of themselves, and are self-motivated. 8. Naturalist: This type of intelligence allows children to distinguish categories within, classify, and remain in tune with the environment. These children like outdoor play, and they are likely to make good farmers, gardeners, botanists, geologists, florists, and archeologists. Parents, friends, and teachers can observe these areas of intelligence. As Gardner [1] explained, “I believe that we should get away altogether from tests and correlations among tests, and look instead at more naturalistic sources of information about how peoples around the world develop skills important to their way of life” (p. 7).
References 1. 2.
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.
Multisensory Teaching ▶Orton-Gillingham Reading Method
Mutism
Multisystemic Influences ▶Bioecological Approach to Development
Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder ▶Dysmorphia
Muscle Relaxants ▶Depressants
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Symptoms include: ● Mental retardation (only present in some types of the condition) ● Muscle weakness that slowly gets worse ● Delayed development of muscle motor skills ● Difficulty using one or more muscle groups ● DroolingDrooling ● Eyelid droopingEyelid drooping (ptosisptosis) ● Frequent falls ● Loss of strength in a muscle or group of muscles as an adult ● Loss in muscle size ● Problems walkingProblems walking (delayed walking)
References 1.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001190.html
Muscular Dystrophy Definition Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited disorders that involve muscle weaknessmuscle weakness and loss of muscle tissue, which get worse over time.
Description Muscular dystrophies, or MD, are a group of inherited conditions, which means they are passed down through families. They may occur in childhood or adulthood. There are many different types of muscular dystrophy. They include: ● Becker muscular dystrophyBecker muscular dystrophy ● Duchenne muscular dystrophyDuchenne muscular dystrophy ● Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy ● Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophyFacioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy ● Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy ● Myotonia congenitaMyotonia congenita ● Myotonic dystrophy
Music ▶Media
M Music Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
Musical Intelligence ▶Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Mutism IVY CHONG, PAULA WOLFTEICH Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
Symptoms Symptoms vary with the different types of muscular dystrophy. All of the muscles may be affected. Or, only specific groups of muscles may be affected, such as those around the pelvis, shoulder, or face. Muscular dystrophy can affect adults, but the more severe forms tend to occur in early childhood.
Synonyms Deaf-mutism; Selective mutism
Definition Mutism is a rare speech disorder in which the individual demonstrates the inability or unwillingness to speak.
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Description The term “mutism” refers to an individual who is mute and cannot or does not talk [1]. It is specifically applied to people who, due to profound congenital (or early) deafness, are unable to use vocal speech and thus, are diagnosed with ▶deaf-mutism. The word “mutism” comes from the Latin “mutus” meaning unable to speak. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–IV, ▶selective mutism is described as a rare psychological disorder in children characterized by a consistent failure to speak in situations where talking is expected [2]. The child has the ability to converse normally, and does so, for example, in the home, but consistently fails to speak in specific situations such as at school or with strangers. The onset of selective mutism is typically before age five but it is often not formerly diagnosed until a child enters the school system. It is estimated that 1 in every 1,000 schoolage children are affected by selective mutism.
Relevance to Childhood Development Affected children are typically shy, particularly when encountering unfamiliar surroundings, situations, or unfamiliar individuals. Particularly in young children, selective mutism can be confused with an autism spectrum disorder [2], especially if the child acts particularly withdrawn around unfamiliar individuals, including clinicians. Unfortunately, this can lead to incorrect diagnosis and consequently, treatment. Individuals with selective mutism can often communicate normally when in familiar situations with familiar individuals or caregivers, as can many individuals on the autism spectrum. If a child is not speaking mainly in social situations (i.e., will speak in the home or with familiar individuals), this is likely not an autism spectrum disorder, but may be selective mutism. Additionally, it is important to note that children with selective mutism typically show normal growth in most developmental domains whereas children on the autism spectrum do not. Finally, nonverbal social engagement typically occurs in children diagnosed with selective mutism but not autism.
References 1.
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders – text revision (DSM-IV-TR) (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2007). Abnormal child psychology (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Mutual Friend ▶Intimate Friend
Myelin Sheath CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition ▶Myelin sheath: Myelin sheath refers to a lipid-based, protein covering that encases the axons of the brain that helps improve the transmission of neuronal impulses.
Description The myelin sheath within the central nervous system refers to the lipid-based covering that encases the axons of the brain that serves the primary role of speeding along, and thus improving, the transmission of neuronal impulses. The myelin sheath is to axons of the brain what rubber encasing is to telephone lines. In regards to the latter, the rubber encasing increases the speed of transmission and reduces the presence of static thereby improving overall transmission. Much in the same way, the myelin sheath of the brain speeds up neuronal communication by allowing for more continuous and rapid transmission of impulses [2]. It is this lipid-based covering that gives neurons their characteristic white appearance, thus resulting in the term white matter. The myelin sheath is formed by Oligodendrocytes in the CNS and by Schwann cells in the PNS [1]. This occurs by way of the projections of the surface membrane of both cells fanning out and coiling around the axon of neurons to specifically form the myelin sheath [3]. The process by which axons are encased in myelin is referred to as myelination. This process begins in some areas slightly before birth and continues until early adulthood. The pattern by which myelination of the CNS occurs follows an in-to-out and back-to-front progression. As such, myelination first onsets within the Spinal Cord followed then by myelination of subcortical regions and then on into cortical areas [3]. While white matter/ myelin may be negatively impacted by a multitude of presentations, demyelinating diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis are most commonly associated with this occurrence as they lead to degradation of myelin within the system, thus reducing the efficiency of neuronal transmission in those areas and, in turn, leading to symptom manifestation.
References 1.
Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Myslee 2. 3.
Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Myelination CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition Myelination refers to the process by which axons are enveloped in a myelin sheath, which is lipid-based covering that serves to improve neuronal transmission.
Description Myelin refers to the lipid-based sheath that encases axons within the nervous system [3]. The relevance of this, from a functional standpoint, corresponds with the fact that this increases the speed and efficiency of neuronal impulse transmission by acting as an electric insulator that increases conduction velocity [4]. Metaphorically speaking, myelin is to axons what the rubber encasing is to telephone wires. It reduces static while increasing speed of transmission. Essentially, it ensures that the impulse gets from the beginning of an axon to the end [1]. The myelin sheath is white appearance which is the basis for the regions and axons that are heavily myelinated being referred to as white matter. Myelination is the process by which the axons are enveloped in this myelin sheath. Within the Central Nervous System Oligodendrocytes are responsible for the formation of Myelin whereas Schwann cells play this role in the Peripheral Nervous System [2]. It is the projections of the surface membrane of each of these cells that fans out and coils around the axons to form the myelin sheath [4]. In comparison to one another, where one Oligodendrocyte can form myelin sheaths around several axons in the CNS, one Schwann cell can only myelinate one peripheral axon [2]. The entire
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process of myelination takes some time and to some extent corresponds with cognitive maturation. During development of the CNS, as cellular migration is nearly complete, the process of myelination first beings [4]. From this starting point until the process is complete, which may not be until one is well into adolescence and early adulthood, the process of myelination follows a particular pattern. Specifically, myelination first onsets within the Spinal Cord followed then by myelination of subcortical regions and then on into cortical areas [4]. As a whole, the progression of myelination may be depicted as occurring in a back-to-front and in-to-out pattern. Given this it makes complete sense that those skills that are of the highestorder (e.g. abstract reasoning) do not emerge until adolescence and why behaviorally there is staunch differences between the behavioral inhibition abilities of a 10-year old in comparison to a 3-year old as such functional control relies on more anterior systems.
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Myopia ▶Nearsightedness
Myslee ▶Ambien (Zolpidem)
M
N N/A ▶Trust Versus Mistrust ▶Paraplegia
Narcissism MAE E. JESNECK Union Institute and University, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Definition Havelock Ellis (1898; 1933 in Joines & Stewart) was the first person to use the term narcissism in a psychologically significant way, and he conceptualized it as autoeroticism. Paul [10] used the term narcissism to describe the perversion of being preoccupied with the sight and pleasure of one’s own body. Sigmund [3] described narcissism as a normal phase of development between auto-eroticism and object-love. Later he described narcissistic libidinal type which corresponds to the current DSM description of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Description The Freudian Theory of Narcissism Freud suggested self-love might be a normal component of the human psyche, and might be the desire and energy that drives our instinct to survive. He called this: Primary Narcissism (Joines & Stewart). According to Freud we are not born with a sense of ourselves as individuals, or ego. The ego only develops during infancy and the early part of childhood, as the outside world, usually in the form of parental controls and expectations, intrudes upon primary narcissism, teaching the individual about the nature and standards of his social environment from which he can form the
ideal ego, an image of the perfect self towards which the ego should aspire (Joines & Stewart). Freud regarded all libidinous drives as fundamentally sexual and suggested that ego libido (libido directed inwards to the self) cannot always be clearly distinguished from object-libido (libido directed to persons or objects outside of ourselves) (Joines & Stewart). An aspect frequently associated with Primary Narcissism appears in an earlier essay, “Totem and Taboo” [3], where he describes his observations of children and primitive people, which he called “magical thinking.” An example of magical thinking would be believing that you can have an effect on reality by wishing or willpower. This demonstrates a belief in the self as powerful and able to change external realities, which Freud believed was part of normal human development (Joines & Stewart).
Secondary Narcissism According to Freud, secondary narcissism is a pathological condition which occurs when the libido withdraws from objects outside of the self. Freud further claimed that it is an extreme form of the narcissism that is part of all of us (Joines & Stewart).
Narcissism, Relationships, and Self Worth According to Freud, to care for someone is to convert ego-libido into object-libido by giving some self-love to another person, which leaves less ego-libido available for primary narcissism and protecting and nurturing the self. When that affection is returned so is the libido, thus restoring primary narcissism and self worth. Any failure to achieve, or disruption of, this balance causes psychological disturbances. In such a case primary narcissism can only be restored by withdrawing objectlibido (also called, object-love), to replenish ego-libido (Joines & Stewart). According to Freud, as a child grows, and his ego develops, he is constantly giving of his self-love to people and objects, the first of which is usually his mother. This diminished self-love should be replenished by the affection and caring returned to him (Joines & Stewart).
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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Narcolepsy
Relevance to Childhood Development During the practicing sub-phase of the separationindividuation process [9], the child goes through a normal, healthy period of narcissism. During this time, the child feels he is the center of the universe, the world is constructed to meet his needs, all he has to do is cry, and people take care of him. This period of narcissism is critical for normal development of healthy self esteem [8]. Gradually the child’s grandiosity is deflated as he experiences narcissistic wounding. He learns he is not the center of the universe and that he has to get his needs met in cooperation with other people getting their needs met. If this wounding does not happen, the child does not learn to accommodate the needs of others [8].
rare cases, some people may remain asleep for an hour or longer. In addition to excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), three other major symptoms frequently characterize narcolepsy: cataplexy, or the sudden loss of voluntary muscle tone; vivid hallucinations during sleep onset or upon awakening; and brief episodes of total paralysis at the beginning or end of sleep. Narcolepsy is not definitively diagnosed in most patients until 10 to 15 years after the first symptoms appear. The cause of narcolepsy remains unknown. It is likely that narcolepsy involves multiple factors interacting to cause neurological dysfunction and sleep disturbances.
References 1.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/narcolepsy/narcolepsy.htm
References 1. Ellis, H. (1933). Auto-eroticism: A psychological study. Alienist and Neurologist, 19, 260–299 (Original work published 1898). 2. Freud, S. (1908). Character and eroticism. In Collected papers (English translation, Vol. 2, 1925). London: Hogarth. 3. Freud, S. (1910). Leonardo de Vinci and a memory of his childhood. In Standard edition of the works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 2, 1925). London: Hogarth. 4. Freud, S. (1925). Psychoanalytic notes upon an autobiographical account of a case of paranoia (Dementia paranoids). In Collected papers (English Translation, Vol. 3). London: Hogarth. (Original work published 1911). 5. Freud, S. (1915). The instincts and their vicissitudes. In Collected papers (English translation, Vol. 4, 1925). London: Hogarth. 6. Freud, S. (1950). Libidinal types. In Collected papers (English translation, Vol. 5). London: Hogarth. (Original work published 1931). 7. Freud, S. (1957). Leonardo de Vinci and a memory of his childhood. In Strachey, J. (ed. and trans.), The standard edition of the works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 2). London: Hogarth. (Original work published 1910). 8. Joines, V., & Stewart, I. (2002). Personality adaptations. Chapel Hill: Lifespace Publishing. 9. Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant. New York: Basic Books. 10. Nacke, P. (1899). Die sexuellen Perversitaten in der Irrenansalt (sic). Psycheatrie en Neurologic Bladen, 3, 14–21.
Narrative Conversations ▶Personal Narratives
Narrative Therapy ▶Constructivist Psychotherapy
National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) LYNNA LAN TIEN NGUYEN DO Walden University, Fremont, CA, USA
Definition A professional organization for school psychologists.
Narcolepsy
Description
Definition Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder caused by the brain’s inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally. At various times throughout the day, people with narcolepsy experience irresistable bouts of sleep. If the urge becomes overwhelming, individuals will fall asleep for periods lasting from a few seconds to several minutes. In
NASP’s Mission NASP represents school psychology and supports school psychologists to enhance the learning and mental health of all children and youth. The National Association of School Psychologists distributes two publications: School Psychology Review, which
Nativist Theory
is the second-largest psychology academic journal and includes research and theory related to school psychology, and Communique´, which is the official newspaper of NASP, covering news, events, innovative practices, legislative developments, and other topics relevant to the field.
References 1.
www.nasponline.org
Native Language Acquisition ▶Language Acquisition
Nativist Theory KYLE A. LITCHFIELD, MATTHEW C. LAMBERT Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Synonyms Innate language acquisition; Nature vs Nurture debate
Definition A set of theories which contend that human abilities and developmental processes are innate and hard-wired at birth. These theories inform beliefs about developmental processes most closely associated with initial language acquisition.
Description Language acquisition is the study of the processes by which a person learns a language. Nativist theories hypothesize that language is an innate fundamental part of the human genetic make-up and that language acquisition occurs as a natural part of the human experience. Nativist theorists argue that children are born with an innate ability to organize laws of language, which enables children to easily learn a native language. They believe that children have language-specific abilities that assist them as they work towards mastering a language. This notion is often times contrasted to the behavioralist perspectives of Skinner and Watson who argued that language (i.e., verbal behavior) is an operant class of behaviors that are learned through modeling, then shaped and sustained through reinforcement processes. Under a behavioral framework external sources of
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development are considered most pivotal to language acquisition while a nativist framework holds that the process is much more internally driven. Perhaps the most well known nativist theorist, Noam Chomsky, hypothesized that children are born with a hard-wired language acquisition device (LAD) in their brain. This idea was later expanded into the concept of “universal grammar,” which maintains that most languages have quite similar basic underlying structures, and specific languages have rules that transform these underlying structures into specific patterns found in any given language. As children hear their parents speak they unconsciously recognize and assemble the rules for the particular language being acquired. Under this theory, the presence of “universal grammar” in the minds of children allows them to deduce the structure of their native language simply by being exposed to it.
Relevance to Childhood Development Nativist theories posit that children are born with the innate ability to acquire language and thus are able to acquire and master the grammar of their native language by the age of three. Researchers who support nativist theories believe in the existence of a critical period of development, specific time frames which environmental exposure is needed to stimulate a congenital trait. Eric Lenneberg, a linguist and neurologist, believed that the critical period for language acquisition ends around the age of 12. Nativist theories support this notion and believe that if a native language is not learned before this age, it can never be learned in a normal, natural manner or to a fully functional state. In addition, research on brain structure and neurological activity also supports the existence of a critical period, but postulates that the critical period for initial language development is much earlier than age 12 although this period may continue until age 12 simply with less significant neurological foundations. This research suggests that brain growth is rapid and expansive up to the age of two with children of this age possessing up to 50% more synapses than a normally developed adult. Furthermore this research establishes that until the age of seven, the number of neurological synapses in children is greater than that of adults. However, neurological researchers conclude that the period from birth to 2 years is the most critical period for language acquisition associated with brain structure. After this period, researchers suggest that motivation, opportunity, environment, and personality are more salient factors in language acquisition than the role of brain structure similar to the developmental processes associated with second language acquisition.
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992
N
Natural Distribution
References
Definition
1.
Studying or assessing individuals as they interact in their typical environment.
2.
3.
4. 5. 6.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. McCain, J. (2000). Language acquisition and affective variables. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f00/web3/mccain3.html. Accessed 16 Nov 2009. Moerk, E. L. (1994). Corrections in first language acquisition: Theoretical controversies and factual evidence. International Journal of Psycholinguistics, 10, 33–58. Pink, S. (1994). The language instinct: How the mind creates language. New York: Harper Collins. Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Copley Publishing Group. Yang, C. (2006). The infinite gift: How children can learn and unlearn all the languages of the world. New York: Scribner.
Natural Distribution ▶Normal Curve
Natural Environment Training ▶Social Skills Training
Natural Language ▶Pragmatics
Natural Learning ▶Whole Language Approach
Natural Observation JESSICA SPARLING, IVY CHONG Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
Synonyms Direct observation; observation
Field
observation;
Naturalistic
Description During an observation, there is no experimental manipulation, and data are recorded under the conditions that occur in the environment. Specifically, natural observation is a technique used in research and assessment, which is similar to direct observation, where information regarding an individual or individuals is gathered immediately while the individual’s behavior occurs naturally their everyday environment, rather than a laboratory or clinical setting [1]. Information gathered during observations may be used in order to identify environmental variables necessary to create an artificial laboratory or clinical environment in which to assess or conduct research in, to identify areas which need assessment or research, or may garner the information necessary when research or assessment is being conducted. While the methods in which information is gathered during observations vary, standardized methods have been developed, such as behavioral checklists. Methods of observations vary as well, sometimes occurring by video-taping an individual and recording data afterwards. However, most observations occur in real-time with the observer in the room, but the observer may be hidden or distanced from the individual(s) being observed in some way. There are some problems with natural observation. For instance, although an observation may be structured, it is difficult to exert complete control over the environment. This means that the information gathered during an observation must be evaluated carefully, as it may not be possible to identify definitive relationships between an individual’s actions and the environment [2]. Further, an individual’s behavior may change solely as a factor of being observed, known as reactivity. This is often controlled by the observer being hidden from the individual, such as observing through a two-way window. Observer bias, or that an observer’s information is gathered based on what they believe may happen versus what actually occurs, is another threat to the results of a natural observation. This is often controlled by two or more observers independently observing and collecting information. Information is then compared to ensure it is being collected consistently, referred to as inter-observer agreement. Further, the development and use of structured data collection tools, as well as an emphasis on operationally defining what is being observed, has diminished the threat of observer bias greatly in many instances. The
Nature vs. Nurture
information garnered from an observation of an individual in their natural environment is often greatly useful and important, and oftentimes more valid than information gathered from more indirect measures, such as interviews, where the individual is never observed. As an individual’s natural environment encompasses all the variables that may influence or affect an individual’s behavior, observation in an individual’s specific environment ensures that these variables are present, and important variables are not absent during observation.
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Naturalistic Observation ▶Natural Observation
Nature vs Nurture Debate ▶Nativist Theory
Relevance to Childhood Development Natural observation has become a cornerstone of researching, assessing, and evaluating the treatment of children’s behavior. Observations of how children interact with each other and their environment are often conducted in order to gather information for research, whether conducting an experiment directly in the environment, or gathering information to assist in formulating hypotheses, structuring studies in laboratory environments, or validating data that had been gathered in a laboratory setting. Further, children are often assessed in the same way, through use of behavior checklists or similar assessment tools, in order to ensure that all variables that are present when a specific behavior occurs are also present during an assessment. Such assessments are often used in schools, and may be used for diagnostic purposes as well as assessments conducted prior to treatment [3]. The effectiveness of a particular treatment may be evaluated by conducting natural observations, whether treatment occurs in that environment, or evaluating the utility of a treatment to allow for behavior change outside of a clinical or laboratory setting. Natural observation has been used to study various behaviors of preschool children, children’s development, and aggression, among many other subjects.
References 1. 2.
3.
Goodwin, C. J. (2003). Research in psychology: Methods and design (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Hoge, R. D. (1985). The validity of direct observation measures of pupil classroom behavior. Review of Educational Research, 55(4), 469–483. Miller, D. B. (1977). Roles of naturalistic observation in comparative psychology. American Psychologist, 32(3), 211–219.
Naturalist Intelligence ▶Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Nature vs. Nurture LEAH E. JOHNSON, KYLE A. LITCHFIELD Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Synonyms Nature-nurture controversy; Nature-nurture issue
Definition The debate over the extent to which development is influenced by a person’s genetics or a person’s environment.
Description This controversy involves the question whether human behavior is predominately due to nature (heredity) or nurture (environment). Nature includes inborn biological information received from one’s parents at the moment of conception. Nurture involves complex factors from the physical and social world that influence before and after birth. Those who stress the importance of nature point to the commonalities in growth and development across cultures. People typically progress through similar stages of development, from infancy to adulthood. Supporters of the nature perspective recognize that extreme environments can retard development, but also contend that basic developmental patterns are genetically programmed into humans. However, there are those who emphasize the importance of nurture in development, including environmental factors such as nutrition, medical care, physical accidents, family, schools, community, and culture. Despite the age-old debate on this issue, most developmentalists agree that human development and behavior is affected by a combination of nature and nurture. For example, puberty occurs sometime between about age 9 and age 16 in every culture, with the timing being influenced by environmental factors such as diet.
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N
Nature-Nurture Controversy
No aspect of development is influenced solely by heredity or environment, but the interaction of the two. The question should not be whether nature or nurture influences development rather how these two influences interact together. Even though agree has been reached about the shared impact of nature and nurture, disparate theories still exist as the relative emphasis on nature or nurture.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Bee, H. (1999). The growing child: An applied approach (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. Berk, L. E. (2007). Development through the lifespan (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Poole, D., Warren, A., & Nunez, N. (2007). The story of human development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Santrock, J. W. (2009). Life-span development (12th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Nature-Nurture Controversy ▶Nature vs. Nurture
Nature-Nurture Issue ▶Nature vs. Nurture
Near-Infrared Imaging ▶Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)
Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Chemometric spectroscopy; Near-infrared imaging; Optical imaging; Optical tomography; Oximetry
Definition A technique used to monitor changes in blood volume and oxygenation levels in living tissue through analysis of the properties of emitted and reflected light.
Description The term spectroscopy refers to techniques that use light and its properties to analyze the chemical composition of various substances. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) uses light waves in the red and near-infrared (NIR) ranges of the light spectrum to monitor changes in oxygen and blood volume levels in human tissue. These light waves can harmlessly penetrate several centimeters into tissue prior to being absorbed or reflected; measurement of the wavelengths of the reflected light provides information on the degree to which various chromophores, or molecular units that absorb light, are present in the tissue. NIRS techniques generally involve measurement of the chromophore hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs through the bloodstream for use by the body in energy-generating metabolic processes. Hemoglobin molecules that are actively involved in transporting oxygen in the bloodstream are sometimes referred to as oxyhemoglobin; non-oxygen-carrying hemoglobin molecules are known as deoxyhemoglobin. Oxyhemoglobin molecules in the bloodstream absorb more NIR light, but less red light, than deoxyhemoglobin. Therefore, more red-wavelength than NIR-wavelength light will be reflected by tissue that contains greater concentrations of oxyhemoglobin. These light absorption differences, which also account for the visible difference in color between oxygenated and deoxygenated blood, permit estimation of both oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin levels in living tissue. The pulse oximetry devices traditionally used in medical settings to provide measures of cardiopulmonary function represent a relatively simple use of NIRS technology. Generally affixed to a finger or an earlobe, a pulse oximeter shines light at multiple wavelengths into and through flesh. Detectors positioned on the other side of the finger or earlobe measure the intensity and wavelengths of the light transmitted through the tissue. By providing information on the relative concentrations of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin in the tissue, pulse oximetry indicates whether blood oxygen levels are adequate to support healthy tissue functioning. More recently, NIRS has been used to estimate levels of activity in the frontal regions of the human brain by measuring blood flow and oxygenation patterns in the prefrontal cortex; to
Nefazodone
date, however, application of NIRS as a functional neuroimaging technique has occurred mainly in research, rather than clinical, settings. Additionally, a number of smallscale studies have examined whether this technology can be used to differentiate malignant tumors from healthy tissue, since tumors contain different concentrations of chromophores than surrounding tissue. While these studies suggest that tumor-specific NIR light absorption and reflectance patterns can be identified, further research is needed to examine the diagnostic utility of this technology. NIRS seems to pose few health risks, since it does not involve the use of radioactive materials or cause damage to skin or underlying tissues. It has several practical advantages over more traditional neuroimaging technologies; specifically, it uses relatively inexpensive materials (such as LED light sources), is portable and lightweight, and permits subjects to speak, write, move, and assume a variety of positions while data are being collected. However, current NIRS technology also has several limitations. Data obtained via NIRS represent estimates, rather than absolute measures, of blood volume and oxygenation. Since NIRS measures physiological markers of changes in brain activation patterns, rather than actual neuronal activity, its temporal resolution is not as good as more direct measures of brain functioning, such as electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG). Additionally, while NIRS offers good levels of spatial resolution, the utility of NIRS as a neuroimaging technology has, to date, been somewhat limited by neurophysiological differences among individuals, which make it difficult to reliably establish the precise location(s) in the brain associated with different activation patterns using NIRS alone. Finally, since the red and near-infrared light waves emitted by NIRS devices can penetrate only a few centimeters into brain tissue, the technology does not permit functional imaging of deeper layers of cortical tissue, or of subcortical structures.
N
Nearsightedness Synonyms Myopia
Definition The inability to see objects at a distance clearly. In people with myopia, the eyeball is slightly longer than usual from front to back. Light rays which make up the images you see, focus in front of, rather than directly on the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye. When this happens, objects at a distance seem blurry and unclear. Progressive myopia or nearsightedness is predominantly caused by genetics. Children inherit a tendency to develop the eye condition from their parents. The manner in which a person uses their eyes, such as often performing detailed or up-close work, may also have an influence on the progression of nearsightedness. Nearsightedness in children is most commonly treated by corrective eye wear usually with glasses or contact lens. In some cases, depending on the severity of their myopia, when children reach adulthood, surgical procedure such as Lasik surgery can correct the myopia.
N Neck of Uterus ▶Cervix
Need for Achievement ▶Achievement Motivation
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
Chance, B., Anday, E., Nioka, S., Zou, S., Hong, L., Worden, K., et al. (1998). A novel method for fast imaging of brain function, noninvasively, with light. Optics Express, 2(10), 411–423. Irani, F., Platek, S. M., Bunce, S., Ruocco, A. C., & Chute, D. L. (2007). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS): An emerging neuroimaging technology with important applications for the study of brain disorders. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 21, 9–37. Jo¨bsis-vanderVliet, F. F. (1999). Discovery of the near-infrared window into the body and the early development of near-infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Biomedical Optics, 4(4), 392–396. Rolfe, P. (2000). In vivo near-infrared spectroscopy. Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, 2, 715–754.
995
Nefazodone Synonyms Serzone®
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the treatment of depression.
996
N
Negative Academic Self-Evaluation
Description This medication is a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor available as a tablet. This medication is no longer available as brand name Serzone®. The recommended starting dose for this medication is 100 mg taken two times a day. Maximum suggested total daily dose is 600 mg. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor. This medication may need to be taken for four weeks before improvement in symptoms is seen. This medication may be taken with or without food. Avoid drinking alcohol. Tell your doctor if you have a history of a seizure disorder or liver disease. Concomitant use in patients taking monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors is not advised. Some side effects are listed here: confusion, dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, constipation, diarrhea, and trouble sleeping. Certain side effects may go away during treatment. Tell your doctor immediately if you notice the following: blurred vision, unsteadiness, ringing in the ears, skin rash, or itching. This medication may cause serious liver problems. Life-threatening liver failure has been reported in some patients taking this medication. Liver function tests may be required. Contact your doctor if you notice abdominal pain, vomiting, yellowing of eyes or skin, dark urine, or are feeling weak. If you choose to stop taking nefazodone, you are encouraged to tell your doctor and slowly taper this medication to prevent withdrawal symptoms. This medication should be stored out of reach of children and pets and away from light, heat, and moisture.
Relevance to Childhood Development Nefazodone is not FDA approved for use in children. A medication guide must accompany this medication containing information related to the increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults compared to those not taking the medication. Doctors will monitor patients closely for worsening of symptoms, change in behavior, and thoughts of suicide. Patients are strongly encouraged to notify their health care provider to report sudden changes in mood, behavior, thoughts, or feelings. Women should let their doctor know if they are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. It is not recommended to breastfeed while taking this medication.
References 1.
American Management Association. (2008). AHFS drug information (24th ed., pp. 2401–2402). Maryland: American Society of HealthSystem Pharmacists.
2. 3.
Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp. Accessed August 5, 2008. Medical Economics Staff. (2007). Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language. USP DI Vol II. (27th ed., pp. 1159–1163). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex.
Negative Academic Self-Evaluation TIMOTHY J. CLEARY University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Synonyms Maladaptive standards
self-reflection;
Negative
self-evaluation
Definition Negative academic self-evaluation is a type of selfreflection process in which students’ evaluative judgments about task performance are inaccurate or maladaptive and or promote dysfunctional regulatory or motivation reactions.
Conceptual Framework Most theories of self-regulation involve a self-evaluative component whereby individuals examine their performance outcomes and or progress towards personal goals [1]. From a social-cognitive perspective, self-evaluation does not occur in isolation but rather within a broader framework of forethought and reflective decision-making. For example, Zimmerman developed a cyclical model of self-regulation whereby regulated thought and action proceeds sequentially across three phases: forethought (i.e., processes that precede efforts to learn or perform; goal setting and strategic planning), performance control (i.e., processes occurring during learning efforts; self-monitoring and self-control), and self-reflection (i.e., processes occurring after learning or performance; self-judgments and self-reactions) [13]. Each of these regulatory phases has been shown to exert independent effects on students’ academic achievement and behavior. However, the processes within these phases are interdependent, suggesting that as one process breaks down or becomes maladaptive there is a strong likelihood that others will be adversely affected. Academic self-evaluation involves a process whereby students compare their current performance on an academic task (e.g., test performance) to some standard or
Negative Academic Self-Evaluation
benchmark [13]. From a self-regulation perspective, engaging in this process is essential because it defines whether a performance was successful or not and thus initiates a more complex set of reflection processes, such as identifying the causes of one’s successes or failures as well as the necessary strategic adjustments to improve future performance. It is quite common for most students to encounter situations throughout their academic careers when they determine that they are performing below expectations. Although these experiences are “negative” from a performance standpoint, they do not necessarily imply that students’ engagement in self-evaluation is faulty or maladaptive. In other words, there is an important difference between negative performance information generated by the self-evaluation process and the use of negative or ineffective forms of self-evaluation. A primary focus of this paper will be to review the negative forms of self-evaluation and their primary determinants. Self-evaluation represents the initial component of the self-reflection process. However, it is students’ interpretations of and reactions to their perceived performances, and in particular failure, that cultivates adaptive or dysfunctional academic behavior. When students struggle in school, it is important for them to sustain a belief that they can control their learning and performance outcomes. Researchers often point to different motivation and regulatory processes that mediate the relationship between self-evaluation and evaluative reactions, with socialcognitive researchers citing self-efficacy as one of the key variables [7]. In short, when students begin to doubt their capabilities to perform specific tasks or feel incapable of managing the demands of school, they will often disengage from learning and will show decreased levels of interest and persistence. Another factor that links selfevaluation to maladaptive behavioral reactions following failure is causal attributions; the reasons students perceive as the causes of their performances outcomes [12]. For example, if a student fails two consecutive writing assignments in English class, typical attributions include low effort when writing, teacher difficulty, or even poor writing skills. Research has shown that when students are prompted to make attributions to factors that are controllable, such as strategy use and effort, they will exhibit more adaptive motivation beliefs and will have a greater likelihood of adjusting or modifying their learning methods in order to improve future performances; a process called adaptive inferences [2]. However, if students believe that the causes of their failure experiences are outside of their control, then they will have minimal incentive to put forth the necessary effort to improve or adjust how they are learning.
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Along a similar vein, Dweck and colleagues present a model of achievement motivation that emphasizes how students’ conception of intelligence or ability impact the goals that they select for academic tasks and their reactions to failure and success [4]. From this perspective, students can conceptualize intelligence from an entity or incremental theory perspective. Students who possess an entity perspective of ability view intelligence to be stable in nature and thus perceive mistakes and errors as indicators of poor abilities and competencies. These individuals tend to exhibit a more helpless-oriented response style to failure as they pursue low- difficulty tasks and will withdraw as academic activities become more challenging and intense. Conversely, students who possess an incremental conception of ability perceive intelligence to be a malleable construct that can change through effort and learning. These students tend to be more mastery-oriented as they embrace challenges and view failures as opportunities to grow and improve. In short, the impact of students’ self-evaluations on their motivational and regulatory reactions will often depend on various cognitive beliefs, such as self-efficacy, attributions, and conceptions of intelligence. Of primary concern in this paper, however, are situations when the actual self-evaluation process breaks down and or produces inaccurate or misleading information about one’s abilities and skills. When students misinterpret their successes or failures the entire reflective process will invariably be affected.
Determinants of Negative Self-Evaluation Most students will encounter situations in school when they perform in a negative manner; that is, they do not achieve up their potential or expectations. These situations are not ideal but they do represent important opportunities for students to both reflect on the adequacy of their learning methods and to modify these strategies to improve their achievement. However, one can only learn from self-evaluations when the information that is generated is accurate and valid. Unfortunately, there are a variety of factors that inhibit healthy self-evaluation and or distort the information that individuals selfgenerate during this evaluative process. Proactive versus reactive evaluators. The extent to which students proactively set performance standards and monitor their progress towards these standards will greatly influence the nature of their self-evaluative skill. Social-cognitive researchers have differentiated between two types of regulators, proactive and reactive [14]. Proactive regulators naturally engage in forethought processes (e.g., goal-setting, strategic planning) prior to a learning
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activity and continually monitor their behaviors and outcomes during learning. In contrast, reactive learners are much less aware of their personal objectives and their progress towards these ill-defined standards of performance. Teaching students to become more mindful of their objectives and learning behaviors promotes accurate self-evaluation because it establishes clear, identifiable benchmarks through which students can compare their performance outcomes. When students do not establish these criteria in an a priori fashion the process of self-evaluation becomes more variable and reliant on social comparisons. For example, suppose Deangelo, who is a seventh grade student at a middle school, has shown much difficulty passing his math tests for the past few months. He rarely thinks about his standards of performance, aside perhaps from general thoughts such as, “I need to do better.” In addition, he is largely unaware of how he should prepare for math tests and thus tends to exhibit an inconsistent array of studying behaviors. Whenever Deangelo receives a test grade back from this teacher he either immediately shoves the test in his math binder or thinks about how incompetent he is compared to his classmates. This scenario illustrates a common theme with reactive regulators; that is, they either avoid engaging in the self-reflection processes needed to improve their skills or lack the structure or foundation from which to adaptively evaluate their math skills and performance. In addition to developing performance standards in a forethoughtful manner, proactive learners will also frequently engage in self-observation during the learning process. In short, this process involves monitoring aspects of one’s performance and the conditions that encapsulate it; self-recording is one common example of an overt observation technique [13]. Self-observation or recording is linked to self-evaluation because it provides a learner with detailed performance and process information that is needed to assess one’s performance attainments. Research has shown that when elementary school children set performance goals and are taught to self-evaluate their capabilities over repeated sessions, a form of self-monitoring, students exhibited higher math skill and self-efficacy than those who did not engage in repeated self-evaluation [8]. Dimensions of self-evaluative standards. Simply becoming more mindful and proactive in one’s approach to learning does not ensure that adaptive self-evaluation will unfold. One must also closely examine the nature of the standards that one uses in the evaluation process. There are several dimensions of performance standards that can adversely impact the accuracy and regulatory consequences
of students’ evaluative judgments, including: (a) type of evaluative criteria, (b) level of difficulty, (c) level of specificity, and (d) focus. The performance standards that students select can involve one of several types of evaluative criteria, such as mastery, self or prior performance, and normative [13]. Mastery criteria consist of benchmarks that represent a wide range of skills or competencies, typically from a basic to a more advanced level. In contrast, the use of self or prior performance criteria involves using prior academic grades or attainments as the benchmarks to evaluate success or progress. Both of these types of criteria typically facilitate adaptive motivation and self-regulation because they direct students’ attention towards personal progress and behaviors and or the essential features of relevant academic tasks. For these reasons, most applied self-regulation training programs emphasize one or both of these types of performance markers [5, 6]. In contrast, normative or social comparisons will often lead to maladaptive self-evaluations and reactions, particularly for children who struggle in school. A key limitation of this type of criteria is that it shifts students’ evaluative judgments to factors that are typically not under their control, such as poor ability and peer performance. Social comparisons are also problematic because they can mask or obscure subtle signs of progress that students are making on an academic task. Consider an example of a fifthgrade student, Tony, who has gradually increased his science test scores by 12 points (i.e., from a 72 to an 84) over a two-month period. Despite showing some improvement, if Tony’s science grades continued to fall consistently below that of his classmates and if he consistently relied on normative comparisons to evaluate his competencies, it is highly likely that he will not recognize this test grade improvement as progress. Inaccurate or misleading evaluative information can also result when the level of standards that students use are excessively stringent. A rigid application of harsh standards can often be a reflection of metacognitive deficits, personality traits, or the presence of mood disorders. For example, research has shown that children who possess metacognitive deficits, such as those with learning disabilities, are often unaware of the skills and behaviors needed to successfully accomplish various academic tasks [11]. Furthermore, students with learning disabilities typically do not establish clear personal goals or standards of performance and when prompted to estimate task performance they often develop unrealistically high expectations. The development of extremely high standards of performance can also result from personality
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characteristics, such as perfectionism. Although there are adaptive forms of perfectionism, researchers have identified maladaptive perfectionists as those who rigidly adhere to lofty expectations regardless of contextual demands and who exhibit harsh self-criticism and self-doubt regardless of their performance attainments [10]. Still further, individuals with mood disorders, such as depression, are often hypercritical of their performances and tend to underestimate the significance of their accomplishments. Although there is conflicting data about the precise nature of the relationship between depression and selfevaluation, there is evidence that depressed mood directly predicts changes in students’ self-evaluation over time [3]. Regardless of the source or reasons for excessively harsh or unrealistic performance standards, students possessing these lofty benchmarks are particularly vulnerable to encounter repeated experiences of failure and to become enmeshed in a negative cycle of hopelessness, doubt, and feelings of inferiority. Moderately challenging standards of performance tend to produce adaptive selfreflection and evaluation because they promote demonstrations of mastery success and progress [14]. Suppose Deangelo, the seventh-grade student who was struggling on math tests, received grades of 62%, 71%, 55%, and 69% on his last four math tests. In an attempt to help Deangelo become more engaged in learning and to evaluate his math performance more effectively, his math teacher encouraged him to set goals for his math tests. Deangelo decided to establish a very difficult and challenging goal of 90%. Even if he showed some improvement on his next two tests (e.g., scores of 75% and 77%) there is a high likelihood that his excessively high performance standard would obscure this modest growth. Although many factors influence how a person ultimately reacts to failure, in this situation Deangelo would be susceptible to exhibit feelings of dissatisfaction, anxiety, and low self-efficacy because he did not come close to reaching his goal. However, if Deangelo elected to use a more modest yet challenging standard of 80% (i.e., 9 points higher than his previous high test score), there is a greater likelihood that he would have judged his test score of 75% and 77% in a more favorable manner. Over time, once Deangelo was able to attain or reach his standard of 80%, he should then be encouraged to make more stringent and challenging goals for future tests. The primary point here is that when the standards that individuals set for themselves are excessively high, they are less likely to see minor improvements or shifts in their performance. Interestingly, many researchers have shown that applied self-regulation interventions are often effective in helping students adopt more
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realistic performance standards in school and to more adaptively reflect on and evaluate their performance attainments [5, 6]. A third dimension of self-standards that can make evaluative interpretations vague and ambiguous is the specificity of the standard. A large body or research has shown that “do your best” or general types of standards are problematic because they make it more difficult for students to clearly recognize when progress or improvement is being made [9]. In order for the process of self-evaluation to facilitate or prompt the self-regulation feedback loop, standards must be clear and explicit. When vague or general standards are used as benchmarks to evaluate performance, students will often find it difficult to engage in subsequent reflective and forethought processes and will typically rely on social comparisons to evaluate performance. Finally, the focus of performance standards has direct implications on the things that students attend to and evaluate following a performance outcome [8, 9]. In the social-cognitive literature a distinction is often made between process (learning) and product (performance) goals or standards. Process goals tend to focus on the tactics or strategies needed to perform or learn a task whereas product goals typically pertain to the outcomes of performance. Research with elementary school children across various academic domains has shown that when students are taught and prompted to focus on the process of learning rather than merely outcomes, they will often attain higher achievement and will display more adaptive motivation beliefs. Although researchers have questioned whether process goals are superior to performance or outcome goals in all situations and developmental contexts, it is widely accepted that process goals promote more adaptive self-regulation and self-directedness for children or for those who are first learning how to perform an academic task or skill [14].
Conclusion In sum, most students will experience some type of failure or lower than expected performance during their primary or secondary school years. These “failure” experiences can serve as valuable opportunities for youth to evaluate and reflect on their approaches to learning and to hopefully develop more strategic and effective ways to perform at a higher level. However, at times, the selfevaluation information that students generate may be inaccurate or prompt them to make maladaptive regulatory and motivation reactions. In order to promote healthy forms of self-evaluation, students should be encouraged to not only become more aware of the
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standards they hope to attain but to also rely on standards that are clear and realistic and direct their attention on their own behaviors, skills, and performance rather than on external factors or events.
Negative Reinforcement JENNIFER M. ALEXANDER, MARIA G. VALDOVINOS Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
References 1. Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of Self-regulation. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 2. Cleary, T. J., Zimmerman, B. J., & Keating, T. (2006). Training physical education students to self-regulate during basketball freethrow practice. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 77, 251–262. 3. Cole, D. A., Martin, J. M., Peeke, L. G., Seroczynski, A. D., & Hoffman, K. (1998). Are cognitive errors of underestimation predictive or reflective of depressive symptoms in children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 481–496. 4. Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality and development. New York: Taylor and Francis. 5. Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Prentice, K., Burch, M., Hamlett, C. L., Owen, R., et al. (2003). Enhancing third-grade students’ mathematical problem solving with self- regulated learning strategies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 306–315. 6. Graham, S., & Harris, H. R. (2005). Improving the writing performance of young struggling writers: Theoretical and programmatic research from the center on accelerating student learning. The Journal of Special Education, 39, 19–33. 7. Pajares, F., & Urdan, T. (Eds.). (2006). Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing. 8. Schunk, D. H. (1996). Goal and self-evaluative influences during children’s cognitive skill Learning. American Educational Research Journal, 33, 359–382. 9. Schunk, D. H., & Swartz, C. W. (1993). Goals and progressive feedback: Effects on self-efficacy and writing achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 18, 337–354. 10. Soenens, B., Luyckx, K., Vansteenkiste, M., Luyten, P., Duriez, B., & Goossens, L. (2008). Maladaptive perfectionism as an intervening variable between psychological control and adolescent depressive symptoms: A three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 465–474. 11. Swanson, H. L., Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of learning disabilities. New York: The Guilford Press. 12. Weiner, B. (1986). An attribution theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag. 13. Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A socialcognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). Orlando, FL: Academic Press. 14. Zimmerman, B. J. (2008). Goal setting: A key proactive source of academic self-regulation. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Motivation and Self- Regulated Learning: Theory, Research, and Applications (pp. 267–296). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Synonyms Parent behavior; Timeouts
Definition Negative reinforcement is a behavioral process by which a response produces the cessation or reduction of an aversive stimulus, or postpones (either temporarily or permanently) the delivery of an aversive stimulus thereby increasing the probability of any future occurrence of the response [1]. For instance, in the mornings when the alarm sounds, one may hit the snooze button to temporarily terminate the buzzer. Over 6 months time, the number of times one hits the snooze button may increase from once a morning to five times before they get out of bed. There are two common forms of responding maintained via negative reinforcement: escape and avoidance. An escape response terminates the aversive stimulus [3]. For example, a child engages in off-task behavior (e.g., talking to a neighbor, jumping out of their seat) during math time which results in their being sent to the principal’s office. This child has escaped an aversive stimulus (i.e., math). In the future, the child will be more likely to engage in off-task behavior during math. An avoidance response results in the prevention of delivery of the aversive stimulus. For example, a child may unload the dishwasher after a parent’s initial request to avoid being repeatedly asked or reprimanded. Reinforcement, regardless of it being positive or negative, functions to increase the probability of a response be it a desirable or undesirable behavior [4]. However, there are some side effects to the use of negative reinforcement [2]. Since negative reinforcement procedures rely on the cessation or reduction of aversive stimuli or situations, an individual may avoid the situations altogether or one may develop other maladaptive behaviors (e.g., aggression) to escape or counter the controlling contingencies.
References 1. 2.
Negative Life Events ▶Life Events
3. 4.
Catania, A. C. (1998). Learning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (1987). Applied behavior analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Miller, L. K. (2006). Principles of everyday behavior analysis (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: Random House.
Neglect
Negative Reinforcer ▶Aversive Stimulus
Negative Self-Evaluation Standards ▶Negative Academic Self-Evaluation
Neglect LINDSAY WEYMOUTH, TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
Synonyms Child maltreatment; Child neglect; Neglected children
Definition Neglect is a type of maltreatment which occurs when a child’s basic needs are not met.
Description Neglect may include failure to provide educational, emotional, and/or physical necessities [1]. Educational neglect may include failure to enroll a child in school or ignoring special educational needs. Emotional neglect may include failure to provide adequate psychological support, failure to provide affection, failure to remove a child from situations of domestic violence, and/or failure to provide mental health care. Physical neglect consists of failure to provide shelter, abandonment, malnutrition, inadequate supervision, and/or failure to provide medical attention. Consideration must be made to a child’s culture and socioeconomic status regarding failure to provide education, emotional, medical, or physical needs [1, 2]. Neglect may also occur in the presence of other forms of maltreatment such as emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse. In the United States [2], childhood neglect accounts for over half of all the documented cases of child maltreatment. Young children are more likely to be neglected than older children and adolescents. Neglect may be more common in single parent homes and in families who are poverty stricken. Mothers [2] overwhelmingly commit child neglect compared to fathers, perhaps due to their primary caregiver status.
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Neglect may be chronic or acute and can have a multidimensional impact on a child’s development. Young children who are neglected may show somatic symptoms such as headaches, bed-wetting, stomachaches, and ▶enuresis. Gender may influence how older children exhibit symptoms of neglect, such as boys tending to be more aggressive and girls tending to exhibit signs of passivity and low self-esteem [2]. In general children may show physical symptoms such as failure-to-thrive, sleep disturbances, stomachaches, bed-wetting, ulcers, regression in developmental milestones, and stunted physical development due to poor nutrition. In addition to being aggressive or passive, children may also be hyperactive and show signs of incompetence. Neglected children may also show extreme dependence on teachers, lack of enthusiasm, change in academic performance, ▶parentification of siblings, and/or learning difficulties. Cognitively, children may have delays in functioning, low self-esteem, and/or exhibit academic difficulties [1, 2]. If neglect is present at certain critical periods of cognitive development, a lack of sensory stimulation may adversely influence brain development [3]. Specifically, neglect may lead to the underdevelopment of the cortex in the brain as well as limbic system dysfunction [4]. Additionally, maltreated children may have insecure attachments to their caregivers and have problems with emotion regulation, which may lead to alterations in the ▶hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which affects stress regulation. Poor emotion regulation may influence children to show aggressive or withdrawal patterns with their peers. Without proper intervention and treatment, children who are maltreated may be affected well into adulthood. As adolescents and adults, they may abuse substances, show symptoms of psychiatric disorders, and engage in criminal behavior [2]. Treatment for children who have been neglected is often focused on their primary caregivers. Such treatment may include training in hygiene, finance, and family competence, counseling, and referrals to resources that may help the family. In addition, treatment may include child rearing classes and stress management training. Cognitive-behavioral treatment is most commonly used to teach caregivers self-management skills and modify problematic behaviors [2].
References 1.
2.
Child Abuse & Neglect. (2008). Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from http://www. childwelfare.gov/can/ Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2005). Abnormal child psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning.
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Perry, B. (2002). Childhood experience and the expression of genetic potential: What childhood neglect tells us about nature and nurture. Brain and Mind, 3(1), 79–100. Teicher, M. (2002). Scares that won’t heal: The neurobiology of child abuse. Scientific American, 286(3), 68–75.
Neglected Children LINDSAY WEYMOUTH, TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
Synonyms Child maltreatment; Child neglect; Neglect
Definition Neglected children typically have caregivers who fail to provide for their basic needs.
Description Neglected children are those whose basic needs are not met by caregivers. Maltreatment of children may take the form of educational, emotional, and/or physical neglect [1]. Caregivers may fail to meet education needs such as schooling or special education. Caregivers may be neglectful of a child’s emotional needs, such as failing to provide adequate psychological support or affection and/or failing to remove a child from an abusive situation. Caregivers also may physically neglect their children including failing to provide shelter, abandoning them, causing malnutrition, or providing inadequate supervision [1, 2]. Consideration must be made for a child’s culture and socioeconomic status in regard to providing educational, emotional, medical, or physical necessities. Neglect may also occur in the presence of other forms of maltreatment such as emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse. In the United States [2], childhood neglect accounts for over half of all the documented cases of child maltreatment. Young children are more likely to be neglected than older children and adolescents. Neglect may be more common in single parent homes and in families who are poverty stricken. Mothers [2] overwhelmingly commit child neglect compared to fathers, perhaps due to their primary caregiver status. Neglect may be chronic or acute and can have a multidimensional impact on a child’s development. Young children who are neglected may show somatic symptoms such as headaches, bed-wetting, stomachaches,
and enuresis. Gender may influence how older children exhibit symptoms of neglect, such as boys tending to be more aggressive and girls tending to exhibit signs of passivity and low self-esteem [2]. In general children may show physical symptoms such as failure-to-thrive, sleep disturbances, stomachaches, bed-wetting, ulcers, regression in developmental milestones, and stunted physical development due to lack of nutrition. In addition to being aggressive or passive, children may also by hyperactive and show signs of incompetence. Neglected children may also show extreme dependence on teachers, lack of enthusiasm, change in academic performance, parentification of siblings, and/or learning difficulties. Cognitively, children may have delays in functioning, low self-esteem, and/or exhibit academic difficulties [1, 2]. If neglect is present at certain critical periods of cognitive development, a lack of sensory stimulation may adversely influence brain development [3]. Specifically, neglect may lead to the underdevelopment of the cortex of the brain as well as limbic system dysfunction [4]. Additionally, maltreated children may have insecure attachments to their caregivers and have problems with emotion regulation, which may lead to alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the body’s stress regulation center. Poor emotion regulation may influence children to show aggressive or withdrawal patterns with their peers. Without proper intervention and treatment, children who are maltreated may be affected well into adulthood. As adolescents and adults, they may abuse substances, show symptoms of psychiatric disorders, and engage in criminal behavior [2]. Treatment for children who have been neglected is often focused on their primary caregivers. Such treatment may include training in hygiene, finance, and family competence, counseling, and referrals to resources that may help the family. In addition, treatment may include child rearing classes and stress management training. Cognitive-behavioral treatment is most commonly used to teach caregivers self-management skills and modify problematic behaviors [2].
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
Child Abuse & Neglect. (2008, May 1). Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from http://www.childwelfare. gov/can/ Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2005). Abnormal child psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Perry, B. (2002). Childhood experience and the expression of genetic potential: What childhood neglect tells us about nature and nurture. Brain and Mind, 3(1), 79–100. Teicher, M. (2002). Scares that won’t heal: The neurobiology of child abuse. Scientific American, 286(3), 68–75.
Neo-Cortex
Neglected Children ▶Child Neglect ▶Neglect
Neglectful Parenting Style ▶Indifferent Parenting Style
Neglecting Parents ▶Uninvolved Parents
Neo-Behaviorism ▶Learning
Neo-Cortex RANDALL R. LYLE St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Synonyms Cerebral cortex; Cortex
Definition The neo-cortex is divided into two hemispheres in the human brain. The brain is further subdivided into regions of specialization called lobes. These lobes represent specific areas where particular types of neurons have come together in order to fulfill specific functions such as language production or visual processing. The lobes are the frontal lobes, the temporal lobes, the parietal lobes and the occipital lobes. It is made up of six layers composed of neuron bodies, commonly referred to as grey matter. These six layers measure approximately 2–4 mm. The neo-cortex appears wrinkled with bulges, called gyrus (plural gyri) and the folds in between, known as sulci (plural sulcus). The neo-cortex is thought to be that portion of the brain which is responsible for most of the “higher” functions such as spatial reasoning, motor
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control, conscious thought, sensory perception and language. It represents about 76% of the volume of the human brain.
Description The neo-cortex is the outer 2–4 mm of tissue surrounding the brain, an organ within the central nervous system (CNS). The tissue is made up of the body of neurons, which when viewed in the dissected brain appear to be grey. This has resulted in the neo-cortex being referred to as grey matter, as opposed to the myelin covered dendrites extending from the neuron’s cell body, which appears white and is thus called the white matter of the brain. The cortex is divides into two hemispheres, the right and the left. The right hemisphere is more involved in spatial processing, emotional regulation, abstract reasoning as well as motor movement on the left side of the body. The left hemisphere is responsible for logic, language, linear thought and factual memory as well as the motor movements on the right side of the body. The two hemispheres are primarily connected by the corpus callosum, a large tract of myelinated axons known as commissural fibers. The cortex is further divided into four lobes: the occipital, the parietal, the temporal and the frontal. While all of the functions of the cortex consist of a collaboration of the whole of the brain, each lobe serves some specialized functions. The occipital lobe is also known as the visual cortex and is the primary starting place for the processing of visual information and relaying it to the other areas of the brain for appropriate use and function. It is located at the back of the head. The parietal lobe sits atop the occipital lobe and a little forward. It is primarily responsible for processing sensory information. It is also known as the sensory motor strip. The parietal lobe takes the sensory information provided by all of the elements of the CNS and organizes and relays the information so as to organize appropriate action and preparation for movement. The frontal lobes extend forward from the parietal lobes to the forehead. The frontal lobes include the motor strip, responsible for organizes and initiating physical movement; the region between the motor strip and the prefrontal cortex which is largely responsible for regulating emotion and reason, fine motor skills and a portion of executive control function. The prefrontal cortex extends from the top of the forehead to the area above and behind the eyes. It is the primary executive control center for the whole brain. It facilitates the regulation of memory, behavior, many of our social skills and as a primary regulator of the overall organism. The temporal lobes are found on the side of the head extending from the posterior of the orbital prefrontal cortex back to the parietal and occipital lobes and below the
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central motor strip and the sensory cortex. The temporal lobes manage much of the emotional processing, language, memory, hearing and general stability of the organism. The cortex functions by a combination of electrical and chemical processes taking place in the specialized brain cells known as neurons. Neurons are comprised of a cell body, an axon hillock, axons, dendritic branches and terminal boutons. The balance of electrical charges in chemical ions found inside and outside of the cell body of the neuron at the axon hillock determines if an electrical signal will be generated within the neuron. When the chemical balance between the inside and outside of the neuron shifts as a result of the opening of channels in the cell membrane and electrical charge is created. When this charge is strong enough it is sent down the axon to the terminal bouton(s). Here are found vesicles containing neurotransmitters. The electrical charge causes the vesicles to release the required neurotransmitters into a space between the terminal bouton and the receptor on the adjoining neuron known as the synaptic cleft. If the neurotransmitter is taken up by the receiving neuron another electrical charge is generated in the receiving neuron which then proceeds out to other neurons, thus propagating the action potential and completing the various connections to fulfill the action, behavior, or task that was intended. An axon can have many branches and may synapse (connect) with up to 1,000 other neurons. At birth, children are born with over 200 billion neurons. As the infant ages and develops a process known a neural pruning takes place. The developing brain begins a process of forming, organizing and strengthening circuits in the brain for specific functions. As the circuit becomes fully formed, excess neurons are left unattended and eventually die. This process of circuit formation appears to result from a combination of genetic and environmental influences. By the age of approximately 25 the brain has completed its primary formational tasks and has about 100 billion neurons organized into intricate networks providing trillions of connections available every second of life.
will require appropriate assistance and formation at the different stages. Parents especially need to be aware of the stages of development in order to provide appropriate stimulation, environmental resources and emotional support and structure. Knowledge of the levels and stages of cortical development also allows care providers and educators to have realistic goals for performance and skill development.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Drubach, D. (2000). The brain explained. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health. Banich, M. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Hendelman, W. (2000). Atlas of functional neuroanatomy. New York: CRC Press. Siegel, D. (1999). The developing mind. New York: Guilford. Denham, S. (1998). Emotional development in young children. New York: Guilford.
Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) LYDIA AYDLETT Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA
Synonyms Brazelton NBAS; Brazelton scale
Definition The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) is an instrument designed to assess the neurological and behavioral functioning of newborn and very young infant. It assesses the infants’ ability to tune out stimuli, to respond to visual and auditory stimuli, soothability, motor functioning and reflexes.
Description Relevance to Childhood Development The formation and refinement of the connections of the neo-cortex is a slow gradual process taking years to be fully accomplished. Negative influences, physical or emotional, can slow, interrupt, distort or prevent development at any stage of development including prenatal. For example, preventing exposure to language in the first three years of life will likely make the acquisition of language at a later date nearly impossible. The gradual development of the neo-cortex means the children will develop gradually and slowly and thus
In 1973, T. Berry Brazelton and his colleagues published the NBAS as a guide to help parents, health care providers and researchers understand the behavioral communication of infants from birth to tow months of age. The scale has 28 behavioral and 18 reflex items; these items do not yield a score, but instead describe multiple developmental areas and describe how the baby integrates these areas in reaction to environmental stimuli. According to Brazelton, newborns are faced with a hierarchy of four essential developmental tasks all of which are surveyed by his scale. The tasks are the regulation of their autonomic
Neoteny
systems, control of their motor systems, regulation of their states of consciousness and their ability to interact socially. The autonomic nervous system regulates breathing, temperature, and other body functions; vulnerable, highrisk infants spend most of their energy trying to stabilize their autonomic system. Environmental stimuli may disrupt their breathing, and cause them to tremor or startle. In striving to control their motor system, infants must inhibit random movements and control activity level in order to focus on other developmental tasks. The NBAS assesses the quality of muscle tone, activity level and reflexes. The next sphere of development is regulation of state or level of consciousness. Infant states range from quiet sleeping to vigorous crying; however, the ability to maintain a quiet, alert state is key to the processing of and responding to environmental stimuli such as voices and faces. To assess state, the scale measures the baby’s ability to habituate to repeated stimuli such as light and sounds, the number of transitions from one state to another during testing and the state that predominates during testing. When regulation and control are possible in the autonomic, motor and state systems, the infant is ready to interact socially. The scale examines the infant’s capacity to turn to voices and other sounds, to discriminate between sounds and to follow faces and objects visually and the infant’s cuddliness and consolability. Brazelton concludes that newborns are ready to control their behavior in order to respond to the new environment, they are able to communicate through their behavior and they are social organisms ready to contribute to the dynamic social engagement between them and their caregivers. The NBAS and its focus on infants’ behavioral capacities has stimulated the creation of other tests. The most recent is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) with its more rigorous analysis of neurological, stress and regulatory behaviors has a more standardized format and wider application. The Assessment of Preterm Infant Behavior (APIB) developed with Heidi Als, Ph.D., Barry Lester, and Ed Tronick evaluates the neurobehavioral organization of premature infants. The Clinical Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale uses the format of the NBAS in order to help practitioners engage with parents through the examination of and demonstration their infant’s skills.
3. Brazelton, T. B., & Nugent, J. K. (1995). Neonatal behavioral assessment scale. London: MacKeith Press. 4. Camann, W., & Brazelton, T. B. (2000). Use and abuse of neonatal neurobehavioral testing. Anesthesiology, 92(1), 3–5. 5. Coles, C. D., Platzman, K. A., Smith, I., James, M. E., & Falek, A. (1992). Effects of cocaine and alcohol use in pregnancy on neonatal growth and neurobehavioral status. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 14(1), 23–33. 6. Greenspan, S. I., Brazelton, T. B., Cordero, J., Solomon, R., Bauman, M. L., Robinson, R., et al. (2008). Guidelines for early identification, screening, and clinical management of children with autism spectrum disorders. Pediatrics, 121(4), 828. 7. Hart, S., Field, T., & Nearing, G. (1998). Depressed mothers’ neonates improve following the MABI and a Brazelton demonstration. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 23(6), 351–356. 8. Held, J. R., Riggs, M. L., & Dorman, C. (1999). The effect of prenatal cocaine exposure on neurobehavioral outcome: A meta-analysis. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 21(6), 619–625. 9. Lester, B. M., Tronick, E. Z., & Brazelton, T. B. (2004). The neonatal intensive care unit network neurobehavioral scale procedures. Pediatrics, 113(3 Pt. 2), 641–667. 10. Lester, B. M., Tronick, E. Z., LaGasse, L., Seifer, R., Bauer, C. R., Shankaran, S., et al. (2002). The maternal lifestyle study: Effects of substance exposure during pregnancy on neurodevelopmental outcome in 1-month-old infants. Pediatrics, 110(6), 1182–1192. 11. Nugent, J., & Brazelton, T. (1989). Preventive intervention with infants and families: The NBAS model. Infant Mental Health Journal, 10(2), 84–99. 12. Nugent, K., & Brazelton, T. B. (2000). Preventive infant mental health: Uses of the Brazelton scale. In J. D. Osofsky & H. E. Fitzgerald (Eds.), WAIMH handbook of infant mental health, volume 2, early intervention, evaluation, and assessment (pp. 157–202). New York: Wiley. 13. Stewart, P., Reihman, J., Lonky, E., Darvill, T., & Pagano, J. (2000). Prenatal PCB exposure and neonatal behavioral assessment scale (NBAS) performance. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 22(1), 21–29. 14. Vries, M., Super, C., & Smeroff, A. (1978). Organization and stability of newborn behavior: A commentary on the Brazelton m NBAS. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 43(177), 5–6.
Neonate ▶Prematurity
Neostriatum or Striate Nucleus ▶Striatum
References 1. Als, H. (1982). Toward a synactive theory of development: Promise for the assessment and support of infant individuality. Infant Mental Health Journal, 3(4), 229–243. 2. Brazelton, T. B. (1990). Saving the bathwater. Child Development, 61(6), 1661–1671.
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NEPSY
NEPSY MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms NEPSY-II; NEPSY: a developmental neuropsychological assessment
Definition An assessment instrument used to measure neuropsychological functioning in children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 16.
on the primary diagnostic concerns or referral questions, a selective assessment with the examiner selecting subtests based on clinical needs, and a full assessment for a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation” (Korkman, Kirk, and Kemp, 2007, p. 2). Clinicians can choose to administer subtests representing all six domain areas measured, or can target specific areas more selectively. The test does not yield an overall score representing global neuropsychological functioning; rather, one or more scores (representing facets of performance such as patterns of correct/incorrect responding or similar/dissimilar performance across related tasks, as well as overall performance) are reported for each subtest administered. As with most psychological tests, users of the NEPSY-II are expected to have had graduate-level training in ▶psychometrics as well as in test administration, scoring, and interpretation.
Description The NEPSY is an assessment instrument designed to measure neuropsychological function and dysfunction in preschool and school-age children. Its name represents an abbreviation of the term “neuropsychology.” The first version of the NEPSY was released in Finland in the 1980s; the instrument was revised and published for use in the United States in 1998 by authors Marit Korkman, Ursula Kirk, and Sally Kemp [1]. In 2007, the revised edition of the test (NEPSY-II) was published by PsychCorp, a brand of Harcourt Assessment, Inc., for use with 3–16-year-olds (representing an extension of the first edition’s target age range of 3–12 years). The full name of the first edition of the test (NEPSY: A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment) made the purpose of the instrument clear; the current edition of the test is titled simply “NEPSY-II,” with no further explanation of the acronym contained in the revised test’s name. The NEPSY-II is based on the Lurian approach to psychological assessment, which emphasizes the interplay among complex cognitive functions. This approach involves isolating subcomponents of cognitive functions through administration of narrowly-focused assessment tasks, both to enable qualitative observation of individual patterns of performance and to determine the specific neuropsychological deficits underlying functional impairments. The instrument permits assessment of functioning in six domain areas: Attention and Executive Functioning; Language; Memory and Learning; Sensorimotor; Social Perception; and Visuospatial Processing. The test’s authors state that the instrument can be used for several purposes: “a general assessment for an overview of a child’s neuropsychological status, a diagnostic assessment based
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (1998). NEPSY: A developmental neuropsychological assessment. Retrieved December 10, 2008, from the Mental Measurements Yearbook database. Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (2007a). NEPSY-II: Administration manual. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment. Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (2007b). NEPSY-II: Clinical and interpretive manual. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment. Miller, D. C. (2007). Essentials of school neuropsychological assessment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
NEPSY: A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment ▶NEPSY
NEPSY-II MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms NEPSY
Description The NEPSY-II is a revision of the NEPSY [5] and is a developmentally based neuropsychological assessment
NEPSY-II
instrument designed to measure neurocognitive functioning of children between the ages of 3 and 16. At the time of this publication, no independent studies have been published. The original NEPSY does however, have some published research which may be pertinent to the NEPSY-II. The name NEPSY is a shortened version of the word “neuropsychology” and was chosen as it was considered to be child friendly. The NEPSY-II is similar to the original NEPSY in its theoretical framework as well as continuing many of the positive features of the original NEPSY, such as ease of administration, portability, and dynamic clinical utility [12]. The NEPSY-II is grounded in the theoretical framework of developmental psychology and neuropsychological theory and practice. The measure was designed with the idea of creating a broad neuropsychological measure based on the theories of Luria [8, 9]. For example, Luria was a proponent of independent evaluation of cognitive functioning for unique deficits; an idea that has been incorporated into the construction of the NEPSY-II. Korkman [4], one of the original NEPSY developers, believed that children were a good fit for this form of testing. For example, deficits in children’s cognitive functioning typically are not seen in isolation from other deviant expressions such as behavioral problems or difficulty with academics. Children may display pathognomatic signs different from their adult counterparts; which helps to contribute to a lack of concretely defined neurological disorders in children [3]. A child’s age is an important component to administering the NEPSY-II because it contains 32 different subtests; many of them are designed for use with specific age groups of children. For a more complete discussion and recommendations for subtest selection the NEPSY-II Administration Manual should be consulted [6, 7].
Psychometric Data The reliability statistics for the NEPSY-II were calculated using a variety of methods based on properties of the individual subtests. For some of the NEPSY subtests, limited variability of functioning in normal children (e.g., tasks involving simple cognitive processes) yield a small range of scores. Additionally, due to the authors of the NEPSY-II designing their instrument to be as dynamic as possible there is difficulty in obtaining useful reliability scores across the test or age groups because subtest selection is highly dependent on independent examiners. The NEPSY-II has demonstrated stability across the six primary age groupings in retest data. Improvements in performance were seen, over time, primarily on the Memory for Designs, Memory for Faces, and Inhibition subtests but were not uniform for age across test of domains. All
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protocols during standardization were double scored for evidence of interscorer agreement. Results indicated interscorer agreement was very high and ranged from .98 to .99 on subtests with simple scoring criteria, and ranged from .93 to .99 on subtests containing more complex scoring protocol (e.g., Clocks, Design Copying).
NEPSY-II. Table 1 NEPSY-II Domains of Assessment with Corresponding Subtests Domain
Subtest
Attention and executive function
Animal sorting Auditory attention and response set Clocks Design fluency Inhibition Statue
Language
Body part naming and identification Comprehension of instructions Oromotor sequences Phonological processing Repetition of nonsense words Speed naming Word generation
Memory and learning List memory/delayed Memory for designs/delayed Memory for faces/delayed Narrative memory Sentence repetition Word list interference Sensorimotor
Fingertip tapping Imitating hand positions Manual motor sequences Visuomotor precision
Social perception
Affect recognition Theory of mind
Visuospatial processing
Arrows Block construction Design copying Geometric puzzles Picture puzzles Route finding
Note: Table developed from the NEPSY-II clinical and interpretive manual [6, 7]
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The NEPSY-II was standardized in combination with a number of other valid measures of children’s abilities including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III [14]), the Wechsler Achievement Test – Second Edition (WAIT-II [11]), the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS [2]).
Clinical Uses The NEPSY-II provides the examiner flexibility in test selection which renders it a dynamic assessment tool. Many of the tests have been adopted from traditional neuropsychological tasks, but many of the tasks have been updated and improved with sound standardization and normative samples. The most common methods of assessment using the NEPSY-II are General Neuropsychological Assessment, Diagnostic Assessment, Selective Assessment, and a Full Assessment. The Diagnostic Assessment, which is a hypothesis based testing model, is the most unique feature of the dynamic assessment model and centers on six different diagnosis common to children such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Pervasive Developmental Disorders (e.g., Asperger’s Disorder, Autistic Disorder), and academic disabilities (e.g., Language, Mathematics, and Reading). Table 1 lists the domains covered by the NEPSY-II and the Subtests that correspond to those domains.
6. Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (2007a). Administration manual NEPSY-II. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment. 7. Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (2007b). Clinical and interpretive manual NEPSY-II. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment. 8. Luria, A. R. (1966). Higher cortical functions in man. New York: Basic Books. 9. Luria, A. R. (1973). The working brain. Harmondsworth: Basic Books. 10. Pearson Publishing Website. (2008). NEPSY-II overview of the scoring software. Accessed August 6, 2008. 11. Psychological Corporation. (1991). Wechsler individual achievement test. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation. 12. Sattler, J. M., & D’ Amato, R. C. (2002). Brain injuries: Formal batteries and informal measures. In J. M. Sattler (Ed.), Assessment of children: Behavioral and clinical application (4th ed., pp. 440–469). San Diego, CA: Jerome M. Sattler. 13. Stinnett, R. A., Oehler-Stinnett, J., Fuqua, D. R., & Palmer, L. S. (2002). Examination of the underlying structure of the NEPSY: A developmental neuropsychological assessment. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 20, 66–82. 14. Wechsler, D. (1991). Wechsler intelligence scale for children (3rd ed.). New York: Psychological Corporation.
Nerve Cells ▶Dendrite ▶Neurons
Interpretation of the NEPSY-II As with all neuropsychological tests, caution in interpretation should be exercised. This is especially true for examiners who have not had extensive training in neuropsychological assessment. Clinicians familiar with many classic intelligence tests will recognize the format of the protocol cover sheet and the familiar easy to follow instructions contained within the administration manual.
References 1. Davis, A. S., & D’Amato, R. C. (2005). Evaluating and using contemporary neuropsychological batteries: The NEPSY and the DeanWoodcock neuropsychological assessment system. In R. C. D’Amato, E. Fletcher-Janzen, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of school neuropsychology (pp. 264–286). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 2. Delis, D., Kaplan, E., & Kramer, J. (2001). Delis-Kaplan executive function scale. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation. 3. Fletcher-Janzen, E., & Reynolds, C. R. (2003). Childhood disorders: Diagnostic desk reference. New York: Wiley. 4. Korkman, M. (1988). NEPSY. A proposed neuropsychological test battery for young developmentally disabled children: Theory and evaluation. Academic dissertation, University of Helsinki. 5. Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (1998). NEPSY: A developmental neuropsychological assessment. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Nerve Fibre ▶Axon
Nervous System RANDALL R. LYLE St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Synonyms Autonomic nervous system; Central nervous system (CNS)
Definition The nervous system is made up of the brain, the spinal cord, nerves and ganglia. The body’s response to internal
Neural Tube Defects
and external stimuli is controlled by the nervous system. Neurons and glia are the two main types of cells which make up the nervous system. Neurons carry information from one place to another by means of bio-electrical and bio-chemical signals. Glia provide support for the neurons and significantly outnumber neurons.
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Neural Tube Defects EDALMARYS SANTOS1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Description The general term, nervous system, is divided into two primary subdivisions, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system (CNS) contains the brain and the spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system (PNS) contains all the neural tissue outside of the CNS such as sensory neurons that send and receive information to and from the muscles or those that relay information to or from the spinal cord or the brain. The brain and the spinal cord a extremely fragile structures so they are encased in bony structures. The brain is protected by the skull and the spinal cord by the spinal column. The brain sits in the skull surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This fluid serves as a shock absorber which helps to cushion the brain and protect it from damage when minor bumps occur. The CFS also serves as the medium for nutrition for the brain and the spinal cord. Glia cells form tightly packed boundaries between the brain and the body’s blood. This is known as the blood brain barrier and it protects the brain from harm from toxins and infections that may be found in the body. The blood brain barrier also locks out many nutrients that the brain cells require for life. As a result, the CSF is the primary means of transport for the nutrients that the neurons and nerve cells need to function. This represents the major divisions of the nervous system. The nervous system is further subdivided into 7 subsystems which can be found elsewhere in this encyclopedia. They are (1) the spinal cord, (2) the medulla, (3) the cerebellum, (4) the pons, (5) the midbrain, (6) the hypothalamus and thalamus, and (7) the cerebral cortex.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Applegate, J., & Shapiro, J. (2005). Neurobiology for clinical social work. New York: Norton. Marieb, E. (2003). Essentials of human anatomy and physiology (7th ed.). New York: Benjamin Cummings. Banich, M. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Drubach, D. (2000). The brain explained. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health. Hendelman, W. (2000). Atlas of functional neuroanatomy. New York: CRC Press.
Synonyms Neural tube disorders
Definition Neural tube defects refers to the array of developmental disorders and impairments that originate secondary to incomplete or faulty closure of one of the neuropores (i.e., anterior and posterior openings) of the neural tube which is the foundation of CNS formation.
Description Neural tube defects are a grouping of birth defects that correspond with improper development of either the brain or spinal cord. Approximately 20–24 days after fertilization takes place, the embryo consists of a “primitive brain” that is merely a clustering of several sheets of cells referred to as the neural plate [3]. As development continues, the neural plate begins to fold in the middle creating a groove. As this folding continues to occur, eventually the two creases meet, leaving a hollow center and presenting in a cylindrical fashion, much like the cardboard tube inside paper towel rolls. This is known as the neural tube, which is the building block of the Central Nervous System, which includes the brain and spinal cord. Prior to the brain and spine developing the neural tube must close off at both the superior (i.e., top) and inferior (i.e., bottom ends). These openings are referred to as the neuropores. For successful growth of the brain and spinal cord to occur, these neuropores must close off completely and in the appropriate time frame. Neural tube defects refer to the spectrum of disorders and presentations that originate from incomplete or altered closure of these neuropores. As such, disorders are broken in to open and closed, meaning those that occur due to a neuropore not closing completely (i.e., open) or closing too soon or inappropriately (i.e., closed). In comparison, the open neural tube defects are far more common than the closed. In addition to this distinction is whether it is the top or bottom neuropore that is the sight of the dysfunctional closure.
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Open neural tube defects include anencephaly, encephaloceles, hydranencephaly, iniencephaly, schizencephaly, and spina bifida. Incomplete closure of the superior (i.e., top) neuropore leads to disruption of brain growth and development. This is because the superior portion of the neural tube forms several swellings and outpourings in the head that eventually develop into the brain [1]. The degree to which the superior neuropore fails to close generally corresponds with the degree of brain growth disruption. For example, a complete lack of closure of the superior neuropore may lead to Anencephaly in which no brain develops. These fetuses cannot survive and often times are spontaneously aborted or must be surgically removed. Hydranencephaly, iniencephaly, and schizencephaly are additional open neural tube defects that occur secondary to incomplete closure of the superior (i.e., top) neuropore. When the inferior (i.e., bottom) neuropore does not close properly or at an appropriate time, abnormalities of spinal cord development occur. Spina bifida constitutes an open neural tube defect in which there is incomplete closure of the inferior (i.e., bottom) neuropore [7]. Again, the degree to which the opening fails to close generally corresponds with the severity of lasting deficits. In regards to Spina bifida there are three variations that generally correspond with the degree of abnormalities in spinal cord development. Spina Bifida Cystica encompasses the two most severe forms, meningocele and myelomeningocele with the latter being the more severe of the two [6]. Spina Bifida Occulta is the least severe form and not only the most common form of Spina Bifida, but the most common form of neural tube defect in general, open or closed [6]. As previously noted, the closed neural tube defects occur when the neuropores close too soon or in an improper way which disrupts continued development of either the brain or spinal cord. For example, Holoprosencephaly occurs when the neural tube closes too early, before two cerebral vesicles, or cavities, are formed. With this defect, fused subcortical structures form, and there is a lack of olfactory structures [4]. Although most babies with Holoprosencephaly are stillborn, those who survive usually suffer from epilepsy and weakness of limbs [4]. Additional closed neural tube defects include lipomyelomeningocele, lipomeningocele, and tethered cord. When the inferior (i.e., bottom) neuropore does not close properly or at an appropriate time, abnormalities of spinal cord development occur. Spina bifida constitutes a neural tube defect in which there is incomplete closure of the inferior neuropore [7]. Again, the degree to which the opening fails to close generally corresponds with the severity of lasting deficits. In regards to Spina bifida there are
three variations that generally correspond with the degree of abnormalities in spinal cord development. In regards to the etiology of the neural tube defects, they are largely multifactorial ranging from genetic influence, maternal health and metabolism, and environmental factors to name a few proposed factors. While some of these factors are uncontrollable to a certain extent, one area that has been shown to play a key role that can be controlled is maternal diet. The most commonly discussed preventive measure is folic acid supplementation during pregnancy. This recommendation comes from empirical findings that have found the risk of neural tube defects to be reduced approximately 50–70% by mother’s using folic acid supplementation [5]. The basis for this positive effect is still not well understood only hypothesized. However, while the positive impact of folic acid supplementation is commonly highlighted, and prenatal vitamins are rich in it, oftentimes prenatal vitamin regimens are not started until 5–7 into the pregnancy cycle, which can be after closure of the neuropores would have taken place. As such, there have been recommendations that all females who are sexually active, and thus have the potential of becoming pregnant, should supplement their diet with folic acid if not prenatal vitamins. This has not been discussed in great detail as food fortification alone in the United States has cut the incidence of neural tube defects by 20% [2]; however, it is one way that some preventive steps may be taken.
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5.
6.
7.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. Honein, M. A., Paulozzi, L. J., Mathews, T. J., Erikson, J. D., & Wong, L. Y. (2001). Impact of folic acid fortification of the US food supply on the occurrence of neural tube defects. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 2981–2986. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Lutkenhoff, M. (1999). Children with spina bifida: A parent’s guide. Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House. Volcik, K. A., Blanton, S. H., Tyerman, G. H., Jong, S. T., Rott, E. L., et al. (2000). Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase and spina bifida: Evaluation of level of defect and maternal genotypic risk in Hispanics. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 95, 21–27. Yeates, K. O., Fletcher, J. M., & Dennis, M. (2008). Spina bifida and hydrocephalus. In J. E. Morgan & J. H. Ricker (Eds.), Textbook of clinical neuropsychology. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning.
Neural Tube Disorders ▶Neural Tube Defects
Neurogenesis
Neuroanatomy RANDALL R. LYLE St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Synonyms
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Neuroanatomy further subdivides all of these divisions and subdivisions into an ever finer and more specific description of both structure and function resulting in hundreds of names. These names are associated with the epoch in which the discovery was made resulting in a mixture of modern and ancient languages, explaining why neuroanatomy is considered to be one of the most difficult and demanding specialties.
Brain structure
References Definition Neuroanatomy is the description of the parts of the nervous system encompassing the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system and nerves. It is often referred to as functional neuroanatomy and links the structures of the nervous system with their function.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Description Neuroanatomy is the careful description of all of the anatomical structures in the nervous system. This includes all of the major and minor structures in the brain, the spinal cord and the nerves, the sensory and motor nerves as well as neurons and glia. The major subdivisions of the brain are brainstem, made up of the Mid-brain, the Pons and the Medulla. Proceeding upwards towards the top of the brain, comes the Limbic system. The primary structures of the Limbic system are the parahippocampal gyrus, the hippocampal formation, the amygdale, and the hypothalamus. Within the brain is the Diencephalon which is made up primarily of the Thalamus. The cerebrum is divided into two hemispheres, right and left and four lobes. The lobes are the Occipital, located in the rear of the head; the Parietal, anterior to the occipital and stretching somewhat down the sides of the head; the Temporal, stretching along either side of the head just above the ears and forward to just in front of the ears; and the Frontal, found in front of the parietal about halfway across the front of the head forward to the region of the forehead and behind the eyes. The outermost 2–4 mm of the brain is generally referred to as the neo-cortex and is subdivided into six layers where the cell bodies of the neurons reside. At the back of the head and below the occipital lobe is the cerebellum. The spinal cord proceeds down the back surrounded by the protective bony spinal column in humans. The spinal cord is divided into four major subdivisions, the cervical, the thoracic, the lumbar and the sacral, working from the brain stem downward.
Banich, M. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Drubach, D. (2000). The brain explained. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health. Hendelman, W. (2000). Atlas of functional neuroanatomy. New York: CRC Press. Marieb, M. (2003). Essentials of human anatomy and physiology. New York: Benjamin Cummings. Pliszka, S. (2003). Neuroscience for the mental health clinician. New York: Guilford.
Neurogenesis RANDALL R. LYLE St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Definition Neurogenesis literally means the birth or formation of neurons. In children it refers to the process of the initial formation and localization of neurons as the brain itself is formed in the uterus. In adults it refers to the possibility of the formation of new neurons from stem cells within the already mature brain to both augment and enhance brain function or to replace damaged or dean neurons to restore lost function.
Description At approximately the fourth week of gestation the human embryo has developed a neural tube which will eventually become the central nervous system. One end begins to form a bulb with a hole in the center which will become the brain surrounding the ventricular system. At about six weeks the nerve cells nearest the inside of the tube will begin to divide and increase in number and move outward. Neurogenesis is the process of more and more neurons being formed and moving outward to form the six layers of the cortex (the grey matter) and from there the
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extension of axons to form the larger and denser white matter eventually resulting in a fully formed brain. Glial cells, which will provide the myelin sheath for faster communication between some neurons, will not become active until after birth. Until recently, neuroscientists believed that humans were born with all of the neurons that they would ever have. Neurons died and unlike all of the other cells in the human body, they could not regenerate. However, recent studies have called this believe into question [2, 4]. It is now thought that stem cells residing in the adult brain may be able to differentiate into new neurons and, if they are able to make meaningful connections with other neurons, a limited number will become fully functional neurons. It is possible that this is the mechanism that makes antidepressant medications effective [5].
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Banich, M. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Eriksson, P. S., Perfilieva, E., Bjork-Eriksson, T., Alborn, A. M., Nordborg, C., Peterson, D. A., et al. (1998). Neurogenesis in the adult human hippocampus. Nature Medicine, 4, 1313–1317. Gould, E., Tanapat, P., Hastings, N. B., & Shors, T. J. (1999). Neurogenesis in adulthood: A possible role in learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences., 3, 186–192. Kuhn, H. G., Dickinson-Anson, H., & Gage, F. H. (1996). Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the adult rat: Age-related decrease of neuronal progenitor proliferation. Journal of Neuroscience, 16, 2027–2033. Santarelli, L., Saxe, M., Gross, C., et al. (August 2003). Requirement of hippocampal neurogenesis for the behavioral effects of antidepressants. Science, 301(5634), 805–809.
Neuroimaging ▶Brain Imaging
Neuroleptics ▶Depressants ▶Thorazine®
Neurological ▶Brain Abnormalities
Neurological Disorders ▶Brain Disorders
Neuromodulators ▶Neurotransmitters
Neurons RANDALL R. LYLE St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Synonyms Brain cells; Dendrite; Nerve cells
Definition Neurons are cells which reside only in the brain. They are specialized cells used for the transmission of information from one part of the body to another and one part of the brain to another.
Description While neurons can have a variety of sizes and shapes they are all similar in structure. All neurons have a cell body which contains the nucleus and organelles and which serves as the metabolic engine of the neuron. Attached to the cell body is a single axon arising out of the axon hillock. The axon carries messages out and away from the neuron. Each axon ends in a terminal bouton which has vesicles containing a variety of chemicals called neurotransmitters. An individual axon can end in thousands of terminal boutons, effectively significantly multiplying its ability to communicate with many more neurons. Incoming messages are relayed to the neuron by the dendrites. Neurons do not touch one another. Each neuron ends with a small space between itself and the next neuron. This space is called the synaptic cleft. The synaptic cleft may be the space between two terminal boutons or it may occur anywhere along the dendrite. Neurons communicate with one another through a complex process of electrical and chemical activity. Changes in the number of differently charged ions on
Neuropsychological Assessment
the inside and the outside of the cell body causes a shift in polarity which becomes an electrical charge which is sent down the axon to the terminal bouton. Upon reaching the bouton, if the signal is strong enough, vesicles on the end of the axon release chemicals, called neurotransmitters, into the synaptic cleft. A process known as the synapse. If the neurotransmitter(s) are received by the next bouton the electrical signal is propagated in the next neuron and the signal continues until it reaches its intended destination. The longer axons are covered in Myelin. Myelin is a fatty substance which encircles the axon. Myelinated axons are able to transmit messages 50 to 100 times faster than non-myelinated axons. This combined bio-electrical/bio-chemical process is completed trillions of times a second and it is exclusively through this process that neurons fulfill all of the tasks required for life.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Drubach, D. (2000). The brain explained. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health. Banich, M. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Hendelman, W. (2000). Atlas of functional neuroanatomy. New York: CRC Press. Marieb, M. (2003). Essentials of human anatomy and physiology. New York: Benjamin Cummings. Pliszka, S. (2003). Neuroscience for the mental health clinician. New York: Guilford.
Neuropsychological Assessment MEI Y. CHANG, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery; Neuropsychological evaluation
Definition Neuropsychological assessment is a procedure used to evaluate the behavioral and functional expression of brain dysfunction and identify the impact of ▶brain injury or disease on the cognitive, sensorimotor, emotional, and general adaptive capacities of an individual. The primary goal of neuropsychological assessment is to provide information about an individual’s functioning that will be useful in his or her environment [1, 2].
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Description Neuropsychological assessment focuses on biogenetic causes of cognitive, behavioral, learning, and emotional challenges through an examination of functional brainbehavior systems [1]. Neuropsychological assessment provides quantitative and qualitative data to describe these abilities in terms of the presence and severity of neurocognitive impairments and emotional-behavioral difficulties. Some of the neurocognitive domains that are generally assessed include cognitive processing, ▶memory, learning, visualspatial ability, adaptive skills, attention and concentration, sensory-motor skills, and ▶executive functions. In addition to standardized and ▶normreferenced tests, neuropsychological assessment also employs clinical interviews, behavioral observation, and information from other people who are involved with the patient to capture qualitative features specific to the patient’s abilities to interact with the environment. The goals of neuropsychological assessment are to diagnose disorders of the ▶central nervous system; to provide consultation on the etiology, rate of progression, and prognosis of known or suspected cerebral pathology; and to offer recommendations, interventions, or referrals for the patient’s treatment. Situations that may prompt a neuropsychological examination include differential diagnosis, patient care and planning, identifying treatment needs, evaluating treatment efficacy, research, and answering forensic questions [3]. Hebben and Milberg [4] outlined the uses of neuropsychological assessment: ● Describing and identifying changes in psychological functioning; ● Determining the biological correlates of test results; ● Determining whether changes are associated with neurological illness, psychiatric conditions, developmental disorders, or nonneurological conditions; ● Assessing changes over time and developing a prognosis; ● Offering guidelines for rehabilitation and vocational and/or educational planning; ● Providing guidelines and education to family and caregivers; and ● Planning for discharge and treatment implementation. Minimum expectations of the neuropsychological tests are sensitivity to the presence of brain damage and the ability to distinguish correctly between the presence of brain damage and healthy brain functioning [4]. The amount of time required for a neuropsychological assessment varies greatly depending upon the patient’s functioning and the referral question. After the assessment
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process is complete, a neuropsychological report is generated to answer the referral question that consists of the reason for referral, the patient’s relevant history and background information, the tests administered and their results, observations and conclusions, a diagnosis, and recommendations/interventions for further treatment. A follow-up interview/feedback session is usually conducted to review and clarify the information contained in the report with the patient and/or caregivers; to provide the patient with an understanding of the problems, and to educate the patient, the family, and the referral source about the condition and how the neuropsychological status relates to their future [3, 5, 6].
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6.
Bigler, E. D., & Clement, P. F. (1997). Diagnostic clinical neuropsychology. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Vanderploeg, R. D. (2000). Clinician’s guide to neuropsychological assessment. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Hebben, N., & Milberg, W. (2002). Essentials of neuropsychological assessment. New York: Wiley. Allen, T. R., Jr., Hulac, D., & D’Amato, R. C. (2005). The pediatric neurological examination and school neuropsychology. In R. C. D’Amato, E. Fletcher-Janzen, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of school neuropsychology (pp. 145–171). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Strauss, E., Sherman, E. M. S., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological test. New York: Oxford University Press.
Neuropsychological Evaluation ▶Neuropsychological Assessment
Neuropsychology TRACEY MCLELLAN University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Definition A branch of psychology that studies the relationship between the structure and function of the brain and behavior.
Description The science of neuropsychology is the branch of psychology that specializes in the study of the relationship
between brain function and behavior. That is, neuropsychology is concerned with the evaluation of brain/behavior relationships and it provides a method of studying the brain by examining the behavior of an individual. The examination of brain-behavior relationships can inform a variety of clinical applications that seek to solve human problems. For example, a neuropsychologist may be involved in the planning of training programs to help an individual recover from a brain injury or they may implement strategies to minimize the effects of a brain injury. Neuropsychology is often confused with Neurology. Neurology is a specialist field of medicine that deals with the structural and physiological consequences of brain injury and disease. Neuropsychology deals with the cognitive and behavioral impact of such conditions. Neuropsychology is also known for its multidisciplinary nature because it operates across many areas in psychology and the health sciences. The examination of brain-behavior relationships involves neuropsychological testing. This testing is a standardized, clinically established procedure designed to assess an individual’s level of cognitive functioning. The testing procedure can help identify cognitive strengths and weaknesses’ and the testing procedure is used to quantify the severity and scope of cognitive deficits. The quantifiable test data provides a clear picture about the cognitive status of an individual and can often be more useful than neuro-imaging procedures at identifying certain brain injuries. Neuropsychological testing is conducted both for research purposes and for clinical evaluation. The science of neuropsychology emerged through the work of Paul Broca (1824–1880) and Carl Wernicke (1848–1904). Broca and Wernick identified areas of the brain that were responsible for the production and comprehension of language respectively. Broca described the case of a patient who had suffered a stroke in the left hemisphere of the brain and could only speak the word “Tan,” although he could still accurately comprehend language. Broca described this case and others to show that the expression of language was localized in the left frontal lobe. The area of the brain that was injured (the third convolution of the inferior posterior frontal lobe) is now known as Broca’s area. Individuals with damage to Broca’s area have Broca’s aphasia (deficits of speech). Several years later, Wernicke described cases in which patients had lesions of the superior posterior part of the left hemisphere and experienced impairments in the comprehension of language. Much other advancement has since been made in describing neuroanatomical systems that support other mental processes.
Neuroscience
Relevance to Childhood Development Child neuropsychology is concerned with the specific brain-behavior relationships of children. A Child (pediatric) neuropsychologist, for example, might examine how learning and behavior are associated with the development of brain structures and cortical systems. Neuropsychological testing of cognitive abilities such as memory and language skills can provide information about how the brain is developing. Comparing the test scores from one child with other children of similar ages helps develop a profile of the child’s strengths and weaknesses. Such a profile can explain why the child might be having difficulties with academic achievement or specific academic achievements. For example, problems with reading may be due to attention difficulties rather than a language disorder. Neuropsychological testing can then inform interventions that capitalize on strengths and negotiate around weaknesses. Testing is also used to track the recovery of children from brain injury and detect the effects of developmental disorders, medical problems and treatment interventions. Child neuropsychologists commonly assess children for Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, difficulties with maths, coordination problems, brain injuries, and developmental disorders. The neuropsychological evaluation is often more detailed than an ability assessment and is it concerned with making assumptions about brainbehavior relationships.
References 1.
2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7.
8.
Fawcett, A. J., & Nicolson, R. I. (2007). Dyslexia, learning, and pedagogical neuroscience. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 49(4), 306–311. Greenberg, M. T. (2006). Promoting resilience in children and youth: preventive interventions and their interface with neuroscience. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1094, 139–150. Horton, A., & Wedding, D. (2008). The neuropsychology handbook (3rd ed.). New York: Springer. Lansbergen, M. M., Kenemans, J. L., & van Engeland, H. (2007). Stroop interference and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a review and meta-analysis. Neuropsychology, 21(2), 251–262. Lezak, M. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Luna, B., & Sweeney, J. A. (2001). Studies of brain and cognitive maturation through childhood and adolescence: A strategy for testing neurodevelopmental hypotheses. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 27(3), 443–455. Peterson, R. L., McGrath, L. M., Smith, S. D., & Pennington, B. F. (2007). Neuropsychology and genetics of speech, language, and literacy disorders. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 54(3), 543–561. Sigman, M., Spence, S. J., & Wang, A. T. (2006). Autism from developmental and neuropsychological perspectives. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2, 327–355.
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Neuroscience RANDALL R. LYLE St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Definition Neuroscience is the study of all things related to the Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System. This includes the study of both the structure and the function of the brain, nerves, bio-chemical and electrophysiological processes using empirical and theoretical methods. The Society for Neuroscience was founded in 1969 and serves as an organization made up mainly of researchers and physicians active in the study of the brain and related neurosystems for the advancement of theoretical and practical knowledge of how this extremely complex systems manages its functions and for the discovery of ways to heal the system when it damaged by injury or disease.
Description Neuroscience is the discipline dedicated to the study of the structure and function of the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). Generally, Neuroscience is affiliated with the biological sciences although; in recent years the discipline has expanded to include cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence researchers, and philosophy of mind specialists as well. Early research in neuroscience was limited to forensic, animal and associational studies. That is to say knowledge was derived either by dissection of deceased persons and examining their brains for variations from “normal”; experimenting with animals; and associating functional changes in individuals before and after an injury to the CNS/PNS. Advances in neuroimaging (e.g., MRI, fMRI, TMS, SPECT and PET etc.) have significantly increased our ability to research neurological function as well as refine our understanding of its structure. As a result of the increasing knowledge about neurological function the fields of psychiatry, mental health counseling, social justice and human development are being encouraged to re-examine many long held convictions and beliefs.
References 1. 2.
Banich, M. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Buzsaki, G. (2006). Rhythms of the brain. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Cozolino, L. (2006). The neuroscience of human relationships. New York: Norton. Evans, J. (Ed.). (2007). Handbook of neurofeedback. New York: Haworth Medical Press. Pliszka, S. (2003). Neuroscience for the mental health clinician. New York: Guilford.
References 1. 2. 3.
Kolak, D., Hirstein, W., & Mandik, P. (2006). Cognitive science: An introduction to mind and brain. New York: Routledge. Patestas, M., & Gartner, L. (2009). A textbook of neuroanatomy. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. Wild, G. C., & Benzel, E. C. (1994). Essentials of neurochemistry. Boston: Jones & Bartlett.
Neurotransmitters LAUREN CONNELL PAVELKA University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Nevus ▶Cafe´ au Lait Spots
Synonyms Acetylcholine; Chemical transmitters; Neuromodulators; Serotonin; Transmitter substances
Definition
Newborn ▶Infancy
Neurotransmitters are chemicals in the brain that stimulate the transmission of nerve impulses.
Description In the central nervous system (CNS), neurons communicate with each other by sending chemical messages via neurotransmitters. These messages must travel from an axon, across the synaptic cleft, to the dendrite of an adjacent cell. In precipitating communication between neurons by activating receptors in adjoining neurons, neurotransmitters can be excitatory, inhibitory, or both. Increased excitatory neurotransmission can cause mania or seizures, while increased inhibitory neurotransmission can cause depression, stupor, or coma. Schizophrenia, for example, may be attributed to excess levels of dopamine, while depression may be caused by unusually low levels of serotonin. Most psychoactive drugs act upon neurotransmitters to improve function of the CNS. Listed alphabetically, some principle neurotransmitters include: Acetylcholine, Adenosine triphosphate, Beta-endorphine, Dopamine, Dynorphin, Enkephalins, Epinephrine, Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), Glutamate, Glycine, Nitric Oxide (NO), Norepinephrine (noradrenaline), Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine), and Somatostatin.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children who are affected by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, or other disorders in the CNS can often be treated with medication that targets specified neurotransmitters to improve CNS function.
News ▶Media
NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale-TEACHER Informant ▶Vanderbilt Teacher Assessment Scale
Nidicolous ▶Altricial
Night Terrors ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Parasomnia; Pavor Nocturnis; Sleep terror disorder
Nitrous Oxide
Definition The phenomenon, seen mostly in children, of sudden night time awakening in a state of extreme terror with an inability to be roused from sleep.
Description Night terrors occur during Stage 3 or 4 slow wave sleep, which differentiates them from nightmares occurring during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Behavioral presentation includes screaming, crying, and, typically, descriptions of seeing or hearing frightening things. There are often physiological correlates including sweating, increased breathing, and increased heart rate. Sleepwalking may be evident in some children as well. Episodes may last 10–20 min, during which time the child cannot be awakened [2]. There is characteristically no recollection of the event, although some children may recall the emotion of fear. Night terrors occur up to 18% of children in some studies, usually between the ages of 3–12, and very infrequently in adolescence and adulthood. Fevers, stress and lack of sleep have been postulated as causal, with most episodes resolving spontaneously within a short time [1].
References 1. 2.
Schredl, M. (2001). Night terrors in childhood: prevalence and influencing factors. Sleep and Hypnosis, 3(2), 68–72. Szelenberger, W., Niemcewicz, S., & Dabrowska, A. J. (2005). Sleepwalking and night terrors: Psychopathological and psychophysiological correlates. International Review of Psychiatry, 17(4), 263–270.
LAURA PARRES California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
Synonyms Bad dreams; Disturbed dreaming
Definition Nightmares are vivid and dysphoric dreams that awaken the individual from sleep. Nightmares are defined as dreams with strong negative emotions which awaken the dreamer and are common during childhood. Nightmares are vivid and terrifying episodes in which the dreamer is abruptly awakened from sleep. Nightmares are strong
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negative emotions which awaken the dreamer and are common during childhood.
Description A nightmare is a vivid and dysphoric dream that usually involves some imagined danger or threat to a child that awakens the individual from sleep. They may involve disturbing themes, images, or figures such as monsters, ghosts, animals or people. Common themes in nightmares are a loss of control and fear of injury. Typically nightmares occur in the middle of the night or early morning when REM sleep and dreaming are most likely to occur.
Relevance to Childhood Development Nightmares are a common childhood phenomena. They are most common in preschool aged children 3–5 years old. During this period is the age in which normal fears develop and a child’s imagination is very active. It is estimated that as many as 50% of children aged 3–6 years have experienced nightmares that disturb both their sleep and their parents’ sleep.
References 1. 2. 3.
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5.
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Alfano, C., & Gamble, A. (2009). The role of sleep in childhood psychiatric disorders. Child and Youth Care Forum, 38, 327–340. Blasgrove, M., & Fisher, S. (2009). Trait-state interactions in the etiology of nightmares. American Psychological Association, 19(2), 65–74. Levin, R., & Nielsen, T. (2009). Nightmares, bad dreams, and emotional dysregulation: a review of new neurocognitive model of dreaming. Association for Psychological Science, 18(2), 84–88. Schredl, M., et al. (2009). Longitudinal study of nightmares in children: stability and effect of emotional symptoms. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 40, 439–449. Web MD. . .. children.webmd.com/guide/nightmares
Nimadorm ▶Ambien (Zolpidem)
Nitrest ▶Ambien (Zolpidem)
Nitrous Oxide ▶Depressants
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NLD ▶Nonverbal Learning Disability
No Language ▶Aphasia
Nocturnal Disorders ▶Sleep Disorders
Non-Directive Play Therapy ▶Play Therapy
Nonfluent Aphasia ▶Broca’s Aphasia
Non-Fluent Aphasia, Receptive Aphasia ▶Childhood Aphasia
Non-Accidental Trauma ▶Shaken Baby Syndrome
Non-Identical Twins ▶Dizygotic (DZ) Twins
Nonbenzodiazepine Sedatives ▶Depressants
Non-Communicating Hydrocephalus ▶Hydrocephalus
Non-Normative Life Events THEODORA KOULENTI, XENIA ANASTASSIOUHADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms Atypical and major lifetime events
Definition
Nonconformist Parenting ▶Indifferent Parenting Style
The term non-normative life events describe significant, unexpected and unpredictable events, for a particular individual, which do not follow the predictable developmental pattern of life-cycle.
Description
Nondirective Play Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
Non-normative life events are those that occur unexpectedly, such as natural disasters, loss of a family member and war. Even in cases that death or illness, in specific ages, are statistically considered normative, they are actually
Non-Normative Life Events
non-normative. They are still unexpected and undesired events, associated with severe effects [5]. Non-normative events may be comprised of both negative and positive events, such as death of a beloved person or winning in a lottery. However, in both cases, they are unexpected and slightly related to chronological age [6]. Life-span developmentalists assert that individual development is deeply affected by age-graded, historygraded and non-normative factors. Features, such as timing, duration order, spacing and patterns of these events may modify the course of individual development. However, out of the three groups of factors influencing individual development (age-graded, history-graded and non-normative) non-normative events are the most unpredictable and can occur at any point of life span. Some of them may result in both permanent and longlasting effects or in a temporary deviation from what is considered normative [1]. Even though today there is a debate going on about non-normative events, this is not something new. Non-normative events have occurred across the span of different historical periods, due to historical events, such as the French Revolution, Pre-Industrial Period and the period of Great Depression. These historical events resulted in unexpected life changes to a big number of people, such as diseases, early death and poverty [6].
Relevance to Childhood Development Because non-normative events are unexpected, those who are affected have no opportunity to prepare themselves for the event. Since this kind of events usually occur only to a few people, they do not receive the appropriate support by others. People often have little experience of dealing with the specific non-normative event, they do not actually know how to respond, and therefore less community support resources are available [4]. Moreover, individuals experiencing non-normative life events are at risk of affecting their interpersonal relationships. This occurs because, when a new stressor evolves into people’s life, prior strains are intensified, people feel the pressure of competing demands and they have limited available resources to deal with these excessive demands [5]. In the case of non-normative events, experienced in childhood, there is compelling evidence that they could cause serious long-term implications, especially when adverse life experiences are involved [2]. The childhood exposure to traumatic life events is strongly associated with undesirable patterns of physical and mental health outcomes.
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As individuals grow older, the influence of nonnormative events increases. Researchers explain that this occurs because, with increasing age, people might face losses over which they have no control and individuals often develop a helpless outlook. At the same time, as each individual has experienced a unique set of experiences, chronological age weakens as a predictor of developmental differences in adulthood [1]. In particular, recurrent traumatic events have been reported to reduce person’s coping resources in later life and increase vulnerability to psychological and psychiatric disorders [3].
Intervention Research evidence reveals that, in comparison to halfcentury ago, people in industrialized Western Societies are today facing an increasing number of non-normative conversions and events, such as early retirement, divorce and separation. Consequently, successful development often depends on people’s ability to adapt to both normative but to non-normative changes, as well, through selfregulatory processes [6]. The exposure to non-normative life events, such as a divorce, requires high levels of social readjustment and efforts and it is positively related to high levels of illness rates. Furthermore, research studies have revealed that people facing unexpected and critical life events are at risk of negative development. For these reasons, researchers underline the importance of self-regulation for managing non-normative life events and changes and they highlight the significance of successful adaptation to unexpected changes in life. External stimuli are not the only factors influencing behavior but individuals’ responses represent a different influential source for behavior and development. By the processes of self-regulation, in both normative and non-normative events, basic processes, such as goal selection, pursuit and disengagement are involved. In this way people become able to select appropriate goals that can be attained by effort and at the same time be able to restructure goals in cases in which non-normative events have emerged and goals have become unattainable. Therefore, in order for the adaptation, due to non-normative life changes, to be successfully managed, the development of selfregulatory skills is needed [6]. Within a more general framework of a family therapy perspective, an effective intervention for families that experience non-normative events needs to anticipate a deep understanding of the family processes and all the complexities involved, at different stages of the life cycle.
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Non-Obstructive Hydrocephalus
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Baltes, P. B., Reese, H. W., & Lipsitt, L. P. (1980). Life-span developmental psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 65–110. Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading cause of death in adults: The adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. Krause, N., Shaw, B. A., & Cairney, J. (2004). A descriptive epidemiology of lifetime trauma and the physical health status of older adults. Psychology and Aging, 19(4), 637–648. La Greca, A. M., Siegel, J. L., Wallander, L. J., & Walker, E. C. (Eds.). (1992). Stress and coping in child health. New York: The Guilford Press. Lavee, Y., McCubbin, I. H., & Olson, H. D. (1987). The effect of stressful life events and transitions on family functioning and well-being. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49(4), 857–873. Wrosch, C., & Freund, M. A. (2001). Self-regulation of normative and non-normative developmental challenges. Human Development, 44, 264–283.
Non-Obstructive Hydrocephalus ▶Hydrocephalus
Non-Promotion ▶Grade Retention ▶Retention
Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)
Nonverbal Learning Disability ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms NLD; NVLD; Right hemisphere learning disability
Definition A subtype of learning disabilities characterized by deficits in visual-spatial organization, nonverbal problem solving, adaptation to novel situations, and psychomotor skills, together with academic difficulties in the areas of arithmetic, written expression and, to a lesser extent, reading comprehension. These deficits tend to coexist with relative strengths in single word reading ability and verbal expressive ability. Children with nonverbal learning disabilities are often described as socially awkward and literal in their interpretation of verbal information, due to difficulties noticing and interpreting nonverbal social cues and other pragmatic aspects of communication. They are also described as physically clumsy and as having difficulty with bodily spatial orientation. Children with NLD often are described as having preoccupations and obsessions with certain subjects which they pursue exhaustively before moving on to another topic at some point. There is significant overlap in symptomatology between NLD and Asperger syndrome, leading to the suggestion that they both lie on a continuum of higher functioning autism disorders.
References 1.
▶Self-Injurious Behavior 2.
Nonverbal Communication
Harandek, M. C., & Rourke, B. P. (1994). Principal identifying features of the syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities in children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 27(1), 144–154. Klin, A., Volkmar, F., Sparrow, S., Cichettti, D., & Rourke, B. (1995). Validity and neuropsychological characterization of Asperger syndrome: Convergence with nonverbal learning disabilities syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 1127–1140.
▶Gestures
Non-verbal Intelligence ▶Visual-Spatial Intelligence
Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD) ▶Sotos Syndrome
Normal Curve
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depression is such that some of the newer antidepressant agents (i.e., SNRIs) seek to inhibit the reuptake of Norepinephrine in order to increase the reserve of Norepinephrine within the system at a given time thereby improving mood.
Noradrenaline ▶Norepinephrine
References 1.
Norepinephrine 1
2. 2
EDALMARYS SANTOS , CHAD A. NOGGLE 1 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
3. 4.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Kaufman, D. M. (2007). Clinical neurology for psychiatrists (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Synonyms Noradrenaline
Definition Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter that is synthesized in the locus ceruleus and lateral tegmental areas of the midbrain and serves to modulate attention and regulate sleep-wake cycles as well as mood [1].
Description Norepinephrine is a crucial neurotransmitter of the central nervous system (CNS) that has been linked to the regulation of mood, memory, hormones, cerebral blood flow, and motor behavior [4]. The breadth of functional responsibility held by Norepinephrine is directly related to the scope of its projections throughout the CNS. Primarily formed in the locus ceruleus, which is localized to the rostral pons near the fourth ventricle in the brainstem, Norepinephrine projections are found extending to various areas of the cerebral cortex, limbic system, RAS, brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord [1, 2]. Additional noradrenergic neurons with similar projections have also been found to originate in lateral tegmental areas of the midbrain [1]. As previously mentioned, Norepinephrine has been linked a number of functions; however, it is s role in mood regulation represents one area of particular interest. Specifically, Norepinephrine has been linked with both depressive and manic symptoms such that decreases in the activity of Norepinephrine neurons have been linked with some symptoms of depression whereas some symptoms of manic behavior may be related to increases in activity of these neurons [3]. In fact, the linked between decreased activity of Norepinephrine neurons and
Norm Rate ▶Base Rate
Normal ▶Norms
Normal Curve RUSSELL N. CARNEY Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA
Synonyms Bell curve; Frequency curve; Gaussian distribution; Laplace-Gaussian curve; Natural distribution; Normal distribution; Probability density function
Definition The normal curve is a theoretical, bell-shaped distribution thought to describe the frequency of occurrence of many natural phenomena, including such varied things as height, blood pressure, reaction time, and scores on cognitive tests. Further, it serves as a mathematical model for describing random events in probability and statistics. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/classroom/classes/ProbabilityandStatistics.html, retrieved on 8/29/08
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Characteristics
mean), the cumulative area under the curve to that point stays the same.
History Mathematician Abraham de Moivre published an article on the curve in 1733 as a way to approximate the binomial distribution. This account latter appeared in his book on probability theory, The Doctrine of Chances (1738). Another Frenchman, Pierre-Simon Laplace, made use of the curve in describing the distribution of random errors (1783), and continued his work in Analytical Theory of Probabilities (1812). In analyzing astronomical data, Karl Friedrich Gauss further described the mathematical properties of the curve in 1809. Later, Karl Pearson termed it the “normal curve.” (The synonym, the “bell curve,” is not to be confused with the controversial book, The Bell Curve, published by Hernstein and Murray [3]. This book dealt with the relationship between intelligence and class structure in the United States.)
The Formula The normal curve is a family of curves defined by the formula: xm 2 1 1ð s Þ f ðxÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffi e 2 s 2p
This formula consists of real numbers (i.e., 2, pi, and e), parameters (the desired mean, m, and standard deviation, s, for the distribution), and the variable x. Symbols p (3.1415...) and e (2.718...) represent irrational numbers, with the exponents of base e being referred to as natural or Napierian logarithms. The fact that the mean and standard deviation can be of ones choosing is why this formula produces a family of curves (e.g., by design, T-scores have a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10, whereas current Wechsler and Stanford-Binet IQ scores have a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15). Substituting a value for x yields a value for the height of the curve on the y-axis, or f(x). All members of this family of normal curves have a number of common characteristics. First, they exhibit bilateral symmetry. That is, they are symmetrical about a line drawn through the mean, perpendicular to the x-axis. Second, the tails of the distribution are asymptotic, meaning that as they extend out to the left and right, they never quite touch the x-axis. Third, there are two points of inflection at which the curve changes from convex to concave, or vice versa. These inflection points are located at 1 standard deviation units out on either side of the mean. Fourth, the total area under the curve is 1.0 (or 100%). Finally, for a given value on the x-axis (expressed in terms of standard deviation units above or below the
The Standard Normal Curve The standard normal curve is the specific case of the normal curve where the mean is 0 and the standard deviation is 1 [1]. In this situation, the equation simplifies to: 1 2 f ðxÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffi e x =2 2p
Standard Scores and the Normal Curve One cannot describe the relevance of the normal curve to child development without a brief discussion of standard scores. A sample of standard scores are positioned beneath a normal curve as shown in Fig. 1. The height of the curve represents frequency of occurrence. Below the curve, the x-axis can be marked off in terms of the number of standard deviation units (ss) below or above the mean. Beneath these are laid out zscores: 3, 2, 1, 0 (the mean), +1, +2, and +3, as well as Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores. Likewise, IQ scores (e.g., as in current Wechsler and StanfordBinet IQ tests) are listed: 55, 70, 85, 100, 115, 130, and 145 [2]. In the normal curve, these scores cut off fixed percentages of the cumulative area under the curve. For example, according to the normal distribution, approximately 34% of the population falls between the mean (IQ = 100) and one standard deviation above the mean (115). Further, adding the total area under the curve to the left of the 115 IQ score, one arrives at 84% (i.e., 50% to the left of the mean, plus 34%). Thus, according to the normal curve, an IQ score of 115 should be the 84th percentile, meaning that 84% of the population have an IQ score below 115. The percentile rank of any score on the x-axis
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Normal Curve. Fig. 1 Area and standard scores under the normal curves.
Normal Curve
(be it z, T, IQ, etc.) can be derived from a table of areas under the normal curve, as found in statistics’ textbooks. Also, in the normal curve, about 68% of the population falls between 1 and +1 standard deviation units from the mean, approximately 95% falls between 2 and +2 standard deviation units out, and nearly 100% fall between 3 and +3 standard deviation units to either side of the mean.
Normalized Scores It is important to note that, when testing companies norm tests (e.g., administer a newly-developed IQ test to students of different ages to produce normative data), the resultant distributions of scores are never perfectly normal [6]. So, test developers often normalize their data [4]. That is, they assign specific IQ scores so as to reflect normal curve expectations regarding areas under the curve. For example, say that a particular score on their new test was the 84th percentile in their distribution. Since the 84th percentile should be the score one standard deviation above the mean in a normal distribution, that score (whatever it was) will be labeled a 115. Thus, later on, someone interpreting that 115 IQ score would be correct in thinking of it as the score representing the 84th percentile. By definition, T-scores are normalized. Also, scores on the major IQ tests are normalized. So, too, are Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) scores, which are used in Title I programs. However, simple t-scores, and college admissions tests, such as the SAT and ACT, are not. Thus, for example, an SAT score of 600 – while one standard deviation above the mean – does not necessarily indicate that 84% of the students performed below that score when that version of the test was administered. Hence, while one can usually assume normal curve percentages in looking at IQ scores, one must look at the reported percentile ranks that accompany the scores on other tests, such as college entrance tests like the SAT and ACT [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development Assessment in Special Education The primary relevance of the normal curve to childhood development is in the assumption of normality with regard to distributions of test scores, such as those resulting from intelligence tests. Over the years, for better or for worse, comparing a child’s IQ test performance against the normal curve has been a systematic way of looking at individual differences and classifying children for special education services. Historically, below an IQ score of about 70 (i.e., a score more than two standard deviations below the mean), children began to be classified
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as mild mentally handicapped, with lower and lower scores defining increasing degrees of mental retardation (i.e., mild, moderate, severe, and profound, respectively). Similarly, scores on standardized measures of adaptive behavior (competencies outside of school) are compared against the IQ score, with an eye toward agreement between the tests. Likewise, at the high end of the distribution, IQ scores based on the normal curve are used to identify children for gifted programs. Here, the cutoff IQ score required for such programs tends to be around 130 (two standard deviations above the mean); however, cutoff scores vary widely depending on state and/or school district criteria. Further, children’s learning disabilities are often identified by examining discrepancies between IQ and achievement test scores. Differences between the scores are quantified in terms of standard deviation units (e.g., a difference of 1.5 standard deviation units). Again, such scores (and standard deviations) have their foundation in the normal curve. A more general way that the normal curve is related to assessment is in the practice of grading on the curve. This grading approach suggests that certain percentages of grades are expected at the various levels of A, B, C, D, and F. While not precisely wedded to the expectations of the normal curve, this technique none-the-less reflects the impact of the normal curve our view of how to assign grades in the classroom.
Some other Implications Beyond school-related assessment issues, the normal curve relates to child development in a variety of ways. For example, consider the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) Act of 2001. This act seems to ignore the implications of the normal curve. That is, NCLB suggests that all children, regardless of where they fall in the distribution of mental abilities, are to keep pace with their classmates. Other psychological constructs, such as depression and personality, can be measured in terms of normalized scores, with excessive departure from the norm being quantified in terms of deviation units from the mean. Further, the interpretation of physical and health-related measurements make use of the normal curve. For example, physical characteristics, such as height and weight, can be analyzed based on the normal distribution. Indeed, infants and toddlers are routinely compared to tracking charts by which the child’s height and weight can be compared to others of their age group. The variation within an age group is roughly comparable to expectations resulting from the normal curve.
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Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE)
Finally, while not emphasized here, the concept of the normal distribution and assumptions of normality are pervasive throughout the fields of probability and statistics. Research conducted in the fields of child behavior and development rely heavily on statistical tests to evaluate their findings in terms of statistical significance. http:// www.psychstat.missouristate.edu/introbook/SBK11.htm, retrieved on 8/29/08.
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6.
Allen, M. J., & Yen, W. M. (2002). Introduction to measurement theory. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Cohen, R. J., & Swerdlik, M. E. (2010). Psychological testing and assessment: an introduction to tests and measurements (7th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. Herrnstein, R. J., & Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve: intelligence and class structure in American life. New York, NY: The Free Press. Jensen, A. R. (1998). The g factor. Westport, CT: Praeger. Kaplan, R. M., & Saccuzzo, D. P. (2009). Psychological testing: Principles, Applications, and Issues. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Micceri, T. (1989). The unicorn, the normal curve, and other improbable creatures. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 156–166.
Norm-Referenced Intelligence Testing ▶Intelligence Norms
Norm-Referenced IQ ▶Deviation IQ
Norm-Referenced Scores MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms
Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) ▶Standard Scores
Age equivalents; Grade equivalents; Percentile ranks; Scale scores; Standard scores; Stanines; Status scores; T scores; Z-scores
Definition Scores that provide a measure of an individual’s performance relative to that of other individuals possessing similar characteristics.
Normal Distribution ▶Normal Curve
Normal Score ▶Standard Scores
Normal Sleep ▶Sleep
Description Unlike mastery-oriented or criterion-referenced tests, norm-referenced tests do not yield scores that indicate the percentage of questions that a test-taker has answered correctly, or whether the test-taker has demonstrated competency in the domains being assessed. Rather, norm-referenced scores indicate how a test-taker has performed relative to individuals in the test’s norm sample. Generally, norm-referenced test scores are developed through mathematical transformation of raw scores (the number of points assigned to an individual’s responses) on a test into either a normal distribution (often referred to as, and/or visually represented by, a bell curve) or a linear distribution (in which the shape of the raw score distribution is maintained, rather than smoothed into a normal curve) of scores. Transformation of raw test scores to normally-distributed scores is generally based on the assumption that the trait or skill being assessed (e.g., intelligence) is normally distributed in the
Norm-Referenced Testing
population targeted by the assessment, with most people demonstrating typical levels of performance and relatively few demonstrating significantly higher or lower than average levels of performance, and enables users of test scores to understand and interpret scores in light of the mathematical properties of the bell curve. The most commonly used types of norm-referenced scores include: percentile ranks, which indicate the percentage of individuals in the norm group who obtained lower scores than that of the test-taker; deviation IQ scores, which have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation (a measure of the variability in a set of scores) of 15; T-scores, which have a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10; scale scores, which have a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3; and z-scores, which have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. [several of these terms, including the italicized terms and standard deviation, should have their own entries that can be linked] Since the mean and standard deviation remain constant for each of the score types above, it is possible to determine how a given standard score from any test compares to that obtained by the typical individual in the norm group for that test. For example, a T-score of 70 would be well above average, while a deviation IQ score of 70 would be well below average. It should be noted, however, that norm-referenced scores alone cannot be used to determine whether or not a given score meets a predetermined standard of performance and/or mastery (i.e., criterion-referenced interpretation). It is theoretically possible for all, or none, of the individuals taking a certain test to meet a performance or mastery standard; therefore, one cannot draw conclusions regarding whether an individual has mastered a given skill simply because that individual performs more or less strongly than other individuals taking the same test. For this reason, it is inappropriate to use norm-referenced scores alone to determine whether individuals have made progress toward standards or goals.
MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Standardized testing
Definition A type of testing in which scores are derived through comparison of an individual’s performance to that of other test-takers.
Description Norm-referenced tests are designed to measure an individual’s traits, behaviors, or abilities (e.g., cognitive ability, academic achievement, personality) by comparing the degree to which the individual demonstrates the trait(s) being assessed to others’ functioning in that area. The group of individuals to which a test-taker is compared, often referred to as the norm sample, comprises individuals thought to be similar to the population of test-takers (i.e., the reference population) in one or more ways (e.g., age, sex, grade level, and/or presence of a clinical condition or diagnosis). Each test-taker’s level of performance on a norm-referenced test is determined by comparing that person’s performance against that of the corresponding norm group. Normreferenced tests therefore yield ▶norm-referenced scores, rather than criterion-referenced scores, which denote performance relative to a predetermined standard or level of mastery.
References
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References American Psychological Association. (2000). Report of the task force on test user qualifications. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Joint Committee on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Murphy, K. M., & Davidshofer, C. O. (2005). Psychological testing: Principles and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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American Psychological Association. (2000). Report of the task force on test user qualifications. Washington, DC: Author. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Joint Committee on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Murphy, K. M., & Davidshofer, C. O. (2005). Psychological testing: Principles and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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Norms ARTHUR E. HERNANDEZ Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Nourishment ▶Nutrition
Novelty Synonyms Average; Mean; Median; Midpoint; Mode; Normal; Standard
Definition The standard, normal or average. What is considered typical or usual.
▶Creativity
Novelty Seeking ▶Curiosity
Description Although the word norm has a variety of definitions depending on usage, for the most part, in terms of child development the word refers to the average and in many cases designates a benchmark for the state of maturity of a particular trait or capability. These benchmarks are often referred to as “developmental milestones” and serve to provide parents with useful standards against which to assess the healthy development of their children. In terms of standardized testing, the norm refers to comparison group performance against which test takers will be assessed. In this case, the norm defines the average performance for the group often parsed by age or other characteristic trait in order to assure relevance. Norm groups are usually comprised of individuals chosen at random and in a manner that intends to be representative of subsequent test takers. This means that judging the usefulness of a particular score on a “norm referenced” test requires knowledge of the constitution of the comparison group and the recency of the data collection against which normative decisions will be made. The word norm also describes a set of rules or social expectations that influence or determine particular behavior. These group expectations relate to usual or define “appropriate” individual behavior and derive their particular motivating impetus from the associated and consequent rewards or sanctions. Norms depend on group acceptance, adherence and enforcement.
References 1.
Vogt, W. P. (1999). Dictionary of statistics and methodology: a nontechnical guide for the social sciences (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Novo-Poxide ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Nuclear Family STACY A. S. WILLIAMS State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY, USA
Definition A nuclear family is a family unit consisting only of a father, mother, and children.
Description Most western societies continue to view the nuclear family as the traditional family, meaning a relationship denoted by a heterosexual, monogamous, and legally married couple (i.e., male and female) with children, living apart from relatives. This particular social structure is often taken to be the ideal social unit that all other family structures are measured against [1, 6]. Within this family structure, the male is often the breadwinner and the head of the household while the female is the homemaker and operates within a subordinate role to the husband. This particular family unit tends to be patriarchal in structure [5]. The nuclear family structure first arose among the wealthy class in northwestern Europe, and has endured, as some argue, as the dominant ideal from the Victorian
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI)
era in the West until the 1960s [2]. The nuclear family was seen as the result of a progressive evolution of family structures. This family structure was shaped by three underlying assumptions: romantic love, maternal love, and domesticity. During pre-modern periods, couples married based on family and community dictates. Couplehood was not an outcome of romantic love but of familial obligations. However, evolution of the family structure emboldened couples to choose one another based on mutual attraction. The maternal love sentiment assumed that women had a maternal instinct to take care of young children and that the raising of children was primarily their domain. The third sentiment, domesticity, assumed that relationships within the family were far more important and powerful than relationships outside of the family. As a result, the theories that were generated from this modern period elevated the benefits of the domesticity family structure over others [2]. Some argue that the nuclear family has been under pressure due to an increase in the divorce rate [2]. In 2007, 67.8% of American children lived in two parent households [6], a prominent decrease from 85% in 1970 [3]. Additionally, there are ethnic variations in family composition, with 87% of Asians, 78% of non-Hispanics whites, 68% of Hispanics, and 38% of Blacks living in households with two biological parents. Some scholars predict that, by age 16, 40% of American children’s parents will divorce and that this percent will increase by 2% every year [3]. In today’s society, the nuclear family is just one social composition of the contemporary and/or postmodern family. Contemporary families may consist of traditional nuclear families or many other types of immediate family relationships with or without children living in the same dwelling or living separately: single divorced parents, single unmarried parents, remarried families, unmarried partners, gay or lesbian partners, single adults, widows or widowers [1]. Though there are several family structures, the traditional structure is often used as the basis of comparison for other family types. Numerous studies exist that document the relationship between family structure and child wellbeing. Such research often points to the disadvantages for children being raised in non-traditional families. More times than not, research findings suggest that children from single parent families are more likely than their peers from two parent families to participate in risky behaviors and suffer health problems. In addition, children in stepfamilies as compared to their counterparts in two-parent families perform poorly in school, and have behavior and health problems. Additionally, research has documented that single parents are often stressed by
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economic strains and social pressures as compared to two-parent households [7]. While there are numerous studies documenting the disadvantages of non-traditional families, there are other studies indicating that the relationship between family structure and student outcome is far from predictive. Some of these studies have noted that family structure did not significantly influence student achievement [3, 4], finding that, regardless of family type, parental expectations were a much stronger predictor of student achievement than parental structure. Additionally, O’Connor, Miranda, and Beasley noted that student’s ability was a stronger predictor of academic achievement than family structure [3]. In summary, the nuclear family structure comprising of a legally married man and woman with children is often viewed as the traditional family structure. Though this unit is often viewed as the ideal, it continues to be modified due to the increasing divorce rate and societal demands.
References 1.
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5. 6.
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Carter, B., & McGoldrick, M. (1999). Overview: The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family, and social perspectives. In B. Carter & M. McGoldrick (Eds.), The expanded life cycle: Individual, family, and social perspectives (pp. 1–26). Needham Heights: MA: Allyn and Bacon. Elkind, D. (1992). Waaah!! Why kids have a lot to cry about. Psychology Today, 38–41, 80–81. O’Connor, S. A., Miranda, K., & Beasley, T. M. (1999). The linkages among the home environment and academic self-concepts on achievement of intact and nonintact family structures of American high school students. In Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American educational research association, Montreal, Canada. Shim, M. K., Felner, R. D., & Shim, E. (2000). The effects of family structures on academic achievement. In Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American educational research association, New Orleans, LA. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2008). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (5th ed.). New Jersey: Wiley. U.S. Census Bureau News. (2008). 50 million children lived with married parents in 2007. Retrieved March 8, 2009, from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/ marital_status_living_arrangements/012437.html Wen, M. (2008). Family structure and children’s health and behavior: Data from the 1999 national survey of America’s families. Journal of Family Issues, 29, 1492–1519.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI) ▶Magnetic Resonance Imaging ▶Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
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Nuclei of the Raphel ▶Raphe Nuclei
Nursing ▶Breastfeeding
factors can effect one’s view of and ability to receive proper nutrition, including: race, gender, ethnicity, culture, time, motivation, money, lack of information, conflicting information, geographic location, etc. ([2], p. 624). One’s nutrition is often based on his/her Body Mass Index, BMI=weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared ([1], p. 501). Improper nutrition can lead to physical health problems including obesity and diabetes and can also lead to emotional issues among some people. For proper nutrition it is recommended to have a proper balance of fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins in one’s diet.
Nutrition EVA D. SLOAN St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
References 1.
2.
Synonyms Diet; Food; Health; Nourishment
Muennig, P., Jia, H., Lee, R., & Lubetkin, E. (2008). I think therefore I am: Perceived ideal weight as a determinant of health. American Journal of Public Health, 98(3), 501–506. Rich, S. S., & Thomas, C. R. (2008). Body mass index, disordered eating behavior, and acquisition of health information: Examining ethnicity and weight-related issues in a college population. Journal of American College Health, 56(6), 623–628.
Definition Having to do with one’s overall health and includes a proper balance of diet and exercise.
Description Nutrition is a broad topic encompassing both the dietary intake and physical activity level of an individual. Several
NVLD ▶Nonverbal Learning Disability
O Obedience ▶Conformity Among Adolescents
in males than females. In regards to treatment, maintaining healthy eating habits and a weightmanagement program, including physical activity, are essential in treating this condition.
Relevance to Childhood Development
Obesity JOY JANSEN Neurology, Learning, and Behavior Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Synonyms Corpulence; Fatness; Overweight; Plumpness; Stoutness; Weight
Definition Obesity is a condition of excessive body fat.
Description Excessive body fat is a result of a high caloric intake and low activity level so the body is not burning off extra calories. Body fat is estimated through the calculation of body mass index (BMI). The BMI rates obesity at three different levels. A BMI of 30.0–39.9 is obese. Severely or morbidly obese is a BMI of 40.0 or higher. And, in a case where the presence of a significant comorbidity, such as adult on-set of diabetes or depression, exists, a BMI of 35.0 or higher is classified as morbid obesity. Diagnosis is made when body weight is higher than the set standard for height and body type. Variables causing this condition are complex and include genetic, biological, behavioral and cultural factors. Several serious health complications can occur, particularly cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes (type 2), sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis. In addition, social and emotional issues usually develop. The disease is nor age or gender specific; however, usually begins in early childhood or adolescence and, if treatment does not occur, the probability of adulthood obesity is 80%. Also, diagnosis is more prevalent
Childhood obesity is diagnosed when a child’s body weight is 10% higher than the recommended norm for height and body type. A BMI of 25, which is the score for adult overweight, is used to classify obesity in children. The condition is most commonly caused by higher caloric intake and low physical activity; however, hormonal conditions and genetic diseases, such as Prader-Willi and Bardet-Bieldl syndromes, can increase the chance of childhood obesity. Genetics, medications (i.e., steroids and specific psychiatric medications), self-image, social and emotional problems are also contributing factors in the cause of this condition. In addition, low income children are at great risk due to lack of parental availability and opportunity to provide time and resources in promoting a healthy and active lifestyle. Childhood obesity carries risk in developing serious health problems early in life in addition to complication listed above. Children are susceptible to metabolic syndrome, asthma and other breathing disorders, liver disease, early puberty or menarche, eating disorders, and skin infections. In addition, orthopedic complications can occur. Developing bone and cartilage are not strong enough to bear the excess weight and as a result children can become bow-legged or develop overgrown leg bones. Also, the excessive weight on the hip growth limits range of motion and causes extreme pain. Emotional and social difficulties are at high risk of emerging. Low self-esteem and bullying can occur; thus, leading to depression. Poor social skills and behavior problems are associated with this condition as well as social isolation and social withdrawal. School related anxiety and stress can also become problematic and impact academic performance. Treatment of obesity is not age specific; however, there are issues unique to childhood. Issues are monitoring school meals, eating meals as a family, limiting snacking, not using food as a reward, creating a balanced food list
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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that the entire family can enjoy, and reduced eating in restaurants. Attending a support group, working with a dietician or counselor is also important. Treatment success for childhood obesity relies on active family and child involvement.
References 1. 2.
Puhl, R. M., & Latner, J. D. (2007). Stigma, obesity, and the health of the nation’s children. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 557–580. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. (2000). Clinical guidelines on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of overweight and obesity in adults: The evidence report. National Institutes of Health.
Object Permanence CAROLINE MCKNIGHT University of North Carolina, Chapel, NC, USA
even when it has been visibly transferred among several places. That is, the child is aware that despite changes in location, the object has remained permanent. It is when the child has reached stage 6 of the object concept that Piaget believed the child has accomplished the sensorimotor stage and is ready for deferred imitation and symbolic play. There remains some controversy on the stages of the development of the object concept in that several researchers have found that infants may achieve certain stages at earlier ages than Piaget hypothesized.
Relevance to Childhood Development When a child achieves object permanence, he or she acquires an important developmental milestone that sets forth a cascade of other significant developmental milestones. In particular, it is an important link to language development as the child learns to use language to refer to an object that while outside of the child’s perception, continues to exist.
References Definition Object permanence refers to a belief we have that objects and people exist independently and distinct from one another and such objects and people continue to exist independently and distinct whether or not we interact with the object or person.
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Flavell, J. H., Miller, P. H., & Miller, S. A. (1993). Infancy. In Cognitive development (3rd ed., pp. 22–75). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Object Relations Theory Description As a major component of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, the understanding of object permanence typically is achieved during the sensorimotor period of development. Piaget believed that the object concept (i.e., belief that objects remain permanent despite our interaction or lack of interaction with them) is developed in stages. During stages 1 and 2, the infant does not continue to search for an object even when it disappears from his or her view. However, by the end of stage 2, the infant is typically able to visually follow objects becoming focused on the object when it is still. In stage 3, the infant tends to anticipate where the object may go next. For example, the infant may look for a toy to emerge from the opposite side of a screen from which the toy entered. It is not until stage 4, however, that the child will physically search for objects and recover them. During stage 5, the young child begins to be less tied to their motor experience in their search for hidden objects and more able to view the object as separate. In stage 6, the child is able to find an object
DEBORAH POSNER William Alanson White Institute, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Fairbairn’s psychoanalytic theory; Good-enough mother; Psychoanalytic theories of development
Definition A group of psychoanalytic theories built on the assertion that being connected to other people is a basic and essential part of human nature. Object relational theories focus on the early parent-child relationships, and the way those experiences form later adult personality and psychological functioning.
Description Although the Object Relational theories span some range, they share a basic premise first articulated by W.R.D.
Observational Learning
Fairbairn. Fairbairn took issue with Freud’s assertion that libido (psychic energy) is pleasure seeking. If that were the case, he asked, then how would one account for the repetition compulsion, people finding themselves in the same unhappy circumstances many times over? Fairbairn proposed a radical change in Freud’s classical theory (see Psychoanalysis), and asserted that “libido is not pleasureseeking, but object-seeking.” In Freudian terminology, “object” refers to the other towards whom our energies are directed. In contrast to Freud, who saw sex and aggression at core of human nature, Fairbairn placed human connection at the center of the psyche [1, 2]. The child’s bond to the parents is not optional. When one considers the total dependence of an infant and young child, attaching to the parent would be a biological imperative. What is infinitely variable is the nature of the experience the child has through that bond, and who the child becomes in order to preserve that bond. The child then creates future relationships, happy or unhappy, using the same models of relationships created or “internalized” in early childhood. One important aspect of internalized Object Relations theory is that the models developed are of the relationship of self-and-other. For example, the model of being submissive in relation to a domineering other includes information about both participants in the model. In expecting to be treated in a certain way, one acts as though it is inevitable, and creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. In Object Relations psychoanalysis, the analyst pays close attention to his or her reactions to the patient, using this as information about the relationship roles and expectations the patient is creating. People use what they know and create that which is familiar. Object Relations theory explains why change is so difficult. Devotion to one’s parents has limited what one is allowed to create, and who one is allowed to be. In order to change, the patient must be able to imagine another way of being, and also tolerate the loss of being defined as their parent’s child. Change is seen as the ability to have more satisfying and deep relationships, and a sense of personal authenticity. Object Relations theory has many contributors, some of whom include Michael Balint, Harry Guntrip, and D.W. Winnicott. While each has his own area of focus, there are unifying principles. First, that the human infant is prepared from birth to seek contact with others. Another assumption is that with a “good enough,” expectable level of mothering, the child will develop toward health [3]. Object relations theory also values the notion of a private, core self that is coherent, ongoing, and that is the source of creativity.
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Relevance to Childhood Development Object Relations theory is a psychoanalytic theory that can be used in order to consider what children need in order to develop self-knowledge and relationships that will be rich and sustaining throughout life. Knowledge of psychoanalysis can be of immense value when choosing how to support a child’s healthy development, and in helping parents provide “good enough” emotional care [3].
References 1. 2. 3.
Fairbairn, W. R. D. (1952). An object-relations theory of the personality. New York: Basic Books. Greenberg, J., & Mitchell, S. (1983). Object relations in psychoanalytic theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1958). Through paediatrics to psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth.
Observational Learning AMY MADEWELL Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Behavior modeling; Emulation; Modeling; Modeling technique; Social learning theory; Vicarious learning
Definition Observational learning is a social learning technique that occurs via the use of verbal, visual, and auditory information that directs the subsequent behavior of the observer.
Description Observational learning establishes a conceptual representation of the observed stimuli and interacts with the observers’ personal schema prior to reenacting the modeled behavior or act. Since the observer is not instantly required to complete the modeled behavior, the learned behavior is dependent on the cognitive competence of the viewer. Albert Bandura, a behavioral psychologist, worked extensively to develop studies that modeled behaviors within a developmental perspective. His studies focused on children and their abilities to actively model behaviors [2]. One study used of a Bobo doll (inflatable clown doll) to demonstrate the immediate effects of observational learning. In this study, children watched an adult
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aggressively beat up a Bobo doll immediately prior to play time. This study was supported as the children demonstrated the modeled behavior during play on a similar Bobo doll. In result, many studies have generalized this mood dependent component of learning theory and its effects on children after prolonged exposure to violent and sexualized television programming/ games. These media effects prime children for similar behavior [1]. Bandura found that four primary factors where necessary for modeling to produce sufficient observational learning. The first factor, attention, states that the level of attention given to the modeled behavior is correlated to the retention rate. For example, if you are watching a mundane reality television program (i.e., The Real World), you are less likely to successfully report detailed contents from the programming. Attention is also influence by your mood state, thus if you are sleepy or sick, you are less likely to recall information that you viewed. The next important factor in observational learning surrounds the idea of retention. Therefore, one must be able to cognitively digest the information that was viewed and retain that information for later retrieval. The use of elaborate language and mental imagery increase the likelihood that the information will be stored deeply leading to more successful retrieval [1]. The next step involves the attention paid to the model, how it was encoded and how both of these components translate to the ability to reproduce the observed behavior. For example, a student can view another student win a spelling bee and become motivated to participate, but this does not equate to the child’s ability to spell immediately. With practice, this child can continue to view the model student to emulate their abilities. Other evidence illustrates a student’s ability to imagine themselves succeeding at a task can enhance performance. So, with our previous example, a child can show marked improvement at the spelling bee when attention, retention via practice, and imagery all intersect. The final step, motivation, is critical to the activation of all the previous three steps. Motivation is the necessary factor for successful emulation of modeled behaviors. Without sufficient motivation, learning will not take place because the modeled behavior will be forgotten before it has a chance to be retrieved. Bandura suggests that there are both positive and negative motivations and his research indicates that negative motivation will lead to increased learning performance [2]. One can understand how observational learning is a developmental tool that models imbued behaviors to encourage children to produce positive behaviors in society.
Cognitive imitation is a form of mimicry whereas observational learning involves the digestion of a new behavior that is incorporated into the ultimate behavior. To conclude, observational learning is a form of improving the subsequent behavior and not to be confused with imitation.
References 1. 2.
Anderson, J. R. (2005). Cognitive psychology and its implications (6th ed., pp. 236–237). New York, NY: Worth Publishers, Inc. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Retrieved September 29, 2008 from PsycINFO database.
Observational Learning ▶Behavior Modeling ▶Modeling ▶Social Learning Theory
Observations ▶Behavioral Observation
Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder R. TRENT CODD III1, MICHAEL P. TWOHIG2 1 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Center of WNC, P.A., Asheville, NC, USA 2 Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
Synonyms Anxiety disorders; OCD; OC spectrum disorder; Pediatric OCD
Definition and Description Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), as articulated in the fourth edition, text revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-IV-TR), is a prevalent anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent obsessions and/or compulsions that are time consuming, cause marked distress or significantly interfere with an individual’s life [1].
Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
Diagnostic Criteria OCD is characterized as an anxiety disorder by the DSM-IV-TR [1]. It involves recurrent obsessions and/or compulsions that are time consuming (greater than 1 h a day), distressing, or interfere with functioning. Disrupted functioning may involve difficulties in normal routine, occupational or academic functioning, and usual social activities or interpersonal relationships. To receive a diagnosis of OCD, an adult must recognize that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive or unreasonable. The DSMIV-TR does not provide separate diagnostic criteria for pediatric OCD; however, insight into the excessiveness or unreasonableness of the symptoms is not a diagnostic requirement for children. If a child or adolescent (or adult) fails to recognize the senselessness of their OCD symptoms they will receive the diagnostic specifier “with poor insight.” The specific content of the obsessions or compulsions must not be confined to another Axis I disorder, and the symptoms may not be the result of the effects of a substance or a general medical condition.
Obsessions Defined Obsessions are defined by the DSM-IV-TR [1] as “persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress” (p. 457). They are also described as ego-dystonic (i.e., the obsessional content is experienced as outside of one’s control and inconsistent with one’s values), even though the obsessional content is recognized as a product of one’s mind rather than having been imposed from outside. The most common themes in pediatric populations are fear of contamination, fear of harm to self or others, and urges related to need for symmetry or exactness [16]. It is common for a child with OCD to have multiple obsessional themes.
Compulsions Defined Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts, performed in response to an obsession, that function to prevent or reduce anxiety or distress [1]. A subjective sense of being driven to perform the compulsion in order to alleviate discomfort or reduce the probability of a feared consequence is often experienced. There is an important relationship between the obsessions and compulsions: the compulsions are completed to reduce or regulate obsessions or associated anxiety. Avoidance of situations that evoke obsessions, and reassurance seeking are commonly associated with OCD; however, these behaviors are not necessarily considered compulsions. The relationship between obsessions and compulsions is often logical even though the obsessions and compulsive behaviors are not.
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This is exemplified in the following commonly occurring obsessions and corresponding compulsions: fears of contamination and washing; need for symmetry and exactness (i.e., the need to have things “just feel right”) and ordering/arranging, counting, repeating, and touching; fears of harming self or others and checking and reassurance seeking; aggressive thoughts and checking; sexual or forbidden thoughts and attempts to regulate or replace thoughts; scrupulosity/religiosity and praying, and the need to tell, ask, confess, and excessive declarations. The limited research on childhood hoarding (acquiring and saving items) suggests that prevalence rates for children approximate rates found in the adult population [2, 16], but pediatric hoarders may have a unique clinical presentation [14].
Epidemiology Community studies estimate lifetime prevalence rates of 2.5% in adults and 1–2.3% in children and adolescents [1], and point prevalence rates of 0.5% in children and 1–3% in adolescents [16]. Unfortunately, OCD often goes undetected and thus, estimates of prevalence rates are likely underestimates [2, 4]. Roughly 80% of all cases of OCD have pediatric onset [3] with prepubertal onset more likely for boys and adolescent onset more likely for girls [11].
Comorbidity and Prognosis Childhood OCD is often associated with a variety of co-occurring disorders including tic disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder and oppositional-defiant disorder, and anxiety and depressive disorders. Additionally, although at a lesser rate, childhood OCD has also been associated with eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, trichotillomania, and skin picking. In addition to psychological factors that are associated with OCD, the presence of the disorder can have devastating effects on a child’s social and academic functioning and development. In most situations the disorder maintains throughout adolescence into adulthood, thus, indicating a need for early intervention.
Theories of the Development of Childhood OCD Neurological/Biological Structural anomalies have been noted in many areas of the brains of children with OCD including the striatum, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate, including others [13]. Neuroimaging studies in adults have shown that the frontal-striatal-thalamic circuits are
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associated with OCD and treatment response. Additionally, several neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine, and others are associated with OCD. Treatments based on neurological/biological models generally focus on regulation of neurotransmitter levels and in extreme cases, direct manipulation of brain regions through neurosurgery.
[7], and paroxetine [8]. The supportive findings are somewhat complicated by the fact that there are no comparative studies between these agents. However, a meta-analysis of pharmacotherapy for childhood OCD found clomipramine to be more effective than SSRIs, but clomipramine’s use is questioned because of the frequent side-effects [6].
Behavioral
Psychotherapies
The behavioral model of OCD is generally tied into respondent and operant conditioning model named the two-factor learning theory. Even though this theory is not wholly supported, it has been one of the most practical models as it fostered the development of behavioral treatments of OCD. In the first factor of the two-factor theory, fear of particular stimuli develop through respondent conditioning processes. The second factor utilizes operant concepts. It is assumed that avoidance and escape behaviors – including compulsions – are negatively reinforced through reductions in obsessions and anxiety. Unless this chain can be broken, respondent, and operant extinction processes will not occur.
The most supported types of psychotherapy fall under the cognitive behavior therapy umbrella of treatment procedures. Behavioral procedures generally involve exposure to feared stimuli and prevention of avoidance and escape behaviors. Cognitive procedures that are commonly used in the treatment of childhood OCD include cognitive challenging procedures or reappraisal of obsessions, or acceptance-based procedures. Consistent with current empirical evidence of the superiority of the combination of pharmacotherapy and CBT [15], a combination of these procedures is common.
Cognitive The cognitive model is based on dysfunctional information processing such as limitations in memory and sensory perception. For example, problems in working memory may cause someone to not remember if they locked the door or left it unlocked. Modern cognitive models focus more on dysfunctional beliefs and interpretations of intrusive thoughts. Cognitive styles that can lead to OCD include overimportance of thoughts, heightened belief that one needs to control thoughts, overestimation of danger, need for certainty, overestimation of responsibility, and a need for perfection. Modern cognitive interventions directly target these cognitive styles and attempt to teach more adaptive cognitive styles or reduce the importance of these styles.
Treatments There are generally two approaches taken in the treatment of childhood OCD: psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, or their combination. Pharmacotherapy is the most commonly employed intervention due to its ease of administration, not its effectiveness.
Pharmacological The first medication to be approved by the National Institute of Mental Health was clomipramine. Since that time, multisite placebo controlled trials have demonstrated the utility of the following selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): sertraline [10], fluvoxamine [12], fluoxetine
Exposure with Ritual Prevention Exposure with ritual prevention (ERP) is generally considered the gold standard treatment of psychosocial treatments for childhood OCD [5]. Although the exact function of ERP has yet to be determined, it is generally based on behavioral models involving extinction and habituation. This treatment generally begins with psychoeducation on OCD and the factors that maintain it. This involves a description of a conditioning model for its development and focuses on the role of escape and avoidance in its maintenance. Next, children are assisted in creating a hierarchy of situations that evoke increasing levels of obsessions and anxiety. At each step in the hierarchy, children are taught that if they allow the obsessions and anxiety to occur and do not escape (either overtly or covertly) that these inner experiences will gradually decrease. The therapist uses ritual prevention procedures to limit escape responses. Over repeated ascending trials through the hierarchy children experience less obsessions and anxiety in these situations.
Cognitive Therapies Cognitive procedures were added to the behavioral treatment of OCD for two reasons: to increase acceptability of exposure therapy and/or to more directly target the cognitive processes involved in the disorder. Although cognitive procedures sometimes include behavioral exercises that share formal similarities to behavioral treatments, their focus is on challenging inaccurate cognitions or developing reappraisals of one’s obsessions. Cognitive
Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
procedures such as cognitive restructuring focus on testing the accuracy of one’s cognitions and developing more accurate and adaptive ones. Reappraisal of cognitions targets beliefs about the meaning of obsessions. For example, if a child feels he is dangerous because of obsessions involving harm, the child might be instructed to survey people to see if they have similar thoughts. If other people have similar thoughts, then the child can assume that his thoughts say little about himself.
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Books for Professionals 1. John, S.M., & Karen, M. (1998). OCD in children and adolescents: A cognitive-behavioral treatment manual. New York: The Guilford Press.
Books for Consumers 1. John, S.M. (2007). Talking back to OCD: The Program that helps kids and teens say “no way” – and parents say “way to go”. New York: The Guilford Press.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy The use of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) [9] procedures with OCD is relatively new and therefore only data on its effectiveness with adults exists. ACT as a treatment for OCD focuses on altering the function of one’s obsessions and associated anxiety rather than targeting the content of OCD-related inner experiences. ACT as a treatment for OCD also helps children focus on areas in their lives that they find important and meaningful (called values) and to spend a greater amount of time pursuing these areas. Therefore, ACT as a treatment for OCD does not utilize exposure exercises as they are traditionally conceptualized. When pursuing a valued area of life the child will likely encounter stimuli that occasion obsessions. The child is instructed to continue in her valued direction and to use other ACT processes to help alter the function of the obsession and anxiety.
Neurosurgery In highly crippling, treatment refractory cases of adult OCD, varieties of neurosurgery or brain stimulation are utilized. To date, there are no published reports of these procedures with children or adolescents. This is likely due to the need for the OCD to be highly treatment resistant, and that it is unlikely that all resources will have been exhausted while someone is still in childhood or adolescence.
Suggested Resources Organizations 1. Association for Contextual and Behavioral Science: www.contextualpsychology.org 2. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies: www.abct.org 3. Anxiety Disorders Association of America: www.adaa. org 4. Freedom from Fear: www.freedomfromfear.org 5. Academy of Cognitive Therapy: www.academyofct.org 6. International OCD Foundation: www.ocfoundation. org
References 1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 2. Douglass, H. M., Moffitt, T. E., Dar, R., McGee, R., & Silva, P. (1995). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in a birth cohort of 18-year-olds: Prevalence and predictors. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 1424–1431. 3. Fireman, B., Koran, L. M., Leventhal, J. L., & Jacobson, A. (2001). The prevalence of clinically recognized obsessive-compulsive disorder in a large health maintenance organization. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 1904–1910. 4. Flament, M. F., Whitaker, A., Rapoport, J. L., Davies, M., Berg, C. Z., Kalikow, K., et al. (1988). Obsessive-compulsive disorder in adolescence: An epidemiological study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 764–771. 5. Franklin, M. E., March, J. S., & Garcia, A. (2007). Treating obsessivecompulsive disorder in children and adolescents. In M. M. Antony, C. Purdon, & L. J. Summerfeldt (Eds.), Psychological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Fundamentals and beyond (pp. 253–266). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 6. Geller, D. A., Biederman, J., Stewart, E. S., Mullin, B., Martin, A., & Spencer, T. (2003). Which SSRI? A meta-analysis of pharmacotherapy trials in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 1919–1928. 7. Geller, D. A., Hoog, S. L., Heiligenstein, J. H., Ricardi, R. K., Tamura, R., Kluszynski, S., et al. (2001). Fluoxetine treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: A placebo controlled clinical trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 773–779. 8. Geller, D. A., Wagner, K. D., Emslie, G., Murphy, T., Carpenter, D. J., Wetherhold, E., et al. (2004). Paroxetine treatment in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43, 1387–1396. 9. Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford Press. 10. March, J. S., Biederman, J., Wolkow, R., Safferman, A., Mardekian, J., Cook, E. H., et al. (1998). Sertraline in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A multicenter randomized control trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 280, 1752–1756. 11. Pauls, D. L., Alsobrook, J. P., II, Phil, M., Goodman, W., Rasmussen, S., & Leckman, J. F. (1995). A family study of obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 76–84.
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12. Riddle, M. A., Reeve, E. A., Yaryura-Tobias, J. A., Yang, H. M., Claghorn, J. L., Gaffney, G., et al. (2001). Fluvoxamine for children and adolescents with obsessive compulsive disorder: A randomized, controlled, multicenter trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 222–229. 13. Rosenberg, D. R., MacMaster, F. P., Mirza, Y., Easter, P. C., & Buhagiar, C. J. (2007). Neurobiology, neuropsychology, and neuroimaging in child and adolescent obsessive compulsive disorder. In E. A. Storch, G. R. Geffken, & T. K. Murphy (Eds.), Handbook of child and adolescent obsessive compulsive disorder (pp. 131–161). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 14. Storch, E. A., Lack, C. W., Merlo, L. J., Geffken, G. R., Jacob, M. L., Murphy, T. K., et al. (2007). Clinical features of children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder and hoarding symptoms. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 48, 313–318. 15. The Pediatric OCD Treatment Study (POTS) Team. (2004). Cognitive-behavior therapy, Sertraline, and their combination for children and adolescents with obsessive compulsive disorder: The pediatric OCD treatment study (POTS) randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 292, 1969–1976. 16. Zohar, A. H. (1999). The epidemiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescence. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics in North America, 8(3), 445–460.
Obstructive Hydrocephalus ▶Hydrocephalus
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome ▶Sleep Apnea
OC Spectrum Disorder ▶Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
Description The Occipital lobe is the most posterior lobe of the cerebral hemispheres. It is bordered anteriorly by both portions of the Parietal and Temporal lobes. From a functional standpoint, the Occipital lobes primary role is in vision [4]. Specifically, the Occipital lobe receives primary visual input and mediate perception of visual material before further processing occurs in more anterior regions within the Parietal and Temporal lobes [2]. The Occipital lobe itself can be seen as containing a hierarchy of areas and different processing streams that correspond with the various means of visual processing [3]. First, visual processing can be divided amongst two individual pathways referred to as the ventral and dorsal streams. These originate in the Occipital lobe and are functionally related to object recognition (Ventral stream) and visual action (Dorsal stream) [3]. Working in combination with these pathways are the various areas of the Occipital lobe that correspond with different aspects of visual processing. The first two areas, commonly depicted as V1 and V2 play a role in most aspects of visual processing and thus likely represent those areas depicted as the primary visual cortex. Beyond these more robust areas is V3 which assists in the processing of dynamic form as part of the ventral stream as well as more general form processing as part of the workings of the dorsal stream [3]. In comparison, V4 solely operates within the Ventral stream and serves to assist in recognition of color form whereas V5 operates almost exclusively within the Dorsal stream assisting the processing of motion [3]. Prior to any visual information being processed by the Occipital lobe the information is received by the Thalamus. Specifically, the Lateral Geniculate, Pulvinar, and Lateral Posterior nuclei of the Thalamus initially receive different forms visual information and then relay it onto the cortical areas of the Occipital lobe, with the primary visual areas being the first to receive that information [1].
References 1. 2.
Occipital Lobe CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
3. 4.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Filley, C. M. (2001). Neurobehavioral anatomy (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Definition The Occipital lobe is the most posterior lobe of the cerebral hemispheres and is primarily related to visual processing.
Occupational Health Psychology ▶Health Psychology
Oocyte
OCD ▶Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
ODD ▶Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Olanzapine ▶Zyprexa®
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that can be attributed to an individual’s genetic make-up. Development found to be universal in normally developing children across categories such as culture or socioeconomic status can be assumed in many cases to be phylogenetic in nature. The distinction between ontogenetic and phylogenetic development can often times be blurred by the interaction effect which occurs between the individual and the environment. In many cases both sources of development contribute to any developmental milestone or objective. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory represents a synthesis between internal and external sources of development. Some meta-analytic research on development (e.g., personality, social, emotional, etc.) suggests that the majority of an individual’s development can be attributed to ontogenetic sources.
Relevance to Early Childhood
Older Worker Discrimination ▶Age Bias
OMIM 301500 ▶Fabry Syndrome
Sources of ontogenetic develop are directly influenced by caregivers and the environments to which young children are exposed. Learning environments that are constructed with intentionality and that purposefully engage children in meaningful activities serve as ontogenetic sources of development. Additional sources of influence are the social interactions of young children with peers and caregivers. Vygotsky’s and Bandura’s notions of learning through social interactions rely heavily on ontogenetic development; social interactions, in many cases representational play (i.e., role playing), lead to meaningful learning experiences.
References 1.
Ontogenetic Development MATTHEW C. LAMBERT, LEAH E. JOHNSON Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
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3.
Berk, L. (2007). Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood. In Development through the lifespan (4th ed., pp. 254–287). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Theories of child development. In Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective (4th ed., pp. 31–64). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Definition Development that occurs as a function of experience rather than as a function of the genetic make-up of an individual.
Description Ontogenetic development can be conceptualized as the portion of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development that can be attributed to experiences with the environment and the individuals within the environment. In contrast, phylogenetic development refers to the portion of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development
Ontogenetic Selection ▶Operant Conditioning
Oocyte ▶Ovum
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Open Head Injury ▶Traumatic Brain Injury
Open Head Trauma ▶Traumatic Brain Injury
Operant Conditioning ELIZABETH G. E. KYONKA West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
Synonyms Conditioning; Instrumental conditioning; Ontogenetic selection; Operant learning
Definition Operant conditioning is the selection of behaviors by their consequences. The study of operant conditioning involves descriptions, predictions and explanations of the effects of reinforcement and punishment on behavior.
Description Operant conditioning occurs when a consequence (positive or negative reinforcement or punishment) is paired or ceases to be paired with a behavior and it increases or decreases the likelihood that behavior will recur. Psychologist B. F. Skinner [3] called this process “operant” conditioning to express the idea that “changes in rate of occurrence (of the behavior) are brought about by various operations performed upon the organism (p. 21).” In
other words, the relationship between a behavior and its consequences operates on the rate at which an individual emits that behavior. By contrast, in ▶classical conditioning, the relationship between an unconditioned and a conditioned stimulus can cause a behavior that was elicited by the unconditioned stimulus to be elicited by the conditioned stimulus as well. Operant behaviors, those susceptible to reinforcement and punishment, are sometimes termed “voluntary” behaviors to distinguish them from reflexes and fixed action patterns. Reinforcement and punishment are the cornerstones of operant conditioning. Table 1 shows possible reinforcing and punishing consequences of behavior.
Getting a New Operant Behavior to Occur Through Shaping Reinforcement and punishment have measurable effects on behaviors that already occur. In his “puzzle-box” experiments investigating the ▶law of effect, E. L. Thorndike positively reinforced cats for emitting a particular response that led to escape from the puzzle box. Generally, he did nothing to encourage the response; he merely waited until it occurred spontaneously. A parent who attempted to train her child to sit quietly through a meal in the same manner would probably wait a long time without the behavior occurring spontaneously. Shaping is the use of successive approximation to produce new behaviors. For instance, a parent might begin by rewarding the child, perhaps with sips of a favorite drink, for something he does occasionally without prompting, such as sitting at the table when called. Once that behavior is established, the parent could make the requirement for earning a drink reward more demanding or specific; perhaps she would only provide the drink reward when the child comes to the table and sits quietly until he receives his dinner. Once he does that regularly, she might increase the duration required to earn a drink, until her child sits quietly through an entire meal.
Operant Conditioning. Table 1 Possible reinforcing and punishing consequences of behavior When a behavior occurs, a non-neutral stimulus is Produced Consequence Satisfaction Positive reinforcement: A behavior has produces a pleasant consequence: Nick eats all his vegetables, so he is allowed to have dessert. Discomfort Positive punishment: A behavior has an unpleasant consequence: Lucy shouts at her parents, so she must sit in the corner.
Removed Negative reinforcement: A behavior prevents an unpleasant consequence: Audrey wears a special nail polish to keep from biting her nails. Negative punishment: A behavior prevents a pleasant consequence: Spencer watches a prohibited tv show, so his video games are taken away.
Operant Conditioning
Decreasing a Behavior Through Extinction Punishment is one way to decrease the frequency of a behavior, but it is not always the most practical or effective way. Extinction is similar to negative punishment in that is decreases behavior by removing something. Whereas with negative punishment, a pleasant stimulus is removed, with extinction it is the relationship between response and consequence that is removed. Extinction is the condition in which a reinforcer that was previously a consequence of a behavior no longer occurs when the behavior is emitted.
Factors Affecting Operant Conditioning Many things can affect how quickly an individual acquires a behavior and how much of an impact a consequence has. Hereafter only positive reinforcement will be discussed, however similar effects occur with punishment and negative reinforcement. Factors that affect operant conditioning can be temporal, spatial, perceptual, or a combination of those and can deal with the nature of the response, of the reinforcer or the relationship between them. Experimental analysis of behavior is the empirical study, mathematical description and theoretical explanation of these factors. A non-exhaustive list of factors: ● Rate of reinforcement – how often reinforcement occurs ● Response requirement – how many responses it takes to earn a reinforcer ● Reinforcer delay – the amount of time that elapses between the operant response and reinforcement ● Reinforcer magnitude – the size or amount of each reinforcer ● Reinforcer probability – the probability a reinforcer will be delivered, once earned.
Variability In laboratory and clinical settings and to some extent in life generally, the factors affecting operant conditioning can vary a lot, a little, or not at all. In interval schedules [2], a certain amount of time must pass before a response will produce reinforcement. Consider a rat pressing a lever for food. In a fixed interval 20-s schedule, at least 20 s must pass between the start of the trial (an event usually signaled by some stimulus) and the reinforced response – any lever-presses before the 20 s are up have no effect, but the first response after 20 s has elapsed always produces food. In a variable interval 20-s schedule, an average of 20 s must elapse between the start of a trial and the reinforced response, but the interval in each trial varies. There are different types of variable-interval schedules. In a mixed interval schedule, reinforcement might
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become available after 5 s on half of trials and 35 s on the other half. Variable intervals schedules often involve lists of intervals drawn from arithmetic progressions. Although it is not possible to predict when a reinforcer will become available on any single trial in such a situation, the probability that a reinforcer is available increases with time. Random interval schedules are memoryless – the time elapsed does not determine time left. Microwaveable food is an example of reinforcement that is available on a fixed interval schedule, as it takes exactly the same amount of time to cook each time. The response (opening the microwave door) is reinforced only after a particular amount of time since trial onset (programming the microwave) has elapsed. Buses typically operate on variable interval schedules. Unless your bus always arrives exactly on schedule, it is impossible to time your arrival at the bus stop to coincide precisely with that of the bus. Fortunately, waiting for a bus is not memoryless – the longer you wait, the likelier it is the bus will come. Telephone conversation durations are exponentially distributed. Thus, telephone conversations are memoryless; you cannot predict how much longer someone will be on the phone based on how long that person has already been on the phone. Just as rate of reinforcement can be fixed or variable, so can response ratio, delay, magnitude, probability and other factors affecting operant conditioning.
Selection by Consequences The words “selection by consequences” are most often used to describe Darwinian natural selection, or evolution. Of course, the principle applies to operant behavior in a similar manner. With evolution, the environment exerts selective pressure on species such that those individuals (or those genes) that are best adapted to the environment have the greatest reproductive success. With operant behavior, the environment exerts selective pressure within an individual such that those behaviors that are most adaptive for the situation are most likely to recur [1, 4]. By combining simple schedules with different rates, magnitudes, delays, probabilities, response requirements and other factors in laboratory settings, it is possible to study complicated behavioral mechanisms. The study of operant conditioning has provided significant insights into many aspects of behavior, including choice, stimulus control, behavioral ecology and optimality.
References 1. 2.
Baum, W. M. (2005). Understanding behaviorism behavior, culture, and evolution (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
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Operant Learning
Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Staddon, J. E. R. (2001). Adaptive dynamics the theoretical analysis of behavior. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Operant Learning ▶Operant Conditioning
Operant Learning and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) ▶Applied Behavioral Assessment
Operations ▶Arithmetic
Opioids ▶Depressants
Oppositional Defiant Disorder MEGAN M. WOLVIN, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms
old and usually is not diagnosed any later than early adolescence. The defiant behaviors often initially emerge in the home setting with adults the child is familiar with but over time the behaviors may also appear in additional settings as well. The defiant behavior is more likely to be observed with watching the child interact with an adult they are close to rather than with a stranger. The onset of oppositional behaviors is typically gradual, usually developing over the course of months or years. Males are more likely than females to receive a diagnosis of ODD before puberty, but after puberty the rates for males and females appear to be similar. ODD is characterized by a pattern of negative behavior that is evident for an extended period of time. The child may frequently lose their temper as they are easily annoyed with other people. Arguing is common as these children may be spiteful and hostile towards others. Children with ODD have difficulty following rules and may purposefully try to irritate and annoy other people. They do not take responsibility for their actions, instead blaming others for their mistakes. These behaviors occur outside of what is typical for the child’s age and development and impair their ability to function in their life.
Prevalence Rates Various studies have noted different prevalence rates for ODD ranging from 2 to 16%. About half the children who show symptoms of ODD as children will outgrow them and show no symptoms of this or other psychiatric disorders. In 5–10% of children, there will be an eventual diagnosis of ADHD only. An additional 5% of children initially diagnosed with ODD will continue to have ODD and no other disorder. For 25% of the children with ODD, an eventual mood or anxiety disorder may develop. For other children their diagnosis may turn into Conduct Disorder instead.
Disruptive behavior disorder; ODD
Causes
Definition An enduring pattern of uncooperative, defiant, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that is not accounted for by the child’s developmental stage and results in significant functional impairment in the child’s life.
Description Symptoms The behaviors and symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) become evident before a child is 8-years
While there are no known causes for ODD, a variety of factors have been found to be related to ODD. There may be a biological predisposition to ODD as a child is more likely to have it if one of their parents has it. If a parent is alcoholic and has been in trouble with the law their children are almost three times as likely to have ODD. Children whose parents have marital problems or where violence is demonstrated in the home have a greater likelihood of developing ODD. Some children may develop ODD as a result of a neurological injury or chemical imbalance in the brain.
Oral Fixation
Diagnosis According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) [2], ODD is a psychiatric disorder where persistent defiant behavior is demonstrated for a period of at least 6 months. In the 6-month period, four or more of the following behaviors must have occurred: (1) frequently losing their temper, (2) frequently arguing with adults, (3) frequently defying or refusing to comply with the rules and requests of adults, (4) frequently purposefully trying to annoy other people, (5) frequently blaming others for their mistakes and misbehavior, (6) frequently touchy or easily annoyed by other people, (7) is often angry and resentful, (8) is often spiteful or vindictive. In addition to demonstrating these behaviors they must occur more frequently than is typically observed in individuals of comparable age and developmental level. Their negative behavior patterns also must lead to significant impairment in social academic or occupational functioning.
Treatment There are several different forms of treatment that have been found to be helpful with individuals with ODD. Group, individual and/or family therapy is one method of treatment, with individual therapy being the most frequent. Parent management training is another strategy for treating ODD which involves teaching parents to use more effective practices when dealing with the oppositional behavior of their child. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is used to teach the individual effective problem solving skills. In addition, social skills training can potentially help the child develop more positive relationships with their peers.
References 1.
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American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (1999). Children With Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Retrieved September 16, 2008, from website: http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/ children_with_oppositional_defiant_disorder American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.), Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association. Atkins, M. S., McKay, M. M., Talbott, E., & Arvanitis, P. (1996). DSM-IV diagnosis of conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: Implications and guidelines for school mental health teams. School Psychology Review, 23, 274–283. Chandler, J. (2008). Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) in children and adolescents: Diagnosis and treatment. Retrieved September 16, 2008, from website: http:// www.klis.com/chandler/pamphlet/oddcd/oddcdpamphlet.htm#_ Toc121406166 Riley, D. (1997). The defiant child: A parent’s guide to oppositional defiant disorder. Texas: Taylor Publishing.
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Optical Imaging ▶Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)
Optical Tomography ▶Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)
Oral Consumption ▶Drinking
Oral Craving ▶Oral Fixation
Oral Fixation Synonyms Oral craving
Definition A fixation in Sigmund Freud’s oral stage of development. The fixation manifests out of an obsession to stimulate the mouth, and is typical of infants who are developmentally in the oral stage. A maladaptive oral fixation in later life is thought to results from a failure to resolve the oral conflict during the oral stage; this can occur if the child is weaned too early or late, if the child is not fed enough or fed too excessively.
Description Oral fixations in adulthood can manifest in two ways. When the child is underfed, they may become orally dependent and obsessed with oral stimulation. The child may grow up to become fixated on oral sex with other individuals regardless of sexual preference. When the child is overfed, the child may be resistant to growing up and revert to a state of dependency, where they act helpless, demand satisfaction, and are often described as having
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Oral Reading
a “needy” personality. Oral fixations are thought to cause being overly talkative, over-eating, smoking addictions, alcoholism, sarcastic personalities, nail biting, putting fingers in one’s mouth, and biting sexual partners.
Oral Reading BECKY STEFANKO University of Detroit Mercy, New Baltimore, MI, USA
Rate refers to the speed at which the student reads aloud. It is measured as the number of words per minute read aloud for the entire performance, or as the number of words read during the first minute. Accuracy and rate are components of fluency, but fluency also includes phrasing, expression, and adherence to the author’s syntax [1]. Generally, higher scores on accuracy and rate of oral reading indicate greater fluency. Higher levels of fluency are associated with higher overall reading proficiency. Research suggests that increased fluency frees up available attention and memory resources for development of comprehension.
References Synonyms Reading aloud; Word recognition in context
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National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). (2002). Fourthgrade students reading aloud: NAEP 2002 special study of oral reading. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education.
Definition The oral translation of printed or written material, often used as measure of a student’s overall reading performance to examine aspects of reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension that cannot be observed directly from the act of silent reading.
Description Oral reading performance is used as an indicator of students’ overall reading ability. It is used to measure three components of reading, accuracy, rate, and fluency, which have been shown to relate strongly to comprehension (Fuchs et al., 2001, [1]). Students are asked to read aloud from selected grade-level passages, and scores are based on accuracy, rate, and fluency. Listening to students reading aloud provides valuable insights into the covert cognitive processes used to decipher and comprehend printed materials. Accuracy refers to the precision with which a student’s oral reading conforms to the letter-sound conventions of printed English [1]. It is measured as a percentage of words read correctly (WRC). This is determined by recording the number of errors, calculating the number of WRC, and dividing the number of WRC by the total number of words in the passage. Errors include omissions, substitutions, insertions, and mispronunciations. Variant pronunciations resulting from regional, dialectical, or nonnative speech are not considered errors unless they result in changes to the meaning of the text. Self-corrected errors are considered accurate responses. Accuracy is important for comprehension since decoding mistakes can lead to errors that result in changes to the meaning of the text. Student’s demonstrating a 95% rate of WRC are said to be reading at an instructional level.
Oral Skills ▶Verbal Skills
Oral Stage JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Definition First stage of Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages.
Description Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), an Austrian physician, developed a theory of psychosexual stages. He maintained that how the family dealt with the child’s sexual and aggressive drives in the first years of life was critical for healthy personality development [[1], p. 16]. According to the theory, the first year of life the mouth is the source of pleasure [[2], p. 14]. The basic human need for food causes the baby to suck the breast or bottle and fulfill the need. If the oral needs of the baby aren’t met, the child may develop habits such as thumb sucking, fingernail biting, overeating or smoking later in life [[1], p. 17].
Orienting Response
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Berk, L. E. (2006). Child development (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Charlesworth, R. (2011). Understanding child development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Deiner, P. L. (2009). Infants and toddlers: Development and curriculum planning. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2011). Foundations of early childhood education: Teaching children in a diverse setting (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Orienting Response BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Orientation reflex; Orientation response; Orienting reaction; Orienting reflex
Definition
Oral, Anal, Phallic, and Genital Stages ▶Psychosexual Stages, of Freud
Order of Birth ▶Birth Order
Orientation Reflex ▶Orienting Response
Orientation Response ▶Orienting Response
Orienting Reaction ▶Orienting Response
Orienting Reflex ▶Orienting Response
The typical definition given for the orienting reflex is “. . .an organism’s innate reaction to a novel stimulus” [2], p. 207] but such a definition fails to properly reflect the complexity of the orienting response. While it is typically seen as occurring to a novel stimulus and it is an unlearned response, the orienting response has been studied for over 90 years and entire volumes are devoted to this response. While most studied in mammals, Pavlov, who first described the orienting response in 1910 [3, 5] considered it a response characteristic of animals in general and it has been extensively studied in humans [1]. When an animal is exposed to a novel stimulus or a familiar stimulus that is unexpected, as in a predator detecting a scent of prey (or a prey detecting a predator), the animal will engage in a complex behavioral repertoire of sensory, skeletal-muscular, and autonomic responses that compose the orienting response. According to Sokolov [6], the main factors of a stimulus that evoke the orientation response are novelty, intensity and the significance of the stimulus; Sokolov [7] considered the orientation response as being directed towards the extracting of information from the immediate environment. Like any evoked, innate response, the orienting response will display habituation if the eliciting stimulus is sufficiently repeated, followed by spontaneous recovery if the eliciting stimulus is withheld for a sufficient time following habituation [2]. The orienting response will also display a recovery of the strength of response if an extraneous stimulus is presented during the course of habituation [9]. Pavlov discussed the orienting response as being an “investigating (or investigatory) reaction” as well as a “what-is-it reaction” [3, p. 1, 9, p. 27]. Lynn [3] cataloged the various responses that are collectively referred to as the orienting response. 1. There are changes in the sensitivity of sensory organsthe pupil becomes dilated, the light-sensitive cells of the retina undergo a lowered threshold for light, and the threshold for hearing is lowered to increase sensitivity.
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2. There are changes in localized skeletal muscles involved in observing the stimulus-the animal can be seen to turn its head towards the stimulus, its ears are cocked towards the stimulus, inhalation of air for sniffing occurs. In humans, only some of these occur. 3. There are changes in the general movement and muscle tone – the animal typically freezes at least temporarily, the general state of muscle tone is increased and electrical measures of muscle tone (the electromyogram or EMG) shows increases, indicating a generalized state of increased readiness potential. 4. Measures of brain waves are indicative of increased arousal and focused attention – typically this means a faster frequency and lower amplitude pattern of brain waves is seen in the electroencephalogram (EEG), i.e., beta activity predominates in the EEG. 5. A constellation of autonomic nervous system changes can be observed in various systems – blood vessels in the limb constrict (vasoconstriction) while blood vessels in the head dilate (vasodilation); changes in electrodermal activity occur such that the skin’s conductance of electricity is increased, referred to as either the galvanic skin response (GSR) or the skin conductance response (SCR). 6. Besides the autonomic changes just listed, there are changes in measures of respiration – a pause in breathing occurs, followed by an increase in the amplitude accompanied by a decrease in the frequency of breathing. 7. Changes in heart rate are observed but which are termed highly variable; most often humans show a decrease in heart rate. 8. Since the writing of Lynn [3], other subsequent writers have added transient changes in the EEG to the above list. These fleeting changes in the EEG, termed eventrelated potentials (ERPs) are caused by specific environmental events such as a flashing strobe light. The ERP is characterized by a characteristic positive or negative variation (an upward or downward deflection, respectively) in the EEG with specific temporal parameters and which are stimulus specific [1, 8]. Sokolov [5, 6] outlined other orienting response distinctions – the generalized orientation reaction and the localized orientation response; these are characterized by specific EEG patterns and changes and by the extent to which the EEG changes could be localized to distinct cerebral cortex areas. The localized and generalized orientation responses also show differences in the rate that each shows habituation to the evoking stimulus. Sokolov [6] also distinguished between the orientation response as described, which he considered to be
“information-gathering” and a defensive response which would be evoked by intense, painful or potentially painful events. Any stimulus in any sensory modality would have be in excess of some minimum value for an orientation response to be elicited; as stimulus intensity increases further, it can reach values that are painfully stimulating, at which point the orienting response is replaced with a defensive response [1]. There are variations in the orienting response from individual to individual; all of the components outlined above do not always occur in all subjects and there are differences in the various combinations and in the magnitude of the component responses of the orientation response [3]. Some of the variations observed with the orientation response are considered diagnostic signs of some psychiatric conditions [4]. The significance of the normal or typical orientation response is still under investigation and might have important roles in the responses that cognitive psychologists term “information processing” [8].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
6. 7.
8. 9.
Andreassi, J. L. (2007). Psychophysiology: Human behavior & physiological response (5th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Gluck, M. A., Mercado, E., & Myers, C. E. (2008). Learning and memory: From brain to behavior. New York: Worth. Lynn, R. (1966). Attention, arousal, and the orientation response. London: Pergamon. Schnur, D. B., Smith, S., Marte, V., Horwitz, E., Sackheim, H. A., Mukherjee, S., et al. (1999). The orienting response in schizophrenia and mania. Psychiatry Research, 88, 41–54. Sokolov, E. N. (1960). Neuronal models in the orienting reflex. In M. A. Brazier (Ed.), The central nervous system and behavior (pp. 187–276). Josiah Macy Foundation: New York. Sokolov, E. N. (1963). Perception and the conditioned reflex. New York: Macmillan. Sokolov, E. N. (1990). The orienting response and future directions of its development. Pavlovian Journal of Biological Science, 25(3), 142–150. Sokolov, E. N., Spinks, J. A., Na¨a¨ta¨nen, R., & Lyytinen, H. (2002). The orienting response in information processing. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Terry, W. S. (2009). Learning & memory: Basic principles, processes, and procedures (4th ed.). Pearson: New York.
Original Habit Reversal ▶Habit Reversal
Originality ▶Creativity
Orthographic Reading Skills
Orthographic Awareness ▶Orthographic Reading Skills
Orthographic Reading Skills STACY E. LEVIN Argosy University
Synonyms Orthographic awareness; Phonemic awareness; Phonological decoding; Reading
Definition Orthographic reading skills refer to the ability to identify patterns of specific letters as words, eventually leading to word recognition. With development of these skills, reading becomes an automatic process. The spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of a word are unified and the information is accessed simultaneously upon visual presentation of an individual word [5, 10].
Description In the English language, ▶orthography is based on the alphabet system and refers to the set of rules applied to reading, spelling, and pronunciation. English orthography is rather complex as words can be read, spelled, and pronounced in multiple ways. Unlike other languages, the relationship between ▶graphemes and ▶phonemes is inconsistent and cannot be generalized across words. For example, the recognition of homophones, homonyms, and unpredictable words is based on word-specific knowledge [9]. Because of the complexities of English orthography, it is necessary for English-speaking individuals to develop more comprehensive and extensive orthographic reading skills to access a word-specific knowledgebase and promote word recognition. The development of orthographic reading skills involves several components, including ▶phonological decoding and ▶phonemic awareness [2]; however, orthographic processing abilities are not dependent on phonological processing abilities. Words are identified based on phonological decoding, letter-sound associations and grapheme-phoneme correspondences [10]. As phonological decoding processes improve, phonemic awareness develops and knowledge of letter
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combinations is formed. Through the process of orthographic coding, print is recoded into phonological and orthographic representations, visual and spelling patterns used to identify individual words. Orthographic representations enable readers to access word meaning based on printed information [2, 5, 10]. Through repeated visual and oral vocabulary exposure, word associations and orthographic representations are strengthened and specific orthographic representations of words are formulated [2]. When individuals have acquired strong orthographic representations, they are able to access this information with fluency and automaticity [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development Children generally acquire orthographic reading skills by learning the sounds of letters and basic vocabulary sight words. Although reading and spelling both require phonological decoding, reading is taught through visual methods, while spelling is mainly taught through phonology with an incorporation of some visual methods [5, 9]. The acquisition of orthographic word-knowledge is influenced by exposure to the words in print and contextual feedback regarding the pronunciation and meaning of the word [2]. Thus, children who receive repeated exposure to words within the context of the environment have stronger orthographic reading skills, are able to make more informed choices in orthographic tasks, and have improved reading comprehension abilities. As children grow older, their competencies in orthographic and phonological processing abilities increase [3, 5]. Nearly 20–40% of children are considered “at risk” for reading disabilities and encounter challenges in the process of developing orthographic reading skills. Children with reading disabilities present with varied problems. Some have difficulty applying phonological strategies, while others have weaknesses in orthographic word decoding [4]. Children who have impairments in phonological skills related to reading are thought to have ▶developmental dyslexia. Subtypes of developmental dyslexia include phonological dyslexia and orthographic dyslexia. Phonological dyslexia involves greater phonological deficits, while orthographic dyslexia is characterized by greater orthographic deficits [4, 8].
Assessment When children present with reading problems, comprehensive assessments in the areas of general cognitive abilities, reading, and language, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-4th edition (WISC-IV), the Peabody
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Individual Achievement Test (PIAT), Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement, Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (WRMT-T) or the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP), can be beneficial in assessing skills and determining specific deficits (i.e., word recognition, accuracy, fluency, automaticity, phonological decoding, phonemic awareness, orthographic coding) [2, 6, 7]. When deficits of orthographic reading skills are thought to contribute to reading problems, several assessment tasks can be administered. ● Orthographic choice presents children with a list of items requiring the recognition of a target word against a pseudohomophone (e.g., sammon/salmon). The words can consist of one, two, three, or four syllables. Achievement on the task is dependent on accuracy and latency during trials [1]. ● Homophone choice presents children with a question such as “Which can be eaten?” and requires them to determine an appropriate response from a list of homophones (e.g., pair/pear) [1, 2, 7]. ● Embedded word presents children with a list of onesyllable words embedded within a strand of consonants, and requires children to identify the words (e.g., cvbdeepdmg). Achievement on the task is dependent on accuracy and latency during trials [7]. ● Orthographic awareness presents children with pairs of pseudowords and requires children to identify whether the word “could be a word” or “looks like a word” (e.g., filv/filk) [7]. ● Other orthographic tasks require children to delete a letter in a word and to read or pronounce the new word based on its spelling [7].
Intervention Knowledge of children’s specific reading deficits is useful when creating treatment plans. Interventions should be individualized and reflect a particular child’s needs and weaknesses [2]. Thus, it is critical to determine whether a training program should primarily focus on weaknesses in phonological and/or orthographic word decoding skills [4]. In general, children with reading problems require extensive, systematic support and structured training. Remedial strategies should be implemented immediately to help children who struggle in developing adequate reading processes, i.e., phonological decoding skills. Early preventive interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in improving children’s skills of decoding, and word automaticity and fluency [1, 2, 5, 6].
Deficits in orthographic reading skills are partially influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The speed and accuracy of orthographic coding and phonological decoding are affected by genetics, while orthographic processing abilities improve based on print exposure. Exposure to print can improve the efficiency of orthographic processing and word recognition, which results in better reading performance overall [1–3].
References 1. Cunningham, A., & Stanovich, K. (1990). Assessing print exposure and orthographic processing skill in children: A quick measure of reading experience. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 733–740. 2. Gaya´n, J., & Olson, R. (2001). Genetic and environmental influences on orthographic and phonological skills in children with reading disabilities. Developmental Neuropsychology, 20(2), 483–507. 3. Goff, D., Pratt, C., & Ong, B. (2005). The relations between children’s reading comprehension, working memory, language skills and components of reading decoding in a normal sample. Reading and Writing, 18(7), 583–616. 4. Gustafson, S., Ferreira, J., & Ronnberg, J. (2007). Phonological or orthographic training for children with phonological or orthographic decoding deficits. Dyslexia, 13, 211–229. 5. Majeres, R. (2005). Phonological and orthographic coding skills in adult readers. Journal of General Psychology, 132(3), 267–280. 6. Martin, F., Claydon, E., Morton, A., Binns, S., & Pratt, C. (2003). The development of orthographic and phonological strategies for the decoding of words in children. Journal of Research in Reading, 26(2), 191–204. 7. Sparks, R. (2004). Orthographic awareness, phonemic awareness, syntactic processing, and working memory skill in hyperlexic children. Reading and Writing, 17(4), 359–386. 8. Sprenger-Charolles, L., Cole, P., Lacert, P., & Serniclaes, W. (2000). On subtypes of developmental dyslexia: Evidence from processing time and accuracy scores. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54(2), 87–103. 9. Thorstad, G. (1991). The effect of orthography on the acquisition of literacy skills. British Journal of Psychology, 82(4), 527. 10. Torgesen, J., Wagner, R., Rashotte, C., Burgess, S., & Hecht, S. (1997). Contributions of phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming ability to the growth of word-reading skills in secondto fifth-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(2), 161–185.
Orton-Gillingham Reading Method JACKIE LANEY University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Synonyms Bottom-up approach; Multisensory teaching
Osgood, Charles Egerton
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Definition
Relevance to Childhood Development
The Orton-Gillingham reading method is a sequential, multisensory, and flexible approach to teaching language to children with dyslexia [1, 3].
Orton and Gillingham believed that students with dyslexia needed to use the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic channels due to their inherent weaknesses in learning languages. Traditional educators rely heavily on the visual channel when teaching students to read and write. Children with dyslexia try to memorize words as whole units, but due to their limitations, they cannot memorize every word. Orton and Gillingham included the auditory and kinesthetic channels in addition to the visual to address this weakness [2,3]. Through the auditory channel students with dyslexia expand their short-term ear memory. By requiring students to retain small pieces of information received through the auditory channel, their shortterm ear memory gradually increases as they are slowly required to retain larger pieces of information. The auditory channel is also used to help students with sound discrimination. Students are taught to voice similar sounds by paying attention to the motor movements of their mouths when forming these similar sounds. The kinesthetic channel requires the students to become aware of the motor movements accompanying production of sounds as well as the creation of motor movements to go along with vowel sounds [3].
Description The Orton-Gillingham reading method presents children with the sequential basics of language starting with discrete information that is taught to mastery through the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning channels. This multisensory approach follows the sequential pattern of language with students mastering the most basic information before new, more complex information can be taught. By following a hierarchy, student learning is cumulative and flexible. Initially, students learn individual sounds for letters by hearing the sounds, saying the sounds, and writing the letter(s) representing the sounds. This sequence can be altered to focus on writing and spelling as well as reading, Through this approach students learn to read, spell, and write at their own pace [3].
History During the late 1930s and 1940s, Dr. Samuel Orton and educator Anne Gillingham, developed their multisensory approach to literacy instruction for students with dyslexia. After parting professionally in the 1940s, Orton and Gillingham continued to pursue their approach separately. Orton proceeded with their program in its original form while Gillingham modified the original approach. The fundamental difference was in the area of spelling. Orton’s method required students to say the sounds of a word when spelling while Gillingham required students to say the letters of the word while spelling. Despite their differences, their combined work influenced many other researchers and educators spawning fifteen commercial programs [2].
References 1.
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Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators. Retrieved December 21, 2008, from http://www.ortonacademy.org/ approach.html Rose, T. E., & Zirkel, P. (2007). Orton-Gillingham Methodology for Students with Reading Disabilities: Thirty years of case law. The Journal of Special Education, 41, 171–185. Sheffield, B. B. (1991). The structured flexibility of OrtonGillingham. Annals of Dyslexia, 41, 41–54.
Criticism The most common criticism of the Orton-Gillingham method is its perceived rigidity. Since the set of skills making up the approach are cumulative and follow a systematic set of practices, some view the process as inflexible and lacking creativity. Orton and Gillingham developed their multisensory method of teaching language to train students with dyslexia to think about language as they are using that language. By learning the systematic rules of language, they believed student could apply those rules when reading and writing [3].
Osgood, Charles Egerton REBEKAH R. PENDER San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition Osgood, Charles Egerton: Born November 20, 1916 in Sommerville, Massachusetts. He died September 15, 1991.
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Description Osgood received his PhD in psychology in 1945 from Yale University and was a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana from 1949– 1984. He was also a research professor at the Institute of Communications Research in the University of Illinois College of Communication. He was the director of the Institute of Communications Research from 1957 to 1984. He served as president of the American Psychological Association from 1962 to 1963. At the height of the Cold War, from 1964 to 1971, Osgood served on the Social Science Advisory Board of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Among his many awards were the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, which he won in 1960 and the American Psychological Association’s Kurt Lewin Award (1971).
Osgood, C. E. (1962). An alternative to war or surrender. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Osgood, C. E., & Miron, M. S. (Eds.). (1963). Approaches to the study of aphasia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Osgood, C. E., May, W. S., & Miron, M. S. (1975). Cross cultural universals of affective meaning. Urbana: Urbana University of Illinois Press. Osgood, C. E. (2009). Retrieved January 31, 2009, from http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_E._Osgood Step-by-Step De-Escalation. (1998). Retrieved January 31, 2009, from http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/grit.htm
Outcome ▶Consequences
Relevance to Childhood Development Osgood was a distinguished social psychologist, who together with his colleagues George Suci and Percy Tannenbaum in 1957 developed the technique in the form of a rating scale to measure the connotative concepts of cultural, or changes in attitudes toward an object or person, known as semantic differential (Osgood, 2009). Osgood is also known for a conciliatory strategy known as GRIT or “graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension reduction.” In his original writing he said it stood for “graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension reduction; later he simplified this to gradual reduction in tension. The basic idea is that a disputant can initiate de-escalation by making a small, unilateral (one-sided) concession to the other side, and at the same time, communicating a desire or even an expectation that this gesture will be matched with an equal response from the opponent. If the opponent does respond positively, the first party can make a second concession, and a “peace spiral” is begun. If the first initiative is ignored, Osgood suggests that it be followed by a second–or even a third– attempt. These concessions should be designed to build trust, but should not be terribly costly (materially or strategically), nor should they suggest weakness. However, they should indicate a willingness to transform the conflict to a more co-operative and less adversarial approach (Step-by-Step DeEscalation, 1998).
Outcome Variables ▶Variables, in Experimental Developmental Research
Out-of-home Placements ▶Foster Care
Outsider Witnesses ▶Personal Narratives
Ova ▶Ovum
Selected Works Osgood, C. E. (1956). Method and theory in experimental psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Osgood, C. E., Suci, G., & Tannenbaum, P. (1957). The measurement of meaning. Urbana: University of Illinois Pres. Osgood, C. E. (1959). Suggestions for winning the real war with communism. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 3, 295–325.
Over-Anxious Disorder ▶Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Ovulation
Overcorrection MICHELLE JOHNSON, IVY CHONG Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
Synonyms Positive practice; Positive punishment; Restitution
Definition A positive punishment procedure in which, contingent on the problem behavior, a person is required to engage in an effortful activity for a brief period [4].
Description The procedure of overcorrection was created by Foxx and Azrin [2, 3] to decrease aggressive and disruptive behaviors in institutional settings. Overcorrection involves the repetition of a response, usually as a penalty for having displayed an inappropriate behavior. The effortful response is designed to ensure the individual practices the correct and appropriate behavior that is functionally similar to the inappropriate response they previously emitted. It is important to note that this procedure should be implemented immediately upon the occurrence of the problem behavior [4]. Close temporal contiguity between the inappropriate response and the overcorrection procedure is designed to reduce the future frequency of the problem behavior [1]. Finally, making the procedure one that employs aspects of a punishing stimulus, individuals implementing any overcorrection procedure should ensure that the effortful response is related to the problem behavior, previously emitted. This procedure is easily implemented with individuals in a learning situation, such as a classroom. While it is important to note that the overcorrection procedure was initially intended to reduce problem behavior (e.g., aggression), research has documented its effectiveness in learning environments for skills such as reading and spelling.
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Foxx, R. M., & Azrin, N. H. (1972). Restitution: A method of eliminating aggressive-disruptive behavior of retarded and brain damaged patients. Behavior Research and Therapy, 10, 15–27. Foxx, R. M., & Azrin, N. H. (1973). The elimination of autistic selfstimulatory behavior by overcorrection. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 6, 1–14. Miltenberger, R. G. (2008). Behavior modification: Principles and procedures (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning.
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Overt Aggression ▶Physical Aggression
Overweight ▶Obesity ▶Weight
Overwhelm ▶Identity Diffusion
Ovulation CAROL D. DANIELS Emporia State University, Emporia, KS, USA
Definition From the Latin word, ovum + ation, meaning process. It refers to a process within the ovarian and pituitary endocrine function.
Description Ovulation is the expulsion of an ovum (egg) from an ovary of a mature follicle as part of the menstrual cycle. It typically occurs about the eleventh to the fourteenth day before the next menstrual period. Sometimes a sharp pain in the lower abdomen will occur on the side that is ovulating.
Relevance to Childhood Development The female infant is born with a large number of incompletely developed ovum (eggs). Once the child reaches puberty the ovum is extruded form the ovary at ovulation. The initiation of ovulation and menarche is triggered by the release of a series of hormones from several glands. The adrenal glands are the first to release its adrenal androgens beginning around the age of six to eight. These adrenal androgens initiate the growth of pubic hair, skin changes and body odor. The second set
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of glands, the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and the gonads (ovaries) initiates major body changes. The ovaries begin to secrete estrogen which causes the hips to widen, the uterus and breasts to enlarge, and sets in motion the reproduction cycle. Estrogen also stimulates the ovaries to produce ova (eggs).
References 1.
2.
Anderson, K. N., Anderson, L. E., & Glanze, W. D. (Eds.). (1998). Mosby’s medical, nursing, & allied health dictionary (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Belsky, J. (2007). Experiencing the lifespan. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Ovum MERRY SLEIGH Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, USA
Synonyms Egg; Female gamete; Female germ cell; Oocyte; Ova
Definition Female reproductive cell.
Description An egg, or ovum, is the female reproductive cell. An individual ovum is visible to the naked eye and one of the largest single cells in the body. Across most animal species, eggs are bigger than sperm, a distinction termed anisogamy. Ova are formed in the ovaries during the prenatal period, reaching a total of around seven million. (This early origin means that a woman’s offspring begins its development while she is still in the womb of her own mother.) From the fifth month of gestation and continuing throughout the lifespan, ova will deteriorate and decrease in number. At birth, a female baby has around two million eggs and at puberty, an adolescent has around 350,000. A typical woman will release 400 eggs over the course of her reproductive years, from puberty to menopause. Failure to release an ovum is the primary cause of female infertility. Ova are released during ovulation, occurring around the mid-point of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Following menstruation, the pituitary gland releases follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH enables approximately 20 immature eggs housed in Graafian follicles within
the ovary to begin development. As these eggs develop, the release of estrogen helps build the uterine lining, termed the endometrium. A thick lining will be necessary for implantation of a fertilized egg. The gradual rise in estrogen triggers the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone (LH) rather than FSH. The LH surge causes the most mature ova to be released from its ovarian follicle. This process is called ovulation. The period of time leading to ovulation can vary between women and between cycles. For example, illness, stress, and travel have been linked to a delay in ovulation. In contrast, the period between ovulation and menstruation is an average of 14 days in healthy women and is called the luteal phase. The mature ovum can come from either ovary and seems to occur in a somewhat random pattern. How the body determines which ovum is most mature is not fully understood. Sometimes a woman releases more than one egg, creating the potential for twins or other multiples. The follicle that housed the ovum is now known as the corpus luteum and releases progesterone, a hormone that contributes to the thickening of the endometrium and will be necessary to maintain a pregnancy. The progesterone also leads to the death and follicle shrinkage of the ripening ova that were not released. The released egg is caught up in the fimbriae at the end of the fallopian tube. These finger-like appendages sweep the egg into the fallopian tube, also known as an oviduct. Inside the tube, tiny cilia provide a current that propels the egg toward the uterus. The released egg is surrounded by a loose configuration of cells, or cumulus, that protected and fed the egg in its follicle. The ovum has a 24 h window in which fertilization can occur. If the egg is not fertilized, the corpus luteum dies. The resulting decrease in estrogen and progesterone causes menstruation, or the shedding of the endometrium. For fertilization to occur, the sperm and egg meet in the fallopian tube. The successful sperm must first travel through the thick outer wall of the ovum, called the zona pellucida. The ovum is designed to allow penetration by only one sperm. If polysperming accidentally occurs, the fertilized egg will not develop. In the fast block to polysperming, the outer surface of the egg undergoes a chemical change that prevents other sperm from adhering to the zona pellucida. In the slow block to polysperming, calcium atoms move into the space between the inner egg and the zona, creating a large barrier between the outside of the egg and the genetic material housed within. The sperm continues its journey into the innermost part of the egg, which contains the mother’s genetic material. At fertilization, the egg contains 46 chromosomes,
Oxyhemoglobin
twice as many as are necessary. Thus, immediately following fertilization, half of the egg’s genes are packaged into the polar body, which is ejected from the egg. The remaining genes within each ovum contain an X-chromosome, leaving the sperm to provide the information necessary to determine the offspring’s gender. Once inside this acolyte, the sperm loses its tail and dismantles its head to release the father’s genetic material. The two sets of 23 chromosomes fuse to become a new call called a zygote. This zygote immediately begins to divide as it travels down the fallopian tube for implantation in the uterus. If implantation occurs outside of the uterus, an entopic pregnancy results. The human egg’s contributions extend beyond half of the genetic material. The developing organism inherits all of its mitochondria from its mother. In addition, early cell division is controlled by messenger RNA and proteins found in the egg. This maternal RNA will deteriorate once the embryonic genes take over the process of cell division for themselves. These factors refute the notion that genetic inheritance is a simple 50/50 contribution by each parent. Because ova are stored in a woman’s body for almost her entire lifespan, they are vulnerable to damage over time. It is possible that environmental toxins and ingested substances have the potential to harm immature ova stored in the ovaries; however, this type of research is difficult to conduct. One strong piece of evidence is that as a woman ages, her likelihood of having an offspring with a chromosomal abnormality, such as cleft palate or Down’s syndrome, gradually increases. This outcome could reflect a weakening of eggs over time, or the possibility that women release healthier eggs earlier in life. These findings also highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle even before a woman contemplates pregnancy.
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References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bainbridge, D. (2000). Making babies: The science of pregnancy. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Douglas, A. (2002). The mother of all pregnancy books. New York: Hungry Minds. Stoppard, M. (2000). Conception, pregnancy and birth (Revised ed.). New York: Dorling Kindersley. Tsiaras, A., & Werth, B. (2002). From conception to birth: A life unfolds. New York: Doubleday. Williams, C. D. (2001). The fastest way to get pregnant naturally. New York: Hyperion.
Oxazepam ▶Serax®
Oxcarbazepine ▶Trileptal®
Oximetry ▶Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)
Oxyhemoglobin ▶Hemoglobin
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Pain Feelings ▶Pain Sensitivity
Pain Sensitivity LAUREN STUTTS University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Synonyms Pain feelings; Pain threshold
Definition Pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage” [5]. “Pain threshold” is usually the term used for pain sensitivity in the literature, which is defined as “the least experience of pain which a subject can recognize.”
Description Pain is a subjective experience caused by internal and/or external events [1]. It can be categorized as acute or chronic and can be localized to one part of the body or many parts. Variables affecting pain are complex and include genetic, environmental, and social factors. Diagnosis typically includes assessing pain onset, location, intensity, quality, duration, spatial extent, temporal pattern, physical symptoms, and emotional response [9].
Relevance to Childhood Development There is significant individual variability of pain sensitivity in children [7]. Children’s age, temperament, and developmental level influence their pain sensitivity [8]. Children with a difficult temperament tend to be more pain sensitive [11]. The lifetime prevalence for pain increases with age, and children’s understanding of pain and use of pain coping strategies increase with age [4]. Similarly, children’s pain intensity and overall distress with medical procedures decreases with age [3]. There do not appear to be sex differences in children’s pain sensitivity [6]. Diagnostically, the parent and child are typically interviewed and the child undergoes a clinical examination. If a child lacks the verbal capabilities to communicate pain, then physiological parameters such as heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, and electrodermal responses are often assessed [10]. Several pain-specific diagnostic tools have been created for children such as having them rate their pain using facial scales. A child’s pain level should continually be monitored as children’s physiological and psychological functioning can change quickly. Children who have early aversive pain experiences can often deter their ability to cope effectively with their pain [2]. Therefore, early intervention is important in order to help children garner positive coping strategies for present and future pain experiences.
References 1. Charlton, J. E. (Ed.). (2005). Core curriculum for professional education in pain. Seattle: International Association for the Study of Pain Press. 2. Chen, E., Craske, M. G., Katz, E. R., Schwartz, E., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2000). Pain-sensitive temperament: Does it predict procedural distress and response to psychological treatment among children with cancer? Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 25(4), 269–278. 3. Goodenough, B., Kampel, L., Champion, G. D., Laubreaux, L., Nicholas, M. K., Ziegler, J. B., et al. (1997). An investigation of the placebo effect and age-related factors in the report of needle pain from venipuncture in children. Pain, 72(3), 383–391. 4. Harbeck, C., & Peterson, L. (1992). Elephants dancing in my head: A developmental approach to children’s concepts of specific pains. Child Development, 63(1), 138–149.
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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5. International Association for the Study of Pain. (1994). Part III: Pain terms: A current list with definitions and notes on usage. In H. Merskey & N. Bogduk (Eds.), Classification of chronic pain: Second edition (pp. 209–214). Seattle, WA: IASP Press. 6. Jacobsen, P. B., Manne, S. L., Gorfinkle, K., Schorr, O., Rapkin, B., & Redd, W. H. (1990). Analysis of child and parent behavior during painful medical procedures. Health Psychology, 9(5), 559–576. 7. Jay, S. M., Ozolins, M., Elliott, C. H., & Caldwell, S. (1983). Assessment of children’s distress during painful medical procedures. Health Psychology, 2, 133–147. 8. McGrath, P. A. (1999). Chronic pain in children. In I. Crombie, P. Croft, S. Linton, L. LeResche, & M. V. Von Korff (Eds.), Epidemiology of pain (pp. 81–101). Seattle: IASP Press. 9. McGrath, P. A., & Brown, S. C. (2003). Pain control in children. In D. Doyle & N. Hanks (Eds.), Oxford textbook of palliative medicine (pp. 1–35). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10. McGrath, P. A., & Gillespie, J. (2001). Pain assessment in children and adolescents. In D. C. Turk & R. Melzack (Eds.), Handbook of pain assessment (pp. 97–118). New York: Guilford Press. 11. Schechter, N. L., Bernstein, B. A., Beck, A., Hart, L., & Scherzer, L. (1991). Individual differences in children’s response to pain: Role of temperament and parental characteristics. Pediatrics, 87(2), 171–177.
Definition Palliative care is a medical approach that aims to improve quality of life and alleviate suffering of patients and their families. More specifically, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early intervention and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual” [12]. Similarly, the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care states that the goal of palliative care is to “prevent and relieve suffering and to support the best possible quality of life for patients and their families, regardless of the stage of the disease or the need for other therapies, in accordance with their values and preferences” [10].
Description Core Principles of Palliative Care
Pain Threshold ▶Pain Sensitivity
Pair Bonding ▶Sexual Relationships
Paleoanthropology ▶Human Evolution
Palliative Care BRENDA MORETTA GUERRERO Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Supportive care
Palliative care represents a paradigm shift in Western medicine from a nearly exclusive goal of curing disease to a focus on enhancing quality of life, regardless of whether or not a patient’s illness can be cured. In 1997, Last Acts, the largest coalition of experts promoting quality end-of-life care in the United States, published Precepts of Palliative Care, which outlined five key areas of consideration for delivering high-quality end-of-life care [7]. The five core areas of concern include: respecting patient goals, preferences and choices; providing comprehensive care for patients and their families; acknowledging and addressing caregiver concerns; utilizing the strengths of interdisciplinary resources; and establishing systems and means of support. Building on Last Act’s Precepts of Palliative Care, the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care published more detailed clinical practice guidelines and outlined twelve core elements of palliative care [10]. Those elements of care include considerations related to: the patient population served; the timing of palliative care; the need for patient and family-centered care; the comprehensive nature of palliative care; the necessity of an interdisciplinary team approach; attention to relief of suffering; the need for quality communication skills and expertise in care of the dying and the bereaved; continuity of care across settings; equitable access to palliative care; addressing regulatory barriers; and finally, overall quality improvement of palliative care practice. To elaborate on the National Consensus Project’s core elements, the patient population served by palliative care
Palliative Care
includes persons of all ages, during any stage of lifealtering or life-limiting illness; and in the case of terminal illness, continues in the form of bereavement support for family following the patient’s death. Because illness affects the patient as well as those who care about him or her, the patient and family are treated as the unit of care and share in a collaborative decision-making process with the patient’s team of medical professionals. Additionally, interdisciplinary palliative care teams comprised of physicians, nurses, pain specialists, and other specially trained care providers minister to the needs of seriously ill medical patients and their families by providing not only integrated and expertly skilled medical care; but also culturally and developmentally sensitive social, emotional, and spiritual support. And finally, palliative care can be provided in a variety of settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, outpatient care settings, and a patient’s home; and involves collaboration and coordination of care across those settings.
Palliative Care Versus Hospice Care Although palliative care evolved out of the hospice movement and is often confused with hospice care, the two approaches to medical intervention are not synonymous. Palliative care is always provided for hospice patients, but not all palliative care patients receive hospice care. And although both approaches to patient care aim to ease suffering by managing distressing medical symptoms such as pain and both approaches rely on an interdisciplinary team of care providers, hospice care is provided for terminally ill patients with a life expectancy of 6 months or less and who are no longer undergoing curative treatment. Conversely, as noted above, palliative care can be offered to manage a wide range of medical conditions during any stage of illness and can be provided concomitantly with curative treatment. Additionally, over 80% of hospice care is provided in patients’ homes in the United States, whereas, much of palliative care is provided in acute care hospitals and other institutional settings. Because hospice care is provided through Medicare, hospice programs receive federal funding. Conversely, non-hospice palliative care is often hospital-based so it is subject to the budgetary constraints and goals of the hospital in which the program is housed. That explains, in part, why hospice care is more widely available than palliative care [4].
State of Palliative Care in America In 2003, Last Acts released Means to a Better End: A Report on Dying in America Today [8]. The report detailed the status of end-of-life care in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on eight key elements of palliative care. Overall,
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Last Acts found that America’s health care system provides, at best, mediocre palliative care for patients who are seriously ill and/or dying. For example, only about 14% of hospitals at the time of the study offered a recognized palliative care program and only 42% had painmanagement programs. Additionally, only one-third of one percent of physicians in the United States was certified in palliative care and only slightly more nurses, 0.4%, were palliative care certified. While the report did not address pediatric palliative care and no similarly comprehensive reports have been published detailing the current state of pediatric palliative care, there is reason to believe that the situation is even less satisfactory for critically ill children.
Relevance to Childhood Development Every year in the United States 54,000 children die and over 500,000 live with life-threatening or terminal illnesses [1, 6]. Many of those children could potentially benefit from pediatric palliative care. In fact, the WHO states that a multidisciplinary approach to children’s palliative care should begin at the time of initial diagnosis and continue throughout the course of illness. Further, palliative care should support children’s physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual selves and alleviate physical, psychological, and social suffering for both them and their families [12]. Clearly, the WHO’s recommendations for pediatric palliative care are consistent with the principles of the current adult-based model of palliative care practiced in the United States and elsewhere. Yet, there are important distinctions and unique challenges associated with providing palliative care for seriously ill children.
Pediatric Palliative Care Challenges In general, the quality of pediatric palliative care has been found to be lacking [1, 3, 6, 11]. One challenge associated with providing quality palliative care for children is that research into pediatric pain and symptom management lags far behind similar research conducted on adults. Consequently, many chronically ill or dying children experience inadequate assessment and management of their pain and are prescribed inappropriate pain medications that have been tested only on adults [1]. In addition to inadequately managed pain, families of seriously ill children report stressful interpersonal interactions with medical professionals who often receive little if any training related specifically to communicating sensitively with pediatric patients and their families. Significant miscommunication often occurs between medical staff, patients, and families regarding prognostic and treatment-related issues such as presence of pain and other symptoms of disease. In fact, researchers have found that
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physicians and families frequently differ in reporting symptoms of illness, such as pain; with families reporting more symptoms than physicians [2, 13]. Further, many medical professionals who are touched personally by the suffering they witness during their interactions with seriously ill children and their loved ones receive little acknowledgement and support for their own pain [5, 9]. Over time, professional caretakers who lack sufficient professional support may disengage from patients and their families as they struggle to maintain their emotional balance and objectivity [5]. This professional disengagement may in part contribute to the seemingly insensitive and unhelpful communications that families report while interacting with medical staff. Another general hindrance to providing quality pediatric palliative care is that too few physicians and treatment centers offer pediatric palliative care and when care is available it is often provided through pediatric hospice. Unfortunately, insurance restrictions that require hospice patients to forego curative treatment may force parents to choose between curative or palliative medicine for their children. It is heartbreaking for families as well as medical professionals to “give up” on curative treatment for a child, even if the chance for recovery is quite slim. Yet, to continue with curative treatment may result in the child not receiving the highest quality symptom management and emotional support throughout the course of their illness [1]. Overall, disjointed, poorly coordinated, and interpersonally insensitive care impedes informed, shared decision-making between parents and health care providers, and ultimately, the challenges noted above lead to unnecessary pain and suffering of seriously ill children and their families.
Recommendations to Improve Pediatric Palliative Care In an effort to address some of the aforementioned challenges in pediatric palliative care, both the Initiative for Pediatric Palliative Care and The American Academy of Pediatrics have published policy statements regarding comprehensive palliative care for children which include recommendations to improve the current state of pediatric palliative medicine. The policy statement the of American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that more palliative care and family respite programs should be developed to meet the multifaceted needs of seriously ill children from the time of diagnosis throughout the duration of the child’s illness. Also, all pain specialists, pediatricians, family medicine practitioners, and pediatric specialists should learn about and become comfortable with palliative care for
children. To accomplish that goal, medical and nursing schools should train professionals in the areas of communication skills, palliative medicine, grief, dying, spiritual dimensions of illness and dying, prognosis and treatment uncertainty, and decisions related to discontinuation of curative treatment. Research for studying pediatric-specific pain medications, treatment protocols, palliative care programming, regulation and reimbursement, and grief and bereavement therapy should also receive increased support. And finally, the policy statement includes the recommendation that the pharmaceutical industry assume more responsibility for providing safe and effective pediatric formulations of medications used to manage symptoms of illness and improved labeling and instructions for use of those medications [1]. Although similar to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Initiative for Pediatric Palliative Care policy statement outlines patient and familyspecific objectives for facilities that provide pediatric palliative care. The IPPC’s project objectives include empowering family decision-making and care planning efforts, as well as maximizing, as developmentally appropriate, the child’s decision-making capacity. Additionally, children’s physical, emotional, and spiritual pain, as well as other distressing symptoms should be reduced. Likewise, the emotional, spiritual, social and practical needs of families, including bereavement support before and after the child’s death, should be addressed. And finally, continuity of care across different treatment facilities and care providers needs to be better coordinated to meet the multifaceted needs of the ill child and his or her family [11]. If the recommendations from the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, the Initiative for Pediatric Palliative Care, and the American Academy of Pediatrics continue to gain more widespread support in the medical community at large, more seriously ill children and adults in America will benefit from palliative care in the future.
References 1. American Academy of Pediatrics Committee. (2000). American academy of pediatrics committee on bioethics and committee on hospital care policy statement on palliative care for children. Pediatrics, 106(2), 351–357. 2. Collins, J., Byrnes, M., Dunkel, I., Lapin, J., Nadel, T., Thaler, H., et al. (2000). The measurement of symptoms in children with cancer. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 19, 353–377. 3. Committee on Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Children and Their Families, Board on Health Sciences Policy. (2003). In M. J. Field & R. E. Behrman (Eds.), When children die: Improving palliative and end-of-life care for children and their families. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 4. Corr, C., Nabe, C., & Corr, D. (2009). Death and dying: Life and living (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Parallel Play 5. Davies, B., Cook, K., O’Loane, M., Clarke, D., MacKenzie, J., Stutzer, C., et al. (1996). Caring for dying children: Nurses’ experiences. Pediatric Nursing, 22(6), 500–507. 6. Himelstein, B. P., Hilden, J. M., Boldt, M. B., & Weissman, D. (2004). Pediatric palliative care. The New England Journal of Medicine, 350(17), 1752–1762. 7. Last Acts Committee on Palliative Care. (2002). Means to a better end: A report on dying in America today. Washington, DC: Last Acts National Program. 8. Mack, J. W., Wolfe, J., Grier, H. E., Cleary, P. D., & Weeks, J. C. (2006). Communication about prognosis between parents and physicians of children with cancer: Parent preferences and the impact of prognostic information. Journal of Child Health Care, 9(1), 46–58. 9. National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care. (2004). Clinical practice guidelines for quality palliative care. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.nationalconsensusproject.org 10. Last Acts Committee on Palliative Care. (1997). The precepts of palliative care. Retrieved February 27, 2009, www.lastacts.org 11. Solomon MZ, Dokken DL, Fleischman AR, Heller K, Levetown M, Rushton CH, et al. for IPPC (2002). The initiative for pediatric palliative care (IPPC): Background and goals. Newton, MA: Education Development Center. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from www. ippcweb.org 12. WHO Definition of Palliative Care. (2009). World Health Organization. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.who.int/cancer/ palliative/definition/en/ 13. Wolfe, J., Grier, H., Klar, N., Levin, S., Ellenbogen, J., Salem-Schatz, S., et al. (2000). Symptoms and suffering at the end of life in children with cancer. New England Journal of Medicine, 342, 326–333.
Pals ▶Friends ▶Friendship
Pangeria ▶Werner Syndrome
Parallel Play MICHAEL O. BRIGANO Niagara University, NY, USA
Definition A form of play during which two children engage in similar play activities in proximity to each other without sharing thoughts, play goals, or engaging in play together.
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Description To understand the parameters of the term parallel play, it is important to understand from where the term is derived. The term parallel play is a form of play or a “stage” of social development which stems from Mildred Parten’s [6] landmark study on social interaction. Parten believed that there was a relationship “between the age of children and the degree to which they participated in social groups” [6], p. 264. From a developmental standpoint, she concluded that there is a hierarchy of play states that correlate with age and social maturity. According to Parten’s developmental theory of social interaction and play behavior, the first stage of play that a child will engage in is solitary play behavior. Solitary play behavior is said to be engaged in by very young children in an egocentric fashion to satisfy their own immediate needs, as the child makes no effort to get close to other children. It is believed that solitary play advances into onlooker play where the child observes other children as they are playing, but does not attempt to engage in play with them. This form of play is then believed to evolve into parallel play, where two or more children engage in similar if not identical pursuits with no exchange of feeling or sharing of goals and thoughts. Children engaged in parallel play will observe each other as they partake in similar kinds of play but will never associate. Parallel play is believed to evolve into an associative type of play where children will play alongside each other but continue to function in isolation. When children are engaged in associative play they will speak to each other and share toys while remaining focused on personal needs, wants, and goals, rather than reaching a collaborative goal or outcome of play. Conversely, cooperative play entails playing together to in pursuit of a common goal, and features interaction and the exchange of ideas [11]. Since Parten’s study, a significant amount of research has been conducted to determine whether or not there are indeed specific stages of play behavior that emerge as the child ages. Research has also been conducted to determine if play behaviors are reduced or not exhibited at all one a child reaches a particular age or level of social competence. Studies (e.g., [2, 4]) support the position that practitioners “may not be served well in assuming that a preschool child will remain continuously in one type of social interaction for extended periods of time as implied by purely developmental periods of play” (Anderson et al., 2003, p. 19). The high levels of parallel play that continue after the subsequent cooperative stage challenge the concept of an abrupt change between levels as well as the homogeneity of behavior within stages [2, 5, 10].
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Smith’s [10] longitudinal study disproved Parten’s concept of sequential play progression with age. He found that children most often transitioned from solitary play to group play, bypassing the parallel play stage. Unlike Parten, Smith concluded that parallel play is, in essence, an “optional” stage through which children may or may not progress. Robinson et al. [8] and Anderson [1] state that practitioners should shift the play paradigm from simply to defining states in terms of social maturity or cognitive maturity to studying the play states with respect to the utility of each state in the natural play of young children. Furthermore, defining play states in terms of social and cognitive maturity is not entirely adequate; they support the premise that there is overlap between the behaviors that are exhibited within each hierarchal stage of social play within age groups. Therefore, it can otherwise be stated that these stages do not necessarily occur at a developmental age but may be occur in sequence when presented in novel play situation. For example, a child may be independently playing (engaged in solitary behavior). The child then observes other child that is engaged in an activity that they may be interested in (onlooker behavior), for example, playing with building blocks. If he is interested then he will approach the other child and begin to play next to him, leading to parallel play (manipulating blocks to fit together to make a desired object). The child then will eventually engage in a cooperative play where there is a common purpose or outcome that is desired from their play interaction (building a house out of blocks). There are several factors that can influence whether a child will progress from solitary play behavior to group or cooperative play. A child may have the cognitive abilities and social competence to engage in group play or cooperative play, but may choose to observe their environment to absorb their surroundings and prepare themselves for cooperative play. Furthermore, a child’s personality characteristics, potential developmental delay, and other personal, contextual, and environmental variables should be considered. For example, a child may be introverted, feel uncomfortable engaging in parallel play, and consequently, may not even attempt to engage in any form of interpersonal play behavior. Due to the variables involved in the determination of whether to engage in play interaction, much research has been conducted to explore how the different play states overlap and to discover the purpose and utility of each state. Anderson [1] mentions that parallel play is a bridge between the other play states identified by Parten. She mentions parallel play is a central link between the other
play stages, as evidenced by her research, which found that children continue to engage in periods of parallel play even after attaining the social skills requisite to play cooperatively with peers. This supports the notion that, although a child possesses sufficient cognitive abilities and displays social maturity and knowledge, parallel play still remains a dominant form of play behavior. The results of Robinson et al. [8] study are consistent with past studies [1, 4, 9, 10] in demonstrating that parallel play is the most prominent play state and most frequently involved in periods of play transition or play shifts. The study also concluded that preschool students continued to evidence high levels of parallel play even after they develop the skills requisite to interacting cooperatively). Moreover, parallel-(aware) play apparently remains prominent in the play episodes of 4-year-old children in child-initiated play settings because of its important dynamic and bidirectional bridging function between other play states [8]. Robinson and looked beyond the cognitive content or social maturity of a play state and analyzed the transitional functions of parallel play. For example, a preschool child who presently enjoys watching interaction of peers during child-initiated play activities should be viewed in transition, and thus practitioners should design interventions to reflect the positive expectations for interactions into higher levels of interactions. This study is consistent with beliefs that parallel play is also viewed as a type of play that serves as a bridge from onlooker play to cooperative play. Moreover, parallel play can be seen as the crossroad between other play states within the natural play episodes children engage in [1]. Consequently, parallel play should not be viewed as a separate stage of child play behavior, but a stage that primes them for further initiated play behaviors such as group and cooperative play. Robinson et al. [8] study also suggests that when it is observed that parallel play is the predominant type of social interaction, a child’s social competence should not be a concern. At the same time, parallel-aware play may be used by children as a safe haven to maneuver in and out of social-play situations allowing them to regulate more complex social interactions or planned retreats into solitary activities [3, 7]. In conclusion, parallel play is often referred to as a stage or form of play though which children progress as they develop from solitary players to social players (Baker & Brownlee, 1980). Parallel play is viewed as a bridge between other types of play behavior. Some studies suggest that parallel play is an optional stage, which challenges Parten’s developmental theory of play stages. Other researchers suggest that parallel play is often
Paraplegia
engaged during a transition between play states. Literature supports that parallel play, along with other forms of social play behavior, should not be viewed as homogeneous stages, but should be examined according to the utility of the context of the play situation. Parallel play has been found to be demonstrated more often than other play behaviors in preschool settings. If this is so, it may be ideal for teachers and educators to promote parallel play behaviors. For example, the introduction of a novel play situation to a child with another child in close proximity may aid them in surpassing solitary and onlooker play behavior, perhaps priming them for more advanced play behaviors and social interactions. Engagement in parallel play has been shown to be an important milestone relative to attainment of more advanced developmental behavior, communication, and social skills.
Relevance to Childhood Development Analysis of the play behavior of young children has long served to reinforce identification of the developmental skill attainment of preschoolers. Given the inherent limitations of formal psychoeducational evaluation when working with preschool populations, observation of play behavior provides valuable insight into the social and cognitive skills of subjects. Though the previously discussed literature suggests that students may bypass the parallel play stage, frequent observation of play behaviors, including communication, reciprocity, sharing of ideas, sharing of materials, and the degree to which individuals work toward common goals, yields valuable information regarding the developmental stage at which the preschooler functions. Investigation into potential developmental delay may be spurred by careful observations of children who continuously engage in solitary play without proceeding to parallel or cooperative play stages. Likewise, observations of students who play in a dyad or group without extensive verbal communication, reciprocity, or adherence to social norms, when such skills are expected, warrants further investigation. As play is the primary medium through which young children learn and communicate, awareness of developmentally appropriate and inappropriate play behaviors provides insight into potential developmental strengths and weaknesses. Parallel play, though often bypassed by developmentally advanced preschoolers, is yet another piece of the complex developmental presentation of young children.
References 1. Anderson, G. T. (2000). Sequential bridging in the natural play of preschool children: Examining the role of parallel play. Doctoral Dissertation, Brigham Young University (UMI: No. 0001091).
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2. Bakeman, R., & Brownlee, J. R. (1980). Strategic use of parallel-aware play: A sequential analysis. Child Development, 51, 873–878. 3. Dodge, K. A., Schlundt, D. C., Schocken, I., & Delugach, J. D. (1983). Social competence and children’s sociometric status: The role of peer group entry strategies. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 29, 309–336. 4. Howes, C., & Matheson, C. C. (1992). Sequences in the development of competent play with peers: Social and pretend play. Developmental Psychology, 28, 961–974. 5. Howe, N., Moller, L., Chambers, B., & Petrakos, H. (1993). The ecology of dramatic play centers and children’s social and cognitive play. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 8, 235–251. 6. Parten, M. B. (1932). Social participation among preschool children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 27, 243–269. 7. Putallaz, M., & Wasserman, A. (1989). Children’s naturalistic entry behavior and sociometric status: A developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology, 25, 297–305. 8. Robinson, C. C., Anderson, G. T., Porter, C. L., Hart, C. H., & Wouden-Miller, M. (2003). Sequential transition patterns of preschoolers’ social interactions during child initiated play: Is parallelaware play a bidirectional bridge to other play states? Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 18, 3–21. 9. Roper, R., & Hinde, R. A. (1978). Social behavior in a play group: Consistency and complexity. Child Development, 49, 570–579. 10. Smith, P. K. (1978). A longitudinal study of social participation in preschool children Solitary and parallel-aware play reexamined. Developmental Psychology, 14, 517–523. 11. Weininger, O. (1979). Play and education: The basic tool for early childhood learning. Illinois: Charles C Thomas.
Paraplegia Definition Paralysis of the legs and lower body, typically caused by spinal injury or disease.
Description Impairment in motor and/or sensory function of the lower extremities, paraplegia is most often a result of traumatic injury to the spinal cord nervous tissue or the resulting inflammation and swelling that occurs around the point of injury. Paraplegia can also be caused by non-traumatic and congenital factors such as spinal tumors, scoliosis, or spina bifida. The areas of the spinal canal that can be affected in paraplegia are either the thoracic, lumbar, or sacral regions. If the arms are also affected by paralysis, quadriplegia is the proper terminology. Monoplegia refers to only one affected limb. Spinal cord injuries resulting in paraplegia are known as either complete or incomplete. For a complete injury, no level of feeling or function exists for the patient below the point of injury. An incomplete injury results in the patient retaining some level or feeling or function below the point of injury.
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While some people with paraplegia can walk to a degree, many are dependent on wheelchairs or other supportive measures. Impotence and various degrees of urinary and fecal incontinence are very common in those affected. Many use catheters or a bowel management programs to address these problems. With successful bladder and bowel management, people with paraplegia can prevent accidental urinary or bowel discharges. Due to the decrease or loss of feeling or function in the lower extremities, paraplegia can contribute to a number of medical complications that include pressure sores (decubitus), thrombosis, and pneumonia. Physiotherapy, various assistive technologies and vigilant self-observation and care can aid in helping to prevent future and mitigate existing complications.
Parasomnia ▶Night Terrors
Parent Behavior GREGORY E. EVERETT Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA
Synonyms Coercion model; Negative reinforcement; Parenting practices
Definition Parent behavior refers to those practices and actions taken by parents in the course of child rearing that influence child behavior and relate either positively or negatively to child outcomes.
Description That the behavior of parents, specifically, and overall family functioning, more generally, affects several aspects of child development is a long held and repeatedly documented finding in child psychology. That is, the ways in which parents interact with their children as well as oversee and manage their behavior has long been understood to influence children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral development. Although many aspects of parenting can be
referred to as “parent behavior”, those issues related to the broad distinction between coercive and noncoercive parenting are characterized as such based on observable behavior and provide concrete examples of the differing ways in which overt behavior are displayed. As the more broadbased topic of Patterson’s Coercion model [5, 6] is more fully discussed in this volume, it is the goal of the current entry to only outline those overt parent behaviors associated with coercive vs. noncoercive parenting not discuss the model in specific terms. Regarding those parent behaviors associated with coercive parent–child interactions, a series of repeatedly occurring negatively reinforced exchanges between parents and children influence both parties and promote change over time. For example, consider the common parental behavior of delivering instructions to children. Assuming coercive interactions, following the initial instruction children may simply ignore the request which causes the parent to in some way escalate their behavior (e.g., repeating the instruction or raising their voice). As a result of this parental escalation the child may then increase their aversive responding by refusing to complete the instructed task or otherwise protesting the instruction. As such, the parent may withdraw the instruction rather than following through and demanding completion thereby reinforcing their child’s aversive, escape behavior. Although this cycle of events is well documented over three decades of research, the parent behaviors specific to such exchanges are currently outlined. Operating within this negative reinforcement cycle are parent behaviors that serve to increase the likelihood that children will fail to complete instructed tasks and may lead to childhood antisocial behavior [1]. Specifically, the act of instruction withdrawal serves to teach the child that they “win” the interaction with their parents and reinforces such behaviors in the future. In addition, over time the parents begin to more frequently rely on ineffective parenting practices in an attempt to control an increasingly uncontrollable child, therefore perpetuating this pattern of coercive behavior [8]. Combined with this increasing reliance on negative child-management practices, is a lack of positive reinforcement for appropriate child behaviors. Rather than recognize and attend to appropriate child behavior, parents provide an abundance of attention for negative behaviors to the detriment of positive occurrences. Coercive parenting behaviors such as these have been linked to several poor childhood behavioral outcomes across differing groups of children. For example, increased negative parenting behaviors are predictive of young
Parent Management Training
children’s increased negative peer play interactions [2] and are related to poor social skills, academic deficits, and increased antisocial behavior of older boys [7]. Although such findings may indicate that the negative effects of specific parenting behaviors are not the same for all children, there is no doubt that deleterious childhood effects exist. In sum, coercive parental interactions which emphasize negative parenting behaviors and deemphasize positive parenting behaviors evidence a poor managerial style which may increase their children’s negative adaptive behaviors and teach them how not to behave, rather than how to behave. Contrasted to those inconsistent parental behaviors which are the hallmarks of coercive parenting are those behaviors consistent with noncoercive interactions. Differentially referred to as parental warmth [4] or support or engagement [3] among other defining labels, noncoercive parenting reflects an adoption and display of attentive and supportive behaviors. Following from the previous example involving parental instruction giving, those parents behaving in a warm or supportive manner are likely to issue clear instructions that effectively communicate the task(s) to be completed and provide positive reinforcement for appropriate instruction following. In addition, supportive parents may be more likely to provide adequate explanation regarding why appropriate child behavior is expected and what consequences will follow should it not be displayed. Related to those specific parental behaviors displayed by noncoercive parents during a hypothetical instruction giving scenario are the more general caring, supportive behaviors displayed by such parents throughout the course of daily life. Other such characteristics may include a positive or generally supportive parental affect [8] or disposition and behaviors meant to convey a sense of love and caring on the part of the parent [3]. Such parents are more likely to respond in a timely manner to their children’s needs and are both aware and considerate of their children’s feelings. Rather than engaging in a series of negatively reinforced aversive interactions which only serve to fuel greater levels of child and parent hostility towards the other, supportive parents provide children the much needed guidance and warmth on which healthy peer and future adult relationships are based.
References 1.
2.
Eddy, J. M., Leve, L. D., & Fagot, B. I. (2001). Coercive family processes: A replication and extension of Patterson’s coercion model. Aggressive Behavior, 27, 14–25. Fagot, B. I. (1997). Attachment, parenting, and peer interactions of toddler children. Developmental Psychology, 33, 489–499.
3.
4.
5. 6. 7. 8.
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Lovejoy, M. C., Weis, R., O’Hare, E., & Rubin, E. C. (1999). Development and initial validation of the parent behavior inventory. Psychological Assessment, 11, 534–545. Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent-child interaction. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. New York: Wiley. Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive family process. Eugene, OR: Castalia. Patterson, G. R. (1986). Performance models for antisocial boys. American Psychologist, 41, 432–444. Patterson, G. R., Reid, J. B., & Dishion, T. J. (1992). Antisocial boys. Eugene, OR: Castalia. Rueter, M. A., & Conger, R. D. (1998). Reciprocal influences between parenting and adolescent problem-solving behavior. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1470–1482.
Parent Intervention ▶Parent Management Training
Parent Management Training ANGELA N. MAUPIN, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms Behavior disorders; Parent intervention; Parent training; Psychosocial treatments
Definition Parent management training (PMT) refers to an intervention program that trains parents to effectively manage their children’s behavioral problems [1]. It has been identified by the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 12 as a well-established, empiricallysupported treatment method. PMT can be provided in home or school contexts and can be structured in groups or with individuals depending on the severity of the presenting problem. PMT is typically implemented with parents of children who display disruptive behavior problems.
Description PMT is a traditional behavioral parent training approach that utilizes the parent as the main change agent to remediate the child’s externalizing behaviors. Externalizing behaviors in children constitute a variety of “acting out” behaviors and can range from minor oppositional
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behaviors including yelling, defiance and temper tantrums to more severe antisocial behaviors including aggressiveness, stealing, and physical destructiveness [4]. These behaviors are often referred to as conduct problems or oppositional/defiant behaviors. PMT aims to promote positive parenting through social learning techniques. Specifically, it evolved from two main areas of research: maladaptive parenting and social learning theories. Extensive research has shown that maladaptive parenting styles are significantly related to the increased likelihood of conduct problem behaviors in children. Maladaptive parenting styles that are closely associated with the development of conduct problem behaviors in children include harsh and inconsistent discipline, low supervision and involvement, negative maternal affect, and observed maternal critical statements. Second, social learning techniques are critical components of PMT; social learning relies on operant conditioning principles to promote positive parent-child interactions and decrease oppositional and conduct problem behaviors. Specifically, these techniques include consistent reinforcement of positive, non-deviant behavior, while ignoring or punishing problematic behaviors. PMT combines these two areas of knowledge by working directly with parents to teach them techniques to handle misbehavior while increasing positive parenting practices, including warmth and consistent discipline that have been associated with positive child outcomes. PMT sessions can vary depending on the severity of the problem. Typically, PMT sessions last 1.5–2 hours per week over the course of 15 sessions. During PMT sessions, the therapist works closely with the parent in helping him or her understand underlying concepts of the training, including positive reinforcement and punishment techniques. Positive reinforcement consists of providing the child with a specific reinforcer (e.g., praise, rewards, points) contingent on observed positive behavior. Punishment techniques include removal of reinforcement contingent on disruptive behavior (e.g., removal of a privilege immediately following aggressive behavior in the child). Central to PMT is reinforcement of children’s positive, prosocial behavior. The therapist teaches the parent how to recognize, define, observe and record problem behavior in their child; this allows the parent to identify problem behaviors in the home. Parents learn how to apply techniques contingent on their child’s behavior, and how to apply consequences on a consistent basis. The therapist models specific techniques for parents and coaches parents through practice implementation sessions. After
a sufficient amount of practice, the parent should be able to implement the procedures with the child in the home setting. Key components of the sessions involve the practice and maintenance of learned skills so the parent can become efficient in implementation and can utilize the skills to handle future misbehavior. The therapist remains in close contact with the parent; enabling the parent to reinforce previously learned skills, measure the parents’ compliance in implementing techniques, and answer any additional questions the parent may have. Finally, the therapist can problem-solve and modify existing plans when techniques do not seem to improve the child’s behavior.
Relevance to Childhood Development The emergence of externalizing behaviors may be observed early in development and may be reported by parents, family members or day care providers. Although toddlers and preschoolers may not meet the criteria for specific externalizing behavior disorders, they may begin to develop presenting symptoms at an early age. When presenting symptoms can be identified early, early intervention may reduce symptoms from escalating or presenting later in development. Typical developmental patterns may mimic some of the less extreme behaviors seen in young children with conduct problems. Such behaviors as defiance, signs of aggression toward siblings, or tantrums may occur as a result for the child’s attempt to establish autonomy or set boundaries [2]. These behaviors can evolve into externalizing behavior disorders if they continue past the time where they are considered developmentally appropriate or if they worsen over time and start to interfere with daily activities (e.g., sharing, playing with peers, parental relationships). When early behavioral difficulties are frequent and displayed at intense levels within the context of familial stress, there is a greater likelihood that the child will continue to have problems as he or she progresses developmentally [3]. At least 50% of preschool children who displayed moderate to severe conduct problems continued to show some behavioral disturbances at school age; 67% of these students displaying continued behavior problems met the diagnostic criteria for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) or Conduct Disorder (CD) at age 9 [5, 6]. A significant number of these children who later become clinically antisocial or criminal delinquents displayed early symptoms in their preschool years. How parents respond to their child’s behavior can influence the developmental trajectory of early behavioral symptoms.
Parenting Styles
Extensive research has shown that PMT can decrease aggressive, oppositional and antisocial behaviors by promoting positive parent-child interactions. Research has demonstrated long-term effects of PMT on child outcomes and parent behavior. PMT can be utilized when early symptoms arise to prevent the emergence of more severe behavior problems later in development.
▶Parent Management Training ▶Timeouts
References
▶Foster Care
1.
2.
3.
4. 5.
6.
American Psychological Association. (1993). Task force on promotion and dissemination of psychological procedures. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Campbell, S., Shaw, D., & Gilliom, M. (2000). Early externalizing behavior problems: Toddlers and preschoolers at risk for later maladjustment. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 467–488. Feldman, J., & Kazdin, A. E. (1995). Parent management training for oppositional and conduct problem children. The Clinical Psychologist, 48, 3–5. Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (2006). Treatment of childhood disorders (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. Webster-Stratton, C. (1996). Early-onset conduct problems: Does gender make a difference? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 540–551. Webster-Stratton, C., & Hammond, M. (1998). Conduct problems and level of social competence in head start children: Prevalence, pervasiveness, and associated risk factors. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 1, 101–124.
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Parent Training
Parental Rights Termination
Parent-Child Relationships ▶Bonding ▶Relationships
Parenting Practices ▶Parent Behavior
Parenting Styles Suggested Readings Kazdin, A. (2005). Parent management training: treatment for oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. Oxford: Oxford Press.
Suggested Resources Center for effective parenting. www.parenting-ed.org The incredible years: Example parent management training program. www.incredibleyears.com American academy of child and adolescent psychiatry. http://www. aacap.org/ Companion website for parent management training: treatment for oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/0195154290/ resources/?view=usa
Parent Report Measures ▶Behavior Assessment System for Children: Second Edition (BASC-2)
ELIZABETH LEVIN Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada
Synonyms Baumrind’s parenting styles; Child-rearing; Child-rearing practices; Discipline; Family structure
Definition Parenting styles refer to the typical ways parents think, feel and behave in terms of child-rearing.
Description Parenting takes place in every home with children throughout the world as parents try to socialize their children. Parents differ in the characteristic ways they rear or control their children. Some are more involved than others. Some are more responsive to their children than others. Some have many rules and directives to be followed while others take a laissez-faire approach. Some are loving and kind while others are harsh and
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unaffectionate. Parenting styles refer to the typical ways parents think, feel and behave in terms of child-rearing [1, 2]. This means that parenting styles reflect the prevailing parental attitude to the child and this attitude is expressed to the child via the emotional climate of the home. Parenting styles guide parenting practices such as curfews or spanking, but they are not always the same. Parenting styles are the context within which the socialization of the child within a family occurs [3]. The most widely known categories of parenting styles are based on the work of Diana Baumrind [1, 2]. Most of her research has focused on two dimensions of parenting style: authority and affection. Authority or demandingness refers to the degree to which parents try to control their children’s behavior by setting rational standards for behavior. Affection or responsiveness refers to the amount and way love is expressed to the child and acceptance of the child’s points of view. Based on these dimensions, Baumrind identified three categories of parenting styles. According to Baumrind’s work, the optimal parent is both demanding and affectionate and displays an authoritative style. This leads to socially competent and academically competent children. Less desirable in terms of child outcomes are the authoritarian style which can include parents who are more directive and those who are more intrusive, and the permissive parenting style which can include indulgent, nondirective parents and democratic parents. Using the two dimensions of control and affection suggests a fourth category of parenting style: parents who are low in both authority and warmth. Baumrind initially did not find sufficient numbers of these parents to study as she was concerned with normal patterns of parenting, but others beginning with Maccoby and Martin have described these parents as uninvolved or neglectful and in the extreme might be termed abusive. Children reared via this parenting style have the worst outcomes [3–5]. Most parents do not display only one parenting style. While they may predominantly fall in one of the categories of parenting styles, it is more common that parents borrow from different styles depending on the circumstances, including the age and gender of the child as well as the behavioral issue involved [4]. Parenting style is a characteristic of the parent rather than of the parent– child relationship. In this regard, parents are the most influential component, however children do influence the parent and the relationship is bi-directional. An authoritative parent will ultimately benefit from raising a more compliant child; the child is more likely to comply in the future because the parent is reasonable [5]. An authoritarian parent may increase the likelihood that the adolescent
will not listen, thus increasing the parental demands and decreasing compliance over time. A permissively reared child may get into trouble outside the home; the problems escalate as the parent remains uninvolved. The research then generally favors the authoritative parenting style but the evidence comes primarily from middle class, Caucasian, North American families [3, 5]. The ideal style may be different in other cultures although support for this model has been found in cross-cultural research in Asian families. However in black North American families the authoritarian style has been found to be very effective. More research is needed to determine the effects of social context, culture and specific parenting practices.
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology, 4, 1–103. Baumrind, D. (1989). Rearing competent children. In W. Damon (Ed.), Child development today and tomorrow (pp. 349–378). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Darling, N., & Steinberg, L. (1993). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 487–496. Kuczynski, L., & Lollis, S. (2002). Four foundations for a dynamic model of parenting. In J. Gerris (Ed.), Dynamics of parenting. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum. Steinberg, L., Mounts, S., Lamborn, S., & Dornbusch, S. (1991). Authoritative parenting and adolescent adjustment scores across varied ecological niches. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 1, 19–36.
Parietal Lobe CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition The Parietal lobes represent the upper lateral lobes of the cortex that is bordered at different points by all three of the other lobes and is functionally linked to somatosensory functioning, visuospatial-linked processes, and areas of academic functioning.
Description The Parietal lobes are the upper central lobes of the cerebral hemispheres that are separated from the Frontal Lobes by the Central Sulcus, the Temporal Lobes by the Sylvian Fissure and the Occipital Lobes by the ParietalOccipital Fissure [4]. Functionally, the Parietal lobes are linked to somatosensory functioning, visuospatial
Parkinson’s Disease
processes, and aspects of academic functioning. First, in terms of its’ link to somatosensory functioning, this is related to the fact that the primary somatosensory cortex is localized to the postcentral gyrus of the anterior portion of the parietal lobes. The essential function of the primary somatosensory cortex is processing peripheral sensation of the contralateral (i.e., opposite) side [2]. This ranges from more basic functions such as simple detection of tactile stimulation to high-order processes such as object identification based on tactile cues alone, although the more higher-order the process the greater the involvement of other regions and areas. See Somatic Sensory Cortex for more details. In terms of their involvement in visuospatial processes, the Parietal lobes play a vital role spatial orientation, which allows us to determine where in space we or items are in relationship to other things [1]. This is an essential component of aspects of spatial rotations (flipping and/ or rotating items cognitively), hemi-attention (i.e., attention to different sides of the body and environment), and constructional tasks. Finally, the Parietal lobes have also been linked to aspects of academic performance, specifically mathematics and writing. While this functional tie may be made with the Parietal lobes broadly, a narrower link is between these functions and the Angular gyrus, which originates in the Parietal lobes. The influence the angular gyrus demonstrates along these lines is largely related to it representing a cortical association area that provides cross-modal integration of visual, tactile, and verbal information [5]. Essentially it is a convergence point of the Parietal, Temporal, and Occipital lobes, which together correspond with modulation of the aforementioned academic domains. This link has been best exemplified by lesion analysis that has demonstrated that lesions in the dominant hemisphere (i.e., that hemisphere in which language is predominantly housed) that impact the angular gyrus may result in alexia (i.e., impairment in reading) and agraphia (i.e., impairment in writing) [3]. See Angular Gyrus for more details.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Beaumont, J. G. (2008). Introduction to neuropsychology (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. Goldberg, S. (2007). Clinical neuroanatomy made ridiculously simple (3rd ed.). Miami, Fl: Medmaster. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
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Parkinson’s Disease AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Definition Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is primarily characterized by motor dysfunction.
Description Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects around 1/1,000 individuals [36]. The pathology of this disorder is focused on the substantia nigra (SN) and nigrostriatal tract, resulting in the motor symptoms that characterize this disorder [5]. Onset occurs most commonly after the age of 50 and its incidence increases with advancing age [11]. While PD is primarily characterized by motor dysfunction, signs of early cognitive disturbances are also a feature of the disease process [6, 28, 34]. The end consequence of this cognitive decline may be frank dementia. Indeed, research indicates that a substantial number of individuals with PD (40%) will progress to a diagnosis of dementia (see [12] for review).
Motor Symptoms Tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability are considered to be the cardinal features of PD. However, presenting motor symptoms vary considerably for each individual and may have particular importance for the identification of PD subtypes (see Table 1 for common motor features associated with PD). Initial diagnosis is based on the evaluation of presenting physical symptoms and their history but a definitive diagnosis of PD can only
Parkinson’s Disease. Table 1 Common motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease [19] Tremor
Sialorrhea (excessive salivation)
Rigidity
Respiratory difficulties
Bradykinesia
Festination
Postural instability
Freezing
Masked facies
Micrographia
Hypophonia
Decreased blink rate
Dysphagia
Levodopa induced dyskinesias
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be made on the basis of autopsy evidence which includes the degeneration and loss of pigmented cells in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and the presence of Lewy bodies [21]. Clinical symptoms of PD only manifest when nigrostriatal dopamine depletion is at around 80%, and approximately 60% of the dopaminergic neurons in SNc have been lost [13]. A number of neurodegenerative diseases can be mistaken for PD. These are generally referred to as Parkinson plus syndromes and include: progressive supranuclear palsy, cortical-basal degeneration, multiple system atrophy, dementia with Lewy body and vascular Parkinsonism. However, research indicates that the degree of clinical diagnostic accuracy is higher when more stringent criteria are applied such as the United Kingdom Parkinson’s disease Society Brain Bank Diagnostic Criteria for Parkinson’s disease [19].
Description of Characteristic Motor Symptoms Tremor and bradykinesia are the two most common initial symptoms [37]. Tremors occur predominantly at rest, with a frequency of 4–6 Hz, and diminish on action [19]. However, not all patients with PD manifest a resting tremor as the presenting symptom, and 15% will never manifest a tremor during the entire course of the disease [19, 21]. The etiology of the resting tremor remains unknown [9]. Patients with PD may also develop a postural tremor, 5–8 Hz, that occurs during activity [19]. Bradykinesia is defined as a slowness of movement. It is often used interchangeably with hypokinesia, which refers to slowed movements, but with the addition that the movements performed are smaller than intended (e.g., micrographia), and with akinesia, referring to a lack of spontaneous movement (e.g., lack of spontaneous arm swing when walking) [3]. Bradykinesia is thought to result from deficient output from the Basal Ganglia to the cortex [3]. Rigidity, also a prominent feature of PD, refers to the increased tone or stiffness in the muscles that are resistant to passive movement, and may result in a subjective feeling of tightness and pain in the muscles. The fourth cardinal feature is postural instability, a tendency to lose balance with propulsion and retropulsion. Postural instability is more common in the later stages of the disease and is generally accompanied by festination (i.e., short shuffling steps). The cause of postural instability is not known, but has been attributed to the degeneration of the globus pallidum, reduced or absent vestibular responses, or abnormal postural reflexes [19].
As stated at the beginning of this section, individuals vary greatly in their presentation of motor symptoms and it has been suggested that differences in motor presentation may be indicative of differences in disease progression [21]. Indeed, two recent studies have suggested that different subgroups of patients with PD can be identified by a combination of motor and cognitive symptoms [14, 26].
Cause of Deficits Associated with Parkinson’s Disease Dysfunction of the basal ganglia system is considered key to the motor, cognitive, and psychiatric deficits associated with Parkinson’s disease. The basal ganglia are a group of interconnected subcortical structures in the forebrain and include the caudate nucleus, putamen (these two structures are often referred to as the striatum), globus pallidus (globus pallidus and putamen are sometimes referred to as the lenticular nucleus) and the nucleus accumbens [32]. Many authorities also include the substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus and the amygdala as structures of the basal ganglia [15, 16, 32, 38]. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the depletion of dopamine due to the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the Substantia Nigra (SN) (see Fig. 1), and not surprisingly, the dopamine theory is used to account for the deficits reported with this disorder. Motor deficits are characteristic of PD and the dopamine theory explains this in the following way. It is suggested that the direct and indirect pathways, described earlier, operate on the GPi/ SNr. The nigrostriatal denervation leads to over-activity of GPi/SNr [25, 38], with an overall inhibitory effect on the thalamus. This in turn leads to an under-activation of the motor cortex and a reduction or absence of movement as seen by the presence of bradykinesia or akinesia associated with PD [25, 31]. The cell bodies of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons are located in the SNc and project primarily to the putamen, but also to the caudate. Research suggests that Parkinson’s disease first affects the posterior putamen, then the anterior putamen and the caudate nucleus [7, 20]. This explains why motor symptoms are often the first signs for people with PD [29]. In contrast, dopamine depletion associated with Huntington’s disease begins in the anterior caudate and initial problems are usually cognitive in nature [22, 23]. Interestingly, it has been reported that neuronal loss in the SN in people with PD is not evenly distributed. Neurons in the ventrolateral part of the SN degenerate to a greater extent than those in the medial part. This has important implications in terms of the projections from the SN. Research indicates that different types of
Parkinson’s Disease
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with an overall inhibitory effect on the thalamus leading to an under-activation of the motor cortex (Adapted from [25, 31]).
Cortex Glutamate
Parkinson’s Disease with Dementia D1 Glutamate
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Indirect pathway
Putamen
Glutamate
Dopamine
SNc
GPe GABA
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GABA Glutamate
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Parkinson’s Disease. Fig. 1 A schematic representation of the basal ganglia using the motor circuit, for a patient with Parkinson’s disease.
PD, (e.g., akinetic-rigid type and tremor-dominate type) show different patterns of neuronal loss in the SN, and it is has been suggested that these different patterns of neuronal loss could explain the heterogeneity of motor symptoms [10, 33]. Consistent with the dopamine theory, most medications used to control the motor symptoms that characterize PD are based on dopamine replacement therapy. These treatments, at least in the early stages of the disease, ameliorate many of the motor symptoms, with symptoms only re-appearing at the “end of dose.” Further, surgical procedures based on the dopamine model have been reported to be highly successful for some patients. A depletion of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in the SNc is represented by the thin lines. The direct and indirect pathways operate on the GPi/SNr. The nigrostriatal denervation leads to over-activity of GPi/SNr
Dementia is arguably the most severe psychiatric outcome associated with PD, representing multiple cognitive and / or behavioral deficits which result in a significant decline in the person’s level of social or occupational functioning (using DSM-IV criteria). The reported prevalence for Parkinson’s disease with dementia (PDD) varies greatly, largely due to methodological inconsistencies i.e., the way in which dementia is defined [2, 4, 30]. However, it is generally accepted that prevalence rates of dementia among people with PD are much higher than in the general population i.e., approximately four to five times that of elderly individuals without PD [1, 12, 17, 27]. While the exact neurophysiological basis of PDD remains undetermined, progression to dementia has been found to be more likely in patients with longer disease duration, of older age, and with more severe motor symptoms [4, 8, 18, 27]. Research indicates that cognitive deficits characteristic of PDD differ from those associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [27, 35]. For example, while the initial symptom and essential characteristic of AD is impaired episodic memory, early executive function and visuospatial deficits are characteristic of PDD, with only mild impairments in memory retrieval being evident [24, 27].
References 1. Aarsland, D., Andersen, K., Larsen, J. P., Lolk, A., & Kragh-Sorensen, P. (2003). Prevalence and characteristics of dementia in Parkinson disease: An 8-year prospective study. Archives of Neurology, 60(3), 387–392. 2. Aarsland, D., Zaccai, J., & Brayne, C. (2005). A systematic review of prevalence studies of dementia in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 20(10), 1255–1263. 3. Berardelli, A., Rothwell, J. C., Thompson, P. D., & Hallett, M. (2001). Pathophysiology of bradykinesia in Parkinson’s disease. Brain, 124 (Pt. 11), 2131–2146. 4. Biggins, C. A., Boyd, J. L., Harrop, F. M., Madeley, P., Mindham, R. H., Randall, J. I., et al. (1992). A controlled, longitudinal study of dementia in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 55(7), 566–571. 5. Braak, H., & Braak, E. (2000). Pathoanatomy of Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, 247(Suppl. 2), II3–II10. 6. Brown, R. G., & Marsden, C. D. (1990). Cognitive function in Parkinson’s disease: From description to theory. Trends in Neurosciences, 13(1), 21–29. 7. Bruck, A., Aalto, S., Nurmi, E., Bergman, J., & Rinne, J. O. (2005). Cortical 6-[18F]fluoro-L-dopa uptake and frontal cognitive functions in early Parkinson’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 26(6), 891–898.
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8. Caparros-Lefebvre, D., Pecheux, N., Petit, V., Duhamel, A., & Petit, H. (1995). Which factors predict cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease? Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 58(1), 51–55. 9. Carr, J. (2002). Tremor in Parkinson’s disease. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 8(4), 223–234. 10. Damier, P., Hirsch, E. C., Agid, Y., & Graybiel, A. M. (1999). The substantia nigra of the human brain. II. Patterns of loss of dopaminecontaining neurons in Parkinson’s disease. Brain, 122(Pt. 8), 1437– 1448. 11. de Rijk, M. C., Tzourio, C., Breteler, M. M., Dartigues, J. F., Amaducci, L., Lopez-Pousa, S., et al. (1997). Prevalence of parkinsonism and Parkinson’s disease in Europe: The EUROPARKINSON Collaborative Study. European community concerted action on the epidemiology of Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 62(1), 10–15. 12. Emre, M. (2003). Dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease. The Lancet Neurology, 2, 229–237. 13. Gibb, W. R. (1997). Functional neuropathology in Parkinson’s disease. European Neurology, 38(Suppl. 2), 21–25. 14. Graham, J. M., & Sagar, H. J. (1999). A data-driven approach to the study of heterogeneity in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease: Identification of three distinct subtypes. Movement Disorders, 14(1), 10–20. 15. Haber, S. N. (2003). The primate basal ganglia: Parallel and integrative networks. Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy, 26(4), 317–330. 16. Herrero, M. T., Barcia, C., & Navarro, J. M. (2002). Functional anatomy of thalamus and basal ganglia. Childs Nervous System, 18(8), 386–404. 17. Hobson, P., & Meara, J. (2004). Risk and incidence of dementia in a cohort of older subjects with Parkinson’s disease in the United Kingdom. Movement Disorders, 19(9), 1043–1049. 18. Hughes, T. A., Ross, H. F., Musa, S., Bhattacherjee, S., Nathan, R. N., Mindham, R. H., et al. (2000). A 10-year study of the incidence of and factors predicting dementia in Parkinson’s disease. Neurology, 54(8), 1596–1602. 19. Jankovic, J. (2003). Pathophysiology and clinical assessment of Parkinsonian symptoms and signs. In R. Pahwa, K. E. Lyons, & W. C. Koller (Eds.), Handbook of Parkinson’s disease (3rd ed., pp. 71–107). New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. 20. Jellinger, K. A. (1999). Post mortem studies in Parkinson’s disease – is it possible to detect brain areas for specific symptoms? Journal of Neural Transmission. Supplementum, 56, 1–29. 21. Kang, G. A., Bronstein, J. M., Masterman, D. L., Redelings, M., Crum, J. A., & Ritz, B. (2005). Clinical characteristics in early Parkinson’s disease in a central California population-based study. Movement Disorders, 20(9), 1133–1142. 22. Lawrence, A. D., Hodges, J. R., Rosser, A. E., Kershaw, A., FrenchConstant, C., Rubinsztein, D. C., et al. (1998). Evidence for specific cognitive deficits in preclinical Huntington’s disease. Brain, 121(Pt. 7), 1329–1341. 23. Lawrence, A. D., Sahakian, B. J., Hodges, J. R., Rosser, A. E., Lange, K. W., & Robbins, T. W. (1996). Executive and mnemonic functions in early Huntington’s disease. Brain, 119(Pt. 5), 1633–1645. 24. Levy, G., Jacobs, D. M., Tang, M. X., Cote, L. J., Louis, E. D., Alfaro, B., et al. (2002). Memory and executive function impairment predict dementia in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 17(6), 1221–1226. 25. Lewis, S. J., Caldwell, M. A., & Barker, R. A. (2003). Modern therapeutic approaches in Parkinson’s disease. Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine, 5, 1–20.
26. Lewis, S. J., Foltynie, T., Blackwell, A. D., Robbins, T. W., Owen, A. M., & Barker, R. A. (2005). Heterogeneity of Parkinson’s disease in the early clinical stages using a data driven approach. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 76(3), 343–348. 27. Mahieux, F., Fenelon, G., Flahault, A., Manifacier, M. J., Michelet, D., & Boller, F. (1998). Neuropsychological prediction of dementia in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 64(2), 178–183. 28. Marsh, L. (2000). Neuropsychiatric aspects of Parkinson’s disease. Psychosomatics, 41(1), 15–23. 29. Middleton, F. A., & Strick, P. L. (2000). Basal ganglia output and cognition: Evidence from anatomical, behavioral, and clinical studies. Brain and Cognition, 42(2), 183–200. 30. Mindham, R. H. (1999). The place of dementia in Parkinson’s disease: A methodologic saga. Advances in Neurology, 80, 403–408. 31. Obeso, J. A., Rodriguez-Oroz, M. C., Rodriguez, M., Lanciego, J. L., Artieda, J., Gonzalo, N., et al. (2000). Pathophysiology of the basal ganglia in Parkinson’s disease. Trends in Neurosciences, 23(Suppl. 10), S8–S19. 32. Ring, H. A., & Serra-Mestres, J. (2002). Neuropsychiatry of the basal ganglia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 72(1), 12–21. 33. Rinne, J. O. (1993). Nigral degeneration in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 8(Suppl. 1), S31–S35. 34. Shulman, L. M., Taback, R. L., Bean, J., & Weiner, W. J. (2001). Comorbidity of the nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 16(3), 507–510. 35. Stern, Y., Tang, M. X., Jacobs, D. M., Sano, M., Marder, K., & Bell, K. (1998). Prospective comparative study of the evolution of probable Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease dementia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 279–284. 36. Twelves, D., Perkins, K. S., & Counsell, C. (2003). Systematic review of incidence studies of Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 18(1), 19–31. 37. Uitti, R. J., Baba, Y., Wszolek, Z. K., & Putzke, D. J. (2005). Defining the Parkinson’s disease phenotype: Initial symptoms and baseline characteristics in a clinical cohort. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 11(3), 139–145. 38. Yelnik, J. (2002). Functional anatomy of the basal ganglia. Movement Disorders, 17(Suppl. 3), S15–S21.
Paroxetine (Generic) ▶Paxil (Paroxetine)
Partial Dopamine Agonist ▶Abilify
Pathologic Emotionality
Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (PFAS) ▶Fetal Alcohol Effects
Partiality ▶Prejudice
Pass ▶Purging
Pass Theory JACK A. NAGLIERI George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, Canada
In his seminal works Human Brain and Psychological Processes [2], The Working Brain [3], and Higher Cortical Functions of Man [4], A. R Luria described the brain as a multidimensional system comprised of parts that make specific contributions to a larger interacting whole network. Luria’s research on the brain provided the basis for the neuropsychological processing theory of intelligence called PASS, initially described by [1]. The four PASS processes represent a fusion of cognitive and neuropsychological constructs such as executive functioning (Planning and Attention), selective, sustain and shifting, attention (Attention), visual-spatial processing of information into a coherent whole (Simultaneous), and serial processing of information (Successive). These four neuropsychologically defined abilities form the basis of this new theory of intelligence. The first ability is Planning. This is a frontal lobe function, especially the prefrontal cortex, and one of the prominent abilities that differentiate humans from other primates. Planning plays a central role in forming goals and objectives and then in devising plans of action required to attain these goals. Planning helps us achieve
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goals through the development and use of strategies to accomplish tasks for which a solution is required. Planning also allows for the generation of solutions, discriminating use of knowledge and skills, as well as control of Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive processes. The second ability is Attention which is associated with Luria’s first functional unit (the reticular formation) which allows an individual to selectively focus cognitive activity toward a stimulus over a period of time without being distracted by other competing stimuli. The longer attention is needed, the more difficult keeping focus on a task will become. Intentions and goals (e.g., Planning process) are responsible for control of Attention, which is why these two processes are strongly related. Simultaneous is the third ability, needed for organizing information into groups to form a whole allowing recognition of patterns typical in visual-spatial tests. However, Simultaneous processing is not limited to visual content, as demonstrated by the important role it plays in the grammatical components of language and comprehension of word relationships, prepositions, and inflections. Finally, Successive ability is needed when working with information arranged in specific series. This includes serial organization of physical movement as well as articulation of sounds, especially sounds in sequence and early reading. The PASS theory was used as the foundation of the Cognitive Assessment System [5] (see ▶CAS). This test of intelligence was explicitly developed to operationalize the PASS theory and therefore it is unique among IQ tests.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Das, J. P., Naglieri, J. A., & Kirby, J. R. (1994). Assessment of cognitive processes. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Luria, A. R. (1966). Human brain and psychological processes. New York: Harper and Row. Luria, A. R. (1973). The working brain. New York: Basic Books. Luria, A. R. (1980). Higher cortical functions in man (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books. Naglieri, J. A., & Das, J. P. (1997). Cognitive assessment system. Austin: ProEd.
Path Analysis ▶Structural Equation Modeling
Pathologic Emotionality ▶Emotional Lability
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Patois ▶Dialect
Patterns of Parental Behaviors ▶Child Rearing Practices
Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich LISA CURB Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Life Dates 1849–1936
secretions that happen because of some stimuli previously associated with eating. This led to his work on the conditioned reflexes. He tried to figure out how the brain controls the adaptive behaviors. This was explained by the methodology of classical or Pavlovian conditioning. Pavlov’s dogs were given meat powder. Before it was given, they would salivate when something usually associated with the meat handler appeared. Pavlov then paired the meat power with the ringing of a bell. After a few trials of both meat and the ringing bell being presented at the same time, the dogs would salivate. Even when the food was taken away, the dogs would salivate when the bell was rung. Pavlov showed the stimulus-response patterns. The meat powder is the unconditioned stimulus and the dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response. The ringing bell is the neutral stimulus. However, when the dog begins associating the bell with food, the ringing becomes the conditioned stimulus. The salivation from the dog is the conditioned response. The conditioned response will decrease if the conditioned stimulus continues to be given without the unconditioned stimulus. This is called extinction. His process was readily applicable to humans. It is used to treat phobias in a process called systematic desensitization.
Introduction Pavlov was the best known Russian physiologist of his era and one of the most significant experimental psychologists. His early research on the digestive system led to the discovery of conditioned reflexes which has widely influenced neurology and psychology.
Educational Information Pavlov was Russian. He attended seminary and planned to become a priest like his father. In his teenage years, he read the works of Darwin and Sechenov and became interested in science. Next, he attended the University of St. Petersburg and earned a degree in Natural Sciences. Then he earned a medical doctor degree at the Military Medical Academy. However, he did not plan to become a doctor. He wanted the training to give him the opportunity to advance in physiology [2].
Research Pavlov researched the digestive system and conditioned reflexes. He used dogs for his research and tried to study them in as normal a state as possible. He developed a stomach pouch to study digestion in part of the stomach, so the dog could fully recover. He discovered before food is put in the mouth there are gastric and pancreatic
Accomplishment Pavlov became professor of pharmacology (then physiology) at the Military Medical Academy and later advanced to become the head. One year later, he helped organize the physiology department at the Institute of Experimental Medicine where he became chair in 1895. While there, he published his research The Work of the Digestive Glands for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1904. Pavlov continued there for 45 years until his death. Interestingly, Pavlov was the first physiologist as well as the first Russian scientist to be awarded this honor [1].
Contributions Pavlov’s work on the digestive system led to the establishing of the science of neuroendocrinology. He looked at the effect of signal on brain processing to learn more about brain function. His work on conditioned reflex showed how the brain controlled adaptive behavior. This classical conditioning, or Pavlovian conditioning, was instrumental to the development of the behaviorist movement led by John B. Watson. Furthermore, Pavlov’s contributions had worldwide impact on learning, memory, psychology, and neuroscience [3].
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References
Definition
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Paxil® is one of the newest types of antidepressant medications. Paxil is FDA approved for treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) and panic disorder; however, it has been shown to be an effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bulimia, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other anxiety disorders.
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Gibbons, J. (Ed.). (1955). I. P. Pavlov: Selected works. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House. Kimble, G. A. (1991). The spirit of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. In G. A. Kimble, M. Wertheimer, & C. L. White (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (pp. 27–40). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Nobelprize.org. (2008). Ivan Pavlov biography. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/ 1904/pavlov-bio.html
Further Reading Dysenck, H. J. (1996). Brain, mind and behavior: A new perspective on human nature. Westport: Praeger. Gray, J. A. (1980). Ivan Pavlov. New York: Viking Press. Hothersall, D. (2004). History of psychology (4th ed.). Boston: McGrawHill. Johnson, G. (2008). The ten most beautiful experiments. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Klein, S. B., & Mowrer, R. R. (Eds.). (1989). Contemporary learning theories. Pavlovian conditioning and the status of traditional learning theory. Hillsdale: L. Erlbaum Associates. Pavlov, I. (2008). (Lectures). Retrieved July 30, 2008, from http://www. ivanpavlov.com Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes: An investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral cortex (G. V. Anrep, Ed. & Trans.). London: Oxford University Press. Todes, D. P. (2002). Pavlov’s physiology factory: Experiment, interpretation, laboratory enterprise. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Description Paxil is a selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). SSRIs have been available for treatment of depression in the United States since 1988 and have become the medications of choice for treating many psychiatric conditions. Other SSRIs include Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, and Luvox. Paxil is one of the most potent SSRIs and has a half-life of approximately 14 h. A clinical response may take up to 6–8 weeks; however, most individuals respond within 2–3 weeks. Side effects are generally mild with most SSRIs, including Paxil. These may include upset stomach, diarrhea, insomnia or tiredness, and sexual dysfunction. A typical dose of Paxil is 20–60 mg/day. To avoid withdrawal symptoms, treatment is typically tapered and not discontinued abruptly.
Relevance to Childhood Development
Pavlovian or Respondent Conditioning ▶Classical Conditioning
Pavor Nocturnis ▶Night Terrors
Paxil has been shown effective in treating major depressive disorder and panic disorders in children and adolescents and is becoming the primary treatment for non-OCD pediatric anxiety disorders. This is partly due to the minimal side effects and flexibility in dosage and treatment. Paxil is available in liquid preparations, which may be helpful for younger children.
References 1. 2.
Paxil (Paroxetine)
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Carson-DeWitt, R. (2001). Encyclopedia of drugs, alcohol and addictive behavior. New York: Pearson Education. Rosenberg, D. R., Pablo, A., & Samuel, G. (2002). Pharmacotherapy for child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. New York: Marcel Dekker. Zetin, M., & Tate, D. (1999). The psychopharmacology sourcebook. Los Angeles: NTC Contemporary.
LAURA BARNEY University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Antidepressants; Paroxetine (generic); Selective serotoninreuptake inhibitor (SSRI)
PC Games ▶Video Games
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Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test –Third Edition (PPVT-III)
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test –Third Edition (PPVT-III) AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Definition The PPVT-III is a test of auditory comprehension and is a measure of English hearing vocabulary.
Description The PPVT-III is one of the most commonly used standardized tests that was first published in 1959 [1] revised in 1981 [2] and again in 1997 [3] with updated norms and illustrations. The PPVT-III is an individually administered, norm-reference, test of hearing vocabulary and designed for individuals ages 2–6 through to 90+ who have reasonable sight and hearing [3]. The PPVT contains four practice items and 204 test items. Items are arranged in 17 sets of 12 in order of increasing difficulty. Each test item each contains four simple black and white illustrations. The examiner says a word and the examinee’s task is to select the corresponding picture that they considered best illustrates the meaning of the stimulus word presented [3]. For example, using the figure below, the examinee could be asked to select the picture that would best illustrate the meaning of the word square. A correct answer would require the participant to indicate the first illustration.
ability). In this way each patient must answer only about 35–45 items of suitable difficulty. Items that are far too easy or hard are not administered and testing takes about 10–15 min [3]. The PPVT-III has two parallel forms, III-A and III-B, each test form has a simple scoring key which enables objective scoring to be completed while administering the test. Total raw score is calculated as the number of correct responses over the critical range. Raw scores can be converted into standard scores with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 and also age equivalents (previously called mental age), stanines and percentiles.
Relevance to Childhood Development There are a number of situations where a child’s intellectual ability may need to be assessed, e.g., school failure or underachievement. However, a standard IQ test is often not an appropriate or accurate method of identifying the level of intellectual ability. For example, children with hearing impairments may perform very poorly on a standard IQ test but be of average or above average intelligence. Administration of the PPVT-III requires no reading from the patient and no oral or written responses are required. This allows the test to be used with non readers, individuals with written language problems, and hearing impairments. As only a yes/no signal to the examiners pointing is needed to respond to the test items the test may also be used with patients who have speech impairments. For example individuals’ with aphasia, stuttering, also the use of eye gaze as a response has been found to be acceptable response making the tests useful for children with severe motor disabilities. While the PPVT-III is not a comprehensive test of general intelligence, as it measures only one important facet of general intelligence, it can be used as a screen for under achievement. The PPVT-III can be thought of as an achievement test for English vocabulary acquisition and success vocabulary has been found to be one of the best predictors of school performance. However, some caution should be exercised when using the test with different cultural and linguistic background [4].
References 1. 2.
The PPVT-III is a relatively easily administered test that has a number of advantages. Firstly, individuals are administered only those items within or close to their critical range (critical range refers to items that provide maximum discrimination for individuals of similar
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Dunn, L. M. (1959). Peabody picture vocabulary test. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1981). Peabody picture vocabulary testrevised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody picture vocabulary testIII. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Stockman, I. J. (2000). The new peabody picture vocabulary test-III: An illusion of unbiased assessment? Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 31, 340–353.
Peer Group
Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea ▶Sleep Apnea
Pediatric OCD ▶Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
Peer Affiliation ▶Peer Group
Peer Group SAHRAN HAMIT John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
Synonyms Clique; Peer affiliation; Peer relations; Peer relationships; Social group
Definition A peer group is a group of individuals who are approximately the same age, formed from common interests and affective bonds.
Description Peer groups consist of more than two individuals of similar age, social status, and interest. Peer groups are not only comprised of individuals who are friends. It is possible to have a peer group where some members are friends and others are just tolerated. Every child on a basketball team is in the same peer group, but they are not all necessarily friends. Peer group membership can be based on sociometric status, friendship, and other social categories (e.g., “brains” or “jocks”). Peer groups are based on the interests of the members, whether that interest is sports, academia, or music. It is also possible for an individual to belong to
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two peer groups simultaneously and it is typical for individuals to change groups radically over time. Some peer groups are centered on prosocial characteristics (e.g., high academic performance, playing sports, and volunteer work) while others are more concerned with deviant behavior (e.g., drug and alcohol use, vandalism, and skipping school). Several developmental psychologists, such as Sullivan and Piaget, have argued that peer relationships provide a milieu for development in cognitive, social, and emotional areas. Peer interactions provide experience with socializing skills, such as fairness, reciprocity, teamwork, and intimacy, and help mature and enhance children’s reasoning abilities and concern for others. Children’s peer groups help foster and create their adult personalities. Peer influence can be referred to as socialization. In American culture as children get older they spend more time with their peers, so will initial socialization begins with the parents peer groups contribute a great deal to learning societal norms and standards. Children are not only influenced by their peer groups they also help influence the decision of the group. Values and norms that are initially learned from their parents are often applied to the group. Acceptance by peers is seemingly important particularly by young adolescents. Rejection from a peer group can be just as influential as acceptance. Adolescents who are rejected by their peers are more likely to display negative consequences: delinquency, drop out of school, or psychopathology. Social rejection is the group responding to an individual. Peer rejection is almost a self fulfilling prophecy because once adolescents decide to reject an individual they begin to treat him or her differently and this treatment begins to cause the individual to act in a way that would further cause peers to reject him or her. The topic of peer group influence has garnered a lot of attention from child development psychologists over the years. One such psychologist is Judith Rich Harris, who developed the Group Socialization Theory in 1994. This theory asserts that peer groups are the most important socializing agent in a child’s life. Harris states that parents are interchangeable, as long as the other socializing agents (e.g., peer group and community) remain the same the child will develop into the same adult.
References 1.
Arnon, S., Shamai, S., & Ilatov, Z. (2008). Socialization agents and activities of young adolescents. Adolescence, 43, 373–397.
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Peer Groups
Harris, J. R. (1995). Where is the child’s environment? A group socialization theory of development. Psychology Review, 102, 458–489. Kaufmann, D. R., Wyman, P. A., Forbes-Jones, E. L., & Barry, J. (2007). Prosocial involvement and antisocial peer affiliations as predictors of behavior problems in urban adolescents: Main effects and moderating effects. Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 417–434. Kindermann, T. A. (1996). Strategies for the study of individual development within naturally-existing peer groups. Social Development, 5, 158–173. Kupersmidt, J. B., & Coie, J. D. (1990). Preadolescent peer status, aggression, and school adjustment as predictors of externalizing problems in adolescence. Child Development, 61, 1350–1362. Vandell, D. L. (2000). Parents, peer groups, and other socializing influences. Developmental Psychology, 36, 699–710.
Peer Groups ▶Conformity Among Adolescents
Peer Influences ▶Conformity Among Adolescents
Peer Interactions ▶Peer Relationships
Peer Nomination Technique
Description The peer nomination technique is commonly utilized to assess peer relations or observable individual characteristics. Typically, the nomination process involves asking participants to identify or rank individuals in their peer group based on the variable of interest. The nominations are counted and can be used as either a categorical or continuous measure. Sociometric status can be based on the high number of positive nominations (i.e., popular children), negative nominations (i.e., rejected children), or a low count of both positive and negative nominations (i.e., neglected children) [2]. A summary score, social preference index, is derived by subtracting the negative nominations from the positive nominations. The peer nomination process is also used to assess individual characteristics that are social in nature, such as aggression, by asking participant to report the frequency of the behavior displayed by their peers. Although peer nominations are correlated with negative academic and social outcomes and have been shown to be more strongly related to objective measures of behavior than self-report, peer nominations can be influenced by a number of variables. For example, race of both the nominators and the peer group can affect the number of positive and negative nominations distributed [1]. Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian children have been shown to rate their same-ethnicity peers more favorably and less negatively. In contrast, African-American children are more likely to nominate same-ethnicity peers more often in general and in the absence of a positive bias. In general, African-American children are rated more negatively than Caucasian children; however the effect of race decreases as the number of African-American children in the class increases [3]. Methodological issues, such as the way in which nominations are collected, can impact how many and which peers are nominated. More specifically, when provided with a roster of names, participants will endorse negative qualities more often for individuals at the top of the list than those towards the bottom [4].
TAMARA DEL VECCHIO St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA
References
Synonyms
2.
1.
Peer rankings; Peer ratings; Peer sociometric nominations 3.
Definition Peer nomination technique is a method of assessing sociometric status in which participants are asked to nominate or rank their peers by the variable of interest.
4.
Bellmore, A. D., & Nishina, A. (2007). The influence of classroom ethnic composition on same- and other-ethnicity peer nominations in middle school. Social Development, 16, 720–740. Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A., & Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 557–570. Jackson, M. F., Barth, J. M., Powell, N., & Lochman, J. E. (2006). Classroom contextual effects of race on children’s peer nominations. Child Development, 77, 1325–1337. Poulin, F., & Dishion, T. J. (2008). Methodological issues in the use of peer sociometric nominations with middle school youth. Social Development, 17, 908–921.
Peer Relationships
Peer Pressure ▶Conformity Among Adolescents
Peer Rankings ▶Peer Nomination Technique
Peer Ratings ▶Peer Nomination Technique
Peer Rejection ▶Bullying ▶Rejected Children
Peer Relations ▶Peer Group ▶Peer Relationships
Peer Relationships JANETT M. NAYLOR Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS, USA
Synonyms Peer group; Peer interactions; Peer relations; Peers
Definition Interactions, both positive and negative, with same-age mates.
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Description Children’s interactions with same-age playmate are multileveled (individuals, relationships, and groups) and are quite socially complex. Like all relationships, peer relationships are essentially defined by the members’ characteristics including, style of interaction, as well as shared and unshared history of the members. Peer relationships are imbedded in the large peer group, which has its own set of interaction rules, hierarchy, and cohesiveness. The basic aspect of peer relationships is individuals’ socially exchanging information over a period of time. Typically, these interactions are dyadic in nature, only involving two members and have a reciprocal interdependent style. The second level of interactions is relationships that have their own associated expectations, style, and emotions. Children’s dyadic peer relationships are each viewed as distinct entities that are not interchangeable. Relationships with parents are different from relationships with peers and therefore serve different purposes. Peer relationships vary in closeness of members leading to different types of dyads, including friendships, antipathies, acquaintances, etc. Dyads are especially vulnerable because loss of one particular member means the end of the relationship. Vulnerability to dissolution leads to members stressing issues of commitment, attachment and long-term investment. The highest level of peer relationships is groups. Groups are typically a cohesive set of relationships that have a hierarchy and are rather similar across members. Children’s peer relationships develop with age becoming increasingly complex and integrated. Specifically, toddlers spend most of their time playing in small groups. Toddlers are capable of coordinating behavior with others’ through imitation, sharing, and altering their own response to match their partners’ behavior. During preschool, children interact more often with their peers during play by sharing/helping more often, conversing more often, and recognizing differences of opinion between members. Sociodramatic play is one of the most complex forms of group interactions during preschool. Children use this pretend play to practice language, social skills, cultural roles, norms, and conflict management skills. Entry into school provides a dramatic shift in peer relations, as children are spending a great deal of time with peers and in a variety of settings. Therefore, the structure of the peer group changes as children and adolescents reorganizing themselves in to social groups or cliques ranging from three to nine same-sex members. The main system of organization of the groups is through a social status network or popularity hierarchy.
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Group social status of members can be determined using various methods. Some measures assess children’s visibility in the group; others assess children’s impact on the group. The most common assessment determines how liked children are by other members of the group. Children and adolescents who are liked by most of their peers are considered, from a research perspective, to be popular. Conversely, children and adolescents who are disliked by most of their peers are classified as rejected. Those who are essentially ignored or who go unnoticed are considered neglected and those who show a mix of likes and dislikes are considered controversial. Average children and adolescents are liked by a typical amount of peers. The research constructed categories of acceptance described above (popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average) are marked by distinct characteristics of members. Popular children and adolescents are socially skilled at initiating and maintaining relationships, do not talk excessively, speak in a clear and communicatively competent manner, as well as are helpful, cooperative, friendly and sociable. Approximately half of rejected children and adolescents are considered aggressive by their peers. They tend to be disruptive, physically aggressive to others, and exhibit negative behaviors (yelling, taunting, etc.). The other half tend to show social withdrawal, timidity, and/or victimization. Very little is known about the origins of both the neglected and the controversial groups of children and adolescents. The average group is typically used as a research comparison or control group. Peer acceptance has long-term consequences. Being rejected by peers in childhood often leads to increased delinquency, truancy, and drop-out rates in adolescence. School becomes an unfriendly place to be and social support is not available for these children and adolescents to properly cope with the stressors at school. Psychological adjustment is also affected by peer acceptance. For example, children and adolescents who are anxious and withdrawn have lower self-esteem, more anxiety and more depression. However, this relationship is mediated by one’s perception of their own peer acceptance. Rejected children and adolescents who are unhappy with their peer group status seem to be more negatively affected by the lack of peer acceptance than those rejected children and adolescents who are content with their peer group status.
References 1.
Kupersmidt, J. B., & Dodge, K. A. (Eds.). (2004). Children’s peer relations: From development to intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
2.
3.
Rubin, K. H., Bukowski, W. M., & Parker, J. G. (2006). Peer interactions, relationships, and groups. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. III (pp. 571–645). New York: Wiley. Slee, P. T., & Rigby, K. (Eds.). (1998). Children’s peer relations. New York: Routledge.
Peer Sociometric Nominations ▶Peer Nomination Technique
Peer Tutoring JUDAH B. AXE Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
Synonyms Classwide peer tutoring; Reciprocal peer tutoring
Definition The instructional method of students working in dyads or small groups and systematically presenting their peers with opportunities to practice academic skills.
Description Peer tutoring occurs in general education classrooms and is the arrangement of students teaching academic content to each other. Multiple arrangements ofstudents can be employed: dyads or small groups, same-age or cross-age groups, same-gender or cross-gender groups, and students with and without disabilities paired together. Peer tutoring has been more effective in low-income areas versus high-income areas with students in Grades 1–3 versus students in Grades 4–6. As peer tutoring involves student autonomy, structured student roles, and interdependent group rewards, it can improve academic outcomes, attitudes, self-concept, and social interactions. In the model of “reciprocal peer tutoring” and “classwide peer tutoring,” a teacher prepares folders containing flash cards with content materials such as sight words, math problems, and science facts. Students take turns being the tutor and tutee. The tutor presents the flash cards one at a time to the tutee. If the tutee is correct with a flash card, the tutor provides praise and tokens as rewards. When tutees make errors, the tutor asks the tutee
Perfectionist
to try again. If the tutee is still incorrect, the tutor provides the correct answer. A timer is often used to mark the time each student has to be the tutor and five minutes is the length of a typical tutoring session. At the end of a session, the tutor records the tutee’s performance on a childfriendly bar graph (i.e., with animals or other icons). Based on students’ performances, flash cards are grouped as either mastered or in acquisition. Mastered flash cards are reviewed periodically. During peer tutoring, teachers can walk around and monitor tutoring sessions or use the time to give extra help to students who need it. Classwide peer tutoring has many advantages over teacher-led instruction. Many children in a classroom simultaneously receive one-on-one opportunities to practice academic skills with little burden on the teacher. Each peer tutoring dyad can work on different material at any given time to meet the needs of a heterogeneous group of students. Another benefit of peer tutoring is children can practice social skills as interacting with a peer is embedded in the strategy. Fluency, or performing skills with accuracy and speed, is often a focus of peer tutoring programs. Peer tutoring is strategy that increases “active student responding.” Active student responding (ASR) is accomplished when students are not sitting idle and simply listening to a teacher talk. Rather, ASR occurs when students are “doing,” or performing behaviors such as talking, pointing, and writing. Peer tutoring is also a strategy used to include students with a range of disabilities, from learning disabilities to autism, in general education classrooms. Typically developing peers can serve as the tutors of students with disabilities and the students with disabilities also take turns being the tutors.
2.
3.
Ginsburg-Block, M. D., Rohrbeck, C. A., & Fantuzzo, J. W. (2006). A meta-analytic review of social, self-concept, and behavioral outcomes of peer-assisted learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 732–749. Heward, W. L., Heron, T. E., & Cooke, N. L. (1982). Tutor huddle: Key element in a classwide peer tutoring system. The Elementary School Journal, 83, 114–123. Kamps, D. M., Greenwood, C., Arreaga-Mayer, C., Veerkamp, M. B., Utley, C., Tapia, Y., et al. (2008). The efficacy of classwide peer tutoring in middle schools. Education & Treatment of Children, 31, 119–152.
Peer Victimization ▶Bullying
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Peers ▶Friendship ▶Peer Relationships
Peer-Tutoring ▶Scaffolding
People Who “Swing Both Ways” ▶Bisexual
People with Special Health Care Needs ▶Chronic Health Problems
Percentile Ranks ▶Norm-Referenced Scores
References 1.
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Perceptual Motor Dysfunction ▶Developmental Coordination Disorder
Perfectionism ▶Perfectionistic
Perfectionist ▶Perfectionistic
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Perfectionistic MEREDITH L. SLISH Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Perfectionism; Perfectionist
Definition One who attempts to achieve a state of perfection.
Description One who is perfectionistic suffers from perfectionism – a rejection of performance that is less than perfect. Two types of perfectionists have been identified. Adaptive perfectionists are those individuals who do not allow their perfectionistic attitudes and behaviors to become debilitating in their lives. Adaptive perfectionists will set goals for themselves, but those goals will be realistic and attainable. Because their goals are not unattainable, they can then derive pleasure from methods to obtain those goals and their measures to attain the goals do not become selfdefeating. Such perfectionistic individuals have high self-esteem and are flexible in their standards for themselves and others and thus are well adjusted intrapersonally and socially [7, 13]. These individuals, ultimately, can still gain satisfaction from their performance even if they are not “perfect” [7, 13]. In contrast, maladaptive perfectionists usually fear the thought of failure and experience anxiety when they perceive that they have failed. They tend to be overly self critical and feel that the effort they put forth is never good enough. This distorted pattern of thinking leads to their inability to be happy or experience pleasure from any effort made [7]. Perfectionistic behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits have been linked to various psychopathologies including mood disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, eating disorders, somatic complaints such as migraines and chronic aches and pains, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts [3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13].
Childhood Development Perfectionistic children and adolescents may be more susceptible to develop anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, eating disorders, and suicidal ideations and attempts. Perfectionism has also been shown to significantly impact children’s academic performance [1]. Adaptive perfectionism has been
positively correlated with academic performance whereas maladaptive perfectionism has been shown to be negatively correlated with academic performance [1]. Also adaptive perfectionism has been positively correlated with self-esteem and negatively correlated with depression. Conversely, maladaptive perfectionism has been positively correlated with depression and negatively correlated with self-esteem [1]. Perfectionism has also been found to account for a significant portion of the variance in depressive symptoms, symptoms of OCD, and difficulties in relationships with peers in children suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder [14]. Social connection has been shown to be a moderator for maladaptive perfectionism and the presence of social connection has been shown to lessen the effects of maladaptive perfectionism as well as lessen the effects of hopelessness (robust predictor of depression) [13]. If meaningful social connections are a buffer from potential suicide, then perfectionistic children who have a maladaptive perfectionistic style and low social connections may be at an increased risk for suicide than their adaptive perfectionistic peers. Depressive disorders in children and adolescents are often accompanied by another mental disorder such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, behavior disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and substance-related disorders [2]. Other suicide risk factors for children include psychological disorders, relationships within the family, family history of psychological disorders or suicide, substance abuse, high levels of stress, social isolation, exposure to other people who have attempted or completed suicide, the individual adolescent’s previous suicide attempts or ideations, the presence of firearms within the household in which the adolescent lives, social and economic problems, dependent personality types, and problems in personal interactions with others [4, 6, 12].
References 1. Accordino, D. B., Accordino, M. P., & Slaney, R. B. (2000). An investigation of perfectionism, mental health, achievement, and achievement motivation in adolescents. Psychology in Schools, 37(6), 535–545. 2. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 3. Blatt, S. J. (1995). The destructiveness of perfectionism: Implications for the treatment of depression. American Psychologist, 50, 1003–1020. 4. Farber, M. L. (1977). Factors determining the incidence of suicide within families. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 7, 3–6. 5. Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (Eds.). (2002). Perfectionism: Theory, research, and treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Peripheral Nervous System 6. Gust-Brey, K., & Cross, T. (1999). An examination of the literature base on the suicidal behaviors of gifted students. Roeper Review, 22(1), 28–35. 7. Hamachek, D. E. (1978). Psychodynamics of normal and neurotic perfectionism. Psychology, 15, 27–33. 8. Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Dimensions of perfectionism in unipolar depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 98–101. 9. Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456–470. 10. Hewitt, P. L., Flett, G. L., & Turnball-Donovan, W. (1992). Perfectionism and suicide potential. British Journal of clinical psychology, 31, 181–190. 11. Hewitt, P. L., Norton, G. R., Flett, G. L., Callander, L., & Cowan, T. (1998). Dimensions of perfectionism, hopelessness, and attempted suicide in a sample of alcoholics. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 28, 395–406. 12. Holinger, P. C., Offer, D., Barter, J. T., & Bell, C. C. (1994). Suicide and homicide among adolescents. New York: The Gilford Press. 13. Rice, K. G., Leever, B. A., Christopher, J., & Porter, J. D. (2006). Perfectionism, stress, and social (dis)connection: A short-term study of hopelessness, depression, and academic adjustment among honors students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(4), 524–534. 14. Ye, H. J., Rice, K. G., & Storch, E. A. (2008). Perfectionism and peer relations among children with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 39(4), 415–426.
Performance Anxiety ▶Test Anxiety
Performance-Based Assessment ▶Projective Assessment Techniques
Peripheral Nervous System CHAD A. NOGGLE1, ANDREA R. MOREAU2 1 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA 2 Indiana Neuroscience Institute/St. Vincent’s Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Synonyms PNS
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Definition The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) refers to those aspects of the nervous system that lies outside of the Central Nervous System (CNS), which includes neuronal connections with muscles, nerves, and other regions of the body.
Description The PNS is a network of afferent and efferent neurons that connects the CNS with the sensory receptors, muscles, and viscera of the body [7]. Simply put, the PNS includes all the portions of the nervous system outside the CNS [8] and not encased within bone [3]. In terms of the aforementioned neuronal pathways, afferent neurons are the circuitry that transmits messages from the PNS to the CNS whereas efferent neurons transmit messages from the CNS to the PNS. These pathways may also be differentiated across sensory and motor lines in which afferent neurons transmit sensory information back to the receptor and processing sites of the CNS and efferent pathways transmit motor signals to the musculature of the PNS [2]. Thus, the PNS is wholly responsible for forming lines of communication between the Spinal Cord and the periphery of the body [1]. The CNS and PNS are in constant communication with one another [8]. From a hierarchical standpoint the PNS consists of two main divisions that are vested in carrying out various functions, the Somatic Nervous System and the Autonomic Nervous System [6]. The Somatic Nervous System is primarily responsible for interacting with the external environment [3]. This division is composed largely of afferent projections which transmit sensory signals from organs such as the eyes, ear, nose, skin, muscles, and joints to the CNS [3]. The Autonomic Nervous System itself has two primary divisions, the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems [1]. The primary function of the Autonomic Nervous System, as a holistic entity, is the neural control of internal states through its’ influence on internal organs, both peripheral and central parts [8]. The primary role of the Sympathetic branch is the regulation of the fight-orflight response [4]. As such, the Sympathetic division is involved in those activities the expend bodily energy such as increasing blood flow, heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure [8]. Whereas the sympathetic branch of the Autonomic Nervous System acts to expend energy, the Parasympathetic branch functions to conserve it [8]. Specifically, the Parasympathetic branch comes into play at times of rest in which respiration and heart rate are slowed and digestive processes increase so to restock the body’s warehouse of energy. The manner in which the Sympathetic
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and Parasympathetic branches compliment one another is antagonistic in nature [5]. Increased activation of one leads to decreased activation of the other. This back-and-forth interaction serves the purpose of maintaining homeostasis of internal system, while also modulating the appropriate reactivity to the environment.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8.
Beaumont, J. G. (2008). Introduction to Neuropsychology (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn and Bacon. Filley, C. M. (2001). Neurobehavioral anatomy (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton and Company. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning.
Often, permissive parents allow their children to make their own decisions at an age when they are not yet ready to do so. The permissive parenting style is defined by warm and accepting parents who are uninvolved. These parents can be either overindulging or inattentive [2]. Parents may be deliberately permissive because they believe this style of parenting will foster creative, confident children [4]. Permissive parenting can be categorized as either democraticindulgent or rejecting-neglecting. Democratic-indulgent parents are loving parents but rarely restrict their children’s behavior unless there is imminent danger. These parents tend to be overindulging, often going along with the child’s wishes. In comparison, rejecting-neglecting parents do not attend to parenting details due to disinterest or being overwhelmed by life. Different from democratic-indulgent parents, rejecting-neglecting parents are not aware of what their children’s interests are or what their children are doing.
Relevance to Childhood Development
Democratic-indulgent parenting style; Indulgent parenting style; Rejecting-neglecting parenting style
Children of permissive parents show many negative outcomes such as the tendency to be unhappy, lacking selfcontrol and self-reliance. These children have been found to do slightly worse in school as adolescents. Also, children with permissive parents tend to be more aggressive, to be somewhat more immature with peers and in school, and less likely to take responsibility for their actions. Permissive parenting may also result in children who are domineering, egocentric, and noncompliant [4]. Children of permissive parents are impulsive and rebellious. The likelihood for being overly demanding and less persistence on tasks is greater for these children as well. The connection between permissive parenting and dependent, nonachieving behavior is particularly strong for males [2].
Definition
References
A style of parenting that has a high level of acceptance but a low level of control or demand.
1.
Description
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Permissive Parenting Style LEAH E. JOHNSON, HEATHER M. KELLEY Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Synonyms
The permissive parenting style is characterized by a high level of nurturance and low levels of maturity demands from children, low levels of control, and low levels of communication between parent and child. Parents who exhibit permissive parenting are highly involved with their children, but place few demands or controls on them. These parents do little to train their children to be more independent. Children of permissive parents are allowed to do what they want with little input from the parents.
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Bee, H. (1999). The growing child: An applied approach (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. Berk, L. E. (2007). Development through the lifespan (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Poole, D., Warren, A., & Nunez, N. (2007). The story of human development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Santrock, J. W. (2009). Life-span development (12th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Personal Constructs ▶Constructivist Psychotherapy
Personal Narratives
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Synonyms
the Human Sciences (1988) tracks the history of the development of using personal narratives in psychology. As individual psychology developed, the narrative became the tool of psychologists in helping establish personal identity. Karl Scheibe [4] wrote about identity and narrative. Human identities are considered to be evolving constructions; they emerge out of continual social interactions in the course of life. Self-narratives are developed stories that must be told in specific historical terms, using a particular language, reference to a particular stock of working historical conventions and a particular pattern of dominant beliefs and values. The most fundamental narrative forms are universal, but the way these forms are styled and filled with content will depend upon particular historical conventions of form and place (p. 131). Time is important in personal narratives as well. The narrative must also include the development of a future narrative. So the temporal ordering of the events becomes important and must include many events. This provides the opportunities of including overlooked events which can be incorporated to identify strengths, alternative ways of understanding events and imbue a sense of hopefulness for the future.
Diaries; Histories; Journals; Narrative conversations; Outsider witnesses; Stories; Tales; Testimonials
Relevance to Childhood Development
Personal Fable ▶Adolescent Egocentrism ▶Imaginary Audience
Personal Identity ▶Identity
Personal Narratives BERNADETTE HASSAN SOLO´RZANO Our Lady of the Lake University Community Counseling Service, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition Polkinghorne [3] stated that “narrative can refer to the process of making a story, to the cognitive scheme of the story, or the result of the process.” (p. 13) “Narrative” is a term that has become increasingly used in mainstream culture to describe such things as cultural narratives, gender narratives, political narratives, survivor narratives, illness narratives, etc [2, 5]. Narratives are used therapeutically in psychology. Postmodern therapy approaches consider narratives as a powerful component of therapy since postmodernist therapists believe that reality is constituted in language and narratives can be used to change understandings of a situation. If clients can create a more empowered narrative, it is the first step to creating an improved future. Personal narratives can be utilized in written or oral form. Michael White and David Epston implemented writing letters to their clients between sessions to continue the therapeutic narratives between sessions.
Description Polkinghorne [3] wrote that psychology has used narratives throughout their history in the form of biographies, life stories and case studies. Polkinghorne in Knowing and
The power of storytelling has been with us since the beginning of time. Originally, stories of valor and morality were handed down from generation to generation orally until they began to be written down. Jerome Bruner wrote extensively in Acts of Meaning [1] about the fact that children learn early on the necessity of balancing their own desires with those of the family. “Telling the right story, putting her actions and goal in a legitimizing light, is just as important. Getting what you want very often meant getting the right story. . . . A “right” story is one that connects your version through mitigation with the canonical version” (p. 86). Jerome Bruner described narratives as an innate way that children understand even before they have words. You can see children create a sequencing of events in their play. Narratives are the product of how we talk to ourselves in order to sort through our thoughts and develop a coherent understanding of our experiences. Children initially use narratives to sequence and describe what occurred. The next step children create narratives which describe the ordinary sequencing of events and create explanations for when a divergence occurs. Finally perspective and evaluation is introduced to the narrative. The final step is introduced when the narrative includes solving problems.
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References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Penn, P. (2001). Chronic illness: Trauma, language, and writing: Breaking the silence. Family Process, 40, 33–52. Polkinghorne, D. E. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. New York: State University of New York Press. Scheibe, K. E. (1986). Self-narratives and adventure. In Sarbin, T. R. (Ed.), Narrative psychology. (pp. 171–190). New York: Praeger. White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to a therapeutic ends. New York: W.W. Norton.
Perspective-Taking PHYLLIS CURTIS-TWEED Medgar Evers College/CUNY, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Synonyms Interpersonal understanding; Role-taking; Social perspective coordination; Sociomoral perspective-taking
Definition
Personal Recollection ▶Autobiographical Memory
Personality Assessment ▶Projective Assessment Techniques
Personality Testing ▶Behavior Assessment System for Children: Second Edition (BASC-2) ▶Conners’ Teacher Rating Scales: Revised ▶Conners-Wells Adolescent Self Report Scale ▶Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory ▶Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory
Person-Centered Therapy ▶Client-Centered Therapy ▶Humanistic Therapy
Perspective Taking ▶Mindblindness
Perspective-taking is the ability to understand both one’s perspective and the perspective of another person.
Description Perspective-taking, the ability to understand the distinct perspectives of self and other, is a central process in social cognitive development. Perspective-taking impacts the ways in which people understand themselves and interact with other people. It occurs any time and everywhere that an understanding of self and other is required. It varies according to context and the participants in a given context. According to G. H. Mead [7], a central factor in social cognitive development is the individual’s ability to take another’s perspective, as that perspective both informs ones understanding of the self and influences interpersonal interaction. Role-taking or perspective-taking includes the understanding of others’ thoughts and attitudes demonstrated though cooperative activity. The importance of this premise is reflected by the presupposition that perspectivetaking ability underlies many research areas, including interpersonal interaction, aggression and empathy [15], moral reasoning [8], prejudice and ethnic identity [1, 2], resiliency [9] , self theory [6], and Piagetian cognitive stage theory. Perspective-taking has been used as a barometer for the development of social cognitive processes such as moral development and has served as a target for intervention in program development (e.g., Facing History and Ourselves) [4]. Perspective-taking components are considered to be possible predictors of psychological dysfunction and research suggests that perspective-taking ability in combination with interpersonal interaction and personal qualities may protect individuals form psychological disorder and promote resiliency. The interpretive function of perspective in the development of self-knowledge and other understanding has served as a starting point for many philosophical efforts to explicate human behavior [5]. Habermas [5, (p. 132)] notes that social perspective coordination or sociomoral
Perspective-Taking
perspective-taking may be understood in terms of “the context of the de-centering of the young person’s understanding of the world”. Perspective-taking is multidimensional and depends upon the independence and interrelatedness of the self-other perspective-taking constructs, life experiences and contextual variability and is influenced by the characterization of adaptive behavior as well as difference individual development. The self \other components of perspective-taking serve interpretive functions within the formation of perspective derived from context where context may be understood as the arena for experience. These perspectives are reapplied to other contexts, informed by experience and re-conceptualized according to the changing requirements of each context. Perspective-taking is generally considered to have hermeneutical properties because it allows for the observation and interpretation of behavior on a conceptual and descriptive level [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development Perspective-taking processes are grounded in the development of the self and the ability to understand the viewpoints of others. Because it is a cognitive developmental process, perspective-taking development is age related with higher orders of perspective-taking generally being attained with age. Research literature generally concurs that awareness of psychological distinctions between self and others and a perspective of the self as a social entity emerge around the age of 8 years [3]. Prior to this age, perspective-taking is largely undifferentiated. Although perspective-taking may develop across the lifespan, the formative years of this process have been identified as 8–15. Interventions designed to impact perspective-taking development necessarily target these formative years, 8–15, and tend to focus on the classroom where children of this age range spend most of their time. A major influence in this area has been Selman’s models of perspective-taking and of social perspective coordination which focus on understanding the self and others in interpersonal interaction. These models integrate Mead’s perspective of role-taking as the fundamental process in social cognitive development with Piagetian stage theory of cognitive development [10–12]. Selman initially developed a stage theory of social perspective coordination derived in part from Kohlberg’s cognitive moral development theory and previous work on roletaking ([10]). Selman [12, (p. 6)] defines social perspective coordination and role-taking synonymously as “the developing ability to differentiate and integrate the self and others’ points of view through an understanding of the relation between the thoughts, feelings and wishes of each
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person”. Selman’s model extends beyond the identification of the capacity to coordinate social perspectives to understand behavior in social interaction in different contexts such friendship, and parent-child relations. Selman [12–14] identifies levels of social perspective coordination/ perspective-taking as follows: Level 0 egocentric and undifferentiated: The child is egocentric and has difficulty in differentiating the physical and psychological characteristics of others. Level 1 subjective and unilateral: The child is able to differentiate psychical and psychological characteristics but can only perceive one point of view in perspectivetaking. Level 2 Self-reflective and reciprocal: The ability to take a second-person perspective emerges with some evidence of the acknowledgement of the necessity of reciprocity in relationships. Level 3 third person and mutual: Children can take a third -person perspective of relationships and mutually coordinate perspectives. Selman has also identified a fifth level of perspectivetaking which emerges around age 14 years and encompasses adulthood. It is in this stage that individuals understand that their perspective-taking may be influenced by systems such as societal values. Empirical research and subsequent programs have focused on providing evidence and intervention for the first four levels.
References 1. Aboud, F. (1988). Children and prejudice. Oxford: New York. 2. Cross, W. E. (1978). The Thomas and cross models of psychological nigrescence: A literature review. The Journal of Black Psychology, 5(1), 13–33. 3. Damon, W., & Hart, D. (1988). Self-understanding in childhood and adolescence. New York: Cambridge University Press. 4. Facing History and Ourselves. (2010). www.facinghistory.org 5. Habermas, J. (1990). Moral consciousness and communicative action. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. 6. Lapsley, D. K., & Power, F. C. (Eds.). (1988). Self, ego and identity. New York: Springer. 7. Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 8. Rest, J. (1983). Morality. In P. H. Mussen, J. H. Flavell, & E. M. Markman (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 3). New York: Wiley. 9. Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57(3), 316–331. 10. Selman, R. L. (1976). Social-cognitive understanding: A guide to educational and clinical practice. In T. Lickona (Ed.), Moral development and behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 11. Selman, R. L. (1980). The growth of interpersonal understanding: Developmental and clinical analyses. New York: Academic Press. 12. Selman, R. L., & Schultz, L. H. (1990). Making a friend in youth: Developmental theory and pair therapy. Chicago: University of Chicago.
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13. Selman, R. L., & Schultz, L. H. (1992). Family, friends and community questionnaire. (Available from Dr. R. L. Selman, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA). 14. Selman, R. L., Schultz, L. H., & Yeates, K. O. (1989). The interpersonal negotiation strategies interview manual. Unpublished manuscript. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Graduate School of Education and Department of Psychiatry. 15. Shantz, C. U. (1983). Social cognition. In P. H. Mussen, J. H. Flavell, & E. M. Markman (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 495–555). New York: Wiley.
Description The phenotype is determined by genes inherited from the parents and is influenced by environmental factors. If one or two dominant alleles are inherited such as dark eyes the person will have dark eyes. However, two recessive alleles are inherited (blue eyes) the recessive phenotype (blue eyes) will be inherited.
References 1. 2.
Pervasive Developmental Disorders
3.
▶Childhood Disintegrative Disorder 4. 5.
Berk, L. A. (2006). Child development (7th ed., p. 69). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Deiner, P. L. (2009). Infants and toddlers: Development and curriculum planning (2nd ed., pp. 47–48). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cenage Learning. Simpson, N. B., & Cunliffe, W. J. (2004). Disorders of the sebaceous glands. In T. Burns, S. Breathnach, N. Cox, & C. Griffiths (Eds.), Rook’s textbook of dermatology (7th ed., pp. 43.1–75). Malden, MA: Blackwell Science. http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Phenotype_frequency https://www.23andme.com/gen101/phenotype/
PET ▶Positron Emission Tomography
Phonemes LORETTA C. RUDD, MACY SATTERWHITE Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Pharyngeal Response Mechanism ▶Swallowing Reflex
Definition In oral language, the smallest meaningful segment of sound (e.g., /d/, /t/, /k/).
Description
Pharyngeal Swallow Response ▶Swallowing Reflex
Phenotype JANA SANDER Texas A&M University Corpus Christi College of Education, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Definition The observable physical and behavioral characteristics of a person.
Phonemes are the smallest units of speech and they are written as graphemes, or letters of the alphabet. Phonemes are marked as using diagonal lines (e.g., /d/) which refers to the sound the letter d makes. Phonemes are abstract units of language and children are able to use the sounds of parts of words to help decode the words. Children use their knowledge of individual speech sounds and begin relating it to the sound of whole words as they become phonemically aware.
Relevance to Childhood Development Understanding that words are composed of smaller units – phonemes – is a significant achievement for young children because phonemes are abstract language units [2–4]. Children should be exposed to environments rich with language as soon as possible because it will model for children proper word combinations and pronunciation techniques that will encourage children to develop their
Phonemic
own language skills [1]. Children begin to hear acceptable sounds and sound patterns over and over in the words used most frequently in their language. When children can auditorally discern the subtle differences in phonemes (e.g., hit vs. hint; bit vs. sit; bash vs. batch), they are developing necessary skills to become proficient readers [5]. There is evidence to indicate that children who are unable to discern phonemic differences auditorially will struggle with reading [4].
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
Morrow, L. (2001). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Company. Tompkins, G. (2004). Literacy for the 21st century (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Company. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective (4th ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Pearson Education Company. Yopp, H. K. (1992). Developing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading Teacher, 45, 696–703. Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54, 130–143.
Phonemic MACY SATTERWHITE, HEATHER M. KELLEY Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition The understanding that speech is made up of a series of sounds and that individual words can be broken down into phonemes, the smallest unit of sound.
Description Phonemics is known in the field of linguistics as the study of phonemes and can also include their written representations. The phoneme is an indivisible unit of human sound in any language which carries meaning. This study includes articulation, or production of the sounds, the auditory perception of the sounds, and the meaning behind the sounds. Phonemic study includes the understanding of the differences between sounds and how those sounds can change the meaning of the words used within a spoken language. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify words as having a specific sequence of sound, and then be able to manipulate these phonemes or sounds by blending sounds, isolating sounds, recognizing rhyme, among
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other tasks. For instance, four year old Matthew might notice that Matthew, Meagan (his younger sister), and Mommy all start with the same sound. This recognition of sound is referred to as phonemic awareness. Segmentation and blending of sounds are aspects of phonemic awareness which will later be useful to the child as he begins to read and write. For example the word fish can be segmented into three phonemes or sounds as /f/, /i/, /sh/. The recognition of rhyme is also useful to young readers and writers. If a child can recognize the rime (or ending segment) of the word hat as being -at, then he can manipulate the beginning sound to create mat, fat, cat, and others. It is important to note that phonemic awareness is the understanding and manipulation of the spoken sounds of language and should not be confused with the soundsymbol relationship of printed text.
Relevance to Childhood Development At an early age, young children become aware of the spoken sound. Children hear streams of sound, and soon associate that with meaning. Later, they learn to enjoy and play with language through nursery rhymes, finger plays, and books to begin on such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear [3]. Adults can help the young child delight in language play through these experiences and start noticing the sounds and structures of our language. In our English alphabetic written system, there is a strong relationship between the spoken sound and the printed word, with exceptions. Due to this strong relationship, it is critical that young children be able to recognize the sounds of the language so that they will be able to read and write using our conventional system. This whole system is built upon a rich foundation of oral language. Parents and caregivers should ensure all children are immersed in a literacy-rich environment with conversation, singing, nursery rhymes, and books read aloud repeatedly. These playful actions will not only teach the structure and nature of our language to the children, but will lay a strong foundation of literacy learning for the future. The National Reading Panel [4] suggests that children who have a strong foundation in phonemic awareness are less likely to develop reading problems during formal instructional schooling.
References 1.
2.
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2007). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Graves, M. F., Juel, C., & Graves, B. B. (2007). Teaching reading in the 21st century. Boston: Pearson.
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5.
6.
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Martin, B. (1983). Brown bear, brown bear. New York: Holt. National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes on Health. Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (1998). Word matters: Teaching phonics and spelling in the reading/writing classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Vogt, M., & Shearer, B. A. (2007). Reading specialists and literacy coaches in the REAL world. Boston: Pearson.
Phonemic Awareness SUNNY WINDINGSTAD University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Panel found the overall effect sizes on reading (d=0.53) and spelling (d=0.59) outcomes were moderate. These same techniques can be used to assess phonemic awareness, as well.
Relevance to Childhood Development There is debate about the role of phonemic awareness in reading acquisition. For instance, although the International Reading Association [2] references several studies supporting the ability of phonemic awareness to predict later reading ability, the exact role phonemic awareness plays in reading development is unknown. Presumably, phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for decoding the written word because it underlies the appreciation of symbol–sound relationships [5]. Phonemic awareness develops over time.
References Synonyms
1.
Orthographic reading skills; Phonological awareness 2.
Definition Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the smallest units of sound in spoken communication. This skill is exhibited through identification and manipulation of the sounds of oral language.
3.
Description The term phonemic awareness is often used interchangeably with phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness, however, generally applies to the ability to recognize and manipulate the smallest unit of the spoken word, the phoneme, while phonological awareness applies to larger units of language such as syllables, onsets, and rimes [1, 2]. According to Goswami [4], phonemic awareness “refers to the knowledge that a word like cup consists of three phonemes, corresponding to the letters c, u, p.” Not only is phonemic awareness defined as the knowledge of the symbol/sound correspondence, but also the ability to manipulate these relationships in order to demonstrate the awareness. Phonemic awareness is simple to assess and several formal and informal measures of the construct exist. According the National Reading Panel [3], phonemic awareness can be taught through the isolation, identification, categorization, lending, segmentation, and deletion of phonemes in context. In a meta-analysis of studies of phonemic awareness instruction, the National Reading
4.
5.
Goswami, U. (1998). The role of analogies in the development of word recognition. In J. L. Metsala & L. C. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy. Hillsdale, HJ: Erlbaum. International Reading Association. (1998). Phonemic awareness and the teaching of reading: A position statement from the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. Retrieved July 13, 2000, from http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/positions_phonemic. html National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups (NIH Publication No. 00-4754). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Sensenbaugh, R. (1992). Phonemic awareness: An important early step in learning to read. Bloomington, In ERIC clearinghouse on reading english and communication. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from, www. ericdigests.org, ERIC No. ED400530. Stanovich, K. E. (1994). Romance and Reality (Distinguished Educator Series). Reading Teacher, 47(4), 280–291.
Phonemic Development HEATHER M. KELLEY, KYLE A. LITCHFIELD Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition The part of language development that uses phonology (the part of language involving speech sounds, including pronunciation, fluency, and intonation) phonemic awareness (the understanding that language is made up of smaller
Phonemic Development
units: words, syllables, and sounds) and phonics to become proficient in speaking, reading and writing language.
Description Phonemic development emphasizes language development skills with the ultimate goal of proficiently in reading and writing. Phonemic development begins with the skill of phonology – the part of language that involves an individual speech sound that a letter makes. Phonology is well developed in the primary years of life, and children by age 5 have acquired most of the phonemes – individual speech sounds. Phonemes are the smallest units of speech and they are written as graphemes, or letters of the alphabet. Phonemes are marked as using diagonal lines (e.g., /d/) which refers to the sound the letter d makes. Phonemes are abstract units of language and children are able to use the sounds of parts of words to help decode the words. Children use their knowledge of individual speech sounds and begin relating it to the sound of whole words as they become phonemically aware [3]. Phonemic awareness develops in children in the elementary years after they have mastered phonology. Phonemic awareness refers to a child’s basic understanding that speech is composed of a series of individual sounds, syllables, and words, and provides a foundation for a greater depth of understanding of language. The simplest level of phonemic awareness is to understand that words are made up of multiple sounds that we can hear, identify, and match to similar word patterns such as rhymes. As children gain this knowledge and perform these functions, they are developing auditory discrimination. Children are considered phonemically aware when a child can choose a duck as the animal whose name begins with /d/ from a collection of toy animals. Also, children know that a word such as bug is composed of three sounds that can be segmented into those sounds of /b/u/g/. Phonemic awareness has been referred to as a precursor to phonics and necessary for children to learn in order to benefit from phonics instruction. Phonics is the last stage of phonemic development and refers to the relationship between the sounds in speech and the spelling patterns in written language. The emphasis is on spelling patterns and is based on the prior knowledge of phonology and phonemic awareness. There is no simple way to explain all of the types of phonics information that students need to learn, nor can they be listed in a clean, sequential order, because it is built on a child’s foundation of phonemic awareness. Children should be taught the letters of the alphabet first, then consonants, vowels, blends (e.g., sh, ch), and phonics generalizations. Phonics generalizations refer to rules to clarify English spelling patterns.
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For example, one rule is that q is followed by u and pronounced /kw/, as in queen and quick. Actual reading and writing will improve the understanding of phonics.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children acquire speech sounds gradually in the early years of life and it is common to have difficulty understanding preschoolers at the phonology stage because they have not mastered key sounds. Phonology is a precursor in the developmental process of phonemics. Understanding that words are composed of smaller units – phonemes – is a significant achievement for young children because phonemes are abstract language units. Children should be exposed to environments rich with language as soon as possible because it will model for children proper word combinations and pronunciation techniques that will encourage children to develop their own language skills. Children begin to hear acceptable sounds and sound patterns over and over in the words used most frequently in their language. When students enter the elementary years of schooling they will be mastering phonemes and becoming phonemically aware and advancing to whole words. Phonemic awareness has been found to be very important in learning to read in first and second grade. Children that were able to distinguish among individual speech sounds found it easier to learn and read. As children develop phonemic awareness, they learn to segment, manipulate, and blend spoken language. Children use strategies to decode and encode words as they are trying to read. Listed below, are five developmentally appropriate phonemic strategies very common for children to use as they become more proficient in reading. 1. Matching sounds to words. Children learn to identify a word that begins or ends with a particular sound. For example, when shown a brush, a car, and a doll, they can identify doll as the word that ends with /l/. 2. Isolate a sound in a word. Children learn to isolate the sound at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. After the teacher says the word hat, for example, children can identify /a/ as the middle sound. 3. Blend individual sounds to form a word. Children learn to blend two, three, or four individual sounds to form a word. The teacher says /b/, /i/, /g/, for example, and the children repeat the sounds, blending them to form the word big. 4. Substitute sounds in a word. Children learn to remove a sound from a word and substitute a different sound. Sometimes they substitute the beginning sound, changing bar to car, for example. Or, students change the middle sound, making tip from top, or they substitute the ending sound, changing gate to game.
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5. Segment a word into its constituent sounds. Children learn to break a word into its beginning, middle, and ending sounds. For example, children segment the word feet into /f/, /e/, /t/ and go into /g/, /o/ [5]. As children are developing their phonemic skills, it is important that children are exposed to a language-rich environment. Singing songs, chanting rhymes, reading aloud, and games give children the opportunity to orally match, isolate, blend, and substitute sounds and segment words into sounds. Phonemic awareness instruction is crucial to the success of the development of skills and should meet four criteria: 1. Activities should be appropriate. Children of 4, 5, and 6 years of age should involve songs, nursery rhymes, riddles and wordplay books because these activities are engaging and encourage playful experimentation. 2. Instruction should be planned and purposeful. When teachers have an objective in mind as they are teaching phonemic awareness, they are more likely to be effective in focusing children’s attention on the sound structure of oral language. 3. Phonemic awareness should be a part of a balanced literacy program. Instruction should integrate comprehension, decoding, vocabulary, writing, and spelling. It is important that children perceive the connection between writing and oral language. 4. Activities should be meaningful. Connect activities with topics that are relevant and meaningful for the child’s life. This will resort and a much more purposeful activity and children will become more motivated to learn [6]. It is important that children have a solid foundation on phonemes and phonemic awareness so they can be most successful in phonics and reading and writing. Second language learners whose native language uses an alphabetic system, such as Spanish, will learn phonemic awareness and phonics much more easily than students whose native language employs a logographic system of symbols without sound correspondences, such as Chinese. Language can be difficult for some to learn so adults and teachers should always be supportive and encourage language exploration and model proper techniques in regard to learning language [2]. As children begin to connect sounds with words, it is essential to encourage reading and writing which will enhance their language skills. Phonics instruction is an important part of reading and writing instruction during the primary grades, but a combination of instruction and actual reading and writing activities is most successful for students. Without this meaningful application of what
they are learning, phonics instruction can often become ineffective. There are four stages of phonemic writing development as children progress in their writing skills. 1. Prephonemic Stage. Random letters are used to represent whole words or stories. The letters chosen have no relationship to the sounds in the story but are “placeholders for meaning.” 2. Phonemic Stage. Letters are used that match some of the sounds in the words or stories being written. A letter matching the beginning sound of a word might be used to represent that whole word (e.g., p for people). 3. Transitional Stage. The child spells out words using correct letter sounds. However, writing contains much “invented spelling” in which conventions are not followed. For example, the silent e is often omitted, as in mak for make. 4. Conventional Writing. Some children begin writing as adults do during the primary years, using correct spellings and other writing conventions [4].
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
Clay, M. (2001). Change over time in children’s literacy development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Morrow, L. (2001). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Company. Tompkins, G. (2004). Literacy for the 21st century (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Company. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective (4th ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Pearson Education Company. Yopp, H. K. (1992). Developing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading Teacher, 45, 696–703. Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54, 130–143.
Phonemic Reading Skills KYLE A. LITCHFIELD, HEATHER M. KELLEY Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Synonyms Character deciphering abilities
Definition Skills used to string individual phonemes together to successfully read whole words. Ability to segment individual sounds to successfully read whole words.
Phonics
Description As children begin learning to read, they decode words using a left-to-right analysis of letter–sound relationships [1]. Readers must master a variety of skills to recognize, decode, and understand the meaning of words and comprehend what they are reading. One strategy for children learning to read consists of phonemic skills, which involves learning to read a word by sounding out the individual phonemes, or the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another [2]. In order for a child to successfully learn to read and write words, they must first be able to analyze the sound of words. Phonemic skills are the foundation to world solving in both reading and writing [2]. Mastering these skills allows learners to read words by thinking about the sounds. While breaking words apart by phonemes is a help with simple words, such as hat, phonetically breaking up more complex words, such as restaurant, is not as easy. As readers are introduced to these more complex words, they must begin to use phonemic skills in combination with other skills, such as visual, morphemic, linking, and research to comprehend each word.
Relevance to Childhood Development Learning and understanding phonemes is a critical step for children to master before most will achieve success in reading [3]. As children start the process of learning to read, one of the first ways they are generally taught to decode words is by sounding them out. Breaking whole words down into individual phonemes is a skill that children are taught during early years of elementary school and lay the foundation for academic and reading success later in life.
References 1. 2. 3.
Gunning, T. G. (2005). Creating literacy: Instruction for all students (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. Morrow, L. (2001). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2001). Guiding readers and writers: Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Phonics MACY SATTERWHITE, MATTHEW C. LAMBERT Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition Phonics instruction is a way of teaching the relationship between the sounds and symbols of our alphabetic system
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of language in reading and writing, usually used in beginning reading instruction through Grade 2 [2]. It is also referred to as one of the ways in which readers solve words.
Description Phonics instruction teaches children how the sound/symbol relationships of our language work. This knowledge is useful in decoding unknown words which are not sight words. The National Reading Panel [5] states that phonics knowledge is a strong predictor of reading proficiency. When a teacher points out that the letter m represents the first sound in milk, money, and Maggie, phonics is being taught. Phonics is also being taught when a young reader is taught the difference in the sounds of letter c in the words city, cake, ice, and crate. When youngsters study word families or word chunks such as –ight in the words night, might, and fright, they are engaging in phonics instruction. Phonics instruction and regular spelling instruction go hand-in-hand [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development As children progress in their language development into young readers and writers, the knowledge of phonics skills becomes invaluable in their journey. However, adults must be cautioned that the instruction of phonics is not an end into itself. Some children will need more phonics instruction than others [1, 2, 4]. Heilman [4] recommends that a “guideline for instruction is that the optimum amount of phonics instruction a child should be exposed to is the minimum the child needs to become an independent reader” (p. 2). Phonics instruction does have its limitations in teaching children to read. The English language is speckled with non-regular spellings of words such as many of the words which come from other languages such as the word bouquet. Also confusing are homonyms such as weak and week, silent letters such as in comb, and the many exceptions to our phonics rules such as been, said, have, and come. These exceptions and derivations are why children need a variety of methods in solving words in addition to phonics instruction. Phonics instruction is most valuable when supported with other literacy instruction of comprehension and vocabulary through language-rich texts and experiences [3, 6]. It is within the context of these rich literacy experiences that children will be able to apply and use their phonics knowledge, yet not get stumped on the irregularities of the English language.
References 1.
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2007). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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Dow, R. S., & Baer, G. T. (2007). Self-paced phonics: A text for educators. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Graves, M. F., Juel, C., & Graves, B. B. (2007). Teaching reading in the 21st century. Boston: Pearson. Heilman, A. W. (2006). Phonics in proper perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes on Health. Vogt, M., & Shearer, B. A. (2007). Reading specialists and literacy coaches in the REAL world. Boston: Pearson.
Phonological Awareness CHRISTOPHER PILAT, LISA KILANOWSKI-PRESS Niagara University, Niagara, NY, USA
Synonyms Phonemic awareness; Phonological learning; Phonological sensitivity
Definition Phonological awareness is the ability to understand and recognize the sound structure of the spoken language.
Background As early as the 1940s many researchers claimed that the inability to recognize the sound structure of the spoken word was often apparent in dyslexic (incapacity to read) cases. Despite these findings, phonological awareness has only been a main focus of reading research since the 1970s and 1980s. It was around this time that the relationship between phonological awareness and reading was established [2]. The early neglect of researchers focus on the relationship between phonological awareness and reading is understandable considering phonological awareness does not involve written letters; rather, phonological awareness refers to one’s awareness of the sound structure of oral language. Since the 1970s, however, phonological awareness has been consistently found to be the best predictor of future reading success [4, 5, 11, 17]. Phonological awareness is best conceptualized as a broad entity made up of separate skills. Scheule and Boudreau [12] suggest that there are simple, shallow level phonological awareness skills and complex, deep level phonological awareness skills. These shallow skills include separating words into their respective syllables, identifying as well as generating rhymes, and being able to recognize words
that share the same beginning sound. At the more complex level of phonological awareness is the ability to recognize, separate, and manipulate words into their smallest sound units also known as phonemes. This more intricate ability is commonly referred to as phonemic awareness. Scheule and Boudreau [12] identify some common skill sets in the sequence of phonological awareness. This sequence complements the suggestion that phonological awareness skills range from simple to complex. In ascending order from simple skill sets to more complex skill sets are the ability to separate words into syllables, rhyming, matching words by onsets and rimes, segmenting words into their respective onset and rimes, segmenting initial and final sounds, blending sounds into words, segmenting words into individual sounds, and deleting and manipulating phonemes. (For a graphic representation refer to Scheule and Boudreau [12].) The initial ability of a child to recognize that a word is made up of separate sounds is intuitive. Therefore, in most cases the child will not consciously tell you how many syllables there are in a word; rather, they will just demonstrate an understanding that the word is made up of separate sounds rather than one big sound. Research shows that children begin demonstrating phonological awareness by understanding that words break down into smaller groups of sounds. The child’s awareness that words are made of individual sounds comes much later in his/her phonological development [17]. The ability to rhyme is usually developed through nursery rhyme books. A child can demonstrate this skill in different ways. He/she could be presented with three words (cat, mat, dog) and told to provide you with the two words that rhyme. The child could also simply be asked what word rhymes with cat. Research shows that nursery rhymes can be memorized by children as early as 3 years of age [17]. Although not consciously aware of their ability to rhyme, children will be able to generalize this skill to understanding the phonology of a word. To match initial sounds of the word the child could be presented with a list of words (bat, dog, ball) and asked which two words have the same beginning sound. As well, the child could be presented with a list of words (bat, dog, ball, bank) and asked which word is not consistent with the rest of the beginning sounds (dog). Similarly, the same type of exercise would be feasible to match ending sounds of the word. However, in this case, you would provide the child with a list of words with similar endings (duck, tuck, truck, rabbit) and ask them to identify the words with similar endings or the word that does not belong. Segmenting words into onset and rimes and segmenting words into initial and final sounds are similar
Phonological Awareness
skill sets and should be discussed together. Research shows that segmenting the word where the onset and rime divide is easier than dividing an initial and final sound [16]. The onset is the initial phoneme in a word and the rime is the vowel and consonant that follows. For example, in the word “dog” the onset is /d/ and the rime is /og/. If the child were to divide an initial and final sound he/she would divide the word as such /do/ and /g/. The ability to segment is complex because of a concept referred to as coarticulation. Coarticulation pertains to the phenomenon in which vowels can be articulated in isolation, but a consonant must be coarticulated with a vowel. For instance, the vowel /a/ has an exclusive sound when spoken by itself. However, the /t/ sound changes depending on the word that is spoken (take-/tuh/, tap-/tah/). This is the most likely reason that it is more difficult for a child to separate an initial sound from a final sound than it is for them to separate an onset from a rime [17]. The ability of a child to blend individual or separate sounds into a cohesive word comes much later on in Scheule and Boudreau’s [12] phonological progression scale. This is a much more difficult concept for children to grasp. This ability is dependant upon most of the previous skills that have already been mentioned. Naturally, children must be aware that whole words are made up of separate sounds before they begin to blend the separate sounds into a whole meaningful word. Up until now the focus and skills involved in the phonological awareness progression have concentrated on segmentation where as this ability focuses on blending. When orally presented with the individual sounds of the word (/s/ch/ oo/l/) the child will be able to blend the different sounds into a cohesive and meaningful word (school). The next skill along the ascendancy of phonological awareness abilities is the segmentation of words into individual sounds, also known as phonemic awareness. Scheule and Boudreau suggest that this foundation is critical for future reading success, more so than any other skill in the progression of phonological awareness. A child who possesses this ability will understand and demonstrate that the word tap can be segmented into the individual sounds or phonemes /t/a/p/. Adams [1] suggests that this ability develops around the age of 6 years old. The child is now ready to make appropriate use of the alphabetic principle to read unknown words without the direction of someone else. The ability to segment words into phonemes usually leads to the ability to delete and manipulate phonemes. This is the understanding that the deletion of a phoneme will change the meaning of the word. Children will also be aware that they can manipulate individual phonemes to
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make different words at this stage. For example, if the child were to remove the /t/ in top and insert a /m/ in the place of the /t/, the child would understand that he/she has changed the meaning of the word. Further, if the child were to manipulate the word /top/ in reverse order, he/she would be aware that the new word would be /pot/. When progressing along the complex continuum of phonological awareness skills, Scheule and Boudreau [12] suggest that the acquisition of phonemic awareness skills begins with onset-rime segmentation. A typical child will then ascend up the gradient of skills to acquire the other steps necessary for phonemic awareness including, the ability to segment initial and final sounds, blend individual sounds into words, segment words into sounds, and delete, add, and manipulate phonemes. As stated previously, the skills that comprise phonemic awareness are necessary components of phonological awareness, and tend to begin to develop around the time that the child enters preschool and kindergarten [17]. It is important to distinguish between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness which are closely related but not the same. Phonological awareness is the ability to understand the sound structure of language where as phonemic awareness is the ability to manipulate and isolate individual sounds known as phonemes. Confusion tends to surround the differences between these two topics because they are so closely related in both meaning and spelling. It is important to remember that phonemic awareness is one of the skills that comprise the concept known as phonological awareness. It is also important to distinguish between phonological awareness and phonics. Phonological awareness in its pure form only refers to the sound structure of oral language. It does not actually have anything to do with written language. In contrast, phonics is the teaching of the alphabetic principle; the knowledge that different sounds of a language are represented by written symbols on paper. Phonological awareness is not dependent on phonics; however, phonics is dependent on phonological awareness. Children must understand the phonological structure of a word before they can learn the letters that correspond to those different sounds. Understanding the alphabetic principle, however, has shown to strengthen a child’s phonological awareness [12].
Relationship to Early Childhood Development There remains a lack of research about how phonological awareness tends to develop in children. There are, however, some theories which posit a possible developmental path that phonological awareness follows. The Lexical
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Restructuring Model [8] hypothesizes that children learn words holistically early in language growth. As their language develops they learn to represent language in single phonemes. In this model then, vocabulary is the driving force of the development of phonological awareness. Once a child’s vocabulary increases so does their ability to understand that words are represented by small units of sound rather than holistic units. They develop a lexical base which helps them generalize knowledge from word to word and draw comparisons. Children use this lexical base to identify words by syllables eventually progressing to identifying them by individual phoneme representations. When children develop the ability to recognize that words are made up of individual phonemes, they are now ready to learn the alphabetic principle. Ziegler and Goswami [18] propose a theory which they refer to as the psycholinguistic grain size theory. They hypothesize that a child’s phonological representations of words become finer grained and more complete over time rather than becoming more segmental as the Lexical Restructuring Model posits. Further, the psycholinguistic grain size theory suggests that repeated exposure to vocabulary and the spoken structure of language provides the foundation to develop phonological awareness. However, they claim that learning at the phonemic level does not happen until reading instruction begins. Children learn phonemic awareness through orthographic (written structure) representations of the word. Children who have reading difficulties are unable to efficiently use phonological representations of words to understand the orthographic representation of words. Thus, these children have a problem learning the alphabetic principle. Based on others research, Christensen [5] describes a developmental trajectory of phonological awareness which begins with knowledge of rhymes. Rhyme knowledge is usually acquired by the child through nursery rhymes and childhood language games. From this intuitive knowledge of rhymes, the child becomes receptive to the onset-rime structure of language and syllables. While these abilities generally develop before a child learns to read, phonemic awareness occurs after reading instruction has commenced. Whatever model one chooses there is little doubt that phonological awareness is indicative of future reading skills as evidenced by the myriad of researchers who adopt this view [4, 5, 12, 15, 17]. These future reading skills refer to phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, reading vocabulary, reading fluency and reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is the ultimate
literacy skill that educators want children to attain. It is referred to as an outcome measure because it draws upon all of the abilities associated with reading to succeed. Because phonological awareness predicts all of the skills necessary to comprehend reading, it is arguably the foundation of reading literacy. Since it is clear that phonological awareness has a strong effect on future reading success, it is relevant to discuss current reading literacy problems. Contrary to what many believe, the ability to read does not occur naturally. In fact reading draws upon many cognitive skills to function [2] and needs intense instruction to develop [3]. There are 15–20% of Americans currently diagnosed with a language disability; most of this percentage is accounted for by dyslexics, or those who do not have the ability to read [10]. Nearly 80% [3] of the 3 million children ages 3–21 (NICHCY, [9]) diagnosed with a Learning Disability have dyslexia. Further, the most common type of dyslexia, dysphonetic dyslexia, occurs because of a deficit in phonological awareness. Specifically, a dysphonetic dyslexic is unable to match the phonological sound of a word to the orthographic counterpart. These staggering statistics demonstrate how important it is for a child to fully develop phonological awareness. Unfortunately, nearly 20% of students are affected to some extent by deficits in phonological awareness [3]. As discussed earlier, phonological awareness helps students relate oral language to written language. It has been shown to predict a child’s word reading ability [14]. Birsh [3] suggests that if children fall behind in attaining a proficient level in word reading, they only have a one in eight chance of catching up to their same age peers. Luckily, deficits in phonological awareness can be detected as early as kindergarten and first grade. In fact, it is absolutely necessary to identify these children as early as possible and intervene appropriately. If these students who lack a proficient level of phonological awareness go unidentified until third grade they will likely continue to be plagued by reading disabilities. Birsh [3] further discusses a study supported by NICHD, which showed that 74% of the children who went unidentified with reading deficits until third grade continued to evidence a reading disability in ninth grade. To add upon these somber research findings, many students who have a reading disability are not recognized until third grade [6]. Maughan [7] uncovered long-term effects of reading difficulty through a review of the literature. Self reports suggest that adults face much embarrassment and anxiety when required to fill out a form, write checks, or even
Phonological Coding
write a single letter. Often books are avoided by these individuals as a source of information. If one considers the importance of written material as a means of retrieving information, this finding is significant. Also uncovered were occupational attainments of disabled readers. Specifically, those who traditionally struggled with reading were more likely to be unemployed at 23 years of age, and more likely to remain unemployed than their non-disabled peers. Maughan [7] also makes reference to educational attainment as the strongest predictor of occupational success. Considering the importance that reading has in educational attainment, it is reasonable to assume that a disability in reading can have a negative impact on future job success as well. Maughan [7] also found that studies reveal that struggling readers whose problems persist into adulthood have low self-esteem. This low self-esteem leads to many other problems not directly associated with a disability in reading. However, because a reading disability leads to low self-esteem, it can be considered an important risk factor for other problems in adulthood. In fact, reading disabilities have shown to be present in individuals with conduct disorder, emotional disturbances, and depression. This finding is logical considering the frustration that an individual displays when struggling with a reading task. This frustration is persistent throughout the day because reading is so deeply engrained in the navigation of society. Given all of the research that is available on phonological awareness there are still many inconsistencies present. Although it is no longer a mystery how phonological awareness develops it is still not an exact science either. Also, many researchers use different terminology when discussing phonological awareness. Some researchers use different terminology in describing the same concept or the same terminology when describing different topics. A common example is the tendency of researchers to interchange the terms phonological awareness and phonemic awareness when indeed they represent two different abilities. As well, both the number and types of skills that ought to be considered part of phonological awareness differ between researchers. Perhaps these inconsistencies provide evidence that further research is needed to make this concept more cohesive. There also needs to be more research conducted to eliminate the persistence of phonological deficits into adulthood. As well, research regarding the longitudinal detriment caused by reading disability across the lifespan is still limited. Despite these inconsistencies and limitations, there is little doubt that phonological awareness is absolutely necessary for a child to succeed in reading literacy.
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References 1. Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 2. Beaton, A. A. (2004). Dyslexia, reading and the brain: A sourcebook of psychological and biological research. New York: Psychology Press. 3. Birsh, J. R. (Ed.). (1999). Multisensory teaching of basic language skills. Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Company. 4. Bradley, L., & Bryant, P. E. (1978). Difficulties in auditory organization as a possible cause of reading backwardness. Nature, 27, 746–747. 5. Christensen, C. A. (2000). Preschool phonological awareness and success in reading. In N. A. Badian (Ed.), Prediction and prevention of reading failure (pp. 153–178). Baltimore: York Press. 6. Lyon, G. R. (1996). Learning disabilities. The Future of Children: Special Education for Students with Disabilities, 6(1), 54–76. 7. Metsala, J. L., & Walley, A. C. (1998). Spoken vocabulary growth and the segmental restructuring of lexical representation: Precursors to phonemic awareness and early reading ability. In J. L. Metsala & L. C. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy (pp. 89–120). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 8. National Information Center on Children and Youth with Disabilities. (NICHCY). NICHCY, P.O. Box 1492, Washington, DC 20013-1492. 9. National Institute of Health and Human Development (NICHD). (2007). NICHD, 31 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-2425. 10. Maughan, B. (1994). Long-term outcomes of developmental reading problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Applied Disciplines, 36(3), 357–371. 11. Sare, D. L., Jorm, A. E., Maclean, R., & Matthews, R. (1984). Sources of individual differences in reading acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 37–51. 12. Scheule, C. M., & Boudreau, D. (2008). Phonological awareness intervention: Beyond the basics. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 27(1), 3–20. 13. Torgeson, J. K. (1998). Catch them before they fall: Identification and assessment to prevent reading failure in young children. American Educator, 22(Spring/Summer), 32–39. 14. Torgeson, J. K., Wagner, R. K., & Rachotte, C. A. (1994). Longitudinal studies of phonological processing and reading. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 27(5), 276–286. 15. Torgeson, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Rachotte, C. A., Rose, E., Lindamood, P., Conway, T., et al. (1999). Preventing reading failure in young children with phonological processing disabilities: Group and individual responses to instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(4), 579–563. 16. Treiman, R. (1985). Onsets and rimes as units of spoken syllables: Evidence from children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychiatry, 39, 161–181. 17. Uhry, J. K. (1999). Phonological awareness and reading: Research, activities, and instructional methods. In J. R. Birsh (Ed.), Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (pp. 63–84). Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Company. 18. Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: A psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 3–29.
Phonological Coding ▶Phonological Learning
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Phonological Decoding ▶Orthographic Reading Skills
Phonological Development HEATHER M. KELLEY, MATTHEW C. LAMBERT Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition The part of language that involves developing speech sounds including pronunciation, fluency, and intonation.
Description There are approximately 44 speech sounds in English. Speech sounds used combination with other speech sounds produce an oral language. Phonological development refers to forming and using speech sounds to clearly communicate language. As more sounds of a language are acquired, language becomes clearer, and pronunciation, fluency, and intonation all improve. Intonation involves pitch – how high or low a voice is when producing a sound; stress – how low or soft a word is spoken; and juncture – the pauses or connections between words, phrases, and sentences. Articulators must be used simultaneously to communicate effectively and include the front and back of the tongue, teeth, lips, roof of the mouth, vocal cords, and lungs. Not only do articulators need to be manipulated to create sounds, but they must also be connected together rapidly in order to form words and communicate ideas. Also, regional and cultural differences exist in the way people pronounce phonemes. It is important to note that those learning a second language may have to learn how to produce new sounds that are different from their native language. It is often difficult, particularly for older children and adults, to properly incorporate new sounds in their speech as they learn a nonnative language.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children acquire speech sounds gradually in the early years of life and it is common to have difficulty understanding preschoolers because they have not mastered key sounds. A child’s language and speech abilities grow according to their need to use it, their interests, and the
meaning it has for them. Language acquisition is fostered by positive interactions regarding language between the child and an adult. It is important to recognize that phonology develops gradually in early childhood, and preschoolers can be expected to struggle with speech sounds throughout much of this period. Harsh correction or insistence that children start over again will not be useful and may even inhibit or discourage further language learning and exploration. Environments rich with language will model for children proper word combinations and pronunciation techniques that will encourage children to develop their own language skills. Children begin to hear acceptable sounds and sound patterns over and over in the words used most frequently in their language. Rules become incorporated by children in phonological development such as adding the phoneme /s/ to make things plural or learning that only certain sounds are compatible in the English language. For example, children will learn that phonemes /d/ and /p/ typically will not be pronounced in succession. Most phonological rules are acquired before age five. Phonological development also plays a crucial role in reading instruction during primary grades. Children use their proficiency in pronouncing sounds in conjunction with phonics, which are associations with sound-symbol correspondences, as they begin to read and write. Inventive spelling will be common as children learn to write because they will be relying on the phonemic skills. More experience in spelling will provide students with a more conventional manner of spelling. Speech problems with young children can cause a great source of anxiety for parents wondering if their child is normally developing. Stuttering, inability to pronounce some sounds, restarting sentences, and stumbling over words are all very typical and common errors for preschool speech. Researchers have identified the approximate ages at which various sounds are spoken accurately. This information is often presented in developmental charts that caregivers, teachers, or parents use to assess phonological development (Table 1). Children at an older age that cannot pronounce many early acquired speech sounds may be at risk for serious speech delays. Children that make irregular substitutions such as pouncing rabbit as abbit may also be at risk. Continual stuttering, especially at an older age is a true disfluency that can be caused by physiological issues and may be a hereditary condition. Preschoolers are most likely recommended for evaluation and speech therapy when teachers, caregivers, and parents cannot understand them. In deciding if a speech challenge should be
Phonological Learning
Phonological Development. Table 1 Typical order of acquisition of specific speech sounds for girls and boys Age of acquisition
Girls
Boys
3 years
P, b, m, w, d, n, k, g, h, ng
P, b, m, h, w, d, n, k, t, g
4 years
l
ng
5 years
J, y
y
6 years
Sh, ch, r, zh, f, wh
Zh, wh, j
7 years
S, z, th, v
F, l, r, ch, sh, s, z, th, v
7–9 years
Bl, br, dr, fl, dl, kr, pl, skw, sl, str, tr, pr, other blends
Bl, br, dr, fl, dl, kr, pl, skw, sl, str, tr, pr, other blends
addressed, one should evaluate to what degree a child can communicate. If a child is communicating well, intervention should be postponed.
References 1. 2.
3.
4. 5.
Gleason, J. (2001). The development of language (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Beacon. Morrow, L. (2001). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Company. Natherson-Mejia, S. (1989). Writing in a second language: Negotiating meaning through invented spelling. Language Arts, 66, 516–526. Tompkins, G. (2004). Literacy for the 21st century (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Company. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective (4th ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Pearson Education Company.
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developmental ages; therefore, age and severity are important to note during assessment. There are a number of speech errors that are common to phonological disorders, including omissions, additions, distortions, and substitutions. Phonological disorders interfere with academic and occupational achievement, as well as social communication. The causes of phonological disorders are structural problems with the main speech mechanisms, neurological problems that can cause fine motor problems with speech muscles, and unknown causes. Only about 3% of children present with phonological disorders of unknown origins. Further, phonological disorders are predominantly found in males. Speech difficulties may also be associated with mental retardation, hearing impairments, and severe environmental deprivation. If these conditions are present, the speech problems need to be in excess to those usually associated with the disorder to make a diagnosis of phonological disorder. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) evaluate phonological disorders by listening to the individual’s speech and may use a formal articulation test to record speech errors. Further, an oral mechanism examination is used to assess whether the individual’s mouth muscles are functioning properly. Speech-language pathologists have a number of treatment procedures to help improve articulation and reduce speech errors. Many of the treatments involve demonstrating how to produce the correct sound, helping individual’s recognize correct and incorrect sounds, and practicing the sounds.
References American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Text revision. Washington, DC: Author.
Phonological Learning Phonological Disorders Synonyms
LAURICE M. JOSEPH The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Articulation disorder; Developmental phonological disorders; Speech sound disorders
Synonyms Definition A group of disorders where individuals fail to use appropriate speech sounds for their age and dialect.
Phonological awareness; Phonological coding; Phonological processing
Definition Description Children often make some speech errors as they learn language, and certain speech errors are typical at different
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The term phonological is derived from the Greek root phone, which means voice or sound. Phonological learning refers to the science of phonemes (speech sounds).
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Phonemes are the smallest unit of speech. Phonological learning refers to acquiring the system of speech sounds of a language through phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonological coding, and retrieval of phonological codes [13].
Description Phonological learning involves becoming aware of sounds of spoken language (phonological awareness), holding that information in working memory (phonological memory), accessing phonological information, retrieving that information (retrieval of phonological codes), and making associations between sounds and printed symbols (e.g., alphabetic letters). A hierarchy of phonological awareness skills consists of (1) rhyming, (2) alliteration, (3) blending, (4) segmentation, and (5) manipulation. In 1998, the International Reading Association distinguished between the terms phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. Phonological awareness involves identifying and manipulating larger units of speech than the individual phoneme (e.g., words, syllables, onsets, and rimes). This was considered to be easier than phonemic awareness, which involves identifying and manipulating individual speech sounds (phonemes). Across phonological skills, recognition of sounds has been found to be easier than production of sounds [14]. Rhyming is considered to be the most basic phonological awareness skill, and it involves having children recognize words that sound alike, categorize words that share common sounds, detect words that do not share common sounds (e.g., oddity tasks), and produce words that sound the same as other words. Alliteration involves having children identify initial sounds in words by recognizing the beginning sounds in words, categorizing words according to the same beginning sound, deciding whether two or more words have the same beginning sound, and producing the beginning sound of a word,. Blending refers to stringing individual sounds of words together to produce part of a word (e.g., /sl/ -/i/-/p/ or a whole word (e.g., /sl-i-p/). Segmentation refers to becoming aware of the sequence of sounds in a word, identifying each sound segment in a word, and saying each sound segment in a word. This skill progresses from segmenting syllables to individual sounds in a word by clapping to each syllable or individual sound in a word as each sound is orally produced and by breaking the sounds of a word apart and saying each syllable or every individual sound of that word. Manipulation of phonemes consists of deleting (e.g., removing the /c/ in the word /cup/ and left with the word /up/, substituting (e.g., removing the /c/ and replacing it with the /p/ sound to make another word /pup/, and reversing
individual sounds in words to form new words (reversing the word /top/ and saying the word /pot/. When students recognize, produce, and manipulate the sounds of spoken language, they likely go through a process of holding those sounds in memory so they are likely to rapidly retrieve them again. This is likely to occur when children are provided with ample opportunities to engage in phonological awareness exercises. Moreover, it has been reported in seminal studies that early training in phonological awareness has been predictive of reading decoding and spelling achievement in the primary grades (e.g., [2, 11]). Phonological awareness has been found to assist children with acquiring the alphabetic principle which involves recognizing that each letter corresponds to each basic sound in speech as well as making letter-sound connections [1]. In other words, an awareness and manipulation of sounds in spoken language leads to making associations between letters and sounds in written language. This is also referred to as phonics. Among phonological awareness skills, phoneme segmentation is the best predictor of word recognition for primary grade children [7]. When children begin making correspondences between letters and sounds, they may go through a process referred to as phonological recoding as they learn to decode words that are a part of their spoken language repertoire [10, 14, 15]. Initially, children decode words in a one-to-one sequence fashion (e.g., /s/-/i/-/t/) and then progress to making hierarchical decoding of words which involve looking at standard letter-sound spelling patterns of words (the orthography of language) and using a letter or letters in a word to cue the sounds of another letter or other letters in a word (e.g., using the letter e in the word site to cue the long /i/ vowel sound or using the vowel combination of ea to cue the long /e/ sound in the word seat [6].
Relevance to Childhood Development Four levels of developing phonological awareness consist of (1) becoming aware of speech flow as a collection of individual words; (2) distinguishing syllables in spoken words (3) recognizing and producing onset and rimes (4) becoming aware of phonemes in words [5]. These basic phonological awareness skills such as rhyming, alliteration, syllable segmentation can be evident in children as young as 2 or 3 years old. More advanced phonological awareness skills such as segmenting individual sounds in words, blending sounds in words, and manipulating sounds in words are observed in children during kindergarten, first, and second grades during formal schooling. These skills are critical because they have been found to be precursor skills to reading and spelling words with ease [2].
Phonological Loop
The relationship between learning phonological skills and learning how to read and spell is also a reciprocal one of children acquiring some phonological skills to help them learn to read and spell and engaging in reading and spelling activities frequently to enhance their phonological skills [3, 4, 9]. Many children who have been identified as having a specific learning disability or who have been referred as dyslexic have phonological processing problems [3, 12]. Many young children may learn phonological skills at home especially if they have resided in homes where their caregiver(s) engages in elaborate verbal interactions with them as well as reads with them often and discusses the words and events in the stories they are reading. Even though many young children have been given these rich early language and literacy experiences and are emerging as developmentally expected in their literacy skills, they find it challenging to conceive of spoken words as comprised of individual sounds. This is especially the case for children who have not had rich early language and literacy experiences at home. It is for these reasons that educators cannot assume that children have learned phonological skills. Therefore, educators need to teach children phonological skills in an explicit and systematic fashion [8]. Most preferably, explicit and systematic instruction on phonological skills should begin as early as preschool and continue well into the early primary grades (i.e., kindergarten, first, and second grade) so that children eventually read words effortlessly rather than laboriously in subsequent grades. There are several scientifically supported methods and programs that school districts and educators can adopt for teaching phonological skills to children. In general, teaching phonological skills explicitly means breaking down the tasks of teaching phonemes into parts. For instance, the teacher may begin by presenting each sound of a word in isolation to the students and providing them with many opportunities to practice each sound by incorporating multiple activities/lessons before moving onto the next sound. This may be followed by asking children to discriminate one sound they learned from the other sound that they learned. Eventually, the teacher will teach the students to say all sounds together in a given word. In subsequent grades, phonological skills can be reinforced and embedded within formal school curriculum to ensure that students retain these skills.
References 1. Baidian, N. A. (2001). Phonological and orthographic processing: Their roles in reading prediction. Annals of Dyslexia, 51, 179–202. 2. Ball, E., & Blachman, B. (1991). Does phonemic awareness training in kindergarten make a difference in early word recognition and developmental spelling. Reading Research Quarterly, 26, 49–66.
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3. Bentin, S., & Leshem, H. (1993). On the interaction between phonological awareness and reading acquisition: It’s a two-way street. Annals of Dyslexia, 43, 125–148. 4. Daly, E. J., III, Chafouleas, S., & Skinner, C. H. (2005). Interventions for reading problems: Designing and evaluating effective strategies. New York: Guilford Press. 5. Lane, H. B., Pullen, P. C., Eisele, M. R., & Jordan, L. (2002). Preventing reading failure: Phonological awareness assessment and instruction. Preventing School Failure, 46, 101–110. 6. McCormick, S. (2003). Instructing students who have literacy problems (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 7. Nation, K., & Hulme, C. (1997). Phonemic segmentation, not onsetrime segmentation, predicts early reading and spelling skills. Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 154–167. 8. National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Bethesda, MD: National Reading Panel. Retrieved August, 27, 2009, from http://www.nichd. nih.gov/research/supported/nrp.cfm 9. Perfetti, C., Beck, I., Bell, L., & Hughes, C. (1987). Children’s reading and development of phonological awareness. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 33, 39–75. 10. Share, D. L. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching. Sine qua non or reading acquisition. Cognition, 55, 151–218. 11. Stahl, S. A., & Murray, B. A. (1994). Defining phonological awareness and its relationship to early reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 221–234. 12. Stanovich, K. E., & Siegal, L. S. (1994). Phenotypic performance profile of children with reading disabilities. A regression-based test of phonological-core difference model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 24–53. 13. Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., & Rashotte, C. A. (1994). Longitudinal studies of phonological processing and reading. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 27, 276–287. 14. Vandervelden, M. C., & Siegel, L. S. (1995). Phonological recoding and phoneme awareness in early literacy: A developmental approach. Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 854–875. 15. Wagner, R. K., & Torgesen, J. K. (1987). The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 192–212.
Phonological Loop ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Articulatory loop; Phonological short term memory
Definition A component of working memory that deals with auditory or verbal information. It consists of two parts: a short term store of phonological information and an “articulatory rehearsal” process that functions to help maintain the information.
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Description
Description
Baddeley [1] describes the phonological loop as part of working memory; together with the visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, and central executive. Essentially, all auditory or verbal information is immediately entered into the phonological store, where it will be maintained for 1–2 s. The articulatory rehearsal process helps maintain information in the phonological store through subvocal rehearsal of the information. This process also allows visual input access to the phonological store, provided it can be converted to phonological information and subvocalized.
Phonology is one of the four components of language, the other components being semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. During the early years of life (birth to 5 years of age) children’s language develops gradually. One fundamental way that children’s language develops in the preschool years is that they begin to produce speech sounds more clearly with improved fluency and intonation [3]. There are approximately 30 speech sounds in the English language and remarkably children acquire the rules for producing most of these sounds within the first 5 years of life and the more complicated blends by age 9!
References
Relevance to Childhood Development
1.
The ability to communicate effectively is a foundational skill that most typically developing children accomplish with little trouble. The area of phonological development is no exception. Children seem to acquire speech sounds rather effortlessly and most often communicate their wants and needs effectively. There is a fairly typical sequence for acquiring speech sounds with some slight variations in acquisition by gender. While it may appear that phonological development is easy, the production of some speech sounds requires the combination of various parts of the body (e.g., the tongue, the teeth, the lips, the roof of the mouth, the vocal cords, and even the lungs). The developing child must coordinate all of these body parts in harmony to produce a single sound. Quite a remarkable feat by any standard! One theory for how children accomplish this task is that they hear acceptable sounds and sound patterns repetitively in the words used most frequently in their language. It is believed that the first 100 words or so that most children learn, will contain almost all the key sounds of their language [2, 3]. As they hear and learn words, they are also learning the rules for how making sounds and sound combinations. While most children acquire speech sounds easily, some children may struggle. The most common phonological challenges revolve around poor articulation of speech sounds. Children should acquire the sounds of p, b, m, w, d by age 3 [2]. If a 5 year old has difficulty producing the b sound, there probably is some sort of delay and a speech therapist may need to be consulted. Another common delay in phonological development is the substitution of one sound for another. When children substitute w for r or d for th, they are usually still understood. However, when a child substitutes a d for r, there is usually confusion on the part of the listener. Children who use these irregular substitutions are at greater risk for future speech delays.
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Baddeley, A. D. (2006). Working memory: An overview. In S. J. Pickering (Ed.), Working memory and education (pp. 1–31). Burlington, MA: Academic Press. Buchsman, B. R., & D’Esposito, M. (2008). The search for the phonological store: From loop to convolution. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(5), 762–768. Dehn, M. J. (2008). Working memory and academic learning: Assessment and intervention. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Phonological Processing ▶Phonological Learning
Phonological Sensitivity ▶Phonological Awareness
Phonological Short Term Memory ▶Phonological Loop
Phonology MACY SATTERWHITE, LORETTA C. RUDD Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
Definition The part of language involving speech sounds, including pronunciation, fluency, and intonation.
Physical Abuse
Finally, children who have phonological disfluency, such as single-sound disfluency (e.g., b-b-b-b-b-ball), repetitive words (“the ball. . ..the ball. . ...the ball. . ...”), or long pauses between phrases may suffer from some type of speech delay. If these phonological disfluencies hinder communication between the preschooler and parents, teachers, caregivers and peers, a speech and language evaluation should be implemented in an effort to lessen the effect on the social and emotional development of the child [4].
References 1.
2.
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Beckman, M., & Edwards, J. (2000). The ontogeny of phonological categories and the primacy of lexical learning in linguistic development. Child Development, 71, 240–249. Menn, L., & Stoel-Gammon, C. (2001). Phonological development: Learning sounds and sound patterns. In J. B. Gleason (Ed.), The development of language (pp. 59–100). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Ratner, N. B. (2001). Atypical language development. In J. B. Gleason (Ed.), The development of language (pp. 240–249, 369–406). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall.
Phototherapy ▶Bilirubin Lights
Phylogenetic Equivalents ▶Age Equivalent
Physical Abuse STEPHANIE DVORAK, TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
Synonyms Battered child syndrome; Child abuse; Harsh discipline; Physical punishment
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Definition A non-accidental physical injury a child sustains at the hands of an adult, usually stemming from attempts at discipline.
Description While definitions of abuse vary by locale, in general, most states advocate a definition similar to this one: a nonaccidental physical injury a child sustains at the hands of an adult, usually stemming from attempts at discipline [2]. Many states also include a length of time the injury must last, such as 24 or 48 hours. States also include a “risk of harm” clause to allow children at risk of physical abuse to be removed from harmful environments before abuse occurs [3]. Physical abuse often occurs during stressful situations like discipline periods. The child is usually punished by an angry parent and this corporal punishment escalates into abuse resulting in injury [6]. Serious injury and death can result when adults do not realize the strength difference between themselves and children. Approximately 1,400 deaths occur in the U.S. each year from abuse neglect and about 14,000 children are seriously injured. While about 900,000 cases are substantiated each year in the United States, because most cases are never reported, it is estimated that millions of children each year are victims of maltreatment [1, 5, 6]. Risk factors such as poverty, lack of education, being a single parent, alcoholism, other drug use, and a history of abuse increase the probability of a person harming a child [1]. Indicators of child physical abuse include broken bones that cannot be explained or are unusual, bruise marks that have patterns such as fingers, hands, or belts, bruises that are not in typical areas where normal childhood activity causes bruising (i.e., knees), burns of various types including burns to the hand or foot (called “sock” and “glove” patterns), cigarette burns, radiator or burns from other hot objects, bite marks, black eyes, choke marks, circular marks often found on the wrists or ankles that indicate twisting or tying up, and unexplained abdominal injuries [6]. The effects of abuse on children include poor self image, acting out, school problems, flashbacks, nightmares, sleep problems, drug and alcohol abuse, feelings of sadness, depression, withdrawn or clingy behavior, anger and rage, self destructive tendencies, or aggressive and disruptive behavior [1, 6]. If the long term effects of abuse are to be minimized, identifying and treating problems early on is crucial [6]. Every state has laws regarding reporting child abuse and whom they identify as mandated reporters. Mandated reporters are required by law to
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report suspected cases of child abuse. Some of these professionals include: teachers, social workers, doctors, childcare providers, medical examiners and coroners, law enforcement officials, bus drivers, coaches, and mental health professionals [4].
References 1.
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American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (2008). Child Abuse – The hidden bruises. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/ child_abuse_the_hidden_bruises Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2007). Definitions of child abuse and neglect. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/define.cfm Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2007). Definitions of child abuse and neglect: summary of state laws. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/ statutes/defineall.pdf Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2007). Mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/ statutes/manda.pdf McNulty, M., & Gale, T. (2008). Battered child syndrome. Gale encyclopedia of childhood and adolescence. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/battered-childsyndrome MedlinePlus: A service of the national library of medicine and the national institute of health. (2008). Medical encyclopedia: Child abuse physical [Data File]. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www. nlm.nih.gov/MEDLINEPLUS/ency/article/001552.htm
Physical Aggression AMY J. KAYE, CYNTHIA A. ERDLEY University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Synonyms Antisocial behavior; Assault; Fighting; Overt aggression; Physical bullying; Violence
Definition Physical aggression is behavior causing or threatening physical harm towards others. It includes hitting, kicking, biting, using weapons, and breaking toys or other possessions.
Description Developmental Course Most children display their highest levels of physical aggression in toddlerhood and show a decline in these
behaviors with age. Physical aggression seems to be present as early as 12 months of age in at least half of children, and shows a normative increase in the second year of life that persists through the third year and begins to decrease around age 4 years [1]. In fact, research generally shows four distinct trajectories of physical aggression. In the two most common trajectories, making up as many as 80% of children, physical aggression is either high or moderate early on and declines to a low or almost zero level. A third trajectory includes children who consistently engage in almost no physical aggression. The smallest group is that of children on a fourth trajectory. Those on this trajectory engage in higher levels of physical aggression than their peers and continue to engage in this high level consistently over time [2]. An important characteristic of physical aggression is its fairly high level of stability throughout development. Those who are highest in aggression in early childhood continue to be highest into adolescence [2]. In fact, 1 year stability coefficients have been shown to be high in children as young as 24 months old [1]. Gender differences in levels of physical aggression appear to emerge in the second year of life. Although boys and girls show similar levels of physical aggression in infancy, boys generally surpass girls at 2 years of age and later [1]. Although some girls do engage in levels as high as those of boys, the percentage of boys in the highly physically aggressive group is greater than that of girls in this group [2, 14].
Types of Physically Aggressive Behavior Generally, aggressive behavior is defined and assessed in a quite vague manner. It is often grouped not only with other forms of overt (e.g., verbal) and covert (e.g., relational) aggression, but also with other forms of antisocial behavior that may not be particularly physical in nature. When it is separated from non-physical aggression, researchers often fail to assess for the particular nature of the physically aggressive behavior. Two major types of aggressive behavior have been described in the literature. Proactive aggression refers to goal-directed behavior in which the aggressive child is generally unprovoked by others. Reactive aggression, on the other hand, is engaged in when a child is angry and provoked by others [4]. The difference between these types of physically aggressive behaviors may be important in the understanding of processes underlying aggressive behavior and in the development of interventions targeting that behavior. Unfortunately, these types of aggression are often distinguished only in theoretical models.
Physical Aggression
Predictors of Physical Aggression Several factors are correlated with childhood aggression at the individual, family, peer, and societal level. Biological factors play a role in childhood aggression at the individual level. Temperament, a characteristic said to be inborn and identifiable in infants, is one of the earliest individual correlates of aggressive behavior. Difficult temperament, associated with a set of problems including difficulty soothing and adapting to the rhythm of social interactions, has been consistently associated with more chronic aggressive behavior [8]. Evidence also suggests that a number of other biological processes, including heart rate, neuroendocrine levels, and skin conductance, play a role in the development of physically aggressive behavior, presenting a picture of these children as chronically underaroused at a basal level [15]. This is consistent with proactive aggression, in which children may be seeking arousal through engaging in aggression without provocation from others. More consistent with reactive aggression, physically aggressive children seem to show heightened cortisol levels during stressful situations [9]. It may be that those children who are the most physically aggressive demonstrate both proactive and reactive aggression, with unique processes underlying each. Family factors, particularly maternal characteristics and mother–child interaction, are among the most consistent predictors of aggression. Family conflict and maternal hostile parenting appear to be the strongest of these family factors [6, 12, 14]. They have been shown to be associated with physically aggressive behavior even into adolescence, and their key role highlights the risk for the establishment of a coercive family pattern in which antisocial behaviors are learned and reinforced. Children who are at high risk for engaging in chronic physical aggression are also those whose mothers began childbearing early, have low educational attainment, low income, high depressed mood, or smoked during pregnancy [10, 12, 14]. These parents appear to have particular difficulty teaching their children to regulate the physically aggressive behavior that is common in toddlerhood. There is also evidence that mothers of physically aggressive children themselves engaged in high levels of antisocial behavior during their school-age years, providing some support for an intergenerational transmission of such behavior from mother to child [14]. Socialization factors, including those within the peer group as well as larger neighborhood effects, also play a role in physically aggressive behavior. Research suggests that antisocial children not only tend to select more antisocial friends, but also tend to engage in more antisocial behavior over time when they are a part of such peer
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groups. A process of mutual socialization appears to occur in which children model antisocial behavior for their antisocial friends and receive reinforcement for this behavior in turn [5]. Furthermore, modeling and reinforcement of physically aggressive behavior is likely occurring at a larger neighborhood level. Neighborhoods with the most physically aggressive children are those in which mothers report that high levels of antisocial behavior occur on a regular basis [12].
Models of Physical Aggression Although research has been relatively consistent in identifying a number of correlates and predictors of physically aggressive behavior, the processes behind the development of this behavior are less clear. Understanding how it is that such behavior may develop and persist in particular individuals is important for interventions targeted towards decreasing problem behaviors. A number of theoretical models stemming from findings in the area of predictors suggest some potential processes through which physical aggression may develop. Two related theories of physically aggressive behavior exist that follow from the findings on biological correlates. First, the fearlessness theory suggests that low levels of arousal at a resting state, as have been found in physically aggressive children, are indicative of low levels of fear. Infants and children with low levels of fear may in turn be more likely to approach novel situations and thus more prone to behave aggressively due to a lack of fear surrounding provoking situations. The stimulation-seeking theory is another way of explaining a link between low levels of arousal, approach behavior, and aggressive behavior. This theory suggests that individuals with low levels of arousal are likely to seek out the arousal that they lack by engaging in novel situations. As such, they may be more likely to engage in provoking situations that would elicit aggressive behavior [15]. These models match up well with findings on the biological correlates of physically aggressive behavior and suggest potential targets for interventions (e.g., training on an understanding of the potential consequences of one’s actions or redirection towards more appropriately stimulating activities). Another influential model, Crick and Dodge’s [3] social cognitive information processing model, proposes that aggressive children display deficits and distortions in their social cognitive processing that lead to such aggressive behavior. Crick and Dodge [3] proposed that during any social interaction, six steps contribute to a behavioral response including the encoding of internal and external cues, the interpretation of cues, the elucidation of goals, the construction of a response, a response decision, and
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the behavioral enactment of that decision. The behavioral response is influenced at all of the six stages by memories of past experiences, rules that the child has learned about that situation and behavior, social schemas, and social knowledge. Aggressive children are said to display a hostile attribution bias in which they misattribute hostile intent to peer provocations that are ambiguous in nature. For example, an aggressive child who is bumped in the hallway is likely to assume that the other child purposely bumped him or her and in turn engage in physical aggression to retaliate. Aggressive children also tend to display a selective attentional bias in which they attend to aggressive environmental cues more often than nonaggressive cues, ultimately making use of fewer cues to guide their behavior. Finally, aggressive children tend to endorse primarily aggressive and fewer assertive solutions to social problems and expect that these aggressive solutions will lead to positive outcomes and rewards [4]. A model suggesting more fundamental executive functioning deficits also exists to explain the process through which physical aggression develops. Executive function refers to processes through which individuals self-regulate their thoughts, emotions, and behavior. It includes such cognitive abilities as working memory, planning, selfmonitoring, problem-solving, and response inhibition. This model is based on the finding that physical aggression begins to decline for most children in the late toddler years, the same time during which major developments in executive functioning have been shown to occur. It suggests that physically aggressive children do not make the expected gains in executive functioning, particularly working memory, during early childhood. Although there has been less empirical examination of this hypothesis in young children, executive functioning certainly appears to be more clearly linked to physical aggression in adolescence and young adulthood than does general cognitive development [13]. This model is also supported by the finding that hyperactivity and opposition in kindergarten, behaviors that are often linked to executive functioning deficits, are both powerful predictors of chronic physical aggression [10].
Relevance to Childhood Development Physically aggressive children are at risk for a number of negative outcomes throughout childhood and into adolescence. It is clear that physical aggression is a strong behavioral predictor of peer rejection in childhood. Peer rejection, in turn, is related to a host of negative outcomes in childhood and adolescence including depression, loneliness, delinquency, and school dropout [7]. Children who are both aggressive and rejected appear to be at the greatest
risk for poor psychological adjustment. At the same time, however, physical aggression is an independent predictor of these same internalizing and externalizing difficulties. Chronic physical aggression in elementary school predicts to continued physical violence, school dropout, and contacts with police in adolescence [2, 7]. Not only are aggressive children more rejected than their non-aggressive peers, they also tend to be more victimized physically and relationally by their peers. It may be that those individuals who are physically aggressive towards their peers are also physically victimized as retaliation (e.g., bully-victims). Those peers who fear physical attacks from the aggressive child may use relationally aggressive strategies to avoid and exclude the aggressive child from the peer group. As such, the aggressive child is both physically and relationally victimized by his or her peers, which in turn can lead to further internalizing and externalizing difficulties and associations with deviant peer groups [11].
References 1. Alink, L. R. A., Mesman, J., van Zeijl, J., Stolk, M. N., Juffer, F., & Koot, H. M. (2006). The early childhood aggression curve: Development of physical aggression in 10- to 50-month-old children. Child Development, 77, 954–966. 2. Broidy, L. M., Nagin, D. S., Tremblay, R. E., Bates, J. E., Brame, B., Dodge, K. A., et al. (2003). Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: A six-site, crossnational study. Developmental Psychology, 39, 222–245. 3. Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101. 4. Dodge, K. A. (1990). The structure and function of reactive and proactive aggression. In D. J. Pepler & K. H. Rubin (Eds.), The development and treatment of childhood aggression (pp. 201–218). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 5. Hartup, W. W. (1996). The company they keep: Friendships and their developmental significance. Child Development, 67, 1–13. 6. Huijbregts, S. C. J., Seguin, J. R., Zoccolillo, M., Boivin, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (2007). Associations of maternal parental smoking with early childhood physical aggression, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and their co-occurrence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 203–215. 7. Kupersmidt, J., Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1990). The role of poor peer relationships in the development of disorder. In S. R. Asher & J. D. Coie (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 274–305). New York: Cambridge University Press. 8. Loeber, R., & Hay, D. (1997). Key issues in the development of aggression and violence from childhood to early adulthood. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 371–410. 9. Murray-Close, D., Han, G., Cicchetti, D., Crick, N. R., & Rogosch, F. A. (2008). Neuroendocrine regulation and physical and relational aggression: The moderating roles of child maltreatment and gender. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1160–1176. 10. Nagin, D. S., & Tremblay, R. E. (2001). Parental and early childhood predictors of persistent physical aggression in boys from kindergarten to high school. Archives of General Psychiatry, 58, 389–394.
Piaget, Jean 11. Ostrov, J. M. (2008). Forms of aggression and peer victimization during early childhood: A short-term longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 311–322. 12. Romano, E., Tremblay, R. E., Boulerice, B., & Swisher, R. (2005). Multilevel correlates of childhood physical aggression and prosocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33, 565–578. 13. Seguin, J. R., & Zelazo, P. D. (2005). Executive function in early physical aggression. In R. E. Tremblay, W. W. Hartup, & J. Archer (Eds.), Developmental origins of aggression. New York: Guilford. 14. Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D. S., Seguin, J. R., Zoccolillo, M., Zelazo, P. D., Boivin, M., et al. (2004). Physical aggression during early childhood: Trajectories and Predictors. Pediatrics, 114, 43–50. 15. vanGoozen, S. H. M., Fairchild, G., Snoek, H., & Harold, G. T. (2007). The evidence for a neurobiological model of childhood antisocial behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 149–182.
Physical Bullying ▶Physical Aggression
Physical Discipline ▶Corporal (Physical) Punishment
Physical Punishment ▶Corporal (Physical) Punishment ▶Physical Abuse
Piaget, Jean DANIEL PATANELLA New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA
Life Dates 1896–1980
This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
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Educational Information Piaget earned a Ph.D. in natural sciences from the University of Neuchaˆtel in 1918.
Accomplishments A precocious child, Piaget displayed an avid interest in natural science, publishing several research papers prior to graduation of high school at the age of 15. He then attended the University of Neuchaˆtel, where he earned both his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees. He developed an interest in psychology and human development at this time, and completed his post-doctoral training at both the University of Zurich and the Sorbonne in Paris. It was here, as well as in his experiences supervised by Theodore Simon (1872–1961) in a Parisian boys’ school established by Alfred Binet (1857–1911), that he began to formulate the ideas he would pursue throughout his unusually long and rich scientific career. Piaget, influenced by both natural science and philosophy, envisioned human development as occurring in distinct stages that would unfold in an unvarying progression given a nurturing environment. Different stages would exhibit uniquely distinct cognitive styles of explaining the world. The focus in Piaget’s theorization was clearly the intellectual development of the child, at the relative expense of studying socialization. This also set Piaget apart from other stage theorists such as Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and Erik Erikson (1902–1994), who offered theories based on emotional development. Piaget is best-known in psychology for his theories on cognitive development. However, Piaget’s contributions to the social sciences are far more extensive than that typically recapitulated in developmental psychology textbooks. He conceptualized a model of moral development that, while simple compared to his model for cognitive development, would provide the basis for the careerspanning explorations of Lawrence Kohlberg (1927– 1987). His research techniques of carefully structured clinical interviews coupled with methodical recording of descriptive data influenced sociology’s research methods; it is for this reason that when Piaget was brought to Harvard for an honorary degree in the 1930s, it was for his contributions to sociology. His investigations into domain-specific areas such as the development of mathematical ability had clear educational implications. In sum, Piaget can be best thought of not only as the premier cognitive stage theorist but also as a grand intellect spanning and influencing multiple areas of expertise. Piaget published more than 50 books throughout his career, making him one of the most prolific authors within psychology. Representative books include Language and
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Thought of the Child (1923) [8] and The Child’s Conception of Physical Causality (1927) [6]. Piaget also had a fruitful life as an educator. He served various posts as a professor at the University of Geneva from 1929 until 1980, including Professor of Sociology, Professor of Experimental Psychology, and Professor of the History of Scientific Thought. He also was a professor at both the University of Lausanne and Sorbonne. Simultaneously to his teaching positions, he also served as the Director of the International Bureau of Education, the Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, and the Director of the International Centre for Genetic Epistemology (all in Geneva). He received honorary doctorates from well over 30 different Universities, including Harvard and Cambridge. On the global stage, Piaget was involved with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the late 1940s and 1950s, participating in conferences as a children’s advocate and even serving as the president of the Swiss Commission to UNESCO.
Contributions Piaget’s life work represents one of the cornerstones of cognitive psychology, and his influence within the fields of child development and education are indeed vast. While Piaget’s theories have been supplanted by an array of information-processing models, and stage theory is no longer of central importance in contemporary developmental psychology paradigms, it is important to remember and appreciate the crucial role Piaget’s work in providing developmental psychology one of its grand scale theories. Piaget defined developmental psychology in the same way that Freud defined clinical psychology and that Skinner redefined behavioral psychology. He provided a powerful centrifugal force that not only shaped how generations of psychologists viewed the world, but also stood in sharp contrast to his immediate predecessors. Despite the fact that Piagetian theory is no longer the dominant one pursued by active developmental researchers, mastery of the basics of Piagetian theory is still essential for students of developmental psychology, and textbooks still devote significant space (sometimes whole chapters) to the man and his work.
References 1.
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Beilin, H. (1994). Jean Piaget’s enduring contribution to developmental psychology. In R. D. Parke, P. A. Ornstein, J. J. Rieser, & C. Zahn-Waxler (Eds.), A century of developmental psychology (pp. 257–290). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Evans, R. (1973). Jean Piaget, the man and his ideas. New York: Dutton. Flavell, J. (1963). The developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
4. 5. 6. 7.
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Ginsburg, H. P., & Opper, S. (1987). Piaget’s theory of intellectual development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Hsueh, Y. (2004). He sees the development of children’s concepts upon a background of sociology. History of Psychology, 7, 20–44. Piaget, J. (1930). The child’s conception of physical causality. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Con. (Original work published 1927) Piaget, J. (1952). Jean Piaget. In E. G. Boring, H. Werner, H. S. Langfeld, & R. M. Yerkes (Eds.), A history of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 4). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. Piaget, J. (1955). Language and thought of the child. Cleveland, OH: Meridian Books. (Original work published 1923) Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child. New York: The Free Press. (Original work published 1932)
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory JOY JANSEN Neurology, Learning, and Behavior Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Definition Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in children conceptualizes the process of children’s intellectual growth (learning) from a biological perspective.
Description Piaget’s theory is founded on genetic epistemology. His theory is the result of intense investigation, specifically focusing on the nature and timing of events in life, by observing children engaging in specific tasks developed by Piaget. From his qualitative research Piaget proposed a framework of cognitive development in four specific stages. The four stages are: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and formal. Each stage is associated to specific years in a child’s life and identifies elements that occur within the framework of these years.
Sensorimotor Sensorimotor stage (birth–2 years) is the period of a child’s life when learning occurs through interaction, specifically senses and motor skills, with the physical environment. Piaget called these interactions “circular reactions,” providing three separate reactions relative to age within the stage. These circular reactions are primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary circular reaction (1–4 months) is the time when the child is stimulated by his/her own action, such as sucking of the thumb or blowing bubbles, and if the same action is repeated the same response is achieved. Secondary circular reactions occur between 4 and 12 months. This is
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
the time frame when a child becomes aware that a continual stimulus can be experienced when interacting with the environment. Also during this time frame, children begin to understand that although an object leaves their line of vision it does not indicate the object is gone. This is also known as object permanence. Between 12 and 24 months, the child now understanding that through partaking in action, within different conditions, the same stimuli is created but with variation. Around a year and a half, a child begins to demonstrate the ability to hold a mental image beyond an immediate event, otherwise known as mental representation. A child also develops the ability to solve simple problems indicating the child is using mental combinations. Deferred imitation, the ability to remember an experience and reenact it after time has past, is also seen during this stage. At the end of the stage, children begin to pretend. Instead of using a toy as more of an object which provides stimulus, the toy now becomes associated with life experiences.
Preoperational Stage The second stage is the preoperational stage (2–7 years). During this stage, children begin to use symbols, conceptualization of time (present, past, and future) and the progression from centrism to de-centrism. The ability of a child to use symbols indicates that he/she is capable of taking an item and allowing it to represent something else. For instance, a common example is the written language. However, in relation to children, creative play is a good example. Children who partake in creative play, for instance, replacing checkers for animal crackers or using a log as a seat, demonstrate they can take an object, understanding the literal identity of the object and change it for their individual purpose. Children also develop the understanding of time in relation to past, present and future events; thus, a child is able to take events from the past and relate them to a present situation. For instance, a child, learning how to ride a bike that has had an accident, can indicate the understanding of “hurt” within a future context even though the event occurred in the past. Another example is children demonstrating an understanding when told that their parents will return within a specific timeframe. In addition, it is a time of life in which the child is egocentric. A child believes his/her point of view or conceptualization of an event or idea is solely correct; thus, this egocentrism influences how a child interacts and communicates with others. Throughout most of the stage, a child will demonstrate centrism. Centrism is the focusing of one aspect of an issue due to the inability to look at the concept from a broader understanding. For
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instance, children when asked if they live in the United States will respond no and provide the state in which they reside. Another example is when blocks in a specific color but in various shapes are shown to a child. The child is only able to group the shapes by color and do not recognize that the blocks can also be grouped by shaped. However, it is when a child is able to move beyond the focusing of one concept and demonstrate the ability to consider and understand multi-levels of a concept that the child demonstrates decentrism, indicating cognition development to a higher stage. In Piaget’s theory, it is the progression to the concrete operations stage.
Operational Stage The concrete operational stage (7–11 years) is the time when a child begins to relate to information logically, also known as operations. A child also demonstrates conservation and reversibility. Conservation is the ability to understand although something may change in appearance the quantity remains the same. For instance, if a child is shown five sticks of gum in a row and than the same pieces remain in the same row but distance between gum pieces is increased, the child conceptualizes that there are only still five sticks of gum regardless of distance between them. Reversibility is when the child realizes that an object is capable to go back to or close to its original appearance. A child who takes a ball of play dough and creates a flower with it, realizes that if the flower were to be put into a ball of play dough again it would resemble the previous ball of play dough. Two other concepts children learn during this stage are classification and seriation. Classification is the ability to recognize more than one way to organize a group of objects. For instance, go back to the previous example of block colorization. When a child is able to classify he/ she not only recognizes the color of the blocks but also the blocks are different shapes in which both can be organized into groups. Seriation is the ability to organize items in a sequential order such as size or weight.
Formal Operational Stage Formal operational (11–15 years) is the final stage of Piaget’s theory. It is at this level in which children demonstrate the ability to engage in abstract thinking, using skills such as deductive and hypothetical reasoning. It is during the these years that adolescents learn and begin to solve complex problems through cautious and systematic processes, share and propose their own ideas and concepts as well as go through the process of evaluating their opinion being proposed. In addition, it is during these years that sets the foundation for identity formation, the understanding of others psychological experiences and
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perspectives, and the ability to consider different views and relative of importance in decision making. Beyond the age of 15, Piaget believed that cognitive development is gradual and incremental.
Organization and Adaptation Piaget theorized that children are able to transition from one stage to the next due to two complementary processes, organization and adaptation. Each process consists of relative elements. Schema is the element relative to organization. Two elements exist in the adaptation process, assimilation and accommodation. Organization is the natural, systematic arrangement of mental structures of associated and interconnected information. Schema is the mental structures of set of associated perceptions, ideas, and/or actions used to interpret experiences. There are three types of schemata: behavioral, symbolic, and operational. Behavioral schema is the most basic and first mental structures created. It is schema that is present from birth (sensorimotor stage). Symbolic schemata are the mental structures that represent an object or action. This schema emerges at the age of 2 years of age (preoperational stage). At the age of seven (concrete operational stage), operational schema develops. Operational schemata are mental structures created through logic in relation to objects and experiences. Piaget believed that individuals have a desire for a state of cognitive equilibrium; thus, when disruption occurs, individuals will strive to return to a balanced state. Returning to a state of equilibrium is achieved through the process of adaptation. Adaptation is the adjusting or changing of schemata relative to the environment. Assimilation is when new concepts are introduced and incorporated into pre-existing schemata specific to the external environment. For instance, a child has an over all understanding of the concept of insects but when a specific insect, such as an ant, is introduced, the ant now becomes a part of the insect schema. Accommodation is the modifying of pre-existing schemata or the creation of a new scheme which occurs due to new experiences. For example, a child, who has a schema for an ant in an artificial environment, is exposed to an ant colony outdoors. The child now modifies or creates a new schema relative to the ant in the outdoors such as learning an ant lives in a colony. Assimilation and accommodation influence one another. As assimilation occurs, mental structures are accommodated and vice versa.
Relevance to Childhood Development Piaget’s theory can be understood simply as an invariant approach of maturation, a natural, biological drive, of
how child learn; thus, it is a process in which children progress through at the same age regardless how a child’s capability and brightness. Cognitive development occurs due to explorations and experiences that begin as egocentric processes and transition into social ones. Piaget’s concepts have been and continue to be a major influence on the research of children’s social and emotional development as well as the advancement in the creation and implementation of educational best practices. In the end, it is the driving theory in which the discipline of cognitive development psychology is founded.
References 1. 2.
Piaget, J. (1977). The essential Piaget (H. E. Gruber & J. J. Voneche Gruber, Eds.). New York: Basic Books. Piaget, J. (1983). Piaget’s theory. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (4th ed., Vol. 1). New York: Wiley.
Piaget’s Preoperational Period JENNIFER L. STAPEL-WAX Argosy University/Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Piaget’s preoperational stage
Definition The preoperational period refers to the second stage (2–7 years) in Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development which spans toddlerhood, preschool and early school ages. This stage is characterized by the child’s beginning to use symbols, understanding tasks of conservation and showing progressions from centrism to decentrism and from egocentric thinking to perspective taking. Piaget defined his preoperational stage into two substages: the preconceptual stage (2–4 years) and the intuitive stage (4–7 years) [1, 2].
Description Piaget’s preoperational period is marked by the accomplishment of several cognitive tasks occurring in the preconceptual and intuitive substages. These core abilities dictate how the young child interacts with and makes meaning in their world. Symbolic thinking is a hallmark of this stage. According to Piaget, a child in the preoperational stage is capable of taking an item and allowing it to represent
Piaget’s Preoperational Period
something else. The use of symbols can be seen in milestones that are typical during these ages. For example, the preoperational child will begin to use words, images and gestures to represent objects and events in the world [2]. During the preconceptual stage, the emergence of symbol use occurs with the rapid acquisition and development of language, imaginative play and deferred imitation of activities occurring around them. With symbolic functioning, the child quickly becomes proficient in understanding and using language. In a reciprocal process, the child is also increasingly able to solve problems and learn from the language of others. Similarly, symbolic functions are also postulated to be integrated into play. With the ability to use symbols, children also begin to develop an understanding of time. Children in this age group are developing an understanding of events in terms of past, present and future and can thereby, for example, relate past events to present situations [3, 4]. Despite the advancing cognitive development of the 2–4 year old child, thinking occurring during the preconceptual stage is marked by egocentrism. A child at this age believes that only his/her point of view is solely correct and has difficulty taking the perspective of another person. In fact, the egocentrism of this age has an effect on how the child will interact and communicate with others [2, 4]. As the child develops and cognitive processing becomes more complex, these are changes in the child’s thought processes involving things such as understanding of relationships, numbers and classifications. This is the mark of the intuitive stage. During this developmental substage, the child uses mental operations such as classification or quantification. However, they are not aware of the principles used to perform the operations. Thus the preoperational child can solve problems but cannot explain the principles underlie the operations that they have used [1–3]. Another important skill that is acquired during the pre-operational period is conservation. To be successful at conservation, the child must recognize that even when an object’s appearance is altered that the object’s basic attributes remain the same [1, 4]. For example, the preoperational child would have difficulty accepting that a tall thin glass of juice that looks full is the same quantity as an equally tall but broader glass that looks only half full. Conservation is a very difficult concept for the preoperational child and is closely related to their difficulty with perspective taking/egocentrism. First, the child does not have the ability to grasp the idea of reversibility (the notion that one can mentally reverse or undo a given action). The preoperational child also tends to focus on
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the end state of an action as opposed to the process by which the change occurs. Finally, the developing child may be expected to display centrism, thus leading them to focus their thinking and attention on only one aspect of an object or situation [1–3]. In Piaget’s theory, when a child is able to move beyond focusing on one concept and demonstrate the ability to consider and understand multi-levels of a concept then the child demonstrates decentrism, indicating that cognitive development has progressed to the concrete operational stage [1, 4]. A final phenomenon of preoperational thinking is horizontal decalage. This time lag refers to the uneven nature of the child’s abstraction abilities for understanding conservation of particular objects, substances or qualities. This explains why the child may develop logical abilities about one type of conservation task but may lag in their understanding of conservation in other areas [1, 2].
Relevance to Childhood Development Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is one of many models of cognition in childhood. His preoperational stage of development describes the child’s cognitive development from 2 to 7 years of life in terms of two stages through which every child is hypothesized to progress. While Piaget’s states are yoked to an age range, the actual age of the child is seen as less important than the order in which these tasks are accomplished. Additionally, Piaget’s theory generally describes development as smoothly progressing between qualitatively different stages. However, recent work has demonstrated that development involves a gradual and inconsistent movement between cognitive processes. For instance, individual and cultural differences may alter the path of cognitive development and lead to comparable cognitive outcomes. While the validity of Piaget’s stage theory of development has been disputed by recent theorists, his observations and ideas have considerably shaped the field of cognitive development and inspired more recent theorists [1–3].
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
Berk, L. E. (2004). Development throughout the lifespan (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Hetherington, E. M., Parke, R. D., & Locke, V. O. (1999). Child psychology: A contemporary viewpoint (5th ed.). Boston: McGrawHill. Meadows, S. (1993). The child as thinker: The development and acquisition of cognition in childhood. New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group. Piaget, J. (1960). The child’s conception of the world. London: Routledge.
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Piaget’s Preoperational Stage ▶Piaget’s Preoperational Period
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period KATHERINE SIMPSON SPENCER Argosy University/Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Piaget’s sensorimotor stage; Sensory motor stage
Definition The sensorimotor period refers to the earliest stage (birth to 2 years) in Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. This stage is characterized as the period of a child’s life when learning occurs through a child’s sensory and motor interactions with the physical environment. These interactions are known as circular reactions and are a means of building schemes in which infants try to repeat a chance event caused by their own motor activity [1]. Piaget separated his sensorimotor period into six sensorimotor substages: reflexive schemes, primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, coordination of secondary circular reactions, tertiary circular reactions, and mental representations [1–4].
Description Reflexive schemes is the substage that occurs from birth to 1 month of age and is a period of development in which newborns automatically respond to particular forms of stimulation [1, 4]. Reflexes include those such as the sneeze or the Moro response (i.e., specifically infantile startle pattern) that are not cognitively relevant [2, 4]. Other reflexes, such as sucking, eye movements, and movements of the hand and arm undergo developmental change in later substages. Piaget conceived these initial reflexes as infants’ first sensorimotor schemes through which they begin to learn about the external environment [1]. For example, if you place a finger in an infant’s hand and press against his/her palm, he/she will spontaneously grasp the finger. In later substages of sensorimotor development, infants will learn to grasp other objects and begin combining schemes to learn about these objects. Around 1–4 months of age, infants enter the second substage of primary circular reactions. At this stage, infants
start to gain voluntary control over simple motor habits centered on their own body [1]. Infants also begin to demonstrate scheme-scheme coordination [2]. For example, an infant may grasp an object and bring the object to the mouth to suck. Babies in this stage may be observed to habitually suck their fists or thumbs [1, 2, 4]. They also begin to anticipate events and vary their response based on environmental demands, such as crying due to hunger and quieting when his/her mother enters the room, knowing food was on the way [1, 2, 4]. The secondary circular reactions substage (4–8 months) is characterized by imitation [1, 2, 4]. As infants begin to reach for and manipulate objects in their physical environment, they attempt to repeat interesting events they have caused [1, 4]. For instance, an infant may continue to squeeze a toy that makes noise over and over again, and thus build a sensorimotor scheme of squeezing. From this stage forward, babies show an increasing interest in their actions on objects and events in the external environment, becoming an explorer of objects [2]. Infants 8–12 months of age begin to combine schemes into new, more complex action sequences in the coordination of secondary circular reactions. In this substage, they begin exhibiting intentional or goal-directed behavior, and they begin learning to solve simple problems [1, 2, 4]. Children at this substage begin to master object permanence, or the understanding that objects continue to exist when out of site (or covered by a cloth) [1, 2]. However, Piaget found that infants in this substage do not yet have a clear image of the object as persisting when out of view, as evidenced by the A-not-B error [1, 2]. Also in this substage, children become more able to anticipate events and imitate more complex behaviors. A child at this stage may cry in response to his/her mother walking towards the door, anticipating her leaving. When an infant is between 12 and 18 months of age, Piaget considered he/she to be in the tertiary circular reactions stage. At this time children explore objects by acting on them in new ways, such as using a stick to get an object out of reach or pulling a small rug on which a toy rests. Children at this age also imitate unfamiliar behaviors, such as making funny faces or scribbling on paper. Piaget believed that children’s capacity to use trialand-error to experiment with toys and their physical environment leads to a more advanced understanding of object permanence and success on the A-not-B task [1, 2, 4]. The last substage of Piaget’s sensorimotor period is called mental representation, and characterizes children ages 18–24 months. By the end of this substage, children have the ability to create mental representations, or
Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
internal depictions of information that the mind can manipulate [1]. Piaget referred to this substage as “the invention of new means through mental combinations” [4]. Children begin finding solutions to problems suddenly rather than through trial-and-error experimentation. Eighteen to twenty-four month olds mentally represent their experiences and experiment with actions internally [1, 2, 4]. This enables them to solve advanced object permanence problems, which enable them to solve problems involving invisible displacement, or finding a toy moved while out of sight. Mental representations also enable them to remember and copy behaviors of models that are not present (deferred imitation) and engage in make-believe or symbolic play [1, 2, 4]. A symbolic system that can be shared with others facilitates communication and socialization, which is enhanced in later developmental stages [2]. Piaget’s sensorimotor period is followed by the preoperational stage (2–7 years), concrete operational stage (7–11 years), and formal operational stage (11–15 years). According to his theory, children are able to transition to the next stage due to organization and adaptation processes of assimilation and accommodation. Children learn behavioral, symbolic, and operational schemata that are assimilated and accommodated into their repertoire, thus enabling them to successfully reach a state of cognitive equilibrium at one stage and move to the next cognitive stage [1–4].
Relevance to Childhood Development Piaget’s cognitive theory is one of many models of cognition in childhood. His sensorimotor stage of development describes the first 2 years of a child’s life in terms of six substages through which every child progresses. In general, his writings describe development as a smooth progress between qualitatively different periods; however, recent work has demonstrated that development involves a gradual and inconsistent movement between cognitive processes [3]. For instance, individual and cultural differences may alter the path of cognitive development and lead to comparable cognitive outcomes [3]. While the validity of Piaget’s stage theory of development has been disputed by recent theorists, his observations and ideas have considerably shaped the field of cognitive development and inspired more recent theorists.
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Meadows, S. (1993). The child as thinker: The development and acquisition of cognition in childhood. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. Piaget, J. (1963). The origins of intelligence in children (M. Cook, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (Original work published 1952).
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage ▶Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period
Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development DANIEL PATANELLA New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Autonomous; Heteronomous; Imminent justice; Moral constraint; Moral realism
Definition According to Piaget’s theory, there are three broad stages of moral development. In the first, the child is still mastering motor and social skills and unconcerned with morality. In the second, the child exhibits unconditional respect for rules and submission to authority. In the last stage, the child recognizes that rules are arbitrary and can be changed with group consensus; the intentions of an actor (rather than just the consequences of the action) should be considered in judging the morality of an act.
Description Overshadowed by both his own theory of cognitive development as well as the more elaborate moral development theory of Lawrence Kohlberg (1927–1987), Jean Piaget’s theory of moral development has both inspired empirical research and attracted scholarly attention in its own right. While Piaget (1896–1980) spent much of his career refining his theory of cognitive development and did not revise
References 1. 2.
Berk, L. E. (2004). Development throughout the lifespan (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Flavell, J. H., Miller, P. H., & Miller, S. A. (1993). Cognitive development (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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Author’s Note This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
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his theory of moral development beyond his initial book on the subject, The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932), his theory provided an important psychological framework for conceptualizing moral development for researchers. Although other psychologists researched and wrote about morality prior to Piaget’s 1932 book (see [8, 12], for an overview of pre-Piagetian moral research), it is Piaget’s theory that is remembered as the true beginning of the psychology of morality. Piaget is sometimes erroneously portrayed as a “pure” cognitive psychologist, disinterested in both the social aspects of children’s development as well as their behaviors outside the laboratory. The formulation of his theory of moral development contradicts this stereotype in many ways. In the first section of Moral Judgment of the Child, Piaget observed children playing marbles and researched the various rules related to the many different variations on marble games that children played, and Piaget stressed that older children’s conceptualization of the fairness of rules is largely based on the consensus of the child’s peer group in determining the structure and consequences of new rules. There is certainly a strong social aspect to this. Interestingly, Piaget’s insinuation that moral judgment is a type of behavior partially anticipates the radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), in which private mental actions are assumed to be subject to the same laws as observable behaviors. Piaget spends the beginning of the second chapter of The Moral Judgment of the Child justifying his decision to concentrate on judgment; the stated morals of a child may reflect simply reflect the social desirability of the expressed sentiments, and the relationship between morals and moral behavior may be tenuous. But judgment is an action and, therefore, is a process that can be studied.
Stages of Moral Development According to Piaget’s theory, there are three broad stages of moral development. As with his theory of cognitive development, these stages are envisioned as occurring sequentially and in a linear fashion. Although movement from one stage to another takes may place on a continuum, Piaget envisions the stages as exclusively distinct from one another. Once a stage is attained, regression to a previous stage does not occur. It is not possible, according to Piaget, for a developing child to skip past stages, and although there is a correlation between biological age and attainment of a given stage the maturing morality cannot be reduced to a purely biological phenomenon. Rather, Piaget views the maturing morality as the result of cognitive development and interactions with the environment. It is important to note that Piaget does
not make an explicit cross-mapping between his stages of moral development and his stages of cognitive development, nor are these stages widely known by unique names as are the stages in his theory of cognitive development. These stages are best understood in contrast with one another, just as in other stage theories. Piaget’s first stage of moral development encapsulates up to the child’s fourth year or so. It could be considered “pre-moral” in a sense because the child does not truly interact socially with others. On one end of the spectrum, the child is still attempting to master basic motor skills necessary to play. On the other, the child is capable of imitation but plays alone in ritualistic fashion, either in solitude or in parallel with peers. Piaget does not focus on this stage as it has little to do with moral judgment, and occasionally subsequent researchers omit this period entirely, describing Piaget’s theory as having only two stages [3, 6]. Piaget’s second stage of moral development is characterized primarily by what he terms “moral realism.” This refers to the young child’s belief that rules are always externally given, cannot be altered, and must be literally obeyed. Submission to adult authority is made without question, and referred to as “moral constraint.” Obedience, by definition, must be good. Children in this stage focus on the consequences of the actions rather than the intentions of the actor, and cannot conceptualize that sometimes well-intentioned actions sometimes have unintended and harmful consequences. There is the belief, known as “imminent justice,” that all transgressions will ultimately be severely punished. In Piaget’s research, children within this stage would follow the rules of a game of marbles that their older peers taught them, and fail to tolerate any deviation from those rules. They were also unable to take the intentions of a character in a fictional story into account when judging what Piaget called the “naughtiness” of the character, fixating on the undesirable outcomes of the story. Piaget often uses the word heteronomous in describing this stage, and it roughly spans from the child’s seventh to eleventh year. Piaget’s third stage of moral development stressed reciprocal cooperation. Older children will follow the spirit of a rule, rather than the explicit letter of the rule, and recognize that since rules are arbitrary they may be changed with mutual agreed consent. Fairness is key; rules may be applied selectively and critically evaluated within context. The intent of an actor becomes more important than the consequences of his actions, and must be taken into account when judging his actions and determining his potential punishment. When punishment is to be given, it should be proportional to the violation or
Placebo
transgression it is directed toward. These children tend to be older and more cognitively developed and therefore view adults more as equals than as authority figures to be unilaterally obeyed. Piaget describes this stage as autonomous, and found it primarily in children aged eleven and older.
Empirical Support Empirical research for Piaget’s theory of moral development is mixed. While Piaget used multiple methods to generate his theory (such as clinical interviews and observations), most subsequent research conducted by other psychologists exclusively utilize the presentation of his short moral dilemmas in story format. Virtually all research conducted in investigation of Piaget’s theory only partially supports his framework, as with Harrower [5, 7], Sherwood [11], Cowan et al. [4], and Gabennesch [6]. As examples of research that entirely fails to support the theory, MacRae [9] and Bandura and McDonald [1] provide early examples. In general, subsequent research calls into question the universality of the ages at which children attain the different stages, specifically the roles culture and socio-economic status may play in moral development.
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3. Cody, H., & Sawyer, D. (1987). Moral judgment, sex, and level of temptation as determinants of resistance to temptation. Journal of Psychology, 120(2), 177–181. 4. Cowan, P., Longer, J., Heavenrich, J., & Nathanson, M. (1969). Social learning and Piaget’s cognitive theory of moral development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11(3), 261–274. 5. Durkin, D. (1959). Children’s concepts of justice: A comparison with the Piaget data. Child Development, 30, 59–67. 6. Gabennesch, H. (1990). The perception of social conventionality by children and adults. Child Development, 61, 2047–2059. 7. Harrower, M. R. (1935). Social status and moral development. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 1, 75–95. 8. Johnson, R. (1962). Early studies of children’s moral judgments. Child Development, 33(3), 603–605. 9. MacRae, D. (1954). A test of Piaget’s theories of moral development. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49(1), 14–18. 10. Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child. New York: The Free Press. (Original work published 1932) 11. Sherwood, J. (1966). Authoritarianism and moral realism. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 22(1), 17–21. 12. Wendorf, C. A. (2001). History of American morality research, 1894–1932. History of Psychology, 4(3), 272–288.
Pimples ▶Acne
Relevance to Childhood Development Unlike Kohlberg, whose theory of moral development presented a life-span approach stretching into adulthood, Piaget presented a theory that is explicitly limited to childhood. This may account for its continued presence in educational literature; for while Kohlberg’s theory received a greater amount of critical and scientific attention within the larger field of psychology, Piaget’s focuses exclusively on children and the types of activities they engage in, such as game-playing. This lends the theory an applicability and freshness to educators and child psychologists alike. While the theory displays similar drawbacks to those noted regarding Piaget’s cognitive theory as a whole (e.g. a reliance on discrete stages, an overestimation of older children’s abilities, an underestimation of younger children’s abilities), its importance to the history of modern developmental psychology and its relevance to education must be acknowledged.
References 1. Bandura, A., & McDonald, F. J. (1963). Influence of social reinforcement and the behavior of models in shaping children’s moral judgments. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 274–281. 2. Boehm, L. (1963). The development of conscience of preschool children: A cultural and subcultural comparison. Journal of Social Psychology, 59(2), 355–360.
Placebo BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Placebo effect; Placebo response
Definition A placebo can be described far easier than it can be defined or explained; some writers argue there is no one placebo effect but instead many such responses [4]. While the word placebo itself is Latin for “I shall please,” the term first appeared in a medical lexicon in the 1800s, as Hooper [7] defined a placebo as a treatment administered more to please or placate than to benefit the patient. Another early attempt to define placebo was that of Wolf [18] who gave this definition: “. . .any effect attributable to a pill, potion, or procedure, but not to its pharmacodynamic or specific properties,” (p. 100). Benedetti et al. [4] stated that the
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placebo effect is a “psychobiological” effect that can be attributed to either expectations of improvement or ▶classical conditioning. In a similar light, Bausell [1] concluded that a placebo was a physiologically or pharmacologically inert substance that can have a physiological effect if delivered or administered to a patient who believes the substance will result in an effect. Stewart-Williams and Podd [14] drew this distinction: “A placebo is a substance or procedure that has no inherent power to produce an effect that is sought or expected. A placebo effect is a genuine psychological or physiological effect, in a human or another animal, which is attributable to receiving a substance or undergoing a procedure, but is not due to the inherent powers of that substance or procedure,” (p. 326). A more precise definition of a placebo is not yet firmly agreed upon and an operational definition has been termed premature and problematic [12, 14, 15].
Description Since first observed scientifically by Beecher [2], many of the properties of what will function as a placebo have been delineated, if not a complete explanation. A placebo is nonspecific in that they are not designed or focused to produce an effect on a specific disorder or condition and placebos work on a wide range of complaints and problems; typical medical treatments are precisely designed to address targeted conditions [1]. A placebo can be any intervention, encompassing words and gestures, pills and procedures, as well as devices and surgery [10]. An intervention that is presented to a patient in an authoritative or positive way and with apparent enthusiasm for the intervention, coupled with confidence, warmth and empathy will result in a greater placebo response [1, 15]. Beecher [3] argued there was significant evidence to conclude that placebos were more effective in the presence of increased stress. Colored pills are more efficacious as a placebo than a plain white pill; placebos given more frequently are more effective than infrequent placebos. An uncomfortable, invasive, active or sophisticated intervention is more effective as a placebo than the opposites [1, 6]. A more costly placebo is more effective than less expensive treatments [1, 15, 16]. A treatment that used to treat an unrelated condition but which will produce discernible but unrelated side effects such as elevated body temperature, known as an “active placebo” enhances a placebo’s effects [14, 15]. The name given to a placebo has been shown to influence its effectiveness [10]. The likelihood of observing any placebo effect is lowest in a double-blind study, higher in a single-blind study and the highest in an uncontrolled study [15]. A placebo response is likely to
be a greater effect for measures involving self-report and or psychological phenomena that for objective, quantifiable measures of symptoms [8, 10]. The types of conditions to which placebos have been tested range from blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, weight loss, blood pressure, various pain syndromes, the healing of ulcers, nausea, inflammation and immune system response, depression, the ability of cardiac rehabilitation patients to tolerate exercise, depression, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease [1, 5, 8] although this list should not be considered exhaustive. A commonly reported patient’s response rate for placebos has been given as being 30% [2] but published studies have found response rates ranging from 0 to 100% depending upon the condition [10]. As indicated by this quote, “the study of the placebo effect is the study of the psychosocial context around the patient” ([4], p. 10390), the psychology of the recipient is a variable in the placebo effect, albeit not completely understood. Some writers have argued that a placebo could be considered physically inactive but not psychologically inactive [14]. The proposed mechanisms behind any placebo response place the individual receiving the placebo at the center of the phenomenon. Although different writers lean in favor of one explanation over others, the number of purported explanations is small: classical conditioning, expectancies and anxiety reduction. There are many similarities between classical conditioning outcomes and a placebo effect. In both cases, a variable that does not have any inherent active properties is observed to have active properties. In both instances, the inactive agent has a prior relationship with an active agent. Most any adult has had a pairing of clinical routines and events or even just a medical professional followed on numerous occasions by receiving oral pain relievers if not other medications; as a result, sorting out any conditioning effect from other aspects of a placebo is difficult [15]. A patient’s expectations or expectancies would be beliefs or rules the patient has acquired or self-generated about a healing outcome [15]. As to how beliefs or rules as a description of event-response outcomes could result in a medical outcome, Kirsch [9] argued that classical conditioning is the means by words as symbols become active variables to affect physiology. Others have shown that instructions given to subjects in classical conditioning procedures can either facilitate or reverse the expected conditioning outcome [17]. Vallance [15] concluded that expectations/expectancies may at times rely on conditioning although there are other cases in which conditioning could operate independently and not be recognized in conscious, cognitive terms.
Placenta
The anxiety-lysing effect of any therapy has been proposed as another mechanism underlying the placebo. Saline delivery has been found to reduce the emotional aspects of pain but not the noxious-sensory aspect of experimentallyproduced pain [15]. Petrovic, Dietrich, Fransson, Andersson, Carlsson, and Ingvar [11] found that analgesia from placebo administration activated brain areas involved in emotional responses [15]. Anxiety itself can produce pain relief via stress-induced analgesia, which runs contrary to anxiety reduction as a placebo-analgesic mechanism [13].
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Placebo Effect ▶Placebo
Placebo Response ▶Placebo
References 1. Bausell, R. B. (2007). Snake oil science: The truth about complementary and alternative medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2. Beecher, H. K. (1955). Powerful placebo. Journal of the American Medical Association, 159, 1602–1606. 3. Beecher, H. K. (1961). Surgery as placebo: A quantitative study of bias. Journal of the American Medical Association, 176, 1102–1107. 4. Benedetti, F., Mayberg, H. S., Wager, T. D., Stohler, C. S., & Zubieta, J. K. (2005). Neurobiological mechanisms of the placebo effect. The Journal of Neuroscience, 25(45), 10390–10402. 5. Buckman, R., & Sabbagh, K. (1993). Magic or medicine? An investigation of healing and healers. London: Pan Books. 6. Friedman, J. H., & Dubinsky, R. (2008). The placebo effect. Neurology, 71, e25–e26. 7. Hooper, R. (1820). Hooper’s lexicon-medicum. New York: Harpers and Brothers. 8. Hrobjartsson, A., & Gotzsche, P. C. (2001). Is the placebo powerless? An analysis of clinical trials comparing placebo with no treatment. New England Journal of Medicine, 344, 1594–1620. 9. Kirsch, I. (1990). Changing expectations: A key to effective psychotherapy. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. 10. Oken, B. S. (2008). Placebo effects: Clinical aspects and neurobiology. Brain, 131, 2499–2509. 11. Petrovic, P., Dietrich, T., Fransson, P., Andersson, J., Carlsson, K., & Ingvar, M. (2005). Placebo in emotional processing – induced expectations of anxiety relief activate a generalized modulatory network. Neuron, 46(6), 957–969. 12. Shapiro, A. K., & Shapiro, E. (1997). The powerful placebo: From ancient priest to modern physician. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 13. Shapiro, A. K., & Shapiro, E. (1999). The placebo effect: Is it much ado about nothing? In A. Harrington (Ed.), The placebo effect: An interdisciplinary exploration (pp. 12–36). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 14. Stewart-Williams, S., & Podd, J. (2004). The placebo effect: Dissolving the expectancy versus conditioning effect. Psychological Bulletin, 130(2), 324–340. 15. Vallance, A. K. (2006). Something out of nothing: The placebo effect. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 12, 287–296. 16. Waber, R. L., Shiv, B., Carmon, Z., & Ariely, D. (2008). Commercial features of placebo and therapeutic efficacy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 299, 1016–1017. 17. Wilson, G. D. (1968). Reversal of differential GSR responding by instructions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76, 491–493. 18. Wolf, S. (1950). Effects of suggestion and conditioning on action of chemical agents in human subjects-pharmacology of placebos. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 29, 100–109.
Placenta JILL A. ANDERSON University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Synonyms Afterbirth
Definition The placenta is a semi-permeable membrane that serves as a support organ for the fetus by facilitating the exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and waste products between the fetus and the mother.
Description The placenta is a composed of a semi-permeable membrane that is dark reddish-blue or maroon in color. It averages nine inches (22 cm) in length and seven inches (18 cm) in diameter. The placenta typically weighs about one pound (500 g).
Relevance to Childhood Development The placenta develops out of tissue from both the outer layer of the blastocyst (trophoblast) and the lining of the mother’s uterus. It is connected to the fetus via the umbilical cord. The purpose of the placenta is twofold. First, as a semi-permeable membrane, the placenta serves as an exchange site between the fetus and the mother by permitting the passage of some materials between them. Oxygen and nutrients are transmitted from the mother to the fetus, while carbon dioxide and waste materials are transmitted from the fetus to the mother. Second, the placenta serves as a barrier of protection for the fetus by preventing the passage of certain materials through the mother’s bloodstream. After delivery of the fetus, the placenta is expelled from the mother’s body as a result of uterine contractions.
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References 1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
Cole, M., & Cole, S. R. (2001). The development of children. New York: Worth. Gray, H. (2008). Gray’s anatomy: The anatomical basis of medicine and surgery (40th ed.). Churchill-Livingston: Elsevier. Jiracek, J. (2001). An atlas of the human embryo and fetus: A photographic review of human prenatal development. New York: Parthenon. Moore, K., & Persaud, T. (2003). Before we are born: Essentials of embryology and birth defects. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders. Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2006). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Siegler, R., Deloache, J., & Eisenberg, N. (2006). How children develop (2nd ed.). New York: Worth.
Plantar Reflex (Non-Pathological) ▶Babinski Reflex
Planum Temporal ▶Wernicke’s Area
Plasticity ▶Protective Factors
the organism. Brain plasticity reflects more than the maturation evident in human development. Plasticity also reflects the ability to change with experience. Experiences like learning new information and strategies mean that the brain has changed in form and function. The new behavior has changed the brain and the changes to the brain facilitate the new behavior [7]. In normal aging, neurons (brain cells) start to die from adolescence. This normal process rarely results in individuals experiencing significant declines in cognitive functions for several decades, if at all. This is because the brain engages in plasticity and the structure of the brain is changed to compensate for the slow neuronal loss [6]. Change also occurs as a result of injury (lesion). After an injury, the brain undergoes at least some re-organization to produce behaviors that have been lost. Complete restoration of function is not possible but brain plasticity can partially compensate for the damage. Change in the synapse is the principle way in which the brain changes [6]. Synaptic change reflects alterations in axons, dendrites, the structure of existing synapses, and the number of synapses per neuron. For example, dendritic branches on some neurons are longer and more branched in the brains of older individuals. It should be noted that there are limits to the amount that the brain can change and research has not fully accounted for how such limits are manifest. It should also be noted that not all brain plasticity is functional. Dysfunction may be evidenced or implicated, for example, in the development of some degenerative diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Relevance to Childhood Development
Plasticity of the Brain TRACEY MCLELLAN University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Synonyms Brain malleability; Capacity of the brain to change; Changes to the brain
Definition Brain plasticity, from the Greek word plaistikos meaning to form, refers to the capacity the brain has to continuously change its structure and therefore function throughout a lifetime. Plasticity allows the brain to respond to external changes in the environment as well as internal changes in
Brain plasticity is most evident during early development and adolescence. Infants are regularly exposed to the objects, events, and people that shape their experience and therefore the changes to their brain. A child’s early interactions directly influence the essential connections that occur in the brain. As a child acquires new knowledge and encounters new experiences, the elaborate cortical networks of the brain engage in modification and reorganization. Unused networks are pruned away during the early developmental years [4]. There are several stages of basic childhood brain plasticity. The first stage occurs prenatally when the brain is being “built.” Disruptions, for example, due to alcohol [9] and poor nutrition [5] can result in brain impairment. During the first year of life, the postnatal brain engages systems or not depending on the exposure to adequate sensory input. More refinement takes place between 3–5 years of age, after which the brain has reached 90–95% of the average adult volume.
Play Therapy
The skills for developing language and spatial abilities reach a peak from this age until puberty due to the large amount of activity in the parietal lobes that slows dramatically after puberty. Just before puberty, the frontal lobes are also the site of much activity and will again engage in plasticity in early adulthood. So many changes take place in the brain during the teenage years that most teenagers need to sleep much longer than they did previously, and they often have difficulty coping with early start times in the morning. Brain injuries are unfortunately too common with children. Modes of injury include motor vehicle and bicycle accidents, falls, sporting injuries, and child abuse. It was once assumed that children were more resistant to brain injury than adults were because their brains were still developing and could demonstrate greater plasticity to compensate for certain trauma. That is, it was assumed the equivalent brain damage to a child and an adult would result in fewer problems for a child than an adult. This is known as the “Kennard Principle.” However, there is now considerable evidence to the contrary, with many researchers suggesting that the outcome for children suffering brain injury is worse than the outcome for an equally injured adult [2, 3, 8]. Much of these studies also highlight that the difficulties faced by individuals who have experienced early brain trauma may not be evident until later in early adulthood when demands are placed upon vulnerable cortical networks. It is suggested, therefore, that adequate follow-up should be made right through to early adulthood. The brains of children are also vulnerable to psychological trauma as well as physical trauma. All experiences change the brain and, hence, child maltreatment, specifically resulting in a diagnosis of PTSD is associated with dramatic changes in the brain. For example, DeBellis et al. [1] found abused children with PTSD had less brain volume, larger lateral ventricles, and a smaller corpus callosum than did healthy control children.
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6. 7.
8.
9.
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Katzen-Luchenta, J. (2007). The declaration of nutrition, health, and intelligence for the child-to-be. Nutrition and Health, 19(1–2), 85–102. Kolb, B. (1995). Brain plasticity and behavior. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kolb, B., Forgie, M., Gibb, R., Gorny, G., & Rowntree, S. (1998). Age, experience and the changing brain. Neuroscience and Biobehavior Reviews, 22(2), 143–159. Laurent-Vannier, A., Brugel, D. G., & De Agostini, M. (2000). Rehabilitation of brain-injured children. Childs Nervous System, 16(10–11), 760–764. Williams, J. H., & Ross, L. (2007). Consequences of prenatal toxin exposure for mental health in children and adolescents: A systematic review. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 16(4), 243–253.
Play Assessment ▶Play-Based Assessment
Play Therapy KATHY DEORNELLAS1, CRYSTAL SHORT1, DAVID BRANDWEIN2 1 Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA 2 Kean University, Union, NJ, USA
Synonyms Child-centered play therapy; Non-directive play therapy; Play-group therapy
Definition Play therapy is a theoretical model which uses the therapeutic power of play to address various mental health issues.
Description References 1.
2.
3.
4.
DeBellis, M., Keshavan, M., Shifflett, H., Iyengar, S., Beers, S., Hall, J., & Moritz, G. (2002). Brain structures in pediatric maltreatmentrelated posttraumatic stress disorder: A sociodemographically matched study. Biological Psychiatry, 52(11), 1066–1078. Duval, J., Braun, C. M., Montour-Proulx, I., Daigneault, S., Rouleau, I., & Begin, J. (2008). Brain lesions and IQ: Recovery versus decline depends on age of onset. Journal of Child Neurology, 23(6), 663–668. Johnson, D. A., Rose, F. D., Brooks, B. M., & Eyers, S. (2003). Age and recovery from brain injury: Legal opinions, clinical beliefs and experimental evidence. Paediatric Rehabilitation, 6(2), 103–109. Kagan, J., & Baird, A. (2004). Brain and behavioral development during childhood. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences (2nd ed.). MA: MIT Press.
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Play therapy is a theoretical model which provides an avenue for individuals to prevent or solve psychosocial problems as well as improve issues of self-acceptance and self-esteem. Although, play is a tool which can be used in therapy across all ages, play is used typically with children. In a traditional therapy model, the use of talk is the primary tool which is not always effective with young children because of the developmental limitations of their expressive language skills. However, children are able to understand more about their world than they are able to verbalize. Thus, through the use of play therapy children are provided a modality to express their thoughts
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and feelings without using words. Essentially, play becomes a child’s language of expression [7]. Play therapy has its early roots in psychoanalytic theory and is founded in the works of Sigmund Frued, Melanie Klein and Anna Freud. The first reference of the power of play in a therapeutic setting was documented by Sigmund Freud and his work with Little Hans [11]. Freud’s work with Little Hans was expanded upon by the British psychoanalysts Melanie Klein and Anna Freud (daughter of Sigmund Freud). Melanie Klein [14] started to use play in order to analyze children under 6. She believed that play was essentially the same as free association used in adult psychoanalysis, while Anna Freud [10] utilized play as a means to facilitate positive attachment to the therapist and gain access to the child’s inner life. In [24], Carl Rogers, in response to the strict, prescriptive modalities of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, developed non-directive therapy, which came to be known as client-centered therapy. Emphasis was placed upon the relationship between the client and the therapist based upon genuineness, acceptance, and trust. Virginia Axline [3], who was mentored by Rogers, developed a new therapeutic approach for working with children based upon Rogers’ person-centered theory called non-directive play therapy. Axline’s account of working with a young boy, Dibs [2], is well known and is one of the key references in regard to non-directive play therapy. Play Therapists such as Moustakas [18] and Schaefer [25] have expanded upon Axline’s ideas and introduced different models integrating family therapy, narrative therapy, and cognitive behavior therapy along with play therapy techniques. More recently, British drama therapists Sue Jennings [12] and Ann Cattanach [8] have introduced play therapy methods which integrate drama therapy work with children. Today, psychoanalytic play therapy continues to be widely practiced around the world and focuses primarily on object relations and attachment theory. The play therapy model involves establishing a warm relationship with the child, accepting the child and his or her feelings as they are, reflecting the child’s feelings in a way that allows the child to gain insight, and allowing the child to take the lead in therapy. A core belief for child-centered therapists is that children are capable of directing their own growth when provided empathy, warmth, unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and a safe place [7]. Many play therapists include art, drama, music, dance, and sand trays in their therapy. Overall, play therapists approach play therapy from a wide range of theoretical perspectives. Among the many types of play therapy being practiced today are Adlerian [7], cognitive-behavioral [15], existential or relationship [19], Gestalt [20], and Jungian analytical play therapy [1].
Techniques of play therapy tend to take the form of non-directive (as per Axline) or directive. In directive play therapy, the play therapist is actively involved in and takes charge in the play interactions with the child. In non-directive play therapy, the child takes charge of the play and makes his or her own rules, with the caveat that no one gets hurt. In both modes, the child is assured that what is said and done in the office remains private unless they are in danger of harming themselves. Many play therapists will meet with the parent(s) prior to beginning formal play therapy with the child in order to get a proper social and developmental history, and will meet with the parent(s) every so often in order to provide information about child development, suggestions for parenting, and alternative ways to communicate with their child. It is important that details of the session with the child not be transmitted to the parents in order to maintain privacy, promote the child’s free expression in their play, and establish trust of the therapist. The therapist will communicate to the child’s parents their understanding of the child’s needs or conflicts without divulging details of the therapy. Once formal play therapy begins, the therapist observes and/or directly participates in the child’s play and begins to recognize themes and patterns or ways of using the materials that are important to the child. Over time, the therapist helps the child begin to make meaning out of the play. This is important because the play reflects issues important to the child and typically relevant to their difficulties. Pledge [21] notes that, as with any projective technique, caution needs to be taken in interpreting the themes of a child’s play, as acts that seem violent and/or destructive may just be activity or testing the limits of a new situation. She also notes that for children of a young age, it is the process of play therapy, not the production of insight that provides relief and healing for them. Play therapy has been shown to be effectively practiced across a number of settings, including schools, hospitals, residential treatment, community clinics, and private practices as well as been shown to be effective in addressing various mental health concerns [5]. Research documents play therapy as a valid technique in the treatment of conduct disorder and aggression [9], behavioral disturbances [26], separation issues surrounding parental divorce [6], sexual abuse [23], and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [13]. In 2001, Ray et al. [22] completed a meta-analysis of 94 research studies investigating the clinic effectiveness of play therapy. The 94 studies measured the effects of play therapy conducted by American play therapists and contained over three
Play-Based Assessment
thousand subjects, with a mean age of 7.1 years. The 94 studies included 20 different client groups with difficulties such as Conduct Disorder, Anxiety/Fear, Speech and Language Difficulties, Depression, Sexual Abuse, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Results of the meta analysis revealed a large effect size (d = 0.80), showing that play therapy is a highly effective intervention technique for a variety of childhood difficulties. In 1982, the Association for Play Therapy (APT) was developed. The Association for Play Therapy [4] reports that play therapy “helps children become more responsible for behaviors and develop more successful strategies, develop new and creative solutions to problems; develop respect and acceptance of self and others, learn to experience and express emotion, cultivate empathy and respect for thoughts and feelings of others, learn new social skills and relational skills with family, [and] develop self-efficacy and thus a better assuredness about their abilities.” Although play therapy may seem simple to the untrained eye, it is a challenging therapeutic endeavor requiring training and skill. The practice of play therapy requires extensive specialized education, training, and experience. Play therapists have earned an advanced degree (Master’s or Doctorate) in a mental health field such as counseling, social work, or psychology.
References 1. Allan, J. (1988). Inscapes of the child’s world: Jungian counseling in schools and clinics. Dallas: Spring. 2. Alxine, V. M. (1964). Dibs in search of self. New York: Ballantine Books. 3. Alxine, V. M. (1969). Play therapy. New York: Ballantine Books. 4. Association for Play Therapy. (2008). About play therapy. Retrieved August 27, 2008, from http://www.a4pt.org/ps.playtherapy.cfm. 5. Bratton, S. C., Ray, D., Rhine, T., & Jones, L. (2005). The efficacy of play therapy with children: A meta-analytic review of treatment outcomes. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36, 376–390. 6. Burroughs, M., Wagner, W., & Johnson, J. T. (1997). Treatment with children of divorce: a comparison of two types of therapy. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 27, 83–99. 7. Carmichael, K. D. (2006). Play therapy: an introduction. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. 8. Cattanach, A. (1994). Play therapy: where the sky meets the underworld. London: Jessica Kingsley. 9. Dogra, A., & Veeraraghavan, V. (1994). A study of psychological intervention with children with aggressive conduct disorder. Industrial Journal of Clinical Psychology, 21, 28–32. 10. Freud, A. (1965). Normality and pathology in childhood: Assessments of development. Madison: International Universities Press. 11. Frued, S. (1909). Analysis of phobia in a five-year old boy. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Frued, ed. And trans. James Strachey, 24 vols. London: Hogarth, 1953–1974, Vol. 10, pp. 1–149.
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12. Jennings, S. (1993). Playtherapy with children: a practitioner’s guide. Oxford: Blackwell. 13. Kaduson, H., & Finnerty, K. (1995). Self-control game interventions for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. International Journal of Play Therapy, 4, 15–29. 14. Klein, M. (1955). The psychoanalytic play technique: its history and significance. In Envy and gratitude and other works. London: Virago. 1988. 15. Knell, S. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral play therapy. Northvale: J. Aronson. 16. Kottman, T. (1995). Partners in play: AN Adlerian approach to play therapy. Alexandria: American Counseling Association. 17. Landreth, G. L. (2002). Play therapy: the art of the relationship (2nd ed.). New York: Brunner/Mazel. 18. Moustakas, C. E. (1992). Psychotherapy with children: the living relationship. Greeley: Carron. 19. Moustakas, C. E. (1997). Relationship play therapy. Northvale: J. Aronson. 20. Oaklander, V. (1988). Windows to our children. Highland: The Center for Gestalt Development. 21. Pledge, D. S. (2004). Counseling adolescents and children: developing your clinical style. Belmont: Thomson Brooks Cole. 22. Ray, D., Bratton, S., Rhine, T., & Jones, L. (2001). The effectiveness of play therapy: responding to the critics. International Journal of Play Therapy, 10(1), 85–108. 23. Reams, R., & Friedrich, W. (1994). The efficacy of time-limited play therapy with maltreated preschoolers. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 889–899. 24. Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered counseling. Boston: HoughtonMifflin. 25. Schaefer, C. E. (1993). What is play and why is it therapeutic? In C. E. Schaefer & E. Charles (Eds.), The therapeutic power of play. New Jersey: Jason. 26. Schmidtchen, S., Hennies, S., & Acke, H. (1993). To kill two birds with one stone? Evaluating the hypothesis of a two-fold effectiveness of client-centered play therapy. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 40, 34–42.
Play Therapy Group ▶Play-Group Therapy
Play-Based Assessment TONY WU Walden University, Diamond Bar, CA, USA
Synonyms Alternative assessment; Child-center assessment; Earlychildhood evaluation; Play assessment
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Definition A type of clinical evaluation technique used to assess the functioning of children in the area of emotional and behavioral domain, developmental qualities, using both qualitative and quantitative methodology.
Description The importance of early intervention and prevention has garnered international recognition and support [2]. In that regard, early intervention is aimed to provide services to individuals who need services before these issues escalate into severe problems. Critical to this process is an appropriate and efficient assessment approach. In the past, practitioners have found it difficult to obtain ecological valid and reliable data when using traditional assessment tools. To address these concerns, play-based assessment has gained popularity due to its sound theories and age-appropriate methodology [1]. For adult psychological evaluation, verbal communication is the primary method of gathering data; however, assessment with young children requirement a different approach. It has been long recognized that children learn and express themselves through play; it is through play that they explore the world and develop cognitive capacity and problem-solving skills [7]. It is through the quality and quantity of play that a clinician is able to determine and evaluate a child’s development and functioning through a variety of objective and subjective instruments. Studies have shown that children with social delays engage in simple play and are less likely to spend time in group play [3]. Johnson and Ershler [4] further indicated that developmentally delayed children engage in less sophisticated play than their typical peers. In general, children with developmental delays played with toys in a restricted manner and were not able to engage in constructive and dramatic plays. Studies have suggested that both qualitative and quantitative nature of play were indicative of children’s cognitive, academic, and social development [5]. Given the utilities of play-based assessment, here are a few guidelines for practitioners. First, in order to meet the needs of both assessor and child, the assessment procedure should be pleasurable, flexible, and positive for the child. Secondly, assessment should take place in the child’s nature environment, so he or she can play at ease and the appropriate level. Thirdly, it is important to offer choices in play for the children, allowing them to direct their own play. If a child is disabled, then the evaluator needs to consider the barriers to the play. For example, if the child has communication difficulties, other modes should be offered such as symbols, drawing, painting,
pictures, and other objects of references, along with additional nonverbal gestures [6].
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
5. 6. 7.
Eisert, D., & Lamorey, S. (1996). Play as a window on child development: The relationship between play and other developmental domains. Early Education and Development, 7, 221–233. Grimley, L. K., & Bennett, J. (2000). Beginning school ready to learn. School Psychology International, 21, 322–335. Guralnick, M. J., & Groom, J. M. (1985). Correlates of peer-related social competence of developmentally delayed preschool children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 90, 140–150. Johnson, J. E., & Ershler, J. L. (1985). Social and cognitive play forms and toy use by nonhandicapped and handicapped preschoolers. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 5, 69–82. Linder, T. W. (1993). Transdisciplinary play based assessment. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing. Mortimer, H. (2004). Hearing children’s voices in the early years. Support for Learning, 19(4), 169–174. Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New York: Norton.
Play-Group Therapy ASHLEA SMITH Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Synonyms Adlerian play therapy; Adolescent and child behavior therapy; Age-related play therapy; Art therapy; Child-centered therapy; Child psychotherapy; Child therapy; Cognitivebehavioral play therapy (CBPT); Counseling; Directive play therapy; Expressive group therapy; Gestalt play therapy; Group activity therapy; Group play therapy; Group psychotherapy; Music therapy; Nondirective play therapy; Play therapy; Play therapy group; Sand tray therapy
Definition A relationship built between peer groups of children or adolescents with a therapist specializing in play therapy, using group therapy techniques in a playroom setting as a means for youth to explore themselves and others (e.g., how one acts, thinks, and feels) through play.
Description Play is the universal language used by children to communicate their understanding of the world around them where the toys depict the words of the child. Play therapy is to children as talk therapy also known as narrative therapy is to adults. Typically, play-group therapy,
Pleasure Principle
commonly known as group play therapy is when a minimum of two or a preferred maximum of four children or adolescents currently functioning at similar developmental stages interact with each other and the therapist in a therapeutic playroom setting. However, the number of group participants should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Schaefer [3] recommended that the length of the group session should also be considered on a case-by-case basis with a group of preschool to elementary-aged children should range between 20 and 40 min, while children in middle or high school may attend the group for 1 h. Landreth [2] described group play therapy as differing from the concept of group counseling due to the fact that it is not necessary to have group rules as well as group cohesion among members to promote growth; this is simply done by observing other children which ultimately empowers a child to attempt new things. It has been suggested that the use of play-group therapy may be more beneficial and expedite the therapeutic process with youth. Berg et al. [1] described group play therapy as a way to provide a sense of universality among the group members fostering a realization that other children experience problems too and they are not alone in dealing with real-life situations allowing children to increase their self-concept. As with a group counseling session, the first step in play-group therapy is to create a safe and nurturing environment. Once this environment is established, the group process seeks to promote the expression of emotions while at the same time establishes the chance for children to offer empathy to other children in the group setting. When a child discovers that they can also be helpful to someone else in the group the comradery built among members increases one’s self-esteem and self-concept. The primary goal of play-group therapy is to foster social interaction skills and develop emotional coping skills. This typically utilizes a series of different modalities of play such as: art, music, board games, games, sand tray therapy, and other directive and nondirective forms of general play. The primary role of the group play therapist is to facilitate an environment for growth, personal sharing of one’s story, a sense of universality, acceptance, and the development of social and coping skills. It is important for the group play therapist to verbally track the behavior and name the emotions expressed during the session by each group member. This is done by also including the child’s name for example, the therapist would state, “Gavin, you’re playing with the puppets” or “Samantha, you seem to really enjoy playing in the sand.” There are many theoretical foundations and therapeutic modalities
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that are used in play-group therapy just like those that are used in individual play therapy and other types of therapies. The group facilitator decides which approach to utilize in the group setting based on their particular specialty area and the population of children being treated. Some types or styles of play-group therapy that are frequently used by clinicians consist of: sand tray therapy groups, art therapy groups, child-centered group play therapy, adlerian group play therapy, jungian play-group therapy, cognitive-behavioral group play therapy, and gestalt play-group therapy. Additionally, another key aspect of the play-group process is for the play therapist and the group members to set limits to ensure safety and enhance the child’s ability to express negative feelings while maintaining self control. The limit-setting serves to protect the play therapy room as well as uphold the legal and ethical standards of the profession. When working with children it is important to note as Schaefer [3] mentioned that although the child is the foci of treatment it is important to include the parents or guardians as the client(s) due to legal and ethical considerations. In essence, play-group therapy serves to provide a medium of treatment where children can learn from other children’s experiences while expressing their own emotions though the use of play.
References 1. 2. 3.
Berg, R., Landreth, G., & Fall, K. (1998). Group counseling: Concepts and procedures (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Brunner/Routledge. Landreth, G. L. (2002). Play therapy: The art of the relationship (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge. Schaefer, C. E. (2003). Foundations of play therapy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Playmates ▶Friendship
Pleasure Principle DAVID BRANDWEIN Kean University, Union, NJ, USA
Synonyms Lustprinzip (German); Pleasure-pain principle; Pleasureunpleasure principle; Unpleasure principle
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Definition
Freud’s approached the study of the mind from a biological perspective, both due to his medical training and of prevailing notions of the nineteenth century, when he started his practice of medicine. He conceived of the individual as a store of dynamic energy that both needed to be continuously discharged and then continuously replenished. Freud conceived of two different types of energy, Eros (life instinct) and Thanatos (death instinct, aggression). The energy behind the life instinct was called the libido, which managed the instinctual drive towards survival and replacement of energy through conversion into more specific human needs (sex, food, safety). Instincts drive and direct behavior, the end result of which is the satisfaction of needs derived from the instincts. Needs lead to tension, and behavior is directed towards tension reduction. At first, Freud called this concept the unpleasure principle [2], but later changed it to the more common usage, the pleasure principle, which is a direct translation of Fechner’s “lustprinzip”. The pleasure principle aims to keep excitation or tension as low as possible by aiming toward the immediate gratification of instinctual needs, most of which, in Freud’s original conception, were sexual in nature. Freud [5] ascribed this aim to what he called the id, which includes other biologically determined drives, such as the impulse to love and to seek gratification. The id’s function is to bring about the satisfaction of instinctual needs on the basis of the pleasure principle. The energy of the id is invested in either in action on an object that would satisfy an instinct or in images of an object that would give partial satisfaction. This hallucinatory wish fulfillment is called primary process thinking. The id’s energy is so mobile that it is easily discharged or transferred from object to object or image to image [6]. Eventually; however, the ▶reality principle interecedes, driven by ego, and the mind learns to delay and/or avoid gratification of needs based on the real-world consequences of immediate and actual gratification.
life is mostly governed by the pleasure principle, and theorized that there were “pleasure zones” in the body that changed as the infant developed into a child. This formed the basis of Freud’s theory of child development, based on psychosexual stages, and his theory of psychopathology, which occurred due to “fixation” at one of the stages due to an inability to satisfy the need/needs relevant to that particular stage. Freud’s psychosexual theory of child development was based on the pleasure that could be derived from each of the body’s erogenous zones, which his stages were organized around. This notion of infant and child sexuality was quite controversial at the time, and remains so today, and in fact, this notion was one important factor in the schism between Freud and some of the other important psychoanalysts at the time (Jung, Adler, etc.). The first erogenous zone, or zone of pleasure for a developing infant is the mouth, and thus infancy (birth to age 1) is called the oral stage of development. In this stage, the child desires oral gratification, and sought it out via sucking on the mother’s breast for nurturance and, later on, by ingesting food through the mouth. At this stage, and other stages, the life instinct (Eros) compels the infant to do what it has to do to survive. Once this is mastered, the zone of pleasure moves to the anal area, leading to the anal stage of development (typically age 1–3), where elimination becomes the focus, as survival (mostly ingestion of food) would be impossible without elimination. Again, instinct drives the behavior, and provides pleasure when it is done. Next, the erogenous zone shifts to the phallic area, and the phallic stage of development (age 3–5), where pleasure is experienced through the penis/vagina. In healthy development, according to Freud, the end of this stage brings resolution to the Oedipal complex and ▶identification with the same-sex parent, as well as the introduction of the superego. The next stage is characterized by latency (age 5 to onset of puberty), where Freud felt sexual drive were repressed and no new area of bodily excitement emerges, and finally the genital stage (adolescence), where the sexual urges recur but are now directed toward a peer of the opposite sex. Bronski [1], among others, has taken issue with the idea that the end result of healthy development is the enactment of sexual urges in relation to a peer of the opposite sex. He advocates for the inclusion of sexual urges directed toward a peer of the same sex in the conversation about healthy sexuality and healthy development.
Relevance to Childhood Development
References
According to Freud, the pleasure principle plays a key role in the developing child’s life. He believed that an infant’s
1.
The pleasure principle, originally developed by German philosopher Gustav Fechner, and borrowed by Sigmund Freud [2–5], is a psychoanalytic concept according to which psychological processes and actions are governed by the immediate gratification of needs and the avoidance or release of unpleasurable tension.
Description
Bronski, M. (2000). The pleasure principle: Sex, backlash, and the struggle for gay freedom. New York: MacMillan Press.
Positive Affect 2. 3.
4.
5. 6.
Freud, S. (1900/1973). The interpretation of dreams (standard edition, Vols. 4–5). London: Hogarth. Freud, S. (1911). Formulations on the two principles of mental functioning. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, (J. Strachey, Ed. and Trans., 24 Vols.) London: Hogarth Press. 1953–74, Vol. 12, 215–227. Freud, S. (1915). Instincts and their vicissitudes. . In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, (J. Strachey, Ed. and Trans., 24 Vols.) London: Hogarth Press 1953– 74, Vol. 14, 117–140. Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the pleasure principle. New York: Norton. Miller, P. H. (1993). Theories of developmental psychology (3rd ed.). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.
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PNS ▶Peripheral Nervous System
Polysomy Y ▶XYY Syndrome
Poppers Pleasure-Pain Principle
▶Inhalants
▶Pleasure Principle
Positive Affect Pleasure-Unpleasure Principle
DAVID N. MILLER University at Albany, SUNY Division of School Psychology, Albany, NY, USA
▶Pleasure Principle
Synonyms Positive affectivity; Positive emotions
Definition
Pleasuring Oneself
Positive affect refers to the extent to which an individual subjectively experiences positive moods such as joy, interest, and alertness.
▶Masturbation
Description
Plumbism ▶Lead Poisoning
Plumpness ▶Obesity
Positive affect is one aspect of pleasurable and positive experience. Although positive affect overlaps to a significant degree with the concept of positive emotions, they are not identical. Positive affect is more closely related to mood states whereas positive emotions involve positive feelings as well as characteristic patterns of physiological arousal, thoughts, and behaviors [1]. Positive affect is usually measured through the use of self-report scales, such as the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule [2], in which respondents are presented with words describing both positive and negative moods and asked to rate each according to the extent that it describes them. Although these scales were originally designed for adults, more recently they have been adapted for use with children and adolescents.
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Positive Affectivity
Research suggests that individuals who have high degrees of positive affect are generally more extraverted than people with negative affect, and that they also experience a greater variety of mental and physical health benefits. Moreover, although positive affect is often contrasted to negative affect, these constructs can be independent of each other. Specifically, individuals can be high or low on one dimension whether they are high or low on the other [1]. For example, in determining whether a child or adolescent is experiencing depression or anxiety, assessing the degree of positive affectivity may be useful. Research suggests that youth with depression experience substantial levels of negative affect but not positive affect, whereas youth with anxiety disorders often experience both negative and positive affect. Although positive affect appears to a large extent to be genetically determined, it is not exclusively so, and can be enhanced through both cognitive and behavioral modification [1].
References 1. 2.
Peterson, C. (2006). A primer in positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.
Positive Affectivity ▶Positive Affect
Definition A type of overcorrection procedure, in which, contingent on the problem behavior, the student is required to engage in correct forms of relevant behavior until the behavior has been a repeated a number of times [2].
Description This process ensures the individual practices the correct response according to a predetermined number of repetitions or duration, contingent upon problem behavior or incorrect responding. The behavior emitted during the repetition interval is related to the inappropriate response and is designed to ensure the individual learns the correct response to emit in the future [1]. An example of this procedure includes having the learner appropriately dispose of ten pieces of paper contingent upon throwing trash on the ground. The effort required to emit the appropriate behavior is designed to teach the learner the appropriate response (e.g., throwing trash into the garbage can) and to reduce the future frequency of the inappropriate behavior of concern (e.g., disposing of garbage on the ground/floor).
Relevance to Childhood Development Positive practice has been implemented in multiple learning contexts for children with developmental disabilities. Not only has it been utilized within clinical settings, such as those mentioned, above, but the procedure has been implemented within the context of skill acquisition during the completion of education tasks [3]. The procedure provides the learner with the opportunity to emit the correct response, thus exposing the learner to multiple trials of the correct response.
References
Positive Emotions ▶Positive Affect
1. 2. 3.
Positive Practice
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis. New Jersey: Pearson Eduction, Inc. Miltenberger, R. G. (2008). Behavior modification: Principles and procedures (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning. Worsdell, A. S., Iwata, B. A., Dozier, C. L., Johnson, A. D., Neidert, P. L., & Thomason, J. L. (2005). Analysis of response repetition as an error-correction strategy during sight-word reading. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38, 511–527.
MICHELLE JOHNSON, IVY CHONG Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
Positive Punishment Synonyms Overcorrection; Positive punishment; Restitution
▶Overcorrection ▶Positive Practice
Positron Emission Tomography
Positive Reinforcement
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PEI-HSUAN HSIEH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
NINA FOSTER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition
Synonyms
Positive reinforcement involves the increase in the frequency of a behavior as a result of the presentation of a stimulus.
Functional imaging; PET
Description There are many theories founded by psychologists and educators that attempt to explain how people learn. A prevalent theory that has been utilized and researched for over 80 years is operant conditioning. Originated by B. F. Skinner in the 1930s, operant conditioning attempts to define how different types of reinforcers and punishments can strengthen and weaken behaviors. There are two types of reinforcers that strengthen behavior: positive and negative. Positive reinforcement is a way to encourage a good behavior by providing a constructive reinforcer to the person. These reinforcers increase the odds that the positive behavior will occur again in a similar situation. When using positive reinforcement, it is important for the reinforcer to be preferred or wanted by the person. If not, the person’s behavior is unlikely to change and the behavior is unlikely to occur again. Negative reinforcer encourages a behavior by removing an unpleasant stimuli.
Definition Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is an imaging technique that produces a high resolution spatial threedimensional image. PET is used both for clinical and research purposes, in order to identify areas of the brain associated with various psychological tasks and to assess cortical areas associated with various psychological and neurological disorders.
Description
For school children, many types of positive reinforcers have been developed to persuade children to behave in class. The most basic of these is smiley face stickers. Other examples include extra recess time, free homework passes, and toys from a treasure box. For adults, positive reinforcers are more complex. Personal success is often a reinforcer that adults find rewarding. Other positive reinforcers for adults include pay-checks, raises, and praise.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) produces high quality images that are hemodynamic, chemical, functional, or metabolic from which conclusions of physiological variables can be determined. Before scanning takes place the individual is injected with glucose or another chemical that contains radioactive atoms [1]. During scanning, when the glucose or other radioactive material begins to decay a positron is released and collides with an electron that emits two gamma rays going in exact opposite directions [2]. The detectors record the arrival of rays along the outside area and quantify the difference in arrival time to figure exactly where they were produced [1]. The computer determines how many rays are coming from specific areas and how much of the chemical is located in that area. A three-dimensional image of the studied organ is formed. The areas with the most radioactivity, hence the most bloodflow, are shown as the areas with the most activity [3]. PET images are usually coupled with Computerized Tomography scans which give two sets of data, anatomy and metabolism, that can be merged into a unique image to form the final result [4].
References
References
1.
1.
Relevance to Childhood Development
2. 3.
Ormrod, J. E. (1999). Human learning (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NY: Merrill. Plaud, J. J. (2001). Positive reinforcement. Living and Learning, 1, 3. Schunk, D. H. (2008). Learning theories: An educational perspective (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NY: Pearson.
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Ganis, G., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2003). Neuroimaging. In V. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the human brain (pp. 493–505). San Diego: Academic. Kalat, J. W. (2007). Biological psychology (9th ed.). Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.
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Le Bars, D. (2006). Fluorine-18 and medical imaging: Radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography. Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 127, 1488–1493. Mazziotta, J. C., & Frackowiak, R. S. J. (2003). Imaging: Brain mapping methods. In V. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the human brain (pp. 537–555). San Diego: Academic.
Postcentral Gyrus ▶Somatic Sensory Cortex
Postconventional Moral Reasoning ▶Postconventional Morality
Postconventional Morality ANDREA GREEN, JOHN SNAREY Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Kohlberg’s third level; Postconventional moral reasoning; Principled moral reasoning; Stages 5 and 6 of moral judgment development
Definition Postconventional morality, a concept developed largely by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, identifies the ethical reasoning of moral actors who make decisions based on rights, values, duties, or principles that are (or could be) universalizable. This means that the principles are separable from the authorities or persons who hold them, they are open for debate and generally agreeable to individuals who seek to live in a fair and just society, and they withstand tests of logical comprehensiveness. Postconventional morality, as distinguished from postconventional moral reasoning alone, also includes principled moral behavior, or moral action.
Description Lawrence Kohlberg’s (1927–1987) stage theory of moral reasoning includes three levels of development —
preconventional (Stages 1 and 2), conventional (Stages 3 and 4), and postconventional (Stages 5, 6, and a metaphorical Stage 7). The postconventional level reflects a moral philosophy that is principled, structural in form, and independent of the specific content of a given moral dilemma. Kohlberg’s stage model began with the great philosophical questions: “What is virtue?” and “What is the good?” Kohlberg, following the views of philosophers Plato, Immanuel Kant, and John Rawls, answered that the first virtue is justice, defined as equity or equal respect for all people. Regarding justice reasoning, Kohlberg also followed Jean Piaget [3, 4] and applied a systematic stage framework called structuralism, the analysis of invariant, paradigmatic relationships between ideas, to moral reasoning. Thus, Kohlberg’s three moral levels are each a systematic framework for describing the worldview that the individual constructs in his or her moral imagination in order to enact equity and fairness for all people. Each stage constitutes a separate moral philosophy, a unique construction of the sociomoral world. The three levels are developmentally ordered. That is, they outline a course of moral judgment, stimulated by environmental sociomoral issues, that progresses from simple to more complex modes. Development is the qualitative reorganization of meaning, and this restructuring of experience informs the notion of cognitive stages. Kohlberg used the word “stage” to suggest qualitative differences in the individual’s modes of thinking about or solving the same problem at different ages of the lifespan. Development, then, is movement toward greater ease in adaptation, differentiation, and integration of distinct modes of thought in an invariant and hierarchical developmental sequence. Individual moral actors always prefer solutions to problems at the highest levels available to them. This is the foundational and driving force underlying movement from one stage to another, more adequate, stage [1, 2].
Postconventional Morality as the Telos of Moral Judgment Development Kohlberg named the three developmental levels preconventional, conventional, and postconventional, relative to the orientation of the moral actor toward the agreed-upon societal arrangements and norms called conventions. Preconventional moral thinkers, typical of children ages 4 through 10 years, are aware of social conventions, but only as the arbiter of rules and standards with the capacity to exact consequences for breaches in conduct. Conventional moral reasoning, typical of most adults, is concerned with maintaining familial expectations as well as maintaining, supporting, and justifying
Postconventional Morality
the social order. Conventional morality might also be called conforming morality; maintaining the social order is considered valid in its own right. Kohlberg’s postconventional morality, the rarely observed third level, is also known as the principled level, because here, the moral agent defines moral values and principles as completely separate from the social conventions maintained by societies and institutions. Separating moral principles from the institutions and persons who claim them allows the moral agent to use those principles to interrogate socially agreed-upon standards and arrangements in relation to individual rights and duties to all members of the society. Postconventional morality, then, recognizes that society itself is a system of arrangements and represents the impartial application of generalizable and logically consistent norms and egalitarian practices to all members of society. Kohlberg demonstrated that an individual making a transition from conventional to postconventional morality is often characterized by the belief that moral choices are personal and subjective. The transitioning moral actor views conscience as arbitrary and relative, along with the ideas of “duty” and “morally right.” This moral actor embraces a worldview that places him or her outside of the norms of society, making decisions without the strong commitments to the social order that are evinced in conventional thinking. While recognizing that normative rules are defined by particular societies, such persons ground moral choices in universal principles that transcend the norms of society. Within each of Kohlberg’s three levels of moral reasoning are two related but distinct stages, which are integrated and structured as separate but complete systems of philosophical and cognitive orientation. (See entry, Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development, for more information.) As the most complex patterns of sociomoral reasoning in Kohlberg’s moral judgment development model, Stages 5 and 6 reflect autonomous morality based on mutual respect, reciprocity, and equality. Fairness, at the autonomous level, involves cooperation and reciprocal exchange. This moral orientation is “society-creating” rather than “society-maintaining.” Stage 5 thinkers view “the right” as upholding the basic rights, values, or principles of a society, even if those rights conflict with the existing laws and concrete rules of the social group. This person is aware of the rights and values that would be granted to anyone who lived in a moral society; the validity of group laws are tested for consistency with those fundamental rights and values. The Stage 5 individual recognizes human values and basic rights that exist prior to social arrangements,
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rules, and laws. This prior-to-society perspective yields a worldview in which the moral point of view and the societal point of view may be juxtaposed and differentiated. The social group is seen ideally as a social contract between the collective and the individual, with the individual capable of opting in, or out, of this arrangement. Kohlberg used the example of Sir Thomas More to illustrate a postconventional moral conscience at Stage 5 [1, p. 382]. Stage 6 thinkers construct a moral worldview by imaginatively taking the roles of all participants in a given situation while also considering all of the contextual issues of each individual. The person chooses right action as a matter of conscience, in accordance with self-chosen ethical principles that appeal to logical comprehensiveness, universality, and consistency. Principles are abstract and ethical; they encapsulate reciprocity for the equality of all human rights and respect for the dignity of all human beings. They are not opinions or values but guiding standards for moral decisions and action. This individual recognizes and lives out the basic moral principle of respect for all human beings, affirming in thought and action that each human life is valuable and has the right to be treated with dignity and fairness. This human rights orientation is the principle of justice, and in Stage 6 the moral agent inhabits a worldview in which all moral decisions are transacted from this universal principle. Kohlberg considered that Martin Luther King, Jr., particularly as he expressed himself in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” illustrated the use of postconventional justice reasoning at Stage 6 [1, pp. 382–383].
Exemplars of Postconventional Morality Kohlberg identified at least a dozen historical figures whom he regarded as exemplars of postconventional morality. His moral exemplars included Marcus Aurelius, William Brennan, Archibald Cox, Martin Luther King, Jr., Janusz Korczak, Abraham Lincoln, Sir Thomas More, Andrea Simpson, Socrates, Baruch Spinoza, and Henry David Thoreau [7]. What made these people worthy of such designation, for Kohlberg, was that, beyond their principled moral reasoning, they all had taken tangible moral action, such as the use of nonviolent public dissent, critical speeches, and protest marches. Consequently, most faced penalties, and almost half of them died for their moral stance. Nevertheless, Kohlberg found so few contemporary adults who transacted moral decisions at Stage 6 that it was difficult for him to study this stage empirically. This presented a problem in the continued evolution of Kohlberg’s theory, because the model itself was derived
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from, and built upon, the assumption that universal, principled justice reasoning, the hallmark of Stage 6, was the ideal endpoint of moral development. Kohlberg omitted Stage 6 from the standardized edition of his scoring manual, citing its empirical rarity. Additionally, cross-cultural studies conducted around the world documented only limited evidence of Stage 5 thinking [6], causing some critics to doubt the universality of postconventional moral reasoning as defined by Kohlberg’s stage model.
James Rest and Postconventional Morality James Rest (1941–1999), a neo-Kohlbergian developmental psychologist, built on Kohlberg’s work by studying the hierarchical nature of the moral development stage model. Rest’s research led to the development in the early 1970s of the defining issues test (DIT), a moral judgment test that shortened the time-consuming task of measuring moral reasoning with Kohlberg’s moral judgment interview (MJI) and its complex scoring manual. The DIT2, a revised version that has been in use for over 10 years, shortened the number of test dilemmas, updated the 1974 language of the DIT, and included new test problems [8]. Both the older and the updated measure have yielded results that support a significantly different definition of postconventional morality from that of Kohlberg. Kohlberg’s structural-developmental stage model defined moral judgment in terms of justice, an understanding of morality defined by John Rawls as the way in which major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and apportion social advantages so that one group is not favored over another. Instead of stages with distinct justice operations, DIT research favors the notion of schemas as the formative cognitive structures, constructed by the individual in relation to environmental interaction, that follow a developmental sequence. The term “schema” marks a departure from Kohlbergian stage theory in that DIT evidence does not support the strict, stair-stepping sequence of levels of moral judgment or the assumption that individuals occupy only one level at a time. Remaining in the definition of “moral schemas” are Kohlberg’s core ideas of emphasizing cognition, the construction of patterns of thinking from sociomoral experience, and moral judgment moving from simpler to more complex modes. Accordingly, DIT research suggests three schemas, the Personal Interest schema, roughly associated with Kohlberg’s preconventional level, the Maintaining-Norms schema, associated with the conventional level, and the Postconventional schema, which reflects the core ideas of Kohlberg’s postconventional level.
Postconventional schemas capture the moral actor’s shift from conventional to postconventional thought that is the hallmark of moral development. The defining characteristic of the Postconventional moral schema is “that rights and duties are based on sharable ideals for organizing cooperation in a society, are open for debate and tests of logical consistency, experience of the community, and coherence with accepted practice” [5, p. 41]. Both of Kohlberg’s postconventional stages characterize this schema, although the schema here is more broadly defined than Kohlberg’s stages and does not attempt to describe universal ideals. Postconventional thought as suggested by this understanding is ideal based, nondogmatic, and subjective; it is open to experience but must withstand tests of logical coherence. Ideals are open to debate, interpretation, and practice. Social norms are viewed as alterable, and the postconventional thinker literally separates them from the moral sphere. Deviation from social norms has the potential for good when laws are unjust or biased in favor of one group or people or particular institution. The positive, constructive features of postconventional thinking include the ability to envision creative and shared idealized avenues where humans can interrelate. The criteria for the postconventional schema are rational and psychological; the criteria for postconventional stages were philosophical and justice oriented. Rest and his colleagues propose four rational criteria essential for definition as postconventional schema. The first is understanding the moral purpose behind societal norms and codes. The postconventional thinker considers norms and obligations as social arrangements that can be renegotiated and re-verified, given new circumstances and social arrangements, in contrast to the Maintaining Norms (conventional) thinker, who looks to the norms and obligations themselves as a source of authority. The second characteristic of the postconventional thinker is an appeal to an ideal. Such ideals may include those of guaranteeing basic human rights, engendering caring relationships among all people, or ensuring a living wage for all workers. In addition, to be postconventional, these ideals must be sharable, the third criterion for this schema. Sharability means it is not ethnocentric. It should serve group goals, enhance and facilitate cooperation from others, and be consistent with the common good. Sharability remains open to rational critique and is subject to modification with additional experience and new evidence. Finally, postconventional thinking must embrace full reciprocity. Full reciprocity entails not only uniform application of social norms, but also demands that the social norms themselves do not favor some members of a society at the expense of other members of the society.
Post-Natal Depression
From results of DIT research, Rest and colleagues operationalized a broader definition of postconventional morality, thus suggesting a developmental typology in empirical and psychological terms that avoids the philosophical criticisms of the stage theory as postulated by Kohlberg. The DIT-informed definition of postconventional moral reasoning does not propose a normative philosophical theory.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children do not exhibit postconventional morality. Understanding the nature of postconventional morality, however, can provide direction for moral education efforts with children. Education aimed toward creating postconventional thinkers highlights the need for “just learning environments” and leads to improved pedagogies for justice reasoning. That will, in turn, promote the development of morally mature persons able to serve as teacher-citizens of community schools and as public citizens of a democratic society evolving toward the realization of justice and equality for all. Kohlberg developed methods of moral education that promoted moral development and mature character, including exposure to moral exemplars, classroom moral dilemma discussion, and Just Community programs in which democratic education was a normative feature. His approach to moral education taught that attention should be given both to promoting the role taking and moral judgment development of individual students and to enhancing the moral cultural environment of classrooms and schools.
References 1.
2.
3. 4. 5.
6. 7.
8.
Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development: The philosophy of moral development (Vol. I): Moral stages and the idea of justice. San Francisco: Harper and Row. Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development (Vol. II): The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper and Row. Piaget, J. (1932). The moral judgment of the child. New York: Free Press. Piaget, J. (1947). The psychology of intelligence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Rest, J., Narvaez, D., Bebeau, M., & Thoma, S. (1999). Postconventional moral thinking: A neo-Kohlbergian approach. Mahwah, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum. Snarey, J. (1985). The cross-cultural universality of social-moral development. Psychological Bulletin, 97(2), 202–232. Snarey, J., & Samuelson, P. (2008). Moral education in the cognitive developmental tradition: Lawrence Kohlberg’s revolutionary ideas. In L. Nucci & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Handbook on moral and character education (pp. 53–79). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Thoma, S. J. (Ed.). (2002). The Defining Issues Test and the Minnesota approach to morality research. Special issue. Journal of Moral Education, 31(3), 221–367.
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Post-Infancy ▶Childhood
Postmodernism ▶Constructivist Psychotherapy
Post-Natal Depression RANIA D. HADJICOSTA, XENIA ANASTASSIOUHADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms Postpartum depression (PPD)
Definition According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition, text revised (DSM-IV-TR) [2] post-natal depression (PND) is recorded as a specifier of a major depressive episode which has its onset postpartum. PDN is usually diagnosed between the sixth and twelfth week after childbirth and shares the characteristics of a major depressive episode.
Description More specifically, PND is classified as Major Depressive Episode with Postpartum Onset and is characterized by depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, or loss of interest or pleasure in all or almost all activities most of the day, nearly every day, accompanied by at least five of the following features: weight changes, sleeping problems, psychomotor agitation or retardation, fatigue or loss of energy, feeling of worthlessness or excessive inappropriate guilt, diminished ability to think or concentrate, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation and the episode must have its onset within 4 weeks after childbirth [2]; even though it is most commonly diagnosed between 6 and 12 weeks after childbirth [20]. PND is also commonly associated with mood fluctuations, mood lability, and preoccupation with the child’s well-being [2], while more recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation, or recurrent thoughts of harming the baby may be present in women with PND [20].
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Post-natal depression (PND) affects women in various socio-cultural environments around the world during a sensitive period of their lives. Prospective studies have demonstrated that PND affects approximately 10–15% [10, 12] or 20% [24] of women after delivery in western countries, while 1 in 1,000 women may experience psychotic episodes [24]. On the other hand, some have reported prevalence estimates for PND between 6.5 and 12.9% [20], while others have reported slightly different prevalence estimates according to geographical location and population; for example Gonidakis and colleagues [10] reported a prevalence of 19.8% in Greece, Rahman and Creed [21] reported prevalence estimates of 56% in Pakistan, Chaaya and colleagues [6] reported prevalence rates of 21% in Lebanon, and Cox and colleagues [9] reported a prevalence of 53.6% among adolescents. Moreover, PND is thought to be unique compared to the other mood disorders in that PND is highly related to several neuroendocrine alterations. PND differs also in that it has implications for the psychosocial adjustments that have to be made in everyday functioning and on future family planning decisions, while breast-feeding has implications on treatment decisions [2]. Additionally, Bernstein and colleagues [5] report that even though nonpostpartum and postpartum depression (PPD) are both characterized by low energy level and restlessness/agitation, non-PPD is more closely associated with more sad mood, more suicidal ideation, and more reduced interest, whereas in PPD sad mood is less prominent but psychomotor symptoms (restlessness/agitation) and impaired concentration/decision-making are more dominant. Within this context, it is essential also to distinguish PND from the “baby blues” [2] or the “maternity blues” [22]. The “baby blues” affects nearly 70% of women within the first 10 days postpartum; however, it is transient and does not appear to interfere with everyday functioning [2]. The “baby blues” is typically characterized by mood lability, sudden occasions of crying, irritability, and sleep difficulties that last approximately for the first 2 weeks postpartum [22]. Nonetheless, if these depressive symptoms persist for more than 2 weeks it is more likely that the mother will develop PND [22]. Postnatal depression is now recognized as a major public health concern, since it is the leading cause for maternal morbidity and mortality and has adverse longterm effects on the family as a whole and on the infant’s individual emotional, cognitive [12], and growth [16] development. Concern about PND accelerates even more in the light of evidence suggesting that women with PND also suffer from anxiety or even panic attacks [2].
One of the most vulnerable populations to PND is adolescent mothers. Estimates of adolescent depression during the early postpartum period vary from 32 to 60%. Teenage mothers are also more prone to later substance use, delinquency, adverse life events, and persistent mental health problems [9], making this population worthy of clinical attention. In addition, adolescent mothers, compared to adult mothers, face a lot more hazardous conditions, such as poverty, physical or sexual abuse, and family dysfunction, combined with their immaturity, that potentially hinder the development of positive maternal self esteem [9] and thus expose their infants to worse developmental outcomes.
Risk Factors Considerable literature on risk factors associated with PND designate that these cluster around the following six variables: socio-demographic factors, personality and psychological factors, stressful life events, social support, obstetric and biological factors [14], and factors associated with the puerperium period [10]. Socio-demographic factors include young as well as old maternal age, low socio-economic status, low educational level [14], unemployment [10], and poverty [20]. Psychological and psychiatric problems include personal and family history of depression and depression, anxiety, or both during pregnancy [2, 4, 10, 14], a history of other non-psychotic mental disorder [10, 20], antenatal emotional problems [14] and prolonged symptoms of “baby blues” [2, 4, 10, 22]. Personality and psychological factors refer to characteristics of neuroticism, introversion, perfectionism [14], obsessionality, especially with cleaning [10], dysfunctional cognitive style, high interpersonal sensitivity, attributional style [14], low self-esteem [4, 14], history of physical or sexual abuse [14], and unplanned or unwanted pregnancy [4]. Stressful live events refer to negative or stressful life events associated with pregnancy and childbirth, especially within the past year, as well as high levels of daily hassles [14]. The social support variable refers to low social support both during and after pregnancy, including poor partner relationship [10] reflected in low partner support, low availability of people to depend on during pregnancy and the early postpartum, and the woman not having close relationships with her own parents, and especially her mother [14]. Obstetric and biological factors include history of miscarriage and pregnancy termination, as well as biophysical and hormonal changes [14]. Finally, during the puerperium risk factors related to the development of PND mainly refer to the infant’s behavior and
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temperament [4], and most specifically to more sleeping difficulties and excessive crying [10], as well as to elevated childcare stress [4]. Moreover, PND development is related to the expectations of the mother in having more support and help during the puerperium [10]. Explanational schemes of how PND develops indicate that a single risk factor cannot predict PND. Rather, it is the combination of factors that increase the woman’s vulnerability to PND [13]. In addition, it is suggested that different factors can predict PND in different assessment times [10]. Examples of such explanational schemes include the one provided by Zinga and colleagues [24] who have suggested that some women, and especially primiparous, find it difficult to transit into motherhood, especially if the pregnancy was unplanned or unwanted, and experience low self-esteem for not being able to look after their child. These subsequently lead to child temperamental difficulties and a vicious cycle develops. Moreover, others suggest that if low self-esteem is associated with perfectionism or obsessionality could predispose some women to PND, since they seem to be more vulnerable to the unplanned and unpredictable stressors of being a parent, such as night time crying [10, 14]. Additionally, it is suggested that women with inadequate social support from her partner, her family, and her friends, that provide help, esteem, and understanding [9], are more likely to develop PND, and especially if these women are immigrants experiencing more language barriers [9, 24]. On the other hand, a nonstressful antenatal environment and adequate levels of social support can have clear protective effect postnatally [9, 24]. Nonetheless, it appears that the predicting factors of PND in Africa, the Far East, and the Middle East are somehow different from those in Western societies. For example, Nakku and colleagues [15] reported that in Africa risk factors for PND included single parenthood, marital discord, divorce, and polygamy, female sex of the infant, absent of breast-feeding, as well as physical problems in the infant such as low birth-weight, ill health, and birth abnormalities. Furthermore, Rahman and Creed [21] reposted that in Nigeria as risk factors of PND include variables such as poverty, having five or more children, an uneducated husband and lack of a confidant friend; the authors also reported that poverty associated with more psychological symptoms during pregnancy predict depression persistency for 1 year after delivery. Finally, the risk factors associated with PND identified in Lebanon include lack of social support, prenatal depression, stressful life events, lifetime depression, vaginal
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delivery, little education, unemployment, and chronic health problems [6].
Relevance to Childhood Development Generally, postpartum psychiatric difficulties can cause considerable family distress and disturbance, and can impair the woman’s ability to function properly [20] and carry out her previous normal tasks, as well as her coping with the care of her infant [15]. Post-natal depression in particular, which is now considered as a major health problem, has been further identified as posing further implications for parenting, nurturing abilities and overall life skills [9]. More specifically, PND has been found to impact the mother-infant relationship and the motherinfant attachment and bonding, resulting in childhood developmental deficits and in adverse cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes [10, 14, 15, 20]. Regarding the concept of maternal functioning, it seems that PND women show more personal, household, and social and overall functional impairment than nonPND women. PND women who cannot achieve previous functioning may be unable to shower, pay bills or even seek help for depression or other health-related matters both for themselves and their infants. In addition, functional impairment in women with PND has also been associated with poor infant growth and decreased breastfeeding in the postpartum period, even though these mothers might continue to provide good physical infant care despite symptoms of depression in the postpartum period [20]. In a study investigating the relationship between PND and everyday functioning, Posmontier [20] noted that women with PND had a trend of having more help with cooking, running errands, and physical infant care than women without PND, and that women with PND were 12 times less likely to achieve pre-pregnancy functional levels than non-depressed women. Additionally, it was shown that PPD predicted lower personal, household, and social functioning, but physical childcare did not seem to be affected. Investigating this phenomenon further, the author suggested that although women with PND provided the same level of physical infant care as nondepressed women, PND women were unable to provide necessary nurturing interactions with their infants due to poor social function. Research on this ground revealed that although mothers with PND provide similar levels of physical infant care, they are more anxious, less affectionate, less playful, less verbally interactive, less likely to read with their infants, and show less mutual attentiveness [20, 24]; consequently the children of these mothers are
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more likely to experience deficits in creative play and develop insecure attachment. Relevant to the above notion of functioning is the qualitative research conducted by Barr [3], who showed that mothers with PND were less likely to transit and adopt into their new roles of motherhood. This delay in adaptation to the new role resulted in suspended competence regarding parenting skills, which subsequently was associated with a lack of maternal-infant attachment. Barr [3] also reported that even thought depressed mothers provided physical care for their children, this was done in an unthinking, “mechanical,” instinctive manner. Moreover, the participants in this study reported a reduced ability to function due to fatigue; they reported also an inability to plan ahead or even engage in a decisionmaking process. This inability to plan caused these women distress and diminished their confidence about their caring abilities; accordingly, the participants in the study reported that they were afraid to stay alone with the child frighten by the thought that something would go wrong. Additionally, due to the impaired mother-infant attachment, depressed mothers seemed to be frustrated struggling to find the sense of love for their children, for example they reported feeling that the child was not theirs and not wanting to be near them [3]. Additional features of PND mothers include intrusiveness and irritated behavior towards the infant [2, 24], as well as showing less sensitivity, less contingently, and more negativity to their newborn [24]. Subsequently, these lead to further long term implications for the child’s development, beginning from difficulties in attachment, followed by cognitive and emotional delays, which are mediated by the severity and chronicity of maternal depression [24]. Examples of these implications come from studies investigating the mother-infant relationship, which have indicated that infants of depressed mother are less likely to look at their mothers, or show positive affect; and they also show lower physiologic reactivity. Furthermore, it is well documented that successful parenting in infancy and early childhood can predict successful child development, and especially healthy social development [23]. Furthermore, successful parenting is believed to be influenced by the sense of parenting self efficacy (PSE), i.e., the parents’ perceived efficacy to completely and effectively perform their roles as parents. High levels of self-efficacy and perceived competence in the parenting role has been positively associated with observed parenting competence, including warmth, sensitivity, and engagement, and thus positive children’s developmental outcomes, whereas low self-efficacy has been associated with self-doubt, high levels of anxiety,
interpreting challenges as threats, and assuming more responsibility for failure, which are reflected in parenting as discouragement and deterioration, leading to increased problem behavior in children [23]. Congruently, a study with adolescent mothers showed that maternal competence was inversely related to depression while social isolation was directly associated with depression [9]. Further research within this context, indicated that maternal depression mediates the relationship between PSE and early-onset behavior problems and conduct problems in children, suggesting that maternal depression is a potential disruptor of caregiver confidence in early childhood [23]. These findings should be alarming for the scientific community, since it is also well documented that early-onset behavior r problems are positively linked to the development of more severe conduct problems in middle childhood and adolescence, including delinquency and substance use [23]. One other concept related to PSE is that of maternal self-esteem, which is an important early parenting attribute closely associated with mother-infant bonding and subsequent effective parenting. The development of high maternal self-esteem depends on the mother’s ability to interact with and care for her infant [9]. In a study among 168 teenage mothers, it appeared that elevated depressive symptoms were associated not only with low social support, which constitutes a risk factor as reported above, but also with decreased maternal confidence in caretaking ability, and thus lower maternal self-esteem [9]. In respect, adolescent mothers with low self-esteem have been found to vocalize less with their infants, to be less flexible, to be more likely to give inappropriate stimulation and to be at higher risk for child maltreatment [9]. Nevertheless, adolescent mothers form a population with special characteristics, different from those of adult mothers. More specifically, teenage mothers’ abilities to parent effectively are excessively challenged by the predisposing factors of family dysfunction, emotional immaturity, life stress, poverty, sexual abuse, school failure, hopelessness, and poor social support. Moreover, depressed adolescents seem to have less confidence in their abilities to interact with and care for their children and are also more vulnerable to experience persistent as well as recurrent episodes of depression [9]. With regards to the infant’s temperament, it should first be noted that infant temperament is defined as the infant’s behavioral style, and particularly how the infant behaves in relationship to the environment and the care he/she receives. Subsequently, how the infant’s temperament is exhibited and perceived by the mother determines the developing relationship between the infant and
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mother. When there is synchrony between the motherchild dyad it is said to be “Goodness of Fit.” When “Goodness of fit” is not present the infant is perceived as difficult and/or demanding by the mother and this asynchrony of the relationship makes the infant vulnerable to long-term negative outcomes. Moreover, maternal perceptions and beliefs about the attributes of the infant affect the ways she cares for her infant and the symbiotic relationship, which will subsequently support the child’s cognitive development [13]. Thus, a mother with PND is more likely to feel that her interactions with her infant are negative, since her perceptions are filtered through her negative mood. In investigating the symbiotic relationship between the mother and the infant, McGarth and colleagues [13] reported that depressed mothers were more likely to report that their infants were more difficult, compared to non-depressed mothers, and this remained stable over time, from the second to the sixth month postpartum. In order to explain their findings, the authors assumed that for a mother with PND caring for her newborn might be overwhelming, causing her excessive stress and anxiety, as well as feelings of isolation. Other reports on the topic suggest that the negative emotional responses of a PND mother are likely to elicit feelings of fear and withdrawal in the infant, reinforcing the mother’s negative perceptions [13]. Moreover, an active and demanding infant may pose a further burden on a mother who is also suffering with PND and possibly intensify the depressive symptoms the mother is experiencing, and thus leading to more negative outcomes in the child, and particularly the development of an insecure attachment between the mother and the child [13]. Concerning the issue of cognitive development, research revealed that children of depressed mothers exhibit significant intellectual deficits, but this was true only when the depression in the mother occurs within the first year postpartum [8]. Nonetheless, it is suggested that the influences for positive cognitive development, such as play, conversation, and teaching to the child specific skills, are hampered by the mother’s immobilization due to PND and the impaired mother-infant attachment [8]. Furthermore, research on the familial transition of depression from the mother to her children revealed that antenatal and post-natal depression lead to increased psychiatric problems in children at 11 [19] and 16 years [18]. More specifically, Pawlby and colleagues [19] assessed 129 11-year old children of mothers who were depressed at 3 months postpartum for emotional and behavioral problems and they found that of these 129 children 31 (24%) met DSM-IV criteria for an emotional or behavioral disorder. Eleven children had emotional disorders
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(separation anxiety, social anxiety, depressive episode not otherwise specified), 11 had behavioral disorders (oppositional/defiant disorder, conduct disorder, attentiondeficit and hyperactivity disorder) and 9 had both types of disorder. Boys and girls were equally likely to have a disorder. Moreover, these children also showed significantly higher rates of teacher-rated behavioral and emotional problems [19]. Collectively, it was estimated that the children of mothers who met criteria for postnatal depression at 3 months were 4 times more likely to suffer from a psychiatric disorder themselves at 11 years of age compared to controls, whose mothers were well following childbirth [19]. In their second study [18], with adolescents at the age of 16, data showed that 18 (14.2%) of the 127 adolescents, 14 (20.3%) girls and 4 (6.9%) boys, had a depressive disorder according to DSM-IV criteria. Ten adolescents had a major depressive disorder, which was superimposed on dysthymia. Six adolescents had a diagnosis of depression not otherwise specified, 3 of which were superimposed on dysthymia, and 2 adolescents had a diagnosis of dysthymia. Furthermore, 6 of the 18 depressed adolescents (4 girls and 2 boys) had planned or made suicide attempts. Generally, there were no significant differences in the mothers’ age, parity, ethnicity, social class, educational level, or marital status at birth or at 16 years, or in the ethnicity or educational attainment of the depressed adolescents, compared with those who were not depressed, however the depressed adolescents were more likely not to live with both biological parents [18]. Most notwithstanding, however, was the finding that each depressed adolescent had been exposed to maternal depression and that adolescents who had been exposed to maternal depression at some point since conception were significantly more likely to be depressed at 16 years than adolescents who had never been exposed. In addition, it was revealed that 65% (11/18) of the adolescents with depression were initially exposed to depression during the antenatal period and that adolescents who were exposed to antenatal depression were 4.7 times more likely to have a diagnosis of depression at 16 compared to the offspring who were not so exposed [18]. Bearing in mind that history of depression during pregnancy can predict PPD and that the longer a woman is incapacitated by PPD the more she is at risk for lifelong and recurrent depression and suicide [20] Pawlby and colleagues [18] investigated the outcome in children of mothers with antenatal, postnatal and recurrent depression within their 16 years of life. Findings revealed that adolescent depression was also associated with a greater number of periods of exposure to maternal depression
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and that the depressed adolescents in their sample were exposed 2.82 time periods to maternal depression compared to the 1.31 exposure times for non-depressed adolescents. Subsequent logistic regression also showed that even thought initial exposure during pregnancy predicted inverse adolescent outcome, it was no longer itself a significant predictor when account was taken for the chronic nature of the mother’s depression. Rather, maternal depression in pregnancy was a strong predictor of depression in the adolescent offspring, but was mediated by subsequent periods of depression during the child’s lifetime. Finally, the odds of the offspring being depressed at 16 years increased by 1.74 for every period of maternal depression from pregnancy to 16 years [18]. These two studies replicated the strong familial association between maternal and adolescent depression and also showed that women who experience depression during pregnancy are almost 10 times more likely to have a recurrence. These studies also showed that, even thought it was not the effect of maternal depression in pregnancy per se that predicted adolescent depression, most of the children who were depressed at 16 years had initially been exposed in the antenatal period (65%) and were at greater risk for future exposure because of the strong likelihood of recurrence of maternal depression later in the child’s life [18]. Based on these findings, combined with the already established knowledge about the adverse outcomes related to adolescent depression, management for PND and the risk factors associated with it seem mandated. Finally and interestingly, in non-western, developing countries one of the most adverse outcomes related to PNS is poor infant growth. Rahman and colleagues [21], in their study in Pakistan, reported that depression around childbirth is associated with impaired infant growth and development, while prolonged PPD appeared to be associated with impaired weight gain in the first year of the infant’s life. Similarly, Adewuya and colleagues [1] investigated the outcome of PND in a Nigerian sample and reported that infants of depressed mothers had statistically significant poorer growth weight compared with the infants of non-depressed mothers at 3 and 6 months postpartum. Adewuya and colleagues also reported that depressed mother were more likely to stop breast-feeding earlier and that the infants experienced more physical illness, such as diarrhea and infections. However, they also hypothesized that poor growth could be related to the emotional unavailability of the mother to the child, leading to psychosocial deprivation and non-organic failure to thrive [1].
Management When considering the subject of effective management it should firstly be acknowledged that antenatal depression and anxiety are both incapacitating and distressing conditions and therefore important to treat in their own right [14]. In the light of evidence suggesting that there is substantial likelihood that antenatal emotional problems are associated with obstetric complications including premature delivery and intra-uterine growth restriction [14], and can also predict the development of PND after childbirth pose a greater need for timely and effective management. This is also highlighted by the fact that the longer a woman is “handicapped” by functional deficits due to PND, the more she is at risk for impaired mother-infant interaction and subsequent long-term growth [16], cognitive, behavioral and emotional problems in her child [20] and the evidence suggesting that when maternal depression is treated, adverse child behaviors improve [9]. Currently, whilst postnatal depression can be neither reliably forecast nor prevented, some form of antenatal screening and assessment focused on the risk factors related to PND, such as psychiatric history, current emotional problems and social supports, is likely to benefit many pregnant women in terms of their immediate and future well-being [14]. Thus, the most appropriate element of a timely and sound management would be the identification of the risk factors that predispose an individual in developing PND and treat them before PND occurs [14]. Screening women for depression and anxiety, for example, during pregnancy and attending to these problems before childbirth would operate as a protective factor for future episodes. Indeed, there are indications to advocate for the routine screening of at risk women in the antenatal period in order to avoid, recognize and manage postpartum psychiatric morbidity and its consequence on mothers and their developing children [15]. Furthermore, because suicide due to depression is the leading cause of death among women during the perinatal period, screening for mood disorders is mandated by public health reports and professional bodies working in this clinical area [19]. During the postpartum period, clinicians should be aware that the “baby blues” can potentially lead to PND and that it might be an indicator for an already existent depressive or anxiety disorder. Thus, in the first 2 weeks following childbirth, screenings for the “baby blues,” depression, and anxiety symptoms should be applied in order to identify those women who are at risk of developing clinically significant psychiatric disorders and with the intention to provide an opportunity for prevention and therapeutic intervention early in the course of the disorder [22].
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Nonetheless, adequate and well designed preventive programs initiated during pregnancy and would accompany the women throughout the first 3 months after delivery are not yet available [11]. Furthermore, it is suggested that clinical assessment for functional impairment in women with PND is critically important because of its detrimental effects on family stability, health maintenance, help-seeking for depression, and social skills necessary for positive interactions with the infant, spouse, family and friends [20]. In addition, ongoing evaluations of the “goodness of fit” within the motherinfant dyad, while also exploring interventions for depressed mothers which provide guidance about interactions with their infants and the appropriateness of the infant behaviors are also recommended [13]. With regards to intervention programs, literature reveals a number of suggested strategies. One possible intervention is pharmacological treatment. However, breast-feeding can have implications when considering pharmacological treatment [2], thus this approach should be implemented only if alternative interventions have been proved ineffective. Educational initiatives, psychological interventions, dietary and hormonal supplements, and sleep management programs are just a few examples of alternative practice [24]. Educational initiatives are based on the assumption that by providing women and their families with information about what to expect during the puerperium period can reduce anxiety, and therefore minimize the impact associated with these psychosocial factors [24]. Within this context, Barr [3] suggests on-going education, counseling and support to new mothers in an attempt to facilitate them in adapting to their new maternal role, with an aim to help these women review their thinking, beliefs, and understanding about mothering and help them adapt to their new social role on a more realistic ground. Further suggestions made by McGarth and colleagues [13] propose engraining nurses and other healthcare providers in the process of education, who will be able to teach mothers techniques, such as infant massage [17], aiming to improve maternal mood and facilitate relationships between the mother and the child. Moreover, nurses can encourage new mothers, for example, to be attentive to their total amount of sleep time or help mothers to problem solve regarding the infant’s sleep wake cycle [13]. Considering the maternal-child attachment, nurses could help mothers identify the positive characteristics of their infants, support mothers in acting in ways that will promote the normal growth and development of the infant, and provide feedback and/or further guidance about
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the dyadic interactions and the appropriateness of the infant’s behaviors in order to improve the mother–infant relationship [13]. Psychotherapeutic approaches which show some promise against PND include interpersonal therapy (IPT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). IPT is a time-limited (up to 12 sessions) approach, primarily aiming to remit depression, to alleviate interpersonal distress, and assist the mother with building or making better use of social supports. At the beginning of therapy, the mother is educated about depression and its functional and interpersonal effects; the symptoms, safety, functioning level, and the relationships and supports of the individual are carefully assessed; a current crucial interpersonal problem related to the development of PND is chosen; and the individual is encouraged to use or recruit social supports. During the middle phase of IPT an effort is made to link interpersonal events with dispute and symptoms, issues that are in dispute as well as maladaptive patterns of communication are identified, and the individual is helped to evaluate expectations, learn to communicate her needs and emotions, and expand her understanding and perspectives, while she is also helped in learning how to better use or recruit supports. Concerning the mother-infant attachment, within the context of IPT mothers are assisted to become more attuned and responsive to their infant’s during the recovery period and also to recruit or use supports to help with childcare. During the final stage of therapy, therapeutic gains are reviewed, contingency plans for the event of recurrence are discussed, and the mother is encouraged to contact a physician for early treatment. Additionally, future problems and stressors are discussed, in order to facilitate autonomous problem solving, assistance into differentiating between normal sadness from clinical depression is provided, and feelings related to the ending of therapy are openly discussed [11]. Finally, CBT as proposed by Cho and colleagues [7] is also a time-limited approach (approximately 10 sessions), designed to be applied to women at risk for PND during pregnancy and focuses on educating the individual about depression, scheduling pleasant event, and changing negative automatic thoughts to more realistic ones. Moreover, attention is placed also on components of marital interventions, in order to promote acceptance through better understanding of the personalities of one’s spouse, to improve communication skills, to promote the use of I-statements, and to make and exchange a list of rewarding positive behaviors from the other spouse. During the first three sessions of therapy the focus is on educating the mother about depression, goal-setting, and increasing
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pleasurable activities. During the following three sessions, the mother is taught cognitive restructuring techniques in order to become able to identify and challenge irrational and overly negative thoughts, and especially thoughts related to marital interaction. Session 7–9 focus on assisting the mother to improve marital relationships, while communication skills and behavioral exchange exercises are taught and acceptance of the other spouse is promoted. In the final session, plans for the future are discussed.
References 1. Adewuya, A. O., Ola, B. O., Aloba, O. O., Mapayi, B. M., & Okeniyi, J. A. O. (2008). Impact of postnatal depression on infants’ growth in Nigeria. Journal of Affective Disorders, 108, 191–193. 2. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 3. Barr, J. A. (2008). Postpartum depression, delayed maternal adaptation, and mechanical infant caring: A phenomenological hermeneutic study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45, 362–369. 4. Beck, C. T. (2001). Predictors of postpartum depression: An update. Nursing Research, 50, 275–285. 5. Bernstein, I. H., Rush, A. J., Yonkers, K., Carmody, T. J., Woo, A., McConnell, K., et al. (2008). Symptom features of postpartum depression: Are they distinct? Depression and Anxiety, 25, 20–26. 6. Chaaya, M., Cmpbell, O. M. R., Kak, F. E., Shaar, D., Harb, H., & Kaddour, A. (2002). Postpartum depression: Prevalence and determinants in Lebanon. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 5, 65–72. 7. Cho, M., Kwon, J. H., & Lee, J. J. (2008). Antenatal cognitivebehavioral therapy for prevention of postpartum depression: A pilot study. Yonsei Medical Journal, 49, 553–562. 8. Cogill, S. R., Caplan, H. L., Alexandra, H., & Robson, K. M. (1986). Impact of maternal postnatal depression in cognitive development of young children. British Medical Journal, 292, 1165–1167. 9. Cox, J. E., Buman, M., Valenzuela, J., Joseph, N. P., Mitchell, A., & Woods, E. R. (2008). Depression, parenting attributes, and social support among adolescent mothers attending a teen tot program. Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, 21, 275–281. 10. Gonidakis, F., Rabavilas, A. D., Varsou, E., Kreatsas, G., & Christodoulou, G. N. (2008). A 6-month study of postpartum depression and related factors in Athens Greece. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 49, 275–282. 11. Grigoriadis, S., & Ravitz, P. (2007). An approach to interpersonal psychotherapy for postpartum depression. Canadian Family Physician, 53, 1469–1475. 12. Maurer-Spurej, E., Pittendreigh, C., & Misri, S. (2007). Platelet serotonin levels support depression scores for women with postpartum depression. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 32, 23–29. 13. McGrath, J. M., Records, K., & Rice, M. (2008). Maternal depression and infant temperament characteristics. Infant Behavior and Development, 31, 71–80. 14. Milgrom, J., Gemmill, A. W., Bilszta, J. L., Hayes, B., Barnett, B., Brooks, J., et al. (2008). Antenatal risk factors for postnatal depression: A large prospective study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 108, 147–157. 15. Nakku, J. E. M., Nakasi, G., & Mirembe, F. (2006). Postpartum major depression at six weeks in primary healthcare: Prevalence and associated factors. African Health Sciences, 6, 207–214.
16. O’Brein, L. M., Heycock, E. G., Hanna, M., Jones, P. W., & Cox, J. L. (2004). Postnatal depression and faltering growth: A community study. Pediatrics, 113, 1242–1247. 17. O’Higgins, M., St. James Roberts, I., & Glover, V. (2008). Postnatal depression and mother and infant outcomes after infant massage. Journal of Affective Disorder, 109, 189–192. 18. Pawlby, S., Hay, D. F., Sharp, D., Waters, C. S., & O’Keane, V. (2008). Antenatal depression predicts depression in adolescent offspring: Prospective longitudinal community-based study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 113, 236–247. 19. Pawlby, S., Sharp, D., Hay, D., & O’Keane, V. (2008). Postnatal depression and child outcome at 11 years: The importance of accurate diagnosis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 107, 241–245. 20. Posmontier, B. (2008). Functional Status outcomes in mothers with and without postpartum depression. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 53, 310–318. 21. Rahman, A., & Creed, F. (2007). Outcome of prenatal depression and risk factors associated with persistence in the first postnatal year: Prospective study from Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Journal of Affective Disorders, 100, 115–121. 22. Reck, C., Stehle, E., Reining, K., & Mundt, C. (2009). Maternity blues as a predictor of DSM-IV depression and anxiety disorders in the first three months postpartum. Journal of Affective Disorders, 113, 77–87. 23. Weaver, C. M., Shaw, D. S., Dishion, T. J., & Wilson, M. N. (2008). Parenting self-efficacy and problem behavior in children at risk for early conduct problems: The mediating role of maternal depression. Infant Behavior and Development, 31, 594–605. 24. Zinga, D., Phillips, S. D., & Born, L. (2005). Postpartum depression: We know the risks, can it be prevented? Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria Brazilian – Journal of Psychiatry, 27, s56–s64.
Postpartum Depression (PPD) ▶Post-Natal Depression
Post-Traumatic Myelopathy ▶Spinal Cord Injury
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder MAGDALEN TOOLE NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
Synonyms PTSD
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Definition Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder that develops in some people after exposure to a traumatic event.
Description Posttraumatic Stress Disorder develops in some people after they experience or witness an event during which they or others were either harmed or under serious threat of physical injury. Rape, torture, a car accident, being kidnapped, bombings, and natural disasters are all examples of events that could lead to the development of PTSD. Further, the person’s response to the traumatic event must involve fear, helplessness, or horror [3]. Symptoms usually begin within 3 months of the traumatic event; however, they can emerge years later. PTSD is classified as such if symptoms last for more than a month, and cause impaired functioning in important aspects of their lives. When PTSD symptoms last for a period of less than 3 months PTSD is considered acute, however, when the symptoms persist for more than 3 months PTSD is considered chronic [3]. According to the DSM-IV-TR, to have a diagnosis of PTSD one must exhibit symptoms in three areas: intrusive recollection, avoidant/numbing, and hyper-arousal [1, 3]. Intrusive recollections are symptoms in which one re-experiences the traumatic event. This often happens through flashbacks, which are usually triggered by a sound or smell that is reminiscent of the event. For example, the smell of smoke could cause someone to relive the experience of being trapped in a burning car, during which they may lose touch with reality. Similarly, the trauma may be re-experienced at night, through dreams. Avoidance behaviors are present in people with PTSD; they may avoid activities or places that are associated with the trauma. Also, the anniversary of the traumatic event can be especially difficult for some. Additionally, people with PTSD often become emotionally numb and lose interest in activities that they previously enjoyed. They may feel detached from loved ones and may be unable to experience certain feelings or emotions, such as love. The third group of symptoms, hyper-arousal symptoms, includes hyper-vigilance, an increased startle response, sleep disturbances, irritability, aggression, and anger [3]. Research has shown that women are more likely to develop PTSD than men [8]. It has also been found that certain genes, as well as exposure to childhood trauma, heighten the risk of developing PTSD in adulthood [6].
events. Of these children, 3–15% of girls and 1–6% of boys develop PTSD [2]. However, when studies examined high risk samples, they found that nearly all of those children who witness parental homicide or experience sexual abuse developed PTSD [2]. In children PTSD is often caused by events such as a kidnapping or a car accident, physical or sexual abuse, refugee situations, or from witnessing violent acts either on the street or in the home. Although it has been found that children can experience the entire range of posttraumatic stress reactions that adults experience, age and developmental maturity can influence children’s reactions, as well as the ways in which their symptoms manifest [3]. While adults may have feelings of fear, helplessness, and horror when faced with a traumatic experience, children may respond by behaving in a disorganized or agitated manner. Further, children might express aspects of the trauma through repetitive play, and may even reenact the trauma. Like adults, children often have frightening dreams, yet their dreams may have unrecognizable content [3, 4]. Additionally, young children may regress to earlier developmental stages as a result of having been exposed to trauma. For example, a child who had stopped the wetting bed may suddenly begin to do so again. In a way, fear can interfere with their learning. Further, because children depend on adults for protection, it may be particularly difficult for them to deal with the failure of others to protect them in the case of a traumatic event. This may lead them to become insecure about being provided with protection in the future [4]. Additionally, there are several factors that may increase or decrease the chance that a child will develop PTSD. These factors are: the severity of the traumatic event, the parent’s reaction to it, and the child’s physical proximity to the event [4]. Those children who experience the most severe trauma often have the most severe PTSD symptoms. Further, those who experience a greater amount of parental support and less parental distress tend to report lower levels of PTSD symptoms. The same is true for those who experience the event from a distance rather than from close proximity [4]. In conclusion, PTSD can severely affect the psychological development of children. However, parental support may help to buffer the negative effects that trauma can have on children.
References 1.
Relevance to Childhood Development Studies indicate that between 15 and 43% of girls and 14 to 43% or boys have experienced one or more traumatic
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Friedman, M. J., Keane, T. M., & Resick, P. A. (Eds.). (2007). Handbook of PTSD: Science and practice. New York: The Guilford Press. Hamblen, J. (2008). PTSD in children and adolescents. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_children.html
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National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. (2007). DSM-IVTR criteria for PTSD. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http:// www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_dsm_iv_tr.html National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Understanding child traumatic stress. Retrieved August 11, 2008, from http://www.nctsnet.org/ nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_aud_prnt_under NIMH. (2008a). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Retrieved August 11, 2008, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxietydisorders/post-traumatic-stress-disorder.shtml NIMH. (2008b). Past child abuse plus variations in gene result in potent PTSD risk for adults. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/ 2008/past-child-abuse-plus-variations-in-gene-result-in-potent-ptsdrisk-for-adults.shtml NIMH. (2008c). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Retrieved September 15, 2008, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/posttraumatic-stress-disorder-a-real-illness/complete-publication.shtml Tolin, D. F., & Foa, E. B. (2006). Sex differences in trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A quantitative review of 25 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 959–992.
Poxidium ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Practical Intelligence Synonyms Contextual intelligence; Street smarts
Definition The ability to find the best fit between oneself and the demands of the environment through (a) adapting to the environment in order to meet goals, (b) changing the environment in order to meet goals, or (c) moving to a new environment in which goals can be met.
Description Coined by Robert Sternberg as part of his triarchic theory of intelligence. He theorized that individuals create the best fit between themselves and their environment through shaping, selection, and adaptation. Shaping involves changing factors in the environment to meet the individuals needs, whereas adaptation involves making changes to oneself to better fit with the surrounding environment. Selection involves finding an alternative environment that better suits the needs of the individual.
Individuals who are of high practical intelligence, even to a level of giftedness, are superb in their capacity to apply their skills and abilities in any setting, to thrive in any environment. They are intuitive and gather information from their environment to utilize and apply in new situations. Sternberg’s theory of practical intelligence has been heavily challenged by Gottfredson. In particular, Gottfredson argued that Sternberg’s assertion that traditional measures of intelligence do not assess practical intelligence is inaccurate. She argued that traditional measures of intelligence correlate highly with individual characteristics and behaviors (such as survival skills and income) thought to be reflective of practical intelligence. Additionally, Gottfredson challenged Sternberg’s claim that practical intelligence is distinct from general cognitive ability such as the g factor (i.e., Spearman’s theory). Practical intelligence is argued to be a better predictor of real world performance, or success out of school, than are traditional IQ measures. In fact, practical intelligence correlates very little with measures of academic achievement, suggesting that individuals who are academically strong may be no better at solving practical problems than are those individuals weaker in academic achievement. Aside from Sternberg’s Triarchic Abilities Test, the assessment of practical intelligence has generally involved tacit knowledge inventories, which are noted to be reliable and valid measures. In support of Sternberg’s assertion, although tacit knowledge inventories have been shown to overlap to some degree with traditional measures of intelligence, the correlation between such measures is poor.
References Cianciolo, A. T., Grigorenko, E. L., Jarvin, L., Gil, G., Drebot, M. E., & Sternberg, R. J. (2006). Practical intelligence and tacit knowledge: Advancements in the measures of developing expertise. Learning and Individual Differences, 16, 235-253. Gottfredson, L. S. (2003). Discussion: On Sternberg’s reply to Gottfredson. Intelligence, 31, 415-424. Gottfredson, L. S. (2003). Dissecting practical intelligence theory: Its claims and evidence. Intelligence, 31, 343-397. Heng, M. A. (2000). Scrutinizing common sense: The role of practical intelligence in intellectual giftedness. Gifted Child Quarterly, 44, 171-182. Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Giftedness According to the Theory of Successful Intelligence. In N. Colangelo & G. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of Gifted Education (88-99). Boston MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Prader-Willi Syndrome Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Our research program validating the triarchic theory of successful intelligence: Reply to Gottfredson. Intelligence, 31, 399-413. Sternberg, R. J., Wagner, R. K., Williams, W. M., & Horvath, J. A. (1995). Testing common sense. American Psychologist, 50, 912-927.
Prader-Willi Syndrome BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Definition Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a rare developmental disorder, afflicting approximately 1 in every 10–15,000 children, yet is the most common genetic cause of danger-to-life obesity in children [3, 4]. The symptoms of PWS are numerous and diverse; PWS is considered a spectrum disorder, meaning that not all symptoms will be observed in all affected individuals [3]. The genetic basis of PWS is complex, [1]. First reported in the 1950s, the initial discoveries of the genetic errors underlying PWS were outlined in the 1980s as being deletions on chromosome 15, but only deletions on a paternally-contributed chromosome 15 produce the PWS phenotype. Oddly enough, similar deletions on a maternally-inherited chromosome 15 produce an entirely different syndrome, that being Angelman Syndrome. This finding led to the conclusion that gene activity and expression in humans may be a function of the chromosome on which the particular copy of that gene resides. This discovery is now known as “genomic imprinting,” [4]. In the 1990s, additional research indicated that PWS could also be the result of inheriting both copies of chromosome 15 from the mother, an outcome referred to as “uniparental disomy,” [1, 3]. The symptoms and behavior seen with PWS are described as emerging in two stages. A website maintained by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development lists the following: ● Stage 1: As newborns, babies with Prader-Willi can have low muscle tone, which can affect their ability to suck properly. As a result, babies may need special feeding techniques to help them eat, and infants may have problems gaining weight. As these babies grow older, their strength and muscle tone usually get better. They meet motor milestones, but are usually slower in doing so.
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● Stage 2: Between the ages of 1 and 6 years old, the disorder changes to one of constant hunger and food seeking. Most people with PWS have an insatiable appetite, meaning they never feel full. In fact, their brains are telling them they are starving. They may have trouble regulating their own eating and may need external restrictions on food, including locked kitchen and food storage areas [3]. The overeating and obesity are typically described as defining features of PWS, and the likely physiological defect is in the hypothalamus of the afflicted individuals, as this brain structure has been implicated in the regulation of both appetite and satiation, [1]. Although investigations of the brains of PWS-afflicted individuals are sparse, one such study found a reduction in the number of neurons that release oxytocin as their neurotransmitter in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, [5] [1]. Swaab et al. [5] proposed that this would disrupt the normal feedback mechanisms of hunger and satiation and account for the excessive appetite of PWS-afflicted individuals. Some of the other symptoms of PWS have been listed as being lower than normal IQ and or learning disabilities, yet some individuals with PWS have near normal IQ. Oral motor difficulties, including abnormalities in voice pitch and resonance, as well as sleep apnea have been described in PWS. Other behaviors of concern include temper tantrums, stubbornness, a dislike for changes in daily routine, repetitive behaviors and repetitive questioning. One study found that significant numbers of individuals with PWS engaged in some form of self-injurious behavior, such as picking at the skin, excessive nose picking, or self-biting, [6]. There is no cure for PWS; early and on-going interventions such as the methods of applied behavior analysis can address the behavioral deficits and excesses [2]. Human growth hormone has been used to help address the obesity and muscular deficits, [3]. If the obesity of a person with PWS is controlled, a normal life span is expected. In the absence of such interventions, a significantly shortened lifespan has been reported, [7].
References 1. 2.
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Howlin, P., & Udwin, O. (2002). Outcomes in neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maglieri, K. A., DeLeon, I. S., Rodriguez-Catter, V., & Sevin, B. M. (2000). Treatment of covert food stealing in an individual with Prader-Willi syndrome. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 33, 615–618. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2006). What is Prader-Willi Syndrome? Retrieved from http://www.nichd. nih.gov/health/topics/Prader_Willi_Syndrome.cfm
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State, M. W., & Dykens, E. M. (2000). Genetics of childhood disorders: XV: Prader-Willi syndrome: Genes, brain and behavior. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 797–800. Swaab, D. F., Purba, J. S., & Hofman, M. A. (1995). Alterations in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus and its oxytocin neurons (putative satiety cells) in Prader-Willi syndrome: A study of five cases. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 80, 573–579. Symons, F. J., Butler, M. G., Sanders, M. D., & Thompson, T. (1999). Self-injurious behavior and Prader-Willi syndrome: Behavioral forms and body locations. American Journal of Mental Retardation, 104, 260–269. Winn, P. (Ed.). (2001). Dictionary of biological psychology. New York: Routledge.
Pragmatics LEE A. WILKINSON Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Natural language; Social communication; Social discourse; Social language; Social skills
Definition Pragmatics is broadly defined as the ability to understand and use language in social-communicative contexts.
Description Pragmatics is the area of communication function that involves the use of language in social contexts (knowing what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and where to say it). It is the ability of natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated and to understand another speaker’s intended meaning [4]. Pragmatics includes both the verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication and may be thought of as a conversational code of conduct or a set of rules for communication [1, 2]. We learn this system of rules naturally and implicitly. If one has good pragmatic skills, he or she is able to communicate an appropriate message effectively in a real world social situation. Pragmatics involve the following social linguistic skills: (a) using language for different purposes (e.g., greeting and requesting); (b) changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation (e.g., talking differently to a peer than to an adult and speaking differently in a classroom than on a playground); (c) understanding non-literal language (e.g., metaphor, irony, figurative language, sarcasm); and (d) following rules for conversations (e.g., taking turns and staying on
topic). The pragmatic aspect of language also includes appropriate eye contact, intonation, and the body movements and gestures that accompany communication.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children must be fluent and capable in the areas of pragmatic language in order to interact and participate successfully in school [13]. When typical children engage in reciprocal conversation they are aware of the knowledge, interests and intentions of the other person, as well as the social rules which determine pragmatic competence. In contrast, children with poor pragmatic skills have significant problems using language socially in ways that are appropriate or characteristic of children their age. Many children with developmental disabilities have difficulties learning the complex rules of social interaction. For example, pragmatic language disorders are the most prominent communication deficit in children with autism spectrum disorders [3, 12]. Because social communication deficits are among the core challenges of autism spectrum disorders, an evaluation of pragmatic competence is always a vital part of the assessment process [8]. However, few standardized tests can effectively evaluate and quantify the complexity of pragmatic language. Valid norms for pragmatic development and objective criteria for performance are also limited [11, 13]. Indeed, formal testing may not identify the presence of a social pragmatic problem, thereby preventing the child from receiving the appropriate support. Assessment of pragmatic social skills requires more than a traditional standardized testing approach [6, 7]. Less formal naturalistic assessments are necessary, including observations of children’s pragmatic competency in everyday contexts (e.g., classroom and playground) and the use of developmental checklists [8]. Given that pragmatic language is a critical part of everyday communication and social interaction, it is imperative that interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders focus on social linguistic skills [5, 6]. Programs designed to enhance social communicative competence include the SCERTS Model [9, 10], a comprehensive developmental-pragmatic and researchbased educational approach, and the Social Thinking Curriculum [14], a social cognitive approach to understanding social communication and reciprocity.
References 1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2009). Social language (pragmatics). Retrieved July 28, 2009 from http://www.asha. org/public/speech/development/Pragmatics.htm 2. Bates, E. (1976). Language and context: the acquisition of pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.
Precision Teaching 3. Bishop, D. V. M. (1989). Autism, Asperger’s syndrome and semanticpragmatic disorder: Where are the boundaries? British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 24, 107–121. 4. Bishop, D. V. M. (1997). Uncommon understanding: Development and disorders of language comprehension in children. Hove: Psychology Press. 5. Marans, W. D., Rubin, E., & Laurent, A. (2005). Addressing social communication skills in individuals with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome: Critical priorities in educational programming. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 977–1002). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 6. National Research Council. (2001). Educating children with autism (Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 7. Paul, R. (2005). Assessing communication. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 799–816). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 8. Paul, R., & Wilson, K. P. (2009). Assessing speech, language, and communication in autism spectrum disorders. In S. Goldstein, J. A. Naglieri, & S. Ozonoff (Eds.), Assessment of autism spectrum disorders (pp. 138–170). New York: Guilford. 9. Prizant, B. M., & Wetherby, A. M. (2005). Critical issues in enhancing communication abilities for persons with autism spectrum disorders. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 925–945). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 10. Prizant, B. M., Wetherby, A. M., Rubin, E., Laurent, A. C., & Rydell, P. J. (2006). The SCERTS model: A comprehensive educational approach for children with autism spectrum disorders. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes Publishing Company. 11. Reichow, B., Salamack, S., Paul, R., Volkmar, F. R., & Klin, A. (2008). Pragmatic assessment in autism spectrum disorders: A comparison of a standard measure with parent report. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 29, 169–176. 12. Tager-Flusberg, H., Paul, R., & Lord, C. (2005). Language and communication in autism. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 335–364). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 13. Young, E. C., Diehl, J. J., Morris, D., Hyman, S. L., & Bennetto, L. (2005). The use of two language tests to identify pragmatic language problems in children with autism spectrum disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 36, 62–72. 14. Winner, M. G. (2005). Think social! A social thinking curriculum for school-age students. San Jose, CA: Think Social Publishing.
Pre-Academic Skills ▶Learning Readiness
Precision Learning ▶Standard Celeration Charting
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Precision Teaching JUDAH B. AXE Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
Synonyms Standard celeration charting
Definition Systematic measurement of educational performances used to make instructional decisions.
Description Precision Teaching was originated in the 1960s by Ogden Lindsley, a student of B.F. Skinner. Lindsley’s goal was to transfer the measurement systems used to study environment-behavior relations in the laboratory to teachers’ use in the classroom. Precision teaching involves selecting a particular behavior to increase, such as orally reading printed words, and charting the student’s performance of the skill each day [1]. Examination of trends allows the teacher to either proceed with an instructional tactic if progress is being made or make a change to instruction if progress is limited. Fluency is a hallmark of precision teaching. Whereas educators are typically interested in students’ accuracy with academic material, precision teachers also place emphasis on speed. Measuring both accuracy and speed presents a more complete picture of a student’s performance. For example, a student who answers ten single-digit mathematics problems correctly in 1 min is performing very differently than a student who takes 10 min to accurately complete the same ten problems. Fluency and automaticity developed through precision teaching have the capacity to improve retention, generalization, and “endurance,” or resistance to distraction. Precision teachers measure fluency and make educational decisions using the standard celeration chart [2]. On this chart, days are represented by vertical lines and behavioral frequencies by horizontal lines. Examples of behavioral frequencies are words read correctly per minute, math problems performed incorrectly in 2 min, basketball shots made in 10 min, and lines drawn in 30 s. The range of frequencies on the chart is from one time per day to 1000 times per minute. Behavioral frequencies are plotted on a logarithmic scale. This allows the reader of the chart to observe proportional changes in behavioral frequency. For example, the change from one per minute to two per minute is the same distance on the chart as the
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change from ten per minute to 20 per minute and from 100 per minute to 200 per minute. Examining frequencies over time represents celeration. Both correct behaviors and incorrect behaviors are charted and the goal is to cause acceleration of the correct behaviors and deceleration of the incorrect behaviors. Precision teaching involves having students practice skills fluently. Precision teachers time students’ performance of skills often with 1-min timings. If multiple timings for a skill occur in a day, the fastest performance is typically charted. When teachers examine performance over 3 or 4 days and fluency is not increasing, a change must be made to the instruction. This conforms to a basic tenet of precision teaching: “the child knows best.” That is, when a child is not learning, it is not the fault of the child, but an indication that the teaching must change. Another tactic of precision teaching is to target tool skills, or prerequisite skills, required to perform composite skill. For example, precision teaching with a child with cerebral palsy and fine motor delays who needs to learn to write her name would involve teaching writing lines fluently to facilitate the later development of name writing. Standard charting conventions allow readers of charts from all over the world to be able to quickly examine a chart and understand the performance displayed. Chart shares occur at the annual meetings of the Standard Celeration Society and the Association for Behavior Analysis International.
References 1.
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Binder, C., & Watkins, C. L. (1990). Precision teaching and direct instruction: Measurably superior instructional technology in schools. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 3, 74–96. Lindsley, O. R. (2001). Do times two, then go for four, or more: Precision teaching aims for the 21st century. Journal of Precision Teaching and Celeration, 17, 99–102.
Precocious Reading Language Disorder ▶Hyperlexia
Preconception ▶Prejudice
Preconventional Level ▶Preconventional Moral Reasoning
Preconventional Moral Reasoning AMIE SENLAND Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA
Synonyms Preconventional level
Definition Preconventional moral reasoning is the first of three levels of moral reasoning in Kohlberg’s Structural Theory of Moral Development. At the preconventional level, children judge right and wrong based on external rather than internal standards, and emphasis is placed on avoiding punishment and maximizing self-interests [1, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Description Preconventional moral reasoning is the first of three levels of moral reasoning in Kohlberg’s Structural Theory of Moral Development, a cognitive-developmental approach to moral development that describes six invariant, sequential, universal, and progressively complex structural stages of moral judgment across the life-span [4]. The preconventional moral reasoning level is followed by the levels of conventional and postconventional moral reasoning. The preconventional level of moral reasoning consists of two stages, the second of which consists of a more complex and advanced sociomoral perspective than the first [4]. The first stage of preconventional moral reasoning is the Obedience and Punishment Orientation Stage (also known as Heteronomous Morality), which is Stage 1 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development [4, 6]. During this stage, children do what is right to avoid being punished by adults they perceive as larger and more powerful. At this stage, children operate from an egocentric perspective, where they are unable to separate their own point of views from those of others or are unable to consider others’ interests [4, 6]. For example, a child at this stage would obey the rule “do not cross the street without mommy” out of fear of punishment for not
Preference Assessments
obeying the rule rather than an internalized understanding that the rule is in place for his or her safety. The second stage of preconventional moral reasoning is the Naively Egocentric Orientation (also known as the Individualism, Instrumental Purpose, and Exchange Stage), which is Stage 2 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning, where children judge right and wrong from a concrete individualistic perspective [4, 6]. During this stage, children become aware that others are also pursuing their own interests. Since there may be multiple conflicting interests, the right course of action is considered relative. Children tend to follow rules that are in their own best interests and to focus on fair exchanges/deals with others, where one person does a favor or something nice for someone else in order to receive the same in return [4, 6]. For example, a child may agree to share the new video game that he received as a birthday present with his friend, only if his friend also agrees to share his new board-game with him.
Relevance to Childhood Development Most children under the age of 9 and some adolescents use preconventional moral reasoning, as well as many adolescents who are criminal offenders or have serious conduct problems. As an example of an application, DiBiase et al. [2] EQUIP for educators is a primary and secondary prevention program for children in grades 5–8. A portion of this program aims to prevent potential developmental delays in moral judgment (e.g., a failure to progress beyond preconventional moral reasoning), with the goal to foster more mature moral judgment and social decision-making.
References 1.
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Colby, A., & Kohlberg, L. (1987). The measurement of moral judgment: Vol. 1. Theoretical foundations and research validation. New York: Cambridge University Press. DiBiase, A., Gibbs, J. C., Potter, G. B., & Spring, B. (2005). EQUIP for educators: Teaching youth (grades 5–8) to think and act responsibility. Champaign: Research Press. Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development: Vol. 1. The philosophy of moral development: Moral stages and the idea of justice. San Francisco: Harper & Row. Kolhberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development: Vol. 2. The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row. Kohlberg, L. (2008). The development of children’s orientations toward a moral order: 1. Sequence in the development of human thought. Human Development, 51, 8–20. [Reprint of Vita Humana 1963, 6, 11–33.] Kuhmerker, L. (1991). The Kohlberg legacy for the helping professions. Birmingham: Doxa Books.
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Predictor Variables ▶Variables, in Experimental Developmental Research
Predisposition ▶Prejudice
Preemy ▶Prematurity
Preference Assessments DEREK D. REED1, JAMES K. LUISELLI2 1 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA 2 The May Institute, Inc., Randolph, MA, USA
Synonyms Stimulus preference assessment
P Definition A relatively brief procedure—taking many different forms—in which a clinician or educator quickly identifies stimuli in a learner’s environment which may serve as possible reinforcers in the acceleration of target behaviors (including academic skills).
Description In order to maximize the efficacy of any reinforcementbased program, proper decision-making skills should be employed regarding the selection of the rewards used to motivate the child—especially when the child is unable to voice his/her preferences due to a developmental disability (see [1]). A common means of selecting stimuli to function as rewards is to employ some assessment of the child’s preferences of activities, tangible items, edibles, or even staff and/or caregivers. Such a procedure is termed a “stimulus preference assessment.” Common to all preference assessment techniques is the presentation of several potential rewards, with data taken on what choices the
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child makes. These choices are then analyzed to generate a preference hierarchy. Several empirically-supported approaches to this technique have been discussed in the behavioral psychology literature. Using a single-stimulus approach [4], a clinician offers numerous items/activities individually to the child across multiple trials. The clinician records the number of times the child reaches for the item and engages in or consumes the item to generate an overall hierarchy across the stimuli. An adaptation of this procedure actually pits stimuli against one another in a two-stimulus choice format [3]. Because this choice procedure allows for greater precision in relative preference amongst the stimuli, its results are often interpreted as more valid. A third commonly used technique uses multiple stimuli in a choice format, with multiple successive choice trials wherein chosen items are removed in sequence [2]. For example, the child may make an initial choice between six items, with the next successive trial featuring a choice between the five items not chosen on the first trial. This process is repeated until only one item remains in the stimulus set. The most natural preference assessment consists of a “free-operant” procedure in which the child is provided free access to all stimuli in the assessment for a fixed period of time. The clinician then records how much time the child engages with each item in the set or how many times the child consumes/ touches each item.
Relevance to Childhood Development According to a review of scientific literature conducted by Cannella, et al. in 2005, stimulus preference assessments are generally valid predictors of reinforcing stimuli with individuals with severe to profound developmental disabilities. Due to the various communication deficits in this population, these findings highlight the effectiveness of preference assessments for individuals with developmental disabilities. Perhaps more importantly, Cannella and colleagues also found evidence that interventions providing choice amongst items identified as preferred via preference assessments led to increases in desired behaviors and reductions in problem behaviors.
References 1.
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Cannella, H. I., O’Reilly, M. F., & Lancioni, G. E. (2005). Choice and preference assessment research with people with severe to profound developmental disabilities: A review of the literature. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 26, 1–15. DeLeon, I. G., & Iwata, B. A. (1996). Evaluation of a multiplestimulus presentation format for assessing reinforcer preferences. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 29, 519–532. Fisher, W., Piazza, C. C., Bowman, L. G., Hagopian, L. P., Owens, J. C., & Slevin, I. (1992). A comparison of two approaches for identifying
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reinforcers for persons with severe and profound disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 25, 491–498. Pace, G. M., Ivancic, M. T., Edwards, G. L., Iwata, B. A., & Page, T. A. (1985). Assessment of stimulus preference and reinforcer value with profoundly retarded individuals. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18, 249–255.
Prefix ▶Morpheme
Prefrontal Cortex GRETCHEN SCHOENFIELD University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Synonyms Anterior frontal lobes; Prefrontal region
Definition The prefrontal cortex is found in the cortical regions of the frontal lobes, which are anterior to the primary and association motor cortices. It is divided into the dorsolateral, orbitofrontal, and medial regions. The prefrontal cortex is believed to be involved in planning complex cognitive behaviors and in the expression of personality and appropriate social behavior.
Description The prefrontal cortex is the largest part of the frontal lobes and is located in their anterior region. Bidirectional linkages between the prefrontal and other brain regions exercise regulatory control over perceptual stimuli and attentional processes. Using multimodal internal, external, and contextual cues, the prefrontal cortex functions to ensure that movements and behaviors are selected at the appropriate time and place [2]. Functions of the prefrontal cortex include sustaining attention and concentration, abstract reasoning and concept formation, hypothesis testing, goal formulation, effective self-monitoring of behavior and self-awareness, inhibition of inappropriate or impulsive behaviors, and the anticipation, evaluation, and initiation of goal-directed behavior [1, 4]. These skills are commonly referred to as executive functions. Children gradually develop executive skills that involve sophisticated representations about the world around them. Research examining the development of
Prefrontal Cortex
prefrontal structures and processes in early childhood is limited. Extant studies suggest that structural maturation of the prefrontal cortex occurs rapidly during childhood, and is characterized by fractionation of age-related functions and skills. Neural networks purportedly organize into distinct functional systems – a process that may continue until late childhood or adolescence [7]. Complex skills develop as a result of these maturational changes, and thus the period between early and middle childhood is thought to be particularly important to the development of related processes. However, several of the functions localized within the prefrontal cortex are complex and thus involve numerous subprocesses that are associated with more than perceptual input and motor output. Behavioral manifestations of these subprocesses are therefore difficult, if not impossible, to isolate [6].
Asymmetry of Function Consistent with lateralization of function within the left and the right hemispheres, the left prefrontal region is involved in speech and language, and the right frontal area plays a role in facial expression and nonverbal movements. Researchers have proposed that the left and right regions area associated with different aspects of memory processing. For example, the left prefrontal region is said to be involved in encoding, and the right is said to be critical to retrieval processes [8]. The left prefrontal cortex has been implicated in strategy formation, as well as in awareness of sequences and external events. The left prefrontal system is also instrumental to working memory. The right prefrontal system is involved in decision-making based on environmental cues. Lateralization of prefrontal function has also been found in memory processes. For example, left prefrontal activations have been observed during verbal learning in verbal working memory tasks, as well as in encoding. The right prefrontal cortex has been shown to activate during retrieval of information and in autobiographical memory.
Prefrontal Regions There are several ways to divide the prefrontal cortex, among the most common being into the following three subregions: the dorsolateral, orbitofrontal, and medial prefrontal cortices. These subregions have varying but overlapping functions. Both inhibitory and excitatory control are necessary for effective filtering, attending, and monitoring of information. The dorsolateral region of the brain is thought to be involved in exercising such control, as well as monitoring and integrating different cognitive processes, all of which facilitate execution of the complex tasks necessary
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to strategy formation and rule-governed behavior [3]. The dorsolateral region has also been associated with brief storage of data and their organization; this internalized record is referred to as working memory. The medial prefrontal cortex is located posteriorly, has been implicated in planning and directing complex motor movements, and plays a role in memory function, intentionality, and attentional processes. These areas are also said to be involved in drive and emotional capacity. Recent studies have suggested that the medial region is important for aspects of social cognition, such as choice of appropriate behaviors in a given situation, as well as judging and inferring mental states of other people [5]. The orbitofrontal cortex is a large area within the frontal lobes that contains several of its own functional subregions. It receives inputs from all sensory modalities and sends output to the amygdala and hypothalamus, and facilitates physiological aspects of emotional responses. The orbitofrontal region is said to be involved in processing of unpleasant auditory stimuli, learning new visual information, and observing and attending to stimuli with affective qualities.
Damage to the Prefrontal Region Damage to the prefrontal region has been associated with several problem behaviors, including poor initiation, impulsivity, disinhibition diminished self-awareness, emotional lability, poor judgment, misperception of social cues, difficulty with planning and the execution of goal directed behavior, and impoverished abstract thinking. Perhaps the most famous example of damage to the prefrontal cortex occurred in 1848 to Phineas T. Gage, a foreman of a railroad construction crew tasked to clearing an area for eventual placement of a rail line. Gage poured gunpowder into a drilled hole of a rock, added a fuse, and then tamped the charge down with a 13 lb. iron rod. The powder exploded with a force that shot the iron rod through the left side of his face. Gage recovered physically within approximately seven months, but was left with profound changes in personality and social functioning.
References 1.
2. 3. 4. 5.
Gorenstein, E. E., & Newman, J. P. (1980). Disinhibitory psychopathology: A new perspective and model for research. Psychological Review, 87, 301–315. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. B. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Luria, A. R. (1980). Higher cortical functions in man (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Mitchell, J. P., Banaji, M. R., & Macrae, C. N. (2005). General and specific contributions of the medial prefrontal cortex to knowledge about mental states. Neuroimage, 28, 757–762.
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P 6. 7. 8.
Prefrontal Region
Shallice, T. (2001). ‘Theory of mind’ and the prefrontal cortex. Brain, 124, 247–248. Tsujimoto, S. (2008). The prefrontal cortex: Functional neural development during early childhood. The Neuroscientist, 14, 345–358. Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 1–25.
Prefrontal Region ▶Prefrontal Cortex
Pregnancy Assessment ▶Prenatal Screening
Prejudgment ▶Prejudice
Prejudice LYNNIKA ROUSE1, KIMBERLY BOOKER2, STEVEN PAUL STERMER3 1 University of North Carolina, Chapel, NC, USA 2 Texas Woman’s University, TX, USA 3 Oklahoma State University
Synonyms Bias; Bigotry; Discrimination; Partiality; Preconception; Predisposition; Prejudgment; Race; Racism
Definition Prejudice refers to a preconceived judgment, opinion or attitude directed toward certain people based on their membership in a particular group. It is a set of attitudes, which supports, causes, or justifies discrimination. Prejudice is a tendency to over categorize.
Description Prejudice is a preconceived attitude that has commonly been used in referring to judgments of one’s race, but is
also used when referring to sex, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. The most comprehensive and accepted definition of prejudice was introduced by Gordon Allport [1]. Mr. Allport defined prejudice as “aversive or hostile attitude toward a person who belongs to a group, simply because he belongs to that group, and is therefore presumed to have the objectionable qualities ascribed to that group.” Prejudice can be classified into three different categories: cognitive prejudice, affective prejudice, and conative prejudice. Cognitive prejudice refers to what people believe is true, stereotypes. These beliefs include expectations, impressions, criticisms, and assumptions. Affective prejudice refers to what people dislike and like. It holds an emotional aspect of prejudice. Conative prejudice refers to how people are inclined to behave [4] and be can be observed by others through discrimination. There is a correlation between the three types of prejudice and are entwined so closely; it is impossible to define one without defining the other [7]. However, all three do not have to exist within one individual for prejudice to exist. There are several different explanations for the origins of prejudice. One explanation considers personality as an origin of prejudice. According to the personality theory of prejudice, people are prejudice because it meets particular needs associated with their personality. These researchers theorize that certain personality types contribute to discrimination, such as closed-mindedness, dogmatism, and authoritarianism [8]. Accordingly, individuals who have developed prejudice in this manner are not just prejudice toward one group, but have a tendency to be prejudice towards anyone who does not belong to their group. Another explanation for prejudice is that it is learned and it develops through social learning. The social learning view states that negative attitudes toward different groups are acquired due to what children see and hear from parents, teachers and friends and because they are rewarded for assuming these views [2]. The media may also play a role in the social learning theory of prejudice. Many times the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media may be a person’s main source of information pertaining to particular groups of people. Accordingly, prejudice can be learned through conditioning and these attitudes can develop throughout the lifespan. A third perspective is called the social identity theory. This explanation suggests that people divide their social world into two categories-us (the in-group) and them (the outgroup). Contrasting beliefs and feelings are usually attached to members of one’s in-group and to members of out-groups [2]. Members of the in-group are viewed
Prelinguistic Communication
more positively while members in the out-group are viewed more negatively. Some researchers suggest that individuals may identify with specific groups in order to boost their self-esteem.
Relevance to Childhood Development Research has found that children can differentiate among people based on racial cues as early as 3 years of age. By the age of 4 their racial awareness allows them to distinguish explicitly among members of different racial groups [6]. By the age of 4, children who belong in an ethnically dominant group are able to precisely identify the group in which they belong to, they are able to show preferences for this group, and display strong biases towards their in-group. It is believed that by around the ages of 6 and 7, these biases peek and then show a gradual decline as the child ages. However, some research indicates that the biases remain at the same level until the age of 12. It is developmentally appropriate for children to notice differences and this alone is not an issue. Problems occur when negative values are taught, learned, and attached to the differences. Prejudice can have a negative effect on the social and moral development of children. Due to misconceptions or negative experiences a child may never socialize with someone belonging to an out-group. This child may go on believing negative things about all people belonging to particular groups and may even see a positive person belonging to an out-group as an exception. [5] believes that children taught to hate different racial, ethnic, religious, or national groups are suffering a corruption of their moral development. He states that this moral corruption satisfies the definition of psychological abuse. These children are not able to show tolerance or respect for individual differences.
References 1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
7.
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading: AddisonWesley. Baron, R. A., & Byrne, D. (2000). Social psychology (9th ed.). Needham Heights: Pearson. Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L. S. (2007). Developmental intergroup theory: Explaining and reducing children’s social stereotyping and prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 162–166. Farley, J. E. (2005). Majority–minority relations (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Katzman, G. H. (2005). A bioethical analysis of a form of psychologic abuse: Teaching hatred to children. Clinical Pediatrics, 44, 143–150. Nesdale, D., Durkin, K., Maass, A., & Griffiths, J. (2005). Threat, group identification, and children’s ethnic prejudice. Social Development, 14, 189–205. Plous, S. (2003). The psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: An overview. In S. Plous (Ed.), Understanding prejudice and discrimination (pp. 3–48). New York: McGraw-Hill.
8.
9.
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Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 741–763. Witenberg, R. T. (2007). The moral dimension of children’s and adolescents’ conceptualization of tolerance to human diversity. Journal of Moral Education, 36(4), 433–451.
Prelinguistic Communication PATRICIA E. SPENCER PSpencer Consulting LLC, Rockport, TX, USA
Infants are communicators long before the ability for symbolic language emerges. Although the term “prelinguistic” can generally refer to all stages prior to the emergence of language, it is typically used to refer to the period in which communication appears to be intentional, using gestures or vocalizations – usually in combination with facial expressions and actions on objects – in ways that suggest they represent messages directed to a communication partner. This period encompasses the ages of around 8–18 months in typically-developing children and usually culminates in acquisition of a burgeoning vocabulary and production of connected or multiword expressions. The behaviors which make up prelinguistic communication rarely occur in isolation but usually consist of a bundle of behaviors across modalities. Vocal, gestural, object-related, postural, and gaze behaviors frequently co-occur. Eye gaze, especially a pattern of directing visual attention sequentially to an object or event and a potential communication partner is often taken to be a marker of communicative intent and has a predictive relation with language outcomes [ 5, 9]. Development of gaze proceeds in a standard fashion, with the ability and propensity to focus on faces present at birth, although the neonate’s focal range is limited to about 18 inches. Visual attention to faces or objects or events gradually becomes more flexible, and between and 10 and 15 months of age typically-developing children become capable of integrating or switching gaze between an object/event and a communication partner. Vocal behaviors have particular communicative salience to most parents, and as any parent knows, crying is both the earliest and most enduring of these behaviors. Crying is not, however, an intentional communication
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during the early months and first year of life but is instead a baby’s natural response to discomfort [4]. Only at about a year of age have “fake” or intentionally communicative crying acts been noted. In fact, earlier reports that parents could identify differences in meaning in infant crying have not been replicated. It now appears that only a cry that indicates intense discomfort or an “emergency” can be differentiated from others when they are presented to parents out of context. Although crying persists, it is not the only vocalization produced by young infants, and other “vegetative” or spontaneously emitted sounds are common [6]. The quality of these sounds is dictated primarily by the maturity of the vocal tract and articulators and progresses through stages in which sounds made at the back of the throat with lax oral articulators (cooing or gooing) are joined by vocalizations that appear to be vocal play. These include raspberries, squeals, and screeches of various kinds. Vocalizations consisting of primarily open vocal tract, or vowel, sounds change over time to include consonant-like sounds. Productions referred to as “marginal babbling” that include vocalic and slowed closures of the vocal tract emerge near the middle of the first year of life. So-called “canonical” babbling of reduplicated sounds that closely approximate the sound units of the language in a child’s environment emerge somewhat later, typically around 7–10 months of age. Canonical babbling requires more flexible and quicker control of articulators and is predicated both on physical maturation and at least to some degree on the child’s listening experiences. Children who are deaf, for example, are typically delayed in this stage of prelinguistic vocal development [7]. The production of consonant–vowel syllables in canonical babbling is soon followed by variegated babbling in which diverse consonant–vowel combinations occur in what sounds like an intoned utterance but as yet has no clear representational meaning. Gestural behaviors also have strong communicative salience – from the waving of arms (and usually legs) of a young infant that, although prompted by the infant’s internal state or state of arousal and clearly without a direct message being intended, is interpreted by parents and other adults as having meaning – to the showing of or pointing to an object in later infancy. Holding out or showing an object to another is a relatively early form that, combined with eye gaze, is routinely considered to be intentional. Indeed, sharing an object of attention with another is a prerequisite for successful communication, and when infants initiate joint attention around an object, they can be said to be intentionally communicating. Typically emerging between about 9 and 13 months, and having
been documented in infants across multiple varied cultures [1], such behaviors correlate with other indications that the infant recognizes causal relations [3]. Use of objects in representational ways, or as tools, is another indication of the transition to understandings of causality [2]. Pointing to direct attention is perhaps the most recognizable of prelinguistic gestures and is one that persists and frequently accompanies linguistic communication throughout life. The pointing hand shape itself, with the index finger extended, has been seen during early months of life and becomes an intentional signal late in the first year or early in the second year of life [2, 8]. In prelinguistic contexts, it is especially likely to co-occur with vocalization and with eye gaze alternating between object of attention and communication partner. According to Adamson [1], first words typically occur at about 13 months of age, but the range of emergence in typically-developing children is great. Language “onset” is often assumed to occur when about ten words are used expressively (on average at about 15 months but again with large individual variations), although by this time the child can be expected to have a significantly larger receptive vocabulary. Watt et al. [10] found that production of conventional gestures such as pointing as well as initiation and engagement in joint attention episodes predicts rates of language acquisition. In addition, language comprehension in the second year of life is predictive of later language skills.
References 1. Adamson, L. (1995). Communication development during infancy. Madison, WI: Brown and Benchmark Publishers. 2. Bates, E. (1979). The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. New York: Academic Press. 3. Harding, C., & Golinkoff, R. (1979). The origins of intentional vocalizations in prelinguistic infants. Child Development, 50, 33–40. 4. Jaswal, V., & Fernald, A. (2002). Learning to communicate. In A. Slater & M. Lewis (Eds.), Introduction to infant development (pp. 244– 265). New York: Oxford University Press. 5. Mundy, P., & Gomes, A. (1998). Individual differences in joint attention skill development in the second year. Infant Behavior and Development, 21, 469–482. 6. Oller, D. K. (1980). The emergence of the sounds of speech in infancy. In G. Yeni-Komshian, J. Kavanagh, & C. Ferguson (Eds.), Child phonology (Vol. 1. Production, pp. 93–112). New York: Academic Press. 7. Oller, D. K., & Eilers, R. (1988). The role of audition in infant babbling. Child Development, 59, 441–449. 8. Schaffer, H. (1984). The child’s entry into a social world. London: Academic Press. 9. Tomasello, M. (1988). The role of joint attentional processes in early language development. Language Sciences, 10, 69–88. 10. Watt, N., Wetherby, A., & Shumway, S. (2006). Prelinguistic predictors of language outcome at 3 years of age. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 1224–1237.
Premack Principle
Premack Principle ELIZABETH G. E. KYONKA West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
Definition According to Premack’s principle, highly-probable behaviors reinforce less-probable behaviors and improbable behaviors punish more probable behaviors.
Description
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there are no contingencies in place [6]: “Reinforcement results when an R of a lower independent rate coincides, within temporal limits, with the stimuli governing the occurrence of an R of a higher independent rate (p. 219).” The “independent rate” of a response (R) is the probability of an individual choosing to make that response when no other response is required prior to making it and it produces no new opportunities to make other responses. Suppose that, left to her own devices, a teenager borrows the family car for several hours every Saturday night but only does a few hours of chores per month. She will be more likely to complete her chores if she must do so in order to borrow the car. Access to the car reinforces chore completion.
What is a Reinforcer? Consider the following situations: 1. A rat presses a lever and earns a pellet of food 2. A child finishes his homework and is permitted to play a video game 3. A teenager helps with yard work, so her parents lend her the family car. What is the reinforcer in each of these situations? Is it the food pellet, the game, the car? Or, is the reinforcer the behavior made possible by access to the object: eating, playing, or driving? What makes a reinforcer reinforcing? Traditional notions of reinforcement, such as the law of effect, describe reinforcers as anything which, presented concurrently or shortly after a response, makes that response more likely. A rat presses a lever because previous lever-presses were followed by access to food. One knows that food (or eating) is a reinforcer because when food delivery is made contingent upon lever-pressing, the rat becomes more likely to lever-press. The last sentence does not explain the one before it; they are merely different ways of saying the same thing. Is there a way to define “reinforcer” so we can predict which behaviors will be reinforcing in particular situations? One possibility is that there are different classes of behaviors. Some are reinforcing responses, perhaps because they address needs or reduce drives. Other behaviors – operant responses – are susceptible to being reinforced. This is the trans-situational view expressed by Meehl [5]. Access to any reinforcing response could serve as a reward for any operant response: if playing video games reinforces homework completion, it should also reinforce any other behavior that is not itself a reinforcing behavior, such as vegetable-eating or tooth-brushing. Premack [6, 7, 8] presented another possibility, namely that any behavior can serve as a reinforcer for any other behavior that occurs at a lower rate, when
Punishment If behaviors with high independent rates reinforce behaviors with low independent rates, Premack [9] reasoned that independently-unlikely behaviors punish highly likely behaviors. Imposing chores as a consequence of using the family car should decrease the rate of car use.
Limitations of Premack’s principle The concept that more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors (and less probable behaviors punish more probable behaviors) makes it possible to predict effects of one response on another, which is an improvement over the trans-situational view. However, the predictions are not necessarily correct. One problem with this principle is that the independent rate of a response can depend on its context: other available activities and the individual’s history making the response. A prediction of Premack’s principle is that spontaneous contiguity – when a high-probability activity follows a low-probability activity by chance – should have the same effect as contingency (increasing the likelihood of the low-probability activity). However, it does not [8]. A typical result of Premack’s experiments that cannot be explained by Premack’s principle is that the reinforcing response occurs at a lower rate when it is contingent on another response than it does independently [6]. According to Premack’s principle, the rate of the operant response should increase so that access to the reinforcing response equals its independent rate (or decrease so that access to the punishing response equals its independent rate). However, that may not be feasible if there is a great difference in probability of high- and low-probability responses, but there is a 1:1 contingency (for example, it takes an hour doing homework to earn an hour playing video games) between responses. A violation of Premack’s principle also occurs in the opposite situation: if the
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high-probability response is only slightly more likely than the low-probability response but the contingency varies, the low-probability response can actually reinforce the high-probability response [4]. Response deprivation theory [11] refines Premack’s principle in a way that corrects its mistaken predictions. According to response deprivation theory, it is the baseline ratio of independent rates of behaviors that determines what happens when one becomes contingent. Response B will reinforce response A in any condition when the contingent ratio of A to B is greater than the baseline ratio.
Relevance to Childhood Development A few of the many examples of the successful application of Premack’s principle are included in the above table. In spite of the theoretical shortcomings of Premack’s principle, it has proved tremendously useful in applied behavior analysis and behavior modification. Population
Operant
Reinforcer
Nursery school children [2]
Sitting quietly and looking at the blackboard
Running and screaming
Third grade children [1]
Answering test questions
Listening to tapes
Eight, 10 and 12 year-old boys [3]
Toothbrushing
Swimming
Middle school boys [10]
Achieving academically Playing intramural basketball
8. Premack, D. (1965). Reinforcement theory. In D. Levine (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 9. Premack, D. (1971). Catching up with common sense on two sides of a generalization: Reinforcement and punishment. In R. Glaser (Ed.), The nature of reinforcement. New York: Academic Press. 10. Slate, J. R., & Jones, C. H. (2003). Helping behaviorally at-risk middle school students with the no bad actions program: Winning with the N.B.A. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 8, 351–362. 11. Timberlake, W., & Allison, J. (1974). Response deprivation: An empirical approach to instrumental performance. Psychological Review, 81, 146–164.
Premature ▶Prematurity ▶Preterm Birth
Premature Baby ▶Prematurity
Premature Birth ▶Premature Infants ▶Prematurity ▶Preterm Birth
References 1. Cook, V. J., & White, M. A. (1977). Reinforcement potency of children’s reading materials. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 231–236. 2. Homme, L. E., deBaca, P. C., Devine, J. V., Steinhorst, R., & Rickert, E. J. (1963). Use of the Premack principle in controlling the behavior of nursery school children. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 6, 544. 3. Lattal, K. A. (1969). Contingency management of toothbrushing behavior in a summer camp for children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2, 195–198. 4. Mazur, J. E. (1975). The matching law and quantifications related to Premack’s principle. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1, 374–386. 5. Meehl, P. E. (1950). On the circularity of the law of effect. Psychological Bulletin, 47, 52–75. 6. Premack, D. (1959). Toward empirical behavioral laws: I Positive reinforcement. Psychological Review, 66, 219–233. 7. Premack, D. (1961). Predicting instrumental performance from the independent rate of the contingent response. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 163–171.
Premature Infant Survival ▶Age of Viability
Premature Infants TERESA L. DAVENPORT Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Premature birth; Premie; Preterm birth
Premature Infants
Definition An infant born prior to reaching full term. A period of 37 weeks is considered full term. Some practitioners also consider low birth weight infants, those weighting less than 5.5 pounds (2,500 grams), as premature [1]. However small for gestational age and premature birth may well occur without the other.
Description Premature infants are frequently born developmentally immature. The two most frequent complications involve fully developed respiratory and neurological functions with a low birth weight, and it is this low birth which places them at a high risk for a variety of immediate health problems and future development problems. Research has shown that the smaller and infant is at birth, the more likely he or she will experience significant immediate and long term problems. However, it is important to note that although premature infants are at greater risk for health and developmental problems, many infants born prematurely do not experience significant immediate health complications or long term health or developmental problems due to advances in neonatal interventions. Furthermore, many infants who initially experience health complications or developmental delays overcome these health complications and appear to catch up developmentally to their later born cohorts within the first years of life. However, the risk factor of perinatal complications for these child is double that of a normal birth [3]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 12.7% of all births in 2005 were preterm [2]. The CDC reported that from 2002 to 2005, this rate increased approximately 9% [2]. There are a number of factors which contribute to the rise in the birth of premature babies, including more births by women over 35 years of age, increasing rates of multiple births, increased management of maternal and fetal conditions, increased substance abuse (e.g., tobacco, alcohol), and increased stress, and abnormalities in the mother’s uterus or cervix, and many more [6]. Socio-economic factors of the mother, such as being poor, young, having little or no access to medical care, can also increase the risk of having a preterm birth [5]. Many premature infants have immature bodies which are not prepared to function independent of their mother. Premature infants may experience a variety of health problems after birth including breathing difficulties, heart problems, and difficulty fighting infections, among many other potential problems. Many premature
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infants end up spending time in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), a specialized department of hospitals which caters to the intensive needs of premature infants. Examples of specialized treatment for premature infants would be reducing exposure to light and noise, regulating the amount of handling of the infant by medical staff, minimizing interruptions to sleep and rest, massage, and many other considerations. In one common treatment for premature babies, called “kangaroo care,” parents hold the premature baby skin-to-skin to their chest for extended periods of time, which has been found to promote improved oxygenation, body temperature regulation, breathing rate, feeding and greater overall survival rates [1, 6]. Premature infants will often spend many weeks in the hospital after birth before they are strong enough to go home. Parents of premature infants may need education by hospital staff on how best to care for their child at home in order to meet any special needs. Children who were born premature are at risk of long term developmental problems as well, such as learning disabilities and Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) [4]. Children who were born prematurely tend to have more learning problems, lower achievement levels, and are more likely to be enrolled in special education programs. Many States have early intervention programs targeted toward children who fail to meet developmental milestones at appropriate ages. In addition, the National Office of Head Start funds numerous programs aimed at serving children with developmental delays to prepare them for entering school [7]. Such programs would greatly benefit premature infants who display developmental delays [3].
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
5. 6. 7.
Berk, L. E. (2008). Child Development (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). National vital statistics report. Retrieved July 18, 2008, from http://www.cdc.gov/ nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_06.pdf Dean, R. S., & Davis, A. S. (2007). Relative risk of perinatal complications in common childhood disorders. School Psychology Quarterly, 22(1), 13–25. National Institute of Health. (2007). Preterm labor and birth. Accessed July 18, 2008, from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/ topics/Preterm_Labor_and_Birth.cfm Papalia, D. E., Gross, D., & Feldman, R. D. (2003). Child Development. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. Santrock, J. W. (2009). Child Development (11th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2008). Program services. Accessed July 18, 2008, from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs/programs/index.html
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Prematurity JACQUELINE P. PARSONS St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Neonate; Preemy; Premature; Premature baby; Premature birth; Preterm baby; Preterm birth
Complications Complications may include cerebral palsy, hydrocephaly (brain fluid accumulation), vision problems, digestive problems, brain bleeds, anemia, and low blood pressure. The child may also experience developmental delays, behavioral problems and/or cognitive issues. Many of these complications can be serious, requiring surgery, medication, and hospitalization. Some can also lead to permanent disabilities.
Treatment Description A full-term birth for a human is 40 weeks gestation. Several human organs do not reach maturity until between the 34th and 37th week; therefore when an infant is born at 37 weeks gestation or before, the infant is considered premature. According to the March of Dimes, between 8% and 10% of all human births are premature using this definition. Typically, a premature baby weighs significantly less than a full-term baby, and requires special medical care, which usually takes place in an area of the hospital called a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Immature infant lungs, intracranial hemorrhage (brain bleeds), jaundice, anemia, etc. are a few of the myriad complications of prematurity. Premature babies are at a higher risk for developmental challenges, physical challenges, and/or death versus infants born at full-term gestation. Early identification of these challenges is crucial in the potentially successful treatment or arrest of the developmental disorders. Currently, a baby who weighs over 800 g has better than a 90% chance of survival, while a baby who weighs less than 500 g usually has between a 40% and 50% chance.
Causes Smoking, drinking, drugs, poor nutrition, and stress can all increase risk for prematurity. More commonly, however, prematurity is caused by non-lifestyle factors, such as structural abnormality in the uterus, multiple births, disease, or the mother’s age (too old or too young).
Symptoms In addition to being smaller, premature babies have a different appearance than full-term babies. They usually have more hair, are less active, and have shinier, more transparent skin. They may feed poorly and occasionally stop breathing. Their cry is usually weaker than that of a full-term baby, if they have the strength to cry at all.
In some cases, premature delivery can be stopped before the baby is born. If symptoms of early labor appear (contractions, pain, diarrhea, vaginal bleeding), the labor might be stopped with medications which relax the muscles. There is also a surgical procedure which actually sews the cervix shut, which may prevent the labor from progressing. Physicians often begin by recommending bed rest for a woman who believes she may be entering early labor. If these measures fail to prevent the early birth, then doctors must treat the complications and work to ensure the baby’s proper development. Vision, digestive, and brain problems may be addressed surgically. If the child experiences a brain bleed and/or cerebral palsy, long term physical and occupational therapy may be necessary, as well as treatment for spasticity, which may include botox injections or a baclofen pump.
Parenting in the NICU Parenting in the NICU is much more complex then parenting at home. Despite the extra people, machinery, and activity of the NICU, it is important for parents to spend time holding their baby and bonding. In the NICU, this is called Kangaroo care. Similar to a mother kangaroo caring for its infant, as the kangaroo holds the baby in its pouch, the parent holds the child on their bare chest, making a physical connection between parent and child. Physical touch is extremely helpful for the bay’s development. Another important consideration is breastfeeding. Most smaller preemies cannot breastfeed, so when possible, mothers are encouraged to pump their breast milk to make available to the baby. This provides the best food for the baby’s tube feeding, and also starts the milks supply so it will be ready when the baby is ready.
Life after the NICU Most pediatricians have three criteria for allowing a preemie to go home. She must be able to regulate her own body temperature, feed, and gain weight. But just because these conditions are met does not mean the baby or family can go home to a normal life. Premature babies
Prenatal Development
often need frequent doctor visits, extra care in the home, and may require future hospitalizations. All these demands can be very stressful for a family. Some parents seek counseling to help them deal with the challenges of this new life. Another good option is the support group. There are even online support groups which can be very helpful for busy parents when it is hard to leave the house.
References 1. 2. 3.
Martin, J. A., et al. (2006). Births: Final data for 2004. National Vital Statistics Reports, 55(1), September 29. Iams, J. D. (2003). The epidemiology of preterm birth. Clinics in Perinatology, 30, 651–654. Harrison, H. (1983). The premature baby book. NYC: St. Martin’s.
Premie ▶Premature Infants
Prenatal Alcohol Exposure ▶Alcohol Exposure ▶Fetal Alcohol Effects
Prenatal Development RAYMOND S. DEAN, RENEE GRIZZLE Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Embryonic and fetal development
Definition Prenatal development is defined as the process of growth and development within the womb from fertilization until birth. During this process, the zygote grows into an embryo and then a fetus.
Description In the process of fertilization, a sperm cell from the male and the ovum (egg) of the female join in the female’s fallopian tube in conception. The prenatal development
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that occurs during the 38 weeks of pregnancy is typically separated into three periods: (1) the germinal period (the period of the zygote), (2) the embryonic period (the period of the embryo), and (3) the fetal period (the period of the fetus). A different way to describe the passage of time in pregnancy is to use 3-month time periods, immediately following conception, called trimesters [1–4].
The Germinal Period The germinal period is the period of prenatal development that takes place in the first 2 weeks after conception. During this cell division, the fertilized ovum (zygote) travels down the fallopian tube toward the uterus. This period is characterized by rapid cell division and duplication (mitosis). By the fourth day, the zygote contains more than 50 cells and is now called a blastocyst. Cells on the blastocyst form the embryonic disk, a cell mass in which the embryo will begin to develop. Additional cells on the blastocyst will eventually form the trophoblast that will later provide nutrients and support for the embryo. The blastocyst will further differentiate into multiple layers which will later become every system, organ, and body part in the human being. After moving to the uterus, the blastocyst begins the process of attaching itself to the lining of the uterine wall. Implantation occurs approximately 7–14 days after conception. During the germinal period, the placenta is formed and will be connected to the embryo by the umbilical cord. The placenta will permit food and oxygen to reach the organism and waste products to be removed. Complications that interfere with development in the germinal period result in the death of the zygote. Approximately 10–20% of fertilized eggs complete the process of implantation and continue to develop [1–4].
The Embryonic Period The second stage of gestation, the embryonic stage, occurs between the second and eighth week of prenatal development. The rapidly growing organism implanted in the uterine wall is now called an embryo. The embryonic period is the most critical stage of prenatal development as the embryo is the most susceptible to harmful agents in the environment. In addition, this period is a critical time in the development of the brain and spinal cord. The lifesupport systems of the embryo that consist of the amnion, the umbilical cord, and the placenta develop rapidly. In the first week of the embryonic period, the embryonic disk forms three layers of cells: the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm. These systems will later form the nervous system, the circulatory system, the digestive system, and other organs. Throughout the remainder of the embryonic period, these organs and major body systems
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will develop rapidly. By the sixth week after conception, the embryo begins to resemble human form, begins to move slightly in the womb, and can sense its world [1–4].
The Fetal Period The fetal period is the final stage of gestation and begins two months after conception and lasts for approximately 7 months (until birth). This period is usually marked by the appearance of the first bone cells at about eight weeks. During this time, the fetus becomes more active although physical activity declines in last 3 months of pregnancy. Physical growth and development continue and facial features become distinguishable. At three months, the genitals can be identified as male or female and at four months the structures of skin have formed. The cerebral cortex in the brain enlarges and by 6 months the fetus has developed a grasping reflex. During last 2 months of prenatal development, fatty tissues develop and increased functioning of various organ systems occurs. The age of viability, the time at which the fetus has better than average chance of survive out of the womb without special medical intervention, occurs at the 7 month mark. Although babies have been born before 24 weeks and survived, a lack of oxygen due to their immature lungs will likely negatively impact their physical, cognitive, and social/emotional development. During the fetal period, the fetus receives antibodies from mother’s blood to protect against illnesses. The fetus also practices swallowing and breathing and ingests some amniotic fluid as a result. Furthermore, research suggests that the fetus appears to learn from experience during this final stage [1–4].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Berk, L. E. (2006). Child development (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Papalia, D. E., Gross, D., & Feldman, R. D. (2003). Child development: A topical approach. New York: McGraw-Hill. Patterson, C. J. (2008). Child development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Santrock, J. W. (2007). Child development (11th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Prenatal Diagnostic Methods ▶Prenatal Screening
Prenatal Growth ▶Prenatal Period, Stages of
Prenatal Period, Stages of ANNA MAZUR-MOSIEWICZ, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Prenatal growth
Definition Prenatal development is the process in which an embryo or fetus (or fetus) gestates during pregnancy. Normal prenatal development lasts about 38 weeks and is divided into three stages: germinal, embryonic, and fetal. During these three stages of gestation, the original single-celled zygote develops into an embryo and then fetus [1, 2].
Description Germinal Stage (Pre-Embryonic Stage). Prenatal development starts from the fertilization, or the union of individual male and female gametes, and lasts until birth. Conception normally takes place in the fallopian tube. The fertilized cell, the zygote, soon divides into two, then four, then eight cells, and so on. In the germinal stage, which lasts about ten days, the zygote assumes the bumpy appearance of a mulberry and is called a morula. During the next four days, the morula continues its journey down the fallopian tube toward the uterus. At the same time, the morula’s cells divide and the zygote becomes progressively more complex. Within 36 h from fertilization, the zygote enters a period of rapid cell division and duplication, the mitosis. By the fourth day, 60–70 cells exist and form a hollow, fluid-filled sphere, a blastocyst, which implants itself on the uterine wall between the seven and ninth days. As the blastocyst implants itself on the uterine wall, it further differentiates, and at the beginning of the second week, the embryonic disk is formed [1, 7]. The blastocyst consists of the outer cell mass, the trophoblast, the inner cell mass or the embryoblast, and the blastocyst cavity. The trophoblast becomes responsible for nourishing the inner layer of the blastocyst, from which the embryo and the inner embryonic membrane, the amnion, will develop. The trophoblast also develops an outer embryonic membrane, called the chorion. The cells of the amnion produce amniotic fluid that helps to control environmental temperature of the fetus and protects it from trauma and infection. As the amnion expands with the growth of embryo, it fuses with the chorion. Together these two layers form the amniotic sac, which is a fluidfilled membrane in which the fetus develops. The amniotic
Prenatal Period, Stages of
sac is commonly known as the bag of waters or the membranes [2, 3]. Embryonic Stage. The second stage of gestation, the embryonic stage, lasts from the implantation of the blastocyst on the uterine wall until approximately the eighth week of pregnancy. During this time, the embryo’s cells continue to multiply and begin to differentiate to form various body tissues and organs [3]. In addition, the external features of the embryo begin to develop. Due to the rapid growth and formation of the body parts that take place during this stage, the embryo becomes extremely venerable to interference with healthy development. Thus, teratogens such as drugs, bacteria or viral infections, and other outside influences can easily cause congenital abnormalities in the developing embryo [3, 7]. As the embryo is forming, the embryonic disk differentiates into three specialized layers of cells, called the germ layers. The germ layers are called the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm. The upper layer, the ectoderm, will become the skin (only epidermis), nails, hair, teeth, sensory organs, and the nervous system including the brain and spinal cord. The lower layer, the endoderm, will form the digestive system, liver, pancreas, salivary glands, and respiratory system. Later, the middle layer, the mesoderm, will differentiate into the inner layer of skin, bones, most of the circulatory system including the heart and major blood vessels, connective tissues of the gut and integuments, muscles, reproductive system, and urinary system including the kidneys [5, 7]. After the implantation of the zygote, the placenta develops. The placenta is a temporary structure that functions as an organ and endocrine gland. As an organ, the placenta is responsible for the metabolism and transfer of the nutrients and wastes between the mother and the embryo or fetus. As an endocrine gland, the placenta secretes the various hormones of pregnancy. The placenta is shared by the mother and the embryo or fetus and grows throughout pregnancy. Development of the maternal blood supply to the placenta is usually complete by the end of the first trimester of pregnancy (approximately 12–13 weeks) and, thereafter, allows the transfer of nutrients and oxygen from the mother to the fetus and the transfer of waste products and carbon dioxide back from the fetus to the mother. The placenta is connected to the embryo by the umbilical cord [3]. The umbilical cord develops from the amnion, and is usually attached to the center of the placenta. Oxygenated blood flows from the placenta to the fetus through the large umbilical vein in the umbilical cord. Additionally, two large arteries in the umbilical cord carry fetal waste to the placenta. By the end of the embryonic stage, circulation is established and the
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embryo takes on human appearance with the formation of legs, arms, and a head [3, 7]. Fetal Stage. The final stage of gestation, the fetal stage, is initiated by the formation of the first bone cells. It usually starts around the ninth week and lasts to the end of pregnancy. During this stage, the fetus begins to take on characteristics of an infant, and increases its weight and length until it reaches full term. Specifically, the fetus grows from an inch-long (2.54 cm) organism weighing less than an ounce (28 g) to about a 20-inch-long (50 cm) baby weighing approximately 7.5 pounds (3,400 g) at birth. This phase is characterized by growth and refinement of existing structures and organs. Few new structures (i.e., hair, nails) appear. The exposure to teratogens in this period tends to result in functional defects rather than major morphological impairments. Additionally, during this period, fetal movement begins, and the life sustaining reflexes, such as sucking and swallowing, are established [4, 5, 7]. Between the 8 and 12th week, the fetus grows to about 3 inches in length. Activity levels also increases, as the fetus stretches its body and moves its limbs inside the womb. The genitals are forming, but the gender of the fetus is difficult to determine. Moreover, the organs, muscles, and nervous systems become organized and connected. During this period, the heartbeat can be detected with a stethoscope for the first time. Spontaneous fetal movements are present. Twelve weeks marks the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. By the end of the 12th week, the face is well formed, the genitourinary tract is completely developed, and the gender of the fetus is clearly discernible [4, 7]. In the second trimester, from the fourth to the sixth months of pregnancy, the fetus continues to grow and change. By the 16th week of intrauterine development, the fetus has increased its size considerably. At this time, the fetus is approximately 7.5 inches (19 cm) long and weighs about 3.3 ounces (100 g). Although the skeleton is still soft cartilage, the bones begin to harden, especially in the legs. In the fourth month, the fetus continues to be very active, averaging in one movement per minute, and the mother starts to experience fetal movements called quickening. At 20 weeks of growth, the fetus measures about 8.75 inches (22 cm) in length and weights approximately 10 ounces (300 g). The fetal heartbeat can be detected using a standard fetoscope, and the muscles of the fetus are already well developed. At 24 weeks, the fetus is about 12.5 inches (32 cm) long and weighs approximately 1.25 pounds (600 g). The structure of the eye is complete. The eyelashes and eyebrows are formed. Little subcutaneous fat exists. The alveoli (tiny air sacs) are formed in the lungs. Genitalia are well developed. Moreover, the body of the fetus is covered in fine downy fuzz,
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the lanugo. The lanugo has a wooly appearance and it is coated with whitish cream called vernix caseosa, which protects the skin of the fetus [7]. During the third trimester, or last 3 months of the pregnancy, the fetus triples its weight. Also, the fetus practices some behaviors and movements, such as swallowing and breathing. With the progression gestation, fetal heart rate slows and becomes more variable. Moreover, fetal heart rate and movements become synchronized. These changes are related to the growth of the fetus and the maturation of the heart. The third trimester ends with the birth of the baby, which normally takes place around 38th week of the pregnancy [3, 4, 7].
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7.
Berk, L. A. (2008). Infants, children, and adolescents (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Neff, C., & Spray, M. (1996). Introduction to maternal and child health nursing. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott. Novak, J. C., & Broom, B. L. (1995). Maternal and child health nursing. St Louis, MO: Mosby. Papalia, D. E., Gross, D., & Feldman, R. D. (2003). Child development: A topical approach. New York: McGraw-Hill. Patterson, C. J. (2007). Child development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Riccio, C. A., & Pizzitola-Jarratt, K. (2005). Abnormalities of neurological development. In R. C. D’Amato, E. Fletcher-Janzen, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of school psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Wong, K. H. H., & Adashi, E. Y. (1999). Gametogenesis, fertilization, and implantation. In E. A. Reece & J. C. Hobbins (Eds.), Medicine of the fetus and mother (pp. 13–19). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott.
Prenatal Screening RENEE GRIZZLE Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Assessment of major maternal and fetal risk factors; Pregnancy assessment; Prenatal diagnostic methods; Prenatal testing
Definition Techniques used to monitor pregnancy, maternal functioning, or fetal development and identify disease or defect.
Description Conditions that are present before birth can potentially be corrected if identified prior to delivery. The primary methods of prenatal assessment involve a medical
examination and history of the mother which hold risk for the fetus. In addition, other screening tests involve: Maternal blood test: Blood samples from the mother are taken between the 16th and 18th weeks of pregnancy [6, 7]. If these samples contain high levels of alpha fetoprotein (AFP), the women is considered at high risk for delivering children with defects in the formation of the brain or spinal cord. Further medical assessment and intervention can be taken subsequently [6]. Ultrasound or ultrasound sonography: When an ultrasound is directed into the abdomen of the mother, a sonogram is produced that provides views of the uterus, fetus, and placenta. This picture provides a view of fetal growth as well as the sex of the fetus. In addition, an ultrasound can detect multiple pregnancies, uterine abnormalities, and fetal death [1–7]. A first-trimester screen is often given between the 11th and 13th week of pregnancy which consists of a blood test and an ultrasound. Ultrasound use in excess of five times per pregnancy may increase the chance of low birthweight [1]. Sonoembryology : Sonoembryology, the use of highfrequency transvaginal probes and digital image processing, has made detection of defects possible at earlier periods of embryonic growth [4, 6]. Amniocentesis: Amniocentesis is the extraction of amniotic fluid with a syringe inserted into the woman’s abdomen between the 14th and 18th weeks of pregnancy. This fluid provides information within one to two weeks on the sex of the fetus in addition to the potential for genetic deficits and chromosomal disorders. Amniocentesis is associated with a small risk of miscarriage; however, it remains the most widely used prenatal diagnostic method in the United States. Women who receive this procedure before the 15th week of pregnancy greatly increase their risk of miscarriage. In fact, the procedure causes a higher risk of morbidity than chromosomal disorders [6]. Chorionic villus sampling (CVS): Between the eight and 13th week of pregnancy, tissue from the ends of villi that surround the embryo can be tested for the presence of birth defects and disorders. Although results can be available within 24 h, chorionic villus sampling is rare because it is an invasive procedure that carries a greater rate of miscarriage or neonatal death than amniocentesis. In addition, chorionic villus sampling is associated with fetal limb deformity and this risk increases the earlier the procedure is administered [1, 2, 6]. Embryoscopy or Fetoscopy: The insertion of a fiberoptic viewing endoscope through the women’s cervix may be able to provide early diagnosis of embryonic abnormalities as early as six weeks [1–3, 6]. A close
Preoperational Stage (Piaget)
inspection of the fetus through the scope with a light source can aid in the identification of limb and face defects [1–3, 5]. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis: Preimplantation genetic diagnosis can be used to identify genetic defects in cells that have yet to be implanted in the mother as a part of the process of in vitro fertilization [6]. Umbilical cord sampling or fetal blood sampling: This technique can assess for infection, chromosomal abnormalities, metabolic disorders, and immunodeficiencies by taking a sample of the blood of the fetus through the umbilical cord. However, this technique is associated with miscarriage and several other health risks [6].
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Berk, L. E. (2006). Child development (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Berk, L. E. (2008a). Infants, children, and adolescents (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. Berk, L. E. (2008b). Infants and children: Prenatal through middle childhood. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Feldman, R. S. (2007). Child development (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2007). Child development and education (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Papalia, D. E., Gross, D., & Feldman, R. D. (2003). Child development: A topical approach. New York: McGraw-Hill. Santrock, J. W. (2007). Child development (11th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Prenatal Testing ▶Prenatal Screening
Preoccupied Attachment ▶Insecure-Resistant Attachment
Preoperational Stage (Piaget) KATHLEEN B. ASPIRANTI University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Definition The second of Piaget’s Jean (1896–1980) four stages of cognitive development, the preoperational stage ranges
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from roughly ages 2 to 7. In this stage children can verbalize thoughts but think intuitively rather than logically. The key development of this stage is learning to form internal representations.
Description The preoperational stage occurs before children acquire operational thinking, which is the ability to use logical thought. Children in this stage can carry out overt behaviors such as counting but are not yet able to use mental operations such as adding and subtracting, which are considered internalized behaviors. The rules regarding operations are logical since they never produce contradictions, and Piaget describes preoperations as infralogical because they usually generate contradictory conclusions [1]. For instance, a child in the preoperational stage may say that the purpose of clouds is to make the wind blow, or that grass grows because bugs run around pulling at them until they grow into tall blades. Although these explanations do not sound reasonable to an adult, it is how children try to explain the mysterious natural events of everyday life. There are two different types of internal representations: symbols and signs [2]. Children first learn to use symbols, which are personal representations of familiar objects. They may use a bucket as a hat or a towel as a cape since these symbols are similar in shape and texture to the objects they represent. Signs, however, do not resemble the objects that they represent. The word dog does not have any similarity to the animal except for the language that it is assigned. As children grow, they begin to use more signs than personal symbols to represent objects. Language, both verbal and written, is a common sign that is used. According to Piaget, representational thought must be present before vocalizations can be considered to be language. In this sense, thinking is not dependent on language and thinking must occur before language can be formed. The preoperational stage has several identifying characteristics, most of which focus on what the child can not yet do instead of what he can do. One of these characteristics is egocentrism, in which a child views and understands the world only from his own point of view. The child has difficulty telling the difference between what he thinks and feels and what others think and feel. This can be seen when two children have an egocentric conversation where instead of talking to one another, the children talk around each other without appearing to pay any attention to what the other is thinking. In a sense, the children are talking to themselves while in the presence of others. After the preoperational stage egocentrism continues to decline but never fully disappears, even in adulthood.
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Another example of egocentrism is a child’s inability to understand spatial relations. Piaget instructed a preschooler to stand in front of a table with a model of three mountains of different sizes [3]. A doll was placed at another corner of the model and the child was asked which of a selection of pictures corresponded to the view that the doll saw of the model. The preschool children could not recognize that the doll would have a different perspective of the mountains than they did, and almost always picked the picture of their own view of the mountains. Preschool children also do not take into consideration all of the features of an object. The child tends to focus on one feature of the object and ignore other features. If two identical glasses are filled with the same amount of water and one glass is poured into a taller, thinner glass, the child will focus on the height of the water while disregarding the width [3]. Children focus on the before and after states but ignore the processes in the middle where the same water is poured into the new glass. This concept of centration also applies to mass and number as well. When a row of eight gummi bears are spread out, a child will say that there are more bears because the row is longer, even though they watched the bears being spread out. The child centers on the length of the line instead of the number of bears in the line. This concept of centration also affects a child’s ability to identify an object even if its appearance has changed. For example, putting on a mask does not make a person a witch; the person underneath the mask has not changed. Some other characteristics of the preoperational stage include animism and one-dimensional classification. Animism refers to the belief that all things are living. Children in the first part of the preoperational stage believe any object that affects people is alive. For instance, a table is alive, and if it is scratched the table will hurt or be sad [1]. Children in the second half of the preoperational stage believe only objects that move are alive, even if they cannot move by themselves. This may mean that a car, a stone, a bicycle, and a bird are all alive because they can move, whereas a table is not alive because it cannot move. In addition, children in the preoperational stage cannot seriate objects by putting them in order of size, shape, and color. Often, a child in the later years of the preoperational stage can focus on one dimension of the objects such as color, but they will quickly become confused if asked to also separate by size and shape.
Relevance to Childhood Development The preoperational stage assists the child in developing his sense of self and creativity. The egoism evident in
this age group aids the child in determining what his needs and wants are, and as he progresses to Piaget’s concrete operational stage he will begin to assimilate the feelings and opinions of others into his own mind. The child’s ability to focus on a single aspect of an object and to attribute characteristics such as emotion, sensitivity, and history to these objects allows the child to create situations outside of the actual. This later develops into an ability to focus on a specific problem or aspect of a problem and to think creatively in order to find a solution to a situation or question that may otherwise seem to have none.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Brainerd, C. J. (1978). Piaget’s theory of intelligence. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. Miller, P. H. (2002). Theories of developmental psychology (4th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Piaget, J. (1977). The essential piaget. In Howard E. Gruber, & J. Jacques Voneche Gruber (Ed.), New York: Basic Books. Piaget, J. (1983). Piaget’s theory. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology (4th ed., Vol. 1). New York: Wiley.
Preschool Embedded Figures Test ▶Embedded Figures Test
Pre-School Programs ▶Head Start
Press ▶Media
Pressure ▶Stress
Pretension Play
Pretend Play TONYA R. HAMMER University of Houston Clear Lake, Houston, TX, USA
Synonyms Dramatic play; Fantasy play; Imaginative play; Symbolic play
Definition Pretend play is the stage of play engaged in by children who are capable of assigning action to symbolic objects. Children will take on roles, assign meaning to objects, and transform their reality into a world of its own. Pretend play creates a world in which children can express their ideas and feelings about their life, either by themselves or with others who will engage in the fantasy with them.
Description Pretend play is a necessary component in the development of children. Pretend, or imaginative play, helps children to develop their social and emotional skills, their language skills, and their problem solving or thinking skills. Pretend play allows children to strengthen their social and emotional skills by providing them with the ability to take on the life of another person, real or imaginary. Through play, emotions that may not be acceptable in reality now become “okay.” Pretend play can also expand on the child’s vision of reality and increase their self-esteem. In the world of pretend, the child can be anyone or anything they can think of, they are not limited by time or space, or societal rules or constraints. But pretend play not only strengthens a child’s social and emotional skills, but their language skills as well. Through pretend play the child can experiment with his or her own language capabilities, including repeating what he or she has heard from their parents, siblings, and peers, without the fears associated with talking in front of adults. After all, they are in another world. By creating their own language during pretend play, children begin to first understand the power of language. As children grow and develop, the pretend play advances as well and not only is the spoken word enhanced but also the written word. Children will engage in school or office play, mimicking what they have seen on television or in their parents own life. Letters will be written, forms completed, “tests” taken, all before the child has ever entered a classroom. This imaginative play helps them to develop their cognitive skills on all levels.
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This cognitive development includes the building of problem solving skills and abstract thinking. As children create their world of make-believe, roles need to be assigned, castles built, moats crossed, and governments elected, all of which are problems for them to solve. The creativity of children will astound if allowed to flourish. The castle can be built with popsicle sticks and rubber bands and in their minds will withstand any attack of the enemy. But should it not, they will solve the task before, set a new goal, and rebuild. Their perseverance and tenacity is incredible. The abstract thinking will also amaze. Adults look at a pile of rocks and see a pile of rocks, children see a great fort, or a volcano, or a tower to be climbed. The ability to utilize abstract or symbolic thinking is a high level thinking skill. The development of these capabilities eventually will lead to greater things such as understanding that numbers are symbolic of quantity and letters together represent words and language. Pretend play is vital to the development of young minds. Adults interacting with children should encourage imaginative play, and provide the objects necessary to create the new worlds. A cardboard box can become the next space shuttle, the next Indy 500 winner, or a new two story home on the beach in Malibu, all that is needed is the mind of a child.
References 1.
2.
3. 4.
Bergen, D. (2001). Pretend play and young children’s development. Champaign, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. Retrieved February 10, 2009, from http://www. ericdigests.org/2002-2/play.htm Church, E. B. (2009). The importance of pretend play. Scholastic Parents. Retrieved February 17, 2009, from http://www.scholastic. com/browse/article.jsp?id=10175 Feldman, R. S. (2008). Development across the lifespan (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson. Garvey, C. (1977). Play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Pretending Actions ▶Symbolic Thought
Pretension Play ▶Dramatic Play
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complications may in turn cause long term health or lifelong developmental problems [4]. Preterm babies are also at significant risk for having low birth weight, which has been related to many serious developmental problems in later life (e.g., inattention, language delays, low intelligence) [4]. The risk of serious developmental problems increases the earlier a baby is born. In addition, these babies are more likely to experience significant developmental problems in the future.
Preterm Baby ▶Prematurity
Preterm Birth TERESA L. DAVENPORT Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Importance to Child Development
Synonyms Premature; Premature Prematurity
birth;
Premature
infants;
Definition Infants are considered premature if delivered prior to reaching full term. Thus, a birth is considered preterm if the baby is born prior to completing 37 weeks of gestation [4].
Clinicians who work with individuals who were born preterm will want to determine the exact length of the pregnancy of that individual as it may indicate that individual’s level of risk for developmental problems. As noted above, the number of risk factors associated with the pregnancy increases the likelihood the individual will experience long term developmental problems. Clinicians, therefore, consider the number of risk factors the individual’s mother experienced during her pregnancy with the him or her.
References 1.
Description Infants born before the pregnancy has reached term, approximately 37 weeks of gestation, is considered premature. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 12.7 of all births in 2005 were preterm [2]. The CDC indicated that from 2002 to 2005 preterm births rose 9% and concludes this trend is due to a rise in late preterm births, those from 34 to 36 weeks gestation, which it reports rose 25% since 2000 [2]. The rise in number of preterm births is likely due to several factors, including more births by women over 35 years of age and older, increasing rates of multiple births, increased management of maternal and fetal conditions, more frequent substance abuse (e.g., tobacco, alcohol), increased stress, and abnormalities in the mother’s uterus or cervix, among others. Maternal factors, such as being lower socioeconomic status (SES), age when giving birth, and inadequate access to medical care, also increase the risk of preterm birth [3, 5]. Preterm babies are at risk for numerous complications immediately after birth, as their physical development may not have prepared their bodies to function completely independent of their mother, such as breathing problems, heart problems, difficulty fighting infections, and many other health conditions [1, 6, 7]. Health complications and the procedures and medications used to treat these
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3. 4.
5.
6. 7.
Berk, L. E. (2008). Child Development (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). National vital statistics report. Retrieved July 18, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/ nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_06.pdf Goldenberg, R. L., Culhane, J. F., Iams, J. D., & Romero, R. (2008). Epidemiology and causes of preterm birth. Lancet, 371(9606), 75–84. Moster, D., Lie, R. T., & Markestad, T. (2008). Long-term medical and social consequences of preterm birth. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(3), 262–273. National Institute of Health. (2007). Preterm labor and birth. Accessed July 18, 2007, from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/ topics/Preterm_Labor_and_Birth.cfm Papalia, D. E., Gross, D., Feldman, R. D. (2003). Child Development. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. Santrock, J. W. (2007). Child Development (11th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Prevention ▶Early Intervention
Prevention of Mental Retardation ▶Abecedarian Project
Proactive Aggressors
Preventive Intervention ▶Antecedent Management of Behavior
Primary Auditory Cortex ▶Auditory Cortex
Primary Encopresis ▶Encopresis
Primary Motor Cortex ▶Motor Area of the Brain
Primary Motor Dysphasia ▶Expressive Dysphasia
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Principled Moral Reasoning ▶Postconventional Morality
Print ▶Media
Private Speech ▶Self-Talk
Proactive Aggression ▶Instrumental Aggression
Proactive Aggressors TAMARA DEL VECCHIO St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA
Primary Somatosensory Cortex ▶Somatic Sensory Cortex
Synonyms Bullies; Instrumental aggressors
Definition Perpetrators that engage in aggressive behavior with the intent to obtain a reward or coerce others.
Primary Visual Cortex ▶Visual Area
Principle of Reinforcement ▶Law of Effect
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Description Proactive aggressors are individuals that engage in aggressive behavior in a premeditated and “cold-blooded” manner with instrumental, reward focused goals. Proactive aggressors can engage in either physical or relational aggression. Bullying is considered a form of proactive aggression in which individuals in a position of power engage in repeated aggressive acts towards an individual to obtain status or dominance.
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Proactive aggression has its origins in social learning theory in which individuals learn aggressive behavior through vicarious reinforcement and maintain the aggressive behavior due to its instrumental properties. In contrast to reactive, impulsive aggressors, proactive aggressors have fewer emotion regulation and attentional difficulties [2]. Although, proactive aggressors exhibit less empathy and sympathy for those who are victimized [2]. Within the social information processing framework, proactive aggressors are less likely to attribute hostile intent to peers than their reactive aggressor counterparts. However, proactive aggressors are more likely to expect a positive outcome for their aggressive behavior than reactive aggressors [1]. This overly positive expectation has been associated with an overestimation of social competencies. Proactively aggressive bullies are perceived to be more popular with their peers and better able to manipulate peer groups than reactively aggressive bullies who are often peer-rejected. The frequency of aggressive behavior decreases over time for a vast majority of children. However, for a small group of children who engage in elevated levels of aggressive behavior, their aggression level remains stable and is predictive of negative developmental outcomes such as delinquency, criminal offending, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder [3].
References 1.
2.
3.
Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1996). Social information processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression. Child Development, 67, 993–1002. Polman, H., de Castro, B. O., Koops, W., van Boxtel, H. W., & Merk, W. W. (2007). A meta-analysis of the distinction between reactive and proactive aggression in children and adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 522–535. Vitaro, F., Gendreau, P. L., & Oligny, P. (1998). Reactive and proactive aggression differentially predict later conduct problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 377–385.
Probability Density Function ▶Normal Curve
Problem-Based Learning ▶Whole Language Approach
Problem-Solving ▶Critical Thinking
Problem-Solving Consultation ▶Behavioral Consultation
Professional Counselors ▶Child Counselors ▶Counselors
Profound Mental Retardation LINDSAY J. CUMMINGS Argosy University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Cognitive impairment; Developmental delay; Developmental disabilities; Intellectual disability; Mental deficiency
Definition Profound Mental Retardation (MR) is defined by the presence of significantly sub average general intellectual functioning as well as significant limitations in adaptive functioning present prior to the age of 18 years. Individuals with a diagnosis of Severe MR generally obtain IQ scores below 20–25 [1, 3, 4].
Description Profound MR is described by Diagnostic and statistical manual, 4th Ed.-text Revision (2000) as impairment comparable to a range of IQ scores that fall below 20–25 [2]. Individuals with Severe MR are severely limited in the areas of intellectual functioning and adaptive skills, typically exhibiting extensive deficits in sensorimotor skills during early childhood. They are also likely to experience severe deficits or lack of functioning in the areas of selfcare, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure, and
Progeria Syndrome
work skills [2]. Symptoms are likely to manifest in both the individual’s ability to master a range of cognitive skills and their ability to respond to environmental cues [5]. Individuals who fall within this diagnostic category comprise approximately 1–2% [2] of all individuals with Mental Retardation. Unique to this level of impairment is the strong likelihood of an identified etiology of genetic or neurological syndrome resulting in MR, as well as a variety of other physical and psychological symptoms present from birth or early childhood. Ambulatory and communication skills within this population are likely limited or absent entirely [2, 5]. Concurrently, the presence of additional physical impairments such as Cerebral Palsy, epilepsy, and vision or hearing difficulties have been found to increase with level of intellectual impairment [5]. Co-morbid medical complications are also common. Training within the domains of motor skills and self care can improve functioning within a supervised environment. Some individuals with profound MR are able to perform non-complex tasks with close monitoring. Extensive levels of care and support are typically required throughout their lives [2].
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4. 5.
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American Psychological Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4-text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Goldstein, S., & Reynolds, C. R. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders in children. New York: The Guilford Press. Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (Eds.). (2003). Child psychopathology (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. McLaughlin, P. J., & Wehman, P. (Eds.). (1996). Mental retardation and developmental disabilities (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Progeria Adultorum ▶Werner Syndrome
Progeria of the Adult ▶Werner Syndrome
Relevance to Childhood Development A diagnosis of Profound MR has weighty implications for both the child and his caretakers throughout development. Accessing services the child is entitled to often requires a working knowledge of government and school systems, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This program provides adaptive education to all children within the least restrictive environment possible. Adaptations may also include school-provided speech, physical, or occupational therapies as appropriate. Within the family or caretaking environment, education of the parent or primary caretaker is essential regarding available resources and developmental expectations. Because the development of children with Profound MR is severely limited in most cases, families of children with this diagnosis should be aware of what it means for their child in particular [2, 3, 4]. It is imperative that the family be knowledgeable on matters of developmental expectancy as well as the amount of support the child will need through school age and beyond. Also of note is the likelihood of additional medical complications caused by, or related to MR. These conditions may affect development or opportunity for development in ways that are not expected.
References 1.
American Association on Mental Retardation. (2004). Fact sheet: frequently asked about mental retardation. http://www.aamr.org/Policies/faq_mental_retardation.shtml
Progeria or Hutchinson-Gilford Syndrome ▶Progeria Syndrome
P Progeria Syndrome BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Progeria or Hutchinson-Gilford Syndrome
Definition Progeria syndrome is a very rare, genetic syndrome that is characterized by greatly exaggerated premature aging; an individual with progeria syndrome generally succumbs to heart attack or stroke by age 13 [6]. In more detail, progeria is a sporadically occurring, autosomal disorder meaning that only one copy of a gene is necessary for the condition [3]. To understand the basis for progeria’s occurrence, a brief summary of genetic mechanism is
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needed. The recipe for generating and following competent genetic instructions is relatively simple to understand. The molecule of genetic inheritance, DNA, is a string of DNA nucleotides which accords a nearly identical RNA nucleotide string. The RNA nucleotide string is itself transformed or translated into an a chain of amino acids that can become folded into a protein [2]. The alphabetical code or nucleotides for DNA and RNA are differentiated from one or the other by their chemical bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T); in RNA, uracil (U) substitutes for thymine [2]. In the case of progeria syndrome, a genetic mistake occurs in the lamin A (LMNA) gene in that the normal genetic codon (a triplet of nucleotides) for the amino acid glycine which should be GGC (glycine GGC) is converted into glycine GGT [5, 6]. This error in glycine production results in an abnormal form of a protein lamin A, known as progerin, which itself results in a disrupted, faulty inner layer of the cell’s nuclear membrane (the membrane surrounding the cell’s nucleus); the inner layer of the nuclear membrane is itself known as the nuclear lamina [4]. The consequences of a faulty nuclear lamina are that the fidelity of the inner nuclear membrane is disrupted. The processes involving DNA–RNA translation and amino acid production are all internal to the cell’s nucleus [1]. Production of proteins and lipids outside the nucleus is the function of the cell’s endoplasmic reticulum [1]. The faulty nuclear lamina adversely affects the endoplasmic reticulum’s mechanisms of communicating coherently with the genetic mechanisms inside the cell’s nucleus [5]. The connection between these events and the signs and symptoms known as progeria syndrome is not completely understood [5]. As mentioned above, progeria is, fortunately, very rare. The [6] study examined 15 children, and those participants were thought to be approximately 50% of the world’s known cases of progeria at that time. In the 15 participants in this study, the diagnosis of progeria was formalized at a median age of 19 months. All 15 children appeared aged when enrolled in the [6] study. Children with progeria exhibit a failure to thrive early in life, remaining small, with minimal body fat. They typically display protruding eyes, thin sclerotic skin, suffer from osteoporosis, alopecia and progressively worsening cardiac and cardiovascular impairments [5, 6] until death occurs typically due to myocardial infarction and or stroke in the early- to mid-teenage years [6]. Progeria is not the only genetic disorder typified by premature aging; two other somewhat similar conditions are Werner’s syndrome and Cockayne’s syndrome [5].
Despite the fact that there are no treatments for progeria, this syndrome is a condition of clinical attention as a possible model of normal aging. Apparently, abnormal lamin A protein or progerin accumulates in normal cells as a function of aging and progeria-like nuclear changes have been observed in cell cultures obtained from aged persons but whether or not progerin contributes to normal aging is not known [5, 6].
References 1. 2. 3.
4.
5.
6.
Carlson, N. R. (2007). Physiology of behavior (9th ed.). New York: Pearson. Chamary, J. V., & Hurst, L. D. (2009). The price of silent mutations. Scientific American, 300, 46–53. Chambers, D. (2008). Autosomal dominant. In Medline plus medical encyclopedia. Retrieved June 9, 2009, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ MEDLINEPLUS/ency/article/002049.htm Foisner, R. (2001). Inner nuclear membrane proteins and the nuclear lamina. Journal of Cell Science, 114, 3791–3792. Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/114/21/3791 Korf, B. (2008). Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, aging and the nuclear lamina. New England Journal of Medicine, 338(6), 552–555. Meredith, M. A., Gordon, L. B., Clauss, S., Sachdev, V., Smith, A. C. M., Berry, M. B., et al. (2008). Phenotype and course of Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine, 338(6), 592–604.
Project Head Start ▶Head Start
Projection EDWARD B. JENNY Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Identification; Projective identification
Definition Projection is a defense by which internal events such as feelings, motivations or thoughts are attributed to another person or object. The effect of this process is to prevent the individual from experiencing uncomfortable psychological states as originating within the self. Once projected
Projective Assessment Techniques
onto another, these feelings or experiences can be dealt with as an external rather than internal threat or tension. In psychological testing, projection is the process by which test-takers inject personal meaning or feelings into responses given to test items.
Description Projection was first described by Freud who used the term in various and sometimes contradictory ways. In the scientific terms of the day, projection had to do with establishing a correspondence between two objects. In psychological terms, this generally meant a correspondence between an internal experience and an external person or object. Often the experience that was projected was an uncomfortable or conflicted felling such as anger. A child may, for example, project hostile or angry motivations onto figures or objects in his or her environment. This prevents the child from having to accommodate these feelings into his or her sense of self. Although regarded as a primitive defense, projection is nonetheless developmentally appropriate when encountered in children. Projection allows the child to manage intense feelings that might be incompatible with their growing sense of self and need for attachment. For instance, from a child’s point of view one cannot simultaneously maintain an attached, warm relationship with a parent and at the same time harbor intense anger toward this same person. By projecting this hostility outside of the self, the child is able to maintain the positive affective attachment to the parent and at the same time discharge aggressive feelings. As children develop greater ego-strength, they are better able to integrate opposing feeling states and can begin to recognize that it is possible to have both positive and negative feelings for the same attachment object. In adults with more severe psychopathology, this ability is often compromised. One prominent example of projection in work with children is play therapy in which the child allows toys to take on psychological roles. Often toys are placed in competition with each other representing the competitive drives within the child. A play therapist can utilize this process to help children understand and express their feelings in a controlled manner. Finally, in psychological testing, projection occurs when an individual injects elements of their own personality into responses to test items. For example, in a storytelling task an individual might make up a story in which the characters are described as thinking and feeling in ways that are really reflections of the respondent’s own feelings and thoughts.
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References 1.
Laplanche, J., & Pontalis, J. B. (1973). The language of psychoanalysis (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). New York: Norton. (Original work published 1967).
Projective Assessment Techniques STEVEN R. SMITH University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Synonyms Performance-based assessment; Personality assessment; Projectives
Definition A broad category of psychological tests and techniques designed to measure aspects of personality and emotional functioning.
Description Projective assessments include such diverse tools as the Rorschach Inkblot Test, Thematic Apperception Test, Roberts-2, story telling, figure drawings, and sentence completion tasks. Many contemporary assessment researchers prefer the term “performance-based assessment” in order to more accurately capture the nature of the task. Although there is a wide array of projective tests and techniques available, they are similar in so far as they require a patient to respond to some type of open-ended prompt, cue, or stimulus. Projectives are quite commonly used by clinical and school psychologists to assess their child and adolescent clients’ personality style, feelings, cognitive processes, emotional distress, and global psychological functioning [1, 2].
Tests Versus Techniques The grouping together of several different forms of assessment under the term “projective” can be misleading because these methods differ widely in terms of structure and empirical support. For example, the Rorschach Inkblot Test [3] and Hand Test [5] can rightfully be referred to as psychological tests (because both rely on standardized administration and scoring techniques and a normative sample) and have substantial research support in child and adolescent populations. Other projective techniques that have been subject to the same standardization (e.g., Roberts-2) [4] can also be categorized as psychological tests. In contrast, unstructured story-telling, sentence
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completion, or drawings should be best thought of as psychological techniques because they do not rest on standardized means of administration, scoring, and interpretation.
Research Support Because some projectives are tests and some are techniques, it is impossible to accurately describe the empirical support for this entire category of measurement. Tests such as the Rorschach, Hand Test, Naglieri’s Draw-a-Person, and Roberts-2 have garnered much research support with child and adolescent populations. Like all tests, these measures are reliable and valid for some assessment questions and under some circumstances. Conversely, because projective techniques cannot be evaluated under standardized conditions, research evidence for these tools is lacking.
References 1. 2.
3. 4. 5.
Archer, R. P., & Newsom, C. R. (2000). Psychological test usage with adolescent clients: Survey update. Assessment, 7, 227–235. Cashel, M. L. (2002). Child and adolescent psychological assessment: Current clinical practice and the impact of managed care. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 33, 446–453. Exner, J. E. (2003). The Rorschach: A comprehensive system (4th ed.). New York: Wiley. Roberts, G. E., & Gruber, C. P. (2005). Roberts-2 manual. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services. Wagner, E. E., Rasch, M. A., & Marsico, D. S. (1991). Hand Test manual supplement: Interpreting child and adolescent responses. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
Projective Identification ▶Projection
Projectives ▶Projective Assessment Techniques
Proprioception BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Kinesthesia or the kinesthetic sense
Definition Proprioception is derived from the Latin word, proprius meaning, “belonging to one’s self ”; proprioception is one of the sensory systems often grouped together as the “somatosenses” or “body senses” [2]. In the case of proprioception, this sensory system informs us about the position and movement of our body and limbs in space. The sensory receptors of proprioception are known as proprioceptors; the main proprioceptors are muscle spindles that are stretch receptors in skeletal muscles that provide information about muscle length to the central nervous system as well as stretch receptors known as Golgi tendon organs in the ligaments connecting skeletal muscles to bones and joints [1]. Although the Golgi tendon organs are considered to be stretch receptors, they assess the contractile force of contraction being exerted by muscles. Additional proprioceptors within joints respond to the degree of force as well as the direction of a limb’s movement. The muscle length detectors which lie in parallel with and inside skeletal muscles provide sensory information that does not produce conscious sensations but is instead utilized to plan and control movements [1, 2, 4, 5]. A normally functioning proprioceptive system is a prerequisite for controlled and coordinated movement; an athlete or a dancer no doubt has acquired the ability to make rapid and acute discriminations amongst the stimuli provided by their proprioceptors, even though the sensory information is largely “unconscious.” An individual with proprioceptive deficits can learn to make compensatory behaviors to function more normally [3, 6]. Proprioception is a sensory mechanism that we are not aware of until it is missing or disrupted. The symptoms of proprioceptive disorder are those of a loss or deficits in sensory information pertaining to body or limb position, movement and of “ownership” [7]. An individual with damage to proprioceptors or the central nervous system mechanisms of proprioception would have symptoms of dissociation of one’s limbs. A limb might be perceived as “not belonging” to the person or being disconnected from the person [6]. Besides these atypical sensory experiences, a person with disorders of the proprioceptive system would have severe deficits in the ability to initiate, terminate and or control movements, as proprioception is a major component of the timing, sequencing and coordination of movements [1]. An afflicted person would be “taken by surprise” by some of his or her own limb movements [6].
References 1.
Brodal, P. (2004). The central nervous system: Structure and function (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Prosocial Behavior 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Carlson, N. R. (2007). Physiology of behavior (9th ed.). New York: Pearson. Cole, J. (1995). Pride and a daily marathon. London: MIT. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2001). An introduction to brain and behavior. New York: Worth. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2009). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (6th ed.). New York: Worth. Sacks, O. (1987). The man who mistook his wife for a hat. New York: Harper Row. Zillmer, E. A., Spiers, M. V., & Culbertson, W. C. (2008). Principles of neuropsychology (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson.
Prosocial Behavior MARK A. BARNETT Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
Synonyms Altruism; Helping behavior
Definition Prosocial behavior is commonly defined as a voluntary action that benefits another individual or group of individuals. Although the term, in its broadest sense, may refer to any positive social behavior, researchers have tended to focus on interpersonal behaviors such as helping and comforting that are performed for individuals who are perceived as needing assistance. Prosocial behavior refers to a person’s action, not his or her intent; thus, prosocial behavior can be motivated by self-oriented (i.e., egoistic) and/or other-oriented (e.g., altruistic) reasons.
Description The capacity to engage in prosocial behavior emerges at an early age and evolves during childhood and adolescence [4]. However, large individual differences have been found in children’s tendencies to display prosocial emotions and behaviors in response to others. The following brief review describes some of the factors that contribute to the development of, and individual differences in, prosocial responses in children.
Age Differences Children as young as 1 or 2 years old may appear upset when observing another individual who is sad or in distress and they may attempt to help and comfort that individual. However, early attempts to offer assistance (e.g., giving a cherished teddy bear to a sad mommy) often reflect the child’s egocentrism and the inability to fully comprehend the other’s perspective. The tendency to help others typically increases during childhood and adolescence, and the
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individual’s prosocial responses tend to become more appropriate to the specific situation and target. Age-related changes in prosocial behavior tend to be associated with increases in cognitive empathy (i.e., the capacity to take the other’s perspective and to identify his or her thoughts and feelings) and affective empathy (i.e., the capacity to vicariously experience the emotions of others). Although both capacities are important in the development of prosocial behavior, the child’s inclination to help and comfort has been found to be more closely associated with affective than cognitive empathy. Indeed, individuals who are skilled in perspective taking but are lacking in emotional responsiveness may use information acquired about another person’s thoughts and feelings, not to assist, but to deceive and take advantage of the other. Increases in the frequency of engaging in prosocial behavior during childhood typically are accompanied by age-related changes in moral reasoning, values, and abilities [2, 3]. Whereas young children tend to assist others for egoistic reasons (e.g., to obtain material or social rewards; to avoid disapproval), older children are more likely to help for altruistic reasons (e.g., to make the other person feel better). In addition, in comparison with their younger counterparts, older children are more likely to have internalized society’s prosocial values and are more competent to perform a broad range of appropriate prosocial acts for others.
Gender Differences Girls tend to be more emotionally responsive to others and more helpful of others than are boys. However, these gender differences are quite small and are influenced by how, and the context in which, these variables are assessed. For example, the stereotypic belief that girls are more likely than boys to respond prosocially toward others may inflate the gender difference reported in studies relying on the ratings of parents or teachers.
Biological Influences Some theorists and researchers contend that prosocial behavior in humans reflects a pre-programmed, biological function. For example, sociobiologists view sharing and cooperation among humans as an inevitable extension of the numerous instances of helping reported within various insect and animal species. Evolutionary psychologists emphasize that prosocial acts are enacted preferentially for one’s kin and are essential to the survival of one’s gene pool and species. Evidence for the heritability of prosocial behavior comes from twin studies in which monozygotic (i.e., identical) twins are found to be more similar in their tendencies to engage in prosocial behavior
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than are dizygotic (i.e., fraternal) twins. Although the existence of a single “prosocial gene” is unlikely, heredity may play a role in a constellation of cognitive, affective, and behavioral characteristics that have a genetic basis and contribute to individual differences in the tendency to help and comfort others.
Socialization Influences Socialization experiences contribute to individual differences in children’s tendencies to engage in prosocial behavior [1]. Parents who are loving, supportive, and satisfy their child’s own emotional needs enable the child to be emotionally available and responsive to the needs of others. In addition, the development of prosocial behavior is promoted by parents who encourage their children to attend to and learn about other people’s thoughts and feelings, model prosocial emotions and behaviors on a regular basis, and provide opportunities for their children to engage in (and get reinforced for) the comforting and helping of others, including siblings and peers. The discipline technique that has been found to be most effective in encouraging the development of prosocial behavior in children has been labeled induction [5]. A parent who uses induction explains to the child why his or her behavior is inappropriate and should be changed by emphasizing the negative impact of that transgression on others. Children whose parents use induction as their primary disciplinary technique have been found to display higher levels of affective empathy and prosocial behavior (and lower levels of antisocial behavior) than children whose parents rely on love withdrawal or physical punishment to discipline. In a relevant observation, preschoolers who have a history of being physically abused by parents have been found to respond to peers’ sadness and distress with anger and physical attacks rather than prosocial emotions and behaviors. Research on the influence of prosocial television (e.g., Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, Barney and Friends, Sesame Street) indicates that the viewing of prosocial models tends to have a modest, favorable impact on children’s inclination to engage in positive social interactions with peers. Not surprisingly, a child who views a prosocial television program with an adult who encourages the child to learn the “prosocial lesson” tends to gain more from the educational experience than a child who views the program alone. Socialization experiences within the broader culture also contribute to differences in children’s prosocial behavior. Collectivistic cultures (e.g., Taiwan), which emphasize group efforts and outcomes, tend to encourage more sharing and cooperation in the home and school than do individualistic cultures (e.g., USA), which emphasize
interpersonal competition and individual achievement. As might be expected, children raised in collectivistic cultures generally have been found to behave more prosocially toward peers than children raised in individualistic cultures.
Other Characteristics of Prosocial Children In addition to the tendencies already noted (e.g., heightened affective empathy), other distinguishing characteristics of prosocial children have been identified. For example, children who engage in relatively high levels of prosocial behavior tend to be sociable, assertive, welladjusted, and well-liked among peers. Furthermore, helpful children are able to regulate their emotions such that the emotional arousal associated with observing another’s need or sadness elicits affective empathy (and prosocial behavior) rather than personal distress (and inaction or, in some cases, antisocial behavior).
Relevance to Childhood Development Prosocial behavior, as an important expression of the child’s moral development, provides a benefit to individuals, families, and society. Individual differences in the tendency to engage in prosocial behavior emerge early in childhood and are relatively consistent from preschool through adulthood. Researchers continue to explore the antecedents of prosocial behavior and the factors that influence its development and expression.
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
Barnett, M. A. (1987). Empathy and related responses in children. In N. Eisenberg & J. Strayer (Eds.), Empathy and its development (pp. 146–162). New York: Cambridge University Press. Eisenberg, N. (1992). The caring child. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Spinrad, T. L. (2006). Prosocial development. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 646–718). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Eisenberg, N., & Mussen, P. H. (1989). The roots of prosocial behavior in children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Prosopagnosia BRADY I. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms Face blindness or facial agnosia
Prosopagnosia
Definition The term prosopagnosia is derived from the Greek word prosopon, meaning “face” and the Greek word agnosia which means “without knowledge.” Prosopagnosia is a deficit in the ability to recognize faces. This disorder is one type of visual agnosia, characterized by deficits in visual perception while still having normal vision; the afflicted individuals are not blind or often not greatly visually impaired in any usual sense of these conditions. Yet individuals with visual agnosia cannot visually recognize familiar objects, [6]. Individuals with prosopagnosia cannot recognize familiar faces or even their own face in a mirror or a photograph. Individuals with this facial agnosia must “know” who they are seeing in the mirror but have difficulty accepting the fact that they cannot recognize their own face. Kolb and Whishaw [4] describe a case of a woman who only became fully cognizant of her disorder when she was “introduced” to her identical twin sister. Since the afflicted twin could not recognize her identical twin, the afflicted twin was very surprised to learn that the apparent stranger was her identical twin. Prosopagnosics can discriminate human faces from other similar images and can properly recognize facial expressions and individual facial features such as a prominent mustache; these features come to be relied upon as a means to identify individuals. For some time, prosopagnosia was considered to be the outcome of brain injury or infection, typically said to be bilateral damage or sometimes unilateral damage, confined to the right hemisphere of regions of the cerebral cortex, specifically the lateral occipital cortex, inferior temporal cortex and or the fusiform gyrus. The latter is sometimes referred to as the facial fusiform area, [1, 2, 4]. More recently, evidence has come forward that some cases of prosopagnosia could be occur in individuals with no known history of any brain injury or infection. These cases are referred to as congenital or developmental prosopagnosia [5], and are argued to be the failure to develop facial recognition mechanisms of the brain, [1, 2]. Some researchers have argued there are specific brain areas solely for facial recognition, sometimes termed “modules,” and this position is referred to as the “modular hypothesis,” [1, 7]. Others have proposed that the facial fusiform area can become specialized for facial perception-recognition but it is capable of becoming specialized for whatever complex object a person spends a great deal of time staring at, and most individuals do spend a great deal of time studying faces. As a result, this position has been termed the “expertise hypothesis,” [3, 8]. Another way of framing these two different perspectives on facial
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recognition and the relevant brain mechanisms is to ask whether the face is a special, unique stimulus for which the brain evolved specific perception-recognition mechanisms (modularity hypothesis) or whether the face is a complex stimulus but not necessarily special or unique but the brain acquires acumen in facial perceptionrecognition via repeated and prolonged exposure (expertise hypothesis), [1, 8]. Both positions have their respective evidence and prosopagnosia has been interpreted in terms of either position [1]. A related question is whether prosopagnosia is just another type of visual agnosia or whether it is a unique but related disorder, arguing to the proposed unique brain areas for facial perception-recognition [2]. Most often, prosopagnosia is considered to be a form of apperceptive visual agnosia. Apperceptive visual agnosia is defined as a deficit or failure to perceive objects even though visual acuity is relatively unimpaired [2]. Apperceptive visual agnosia has to be distinguished from associative visual agnosia which can be defined as an inability to correctly identify objects that are visually perceived, despite that observation that the objects can be drawn or matched against similar objects [2]. The detailed features that distinguish these two disorders is beyond the scope of this short definition. A person with prosopagnosia will never recover the ability to recognize faces by sight alone, regardless of the etiology. But as mentioned above, such a person can learn adaptive behaviors with which to recognize individuals. By learning to make discriminations among specific features of the face, body, gait, or other aspects of a person, specific individuals can be recognized.
References 1. 2. 3.
4. 5.
6. 7.
8.
Baars, B. J., & Gage, N. M. (2007). Cognition, brain and consciousness: Introduction to cognitive neuroscience. New York: Elsevier. Carlson, N. R. (2007). Physiology of behavior (9th ed.). New York: Pearson. Gauthier, I., Skudlarski, P., Gore, J. C., & Anderson, A. W. (2000). Expertise for cars and birds recruits brain areas for face and object recognition. Nature Neuroscience, 3(2), 191–197. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2009). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (6th ed.). New York: Worth. Grand, L., Cooper, P. A., Mondloch, C. J., Lewis, T. L., Sagiv, N., de Gelder, B., et al. (2006). What aspects of face processing are impaired in developmental prosopagnosia? Brain and Cognition, 61, 139–158. Sacks, O. (1987). The man who mistook his wife for a hat. New York: Harper Row. Tsao, D. Y., Freiwald, W. A., Tootell, R. B., & Livingstone, M. S. (2006). A cortical region consisting entirely of face-selective cells. Science, 311(5761), 670–674. Uttal, W. R. (2002). A behaviorist looks at form recognition. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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Protective Factors
Protective Factors CHARLES BELL, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms Buoyancy; Plasticity; Resilience
Definition Factors that facilitate the attainment of positive outcomes.
Description In the study of education and psychology researchers have investigated the role of specific factors that lead to either (a) desired outcomes such as strong academic performance and favorable social interactions or (b) undesired outcomes such as school dropout and troubles with the law. Those factors that promote the attainment of desired outcomes are referred to as “protective factors.” Those factors that result in less desired outcomes are referred to as “risk factors.” Risk and protective factors play a significant role within children’s lives and highly influence cognitive, social, and emotional development. These factors are often the focus of prevention and early intervention approaches within child populations. Protective factors play a critical role in the resilience some children demonstrate. These factors are often thought to exist along five dimensions: individual, family, community, school, and peer. Individual protective factors include positive temperament, high expectations, and a perception of high social support. In sum, the more protective factors that one has, the greater likelihood that they will experience positive outcomes when faced with adverse risk. In order to gain a better understanding of how protective factors promote positive outcomes, researchers have focused their efforts on undesired outcomes such as substance abuse. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) estimates that over 17 million people in the United States abuse alcohol or suffer from alcohol dependence. However, some individuals that are faced with the risk of substance abuse are able to beat the odds. Researchers have labeled these individuals “resilient” and they focus on identifying the factors that helped those individuals overcome that obstacle. The protective factors that lead to positive outcomes for those at-risk for substance abuse include social class, high social support, parental support, self-awareness, high cognitive ability,
and good coping skills. Resilient children have sparked the interests of many researchers, thus making them the focus of much research pertaining to children’s development. When resilient children encounter risk factors (environmental or genetic) they are often able to overcome those obstacles. However, the degree to which each child is vulnerable to a specific risk factor also plays an important role in resilience. Children that demonstrate characteristics that make them more vulnerable to risk factors, such as low self-esteem, are more likely to produce undesired outcomes when those risk factors are present [2]. Thus, vulnerability serves as a mediator in the interaction between protective and risk factors [3]. Throughout the investigation of protective factors many researchers have centralized their efforts on disadvantaged youth residing in poverty-stricken environments. The rational for this decision is that disadvantaged youth experience a higher level of risk factors, which places them at a higher risk for undesired outcomes. Research has shown that undesired outcomes, such as high school dropout, leads to a significant reduction in financial resources [5]. School dropouts head nearly one half of welfare families and represent one half of the prison population [2]. Thus, researchers have concentrated their efforts on this particular population because those individuals have the most to gain from research in this area. The identification of several protective factors has facilitated the development of prevention and intervention programs for at-risk children. Mentor programs such as the Boys and Girls Club are designed to help children develop self-esteem, competency in a particular subject, and a higher level of social support than previously established. Programs of this sort help shift a child’s vulnerability levels in favor of the protective factors in place. As a result of the success of these efforts on a local level many programs have expanded to the national level in an effort to carry out this same purpose in many underserved areas.
References 1.
2.
3.
Mykota, D. B., & Muhajarine, N. (2005). Community Resilience Impact on Child and Youth Health Outcomes: A Neighbourhood Case Study. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 20, 5–20. Ou, S., & Reynolds, A. J. (2008). Predictors of educational attainment in the Chicago longitudinal study. School Psychology Quarterly, 23, 199–229. Overstreet, S., & Mazza, J. (2003). An ecological-transactional understanding of community violence: theoretical perspectives. School Psychology Quarterly, 18, 66–87.
Psychoanalysis 4.
5.
Rice, C. E., Dandreaux, D., Handley, E. D., & Chassin, L. (2006). Children of Alcoholics: Risk and Resilience. Prevention Researcher, 13, 3–6. U.S Department of Education, National center for education statistics. (2002). The condition of education, 2001. DC: Washington.
Protein-Energy Malnutrition ▶Failure to Thrive Syndrome
Prozac ▶Fluoxetine
Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA) ▶Emotional Lability
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Psychoactive Medication ▶Psychotropic Medication
Psychoaesthetics ▶Art Therapy
Psychoanalysis DEBORAH POSNER William Alanson White Institute, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Psychoanalytic Theory; Psychoanalytic treatment; Psychodynamic treatment
Description
Psychedelics ▶Hallucinogens
Psychiatric Disorders ▶Psychological Disorders
Psychiatric Illness ▶Emotional Disturbance
Psychoactive Drugs ▶Hallucinogens
Psychoanalysis began as the work of Sigmund Freud in 1895 [1]. Psychoanalysis is a psychological treatment based on two fundamental principles. First, that unconscious ideas and motivations underlie much of human experience, and second, that childhood experiences greatly influence later psychological functioning. These ideas have permeated much of contemporary Western culture, and are widely accepted, including the ideas that childhood experiences influence adult character, that we are not always aware of the reasons we do things, and concepts such as the “super ego,” and the “Freudian slip.” However, it was the founder of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, who first proposed these profoundly influential principles at the turn of the twentieth century. Early in his career, Freud trained and worked in Vienna as a neurologist. In his clinical practice, Freud was presented with a variety of difficult cases in which the patient’s symptoms did not correspond to neuroanatomy. Patients would have paralysis of a limb with no medical explanation. For example, in “glove anesthesia,” the patient experienced no feeling in the hand. However, Freud knew that due to the arrangement of nerve pathways, that pattern of numbness is not anatomically possible. In his efforts to understand this and other strange
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symptoms, Freud developed a powerful theory of the human psyche, and the treatment for suffering caused by the mind. This he called “Psychoanalysis.” According to psychoanalytic theory, the human psyche has powerful needs and wishes, many of which are in conflict with each other. Needs and wishes that are unacceptable to the individual are kept separate from awareness, or “unconscious” through repression or dissociation. Although out of awareness, these needs and wishes do not lose their power. Rather, they make their presence felt in symptoms and suffering. Since Freud’s time, the field of Psychoanalysis has developed from the work of one person to the work of many. As in most areas of expertise, psychoanalytic theory has expanded and evolved since its inception. and reflects the conditions of our time. In fact, it is probably now more accurate to describe “Psychoanalytic Theories [2].” For example, Interpersonal/Relational Psychoanalysis posits that the individual can only be known within a matrix of interpersonal relationships, and pays close attention to the therapist/patient relationship [3]. Self Psychology Psychoanalysis focuses on the individual’s sense of vitality and resilience, and pays close attention to the therapist’s attunement to the patient’s experience [4]. These are only two of a number of differing psychoanalytic approaches to psychological treatment. Psychoanalysts no longer are constrained to the role of mostly silent observer, but can choose any number of ways to engage with the patient. However varied, there are basic principles about human psychological functioning that underlie all psychoanalytic approaches: 1. Unconscious motivation: An individual’s conscious thought is only the “tip of the iceberg.” A majority of mental processes are not in awareness. 2. Importance of the past on present functioning: Current character and psychological functioning is greatly influenced by early childhood experiences, and develops in the context of childhood relationships. 3. Defense: The individual develops an array of skills and techniques to manage threatening psychic experience. 4. Transference: An individual responds to current relationships using templates and expectations learned in important past relationships, thus creating familiar, repetitive, and limited experiences. Psychoanalysis has been called “The Talking Cure.” Psychoanalytic technique derives from the observation that unconscious and troubling ideas show up in the communications, both verbal and non-verbal, of the patient. Treatment sessions are held multiple times per week to foster continuity and intensity. Topics of exploration are
infinitely varied, and may include early history, current life, dreams, fantasies, and the experience of the treatment relationship with the psychoanalyst. Typically, the patient will recreate and re-experience with the psychoanalyst the important relationship patterns of the patient’s daily life. The psychoanalyst listens to the patient’s communications with a highly trained and open attention, and works to increase the patient’s awareness of his/her unconscious assumptions and motivations. This greater awareness leads to the patient learning the ways previously unconscious and inaccurate assumptions serve both to protect the patient from uncomfortable truths, and to recreate familiar, though limiting, experiences. With increased self-knowledge comes the increased ability to make new choices in life. Unlike more symptomfocused and short-term treatments, the goals of psychoanalysis are focused on improving a person’s ability to lead a more satisfying life. The patient is increasingly able to deal directly with formerly distressing truths. Symptom relief is understood to occur as the underlying conflicts are gradually resolved. The results of a beneficial course of psychoanalysis are often felt in many aspects of a person’s life, and can be long lasting. It is a quote, often attributed to Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis, that psychological health is the ability “to work and to love.” These are the goals of psychoanalysis.
Relevance to Childhood Development Psychoanalysis is theory(s) of the development – not of the human brain, but of the human mind. It is the study of how we make meaning out of everyday experiences. Psychoanalysis lays out ways in which an individual learns to relate meaningfully to others, manage emotion, strive for goals, cope with loss, and especially, develop selfunderstanding. Much of psychoanalytic theory concerns the immense impact the family has on the child’s later psychological functioning. Knowledge of psychoanalysis can be of immense value when choosing how to support a child’s healthy development.
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
Freud, S., & Breuer, J. (1895). Studies on Hysteria. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953-74) (Vol. 2). Translated and edited by J. Strachey et al. London: Hogarth Press. Mitchell, S., & Black, M. (1995). Freud and beyond. New York: Basic Books. Mitchell, S. (1988). Relational concepts in psychoanalysis: An integration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kohut, H. (1984). How does analysis cure? Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoanalytic Theories of Development ▶Object Relations Theory
Psychoanalytic Theory DEBORAH POSNER William Alanson White Institute, New York, NY, USA
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influenced by early childhood experiences, and develops in the context of childhood relationships. 3. Defense: The individual develops an array of skills and techniques to manage threatening psychic experience. 4. Transference: An individual responds to current relationships using templates and expectations learned in important past relationships, thus creating familiar, repetitive, and limited experiences. The theories described below include Classical Freudian Theory, Interpersonal/Relational Theory. and Self Psychological Theory.
Classical Freudian Theory
Synonyms Psychoanalysis; Psychoanalytic treatment; Psychodynamic theory; Psychodynamic treatment
Definition Psychoanalytic theory is an approach to understanding the human psyche, and the treatment of psychological disturbances.
Description Sigmund Freud invented psychoanalysis as a theory of the human psyche and a treatment for psychological disturbances. Freud’s work spanned the years of 1895 to 1939. Freud’s theories have had profound impact on Western culture. Many of Freud’s ideas, considered radical during his time, have become commonplace today. Consider the notion of unconscious mental activity. Before Freud, it was assumed that we are aware of all that we know. Today, it is generally assumed that we may have unconscious reasons for doing what we do. As in most areas of expertise, psychoanalytic theory has expanded and evolved since its inception. In the past 100+ years, psychoanalytic theory has developed from being the work of one person into the work of many, and reflects the conditions of our time. In fact, it is probably now more accurate to describe “Psychoanalytic Theories.” Before discussing a selection of different psychoanalytic theories, it would be useful to identify unifying principles. These include: 1. Unconscious motivation: An individual’s conscious thought is only the “tip of the iceberg.” A majority of mental processes are not in awareness. 2. Importance of the past on present functioning: Current character and psychological functioning is greatly
Freud’s early and groundbreaking description of the mind is the Topographical Model. Here Freud described the mind in three parts: the unconscious, which is the location of unacceptable thoughts; the preconscious, the contents of which are accessible to consciousness; and the conscious, which is the material that we are aware of at any particular point in time. While this theory is commonplace in today’s culture, in Freud’s time the notion of unconscious mental activity was radical [1]. As Freud continued his clinical and theoretical explorations, he addressed the limitations of the Topographical Model, to a large degree replacing it with what is termed the Structural Model. Instead of dividing the mind between unconscious and conscious, Freud’s structural theory of the mind described three separate agencies, all to a great extent unconscious. The id is a “seething cauldron” of impulsive “excitation” and raw energy looking for expression. The ego is in charge of regulating the energy of the id, and interfacing with the reality of the external world [3]. The ego has been described as the “rider on the horse” which is the id. In other words, the id is the source of power, and it is the ego that regulates that power, attempting to get the maximum satisfaction possible within the constraints of the acceptable, civilized external world. If we were only id, the human species would not survive long. The superego is a collection of morals and prohibitions that have been internalized from the parents. Freud viewed human nature as fundamentally based on biological, instinctual “drives” of sex and aggression that are constantly pressing for expression [2]. Freud described the sexual drive as present from birth, centered on the most powerfully relevant bodily zones, and evolving in stages as the individual matures. The initial “oral phase” is in infancy, in which the sexual drive is focused on the mouth, sucking, and the pleasures derived. The following phases, “anal” and “phallic” culminate in the most
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mature organization, “genital.” Other people are vehicles for the expression of the drives [2]. In Freud’s view, the most significant developmental task is the Oedipal conflict. This occurs around the age of 5 or 6, when the focus of the child (boy) is on genital intercourse with the parent of the opposite sex (mother). The father is viewed a dangerous rival. The child experiences castration anxiety, the fear that the father will cut off the child’s offending genital to maintain power. The boy resolves the Oedipal conflict by identifying with the father, and internalizing his morals and strictures. Since he can’t beat his father, he joins him. This is the beginning of the super-ego. Freud had difficulty accounting for the development of women, especially of the super-ego in women. In critiques of Freudian theory, this has been a point of great contention. However, when evaluating Freud’s theories, it is also useful to consider Freud’s theories in the context of his time. Classical Freudians understand the psyche and psychic development in terms of conflict, and the ability to successfully balance gratification and social requirements. As seen in the Oedipus conflict, to exist in a social world with a measure of safety, the drives must be controlled. The ego and superego work to hide threatening and unacceptable impulses, and relegate them to the unconscious. The psyche spends a great deal of energy defending against these impulses, or allowing a small amount of gratification in disguised forms. It is the pressure from these unconscious, unacceptable, but powerful ideas that causes mysterious but distressing symptoms.
Treatment According to the Classical Freudian Model Psychoanalytic treatment in the Freudian model aims to discover the unacceptable, drive-based thoughts that have been relegated to the unconscious, freeing them from repression so that expression through symptoms will no longer be necessary. This is called making the unconscious, conscious. In the classical model, psychoanalytic sessions are held four or five times each week. The patient typically reclines on a couch with the analyst sitting out of view. The patient is instructed to say whatever comes to mind, without censoring, a method called “free association.” As the patient talks, conflictual material appears in disguised form, often noticeable in the appearance of defenses and in the transference, where patterns of relating to significant others are erroneously applied to the relationship with the analyst. Patients are also encouraged to report dreams, which are explored for unacceptable impulses that have been allowed disguised expression. The analyst listens
carefully for these thoughts and impulses and will speak to the patient about them, giving voice to the disruptive compromises the patient has made in her psychic functioning and making the unconscious conscious. As less psychic energy is used in maintaining repression, the patient will gain greater functioning and greater satisfaction in life. Troubling symptoms will no longer be as necessary for the expression of formally repressed wishes. In classical Freudian psychoanalysis, the area of examination is mainly the patient’s inner world. The analyst functions more as a “blank screen” upon which the patient’s relational and psychic experience can be transferred and observed. The analyst avoids being pulled into actions, for example, the gratification of the patient’s wishes, or adding personal influence into the patient’s free association, and works to maintain a position as a neutral observer and interpreter of the patient’s psychic experience.
Interpersonal/Relational Theory Interpersonal/Relational psychoanalysis has roots in the work of a number of psychoanalytic theorists, including Harry Stack Sullivan, Sandor Ferenczi, Erich Fromm (see entry herein), and Clara Thompson. Interpersonal/ Relational theory developed in the United States and although it maintains basic Freudian psychoanalytic principles such as unconscious motivation, transference, and defense, the Interpersonal/Relational theorists moved away from Freud in a number of highly significant ways. Freud saw conflict and psychopathology as arising from deep within the individual, and related to the strength and development of biologically based drives for sex and aggression. The Interpersonalists, beginning with Sullivan (1892–1949), see the individual as embedded in relationships from birth. Interpersonalists believe that an individual’s behavior can only be meaningfully understood in its particular social context [7]. Sullivan postulated that profound, destabilizing anxiety is the cause of psychopathology, and that this anxiety is generated or “caught” from other significant people. Interpersonal/ Relational psychoanalysts are also interested in “character” which is understood to be developed in the context of relationships, the most significant being early relationships with family. The individual learns which aspects of his/her potential self are acceptable to the caregivers, and which aspects trigger unacceptable anxiety in the caregivers. The child cannot risk the parent’s rejection, and gradually shapes his/her “self ” in a way that acknowledges the parts that are acceptable in their environment, and hides or denies the parts that are not acceptable.
Psychoanalytic Theory
This limiting of awareness is called “selective inattention,” which is different than Freudian views of “the unconscious,” in that information is kept out of awareness in order to maintain a particular view of interpersonal reality. According to Sullivan, “problems in living” are seen as arising from long held assumptions, limitations, and distortions about the “self-in-relationship” to others. Symptoms are viewed as efforts to manage anxiety, the underlying cause of psychopathology. Because the Interpersonal/Relational analyst believes that the individual can be understood only in the context of interpersonal relationships, the therapy focuses on the particulars of relationships, and the thoughts and feelings that the individual is experiencing. This includes the “here and now” relationship with the analyst. It is assumed that relational patterns in the patient’s life will be activated in the therapeutic relationship, and that inquiry into that experience is highly productive [6]. The analyst is often actively engaged in expanding the patient’s access to previously excluded (inattended) information. This is called the “detailed inquiry.” The detailed inquiry presumes that each narrative is composed both by selecting and excluding information so that the story makes sense to the teller. The analyst attempts to deconstruct the narrative through curiosity about what has been excluded. The goal is expanding awareness of previously disconnected aspects of the self. This leads to increasing the patient’s self-understanding and greater flexibility and satisfaction in the world. In contrast to the Freudian model which positions the analyst as an outside authority looking in objectively, the interpersonal analyst believes analytic neutrality is impossible due to the nature of human interaction, and considers his or her own reactions not as interference, but as essential information to be considered. In contrast to the classical Freudian model, Interpersonal/Relational analysts range widely in the way they engage the patient. A basic principle, however, is that one person cannot be understood as a “self ” in isolation, and that mutual influence is inevitable.
Self Psychology Theory Self Psychology began with the work of Heinz Kohut (1923–1981). Kohut, a psychoanalyst working in Chicago, began as a classically oriented psychoanalyst, but over time, developed a theory and technique that broke with Freud in fundamental ways. Kohut’s theory reflects the context of his time. Unlike Freud, whose world was contending with the influences of Darwin and the World Wars, Kohut spoke in the 1970’s of individuals who felt they were living fragile lives without meaning. Kohut was
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concerned not with a patient’s effort to regulate intense animal drives, but rather with an individual’s sense of emptiness, inadequacy, and isolation. This theory reflects the concerns of the post-modern era, in which the search is to create personal meaning, instead of discovering an impersonal, objective, Truth. Self Psychology shares with other psychoanalytic theories the basics of unconscious motivation, the influence of early childhood on current functioning, defense, and transference. However, these basic terms are defined and understood quite differently. Unlike Freud’s conflict model, Self Psychology uses a “deficit model.” Self Psychology sees psychopathology as the result of development gone awry due to parental failures. Kohut’s thinking began with his approach to patients with pathological narcissism, which he viewed as their attempt to survive without a solid, healthy “self.” While Freud saw investment in the self (narcissism) as in opposition to interest in others, Kohut proposed a developmental arc of “healthy narcissism,” in which love of the self provided a stability of self-regard and vitality that allowed for healthy love toward others. The development of healthy narcissism begins in early childhood with three particular types of experiences between child and caregiver, or “selfobject.” Kohut used the term “selfobject” to emphasize that this is an “other” who is used by the child’s for essential self experiences. Kohut is not concerned with the selfobject’s experience as a separate being. The first of these three essential experiences is the selfobjects “who respond to and confirm the child’s innate sense of vigor, greatness and perfection [5].” When this appears in treatment, it is termed the mirroring transference. The second essential selfobject experience allows the child to feel merged with an idealized, infallible, and omnipotent other, and to feel strong through that merger. In treatment, this is called the idealizing transference. The third essential selfobject experience is the opportunity to identify the self and the selfobject as similar in a significant way. This is called the twinship transference. Kohut argued that the caregiver’s attunement to the child’s healthy, age-appropriate narcissistic needs is necessary. It is also necessary, and inevitable, that any caregiver will be imperfectly attuned. The world will intrude, and the child will have disappointments. In a benevolent environment, however, the child is gradually challenged and is increasingly able to cope. The self becomes less grandiose and more realistic while still maintaining internal strength. These experiences Kohut termed “transmuting internalizations.” The intense pressures for sex and aggression outlined in Classical theory Kohut viewed as
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not primary, but rather as residual evidence of struggles at the level of self [4]. Self Psychology views treatment as providing the three selfobject experiences described above, allowing the developmental process to resume its natural progression toward health. These selfobject experiences are seen as ways of meaningfully structuring the use of the selfobject. Instead of the classical method of “interpreting the infantile wish” so it can be relinquished, the self psychologist focuses on “vicarious introspection,” the effort to deeply understand the patient’s subjective experience. Self Psychology argues that interpreting the patient’s wishes as unrealistic or distorted only causes more injury to the nascent self. The analyst also does not confront the patient with the workings of their relationship. The analyst strives to identify and maintain attunement to whichever transference is activated. Again, it is through the inevitable failures of the analyst’s attunement that the patient gradually builds up the internal strength that is seen in healthy narcissism.
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
6. 7.
Freud, S., & Breuer, J. (1895). Studies on Hysteria. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953–74) (Vol. 2). Translated and edited by J. Strachey et al. London: Hogarth Press. Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In Standard edition (Vol. 7). London: Hogarth Press. Freud, S. (1923). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19, pp. 1–66). London: Hogarth. Kohut, H. (1979). The two analyses of Mr. Z. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 60, 3–27. Kohut, H., & Wolf, E. (1978). The disorders of the self and their treatment: An outline. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 59, 413–424. Levenson, E. (1972). The fallacy of understanding. New York: Basic Books. Sullivan, H. S. (1940). Conceptions of modern psychiatry. New York: Norton.
Psychoanalytic Treatment ▶Psychoanalysis ▶Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychobiological ▶Psychosomatic
Psychodrama ▶Role-Playing
Psychodynamic Approaches DAVID BRANDWEIN Kean University, Union, NJ, USA
Synonyms Insight-oriented approaches
Definition Psychodynamic approaches refer to psychotherapeutic techniques that derive from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. These approaches focus on unconscious processes as they are manifested in the patient’s current behavior. The goals of psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy are for the patient to develop self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on present behavior. A variety of different approaches to psychodynamic psychotherapy have evolved from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, and they have been clinically applied to a wide range of psychological disorders. There is a body of research that generally supports the efficacy of these approaches.
Description Psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy are rooted in psychodynamic therapy, the forerunner of modern therapeutic approaches. Freud’s psychoanalysis is a type of psychodynamic therapy, and is based in a highly structured and layered theory of human development and interaction. Later psychodynamic theorists (Anna Freud, Heinz Kohut, Melanie Klein) studied Freud’s original and later conceptions of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and formulated original therapeutic approaches based upon, but differing from, Freud’s original ideas. More recently, approaches such of Brief Psychodynamic Therapy and Relational Psychodynamic Therapy have evolved to bring Freudian ideas into the twenty-first century. There are four major schools of psychoanalytic theory, each of which has influenced psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy. The four schools are: Freudian, Ego Psychology, Object Relations, and Self Psychology.
Psychodynamic Approaches
Freudian psychology is based on theories formulated by Sigmund Freud in the first half of the twentieth century, and is based on the idea that people are basically determined by psychic energy (drives) and by early childhood experiences. The essence of Freud’s theory is that sexual and aggressive energies originating in the id (or unconscious) are central in present behavior. These energies are modulated by the ego, which is a set of functions that moderates between the id and external reality. Defense mechanisms parts of the ego that operate to minimize pain and to maintain psychic equilibrium. The superego, formed during latency (between age 5 and puberty), operates to control id drives through guilt. Early development is of critical importance because later personality problems have their etiology in repressed childhood conflicts created by fixation at one of five psychosexual stages of childhood. Erik Erikson, an ego psychologist, expanded on Freud’s notion of child development through stages, but focused on interpersonal and social, rather than sexual, development while maintaining the idea that fixation led to personality conflicts. Ego Psychology derives from Freudian psychology. Its proponents focus their work on enhancing and maintaining ego function in accordance with the demands of reality. Ego Psychology stresses the individual’s capacity for defense, adaptation, and reality testing. Leading ego psychologists who added to the theoretical model of psychoanalysis include Anna Freud (daughter of Sigmund Freud), Heinz Hartmann and Erik Erikson. Anna Freud was instrumental in introducing psychoanalysis into the treatment of children and further developed her father’s conception of ego defense mechanisms. Heinz Hartmann addressed the function of the ego in psychoanalytic theory by stressing its autonomy and its ability to adapt in its dealings with the external world. Hartmann proposed a part of the ego that existed in a sphere free of conflict with the id and the superego. Erik Erikson widened the concept of life stages into adulthood and introduced social and non-sexual motives to the stages. Object Relations psychology was first articulated by several British analysts, among them Melanie Klein, W.R.D. Fairbairn, and D.W. Winnicott. According to this theory, human beings are shaped in relation to the significant others surrounding them. Our struggles and goals in life are based on maintaining relations with others, while at the same time differentiating ourselves from others. The internal representations of self and others acquired in childhood are later played out in adult relations. Individuals repeat old object relationships in an effort to master them and become free of them.
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Self Psychology was founded by Heinz Kohut, M.D., in Chicago during the 1950s. Kohut observed that the self refers to a person’s perception of his experience of his self, including the presence or lack of a sense of self-esteem. The self is perceived in relation to the establishment of boundaries and the differentiations of self from others (or the lack of boundaries and differentiations). Each of the above schools presents separate theories of personality formation, psychopathology formation and change, techniques by which to conduct therapy, and indications and contraindications for therapy. However, they all share similar therapeutic goals: to make the unconscious conscious, to reconstruct personality, to assist the client in reliving earlier experiences and working through previously repressed conflicts, and to achieve intellectual and emotional awareness [1]. These schools also have a similar approach to the therapeutic relationship, with the analyst remaining anonymous, enabling the client to develop projections toward him or her. The focus is on reducing resistances that occur when working with transference and on establishing more rational control. Clients usually undergo long-term analysis, engage in free association to reveal conflicts and gain insight by “working through.” The analyst makes interpretations to teach clients the meaning of current behavior as it relates to the past. Contemporary psychodynamic approaches, such as Brief Psychodynamic Therapy and Relational Psychodynamic Approaches have challenged many of the traditional assumptions about traditional psychodynamic theory and treatment. A brief psychodynamic approach, such as Messer and Warren’s [9, 10] Brief Psychodynamic Therapy (BPT), enables the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from past dysfunctional relationships and do so in an expedited fashion. It is believed that an initial brief intervention will serve as a catalyst to an ongoing process of change without constant involvement of the therapist. A central idea of brief therapy is that there should be one major focus for the therapy rather than the more traditional psychoanalytic practice of allowing the client to associate freely and move from issue to issue. In brief therapy, the therapist and the client agree upon a central focus during the first or second session. The central focus singles out the most important issues and thus creates a structure and identifies a goal for the treatment. In brief therapy, the therapist is expected to be fairly active in keeping the session focused on the main issue. Having a clear focus makes it possible to do interpretive work in a relatively short time because the therapist only addresses the circumscribed problem area. Due to societal
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pressures and the influence of managed-care companies, there is a greater demand for time-limited therapies and evidence-based practices in order to provide accountability and cost-effectiveness, and it seems likely that briefer forms of psychodynamic treatment will remain in vogue. Relational psychodynamic approaches, such as the model developed by Steven Mitchell [11, 12], take the Freudian “one-person” approach and revise it to a “twoperson” approach by re-conceptualizing the nature of the analytic relationship. The relational model is based on the exploration of the complex conscious and unconscious dynamics at play with respect to both therapist and client, and this is in contrast with the Freudian approach, which pays attention primarily to these dynamics in regard to the client. Mitchell’s relational model integrates objectrelations theory, systems theory, and interpersonal theory to show the various ways in which people seek attachments with other people, especially early caregivers. A relational psychodynamic approach to psychotherapy is based on the idea that therapy is an interactive process between therapist and client. This model conceptualizes counter-transference differently than the traditional Freudian model, and sees it as a rich source of information about the client’s character and dynamics. Mitchell also adds a cultural notion to psychodynamic approaches by noting that the caregiver’s qualities reflect the particular culture in which the person lives. He added that people are deeply embedded in their cultures, and since different cultures maintain different values, Freud’s notion of universal biological drives alone may not be sufficient to explain psychic development. The lack of cultural relativity and the notion of universal biological drives are often cited as criticisms of the traditional Freudian approach. The number of professionals who practice an exclusive form of psychodynamic therapy today is a small percentage of psychotherapists. Many psychotherapists use components of psychodynamic theories, however, in their formulation of a client’s issues, while employing other types of psychological techniques (most often, cognitivebehavioral techniques) to affect change in the individual. Sharf [13] points out several strengths of psychodynamic approaches, including the exploration, in depth, of early childhood and past as they affect current functioning, the presentation of mechanisms to understand resistance, anxiety, and ego defense mechanisms that relate to an individual’s psychological functioning, the development of a framework (in the case of object-relations and self-psychology) to understand psychological disorders, and, with brief approaches, the availability to those patients who could not afford long-term therapy or psychoanalysis.
Weaknesses of psychodynamic approaches, according to Corey [1], include lengthy training for therapists (psychoanalysis only) and much time and expense for clients (Brief approaches seem to address this weakness), neglect of social, cultural, and interpersonal factors (this has been partially addressed through relational, “two-person” approaches), ineffectiveness at solving specific daily life problems of clients, lack of a multi-cultural focus, and many clients lack the ego strength needed for reconstructive past-oriented psychotherapy.
References 1. Corey, G. (2005). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks Cole. 2. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. 3. Fairbairn, W. R. D. (1954). An object relations theory of the personality. New York: Basic Books. 4. Freud, A. (1936). The ego and mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press. 5. Freud, S. (1953). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (J. Strachey, Ed. and Trans.). 24 vols. London: Hogarth Press, 1953–1974. 6. Hartmann, H. (1958). Ego psychology and the problem of adaptation. New York: International Universities Press. 7. Klein, M. (1975). Love, guilt, and reparation and other works. London: Hogarth. 8. Kohut, H. (1984). How does analysis cure? Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 9. Messer, S. B., & Warren, C. S. (1995). Models of brief psychodynamic therapy. New York: Guilford Press. 10. Messer, S. B., & Warren, C. S. (2001). Brief psychodynamic therapy. In R. J. Corsini (Ed.), Handbook of innovative therapies (2nd ed., pp. 67–85). New York: Wiley. 11. Mitchell, S. A. (1988). Relational concepts in psychoanalysis: An integration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 12. Mitchell, S. A. (2000). Relationality: From attachment to intersubjectivity. Hillsdale NJ: The Analytic Press. 13. Sharf, R. S. (2000). Theories of psychotherapy and counseling: Concepts and cases. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks Cole. 14. Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and reality. London: Tavistock.
Psychodynamic Medication ▶Psychotropic Medication
Psychodynamic Theory ▶Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoeducational Assessment
Psychodynamic Therapy ▶Dynamic Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic Treatment ▶Psychoanalysis ▶Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoeducational Assessment ELIZABETH LEVIN1, DOROTHY OLFERT2 1 Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada 2 Rainbow District School Board, Sudbury, ON, Canada
Synonyms Psychoeducational evaluation; Psychoeducational testing
Definition A psychological assessment performed for use in a school setting, which is typically used to identify, for educational or diagnostic purposes, a student’s academic strengths and weaknesses.
Description Psychoeducational assessments are primarily conducted by school psychological staff and/or external, clinical psychologists for usage within the school context. Results of the assessment can be used to make educational identifications, e.g., academic giftedness and/or formal diagnoses, e.g., reading disability. The results can assist school staff and parents in obtaining a better understanding of a student’s individual learning strengths and needs, and providing educational programming accordingly. A typical school based referral for a psychological assessment includes the administration of a number of standardized tests. Standardized tests allow the child to be compared to broad based normative populations to evaluate the child in comparison to a group of peers [3]. The results of the testing, which may be conducted by psychometrists, are evaluated by the psychologist, along with previous test results, past history, school report cards, parent and teacher checklists and/or interviews and direct
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observation yielding the final assessment which may come in the form of a diagnosis of a disorder and suggestions for treatment and program planning [1, 2]. Generally, psychoeducational assessments investigate student learning difficulties, as well as evaluate other factors such as social, emotional and behavioral issues which may be contributing to the student’s academic problems and/or the student’s intellectual and academic learning potential [2]. At a minimum, such assessments typically involve an ethical process of obtaining informed parental consent, gathering student developmental background and academic history, as well as a formal assessment of the student’s intellectual ability and academic skill development using standardized intelligence and academic achievement tests. A typical assessment will also include further testing to investigate potential areas of deficit such as memory, rapid automatized naming or fluency issues, phonological awareness, attention or executive functioning [1]. Standardized self-report questionnaires might also be used to further support test results and/or obtain quantitative data to substantiate qualitative reports from parents, teachers and the students themselves. For instance, rating scales can be used to obtain teacher, parent and student’s own assessments of emotional and behavior issues, can be utilized to support areas of executive functions deficits reported by teachers and parents, and can explore student’s own strengths and weaknesses in coping with challenges. Psychoeducational assessments yield a view into a student’s current intellectual functioning and development of academic skills. In this basic view, these assessments can reveal a student’s individual learning styles and/or areas of intellectual and academic strengths and weaknesses, which in turn can assist school staff and parents in not only understanding but in effectively addressing the student’s individual academic and intellectual learning needs and/or providing differentiated learning instruction towards optimal academic success. A standard assessment will typically reveal a student’s level of higher-order intellect or verbal and nonverbal thinking and reasoning abilities [2]. Information will also be obtained on lower level cognitive processing such as auditory working memory and visual-motor processing speed. The assessment also indicates the student’s academic achievement in reading, writing and math skills. Taken together, the assessment can demonstrate whether the student is functioning academically at the expected level, given the child’s current intellectual ability. Discrepancies found between academic skill expectations and the student’s intellectual functioning are useful data for teacher and parents, and can also highlight the need for further investigation into
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potential learning issues [2]. It is not unusual for students who have learning disabilities to also be diagnosed with co-morbid disorders, such as with attention problems or mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The assessment data can be used to predict a student’s academic learning potential and/or future intellectual and adaptive functioning. In this case, more involved testing and/or gathering of qualitative data is usually required to ensure the student meets appropriate formal diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV). The most common formal diagnostic outcomes related to psychoeducational assessments include: Specific Learning Disabilities and Global Developmental Disabilities. However, psychoeducational assessments can result in and/or contribute valuable data for diagnoses of numerous other disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Generalized and Specific Anxiety Disorders, Attachment Disorder, Tourette’s Disorder, Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, etc. In these cases, more specific testing related to the diagnosis will be conducted. It is important to note that, more complex assessments, such as those involving a formal diagnosis, ideally include more elaborate testing and/or collaboration with appropriate school staff and other professionals such as speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, pediatricians, child and youth workers, mental health professionals, neuropsychologists, medical doctors, etc. By law, if a child has a documented disability, the child is entitled to a free, appropriate public education [1]. Once a child has been identified with an exceptionality, the child is entitled to special education services. While children may receive some special services without the identification provided via the psychoeducational assessment, the assessment is required to qualify for specialized services. An ▶individualized education plan (IEP) may be developed to specify the services to be provided.
References 1.
2. 3.
Cohen, R., & Swerdlik, M. (2005). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement (6th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Sattler, J. (2008). Assessment of children – Cognitive foundations (5th ed.). San Diego: Jerome M Sattler. Walsh, W. B., & Betz, N. (2000). Tests and assessment, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Psychoeducational Evaluation ▶Psychoeducational Assessment
Psychoeducational Testing ▶Psychoeducational Assessment
Psychogenic ▶Psychosomatic
Psycholinguistics SHELIA M. KENNISON Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Psychology of language
Definition Psycholinguistics is the scientific discipline that aims to understand all aspects of the use of human language, including how language is acquired, how language is produced, and how language is comprehended.
Description Psycholinguistics is a branch of cognitive science that focuses specifically on the psychological and neurobiological processes involved in the acquisition, production, and comprehension of human language. The field of cognitive science focuses broadly on the study of the mind and intelligence, embracing multiple disciplines, including computer science, psychology, neurobiology, linguistics, philosophy, and communication [1]. The field has grown in importance over the last decade, as brain imaging techniques have become widely used and as advances in computer science, information sciences, artificial intelligence and robotics have been made. The term psycholinguistics is a combination of the terms psychology and linguistics. Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior [2]. Linguistics is the scientific study of language [3]. Noam Chomsky, a pioneer in the field of psycholinguistics, used the term language competence to refer to the knowledge of language and the term language performance to refer to the use of language. He proposed that those who have acquired a language from birth possess language competence, which includes knowledge of the rules of language, such as word order rules (i.e., syntax), sound rules (i.e., phonology), and rules
Psychological Abuse
pertaining to meaning (i.e., semantics). In contrast, the performance of language involves putting one’s knowledge of language into action using the psychological and biological mechanisms [4, 5]. Following these distinctions, psycholinguistics focuses on issues related to language performance, and linguistics focuses on issues related to language competence.
Relevance to Childhood Development Healthy children acquire the language(s) of their home rapidly, with little direct instruction from parents and/or caregivers. Some researchers, most notably Noam Chomsky [4, 5] and Steven Pinker [6] have argued that the rapid acquisition of language occurs because some aspects of language knowledge are innate. In contrast, other researchers, such as Michael Tomasello [7], have maintained that the acquisition of language utilizes the same biological processes and mechanisms that are involved in acquisition of other cognitive skills. The debate concerning the extent to which language acquisition may be facilitated by innate knowledge is likely to continue. It is important to note that there are an increasing number of studies showing that some language disorders are heritable and have a genetic component [8].
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Thagard, P. (2005). Mind: Introduction to cognitive science (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Myers, D. G. (2009). Psychology in everyday life. New York: Worth Publishers. Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2007). An introduction to language (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth. Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language: Its nature, origin, and use. New York: Praeger. Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York: William Morrow. Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Harvard University Press. Vargha-Khadem, F., Gadian, D., Copp, A., & Mishkin, M. (2005). FOXP2 and the neuroanatomy of speech and language. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6, 131–138.
LINDSAY WEYMOUTH, TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
A persistent pattern of demeaning or humiliating behavior directed at a child by a caregiver.
Description A type of abuse in which a caregiver degrades, corrupts, berates, belittles, rejects, threatens, ignores, exploits, assaults, spurns and/or terrorizes a child in a repeated pattern [1, 2]. Psychological abuse may also consist of denial of psychological treatment, extreme verbal punishment, unreasonable expectations, and/or lack of responsiveness. This pattern of behavior from caregivers may adversely affect the child cognitively, emotionally, and socially. A caregiver may make a child feel unloved, flawed, or worthless through name calling and/or scapegoating or may be unconcerned with a child’s troubles [1, 5]. The presence of psychological abuse may adversely affect later development of the child including symptoms of aggression, depression, emotional dysregulation, eating disorders, substance abuse, and learning disabilities [3, 5]. A child who is being psychologically abused may present symptoms of anxiety, depression, conduct disorder, and/or personality problems. Children who are psychologically abused may also show signs of regression in development, passivity, low self-esteem, social impairment, insecure attachment to caregiver, and/or suicidal behavior [2, 3]. Problems with emotion regulation may lead to alterations in the limbic system of the brain, disrupting the child’s ability to self-regulate and interact with peers [6]. Without proper intervention, children who are abused may be affected well into adulthood. As adolescents and adults, they may abuse substances, show symptoms of psychiatric disorders, and engage in criminal behavior [4].
References 1.
3.
4. 5.
Synonyms Child maltreatment; Emotional abuse; Psychological maltreatment; Verbal abuse
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Emotional Abuse. (2008). Child welfare information gateway. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/ types/emotionalabuse/ Hamarman, S., Pope, K., & Czaja, S. (2002). Emotional abuse in children: Variations in legal definitions and rates across the United States. Child Maltreatment, 7(4), 303–311. Kairys, S., Johnson, C., & Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect. (2002). The Psychological maltreatment of children-technical report. Pediatrics, 109(4), 68. Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2005). Abnormal child psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Moran, P., Bifulco, A., Ball, C., Jacobs, C., & Benaim, K. (2002). Exploring psychological abuse in childhood: I. Developing a new interview scale. Bulletin of the Menninger clinic, 66(3), 213–240. Teicher, M. (2002). Scares that won’t heal: The neurobiology of child abuse. Scientific American, 286(3), 68–75.
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Psychological Age DOUGLAS K. SYMONS Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Age-equivalent; Age-related attitudes; Developmental Age; Maturity
Definition
attitudes towards social issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and gender-equality. An elderly person who is fluent with computer and cell-phone use, holds liberal social attitudes, and dresses like a young person may be said to have a psychological age less than their chronological age. As these kinds of issues are difficult to quantify, the concept of psychological age is more common in the popular media than in psychological research. But the concept is based on age-related expectations of attitudes and behavior.
Psychological age refers to the subjective age-equivalent of a person or how old one feels.
References
Description
2.
Psychological age is how old one feels, acts, and behaves, and is thus not necessarily equal to chronological age, which is age since birth [1]. A person can therefore have a psychological age that exceeds their chronological age if they are mature or at least feel older than they really are. For example, this may be common in adolescence when young teens that feel older than they really are engage in behaviors typical of late teens and early adults. There is some indication that social maturity and achievement motivation in teens which could be associated with an advanced psychological age, for example, is associated with a parenting environment that is authoritative, emotionally warm, democratic, and firm. On the negative side, teens feeling older than they are may get involved in risk-taking behaviors that are appropriate for older individuals, and on the positive side, this may involve taking on responsibilities usually reserved for older people. A person can also have a psychological age that is less than their chronological age if they feel or act younger than they really are, such as teens who are socially immature and children who go through developmental regression in response to a trauma. Implicit in these examples are expectations that people of different ages typically act in certain ways, and there can be generational differences in hobbies, movie preferences [3], and music that reflect these differences. Health no doubt contributes to psychological age because the vitality of youth is associated with physical sensations of good health, and “aches and pains” are associated with the elderly. Psychological age should also reflect attitudes that are typical of people of different ages. For example, younger people generally are more positive about computers [2], facile with other forms of technology such as cell phones, and hold more liberal
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Psychological age test: http://en.nienteansia.it/tests/mental-age-test. html Kolodinsky, J., Cranwell, M., & Rowe, E. (2002). Bridging the generation gap across the digital divide: Teens teaching internet skills to senior citizens. Journal of Extension, 40. Smith, T. W. (1994). Generational differences in music preferences. Popular Music and Society, 18, 43–59.
Psychological Assessment DAVID MICHALEC Nationwide Children’s Hospital/Ohio State University, Westerville, OH, USA
Synonyms Psychological testing; Psychological evaluation
Definition Psychological assessment is the process of gathering information about a child to make informed decisions [2]. Interviewing the child (or their caregivers), observing behavior in different settings, and administering standardized tests with the child or their caregiver are all commonly used methods of gathering such information. Psychological assessment can take any or all of these forms for a particular child.
Description Psychological assessment is vital to the training, practice, and definition of professional psychology [1]. Most psychologists engage in some type of assessment as part of their practice. Sattler [2] discussed the “four pillars of assessment”, a model that is typically referenced when describing this practice.
Psychological Disorders
Psychological assessment typically involves observations of the child, often in different environments (school, testing appointment, or with peers). Interviewing the child’s primary caregivers is necessary for any comprehensive assessment. Interviews can either be structured or semi-structured, and are designed to guide the conversations with the caregiver to gather necessary data. Interviewing an older child (pre-teen, adolescent) is also a common practice. Administration of norm-referenced tests is an essential facet of psychological assessment. Norm-referenced tests measure a host of skills including cognitive ability, academic achievement, motor functioning, and adaptive behaviors. Finally, gathering data in more informal contexts is also necessary. Reviewing school records, homework, previous assessments, writing samples, and school district testing are all commonly used practices. At times psychological assessment is used to gather information on personality characteristics or emotional states. The use of projective measures or self-report personality scales is useful in this regard. Upon completion of a psychological assessment, the psychologist writes a formalized report. This report is a document that includes demographic information, the reason for referral, medical history, psycho-social concerns, and formal assessment data. All the data is synthesized and interpreted, which leads to diagnostic formulations. From that interpretation recommendations are made for treatment. The report is then shared with the child’s caregivers and is distributed back to the referral source.
Relevance to Childhood Development Psychological assessments are used in a variety of settings. School districts, medical clinics, mental health centers, and the legal system all utilize psychological assessments. The psychological assessment is then used to solidify diagnoses, initiate services, place children in appropriate educational settings, make recommendations for treatment, and monitor progress over time.
References 1. 2.
Groth-Marnat, G. (1997). Handbook of psychological assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley. Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of children, cognitive applications (4th ed.). San Diego, CA: Jerome Sattler Publishing.
Psychological Correlates ▶Risk Factors
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Psychological Disorders ASHLEA SMITH Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Synonyms Behavioral disorders; Emotional disorders; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental illness; Psychiatric disorders; Psychopathology
Definition Psychological disorders also commonly known as mental disorders are terms used to define abnormalities in the brain’s chemical functioning (physiological) and the abnormal emotional states (psychological) that impacts one’s emotions, cognitions, and behavior that are considered maladaptive, causing distress in all aspects of life (e.g., social, occupational, educational, etc.), and disruptive for both the individual experiencing the symptoms or for others. Additionally, it is important to note that the term, psychological disorders, may be defined quite differently based on cultural implications and culturally defined “norms.”
Description Disorders that occur prior or during the onset of puberty around the ages of 11–12 years to the progression into early adulthood (ages 18–24) are considered psychological disorders of childhood and adolescence with the continuation into early adulthood. Young children and infants can also be subjected to developing a serious psychological disorder. A child may be predisposed genetically to develop a psychological disorder, meaning that the child received hereditary (passed down) traits or genes from the parents which would explain the biological roots. Next, it is important to take into account the concept of both nature and nurture in the development of mental health issues in youth. Many other events such as a child’s family or social support network, environment, and culture molds how one develops, displays behavior, and predicts mental health well-being [4]. Family dynamics and interactions play such a large role in the emotional and physical development of children. Every child is born with unique characteristics that ultimately shape them into the person they are genetically meant to be. Children are born with different attachment styles: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, & disorganized–disoriented [1, 2], temperaments such as: easy, difficult, and slow to warm up [5, 12], and tend to
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develop cognitively, emotionally, and physically at varying rates. Some more maternal factors that increase the risk for a child to develop a psychological disorder remain in the hands of the mother who decides to use alcohol, drugs, or encounters other teratogens involved in disability or illness during pregnancy. In addition, the family’s medical history must be explored to assess the visibility of mental illness to predict the child’s chance to also be diagnosed with a mental disorder. Psychological disorders are not always congenital, but may also develop early in a child’s life due to suffering an injury, trauma, or illness. [4] reported that when considering a child’s behavior or mental health well-being you must take into account the context of familial cultural practices and traditions. These help mold and define one’s values, childrearing practices, the family unit, relationship development, spiritual or religious beliefs, and the roles and rules unique to every family system. Cultural norms vary from culture to culture; hence it is vital to understand the child or adolescent’s perception of how culture impacts one’s worldview and the development of the self. However, as [4] noted current empirical studies have shown that no matter what the cultural practices and traditions a child may have experienced or played a key role in development; the ultimate deciding factor to healthy development on how a child or adolescent acts, thinks, and behaves remains to be the relational connection and bond (e.g., attachment) with a caregiver or parent(s). This lack of a healthy connection with a significant other or caregiver which provides both care on a nature and nurture level could implicate one’s risk to develop a psychological disorder (s) in the future. The last factor to be mentioned before the discussion of different psychological disorders, that are more prevalent in childhood or adolescence, is the concept of how environmental factors come into play with a child’s mental health. We are all products and producers of our environment. As adults not only do we learn from the media, societal defined norms, and our surroundings, but children are also exposed to learning from the environment. Children learn how to act, think, and behave by observing and modeling others around them in their environment. [4] stated that children who are constantly exposed to violence whether it is in the home, in the neighborhood, or in the surrounding community are more at risk to develop anxiety, difficulty trusting others, lack of social skills, and may also display aggression. This repeated exposure to violence for children increases the risk to also develop a psychological disorder.
Psychological Disorders of Childhood and Adolescence Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Oppositional Defiant Disorder
According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-Text Revision [3], oppositional defiant disorder is defined when a child displays repeatedly for at least 6 months: aggression, disobedience, and hostile behavior towards adults or other authority figures. This disorder is usually evident around the age of 8 years with 2–16% percent of all children meeting diagnostic criteria for this disorder [11]. Oppositional defiant disorder is more common in boys before puberty, but tends to become equal for both sexes after reaching puberty. The outward signs and symptoms range from throwing temper tantrums, displaying intense anger, to ignoring rules, and quick to point the finger at someone else by blaming others. As one matures in age usually this disorder dissipates and is no longer an issue, if not this disorder tends to lead to a more serious disorder called, conduct disorder. Conduct Disorder
Conduct disorder is the more severe form of conduct disorder as described earlier. [3] defined conduct disorder as when one repeatedly displays behavior that violates the basic rights of others with rules and social norms being violated. Conduct disorder most represents what we see in adults called anti-social personality disorder, which this disorder in childhood often will lead to anti-social personality disorder in adulthood. The signs and symptoms of children and adolescents exhibiting this disorder would be the following: aggression, cruelty to humans and animals, truancy (e.g., skipping school and runaways), bullying, stealing, and committing crimes. Crimes usually begin with stealing, shoplifting, forgery, but lead to more severe crimes such as breaking and entering, mugging, armed robbery, rape, and homicide. [11] reported that conduct disorder is three to four times more common in boys than their female counterparts, whereas adolescents diagnosed with this disorder frequently instigate fights with peers, teachers, and other authority figures. These children feel as though rules or laws are not applicable to them. While boys who are diagnosed with this disorder display more outward forms of aggression, females who are diagnosed with conduct disorder usually show a different pattern of behavior of conduct disorder, called relational aggression (RA). [6] defined the term relational aggression
Psychological Disorders
as emotional violence and bullying behaviors focused primarily on damaging or manipulating the individual’s relationships within a peer group. These same two authors found that boys are more likely to use physical victimization (e.g., fighting) whereas girls are more likely to use relational victimization (e.g., spreading rumors, teasing, cyberbullying). [13] highlighted the different types of RA: 1. Relational aggression – behavior intended to harm someone’s relationships with others 2. Covert aggression – indirect or hidden acts of aggress 3. Peer aggression – physical, verbal, and relational aggression 4. Physical/Overt aggression – direct, blatant acts of aggression, can be physical or verbal 5. Verbal aggression – threats, putdowns, and name calling 6. Reactive relational aggression – defensive response to provocation with intent to retaliate 7. Proactive relational aggression – proactive means for achieving a goal. (p. 3) For young girls whom experience relational aggression could experience the following long-term effects such as: poor self-esteem, poor relational skills, anger, depression, teen pregnancy, self-injury, and eating disorders just to name a few [13]. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
This disorder seems to be one that is frequently given to children nowadays that have difficulty sitting still, inability to pay attention, or may display some type of outward aggressive behavior as a quick fix or easy label. [3] defined the following guidelines for someone to meet diagnostic criteria the behavior must be present continuously for at least 6 months, disruptive (e.g., both at home, school, other environments), inappropriate by cultural and developmental standards, and all of these symptoms have an onset before the child is 7 years of age. ADHD is further described as a child having poor attention, easily distracted, inability to sit still, lacks impulse control, tends to talk when inappropriate, and unable to wait his or her turn [4]. On the other hand to be diagnosed as the hyperactive-impulsive type, according to [3] the child must constantly fidget and move around, talks excessively, interrupts others, and has a hard time waiting to be called on as just a few of the many signs of ADHD.
Elimination Disorders Enuresis and Encopresis
There are two major types of elimination disorders as defined by [3] the first is enuresis (e.g., intentional
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bed wetting or wetting on oneself) with a diagnostic criterion of: 1. Urinating in the bed on the child’s clothing at least twice a week for at least 3 months 2. The accidents cause significant distress 3. The child is 5 years of age or older 4. The wetting accidents are not otherwise explained by another medical condition. The urinating in one’s bed, clothing, or floor occurs at an age when the child should have already mastered the task of potty training. The second encopresis (e.g., defecating in one’s clothing, bed, floor) is defined according to the DSM-IV-TR as: 1. Repeated bowel movements in inappropriate places 2. Inappropriate bowel movements occur once a month for at least 3 months 3. The child has an age of four 4. The problem is not otherwise explained by another medical condition. In the case of a child being diagnosed with enuresis or encopresis it is not uncommon for the parent or sibling(s) to have experienced a similar problem as a child. There is no one cause as a reasoning why children develop these disorders, but it could be concluded that these children have anxiety, emotional conflicts, improper toilet training, a weak bladder, social problems, shame, stress, or embarrassment [4]. Elimination disorders should be addressed with the child’s pediatrician to confirm that the disorder is not accounted for by a medical condition before pursuing other therapies. It is also important to include family therapy as discussed earlier family conflicts could be the root of the problem.
Pervasive Developmental Disorders Autism/Autistic Disorder
Autism or Autistic Disorder is a diagnosis focused on social interaction, communication delays, and repetitive behaviors where a child must have symptoms from each of these three areas that are present before the child turns 3 years of age [3]. When looking at the social interaction piece, children with autism prefer to play by themselves, avoid interactions with others, and seem disinterested in forms of affection such as hugs and kisses. Next, communication delays are displayed when the child has significant language issues such as failure to speak or develop language, or the refusal to use or acknowledge nonverbal forms of communication with peers, teachers, parents, or others. Lastly, children diagnosed with autism often
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repeat certain behaviors or mannerisms like flapping hands, twisting arms, rocking, spinning, or making off grimaces. These children appear to be in their own little world as though they have detached themselves from reality, and have extreme difficulty relating to others. It is also commonplace for children, mostly boys, diagnosed with this disorder to induce self-inflicted injury through head-banging, biting, or pulling one’s hair. When it comes to play, children with autism have limited play or what we as play therapists would describe as non-imaginative play, which is the inability to incorporate fantasy, real-life scenarios, sequential play (e.g., play with a beginning, middle, and end that flows together), and the ability to play in a variety of ways. Play is typically done by oneself due to the inability to include others utilizing toys that include buttons or lids. The child will then in a sense get lost in their own little world by repeatedly playing with the buttons or the lids by taking the lid off and then replacing it. Children diagnosed with autism have difficulty dealing with change and best adapt to their environments by following daily routines and schedules. If you must create change around these children it is best to give them warnings in different time increments such as 20 min warning, 15 min warning, 10 min warning, and 5 min warning to slowly prepare the child for a change in his or her routine. Asperger’s Disorder/Asperger’s Syndrome
Asperger’s disorder is quite similar to autism, but with some key diagnostic criteria points that exist to differentiate between the two disorders. [3] defined Asperger’s disorder as one with a child having difficulty with peer social interactions, but still remain interested in peers, they do not usually have language and speech delays, are able to develop patterns of behavior such as rituals, and the children do not usually experience cognitive difficulties. It is also quite common for some children with Asperger’s disorder to be given the label of gifted intellectually. Children with Asperger’s disorders enjoy talking and including others in their conversations, but the child with Asperger’s typically takes over the conversation with topics only interesting to them. When interacting with other children it is also at times difficult for children with Asperger’s to pick up on nonverbal cues causing a social impairment. These children want to fit in with their peers, but find it extremely difficult to interact with others due to the poor social functioning. As with autism, this disorder causes children to become easily angered or frustrated that could potentially induce self harming behaviors.
Rett’s Disorder
Rett’s Disorder is often confused with Autistic Disorder due to the appearance of multiple deficits following a period of normal growth and functioning after birth. The Autism Program at Yale School of [8] found this condition occurs primarily in girls at the rate of 3.8 per 10,000 with mutations of the gene MECP2 being indicated as causing the disorder. The typical onset for Rett’s is around the first or second year of life, but before the age of four. The disorder is chronic after onset of the symptoms and is generally progressive as one ages. [3] outlined the following criterion for one to be diagnosed: deceleration of head growth, loss of hand skills such as handwringing or hand-washing, lack of social engagement, poor gait, and a severe impairment of both receptive and expressive language development. Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder also known as CDD is a rather rare disorder that tends to affect more boys than girls. Symptomatology of this disorder becomes apparent after at least 2 years of normal development including social skills both verbal and nonverbal, ability to form social relationships, and play. As the disorder advances the child will experience a loss of interest in the environment, inability to engage in self-care such as toilet training, and language abilities are lost, which may present as autism. According to [3] a child must experience a loss of at least two previously learned skills such as (a) expressive language, (b) social skills, (c) control of bowels, (d) play, and (e) motor skills. In addition, by the standards of [3] the child must also experience abnormalities in two of the following areas: (a) impairment of social skills and ability to form relationships, (b) impairment in communication, and (c) repeated patterns of behaviors.
Mental Retardation Down Syndrome
The general definition of Mental Retardation (e.g., MR) is someone with below average intelligence as measured by a standardized intelligence test to calculate an intelligence quotient, better known as IQ. The benchmark for MR is an IQ below 70. There are four subtypes of MR: Mild mental retardation (e.g., IQ ranging from 50–70), Moderate mental retardation (e.g., IQ ranging from 35–55), Severe mental retardation (e.g., IQ ranging from 20–40), and Profound mental retardation (e.g., IQ ranging from 20 to 25 or below). The symptoms of mental retardation have a typical onset before the age of 18. For one to be
Psychological Disorders
diagnosed with MR they must experience concurrent impairment in at least two of the following areas: personal self-care/hygiene, communication/social skills, independent community living, and other areas of life functioning. Down syndrome is one of the most recognized forms of Mental Retardation. This syndrome is a genetic mutation caused by an extra chromosome on the 21st pair. Everyone whom is diagnosed with Down syndrome has mental retardation in the Mild mental retardation (e.g., IQ ranging from 50–69) to the Moderate mental retardation range (e.g., IQ ranging from 35–55). This syndrome has distinctive facial characteristics associated with children with Down syndrome such as slanted eyes (e.g., oblique eye fissures), folds in the skin around the corner of the eyes (e.g., epicanthic eye fold), a flat nose, protruding tongues, usually short and stocky body type, a short neck, and small ears. It is not uncommon for children with Down syndrome to also have other medical complications such as heart defects and visual and auditory impairments to name a few. Phenylketonuria (e.g., PKU)
Phenylketonuria also known as PKU is a genetic disorder where the body cannot break down the essential amino acid phenylalanine and as an excess amount of phenylalanine develops leads to mental and physical abnormalities. If this disorder is left untreated it can lead to mental retardation. The known cause is by having two parents that both have the recessive gene for the disorder and if only one parent has the recessive gene they are known as a carrier of PKU. Fragile X Syndrome (e.g., FXS)
Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of mental retardation. The syndrome occurs when a DNA series makes too many copies of itself. The mutated gene is unable to produce the necessary protein that is needed in the body’s cells especially the brain cells for normal functioning. Fragile X is also associated with some distinctive facial features such as long ears and a long face. It is not uncommon for children with Fragile X to experience behavioral disorders for example, temper tantrums, hyperactivity, irritability, and engaging in self-injurious behaviors.
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birth defects. The University of [10] highlighted some key facial features that make it easy to identify a child with FAS such as: (a) flat forehead (e.g., microcephaly), (b) small eye slits (e.g., short palpebral fissures), (c) flat midface, (d) thin upper lip, (e) pointy chin (e.g., micrognathia), (f) short nose, (g) pointed ears, (h) low nasal bridge, and (i) epicanthal folds. Thus, to avoid this disorder a mother must reframe from alcohol intake during pregnancy. Cultural-Familial Retardation
In other cases of mental retardation the cause is not directly known. The Psychology Encyclopedia (2010) described another form of mental retardation called, familial retardation, “also called sociocultural or cultural-familial retardation, mild mental retardation attributed to environmental causes generally involving some degree of psychosocial disadvantage” (p. 1). The early signs of cultural-familial retardation typically are not visible until a child begins school and starts having troubles academically in the classroom. According to the Psychology Encyclopedia (2010) a child with culturalfamilial retardation usually has an IQ in the range of 55– 69 and reported that environmental causes like the mother’s prenatal care, nutrition, family size, the spacing of births within a family, illness, and other teratogens from the environment like lead may lead to the development of this form of mental retardation.
Learning Disorders Mathematics Disorder
Mathematics disorder is another learning disorder often referred to as dyscalculia. The key features of this disorder surround the decreased ability to comprehend mathematical concepts, recognize numerical symbols, and copying figures or numbers correctly. As stated earlier, [3] notes that a child’s mathematical ability is significantly below what is expected for the child’s age as measured by standardized tests, the difficulty interferes with academic achievement and daily functioning, and there might be an additional sensory deficit present that can further impair difficulties with mathematical abilities. Reading Disorder
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (e.g., FAS)
Fetal alcohol syndrome (e.g., FAS) is the leading known preventable cause of mental retardation for children. When a mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy the alcohol can affect both physical and brain development of the fetus leading to mental retardation and an assortment of
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The most common reported learning disorder is called reading disorder or commonly known as dyslexia. Reading disorder affects mostly males at 60–80% of children who are diagnosed with this disorder. This disorder results in a child having significantly lowered reading ability and scores than what is expected for the child according to
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the child’s age, IQ, and grade level. [3] states that the child’s reading achievement needs to be well below what is age appropriate as defined by standardized tests, the reading difficulty interferes with academic achievement, and a potential sensory deficit may be present to intensive the reading difficulties for the child.
medication condition or another mental health problem. It is not uncommon for the disorder to have an onset by the age of one, but may have a later onset at the age of 6 years of age. Children and infants may become irritable during feeding times and difficulties with the mother and child bond may also exacerbate the symptoms.
Disorder of Written Expression
Motor Skills Disorder
Disorder of written expression may be better recognized as dysgraphia, is beyond sloppy handwriting, but more related to difficulty composing sentences, frequent grammatical and spelling errors, as well as inability to organize paragraphs that flow logically from one topic to the next. This disorder is frequently found in conjunction with reading disorder or dyslexia.
Developmental Coordination Disorder
Feeding and Eating Disorders of Infancy or Early Childhood
Developmental Coordination Disorder results in the impairment of motor coordination that is not explained by another general medical condition. The diagnosis is typically made after the motor coordination impacts one’s academic performance and ability to engage in everyday activities. This disorder is usually evident when a child attempts to hold a knife or fork, or attempts to run or play a game using equipment.
Pica
Communication Disorders
Pica is often seen with Mental Retardation and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, although some studies have found vitamin or mineral deficiencies (e.g., zinc) may account for the development of this disorder [3]. Pica occurs when children eat nonnutritive substances such as paint, paper, hair, leaves, etc. consistently for at least one month. The aftermath of Pica can result in serious medical risks and complications. The disorder is seen across racial and socioeconomic classes, both females and females, and all age groups. [3] reports that a child must exhibit the following: (a) constantly eating nonnutritive items for at least one month, (b) the behaviors exhibited is not appropriate for age and developmental levels, and (c) the disordered eating behavior occurs during the course of another existing mental health problem. Rumination Disorder
Rumination disorder is a rare pattern of disordered eating when a child repeatedly regurgitates and chews recently eaten food. This type of episodic behavior can occur multiple times a day and may resemble self-induced vomiting, which causes children to be misdiagnosed with Bulimia Nervosas or with GERD (e.g., Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease). Feeding Disorder of Infancy or Early Childhood
Feeding disorder of Infancy or Early Childhood results when a child fails to eat adequate portions or at all in some instances fails to eat at all, which usually causes one to significantly lose weight or an inability to gain weight. The disorder is not explained by another general
Expressive Language Disorder
The key aspect of Expressive language disorder is the impairment in both nonverbal and receptive language development. These difficulties interfere with one’s academics, employability, and impact social areas of an individual’s life. The usual signs of this disorder are limited speech, small range of vocabulary, and difficulty with grammar that is apparent around the time a child starts school if not before. It is important to consider cultural implications before diagnosing a child with this disorder due to children growing up in bilingual homes and the context within language is also spoken within the home. The diagnostic criteria largely comes from scores from standardized measures of expressive language development constituting in scores far below what is expected according to age and development. [3] defines this disorder when a child has difficulties with language that interfere in a variety of areas for the child such as educational and social functioning. It is also important to rule out the diagnosis of Mental retardation as language difficulties are commonly associated with MR. Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder
The marked feature of Mixed Receptive-Expressive is functional impairment with both receptive and expressive language that may be acquired or developed. Children with this disorder have difficulty recalling and understanding words in conjunction with difficulty expressing ideas. The disorder is detected in children through the use of standardized tests assessing both receptive and expressive language
Psychological Disorders
development. The difficulties cause significant problems for a child academically and with social interaction. Phonological Disorder
The most common communication disorder with children is Phonological disorder, previously known as Developmental Articulation Disorder. Children diagnosed with this disorder fail to use appropriate speech sounds that are relevant according to the child’s age and dialect. The impairment usually follows errors in sound production, use of the speech sounds, and the ability to organize sounds. As with other communication disorders it is also important to rule out Mental Retardation as a factor in causing this disorder. The basics of this disorder include difficulty organizing all the sounds necessary for clear speech, ability to understand and read, as well as the skills necessary for accurate spelling. Stuttering
The disorder of Stuttering is noted by the frequent repetitions or prolongations of sounds and syllables. A child may not be aware of the problem initially but after a child has been diagnosed increased awareness and anxiety surrounding the issue may develop later on. This disorder is more common in boys than girls at a rate of 3 to 1 and is found more often in prepubertal children (e.g., before the age of ten) than in adolescents [3]. According to [3] a child must experience at least one of the following: (a) repetition of sounds, (b) sound prolongations, (c) interjections, (d) pauses within words, (e) silent blocking, (f) heightened physical tension when pronouncing words, (g) monosyllabic whole-word repetitions, (h) the Stuttering interferes with all areas of life such as educational and social situations, and (i) if a child is already diagnosed with speech–motor difficulties then the speech problems are more extreme.
Tic Disorders Tourette’s Disorder
[9] described Tourette’s disorder when a person has multiple motor tics such as facial grimaces or eye blinking or vocal tics such as throat clearing, shouting, or barking. Tourette’s Disorder may surface around the early years around the age of two or at the latest by the age of 18. [3] states that for one to be diagnosed both motor and vocal tics must be present although not necessary at the same time and that these symptoms must occur several times a day for one year. It must also be ruled out that the motor and vocal tics are not caused by an underlying general medical condition or the affect of substance use.
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Chronic Motor or Vocal Tic Disorder
Chronic Motor or Vocal Tic disorder is very similar to Tourette’s disorder except a child or adolescent tends to have either motor movement tics or vocal tics but do not have both of these. Transient Tic Disorder
Transient Tic disorder is very similar to both Tourette’s disorder and Chronic Motor or Vocal Tic disorder in diagnostic criteria except the motor or vocal tics usually last 4 weeks, but not longer than one year (e.g., 12 consecutive months).
Other Disorders of Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence Separation Anxiety Disorder
Separation Anxiety Disorder (e.g., SAD) affects both children and adolescents whom have an excessive worry or fear of being separated from their caregiver (e.g., parent, relative, nanny, or other caregiver) or home. The onset of symptoms usually follows a major life change (e.g., starting a new school or a recent move) or a traumatic loss (e.g., death of a loved one). This anxiety is not common for what is appropriate for the individual’s age and developmental status. For this disorder to be diagnosed the child must be under the age of 18 and the symptoms must last for a consecutive 4 weeks. When these children are out of touch with caregivers they constantly need to know where they are located by keeping in touch through phone calls or checking in- person with the caregiver. Children may also express fears about being alone, animals, monsters, plane crashes, car accidents, or the fear that someone may break into the child’s home. [7] outlined some signs to be aware of in the home, at school, and at the doctor’s office: 1. At home: (a) Extreme worry about separating from caregiver or the anticipation of separation (b) Constant fears that something tragic may happen to the caregiver (c) The child may refuse to go to school (d) The child may not want to engage in extracurricular activities or spend time with peers due to separation fears (e) The child may insist on sleeping in the bed with the caregiver or may experience nightmares about being separated (f) The child may begin experiencing psychosomatic symptoms as a result of the excessive anxiety and
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worry around being separated from the caregiver such as stomach aches, headaches, and other physical ailments. 2. At school: (a) The child may have a difficult time transitioned from the home to the school environment (b) The child may insist on staying home or engage in behaviors to avoid going to school (c) The child may have difficulty concentrating on tasks in the classroom (d) It is not uncommon for the child to have lowered self-esteem (e) Continued avoidance of after-school activities or engaging in other activities with peers. 3. At the doctor’s office: (a) As a child ages the symptoms may change (b) Other conditions such as phobias and panic disorder should be ruled out (c) Depression is often seen in these children (d) The child will complain of various physical ailments (e) Children may lack insight into their disorder or avoid talking about the fears of separation (f) It will be beneficial for the families to be directed on how to deal with these worries. These worries and excessive fears of being separated from the caregiver cause severe disturbance for the child socially, academically, and is various other areas of functioning. Selective Mutism
Selective Mutism formerly known as Elective Mutism is when a child refuses or fails to speak in social situations where speaking is expected and normal. This disorder typically has an onset before the age of five for children, but is not typically noticeable until the child begins school. [3] reported that for a child to be diagnosed with Selective Mutism the following must occur: (a) failure to speak, (b) the mental disturbances cause impairment in functioning of one’s academic and social functioning, (c) the failure to speak is not accounted for by the lack of ability to speak, and (d) the disturbance is not otherwise explained by another mental disorder. Selective Mutism is a rare disorder is has been found in “1% of individuals in mental health settings” (APA, [3], p. 126). Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy or Childhood
Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy or Childhood begins around the age of five. There are two subtypes inhibited type (e.g., extremely withdrawn and emotionally
detached) and disinhibited type (e.g., seeks attention from virtually anyone). It is not uncommon for a child diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy or Childhood to have experienced abuse or neglect. Children with this disorder have difficulty forming nurturing bonds with caregivers and others, which ultimately impacts brain growth and development. According to [3] a child must fail to respond appropriately to social interaction or fail to develop selective attachments as well as experience neglect from the caregiver(s) related to the child’s emotional and physical needs. Stereotypic Movement Disorder
In Stereotypic Movement Disorder a child repeatedly makes movements such as hand waving, body rocking, biting self, or head banging to name a few for at least 4 weeks. The disorder seems exacerbated by increased levels of stress. The behavior impairs one’s ability to participate in normal activities and may cause medical complications with the self injurious behavior. These behaviors are not otherwise accounted for by another general medical condition and if Mental Retardation is present treatment will focus on the self injurious behaviors.
Relevance to Childhood Development A child’s development is based out of a variety of factors: family, environment, culture, and biology. Each one of these factors can impact not only a child’s physical and cognitive development, but more importantly a child’s psychological development. Psychological disorders or commonly known as mental disorders do not only affect adults, but many mental disorders actually begin in childhood. As a caregiver, teacher, parent, or clinician it is important to know and recognize the different symptomatology associated with specific disorders, so that the child or adolescent can receive the best care, whether that means therapy, medication, special education plan, or other interventions. It is important for the child to not only be physically healthy, but mentally healthy as well as they progress through the life span.
References 1. Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1985). Attachments across the life span. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 61, 792–812. 2. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 3. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 4. Bilmes, J., & Welker, T. (2006). Common psychological disorders in young children: A handbook for child care professionals. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
Psychological Testing 5. Chess, S., & Thomas, A. (1986). Temperament in clinical practice. New York, NY: Guilford. 6. Crick, N. R., & Nelson, D. A. (2002). Relational and physical victimization within friendships: Nobody told me there’d be friends like these. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 30, 599–607. 7. Massachusetts General Hospital (2010). Separation anxiety disorder. Retrieved from http://www2.massgeneral.org/schoolpsychiatry/ info_separationanxiety.asp on January 14, 2010. 8. Autism Program at Yale School of Medicine (2010). Rett’s disorder. Retrieved from http://info.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism/retts.html on January 3, 2010. 9. National Tourette Syndrome Association (2010). What is tourette syndrome? Retrieved from http://www.tsa-usa.org/Medical/whatists. html on January 13, 2010. 10. The University of New Mexico (2005). Clinical recognition of fas: Difficulties of detection and diagnosis. Retrieved from http://casaa. unm.edu/fas/FAS-face.html on January 5, 2010. 11. Partner, D. (2001). Encyclopedia of psychological disorders: Disorders first diagnosed in childhood. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publishers. 12. Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel. 13. Youthlight, Inc. (2006). Mean girls: Working with relational aggression (Workshop Handout).
Psychological Evaluation ▶Psychological Assessment
Psychological Freedom ▶Self-Determination
A type of maltreatment in which a caregiver degrades, corrupts, berates, belittles, rejects, threatens, ignores, exploits, assaults, spurns and/or terrorizes a child in a repeated pattern [1, 2]. Psychological maltreatment may also consist of denial of psychological treatment, extreme verbal punishment, unreasonable expectations, and/or lack of responsiveness. This pattern of behavior from caregivers may adversely affect the child cognitively, emotionally, and socially. A caregiver may make a child feel unloved, flawed, or worthless through name calling and/or scapegoating or may be unconcerned with a child’s troubles [1, 5]. The presence of psychological maltreatment may adversely affect later development of the child including symptoms of aggression, depression, emotional regulation, eating disorders, substance abuse, and learning disabilities [3, 5]. A child who is being psychologically maltreated may present symptoms of anxiety, depression, conduct disorder, and/or personality problems. Children who are psychologically maltreated may also show signs of regression in development, passivity, low self-esteem, social impairment, insecure attachment to caregiver, and/or suicidal behavior [2, 3]. Problems with emotion regulation may lead to alterations in the limbic system of the brain, disrupting the child’s ability to self-regulate and interact with peers [6]. Without proper intervention, children who are maltreated may be affected well into adulthood. As adolescents and adults, they may abuse substances, show symptoms of psychiatric disorders, and engage in criminal behavior [4].
References 1.
2.
Psychological Maltreatment 4. 5.
6.
Synonyms
Emotional Abuse. (2008, May 1). Child welfare information gateway. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/ types/emotionalabuse/ Hamarman, S., Pope, K., & Czaja, S. (2002). Emotional abuse in children: Variations in legal definitions and rates across the United States. Child Maltreatment, 7(4), 303–311. Kairys, S., Johnson, C., & Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect. (2002). The psychological maltreatment of children-technical report. Pediatrics, 109(4), 68. Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2005). Abnormal child psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Moran, P., Bifulco, A., Ball, C., Jacobs, C., & Benaim, K. (2002). Exploring psychological abuse in childhood: I. Developing a new interview scale. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 66(3), 213–240. Teicher, M. (2002). Scares that won’t heal: The neurobiology of child abuse. Scientific American, 286(3), 68–75.
Child maltreatment; Emotional abuse; Psychological abuse; Verbal abuse
Definition A persistent pattern of demeaning or humiliating behavior directed at child by a caregiver.
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LINDSAY WEYMOUTH, TASHA R. HOWE Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
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Psychological Testing ▶Psychological Assessment
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Psychology
Psychology
Psychology of Language ▶Psycholinguistics
Definition Psychology is the scientific investigation of the way people think, communicate, the study of the mind and mental states. The concept of the study of the consciousness, temperament and behavior is also imperative. The two Greek words psyche and logos, psyche was translated as the soul or the breath of life, and the word logos was the knowledge or study and was originally defined as: the study of the mind.
Description Psychology involves the scientific study of the conscious experience of mental processes and behavior. These concepts include perception, cognition, emotions, personality, interpersonal, intrapersonal relationship and consciousness. Psychology emphasis is on experimentation and research with animals and humans concentrating on observable and measurable behaviors, biological and neurological processes. It is important to understand how these functions inter play with social dynamics. Psychologists use various statistical assessments essential to scientific methods. The applications include issues that relate to problems in living, including treatment of mental health. There are various concentrations in the field of psychology these are: developmental, social, comparative, cognitive, bio-physiology, health, and organizational.
Relevance to Childhood Development Clinical psychology is the branch that diagnosis children with psychological problems and treatment. They also can give assessments for cognition, achievement and intelligence (IQ) Psychologists with specialized training in evaluation of cognitive functioning is a Neuropsychologist. They use a battery of standardized assessments developed in diagnosing children with specific cognitive impairment. When the area of impairment is identified recommendations of specific mental exercises are then given to help the child to improvement. An example is Brain training software to help children with brain injury. Also Neuropsychologist have had major success with Bio-feedback for children with Attention Deficit Disorders and various other disorders.
References 1.
2.
Swingle, P. G. (2008). Biofeedback for the brain: How neurotherapy effectively treats depression, ADHD, autism, and more. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Weiten, W. (2006). Psychology themes & variations. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomas Learning.
Psychometric Study of Creativity ▶Creativity Assessment
Psychometrics MARIE C. MCGRATH Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Psychometry; Measurement theory; Test theory
Definition An area of psychological science focusing on the development, use, and interpretation of theoretically sound, consistent, and valid assessment instruments.
Description Psychological testing involves the systematic measurement of psychological or educational variables, such as personality, intelligence, or academic achievement. Two major assumptions underlying psychological testing are that individuals demonstrate relative stability of psychological traits across situations and over time, and that the extent to which individuals possess certain psychological traits varies significantly in the population at large. Understanding the extent to which an individual possesses or demonstrates certain psychological traits, and the typicality of those traits in the general population and/or others similar to the individual, can be useful in understanding and/or making predictions about that individual’s functioning. Psychological testing attempts to quantify the differences in traits among individuals by systematically assigning scores to items measuring those traits, which in turn permits statistical examination of the relationships among test scores and other variables of interest. The American Psychological Association’s Report of the Task Force on Test User Qualifications [1] indicates that test users’ psychometric knowledge must encompass both classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT).
Psychomotor Seizures
Classical test theory is characterized by the assumption that the score received by an individual on a given test, sometimes referred to as the obtained or observed score, comprises both a “true score” that the individual could obtain on that test under ideal circumstances, and some degree of measurement error introduced into the testing process by the test user, the test taker, or the test itself. Since it is not possible to precisely identify and quantify all sources of error, it is also impossible to state the precise difference between the obtained score and the true score. In the CTT model, psychometric statistics are obtained by examining the performance of a sample group on the test as a whole, as well as at the item level. Test consistency is measured by examining score correlations across parallel forms of the test, or among items within the test. Items’ levels of difficulty are determined based on the sample’s overall performance on each item. In recent years, CTT has been criticized as too simplistic and sample-dependent, since the data obtained from CTT analyzes will vary based on the performance of the individuals in a given sample. Accordingly, the use of IRT, a psychometric approach that examines the links between test-takers’ latent abilities and their test performance, has become increasingly prevalent. Through the use of mathematical probability models, IRT permits examination of the extent to which levels of ability or traits of interest (as measured by overall test performance) predict performance on individual test items. Other necessary test user competencies, as identified by APA [1], include: familiarity with descriptive statistics; knowledge of statistical measures of variation (e.g., standard deviation) and relation (e.g., correlation); awareness of the characteristics of the normal curve; knowledge of types of scales and scores; and familiarity with how these concepts relate to assessing a test’s reliability, or consistency of measurement, and validity, or the extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure (content/ construct validity, or validity of measurement) and predicts performance on some external measure or criterion variable (criterion validity, or validity for decisionmaking). When used in reference to individual assessment instruments or to types of tests, the phrases “psychometric soundness” and/or “psychometric adequacy” refer to whether the tests demonstrate sufficient levels of reliability and validity for ethical use with clients. The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing [3], which establish standards for test construction, competency and knowledge of test users, and appropriate use of tests, do not “dictate minimal levels of test-criterion correlation, classification accuracy, or reliability for any given purpose”
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(p.112). As a general rule, however, any tests used in highstakes decision-making processes should possess high levels of reliability and validity in order to increase the likelihood that such decisions are made appropriately.
References 1. 2. 3.
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American Psychological Association (APA). (2000). Report of the task force on test user qualifications. Washington, DC: APA. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Joint Committee on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Murphy, K.M., & Davidshofer, C.O. (2005). Psychological testing: Principles and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Psychometry ▶Psychometrics
Psychomotor Seizures MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Complex partial seizure; Temporal lobe seizure
Definition A psychomotor seizure is a form of epilepsy that is typically limited to the temporal lobe of the brain and results in impairment of responsiveness and awareness to ones surroundings. Patients may act out in a variety of ways while experiencing the seizure but have not recall of it.
Description Psychomotor seizure is an older term used to describe a complex partial seizure which is seen in its most common forms as either psychomotor or temporal lobe epilepsy. Psychomotor seizures are more complex than simple partial seizures because an alteration of awareness typically accompanies the experience of a seizure. In fact,
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about half of all people who experience a psychomotor seizure also experience a concomitant aura [3]. In many circumstances the aura that a person experiences is directly related to the origination of the seizure. In other words, if a person has a visual aura or manifestation (e.g., perceiving objects as getting smaller or larger) there is a high likelihood that the seizure has an origination point, or the abnormal firings of neurons is occurring, in the occipital lobe. Similarly those with frontal lobe seizures might possibly experience motor problems. Alterations of consciousness can take several forms with a psychomotor seizure. The experience of a seizure may induce a sense of de´ja` vu (“already seen”) or jamais vu (“never seen”) with regards to familiar places or situations. Additionally, it is not uncommon for a person experiencing a psychomotor seizure to have a sense of rushed thoughts, nausea, illusions, terror, euphoria, panic, or ecstasy.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children with seizure disorders are at a high risk for experiencing problems with learning. This is due largely to the high number of missed school days each year that a child with psychomotor seizures will experience. Bailet and Turk [1] found that while some children with seizure disorders may have lower than average IQ’s typically it is a difficulty with learning and a lack of educational opportunities that have a detrimental impact of child performance within schools. In addition to school associated problems, children with seizures in general have been found to have disproportionately high rates of psychological problems. Researchers have found rates between 25% and 60% of children with seizure disorders also display identifiable behavioral disorders [2, 4]. Still other research has shown a link between aggression and depression in children with a seizure disorder [5].
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Bailet, L., & Turk, W. R. (2000). The impact of childhood epilepsy on neurocognitive and behavioral performance: A prospective longitudinal study. Epilepsia, 41(4), 426–431. Caplan, R., Arbelle, S., & Magharious, W. (1998). Pschopathology in pediatric complex partial and generalized epilepsy. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 40, 805–811. Cascino, G. D. (1992). Complex partial seizures: Clinical features and differential diagnosis. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 152, 373–382. Dunn, D., Austin, J., & Huster, G. (1999). Behavior problems in children with new onset epilepsy. Journal of American Academy of Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 1132–1138. Ettinger, A. B., Weisbrot, D. M., & Nolan, E. E. (1998). Symptoms of depression and anxiety in pediatric epilepsy patients. Epilepsia, 39, 595–599.
Psychopathology CHRIS LEETH University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Mental disorders; Mental illness; Psychological disorders
Definition Psychopathology is an umbrella term that describes behavior that is significantly dysfunctional or different than “normal.”
Description Psychopathology is a term that encapsulates deviant, dysfunctional, or otherwise abnormal behavior and thought processes. Broken down, “pathology” is a term used for deviance while “psycho” is used to indicate mental or mind-states. Together, “psychopathology” is used to describe deviance in mental status. Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Narcissism are all types of psychopathology. The most widely used system in the United States for categorizing, diagnosing, and describing psychopathology is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association. Psychopathology can be present in any type of person, regardless of sex, age, and ethnicity. However, different countries may recognize different forms of psychopathology. Further, behavior that may be considered as pathological is based on how different that behavior is when compared to the rest of the population. Psychopathology can be assessed by a variety of instruments, direct observation, or through self-report. It is important to note that while behaviors may be pathological, people are not. In other words, the person is not pathological, but rather, the person is demonstrating a type of thought or behavior that is pathological.
References 1.
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (Revised 4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (2003). Child psychopathology (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Psychopathy ▶Sociopathy
Psychosexual Stages, of Freud
Psychopharmaceutical Medication ▶Psychotropic Medication
Psychophysiological ▶Psychosomatic
Psychosexual Stages, of Freud JED YALOF Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Oral, anal, phallic, and genital stages; Psychosexuality
Definition Psychosexual stages of development, observed by Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, represent maturational processes by which a child’s innate biological drives interact with different erogenous zones to influence personality. Different conflicts emerge in relation to the psychosexual stages of childhood, and these conflicts are reworked during adolescent development in response to hormonal changes and new psychosocial stresses in ways that are unique and characteristic of the individual.
Description An unusually integrative and creative thinker, Freud’s theory of psychosexual development can be best understood in relation to his other ideas about childhood sexuality [11], instincts [12], and the oedipal conflict, superego, and structural theory [14]. Other sources provide an overview of components of Freud’s theory [3, 20, 25, 26]. The purpose of this entry is to orient the reader to psychosexuality and some of its key related concepts.
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highly sensitized nerve endings of the oral, anal, and genital erogenous zones that were in ascension at different points in the child’s early development. Freud stated: “The concept of instinct is thus one of those lying on the frontier between the mental and the physical” [11, p. 168]. Drives have an impetus, which reflects a push forward; a source, which is the erogenous zone from which the drive emanates; an aim, as reflected in the desire to gratify the drive; and an object, represented by the person gratifies the drive, though something other than a person could also gratify a drive. Although Freud later added aggression [13] as a second drive, it was the sexual instinct that was primary in his development of psychosexuality as a central concept in personality formation.
Psychosexuality and Personality The way in which the experience of drive build-up and discharge in psychosexual zones influences the child’s personality development [11, 20] is summarized as follows. The erogenous zone – oral, anal – or genital phallic – that is dominant at a particular point in time, and the degree to which these drives are gratified or frustrated by the primary caregiver, help to organize the child’s internal and external experience. Rather than think of psychosexual stages as time-limited phenomena in which one stage ends and another begins, it is clinically useful to view psychosexual stages as interactive periods of conflict, adaptation, and development in which there is an unfolding and dynamic tension between stages.
Oral Stage The oral stage is assumed generally to be dominant from birth through 18 months and centers around sensations associated with feeding, but oral tensions persist beyond this general time frame and continue to find expression in later childhood, adolescent, and adult personality. For example, conflicts associated with alcohol, eating, and physical contact might have their derivatives in the oral stage.
Anal Stage The anal stage covers the toilet training period up until about age 3 and is focused on sensations associated with retention and expulsion, but adolescents and adults can remain preoccupied with and conflicted about body functions and control.
Drives
Phallic-Genital Stage and Oedipal Conflict
A neurologist by training, Freud [11] envisioned a biologically based model of psychological maturation in which a primary sexual instinct or drive, and an innate need for gratification and pleasure, interfaced with the
The phallic-genital stage, occurring up until about age 5 at which point the oedipal conflict (see below) is in ascension, organizes fantasies of “. . .penetrating or being penetrated. . .” [20, p. 331], but phallic-genital conflicts
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continue to persist beyond this time frame in the form of locker-room anxiety, or exhibitionism, or conflicted competition.
Illustration To illustrate the interactive nature of psychosexual stages, assume a child who experiences a relatively uncomplicated oral stage, but has significant frustrations during the anal stage in conjunction with toilet-training. During toilet training there are conflicts related to control and autonomy versus dependency. The child is willful, resistant to parental controls, and angry at being told what to do and when to do it. This same child then enters the phallicgenital stage with an angry disposition characterized by a willful readiness toward controlling and stubborn behaviors, rather than being able to easily comply, cooperate, and enjoy an activity. The former are more conflicted residuals of anal stage conflicts, whereas the latter suggest a less conflicted anal stage. In the classroom, this same child might be messy, controlling, and excessively challenging. This disposition might then carry over to the phallic-genital stage in the form of a “win-at-all-costs” attitude in which cooperative gamesmanship is minimized, and where defeat is experienced as a humiliating loss with acute self-loathing.
Psychosexuality, Structural Theory and Defenses Freud’s ideas about aggression [13] and his structural theory [3, 14] provide important insights into the way in which the constructs of id, ego, oedipal conflict, and superego development interface with psychosexuality and sexual identity [26]. Structural theory presents a tripartite (id-ego-superego) model of the mind in conflict. The unconscious id’s primary motivation for tension-reduction operates on a pleasure principle. In Freud’s structural theory, the id gradually comes under the control of the ego, which in Freud’s theory, emerged toward the end of the oral stage and is concerned with the demands of reality. The ego acts as the part of the mind that represents the id to reality and partners with it, by disguising and channeling the id’s sexual and aggressive impulses through various defense mechanisms. The ego’s defense mechanisms, outlined by Freud [10], are also unconscious and redirect id impulses toward socially acceptable aims. In terms of defense mechanisms and their presumed psychosexual correlates, one might consider the child’s hallucinating of the breast as a defense against periods of frustration during the oral stage; the use reactionformation against anger and disgust (e.g., over compliance as a defense against anger) as a primary defense mechanism
during the anal stage; and repression, undoing, identification, intellectualization as primary defenses during the genital stage. Brenner [4] argues that any psychological activity reflects a compromise between id, ego, and superego, and includes both adaptive and defensive aspects.
Psychosexuality, Ego Psychology, Psychosocial Stages, and Object Relations Although Freud focused primarily on psychosexual conflict, other prominent psychoanalytic theorists elaborated upon psychosexual theory and emphasized the ego’s adaptive capacities, [15], psychosocial conflicts [8], the role of developmentally appropriate separations from the primary caretaker’s in the maturation of ego’s autonomous functions [17]. An ego-psychological perspective holds that the ego is present from birth with its own autonomous abilities, such as perception, motility, language, anticipation, attention, memory, emotion, that are directed toward adaptation. This idea of the ego as adaptive is different from the idea of an ego that served mainly to direct the id’s desires. Erikson’s psychosocial theory emphasizes different stages of psychosocial conflict in conjunction with psychosexual stages and extends these conflicts throughout the lifespan. Mahler, Pine, and Bergman’s separationindividuation model focuses on the way in which the child’s ability to separate from the caretaker supports the development of different skills and independence, and contributes to the internalization of different perceptions of self in relation to other people. These developmental challenges interact with psychosexuality; for example, the oral stage involves tension and sensation associated with the mouth, including feeding, and biting, but orality also involves being held, comforted, and nurtured, and has implications for the development of a sense of trust versus mistrust [8], and the child’s emergent ability to use different skills and feel psychologically safe even when separated from the primary caretaker [17]. Similarly, the anal stage is associated with feelings of internal bodily pressure and control, but also has psychosocial implications for a child’s sense of autonomy versus shame and self-doubt as well an object-relational component of predominately self control versus feeling controlled by a demanding caretaker. Recall that the instinct is gratified by an outside source, and it is this source, typically a caretaker, to whom the child becomes attached interpersonally. Indeed, at each psychosexual stage, the prevailing attitude of parents, which might be timely, frustrating, or over stimulating, influences the type of conflict, but this does not necessarily translate into discrete character oral, anal, or phallic-genital types. Instead, a child who is needy, or greedy, or bossy, or overly
Psychosexual Stages, of Freud
competitive has conflicts that have been influenced to different degrees by the predominance of conflict associated with the oral, anal, and phallic-genital stages. Frustration or excessive stimulation can fixate child character development and complicate maturation through the subsequent psychosexual stage(s). The clinician has to assess the degree to which each stage contributes to conflict, understand its adaptive and maladaptive nature, and appreciate the defenses that are constructed to protect the child from experiencing excessive anxiety and their impact on the parent-child relationship.
Oedipal Conflict and Superego It is during the genital stage and as outcome to the oedipal conflict that the superego emerges. The superego [14] is the part of the mind that internalizes parental standards, imposes consequences, and, as Schafer [22] notes, also embodies internal ideals that serve as a source of pride and self-love. The oedipal conflict is central to Freud’s psychosexual theory because of its intimate connection with psychosexuality and differential clinical implications for boys and girls. In Freud’s theory, boys gradually separate from their mother, the initial object of identification and gratification, as genital sensations are differentiated from other feelings. Freud assumed an innate bisexuality, but as a biological evolutionist, viewed heterosexuality as the more desirable outcome of a positive oedipal resolution. In the oedipal conflict, the boy competes with his father for his mother’s affection, but must ultimately renounce these rivalrous feelings because of a fear of castration. Castration anxieties are present because the of the genital excitement associated with the boy’s wish to possess his mother in conjunction with the guilt feelings that occur in connection with this wish – he experiences rivalry towards his father, who is bigger and evokes a danger (i.e., castration anxiety) in the boy that becomes centered unconsciously in the genital region. The boy then defensively identifies with his father, “. . .or a suitable substitute and idealizing him, thereby establishing the basic strictures of the superego; prohibitions of both killing and incest” [26, p. 339]. Thus, the drive intensity that colors the boy’s identification with his father’s values, or the values of a father-substitute, and his own superego, reflect, on the one hand, his aggressive and incestuous desires and, on the other hand, a fantasy of his father’s retaliatory power. Likewise, for the oedipal girl, similar to the boy, there is also love for the mother, but disappointment in her lack of a phallus. She feels hostility and turns toward the father as a love object. Rivalry with her mother is renounced and positive identification is effected, under the throes of oedipal pressure. The boy’s superego was
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presumed harsher than the girl’s superego because it carries with it the threat of castration, though the superego of both boy and girl emerge under the force of repression of sexual and aggression drive energy directed toward the mother (girl) and father (boy).
Relevance to Childhood Development Primary drive dispositions that emerge from a child’s navigation of psychosexual stage conflicts do not operate in isolation; instead, they build upon each other and shape and the emergent personality in ways that interact with social and educational pressures. Early contributions of psychoanalysis to education discussed the therapeutic role of the school in helping to contain and sublimate drives into positive learning experiences [1, 19] and the way in which psychosexual theory informs learning styles [24]. Psychoanalytic theory also offers insight into school problems in such areas as boredom, impatience, obsessionality, and narcissistic vulnerability [16] as well as a range of learning problems [21]. With respect to intervention, there is an extensive literature on child psychodynamic psychotherapy [5] and psychoanalysis (e.g., [7]) that integrates insights from Freud’s psychosexual model with a psychoanalytic treatment paradigm.
Criticisms Freud’s ideas have endured historically, but not without criticisms that touch upon core elements of his psychosexual theory. For example, Blum [2] discussed modifications in Freud’s theory of female development. Fast [9] criticized Freud’s conception of gender development. Chodorow [6] discussed the narrow nature of potential positive outcomes in Freud’s oedipal conflict, and describes both heterosexuality and homosexuality as well as other sexual outcomes as reflecting compromise formations. Boesky [3, pp. 500–504] summarized conceptual challenges to structural theory. Seligman [23] discussed the role of new paradigms of infant observation and research that raise questions about the intrapsychic focus of Freud’s psychosexual theory.
References 1. Bettelheim, B. (1974). A home for the heart. New York: Knopf. 2. Blum, H. (1976). Masochism, the ego ideal, and the psychology of women. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 24S, 157–191. 3. Boesky, D. (1995). Structural theory. In B. E. Moore & B. F. Fine (Eds.), Psychoanalysis: The major concepts (pp. 494–507). New Haven CT: Yale University Press. 4. Brenner, C. (1982). The mind in conflict. New York: International Universities Press. 5. Chethik, M. (2000). Techniques of child therapy: Psychodynamic strategies (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
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6. Chodorow, N. J. (1992). Heterosexuality as a compromise formation: Reflections on the psychoanalytic theory of sexual development. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 15, 267–304. 7. Chused, J. F. (1988). The transference neurosis in child analysis. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 43, 51–81. 8. Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: W.W. Norton. 9. Fast, I. (1990). Early aspects of gender development: Toward a reformulation. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7, 105–118. 10. Freud, A. (1936). The ego and the mechanisms of defense. London: Hogarth Press. 11. Freud, S. (1981a). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 7, pp. 135–243). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1905) 12. Freud, S. (1981b). Instincts and their vicissitudes. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 117–140). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1915) 13. Freud, S. (1981c). Beyond the pleasure principle. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 18, pp. 7–66). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1920) 14. Freud, S. (1981d). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19, pp. 13–66). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923) 15. Hartmann, H. (1939). Ego psychology and the problem of adaptation. New York: International Universities Press. 16. Klein, E. (1949). Psychoanalytic aspects of school problems. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 4, 369–390. 17. Mahler, M., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant: Symbiosis and individuation. New York: Basic Books. 18. Moore, B. E., & Fine, B. F. (Eds.). (1995). Psychoanalysis: The major concepts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 19. Peller, L. E. (1956). The school’s role in promoting sublimation. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 11, 437–449. 20. Ritvo, S., & Solnit, A. J. (1995). Instinct theory. In B. E. Moore & B. D. Fine (Eds.), Psychoanalysis: The major concepts (pp. 327–333). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 21. Rothstein, A. A., & Glenn, J. (Eds.). (1999). Learning disabilities and psychic conflict: A psychoanalytic casebook. Madison, CT: International Universities Press. 22. Schafer, R. (1959). The loving and beloved superego in Freud’s structural theory. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 15, 163–188. 23. Seligman, S. (1996). Commentaries. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 44, 430–446. 24. Sutherland, R. E. (1951). An application of psychosexual development to the learning process. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 15, 91–99. 25. Tyson, P., & Tyson, R. L. (1995). Development. In B. E. Moore & D. B. Fine (Eds.), Psychoanalysis: The major concepts (pp. 395–420). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 26. Wiedeman, G. H. (1995). Sexuality. In B. E. Moore & B. D. Fine (Eds.), Psychoanalysis: The major concepts (pp. 334–345). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Psychosexuality ▶Psychosexual Stages, of Freud
Psychosis Synonyms Delusional disorder; Depersonalization disorder; Thought disorder
Definition A loss of contact with reality, usually including false ideas about what is taking place or who one is (delusions) and seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations).
Description Psychosis is a term used to describe an array of signs and symptoms suggesting a form of thinking that breaks from reality. Psychosis is not pathognomonic (a sign or symptom specific to a disease or condition) of psychiatric illness. It is a nonspecific cluster of signs and symptoms that may occur in a broad array of medical, neurologic and surgical disorders, or as a consequence of pharmacologic treatment, substance abuse or the withdrawal of drugs and alcohol. The predominant characteristics of this syndrome are used in determining its classification of either organic or functional mental disorders. Psychosis can be due to organic disorders (like thyroid abnormalities), which cause structural defects or physiologic dysfunction of the brain. There is substantial evidence that there are chemical abnormalities in the brains of people with this problem. Psychosis is characterized by an adherence to fixed, false beliefs outside the normal range of a person’s subculture, or by a hallucinatory experience or by what is known as thought disorder: thinking that does not follow any rational line. False beliefs that cause a person to suffer, produce conflict with others or render a person unable to comfortably adapt to the demands of life, are delusions if they are not relinquished when the person is presented with adequate evidence to the contrary. A wide variety of central nervous system disease, from both external poisons and internal physiologic illness, can produce symptoms of psychosis. Possible causes may include alcohol and certain drugs; brain tumors, dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease; epilepsy; manic depression; schizophrenia; and stroke. Symptoms may include abnormal displays of emotion; confusion; depression and suicidal thoughts; disorganized though and speech; extreme excitement (mania); false beliefs (delusions); loss of touch with reality; mistaken perceptions (illusions); seeing, hearing feeling, or perceiving things that are not there (hallucinations); and unfounded
Psychosomatic
fear and suspicion. Treatment depends on the cause of the psychosis. Care in a hospital is often needed to ensure the patient’s safety. Antipsychotic drugs, which reduce hallucinations and delusions and improve thinking and behavior are helpful, whether the cause is a medial or psychiatric disorder. Treatment can be with neuroleptic medication such as atypical neuroleptics like risperidone (brand name: Risperdal) or older neuroleptics like haloperidol (brand name: Haldol). In cases that do not respond to medication, electroshock therapy (ECT) is sometimes used.
Psychosocial Therapy ▶Group Therapy
Psychosocial Treatments ▶Parent Management Training
Psychosomatic MARIA-EVA TSOLA, XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms Psychogenic; Psychophysiological; Psychobiological; Somatopsychic; Somatoform; Somatization.
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and responses take place at a subconscious level. Disabling physical symptoms can arise in the presence or absence of an identifiable etiology and in the presence or absence of other medical or psychiatric disorder [2]. In some cases, however, the functional impairment clearly symbolizes the precipitating stressor. Somatoform Disorders is the term used in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [3] to describe a group of disorders characterized by the production of physical symptoms that cannot be fully explained by a neurological or generalized medical or organic condition. Six different subtypes of disorders are subsumed under the Somatoform Disorders class; these are Conversion Disorder; Somatization Disorder; Body Dysmorphic Disorder; Hypochondriasis; Pain Disorder, and Undifferentiated Somatoform Disorder. Somatoform disorders must be differentiated from other psychiatric conditions, including psychosis, malingering, anxiety disorder, Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and undiagnosed organic disease. There is much evidence to suggest that recurrent, medically unexplained physical symptoms are common in the pediatric age group, and are often associated with other psychiatric symptoms [4, 5]. Recurrent unexplained physical symptoms in children and adolescents commonly fall into four symptom clusters: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, pain and weakness, and ▶pseudoneurological. Somatization can also be poly-symptomatic with diverse somatic complaints in one patient [5]. Several ways have been proposed for understanding psychosomatic symptoms in children. Stress, loss, modeling, prior psychosomatic and physical illness, family communication style, non-supportive family environments, and neuropsychologic abnormalities have all been proposed as potential factors contributing to the development of somatoform disorder.
Etiology
Definition Psychological and behavioral factors that influence the onset, exacerbation, course and outcome of physical conditions.
Description A psychosomatic disorder is a physical condition in which emotional factors play an important part in the causation or maintenance of symptoms. The somatic complaints cause significant distress and interfere with daily functioning [1]. The pain and distress associated with somatoform disorders is not under the individual’s voluntary control,
Psychodynamic Theory Psychodynamic theory postulates that the unconscious operation of psychological defense mechanisms is responsible for medically unexplained pain. According to this model, repressed affect related to psychic conflict is transformed from the emotional realm to the physical one and symptoms are viewed as the direct symbolic expression of an underlying psychological conflict. Primary gain is obtained by keeping the conflict from consciousness and minimizing negative affect. The symptom can afford secondary gain by providing an escape from unwanted consequences or responsibilities as well as
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symbolically representing an unconscious form of selfpunishment for unacceptable feelings [5].
Learning theory Classical and operant conditioning approaches highlight the significance of contingent reinforcement in the development of styles of pain behavior and somatization. Physical symptoms have been called a form of body language for children who have difficulty expressing emotions verbally [5]. Social consequences that are valued by the child, specifically increased parental attention, sympathy from others, and avoidance of responsibilities have been found to play an important role in symptom maintenance, predominantly in children with low self-esteem and low academic competence and in children in families who are uncomfortable discussing negative feelings and experience excessive parental pressure to perform and achieve [6, 7]. Systematic reinforcement of pain-related behaviors early on in the course of the illness appears to increase the probability that these behaviors will endure even following elimination of the original painful stimulus. In opposition, pain-related behaviors have been shown to diminish as they are no longer subject to systematic reinforcement [5].
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Family Systems Somatic preoccupation, recurrent pain complaints, alcohol abuse, and psychiatric disorders are factors within families that have been found to be associated with pain disorders. Social learning theory suggests that the pain symptoms are a result of ‘modeling’ or ‘observational learning’ within the family. In such cases, the child subconsciously models the behavior of an ill family member. In other instances, focus on the child’s illness draws attention away from parental distress, spouse conflict, or other problems within the family. This can subsequently reinforce the child’s illness behavior [5]. Symptoms are often precipitated by environmental stressors. Children undergoing stressful situations have been found to report higher rates of somatic symptoms than children who are not experiencing stressful circumstances. High parental anxiety and prior physical or sexual abuse have also been proposed as factors that intensify the probability of somatization disorders. Types of somatoform disorders diagnosed in children (DSM-IV): 1. Conversion disorder is the most common type of somatoform disorder diagnosed in children. The disorder involves unexplained symptoms or deficits affecting voluntary motor or sensory function that are suggestive of a neurological or other general
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medical condition, but clinical and investigative findings do not conform to any known anatomic or physiologic disorder. The symptoms result in functional impairment; the symptoms are not feigned (as opposed to malingering); and the onset or exacerbation of symptoms follows a readily identifiable psychosocial stressor. Somatization disorder is characterized by a combination of pain, gastrointestinal, sexual and pseudoneurological symptoms. This chronic, recurrent disorder with multiple complaints is often presented in a dramatic and exaggerated way. The diagnosis of somatization disorder is relatively rare in children and adolescents, partially due to the requirements for several years of complaints and disability and for one sexual symptom [2]. Body dysmorphic disorder criteria require excessive concern or preoccupation with a real or imagined defect in body appearance, not better accounted for by an eating disorder or other psychiatric disorder. The disorder causes significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Hypochondriasis is the preoccupation with the fear of having, or the idea that one has, a serious disease based on the person’s misinterpretation of bodily symptoms or bodily functions. Pain disorder is diagnosed when a patient’s predominant complaint is of unexplained physical pain in one or more body parts that causes distress or impairment and for which “psychological factors are judged to have played a significant role in the onset, severity, exacerbation, or maintenance or the pain” [3]. Pain disorder has limited usefulness in children since there are few studies to distinguish it from Conversion disorder. Undifferentiated somatoform disorder is characterized by unexplained physical complaints and distress or unexpected functional impairment lasting at least 6 months, that are below the threshold for a diagnosis of somatization disorder. When somatoform symptoms do not meet the criteria for any of the specific somatoform disorders, a somatoform disorder not otherwise specified is utilized.
Relevance to Childhood Development Patterns of somatization are thought to develop throughout childhood and to remain fairly stable in adulthood [4], with females more likely to report symptoms. While many physical complaints correspond to transient
Psychotherapist
symptoms and a number of children make complete recoveries from somatoform disorders, for some children symptoms grow to be disabling and functionally impairing and result in increased health care utilization [5, 8]. Differences in outcomes are accounted for by a variety of factors. The relevant literature identifies variability in the severity of symptoms, nature of treatments completed, comorbid disorders and problems, length of follow-up, or any combination of these as factors that potentially influence the course and outcome of psychosomatic problems in children [2]. Additional factors that have been found to increase the risk for both the onset of new somatoform conditions and for a stable course over time include female gender, lower social class, the experience of substance use, anxiety and affective disorder, as well as the occurrence of traumatic sexual and physical threat events [8]. A number of long-term consequences in personality development have also been suggested. Individuals who had a somatoform disorder as children or adolescents may continue with identified traits such as being harm avoidant, catastrophizing, symptom sensitive, perfectionistic, high achieving, learning impaired, traumatized, socially impaired, dependent, or passive in coping style. In such an individual, difficulties attaining expectations might add to preexisting anxiety and somatic complaints [2]. An injury, illness, or chronic condition might reinforce symptom anxiety and result in subsequent avoidance of the difficult situation, which would prohibit mastery over it. Remediation of underlying deficits or problems might become increasingly difficult over time as such individuals become progressively more dependent.
References 1. 2.
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6.
Taylor, R. L. (2007). Psychological masquerade: Distinguishing psychological from organic disorders (3rd ed.). New York: Springer. Bursch, B. (2006). Somatization disorders. In M. Hersen, & J. C. Thomas (Eds.), Robert T. Ammerman (Volume Ed.) Comprehensive handbook of personality and psychopathology, Vol. 3: Child psychopathology. New York: Wiley. American Psychological Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-IV). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Campo, J. V., & Fritsch, S. L. (1994). Somatization in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 54, 1223–1235. De Maso, D. R., & Beasley, P. J. (2005). The somatoform disorders. In W. M., Klykylo, & J. L., Kay (Eds.). Clinical child psychiatry (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Peterson, C. C., & Palermo, T. M. (2004). Parental reinforcement of recurrent pain: The moderating impact of child depression and anxiety on functional disability. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 29(5), 331–341.
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Walker, L. S., Claar, R. L., & Garber, J. (2002). Social consequences in children’s pain: When do they encourage symptom maintenance? Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 8, 689–698. Lieb, R., Zimmermann, P., Friis, R. H., Hofler, M., Tholen, S., & Wittchen, H. U. (2002). The natural course of DSM-IV somatoform disorders and syndromes among adolescents and young adults: A prospective-longitudinal community study. European Psychiatry, 17, 321–331.
Psychostimulants ▶Stimulants
Psychotherapist R. TRENT CODD III Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Center of WNC, Asheville, NC, USA
Synonyms Child and family therapist; Therapists
Definition A psychotherapist is a professional who treats psychological disorders and other emotional disturbances with psychotherapy.
Description A psychotherapist may practice psychotherapy, counseling or both. Technical distinctions between psychotherapy and counseling exist. In contrast to counseling, psychotherapy focuses on personality change, is often lengthier in duration, and deals with more severe forms of psychopathology. Counseling, comparatively, tends to be briefer and deal with problems in living rather than psychological disturbance. Despite these technical distinctions, most practitioners and consumers tend to use these two terms interchangeably, and most psychotherapists practice both counseling and psychotherapy.
Types of Psychotherapists Psychotherapists vary by academic discipline, governmental regulation (e.g., licensure type) and psychotherapeutic treatments employed. Psychotherapists come from a variety of academic backgrounds including Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work, Counselor Education, Rehabilitation Counseling
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and Psychiatric Nursing. They possess a variety of degrees, although they typically possess a masters or doctorate degree, such as the following: MD, Ph.D., PsyD, DSW, EdD, MA, MEd, MAEd, MSW, and MS. They may also possess an EdS (i.e., Educational Specialist) degree which is typically defined as 30 graduate hours beyond a masters degree, but is not a doctoral degree. Governmental regulation varies and thus requirements to practice psychotherapy vary across jurisdictions. Although the requirements vary, typically, one must have completed a terminal degree in their field, have completed specified coursework, completed a post-degree or post-coursework supervised experience, completed an exam and attested to a code of ethics. Continuing education is typically required for licensure renewal. Government entities may issue licenses, certifications or registrations to psychotherapists. Some of the various licensure types include Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT). In addition to regulating who may practice psychotherapy, some jurisdictions also restrict who may use the titles associated with these license types (e.g., only those duly licensed in a jurisdiction may call themselves Licensed Psychologists). There are a number of psychotherapeutic treatments practiced by psychotherapists.
Suggested websites American Psychological Association www.apa.org American Psychiatric Association www.psych.org American Counseling Association www.counseling.org American Mental Health Counselors Association www.amhca.org American Psychiatric Nurses Association www.apna.org Clinical Social Workers Association www.cswf.org American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy www.aamft.org
Psychotherapy ▶Dynamic Psychotherapy ▶Reality Therapy
Psychotropic Medication Synonyms Psychodynamic medication; Psychoactive medication; Psychopharmaceutical medication
Definition A class of medications that crosses the blood-brain barrier and interacts with the central nervous system (CNS) to affect the mind, emotions, and behavior.
Description There are a number of psychotropic medications that can be prescribed for different disorders and symptoms. Psychotropic medications are also commonly used by individuals for recreational use because of their pleasurable effects on mood and consciousness. The main classes of psychotropic medications are: Stimulants- Often prescribed to treat attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and shortterm obesity. It works to speeds up the central nervous system, some examples are nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and caffeine. Antidepressants- Prescribed to treat depression and anxiety, works to fix the imbalance of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. The most popular antidepressant medications are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including fluoxetine (Provac), citalopram (Celexa), sertraline (Zoloft), paroxetine (Paxil), and escitalopram (Lexapro). Antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics- Often prescribed to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Some of the most commonly prescribed “typical” antipsychotics are chlorpromazine (Thorazine), haloperidol (Haldol), perphenazine, and fluphenazine. “Atypical” antipsychotics are a newer antipsychotic medication that was created in the 1990s. Some examples are risperidone (Risperdal), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), ziprasidone (Geodon), aripiprazole (Abilify), clozapine (Clorazil), and paliperidone (Invega). Mood stabilizers- Commonly prescribed to treat bipolar disorder, they work on stabilizing mood. The most commonly used mood stabilizers are lithium and anticonvulsant medications, such as divalproex sodium (Depakote). Benzodiazepines- An anti-anxiety medication that is more fast acting than antidepressants. The most commonly used are clonazepam (Klonopin), lorazepam (Ativan), and alprazolam (Xanax). Beta-blockers- These medications are also used to treat anxiety; however, they aim to block some of the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as sweating and trembling. Some examples are acebutolol (Sectral), atenolol (Tenormin), bisoprolol (Zebeta), carvedilol (Coreg), metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol XL), nadolol (Corgard), nebivolol (Bystolic), and propranolol (Inderal LA).
Public Health Psychology
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References
Relevance to Childhood Development
National Institute of Health. National Institute of Mental Health, Health Topics: Mental Health Medications. http://www.nimh.nih. gov/health/publications/mental-health-medications/complete-index. shtml
The onset of puberty varies among individual adolescents. Puberty usually begins in girls between the ages of 10 and 14 years, and between the ages of 12 and 16 for boys. In most girls, the first sign of puberty is the beginning of breast development, followed by growth of pubic and armpit hair. The onset of menstruation (menarche) is typically the last indication of pubertal development and signals fertility. For boys, the first sign of puberty is an increase in the size of the testicles, followed by an increase in the size of the penis, and an increase in pubic and armpit hair. Fertility is achieved in boys near the onset of puberty with a surge of testosterone that triggers the production of sperm (spermarche). The sequence of changes that occur during puberty have been classified by sexual maturity rating (SMR) and are referred to as Tanner Stages. Tanner stages are determined by the development of secondary sex characteristics and help classify puberty development from Stage 1 (prepubertal) to stage 5 (mature adult type). Other physical changes that accompany puberty include the growth spurt, bone growth and mineralization, changes in the respiratory and circulatory systems, and changes in body fat and muscle distribution. Because puberty occurs during adolescence, it is often associated with various other cognitive, social, and emotional developments that occur during the same period.
PTSD ▶Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
PubChem # 2712 ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Pubertal Development ▶Puberty
Puberty
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References JILL A. ANDERSON University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Synonyms
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Pubertal development
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Definition
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Neinstein, L. S., Gordon, C. M., Katzman, D. K., Rosen, D. S., & Woods, E. R. (2002). Adolescent health care: A practical guide (5th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins. Santrock, J. W. (2007). Adolescence (11th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2006). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Siegler, R., Deloache, J., & Eisenberg, N. (2006). How children develop (2nd ed.). New York: Worth. Steinberg, L. (2008). Adolescence (8th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Puberty is the developmental period during which a person becomes capable of sexual reproduction.
Description Puberty (derived from the Latin “to grow hairy”) describes the period of rapid physical maturation that takes place primarily during adolescence. It marks the beginning of sexual maturation and involves a series of hormonal and bodily changes that lead to the achievement of fertility and includes the development of secondary sex characteristics, such as breast development or hair growth.
Public Duty ▶Social Responsibility
Public Health Psychology ▶Health Psychology
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Publishing ▶Media
Puke ▶Purging
Punisher ▶Aversive Stimulus
Punishment JENNIFER M. ALEXANDER, MARIA G. VALDOVINOS Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
then decreases the future probability of the response. A common example of negative punishment is time out. In a time out procedure, the child is removed from the desirable activity/location/person contingent on the behavior one wishes to reduce. For example, a parent might place their child in time out when that child engages in aggression with a playmate. The challenge with negative punishment procedures is maintaining an environment that is in sharp contrast to the time out situation (i.e., must have reinforcing time in). Punishment, regardless of it being positive or negative, functions to decrease the probability of a response, be it a desirable or undesirable behavior. Punishment is a quick way to reduce undesirable behavior, but it is often considered to be a procedure of last resort for affecting behavior change as it is associated with side effects [2, 4]. Since punishment procedures rely on the presentation of aversive stimuli or removal of desirable stimuli, an individual develop other maladaptive behaviors (e.g., aggression) to escape or counter the controlling contingencies or an individual may refrain from engaging in the response only in the presence of the punisher or when the punishment contingencies are in effect. In other words, behaviors under the control of punishment are likely to reoccur when the punisher is removed from the environment [5]. Nonetheless, punishment is useful for eliminating dangerous behaviors as immediately as possible.
Synonyms Discipline; Timeouts
Definition Punishment is a behavioral process in which a response produces the presentation of an aversive consequence or termination of an desirable stimulus thereby decreasing the future probability occurrence of the response under similar circumstances [1, 3]. This process is most effective when the punisher (i.e., aversive stimulus) is presented contingent upon the response, is presented immediately following the response, is used sparingly, and is greater in magnitude than the stimulus otherwise produced by the response [3]. As with reinforcement, there are two forms of punishment: positive and negative punishment. Positive punishment is a process by which a stimulus is added to the environment contingent on a response which subsequently decreases the future probability of the response. For example, if a child is barefoot at the beach and walks onto hot sand, the pain delivered from the hot sand decreases the likelihood that the child will walk barefoot on sand again in the future. Negative punishment is a process by which a stimulus is removed from the environment contingent on a response which subsequently
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Catania, A. C. (1998). Learning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (1987). Applied behavior analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Miller, L. K. (2006). Principles of everyday behavior analysis (4th ed.) Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: Random House. Skinner, B. F. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Purdue Pegboard Dexterity Test TRACEY MCLELLAN University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Definition The Purdue Pegboard is a standardized test that measures finger and hand dexterity [4].
Purdue Pegboard Dexterity Test
Description The Purdue Pegboard was developed by Joseph Tiffin, Ph.D., in 1948. The test has been used most extensively in personnel selection for jobs that require fine and gross motor dexterity. The test measures the gross motor dexterity of hands, fingers and arms, as well as the fine motor dexterity of fingertips. In addition to being employed in personnel selection, the Purdue Pegboard test has also been used in neuropsychological assessments as it has been found to be sensitive to the presence of brain damage. The Purdue Pegboard is a board featuring two columns of 25 holes each. At the top of the board are four cups. The pins (pegs) are kept in the outer left and right cups and the collars and washers are kept in the middle cups (see Fig. 1). There are four subtests of the Purdue Pegboard. In the first three subtests, the participant has 30 s to place as many pins as possible in the holes using first their dominant hand, then non-dominant hand, and finally both hands. The participant is required to start at the top of the board and use the right column when testing the right hand, the left column when testing the left hand and both columns when testing both hands. In the forth subtest, the participant has 1 min to construct as many assemblies as possible. Each assembly consists of a pin, a washer, a collar and another washer. The assemblies are constructed using alternative movements of the right and left hands. For example, the participant would pick up a pin with the right hand and then a washer with the left and so on [5]. A demonstration and practice period is provided at the beginning of each subtest. The Purdue Pegboard is scored
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by calculating the number of pins placed for each hand separately and the number of pairs placed when using both hands. The assembly score is calculated by the number of parts assembled. Normative data are available for males and females ranging from 5 years to 90 years old.
Relevance to Childhood Development Motor skills and co-ordination are basic processing skills that are important to the healthy development of children. In addition, these skills are influential in the development of higher-level cognitive abilities and academic achievement. The Purdue Pegboard is often used to assess fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination in children with a variety of disorders and disease that manifest in childhood and that preferentially effect the development or maintenance of motor skills and co-ordination. For example, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is characterized by impairment in the development of motor coordination. This impairment interferes with daily activities and often also academic achievements. DCD effects 5–6% of school age children [3]. The Purdue Pegboard assessment can be useful in establishing the severity of the impairment as well as the efficacy of interventions. Similarly, the Purdue Pegboard assessment of the adverse effects of therapy on children with acute lymphocytic leukemia revealed significant slowing of fine motor speed and dexterity [1]. The identification of these side effects of therapy helps researchers to develop interventions that limit the long-term effects of therapy. The Purdue Pegboard can also be employed as part of a neuropsychological test battery to assess the recovery of a child who has experienced traumatic brain injury [2]. Specifically, it is a useful way to establish which skills require more intense remediation.
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
Purdue Pegboard Dexterity Test. Fig. 1 The Purdue Pegboard 32020 (Picture adapted from Lafayette Instrument Company).
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Hockenberry, M., Krull, K., Moore, K., Gregurich, M., Casey, M., & Kaemingk, K. (2007). Longitudinal evaluation of fine motor skills in children with leukemia. Journal of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, 29(8), 535–539. Kuhtz-Buschbeck, J., Hoppe, B., Golge, M., Dreesmann, M., DammStunitz, U., & Ritz, A. (2003). Sensorimotor recovery in children after traumatic brain injury: analyses of gait, gross motor, and fine motor skills. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 45(12), 821–828. Laufer, Y., Ashkenazi, T., & Josman, N. (2008). The effects of a concurrent cognitive task on the postural control of young children with and without developmental coordination disorder. Gait & Posture, 27(2), 347–351. Lafayette Instrument Company. Retrieved August 21, 2008, from http://www.lafayetteevaluation.com/ Spreen, O., & Strauss, E. (1998). A compendium of neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms and commentary (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
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Purging ASHLEA SMITH Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Synonyms Barf; Cleaning; Disposal; Elimination; Evacuation; Ejection; Excretion; Expulsion; Heave; Hurl; Pass; Purification; Puke; Regurgitate; Spew; Throw up; Upchuck; Vomit
Definition Purging is the removal or elimination of impurities or other elements.
Description The removal of something unwanted or perceived to be impure most commonly associated with the evacuation from the bowels. Cassell and Gleaves [2] characterized the term as the, “forced expulsion of ingested foods and a purification rite as a means to gain self-control by bulimics” (p. 256). These authors further posited that individuals engage in this behavior to regain their sense of self-discipline and to feel as though they are “good persons who are fresh and clean” ([2], p. 256). This process of cleansing and removing impurities is most often associated with eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) as a method of weight control and calorie reduction. However, purging is also regarded as a sign or symptom of Binge eating disorder (BED), and as current research has progressed is also linked to Purging disorder (PD). The evacuation process is completed by utilizing a variety of methods such as: self-induced vomiting, fasting, over-exercising, or the misuse of enemas, diuretics, or laxatives to expel food. People do also use various objects to induce the purging process for example, the smooth end of a toothbrush or one’s finger. Selfinduced vomiting is one of the most frequently used methods of purging from a clinical standpoint. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Ed., Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR [1]) if an individual meets diagnostic criteria for Anorexia Nervosa (AN), but they also engage in binge eating (e.g., consumption of an excessive amount of calories, some known to digest up to 5,000 calories in a short period of time) and purging behaviors then the diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa binge eating-purging (ANBP) type is given. Additionally, if an individual meets clinical criteria for Bulimia Nervosa
(BN) the disorder will be broken down into either nonpurging type (BN-NP) or purging type (BN-P). Diagnosis is made when an individual admits to using one or multiple methods listed as a means of purification along with meeting diagnostic criteria as that set by the DSM-IV-TR [1] for an eating disorder. Participating in these behaviors causes serious health concerns and risks such as myocardial infarction (e.g., heart attack) due to electrolyte imbalance, esophageal tears, absence of menstrual cycle (e.g., amenorrhea), dehydration, tooth decay and removal of tooth enamel from repeated exposure to stomach acid, chronic bowel problems, damage to skin and nails, subconjunctival hemorrhage (e.g., broken blood vessels), and at the worst case death. Emotional and social consequences usually follow this type of behavior such as depression, erratic mood swings, anxiety, shame, guilt, suicidal ideation, impairment in psychosocial functioning, and social withdrawal, which in cases can manifest into a full blown psychiatric disorder called, Purging disorder (PD) a newly rediscovered eating disorder [5]. Some may find it difficult to differentiate Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), or Binge Eating Disorder (BED) with a diagnosis of Purging disorder (PD). Although the idea of “Purging disorder” is something that has been around for over 20 years, Keel [4] recently uncovered more information to support the clinical existence of this disorder. Keel [4] further defined that for one to be diagnosed with Purging disorder they must exhibit the following: "
(a)regularly use self-induced vomiting, laxatives, or diuretics, (b) individuals are not significantly underweight with a minimum body mass index (BMI) above 18.5 kg/m2, (c) individuals do not have large out of control bingeeating episodes, and (d) individuals have significant body image disturbances. (pp. 1–2)
Continued research on the clinical significance of the diagnosis of Purging disorder (PD) looking at the causes, signs and symptoms, diagnostic criteria set by the DSM-IV-TR [1] Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and treatment options is something that is greatly needed for the future. In concluding, purging is the process to get rid of or eliminate, often recognized with clinical disorders centered around eating disorders.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children as young as four years of age are struggling with body image concerns or wish to be on a diet to lose weight to avoid being labeled fat. With the advent of the worldwide best selling doll, Barbie, on March 9, 1959, 90% of all
Putamen
girls ages three to ten own at least one Barbie doll with American girls owning an average of 12 Barbie dolls; it is no wonder that she brings in revenue over $1.5 billion dollars annually [6]. For especially young girls Barbie is a “cultural icon of female beauty” and what young girls strive to mimic when it comes to body image, appearance, and body weight which can have detrimental effects on one’s self-esteem and self-concept ([3], p. 283). Dittmar, Halliwell and Ive [3] assessed the exposure to images of Barbie doll, Emme doll ([7]; e.g., mirrors the body size of the average U.S. woman), and neutral (e.g., control) images adopted from picture books with five to eight year old girls. [3] found that young girls from the age of five and a half to six and a half experienced a dramatic decrease in body esteem and decreased satisfaction with their current body size making them desire a thinner body like the “thin ideal” Barbie portrays. These researchers also stated that the impact of the images of Barbie was even more pronounced and evident on body esteem dissatisfaction and body image dissatisfaction among those girls age six and a half to seven and a half indicating an even greater risk to the development of eating disorders [3]. The constant exposure of these images to young girls and the strong emphasis society places on these unrealistic thin ideals of what it means to be beautiful may increase the chance that young girls adopt unhealthy strategies such as purging to obtain thinner bodies
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
6. 7.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn.). Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Cassell, D. K., & Gleaves, D. H. (2006). The encyclopedia of obesity and eating disorders (3rd ed.). New York: Facts on File Inc. Dittmar, H., Halliwell, E., & Ive, S. (2006). Does Barbie make girls want to be thin? The effect of experimental exposure to images of dolls on the body image of 5- to 8-year-old girls. Developmental Psychology, 42, 283–292. Keel, P. K. (2008). Defining purging disorder in practice. Eating Disorders Review, May/June 2008, 19, 1–3. Keel, P. K. (2007). Purging disorder: Subthreshold variant or fullthreshold eating disorder? International Journal of Eating Disorders, 40, S89–S94. Mattel. (2009). Barbie fast facts: The best doll ever. Retrieved June 27, 2009, from http://www.barbiemedia.com/?cat=5 Tonner Doll Company (2009). Emme collection. Retrieved on June 27, 2009, from http://www.tonnerdoll.com/emme.htm
Purification ▶Purging
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Purposeful ▶Intentionality
Pustules ▶Acne
Putamen CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition The Putamen is a large nucleus of the Basal Ganglia which, in combination with the other nuclei and structures of this area, participates in the control of higher-order movement.
Description The Putamen is a large nucleus of the forebrain that with the caudate nucleus forms the Striatum [1]. However, the Putamen is also conceptualized as one portion of the Lentiform Nucleus, in combination with the Globus Pallidus [2]. The Putamen is linked with both groupings as it serves to bridge the caudate nucleus and Globus Pallidus and thus is directly connected with both, while caudate nucleus and Globus Pallidus are only connected to one another by way of the Putamen. All three structures (i.e., Putamen, Caudate Nucleus, and Globus Pallidus) represent parts of the Basal Ganglia. The Basal Ganglia share complex interconnections with other structures and regions of the motor system allowing this grouping to participate in the control of higher-order movement, particularly in starting or initiating movement [4]. Due to the close proximity of these structures it is difficult to differentiate the functional roles each play. Rather, it is their
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interconnections that together correspond with their influence on the motor systems. One such pathway is the Striato-Pallido-Thalamic loop, in which the Putamen, as part of the Stiatum, with the Caudate Nucleus, represents the site at which information is received. At this point, information is received from multiple sources of the Neocortex, including the motor system, sensory and higher integrative areas of the cortex, the language center of Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, the thalamic nuclei, and the Substantia Nigra [4]. This information is, in turn, projected to aspects of the Thalamus by way of the Globus Pallidus and from there to the motor areas of the cortex [3]. In addition to these links, the Basal Ganglia present with reciprocal connections with the Midbrain, especially the Substantia Nigra, which is a nuclei of the Tegmentum [3]. This connection is essential to as the Substantia Nigra represents a site of origin of the vast majority of Dopamine-containing neurons within the system which demonstrate an excitatory impact thus helping initiate movement [1].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Definition The Pygmalion effect refers to situations where teacher expectancies of student performance become self-fulfilling prophecies; students perform better or worse than other students based on the way their teacher expects them to perform.
Description This effect is named after George Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion (1913), where a phonetics professor is successful in making a bet that he can teach a poor flower girl to act like an upper-class lady. The term Pygmalion originated in Greek legend with Pygmalion, the king of Cyprus, who was a sculptor. Pygmalion fell in love with a beautiful statue of his own creation, which subsequently came to life. In psychology, the Pygmalion effect, as proposed by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968), applies the ideas of Merton’s self-fulfilling prophecy (2) to education (1). Rosenthal and Jacobson’s landmark Oak School experiment (1968) examined the influence of teacher’s expectations on student performance. A student who is expected to perform well, should in fact, perform better than when not expected to perform as well. This selffulfilling prophecy is referred to as the Pygmalion effect. The Pygmalion effect is a relevant consideration when examining the social, psychological and developmental dynamics between teachers and students in the classroom.
References 1.
Pygmalion Effect KC COLLINS Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL, USA
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4.
Synonyms Experimenter bias; Halo effect; Rosenthal effect; Selffulfilling prophecy; Teacher-expectancy effect
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Kuklinski, M. R., & Weinstein, R. S. (2001). Classroom and developmental differences in a path model of teacher expectancy effects. Child Development, 72, 1554–1578. Merton, R. K. (1948). The self-fulfilling prophecy. Antioch Review, 8, 193–210. Rosenthal, R. J., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils’ intellectual development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Rosenthal, R. J., & Jacobson, L. (1972). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils’ intellectual development. Williston, VT: Irvington Publishers. Shaw, B. (1914, November). Pygmalion: A romance in five acts. Everybody’s Magazine, XXXI(5), 577–612.
Q Q-Sort Method Attachment SHANNA M. WILLIAMS, VICTORIA TALWAR McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Definition The Q-Sort is a measure of attachment used to assess children and toddlers (12–48 months of age).
Description According to Bowlby’s [2] classic theory of attachment an infant’s early interactions and experiences with primary caregivers is the basis for the formation of their attachment to parents. Based upon this initial relationship infants come to internalize their attachment to their caregiver. This process was defined by Bowlby [2] as an infant’s internal working model. In addition to Bowlby’s theory several researchers have expanded upon his initial ideas [1, 3, 4]. Through empirical research several different methods of measuring attachment have been developed (e.g., strange situation). One such method is the Q-sort attachment measure. The Q-Sort attachment measure was first introduced through the collective works of Waters and Deane [6]. Since first being developed the Q-sort has been reviewed several times. Based on the initial development of the tool, the Q-Sort attachment measure is composed of numerous cards (75, 90, or 100). A single observer when administering the Q-sort uses these cards. In order to provide accurate ratings these observers require training to administer the Q-sort. A trained observer uses the cards to rate a child or toddler’s behaviors after several hours of surveillance. Surveillance can be conducted within varying contexts. Upon each card behaviors are described, which are potentially characteristic of the children being observed. Overall, it is recommended that the child be observed for an average of 3 hours in order to produce accurate rankings. It is recommended that observers collect data over several different time periods. Once the observer has completed their surveillance of the subject the cards are ranked along
a continuum. Each item is sorted into one or more piles according to how characteristic it is of the child. Thus, cards are ranked as either very descriptive of the child or not descriptive of the child. Once all of the cards have been ranked the final rankings are compared to the typical rankings of a securely attached child. Rankings can range from perfectly positive score (1.0) to perfectly negative score ( 1.0). A perfectly positive correlation indicates that the child is securely attached. In contrast, a perfectly negative correlation indicates that the child is insecurely attached. Scoring does not allow for distinctions to be made among subtypes of insecure children. Van Ijzendoorn, Vereijken, Bakermans-Kranenburg and Riksen-Walraven [5] performed a meta-analysis of 139 studies on the Q-sort attachment measure. The researchers concluded that measurement of attachment produced through the Q-sort method did converge with attachment measures obtained through the strange situation method. In addition, compared to other attachment measures the Q-sort method allows researchers to measure attachment within varying settings. Thus, permitting researchers with the flexibility to measure attachment outside of the laboratory setting. Since its initial introduction the Q-sort method has been revised several times. Based upon empirical research no differences in effect sizes have been found, to date. Furthermore, researchers have found support for the use of the Q-sort within crosscultural contexts.
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
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Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale. NJ: Erlbaum. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment (Vol. 1). New York: Basic. Bretherton, I. (1985). Attachment theory: Retrospect and prospect. Growing points in attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1/2), 3–35. Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, 66–104. Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Vereijken, C. M. J. L., BakermansKranenburg, M. J., & Riksen-Walraven, J. M. A. (2004). Assessing
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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attachment security with the Attachment Q Sort: Meta-analytic evidence for the validity of the observer AQS. Child Development, 75, 1188–1213. Waters, E., & Deane, K. E. (1985). Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment relationships: Q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early childhood. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, 41–65.
Quality of Life ▶Life Satisfaction
Queer ▶Homosexuality
Quetiapine Synonyms Ketipinor; Quetiapine fumarate; Seroquel; Seroquel XR
United States. Quetiapine is indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia and as either monotherapy or adjunct therapy for depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder and acute manic episodes associated bipolar I disorder. Frequent side effects include headache, agitation, dizziness, drowsiness, weight gain, stomach upset and hyperglycemia. Quetiapine can cause orthostatic hypotension (a drop in blood pressure upon standing that can lead to dizziness or fainting) especially during the first 3-5 day period of treatment, when it is restarted after temporary discontinuation, and after an increase in the dose. The most common side effect of quetiapine is sedation and care should be exercised in any activity requiring mental alertness such as operating a motor vehicle or hazardous machinery. Less common side effects include seizures and hypothyroidism. As with other antipsychotics, long-term use of quetiapine may lead to irreversible tardive dyskinesia, a neurologic disease that consists of involuntary movements of the jaw, lips and tongue. Preexisting conditions or history of liver or kidney disease; heart disease, high blood pressure, heart rhythm problems; heart attack or stroke; low white blood cell (WBC) counts; thyroid disorder; seizures or epilepsy; high cholesterol or triglycerides; diabetes; or trouble swallowing may require dose adjustment or special tests to safely take quetiapine.
Definition An antipsychotic drug prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and used off-label for a variety of other purposes, including insomnia and anxiety disorders.
Quetiapine Fumarate ▶Quetiapine
Description Quetiapine (pronounced /kwɨˈtaɪ.əpiːn/ kwi-TYE-ə-peen) is an atypical or second generation antipsychotic drug marketed by AstraZeneca as Seroquel or SeroquelXR and by Orion Pharma as Ketipinor. Annual sales are approximately $4.7 billion worldwide, and $2.9 billion in the
Quicksilver ▶Mercury
R Race MICHELLE COX1, KENNETH FOSTER2 1 Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA 2 Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA
Synonyms Ethnicity; Racial identity
Definition A biological inbreeding, geographically isolated, population that differs in physical traits from other members of the species. Race is a historical categorization system used to make ostensible distinctions among populations or groups, based on a set of physical characteristics. Typically, these characteristics include skin tone or color, hair texture, and facial (cranial) features.
Description In 1998, the American Anthropology Association published an official statement, noting that “human populations are not unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups” [1]. Race is viewed by this discipline as a variable concept that is influenced by culture, history, politics and science. Some would even argue that while this taxonomy is useless for humans, it may be a valid and useful model for other species. The sociological perspective on race is one that focuses on groups who share certain characteristics with their members and the degree to which they interact, i.e., share norms and roles and share a common identity. Despite the fact that many psychologists continue to embrace an essentialist approach and rely on race as a biological fact, the fact remains that it is a mutable variable. While the term “race” is typically attributed to the period of European imperialism (seventeenth to eighteenth century) and colonization, there exists ample historical evidence that long before this period scientists, philosophers, and rulers were interested in understanding the significance of physical similarity and difference. Ancient Egypt, for example, is credited with the
development of some of the original taxonomic concepts that have developed over time, including such categories as “Egyptians,” “Asiatics,” “Libyans,” and “Nubians.” Although these categories were based around physical features, they were typically assumed as indicative of sociocultural affiliations and used largely for purposes of making tribal and other distinctions. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) is considered the first to systematically study skull features as a method of determining categorical differences among a number of species, including humans. Although he viewed race as about minute variations, Blumenbach’s The Natural Varieties of Mankind introduced a classification of five varieties of man, including the more commonly used categories of Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid (his text also identified the categories American Indian and Malayan). Race has been used as a means for demonstrating ostensibly how one race might be innately superior in intelligence (Caucasoid), while another may have greater physical prowess or abilities (Negroid). The European quest for global expansion, including the transatlantic slave trade, provided a major rationale for instituting a categorization system.
Relevance to Childhood Development Identity is well grounded in the developmental changes that occur from childhood to old age. Identity formation begins early in life, but it continues to develop throughout the lifespan. Racial identity helps shape the attitudes of children and adolescents as well as attitudes about individuals of other racial groups. Racial identity, like any social identity, is a negotiated understanding of who one is and, reciprocally, a negotiated understanding of who others believe one to be. It can be said that while social identity is the generic, racial identity is a case in point, framed by its own unique historical influences which have impacted the ways in which this concept has been viewed and systematically studied. Race and the role of child development have long been an issue of contention and concern. Developmental outcomes are often moderated by race and other sociocultural factors. In the U.S., for example, the interaction of race and poverty provide for predictably negative outcomes in many cases.
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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References
Definition
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Radical Behaviorism is a philosophy of psychology concerned with a natural scientific approach to the study of behavior. It differs from other types of behaviorism in that it includes as its subject matter both private and public events.
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American Anthropology Association. (1998). AAA statement on “race.” Anthropology Newsletter, 39, 3. Baruth, L. G., & Manning, M. L. (2007). Multicultural counseling and psychotherapy: A lifespan perspective (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Blumenbach, J. F. (1775/1865). The natural varieties of mankind. In T. Bendyshe (Ed.), Anthropological treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Gree. Cross, W. E. (1991). Shades of black. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Fish, J. M. (2002). Race and intelligence separating science from myth. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Jones, J. M. (1997). Prejudice and racism (p. 7). New York: McGrawHill. Myrdal, G. (1996). An American dilemma: The Negro problem and modern democracy. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. Pedersen, P. (1994). A handbook for developing multicultural awareness (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Segall, M. H., Dasen, P. R., Berry, J. W., & Poortinga, Y. H. (1999). Human behavior in global perspective: An introduction to cross-cultural psychology (p. 18). Needham, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Racial Identity ▶Bicultural Identity ▶Race
Racism ▶Prejudice
Description Behaviorism was first mentioned in a lecture in 1908 by the French psychologist H. Peiron. It was further espoused in J. B. Watson’s 1913 paper, “Psychology as the behaviorist views it” [3]. Watson insisted that behavior was a worthy subject matter in its own right rather than being seen as epiphenomena of mental events. His behaviorism has been called “methodological behaviorism” and rejected the observation of events that were not available to third-persons, removing thoughts and feelings from the scientific study of behavior. In his 1938 book, Science of Human Behavior, B. F. Skinner expanded the field of study to include these private events, insisting that they were behavior much the same as walking and talking. Skinner, and thus radical behaviorism, differed from methodological behaviorism in that radical behaviorism does not rely on third-party objectivity for the inclusion of subject matter. This view states that private behavior is subject to the same influences, principles, and laws as public behavior. Radical behaviorism poses that while physiology may be of assistance in studying the subject matter of psychology (behavior), it cannot change psychology. This is an important distinction when considering developmental psychology.
Relevance to Childhood Development
RAD ▶Reactive Attachment Disorder
Radical Behaviorism JOSH PRITCHARD1, IVY CHONG2 1 University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA 2 Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
Synonyms Behavior analysis; Functional behavior analysis; Skinner’s behaviorism
Contemporary developmental psychology can be described as a collection of multiple mini-theories without a single overarching unified theory. This is due, in part, to the structural approach to behavior that is taken by many developmental psychologists. One criticism of this approach is that the myriad of mini-theories are focusing on the outcomes of development as their subject matter, often to the exclusion of the study of how the processes occur which lead to these outcomes. While the field of developmental psychology has generated vast amounts of research, there is little unity in the orientation, leading to varying and sometimes conflicting interpretations of the same research results. Radical behaviorism is the philosophy from which the science of behavior analysis is developed. This offers a single unified natural scientific theory of behavior from which to approach and interpret the results of research.
Raphe Nuclei
Behavior analysis posits that the variables determining behavior are found in the environment rather than in the child. By focusing on function rather than structure of behavior, behavior analysts begin to look at the processes responsible for outcomes of development rather than the outcomes themselves. The behavior analysis of child development began by Sid Bijou and Don Baer in the 1960s in a model that adopted the radical behaviorism and J. R. Kantor’s interbehavioral approach. Like many contemporary theories of psychological development, this model had stages (three), however they were neither essential nor explanatory, and most importantly, they were deemed socially determined. As the behavior analytic research into childhood development continued, behavior analysts tended to focus on the behaviors that preceded changes in stages. This was observed by large differences in the child’s ability to interact with the environment due to a seemingly small behavior change, and was named a ▶behavioral cusp [1]. At this point, most behavior analysts tended to focus their study on behavioral cusps rather than stages, once again emphasizing the importance of the process leading to outcomes, rather than the outcomes themselves. Gary Novak and Martha Pelaez took the behavior analytic developmental model and updated it by including a dynamic systems model that resulted in the behavioral systems approach to child development, which provides a comprehensive approach that scales four levels of systems from the basic processes to the societal and cultural levels.
References 1. 2. 3.
Rosales-Ruiz, J., & Baer, D. M. (1997). Behavioral cusps. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 30, 533–554. Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan. Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158–177.
Radio ▶Media
RADS ▶Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2
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RADS-2 ▶Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2
RAN ▶Rapid Automized Naming
Random Coefficient Models ▶Hierarchical Linear Modeling
Raphe Nuclei CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Nuclei of the Raphe
Definition The raphe nuclei represent a cluster of neurons in the posterior regions of the brainstem that is the primary site of serotonin production.
Description The raphe nuclei is a cluster of neurons that are housed in the pons and medulla within the hindbrain [4]. Functionally, it is the primary site of serotonin production [5]. Serotonin is an essential neurotransmitter of the central nervous system that is found throughout brain regions that play a vital role in regulating aspects of eating, sleep and emotional behavior [2]. Projections of the raphe nuclei may be differentiated based on whether the serotonergic pathway originates from either the rostral or caudal end. The rostral raphe nuclei of the midbrain and rostral pons project to the entire forebrain, including the cortex (e.g., limbic system), thalamus, and basal ganglia [1]. These projections are those that have been most linked with the manifestation of various psychiatric manifestations. Specifically, increased serotonin activity has been related to obsessive-compulsive disorders, tics, and schizophrenia whereas decreased serotonin activity is
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linked to depression [3]. Aside from these anterior projections, the caudal raphe nuclei of the caudal pons and medulla project to the cerebellum, medulla, and spinal cord [1]. These projections play a role in pain modulation as well as in aspects of wakefulness [1, 5].
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
with RAN deficit, and poor readers with both deficits. This suggests that reading difficulties are related to the RAN functions and RAN is independent of phonological awareness [13]. RAN is typically measured through speeded naming tasks, which are a common element of neuropsychological and/or psychoeducational tests when language is investigated. RAN assessment typically requires participants to rapidly name the size, shape, and/or color of presented stimuli. Typically, scores on the test are based on the total number of characteristics named correctly for each figure and the time taken to complete the task. Difficulties in RAN performance tasks are related to a number of factors, including poor phonological processing skills or recall ability, impulsivity, and slow processing speed [2, 3].
Relevance to Childhood Development
Rapid Automized Naming ANNA MAZUR-MOSIEWICZ, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Automized naming; RAN; Rapid naming; Speed naming
Definition Rapid Automized Naming (RAN) is a cognitive construct referring to the processing speed and executive control in language access, and is related to lexical access and automaticity of verbal encoding and producing verbal information [7, 8]. The RAN function is impacted by naming ability, basic expressive language, processing speed, working memory, association memory, and long-term verbal memory [8].
Description RAN accounts for sizable variance in reading when phonological awareness and overall level of intelligence are partialled out and is considered an excellent predictor of early reading achievement [2, 9]. RAN has been shown to make a consistent contribution to reading beyond phonological awareness, orthographic processing, and memory [1, 10, 13]. Impairment of the RAN functions is considered one of primary causes of reading difficulties in children [13]. This is supported by studies of reading, which provide evidence that individuals with poor reading skills can be separated into three subgroups, including poor readers with phonological awareness deficit, poor readers
Research has established RAN is a valid and reliable predictor of reading success in children [4–6, 12]. Types of RAN tasks tend to have different predictive strength; presymbolic types of RAN tasks (colors and objects) outperform symbolic RAN tests (numbers and letters) in the strength of their relationship to reading skills and vocabulary across grades [11]. Yet, symbolic RAN tends to be a key factor in distinguishing between good and poor readers among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [3]. According to a number of studies, it appears that various RAN performances may be able to distinguish between different clinical groups of children, including reading disabilities (RD), ADHD, and combined RD and ADHD. Additionally, specific RAN tasks, including numbers and letters RAN, are better concurrent discriminators, whereas other RAN tasks, such as the color and objects RAN, and better predictors of reading impairments [3]. Poor RAN performance suggests difficulties related to automaticity of naming, processing speed, or naming ability. Children who display difficulties in the area of speed and automaticity of verbal encoding tend to struggle with decoding of the textual information, and their reading is usually laborious and slow. However, they tend to have normal reading and language comprehension skills [13]. RAN performance may be indicative of connection between spoken and written word. Therefore, reduced RAN ability may be an indicator of problems with accessing correct language labels, and related to deficient retrieval of sound-symbol associations, which may be further related to dysnomia [8]. Finally, RAN largely depends on attention and motor skills, and children with attention and/or motor problems are likely to perform poorly on the RAN tasks [8].
Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
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References
Definition
1. Bowers, P. G. (1989). Naming speed and phonological awareness: Independent contributors to reading disabilities. In S. McCormick, & J. Zutell (Eds.), Cognitive and social perspectives for literacy research and instructions: 38th yearbook of the national reading conference. Chicago: National Reading Conference, Inc. 2. Davis, A., & D’Amato, R. C. (2005). Evaluating and using contemporary neuropsychological batteries: The NAPSYand the Dean-Woodcock Neuropsychological Assessment System. In R. C. D’Amato, E. FletcherJanzen, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of school neuropsychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 3. Denckla, M. B., & Cutting, L. E. (1999). History and significance of rapid automatized naming. Annals of Dyslexia, 49, 29–45. 4. Denckla, M. B., & Rudel, R. G. (1972). Color-naming in dyslexic boys. Cortex, 8, 176–186. 5. Denckla, M. B., & Rudel, R. G. (1974). Rapid automized naming of pictured objects, colors, letters, and numbers by normal children. Cortex, 10, 186–202. 6. Denckla, M. B., & Rudel, R. G. (1976). Naming of objects by dyslexic and other learning-disabled children. Brain and Language, 3, 1–15. 7. Johnston, S. J., & Anderson, M. (1998). Memory span, naming speed, and memory strategies in poor and normal readers. Memory, 6(2), 143–163. 8. Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (2007). NEPSY II second edition: Clinical and interpretative manual. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment Inc. 9. Manis, F. R., Doi, L. M., & Bhadha, B. (2000). Naming speed, phonological awareness, and orthographic knowledge in second graders. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33(4), 325–333. 10. McBride-Chang, C., & Manis, F. (1996). Structural invariance in the associations of naming speed, phonological awareness, and verbal reasoning in good and poor readers. A test of double deficit hypothesis. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8, 323–339. 11. Meyer, M. S., Wood, F. B., Hart, L. A., & Felton, R. H. (1998). Selective predictive value of rapid automatized naming in poor readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31, 106–117. 12. Wagner, R. K., Torgesen, J. K., & Rashotte, C. A. (1994). Development of reading-related phonological processing abilities: New evidence of bidirectional causality from a latent variable longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 30, 73–87. 13. Wolf, M. (1997). A provisional integrative account if phonological and naming-speed deficits in dyslexia: Implications for diagnosis and intervention. In B. Blachman (Ed.), Foundations of reading acquisition and dyslexia. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rapid eye movement sleep is one of five stages of sleep and is characterized by dipolar saccadic eye movements, increased central nervous system activity, muscle paralysis (except for breathing and erectile function), and coincides with dreaming.
Rapid Eye Movement Sleep KIM GUION Sleep Disorders Clinic, Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Dream sleep; Dream state; REM; REM Sleep; Stage 5 sleep
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Description REM sleep was first described and discovered as a unique sleep state in 1953 by Aserinsky and Kleitman [1]. This relatively recent discovery lead to a reconceptualization of sleep, which was previously thought to be a state of passivity. In contrast, EEG recordings and reports of dreaming during the newly identified REM period indicated a highly active brain state, similar to that of a waking state [1]. Characteristics: REM typically occurs 70–90 min after sleep onset. One sleep cycle, achieving each of the five sleep stages, lasts approximately 90–110 min. Length of REM sleep during each sleep cycle increases as the night progresses. Initial REM periods average approximately 10 min, while REM sleep in the early morning hours may last up to 60 min [4, 6]. REM sleep is initiated by signals in the pons area at the base of the brain. Neural signals then pass through the thalamus and then the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain responsible for complex thinking and reasoning. The pons also initiates motor paralysis by limiting activation to the spinal chord. When this aspect of REM is disrupted, people may demonstrate sleep behavior disorders [4]. REM sleep is often characterized by increased central nervous system (CNS) activation, oxygen consumption in the brain, and increased neural blood flow [4]. Other physiological characteristics include decreased REM sleep propensity at lowered body temperature, decreased muscle tone, and increased heart rate variability, although average heart rate tends to be diminished (by up to 8%) compared with humans’ restful waking state [2, 6]. Temperature regulation may also be more difficult during REM, resulting in reports of feeling too hot or too cold when woken during this stage [2–4]. Measurement: REM may be visually identified, though not with clinically sufficient accuracy, by the saccadic eye movements characteristic of this sleep phase. Sophisticated measures of sleep phase include a combination of EEG data, muscle tone, eye movement measurements, breathing and heart rate as measured by electrodes placed on the head, face, legs, fingers, and breathing monitors. Specifically, decreased chin tone, heart rate, and breathing rate are noted during REM in most people. Breathing rate
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during REM is also typically more erratic, and oxygen consumption increases [7]. Importance: The importance of REM sleep in maintaining normal daytime functioning is critical, as inadequate amounts of REM sleep or disrupted REM sleep may result in excessive daytime sleepiness. Sleep deprivation studies have shown that consistent REM sleep deprivation may result in experiencing hallucinations, excessive irritability, and diminished reasoning abilities [3]. Diminished REM sleep may also result in decreased immune functioning [7]. REM deprivation studies with rats and other mammals have also shown that abrupt and severe REM deprivation leads to an increased propensity to fall into REM, and eventual organic functions failure and death [5]. Less severe studies with humans have shown fewer ill effects of REM deprivation, however the inclination to fall into REM sleep more rapidly and for longer periods also occurs in humans [2]. Research indicates that REM sleep plays a key role in information processing and procedural memory functioning (compared with declarative) in particular. Increased CNS activation is considered an associated component of these memory functions [4]. The importance of dreaming, which occurs during REM sleep, is largely unknown. Early psychologists, including Sigmund Freud, hypothesized that dream sleep was essential for working through repressed or hidden psychic distress. Other hypotheses suggest that dreaming is the cortex’s attempt to organize and interpret random neural firing or that neurological activation is directly related to the previous day’s events [2, 6]. Disruptions in REM sleep: Antidepressants suppress REM sleep [7]. Heavy smokers may demonstrate reduced REM sleep, and alcohol consumption may also result in decreased amounts of REM sleep [7]. Although concerns with substance use are less prevalent in pediatric populations, adolescent substance use and psychotropic medications are important factors to consider when assessing disruptions in REM sleep. Sleep apneaic events tend to occur more frequently during REM sleep, particularly obstructive apnea, which is exacerbated by the decreased muscle tone that is present during REM sleep. Other sleep disorders, including parasomnias, that are also associated with REM sleep are nightmares, sleep paralysis, sleep behavior disorders (moving in sleep), circadian rhythm disorders, and delayed sleep phase syndrome [3, 6]. Nightmares frequently occur in childhood, and are associated with the REM sleep period.
Relevance to Childhood Development Due to the importance of REM sleep for maintaining adequate daytime functioning, children and adolescents who exhibit REM sleep disorders or experience disruptions in REM sleep due to sleep apnea, substance use withdrawal, psychotropic medication use, parasomnias, etc., often experience significant daytime functioning difficulty. Excessive daytime sleepiness that results from disruptions in sleep quality has a notable impact on school functioning, attention, motor coordination, and mood. Specifically, children who do not maintain adequate amounts of overall or REM sleep often have lower grades, demonstrate attention and behavioral difficulties in school and at home, demonstrate decreased fine motor coordination, have more depressed mood, and are less sociable [3]. Developmental Changes: Sleep in newborns is comprised of approximately 50% REM sleep, a ratio that decreases developmentally. REM composes 30% of overall sleep time in 1–2 year olds, and 20–25% of total sleep time by 5 years of age. This ratio is maintained throughout adolescence and most of adulthood [3].
References 1.
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Aserinsky, E., & Kleitman, N. (1953). Regularly occurring periods of eye motility, and concomitant phenomena, curing sleep. Science, 118, 273–274. Kryger, M., Roth, T., & Dement, W. (Eds.). (2005). Principles and practice of sleep medicine (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences. Mindell, J., & Owens, J. (2003). A clinical guide to pediatric sleep: Diagnosis and management of sleep problems. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). (2007). Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep. NIH Publication No.06-3440-c. Retrieved March, 2009 from http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/ brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm Rechtschaffen, A., Bergmann, B., Everson, C., Kushida, C., & Gilliland, M. (2002). Sleep deprivation in the rat: X. Integration and discussion of the findings. Sleep: Journal of Sleep and Sleep Disorders Research, 25(1), 68–87. Sheldon, S., Ferber, R., & Kryger, M. (Eds.). (2005). Principles and practice of sleep medicine. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences. Sonne, L. (Ed.). (2007). Reviewed by the sleep medicine center at the Cleveland clinic. Sleep 101. Retrieved March, 2009 from http://www. webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101
Rapid Naming ▶Rapid Automized Naming
Raymond Dean
Rating Scales MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Record judgment of qualitative variables; Semi-objective scales
Definition Instruments designed to have individuals provide quantitative/semiquantitative ratings to variables using a set of numbers or categories. Quantitative judgments are provided or attributed to the raters with the numerical values being available for statistical measures, such as the mean.
Rating scales may consist of a number of categories and/or an array of numbers representing a level of performance. One example is a typical 1–5 Likert Scale which might assign the following variables to each number. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
Whereas rating in sporting events may award a number from 1 to 10 to represent the judgment of performance, typically research that uses rating scales asks examinees how they feel or perceive a situation or circumstance. After the numbers are obtained from the rating scale, they are typically considered direct metrics and can, therefore, be used in calculating averages or in statistical analysis. However, statistically a number of assumptions must be made concerning the underlining distribution.
Relevance to Childhood Development Rating scales are an often used assessment tool when working with children. They allow the examiner to quickly gather information on a variety of subjects. Specific rating scales that are commonly seen when working with children are the Behavior Assessment System for Children – second edition and vineland adaptive behavior scales. The compendium Assessment Scales in Psychiatry Series, edited by Alistair Burns (2006) [4] is an excellent
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work that covers comprehensively the major rating scales used in clinical and research assessment of children. The book contains concise summaries of important information on over a hundred different children’s rating scales. The compendium groups the rating scales into three broad categories: (1) general or broadband behavior rating scales; (2) scales for specific problems as seen in the DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10; and (3) impairment scales. Each entry contains a description of the scale including its uses and psychometric properties. Of additional importance, the compendium also includes (with permission) either sample items from each scale or the entire scale itself.
References 1. 2. 3.
Description
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Andersen, E. B. (1977). Sufficient statistics and latent trait models. Psychometrika, 42, 69–81. Michell, J. (1997). Quantitative science and the definition of measurement in psychology. British Journal of Psychology, 88, 355–383. Michell, J. (1999). Measurement in psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Verhulst, F. C., & Van Der Ende, J. (2006). In A. Burns (Ed.), Assessment Scales in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Abingdon, UK: Informa UK Ltd.
Ratio IQ ▶Intelligence Quotient
Rationalizing ▶Critical Thinking
Raymond Dean MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Life Dates 1946–Present
Introduction Dr. Dean is a well-known and influential neuropsychologist whose work has stressed the need for increased
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understanding of neurological functioning through the assessment of specific cognitive and sensory motor functioning.
Educational Information Originally from New York, Dr. Dean graduated with a BA degree in Psychology and an MS degree in Research and Psychometrics from the State University of New York at Albany. Upon graduation he received the ParachekFrazier Research Fellow and went on to complete his PhD in School/Child Clinical Psychology at Arizona State University. Dr. Dean later completed a neuropsychological internship at Arizona Neuropsychiatric Hospital and postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His career and research has been strong influenced by his association and training with noted psychologists Dr. Ralph Reitan and Dr. Richard W. Woodcock.
Cantrell Theory of Intelligence (CHC) the DeanWoodcock Sensory Motor Battery represented a clear departure from the traditional actuarial approaches of neuropsychological assessment. Dr. Dean was both founder and editor for the Achieves of Clinical Neuropsychology and the Bulletin of the National Academy of Neuropsychology.
Current Involvement Dr. Dean is currently the George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Neuropsychology at Ball State University and Director of the Neuropsychology Laboratory where he has worked since 1984. He continues to teach, publish, and mentor doctoral students and has remained clinically active.
References 1.
Accomplishments Dr. Dean has been a prolific writer in the area of Neuropsychology contributing more than 500 research articles, books, and chapters to the field. He has served as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the Staff College of the National Institute of Mental Health. Additionally, Dr. Dean is a past President of the Clinical Neuropsychology Division of the APA and the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and was elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Dean has been recognized for his accomplishments by awards from the National Academy of Neuropsychology, the Journal of School Psychology, and the Clinical Neuropsychology Division of APA. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Dean was the founder and Editor in Chief of the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, the Bulletin of the National Academy and the Journal of School Psychology.
Contributions Dr. Dean research has focused on laterality, cognitive neuropsychology, and neuropsychological tests based in functionality rather than localization. His concerns on the efficacy of traditional neuropsychological assessment have been realized with the growth of radiological scanning techniques such as the MRI and fMRI over the last quarter century. Through his association with Dr. Richard W. Woodcock, Dr. Dean developed the Dean-Woodcock Neuropsychological Assessment System and the DeanWoodcock Neuropsychological Battery. The latter was published emphasizing functionality in neurological assessment. With its emphasis on the Cattel-Horn-
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Carroll, J. B. (1997). The three-stratum theory of cognitive abilities. In D. P. Flanagan, J. L. Genshaft, & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary cognitive assessment: Theories, tests and issues. New York: Guilford. Dean, R. S. (1985). Perspectives on the future of neuropsychological assessment. In B. S. Plake, & J. C. Witt (Eds.), Buros-Nebraska series on measurement and testing. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. Dean, R. S. (1985). Foundation and rationale for neuropsychological bases of individual differences. In L. C. Hartlage & C. F. Telzrow (Eds.), The neuropsychology of individual differences: A developmental perspective. New York: Plenum. Dean, R. S., & Woodcock, R. W. (2003). Examiner’s manual. DeanWoodcock neuropsychological battery. Itasca, IL: Riverside. Dean, R. S., & Woodcock, R. W. (2003). Dean-Woodcock neuropsychological battery. Itasca, IL: Riverside.
Razadyne ER® ▶Razadyne®
Razadyne® ANISA FORNOFF Drake University, Ankeny, IA, USA
Synonyms Galantamine; Razadyne ER®
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
Reactive Attachment Disorder
Description This medication is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor available in a tablet, solution, or extended release capsule. This medication does not cure the disease or stop it from getting worse, but may improve thinking ability. The recommended starting dose for this medication in the immediate release tablet or oral solution is 4 mg twice a day. The recommended dose for the extended release capsule is 8 mg once daily. Dose increases should be done gradually. Maximum recommended daily dose is 24 mg. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor. Some side effects are listed here: bladder pain, painful urination, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, headache, changes in sleeping, and weight loss.
Relevance to Childhood Development Razadyne® is not FDA approved for use in children. Use is not recommended.
References 1. 2. 3.
(2008). AHFS Drug Information (24th ed., pp. 1280–1282). MA: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. Lexi-Drugs Online (database online). Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp Inc.; Accessed 26 Aug 2008. (2007). Advice for the patient: Drug Information in Lay language (USP DI Vol. 2, 27th ed., pp. 795–797). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex.
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refined by his daughter Ana Freud in 1937. In brief, reaction formation is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism aimed to reduce anxiety about an internalized drive, belief, feeling, or behavior which is manifested by an overt behavior or stance that is the direct opposite [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development An example, particularly in schools, is that when a child glorifies their mother or father, when in fact they have a strong dislike, resentment, or even hatred toward that parent. Or, a mother who outwardly displays a deep affinity toward her child may inwardly feel that she does not want the child. Therapists who recognize reaction formation in their clients may seek to foster an environment of unconditional positive regard and acceptance while helping the client to acknowledge their feelings and inner conflict and to recognize that such coping mechanisms are unhealthy. The ultimate goal is for the client to abandon this exaggerated form of compensation in favor of socially appropriate alternative behaviors or problem solving skills. Since reaction formation purportedly develops from unconscious thoughts and feelings, therapy is often continued until deeper feelings and emotions can be appropriately addressed [3].
References 1.
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RCDS 3.
▶Reynolds Child Depression Scale
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Esman, A. H. (2008). Review of from death instinct to attachment theory: The primacy of the child in Freud, Klein, and Hermann. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 77(3), 967–970. Freud, S., & Brill, A. A. (1995). The basic writings of Sigmund Freud (psychopathology of everyday life, the interpretation of dreams, and three contributions to the theory of sex). New York: Random House. Sutton, W. K. (2008). Ego defenses utilized by bullies, victims, bully/ victims, and nonbully/victims. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 68(12B), 8415.
R Reaction Formation KEVIN REGUEIRA Niagara University Academic Complex, Niagara, NY, USA
Definition
Reactive Aggression ▶Hostile Aggression
Reactive Attachment Disorder
A Freudian defense mechanism in which an individual expresses a strong outward belief about a particular subject when in fact they are internalizing the opposite belief [2].
ELIZABETH L. ROBERDS, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Description
Synonyms
Reaction formation was first proposed by Sigmund Freud as one of his Ego Defenses. The definition was further
Disorganized/disoriented attachment; RAD; Reactive attachment disorder of infancy or early childhood
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Reactive Attachment Disorder
Definition A disorder characterized by disturbed and inappropriate social interactions across social contexts. Onset must occur before the age of 5 years. Verification of ▶pathogenic care must occur before diagnosis can be confirmed.
behavioral regulation [6]. Children diagnosed with RAD may have related issues stemming from abuse and neglect that are not part of RAD that also need professional attention. These include unattended medical conditions, as well as trouble with speech or language [2].
Description
Relevance to Childhood Development
Reactive ▶attachment disorder (RAD) is characterized by disturbed and inappropriate social interactions across social contexts with an onset prior to age of 5. Before a child can be diagnosed with RAD, developmental delay or other disorders must first be ruled out as the cause of the inappropriate social interaction. Additionally, there must be verification of gross pathogenic care, as indicated by at least one of the following: persistent disregard of the child’s emotional needs, persistent disregard of the child’s physical needs, or repeated changes in the child’s primary caregiver that prevents the formation of stable attachment [1]. It is generally presumed that this neglectful and/or abusive care is primarily responsible for the disturbed social interaction in children with RAD. Prevalence is difficult to determine due to the ▶comorbid conditions often seen in children with RAD.
There is not a widely-used standard assessment battery designed specifically for children with RAD. Assessment involves direct observation of the child, preferably including observation of the child with their primary caregivers. It is also critical to consider the child’s history and past environment [2]. Comprehensive psychoeducational and/ or neuropsychological testing is recommended to aid in ▶differential diagnosis and determine functional capability. It is recommended that RAD be diagnosed only by a trained mental health professional with expertise in child development and differential diagnosis [3]. Risk factors have been identified for RAD. These include children who have experienced multiple living situations, such as those raised in orphanages or foster care or who have been frequently moved from one caregiver to the next. Another salient risk factor is a history of abuse and/or neglect. It is important to understand that even extreme abuse, neglect, and multiple living situations do not always lead to RAD. School may be a challenging environment for children with RAD, as inappropriate social interaction and reciprocity extends into this environment and may contribute to behavioral, emotional, and academic challenges [6]. Children with RAD may be rejected by peers [6]. The teacher–student relationship can also be affected by RAD, leading to a variety of problems such as engaging in proximity-seeking behavior with teachers, or seeking help from teachers in inappropriate ways [6]. Teachers familiar with RAD, and who understand emotional and behavioral regulation, will best be able to support students with the disorder [6]. Given the appropriate supportive environment, children with RAD may improve behaviorally and form attachments to caregivers. To promote healthy attachment, caretakers ideally would provide a stable, safe, and predictable environment, and would be sensitive and responsive to the child’s needs [3]. Despite an improved environment, indiscriminate social relatedness may continue even after a child has formed selective attachments [1]. Though RAD has not been well researched, it is presumed that without change in environment and care, improvement should not be expected. Currently, many therapies exist for the treatment of RAD, but most are not evidence based practices, and some
Subtypes and Symptoms Two subtypes of RAD have been identified: inhibited and disinhibited. Individuals with the inhibited subtype do not to initiate social interactions or respond in social situations in ways that are developmentally appropriate [1]. The inhibited subtype may also be referred to as the “emotionally withdrawn” subtype ([2], p. 1209). Children with RAD of this subtype generally do not seek comfort from others in times of distress, and may resist comfort from familiar caregivers. Individuals with the disinhibited subtype exhibit little to no selectivity when choosing attachment figures [1]. The disinhibited subtype may also be referred to as the “indiscriminate” subtype ([2], p. 1210). Children with RAD of this subtype do not discriminate when seeking comfort and may be equally likely to seek physical comfort from a stranger even if their primary caregiver is close by. These children may be described as shallow and attention-seeking [2]. Following common diagnostic guidelines, children must be diagnosed as having one subtype or the other, and cannot be diagnosed as having both; however, some argue that the two subtypes can be simultaneously present [8]. Children with RAD may lack empathy [4], may intentionally harm themselves or others, and may be hypervigilant [7]. Children with RAD have also been observed to exhibit impulsive and self-endangering behaviors [5]. They may generally struggle with emotional and
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are controversial. Often, both the child and their caregivers are involved in psychotherapeutic treatment, though treatment may involve working with the child or caregiver(s) alone. The scientific community has generally rejected attachment therapy that involves coercion, compression holding, ▶rebirthing therapy, or the promotion of regression, as they have not been empirically supported and in some documented cases have caused serious harm and even death to children [2, 3].
References 1.
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American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Rev.). Washington, DC: Author. Boris, N. W., Zeanah, C. H., Bernet, W., Burkstein, O., Arnold, V., Beitchman, J., et al. (2005). Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with reactive attachment disorder of infancy and early childhood. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(11), 1206–1219. Chaffin, M., Hanson, R., Saunders, B. E., Nichols, T., Barnett, D., Zeanah, C., et al. (2006). Report of the APSAC task force on attachment therapy, reactive attachment disorder, and attachment problems. Child Maltreatment, 11(1), 76–89. Hall, S. E. K., & Geher, G. (2003). Behavioral and personality characteristics of children with reactive attachment disorder. The Journal of Psychology, 137(2), 145–162. Heller, S. S., Boris, S., Page, T., Koren-Karie, N., & Miron, D. (2006). Reactive attachment disorder in maltreated twins follow-up: From 18 months to 8 years. Attachment and Human Development, 8(1), 63–86. Schwartz, E., & Davis, A. S. (2006). Reactive attachment disorder: Implications for school readiness and school functioning. Psychology in the Schools, 43(4), 471–479. World Health Organization. (2004). International statistical classification of diseases and health related problems (2nd ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Zeanah, C. H., Scheeringa, M., Boris, N. W., Heller, S. S., Smyke, A. T., & Trapani, J. (2004). Reactive attachment disorder in maltreated toddlers. Child Abuse and Neglect, 28, 877–888.
Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy or Early Childhood ▶Reactive Attachment Disorder
Reading ELIZABETH LEVIN, LESLIE VILLENEUVE Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada
Synonyms Orthographic reading skills
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Definition Reading can be defined as the cognitive process associated with the interpretation of written language.
Description Reading is a complex learned skill that most people develop without understanding how or why the process works. However, the ability to read is one of the most important abilities needed in order to be successful academically, professionally, and personally [4]. Those who specialize in the study of reading have been unable to come to an agreement on the definition of reading. Some define reading as the ability to sound out strings of letters while others define reading as the process of extracting and constructing meaning from text [7]. Involved in this complex process of constructing meaning are aspects such as word recognition, fluency, comprehension, and motivation. At a minimum then, reading requires knowing the sounds of letters and knowing the meanings of words and groups of words, and being able to put it all together fluently. The process of learning to read is a relatively long one that begins early in a child’s development [5]. A successful reader must learn how to use spoken language and to recognize that spoken language is composed of individual sounds. Along with this develops the knowledge of the names, sounds, shapes, and formations of letters or syllables, and the knowledge that these letters and syllables are what make up written words. Successful readers know the direction in which text is read (note this is dependent on the specific language), recognize words on sight, and can identify novel words using both the rules of written language and the context in which these words are written. Finally, in order to read successfully, a child must learn to do each of the above abilities automatically, freeing up resources to focus on understanding the selection of text. An individual passes through the following stages while learning to read: the pre-reader and the beginning reader, the emerging reader, the early reader, and the fluent reader. 1. The pre-reader and the beginning reader enjoy looking at books and having books read to them. They learn words by looking at things like picture books, traffic signs, and logos (e.g., restaurant logos), as well as by singing songs and learning rhymes. At this stage beginning readers learn things like where a story begins and ends, and how to use pictures and memory to tell and retell stories. 2. The emerging reader is prepared to be taught about reading, and has learned that text represents a way to
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tell a story or to communicate information to others. An emerging reader starts to match written words to words heard spoken aloud, and to notice the relationships between sounds and letters. The child begins to experiment with reading, and will attempt to read aloud when looking at simple texts. At this stage, pictures are beneficial as they allow the child to understand the words being read, and to realize that the written words express a message that is consistent with the pictures displayed in the story. 3. Early readers develop greater confidence in their reading ability and use a variety of methods to identify words. They will be familiar with many words and will be eager to attempt new types of text. 4. The fluent reader reads automatically, and knows many methods for identifying both words and their meanings. The fluent reader can read many different types of text and is able to predict the events in a story. At this stage, the reader is able to relate personal experiences and knowledge to events read about in books. The majority of children learn the basics of reading by the time they reach the age of seven, although reading proficiency takes many years. Learning to read has its foundation in the language skills that begin to be acquired shortly after birth. For the most part, birth to age three brings the ability to create sounds that imitate tones and rhythms that adults use when they are speaking. In these years, children begin to associate words they hear regularly with their meanings and to react to gestures and facial expressions. They also begin handling objects such as board books in their play and then they gradually move to pretending to read them. They enjoy listening to stories, and naming objects and discussing characters in the stories. Finally, they ask to read or write with adults, and will start paying attention to specific parts of print, such as the first letters of their names [2]. Between the age of three and four, most children continue to enjoy listening to and talking about stories and they are able to identify signs and labels that are familiar to them. They enjoy participating in rhyming games and they begin to identify some letters and to make matches between letters and sounds. Finally, they will utilize letters that they have learned to represent written language, particularly for words that are meaningful to them such as their names [2]. When most children reach the age of five, they develop the ability to sound like they are reading when they are pretending to read. They continue to enjoy being read to and they will attempt to retell simple stories. They make
use of descriptive language when explaining things or when asking questions, and they recognize letters and letter-sound matches. At this age, they realize that English text is read from left to right and from top to bottom; and they begin to match words they hear spoken aloud to words they see written on paper or to pictures. Kindergarten children can identify whether words begin or end with the same sounds and recognize some poetry. Moreover, by the age of five most children will attempt to write the alphabet and some frequently used words. This will be followed by an attempt to write stories that contain some readable parts [2]. By the age of six, most children can usually read and retell stories that are familiar to them, and they have learned a number of ways to help them read stories, such as re-reading, asking questions, or using pictures. They can follow simple written instructions. First graders can recognize consonants and vowels. They can identify new words by using letter-sound relationships, parts of words, and their understanding of the remainder of a story. By this age, they have developed the ability to recognize a growing number of words by sight and depend on word families. They also have the ability to sound out words they are trying to spell [2]. By second grade, children can decode an unfamiliar word based on individual letter sounds. They are much better at using contextual cues to identify new words. Their reading is more proficient as they can vary their intonation when reading aloud. In third grade, the reader understands homophones, antonyms and synonyms. Children’s reading speed increases and they are better silent readers. Soon after, reading becomes more fluent and automatic. Children who have not acquired basic reading skills by grade three are at risk for future academic and social problems. There are two main approaches to reading instruction: ▶phonics and ▶whole language. Phonics based approaches emphasize the correspondence of printed letters and words with the sounds of letters and words. Phonics based instruction focuses on ▶decoding and teaches strategies to sound out words. Phonics instruction provides lots of drills and requires lots of practice to sound out words. In contrast, whole language approaches to reading focus on comprehension of written text. Reading and writing opportunities are provided throughout the school day through multiple experiences that emphasize meaning. Whole language learning emphasizes literacy throughout the curriculum and the opportunity to write is incorporated with reading. Contrary to popular opinion, current research does not support one form of instruction over the other. Most
Reading Disorders
children learn best with a balanced approach that begins with phonics instruction and then includes whole language approaches to literacy. Since reading is an effortful activity that children can choose to engage in or not to engage in, it also requires motivation. Therefore, in addition to learning the skills involved in reading, children must also develop and maintain their motivation to read. Children must learn to appreciate the pleasures of reading, and they must learn that reading is a social act that they can share with others, and that it provides the opportunity to explore their interests. Most children begin learning to read with a great deal of interest and a sense of optimism. However, children who experience difficulty learning to read may quickly develop a sense that they are a poor reader, and their motivation for reading gradually declines [1]. Without the motivation to read, children may decide not to participate in activities involving reading, and consequently, they get little practice and they may fall further and further behind [3]. Since reading plays a central role in so many of the tasks we perform each day, children who do not read well may experience difficulties in other areas as well. Children with reading disabilities require intense phonics instruction that emphasizes letter-sound concordances as a starting point.
Relevance to Childhood Development In summary, the ability to read does not develop without careful planning and instruction [6], and the proper motivation. Good reading ability is of life-long value. The process of learning to read begins long before children are able to speak and continues with most children learning the necessary skills by the age of seven. From that point on, most children will continue to refine their skills until they become efficient and fluent readers.
References 1. 2.
3.
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5.
Baker, L. (2003). The role of parents in motivating struggling readers. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19, 87–106. DeBruin-Parecki, A., Perkinson, K., & Ferderer, L. (2000). Literacy milestones. Accessed March 31, 2010. http://www.readingrockets. org/article/168,169,170,171 Dreher, M. J. (2003). Motivating struggling readers by tapping the potential of information books. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19, 25–38. Kirby, J. R., Desrochers, A., Roth, L., & Lai, S. S. (2008). Longitudinal predictors of word reading development. Canadian Psychology, 49, 103–110. Lyon, G. R. (2009). The NICHD research program in reading development, reading disorders and reading instruction. Accessed March 31, 2010. http://www/ncld.org/
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National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC]. (2005). Learning to read and write: What research reveals. Accessed March 31, 2010. http://www.readingrockets.org/article/4483 Tunmer, W. E. (2008). Recent developments in reading intervention research: Introduction to the special issue. Reading and Writing, 21, 299–316.
Reading Aloud ▶Oral Reading
Reading Development ▶Emergent Literacy ▶Literacy Development
Reading Disability ▶Developmental Dyslexia ▶Dyslexia ▶Reading Disorders
Reading Disorders BECKY STEFANKO University of Detroit Mercy, New Baltimore, MI, USA
Synonyms Developmental dyslexia; Dyslexia; Reading disability
Definition A reading disorder is characterized primarily by deficit performance in reading, not attributable to sensory deficits or developmental delays, that falls significantly below expectations for an individual’s chronological age and measured intelligence in the context of appropriate reading instruction and socio-economic opportunities and has a significant negative impact on academic achievement or daily living activities.
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Reading Disorders
Description According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress statistics, approximately 34% of fourth grade students and 27% of eighth grade students nationwide fell below the basic level for reading proficiency in 2007 [3]. Reading disorders are the most pervasive form of learning disabilities in the United States, affecting approximately 80% of all children identified as learning disabled [6]. Reading problems are equally pervasive among male and female students, and tend to persist without effective intervention. Problems not identified prior to grade 3 or 4 are difficult to remediate, and have a negative impact on learning across academic content areas. Evidence suggests that reading disorders are more likely to occur in children whose parents have difficulties with reading, children with limited English proficiencies, hearing or language impairments, and/or children from low socioeconomic backgrounds who may have limited opportunities for exposure to rich language and literacy activities [6]. Shaywitz and Shaywitz [5] reported findings from functional neuroimaging technology studies of differences in brain activity between proficient and struggling readers that demonstrate neural system structural changes in the brain in response to effective interventions. This implies that biological and environmental factors work together to influence reading development, and suggests effective interventions can prevent or remediate reading problems. There are three broad areas of reading disorders, word-level, fluency, and comprehension [1, 2]. Wordlevel disabilities involve difficulties in word recognition, decoding, phonological processing, and alphabetic principle. Fluency disability is manifested in difficulties in quickly and accurately deciphering print. A comprehension disability involves difficulties in the ability to understand or learn from the text. Problems with word-level reading skills and fluency often lead to problems with comprehension. Children who have difficulty with wordlevel skills use cognitive resources, such as attention and memory, to decipher words. Once word-level skills become proficient, the child can begin to read fluently, and cognitive resources become available for use in extracting meaning. In other words, children must be able to quickly and accurately decipher words so that they can devote their attention and memory to understanding what they are reading.
Word-Level Disabilities Word-level problems in reading are synonymous with dyslexia [2], and involve difficulties with an awareness of the phonological structure of language and its relationship
to print. The English language contains up to 44 individual phonemes [4]. For example, the word “that” contains three phonemes /th//a//t/. In oral speech, the phonemes overlap in a process called co-articulation to produce one audible sound, “that.” Phonemic awareness involves recognition of the individual sounds that comprise words. It is part of a broader process, known as phonological awareness, which includes the ability to identify and manipulate the components of speech such as (a) identifying beginning, middle, and ending sounds; (b) blending individual sounds to form whole words; (c) isolating (segmenting) individual sounds; and (d) deleting, substituting and adding sounds to form new words. Children with word-level problems in reading may exhibit difficulty naming letters, associating letters to sounds, understanding the difference between sounds in words, or blending sounds into words. They may confuse similar-looking letters, numbers, or words, or they may reverse letter orders in words. They may have poor memory for new vocabulary words and difficulty with spelling. Children with problems at the phonemic level have difficulty recognizing the syllabic structure of words, and must rely on rote memorization skills [6]. Phonological awareness begins to emerge during the preschool years, typically through natural exposure to language, word play, and early exposure to print and print concepts. Activities such as listening to and repeating nursery rhymes, chants, songs, and other alliterations, along with exposure to environmental print (e.g., fast-food restaurant logos, street signs, etc.), and multiple opportunities for interactions with various forms of literature provide opportunities for the development of phonological awareness. Children who have multiple opportunities to interact with language and print in their early years typically develop better reading proficiency than children who are deprived of such experiences [6, 7]. Once children have a developed phonological awareness, they can begin to apply their knowledge of sounds and words to print. The association of letter-sound relationships to print is known as alphabetic principle, and usually occurs sometime during first grade [4]. It differs from phonological awareness in its relationship to graphemes, which are the alphabetic symbols used to represent speech sounds. For instance, the association between the size and shape of the symbol “A” and the sound /a˘/ or /a¯/ refers to alphabetic principle, whereas a single phoneme, such as the /th/ sound, can be represented by more than one grapheme. Alphabetic principle involves recognition of the size and shape of print, and its relationship to spelling patterns. Children who struggle with alphabetic principle have difficulty identifying letters and/or their
Reading Disorders
corresponding sounds, and with recognizing and spelling familiar words. Unlike phonological awareness, which develops largely from natural interactions with language and speech, alphabetic principle requires explicit instruction [1]. Children who do not grasp the alphabetic principle have difficulty decoding, or sounding out, words in print. Poor instruction in alphabetic principle may have lasting effects on overall reading achievement [6]. The National Reading Panel [4] advises that teaching phonological awareness should include explicit, systematic, multiskilled approaches that include instruction in the alphabetic principle to achieve maximum results. Activities that involve converting letters into sounds, then blending and segmenting them to form recognizable words, identifying and categorizing phonemes in printed words, and manipulating subparts of words and phonemes to form new words are some of the suggested approaches to teaching phonological awareness and alphabetic principle. This type of instruction is generally more effective when delivered before first grade. It is unclear whether explicit phonics instruction is effective for older, struggling readers.
Fluency Disabilities Fluent reading involves the ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with proper phrasing and prosody. It is dependent upon the ability to quickly and accurately recognize printed words. It is distinguished from automatic reading by oral prosody. Some children can read automatically, but lack appropriate expression when reading aloud; thus, not all children with proficient word recognition become fluent readers [1, 2, 4]. Other cognitive processes, such as processing speed, executive functions, and lexical memory also play significant roles. Fluency is an essential component of reading, since it frees up cognitive resources for comprehension. This becomes important as older students progress from learning to read to reading to learn. As students progress through school, learning becomes increasingly dependent upon meaning obtained from texts. Students who are still struggling with decoding will not have access to as much material as their proficient peers. They will not be able to read as much material in the amount of time available, and, without intervention, will lag farther behind in learning as the material becomes increasingly difficult. Children with fluency disabilities read slowly and hesitantly. Their oral reading sounds unnatural and laborious. They may read in a monotone voice, or pause at inappropriate places within connected text. Although fluent readers may exhibit hesitant, labored reading with
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difficult or unfamiliar texts, non-fluent readers demonstrate problems even with familiar texts at appropriate levels of difficulty. Research demonstrates that the use of guided, repeated oral reading practice improves not only reading fluency, but overall reading achievement as well [4]. Providing children with multiple opportunities to practice reading familiar text (repeated reading) enhances the automaticity that frees up resources for comprehension, while corrective feedback improves accuracy and prosody.
Comprehension Disabilities Reading comprehension involves a combination of wordlevel skills, fluency, and metacognitive processes that help the reader understand, remember, infer, and communicate information to others about the text. Reading is both an active and interactive process. It is influenced by the reader’s intelligence, physical and emotional states, the context of reading (e.g., physical location and purpose), and constraints imposed on the reader [6]. The reader is an active participant, applying prior knowledge and experience to construct meaning extracted from the text. The knowledge acquired from reading further enhances comprehension and learning. When the process of reading is difficult and frustrating, it decreases the motivation to read and reduces the number of opportunities to learn. The role of vocabulary in reading comprehension is significant. A well-developed vocabulary provides the basis for understanding when decoding printed words. Identifying unfamiliar words in print is easier when the unfamiliar word can be associated with a word that already exists in the reader’s oral vocabulary. The effect is bi-directional because poor comprehension can result in limited exposure to new words and have a negative impact on continued vocabulary development [6]. Vocabulary becomes increasingly more important in the older reader, when the focus of reading shifts toward texts of a more technical nature. Technical manuals, research reports, and other non-fictional materials gradually replace fictional literature as primary reading sources as students’ learning becomes increasingly complex and content-focused. The vocabulary used in these types of texts is often specific to the content, and knowing the technical terms becomes essential for understanding the material. Pre-teaching vocabulary words, and repeated drill practices are effective interventions for building a student’s vocabulary skills; however, the National Reading Panel [4] recommends using a variety of instructional methods rather than just one, and exposure to rich contexts for vocabulary learning. In addition to vocabulary, metacognitive strategies help students monitor and regulate their own
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comprehension. Students who struggle with metacognitive strategies have difficulty summarizing, clarifying, and making inferences or predictions based on what they read. They may not understand the relationships between main points and supporting ideas, or appreciate the purpose or organization of the text. The National Reading Panel [4] has identified seven instructional strategies with empirical support for promoting reading comprehension. Memory strategies, such as mental imagery and mnemonics help children build mental representations that facilitate the ability recall information for later use. Pre- and post-reading activities such as questioning, elaboration, and classroom discussions are useful for assessing, activating, and building background knowledge that forms the foundation for understanding textual material. Comprehension monitoring strategies, such as error detection, recall, and question answering, can help students identify material that requires additional support or strategies for comprehension to occur. Cooperative learning, peer tutoring, facilitates discussion that can provide corrective feedback in a social environment that has the potential to increase the student’s sense of control and motivation to read. Graphic organizers help with retention and organization of reading material to enhance understanding. Instruction on the story structure organization aids with questioning, inferring, and prediction. Summarizing improves retention of the material, assists with connecting the main idea with relevant, supporting ideas, and facilitates generalization of the text information.
References 1.
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Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R., Fuchs, L. S., & Barnes, M. A. (2006). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention. New York: Guilford. Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (2003). Child psychopathology (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). (2007). National Assessment of Educational Progress: The nation’s report card. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication no. 00-4754). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2007). What neuroscience really tells us about reading instruction: A response to Judy Willis. Educational Leadership, 64(5), 74–76. Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F. (1989). Exposure to print and orthographic processing. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(4), 402–433.
Reading Impairment ▶Aphasia
Reading Skills ELIZABETH LEVIN, LESLIE VILLENEUVE Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada
Synonyms Comprehension; Decoding; Word recognition
Definition Two major skills are required for fluent reading: one deals with word recognition or ▶decoding, and the other deals with reading for meaning or comprehension [6].
Description The process of reading requires that a number of skills be mastered for proficiency including decoding and comprehension. In order to become a fluent and efficient reader, a child must first acquire automatized word-level analysis skills. This requires a substantial amount of reading practice. Once the child has mastered word-level skills, the focus shifts to reading comprehension [6]. Although decoding and comprehension are the two main aspects of reading, several sub-skills have been identified as essential for reading development [10]. The majority of current theories of reading development emphasize the primary importance of phonological skills in learning to read. At a basic level, children who are learning to read in an alphabetic orthography must first establish a correspondence between the letters that make up printed words and the ▶phonemes that make up spoken words [8]. Once letters have become linked to individual sounds or phonemes, they become linked to spoken language and thus have been decoded. The developing reader must first recognize that spoken words are made up of phonemes, that is, the child acquires ▶phonemic awareness. The next step is to recognize that phonemes are linked to written symbols or letters and when that happens decoding has occurred and the child has taken the first steps to reading. Learning to read then requires the acquisition of a number of skills. One of the first skills to develop is the ability to name each letter. This is followed by the ability to identify the sound each letter makes.
Reading Skills
For vowels, this includes understanding the long and short pronunciations and for consonants, recognizing that there sometimes may be two sound outcomes. Next, children must develop the alphabetic principle, which is the knowledge that written letters and letter combinations represent the sounds in oral language and that these sounds are used to form words [2, 5, 10]. Thus, this letter-sound knowledge is critical for word identification skills [2]. According to Reading and Van Deuren [10], most children are exposed to print at an early age, therefore, many begin kindergarten with knowledge of the alphabetic principle. Phonemic awareness is another important reading skill. Often, in the literature, the terms ▶phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are used interchangeably, however they do not represent the same thing [1]. Phonological awareness is a more general term and it refers to a child’s ability to identify and analyze the sound structure of words and to understand that language can be broken down into smaller units [4]. It is the knowledge that words consist of syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes [9]. It has been found to be one of the most powerful factors involved in reading development [4]. Phonemic awareness is a more specific term and has the strongest relationship with later reading. Phonemic awareness is an awareness of the individual phonemes or more specifically, the ability to hear, detect, think about, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words [2]. It involves auditory awareness [2, 10], however, it is not necessary for understanding spoken language. Humans have been created to hear oral language and language is heard seamlessly, that is, whole words are heard not individual sounds. The ability to manipulate the individual sounds of a word however is critical for reading and writing success and for second language learning. Phonemic awareness can be measured using sound comparison skills, that is, identifying and generating words which begin with the same first or last sound. It also includes the ability to segment phonemes. This includes being able to break a word into individual phonemes. Phonemic awareness also includes phoneme blending or the ability to put phonemes together to produce words. It is well accepted that there is much more to learning to read than simply decoding [8]. Decoding is the ability to correctly pronounce written words by using the knowledge of letter-sound relationships [9], or more simply put, it is the sounding out of words [10]. This understanding allows children to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out how to pronounce new words [9]. Once a child can decode individual words, the development of fluent and automatic reading skills is the next important goal.
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While there is a lack of consensus on a single definition of reading fluency, most would agree that it involves the ability to read quickly and accurately. Decoding plays a large role in reading and reading fluency. Good readers do not have to reread words; they efficiently process every word and every letter within a word. Therefore, once readers understand and become fluent in the mechanics of reading, they can turn their focus to understanding what they are reading. This is known as comprehension. In order to understand a selection of text, students must first learn to read for factual information. Then, they must learn to look for and locate the main ideas in a text, as well as to compare and contrast these ideas. Finally, they must develop the ability to analyze and synthesize the information in order to draw conclusions and to make reasonable inferences. This involves integrating existing knowledge with the new information presented in the text being read [7]. The role of vocabulary development in the acquisition of reading skills has not received the same attention as decoding and comprehension strategies, however, vocabulary knowledge is closely linked to comprehension. In order to be a skilled reader, it is important to know the meanings of words, as well as demonstrate the ability to infer and learn the meaning of new words [7], because a well-developed vocabulary represents a critical link between decoding and comprehension [3]. The sources of vocabulary knowledge include home experience, general mental and verbal ability, and education [4]. If a reader has an insufficient knowledge of important words and concepts or if they are not able to determine the meanings of words, they will have a harder time understanding what they are reading [7]. In fact, contrary to popular opinion, teaching poor readers to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words using contextual cues is counterproductive. When a child exhibits accurate, but very slow decoding, it may not be sufficient to support comprehension. In order to adequately comprehend what has been read, decoded words must be present simultaneously in working memory, so that the relations among them can be processed. If decoding is slow, then important information will have perished by the time later information is decoded. Furthermore, if decoding is effortful, meaning that conscious thought must be devoted to it, then fewer working memory resources will be available for comprehension. Many children with reading disabilities have stronger comprehension skills than decoding skills. They can infer the meaning of what they are reading because their higher order cognitive processes are not impaired, but reading of individual words is laborious. This is one
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reason why poor readers benefit from intense instruction in letter-sound concordances. Good readers share a number of characteristics. They try to interpret the meanings of new words as they read. They make predictions and test these predictions as they continue reading, revising as necessary. They monitor their understanding of what they are reading and adjust as needed, rereading and reinterpreting based on what they have read and what they know. Good readers have different strategies for reading different kinds of materials; this influences whether passages should be reread or skimmed, which parts deserve more attention, etc. Reading is an active process and improves with practice; for example, vocabulary improves with reading and improved vocabulary aids reading.
References 1. Engen, L., & Høien, T. (2002). Phonological skills and reading comprehension. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 15, 613–631. 2. Institute for the Development of Educational Achievement (IDEA). (2008). Beginning reading. Accessed April 1, 2010. http://reading. uoregon.edu/pa/ 3. Joshi, R. M. (2005). Vocabulary: A critical component of comprehension. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 21, 209–219. 4. Kirby, J. R., Desrochers, A., Roth, L., & Lai, S. S. (2008). Longitudinal predictors of word reading development. Canadian Psychology, 49, 103–110. 5. Leipzig, D. H. (2001). What is reading? Accessed April 1, 2010. http:// www.readingrockets.org/article/352 6. Leppa¨nen, U., Aunola, K., & Nurmi, J. E. (2005). Beginning readers’ reading performance and reading habits. Journal of Research in Reading, 4, 383–399. 7. Lipson, M. Y., & Wixson, K. K. (1991). Assessment & instruction of reading disability: An interactive approach. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 8. Nation, K., & Snowling, M. J. (2004). Beyond phonological skills: Broader language skills contribute to the development of reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 27, 342–356. 9. Reading Rockets. (2008). Target the problem! Accessed April 1, 2010. http://www.readingrockets.org/target 10. Reading, S., & Van Deuren, D. (2007). Phonemic awareness: When and how much to teach? Reading Research and Instruction, 46, 267–285.
Reading Skills Acquisition ▶Decoding Skills
Reading/Writing Proficiency ▶Literacy
Reality Principle JANET L. ETZI Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Reality testing; Secondary process
Definition A Freudian concept used to describe one of the fundamental ways in which the psyche develops from infantile, instinctual functioning based on attaining pleasure, the pleasure principle, to a more mature and modulated functioning based on the demands of reality.
Description The reality principle develops secondarily in relation to the pleasure principle. If the pleasure principle represents the psyche’s orientation to attaining pleasure, then the reality principle can be said to represent the psyche’s adjustment to the demands of reality, whether or not these demands lead to pleasure or pleasurable experiences. In this sense, the reality principle is the infant’s movement towards maturation in that maturity is constituted by the ability to accept and adapt to reality, both frustrating and rewarding aspects of reality. The infant is increasingly able to observe and to accept that reality is not always gratifying or what the infant desires. For example, the parent of reality has both good and bad days, and will be a disappointment to the infant from time to time. The perfect parent, for which the infant might wish, does not exist in reality. The infant’s ability to accept and even to love the real parent is the manifestation of the reality principle’s influence within the functioning of the mind.
Relevance to Childhood Development The reality principle as a concept has been relevant to childhood development especially for psychoanalytically or psychodynamically oriented investigators and those working directly with children. It is a concept that can be useful in describing the normal conflict during early childhood in moving from a self-centered, infantile state of existence to a more tolerant and realistic position in relation to primary caregivers. The reality principle is said by psychoanalytic theory to bring with it the ability on the child’s part to delay gratification and to tolerate increasing amounts of frustration brought on by normal reality constraints and demands. The reality principle helps the child
Reality Therapy
take into account the world and experience outside of, or other than him/herself. As a concept “reality principle” is useful for formulating aspects of inner experience, much of which is outside of everyday, conscious awareness, and inaccessible to infants and small children.
References 1.
2.
Freud, S. (1963). Instincts and their vicissitudes. In Freud: General Psychological Theory. New York: Collier Books. (Original work published 1915). LaPlance, J., & Pontalis, J. -B. (1973). The language of psycho-analysis. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). New York: W.W. Norton. (Original work published 1967).
Reality Testing
Reality Therapy CASSANDRA MEANS Capella University, Batesburg, SC, USA
Synonyms Counseling;
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Basic Assumptions The basic assumptions of Reality therapy are that underlying problem is based on relationships that are disconnected or unsatisfactory as well as how the person perceives and feels about him or herself, people are in control of their behaviors thus are responsible for the behaviors that they choose to engage in while trying to meet their wants and needs, people have the ability to change, there is no need for the person to wait on others or remain a victim in order to make changes that will lead to a more effective life [4–9, 12]. This is not a sign of mental illness, rather, a purposeful method to get what one wants [6, 7]. Thus, if a person is depressed it is due to the person is choosing to depress rather than evaluate and consider more effective alternative behaviors to get what he or she wants [5, 7, 12].
Counseling Process
▶Reality Principle
Choice Theory; Psychotherapy
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Definition A counseling technique where the client is encouraged to focus on the here and now rather than on the past, complaints or symptoms in order to obtain better control over his or her life.
Description Reality therapy was developed by Dr. William Glasser in 1965 and is based on Choice Theory, once known as Control Theory [2, 4–9, 11]. Choice Theory basically theorizes that all behavior is purposeful and is meant to match the pictures we have formulated in our minds of what we want to reality in order to fulfill the five basic human needs: love and belonging, power, fun, freedom and self preservation [4, 6, 7].
The focus or goal of the counseling process is for the therapist or counselor to assist the client to reconnect with others in a more effective way by acknowledging that no matter what has happened in the past, he or she has control over his or her behaviors and he or she has choices [5–7, 9, 12]. This reconnection is done through the process of the therapist creating a warm, trustful atmosphere for the client, helping the client to understand the concept of total behavior which involves thoughts, feelings, physiology and behaviors or actions, remaining non-judgmental, being supportive while challenging the client to make changes in a non-criticizing manner, helping the client to see and evaluate ineffective behavioral choices, focus on the present and specifically what the client can do and avoid discussing symptoms, complaints, blaming (transference) and excuses [5–9]. During the process the therapist will help the client to evaluate and consider five questions that drive the process: what do you want, what are you doing to get what you want, is it working, if not, what are you willing to do and to make a plan that realistically can help him or her to obtain what it is that he or she is wanting [2, 5, 12]. The results include increased self esteem and concept, increased inner strength, improved relationships with others and a plan to live a more effective life [1, 3, 6, 10–12].
Contributions Reality therapy has contributed to the counseling profession by providing a short term counseling approach that can be utilized with a wide variety of clientele [7].
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Limitations Reality therapy as with all counseling methods has its limitations. These have been identified as limited emphasis on the unconsciousness, avoids issue of transference, can be too confrontational, limited focus on the effects of early childhood trauma, limited focus on feelings, does not take into account role of the past regarding personality, the role of dreams in the therapeutic process, role of social or cultural influences and the role of discrimination as a barrier in a person’s life [7].
Relevance to Childhood Development The technique can be used with children to provide tools for the individual to use in order to cope with problems as well as gain control over his or her life and grow personally [2, 5, 6]. For instance, parents can utilize Reality Therapy techniques in their parenting in order to help the child to learn how to gain control over their lives [4]. This in turn will help to increase the child’s self esteem and sense of self worth by being able to successfully meet his/her basic needs of love/belonging, power, fun, freedom and self preservation through effective means [4, 6, 7, 12]. Teachers can also use Reality Therapy techniques in their classrooms to not only help the child to continue to learn to control his/her life and meet his/her basic needs, but also to increase the child’s learning of a subject by making the learning process fun thus appealing to the child’s need for fun [4]. School guidance counselors can utilize Reality Therapy techniques to help a child with such issues as building positive relationships with peers and teachers, address homework issues, and improve communication with others [12].
References 1. Brierley, S. A. (1989). Finding her own way. In N. Glasser (Ed.), Control theory in the practice of reality therapy: Case studies. New York: Harper and Row. 2. Brigman, G. (n. d.). Reality therapy: Glasser’s control theory. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.coe.fau.edu/faculty/gbrigman/gestaltreality/reality-therapy.ppt 3. Fates, M. G. (1989). A priceless gift. In N. Glasser (Ed.), Control theory in the practice of reality therapy: Case studies. New York: Harper and Row. 4. Glasser, W. (1984). Control theory: A new explanation of how we control our lives. New York: Harper and Row. 5. Glasser, W. (1989). Control theory. In N. Glasser (Ed.), Control theory in the practice of reality therapy: Case studies. New York: Harper and Row. 6. Gorman, A. (n. d.). Reality therapy. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.realitytherapywub.com/realitytherapy.htm 7. Hamar, D., & Hamar, I. (2008). Reality therapy-William Glasser. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://hamarscompendium.com/ Simpson%20College/reality_therapy.htm
8. International Journal of Reality Therapy. (2007). Reality therapy. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.journalofrealitytherapy. com/realitytherapy.htm 9. Real Mental Health, Inc. (2008). Therapy types: Reality therapy. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.realmentalhealth.com/ general/therapy_types_4.asp?view=print 10. Strohl, T. A. (1989). Symptoms: The price we pay to control. In N. Glasser (Ed.), Control theory in the practice of reality therapy: Case studies. New York: Harper and Row. 11. The William Glasser Institute. (2008). Reality therapy. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://wglasser.com/index.php?option= com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=28 12. Zeeman, R. D. (1989). From acting out to joining in. In N. Glasser (Ed.), Control theory in the practice of reality therapy: Case studies. New York: Harper and Row.
Reason ▶Motivation
Reasoning ▶Critical Thinking
Reasoning-Oriented Parenting ▶Inductive Parenting
Receptive Language MYSTI S. FRAZIER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition Receptive language is the ability to accurately comprehend what is said, written, or signed by others.
Description Both receptive and expressive language are important to the understanding of a child’s overall language skills [3]. While expressive language refers to the child’s ability to produce language, receptive language refers to the child’s ability to comprehend language. Typically, children with
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severe reading and reading comprehension problems show poor receptive language skills [4], and problems with receptive language also lead to problems with expressive language [3]. In addition to studying the comprehension of the content of language (e.g., words), it is also important to study the child’s ability to comprehend other aspects of language, such as syntax and pronouns [3]. Biologically, researchers have identified the location of the brain that is responsible for receptive language processing, in the area between the temporal and parietal cortex very near the angular gyrus [4]. As expected the number of understandable words increases with age; however the development of such abilities is very unpredictable and many factors (e.g., genetics, parent’s work with the child on language development, and the overall health of the child) play a role in the child’s abilities [3]. There are various ways to assess receptive language abilities. For example, picture-naming abilities have some connection to receptive vocabulary comprehension, because the picture may be a visual representation of a word the child knows [5]. However, these tests do not always provide accurate measures of word identification abilities in children [5] because the picture may be an object or situation that the child has not yet encountered, therefore, he/she is unable to name it. Similarly, in many cases when the child does not understand a word it may simply be due to the child’s lack of exposure to the word, not a serious developmental problem. Clinicians can retest the child using other words or pictures to test the child’s abilities across multiple stimuli [2]. In a meta-analysis of receptive language interventions, Law et al. [1] found that the duration and administrator of the intervention play significant roles in outcomes. It was found that when parents administered the intervention for more than 8 weeks, children had the most developmental success. However, this study was unable to determine the intensity of the interventions given because the administration varied too much from child to child, meaning that there is a need for more structured research [1].
References 1.
2.
3.
Law, J., Garrett, Z., & Nye, C. (2004). The efficacy of treatment for children with developmental speech and language delay/disorder: A meta-analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 4, 924–943. Leonard, L. B. (2009). Is expressive language disorder an accurate diagnostic category? American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18, 115–123. McGuinness, D. (2005). Language development and learning to read: The scientific study of how. Boston, MA: MIT Press.
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Stojanovik, V., & Riddell, P. (2008). Expressive versus receptive language skills in specific reading disorder. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 22(4–5), 305–310. Wise, J. C., Sevcik, R. A., Morris, R. D., Lovett, M. W., & Wolf, M. (2007). The relationship among receptive and expressive vocabulary, listening comprehension, pre-reading skills, word identification skills, and reading comprehension by children with reading disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 1093–1109.
Receptive Language Disorders CASSANDRA MEANS Capella University, Batesburg, SC, USA
Synonyms Communication disorders; Comprehension Delayed language; Delayed speech
deficit;
Definition A language disorder where there is difficulty in understanding what is being said and/or written. The individual also experiences difficulty in retaining, processing and attending to spoken language.
Description Differing from speech disorders, language disorders such as receptive language disorders include problems with the understanding and use of language to include written, spoken and/or simple systems such as sign language [1]. Referred to as delayed speech or language [5], receptive language disorder is described as being a type of learning disability where the individual struggles with comprehending what another is saying to him or her [4, 6]. The individual also has difficulty with retention of and attending to what is being said to him or her [4, 9]. Receptive language disorders include such disorders as Comprehension Deficit, Aphasia, and Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD) and can co-occur with expressive language disorder [1, 5, 10]. Several language processing centers of the brain are involved in receptive language disorder [6]. According to the classical model that became popular among physicians during the late nineteenth century, the Wernicke’s area was identified as being the area responsible for language comprehension [2]. However, recent research has found that a small number of left temporoparietal regions located outside of Wernicke’s area as well as the left frontal lobe are the primary locations of language comprehension [2].
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Signs and Symptoms Although each individual will differ in the signs and symptoms, the basic signs and symptoms of receptive language disorder include: presenting as though he or she is not listening to what is being said, repeating back or parroting words or phrases (Echolalia), difficulty with following verbal directions, language skills are not age level, repeats a question that is asked first before answering, high activity and not attending to what is being said to him or her, responses to “wh” questions tend to be off or inappropriate along with difficulty answering yes/no and either/or questions, using phrases and sentences that are memorized and unintelligible speech or jargon [5, 7, 10]. Other problem areas that occur with receptive language disorder include pragmatics (function of language i.e., joke vs. serious statement), phonemic awareness (how language is formed i.e., distinguishing the “f ” sound from the “th” sound), semantics (meaning of words) and syntax (meaning of sentences) [1, 7].
Causes In most cases, the cause of receptive language disorder is unknown [1, 4, 10]. However, there are cases where the cause of the receptive language disorder is due to a physiological or medical reason (i.e., stroke, brain injury, exposure to toxins during pregnancy, tumor, disease), genetic factors, congenital syndromes (i.e., Down Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome), hearing loss, or a developmental disorder (i.e., Autism) [1, 3, 5, 10]. It has also been theorized that such factors as how much exposure one has to language and one’s overall cognitive and developmental abilities play a role [10].
Diagnosis The methods used to diagnose receptive language disorder include: a hearing test, vision or eye examination, observing the individual interacting with others, assessing for cognitive problems by a neuropsychologist and comprehension testing [10].
Treatment Treatment is determined by several factors. These factors include individual’s preference and expectations regarding therapies, the how severe the disorder is (i.e., prognosis), if the individual knows that a problem exists and the individual’s age [1, 3]. The types of treatment and intervention available include one on one speech/language therapy, group speech/language therapy, mental health intervention to address behavioral issues that stem from frustration, special education classes and educational support to help the child integrate from one grade level to the next
[10]. It should be noted that the prognosis for a child with receptive language disorder is not as good as that of a child with expressive language disorder [4, 7].
Relevance to Childhood Development It is stressed that it is very important that before one can learn how to talk, one must be able to attend to and understand what is being said to him or her [8, 10]. It is estimated that between 3 and 5% of children have a receptive language disorder, expressive language disorder or a mixture of both [10]. It is further estimated that about 7% school age children are found to present with notable language deficiencies [1, 4]. It is noted that being able to attend to and understand language as well as express one’s self is the key to success academically as well as socially [1, 4, 8]. Academically, a child with receptive language disorder will struggle with such tasks as learning to read, understanding and attending to directions being given by the teacher, and taking a test thus resulting in not performing academically at grade level [1, 4, 8]. It can further result in the teacher misperceiving the child’s capabilities due to the child is unable to effectively express him or herself [6, 7]. Socially, a child with receptive language disorder will experience difficulty with being able to communicate with peers and teachers and making good decisions which can result in the child not liking school thus engaging in avoidant behaviors [1, 4, 7]. These deficits often carry over into adulthood [7].
References 1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2008). Speech and language disorders and diseases. Retrieved June 29, 2008, from ASHA Web site: http://www.asha.org/pulbic/speech/disorders/ 2. Binder, J. R., Frost, J. A., Hammeke, T. A., Cox, R. W., Rao, S. M., & Prieto, T. (1997). Human brain language areas identified by functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Journal of Neuroscience, 17(1), 353–362. Retrieved July 6, 2008, from http://www.jneurosci/ org/cgi/content/full/17/1/353 3. Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. (2008). Communication disorders. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.chw.org/display/Print_page. asp?DocID=22124&ThisPage=undefined 4. Clark, A., O’Hare, A., Watson, J., Cohen, W., Cowie, H., Elton, R., et al. (2007). Severe receptive language disorder in childhood-familial aspects and long-term outcomes: Results from a Scottish study. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 92, 614–619. Retrieved August 9, 2008, from adc.bmj.com 5. Kaufman Children’s Center. (2004). Signs and symptoms: Receptive language disorders. Retrieved June 29, 2008, from http://www. kidspeech.com/index.php?page=79 6. Logsdon, A. (2007). Learning disabilities: Receptive language disorders- LDs in language reception, comprehension. Retrieved July 6, 2008, from About.com Web site: http://learningdisabilities.about. com/od/learningdisabilitybasics/p/rsptvlangdsrdr.htm?p=1
Receptive Vocabulary 7. Skarakis-Doyle, E., Dempsey, L., & Lee, C. (2008). Identifying language comprehension impairment in preschool children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39(1), 54–65. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database. 8. Spaulding, T., Plante, E., & Vance, R. (2008). Sustained selective attention skills of preschool children with specific language impairment: Evidence for separate attentional capacities. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 51(1), 16–34. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database. 9. Speech Works. (2008). Speech and language disorders. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from http://www.speechsensory.com/speech-and-language-disorders/ 10. State of Victoria. (2008). Receptive language disorder: Fact sheet. Retrieved June 29, 2008, from Better Health Channel Web site: http:// www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Receptive_ language_disorder
Receptive Lexicon ▶Receptive Vocabulary
Receptive Vocabulary AMY BURGER, IVY CHONG Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA
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a word with imperfect understanding of its meaning and later learn through experience the correct definition and usage. Thus, it is likely that both types of vocabulary development occur together and that the development of one is dependent on the development of the other [3]. Receptive vocabulary begins to develop when an infant learns to discriminate speech sounds, and, as children mature, they begin to decode and respond to words based on contextual cues [3]. By approximately 7–12 months of age, the development of receptive vocabulary becomes evident when an infant begins to respond to simple requests and shows signs of recognizing a few words [1, 3]. Children between 1–2 years old begin to show signs of a more advanced receptive vocabulary through activities such as pointing to objects when they are named by another person [1, 3]. Between the ages of 2–3 years, children’s receptive vocabulary increases as overall language abilities develop; at this stage, children are able to respond to more complex requests and will attend to longer adult utterances, including stories [1]. After age 5, the child’s receptive vocabulary continues to grow as language continues to develop; by age 6, typical children will have a receptive vocabulary of 20,000–24,000 words while their expressive vocabulary will consist of only about 2,600 words. By age 12, typical children on average will have a receptive vocabulary of about 50,000 words [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development Synonyms Receptive lexicon
Definition Receptive vocabulary (vocabulary refers to all the words in a person’s language repertoire) refers to words that a person can comprehend and respond to, even if the person cannot produce those words.
Description Receptive vocabulary refers to all the words that can be understood by a person, including spoken, written, or manually signed words. In contrast, expressive vocabulary refers to words that a person can express or produce, for example, by speaking or writing. In general, receptive vocabulary appears to develop before expressive vocabulary over the course of early language development, and receptive vocabulary is generally larger than expressive vocabulary [3]. However, language development throughout childhood is often more complex, with expressive vocabulary development sometimes exceeding receptive vocabulary and vice versa [3]. For example, a child may produce
The acquisition of receptive vocabulary in childhood is essential for communicative and social development. Understanding the development of receptive vocabulary can help parents and professionals to develop educational and play activities that are appropriate for children in various age groups. Knowledge of developmental milestones (a developmental milestone is a behavior or physical sign that indicates the progress in a child’s maturation [2]) related to receptive vocabulary and receptive language in general can be helpful for identifying language delays and disorders affecting receptive vocabulary development and for understanding various treatments for language delays and disorders.
References 1.
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American Speech Language and Hearing Association. (2009). How does your child hear and talk? Retrieved January 9, 2009, from http:// www.asha.org/public/speech/development/chart.htm National Library of Medicine. (2007). Developmental milestones. Retrieved January 9, 2009, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ medlineplus/ency/article/002348.htm Owens, R. E. (2001). Language development: An introduction (5th ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
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Recessive Gene ▶Recessive Trait
Recessive Trait REBEKAH R. PENDER San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Recessive gene
Definition The trait of a dichotomous pair that is not expressed in the phenotype of heterozygous individuals [3]. The weaker of a pair of alleles in heterozygous combination [2]. The recessive gene is the second gene that has no effect [1].
Description A recessive trait is the weak, unexpressed trait of a dichotomous pair of alleles (dominant-recessive) that has no effect in the phenotype of heterozygous individuals. An example would be a child who has the dominant or expressed trait for curly hair combined with the weak, unexpressed, recessive trait for straight hair and thus would be a child with curly hair [2]. However, if two recessive genes for a particular trait are inherited by a child, such as albinism, the child will be albino [2]. Recessive traits have a definite impact on child development such that children can inherit recessive characteristics ranging from red hair or a straight nose to serious conditions such as hemophilia, color blindness, or congenital deafness.
References 1. 2. 3.
Berk, L. (1998). Development through the lifespan. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Hetherington, E. M., & Parke, R. D. (Eds.). (1999). Child psychology: A contemporary viewpoint (Revth ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill College. Pinel, J. P. J. (2003). Biopsychology (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Reciprocal Peer Tutoring ▶Peer Tutoring
Recognition ▶Recognition Memory
Recognition Memory MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Cued memory; Recognition
Definition Recognition memory is the correct identification of verbal or non-verbal stimuli that have been presented previously.
Description Recognition memory is often investigated by presenting a subject with lists of words or pictures of items to remember. After various periods of delay, subjects are then presented with a mixture of items that have been present and those that have not. Subjects must identify items presented (targets) and those that were not (foils) [5]. This task is not as difficult as “free recall,” in which the subject must recall without a cue. Researchers and clinicians often test both recognition and recall memory, with recall tests presented first (e.g., “please tell me the words that were presented”) and a recognition assessment presented following the recall assessment. This approach is useful in that much greater performance in recognition than recall suggests problems in retrieval of information, rather than encoding or input into memory. All subjects do better on tests of recognition memory then recall. The important feature is the difference between the two. Additionally, recognition memory has been considered an important area of study within the field of psychology because it is generally viewed by researchers to be a simple memory task, easily measured, rather than complex like many other forms of memory: serial recall, pairassociate recall, or free recall [1]. Memory is a complex process, and patients said to have a memory disorder may show impairment in any one of a number of factors. Recognition memory does not necessarily require the production of specific information from memory but rather a matching procedure [9]. Much of the research in the area of recognition memory focuses on whether or not recognition is a singular process or the result of multiple factors. Specifically, some in the literature argue for a single-process model of recognition, which is based on the idea of familiarity. Others argue for a multi or dual-process model of recognition, which have focused not only on familiarity but the process
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in which we develop and join episodic experiences. Each view is not without its detractors. For example, while many argue that the single-process model of recognition memory is simpler [3] there are others who argue that a singleprocess model ignores the latency of recognition memory [7]. Dual-process models have been problematic for many researchers due to the models’ inability to distinguish between sensitivity and bias [10]. Still other researchers are proponents of the dual-process model because it accounts for a more dynamic process within the brain [2].
Single Process Models The single-process signal-detection model provides a simple measure of recognition, but it comes up short in its ability to account for the accuracy and the time required for confidence ratings. This is not a major problem for many researchers, as investigations of recognition are interested in accuracy and not confidence or judgments concerning recognition [8].
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6. Malmberg, K. J., Holden, J. E., & Shiffrin, R. M. (2004). Modeling the effects of repetitions, similarity, and normative word frequency on judgments of frequency and recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 319–331. 7. Mandler, G. (1980). Recognizing: The judgment of previous occurrence. Psychological Review, 87, 252–271. 8. Ratcliff, R., McKoon, G., & Tindall, M. (1994). Empirical generality of data from recognition memory receiver-operating characteristic functions and implications for the global memory models. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 20, 763–785. 9. Tulving, E., & Thomson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review, 80, 352–373. 10. Yonelinas, A. P. (2002). The nature of recollection and familiarity: A review of 30 years of research. Journal of Memory and Language, 46, 441–517.
Record Judgment of Qualitative Variables
Dual Process Models Early dual-process models such as that of Pavio suggested information is encoded in a dual fashion (verbal and nonverbal). By nature a dual processing model assumes more complex encoding than single process counterparts, recognition is performed in two ways: familiarity or recollection, as compared to performance of the individual in recognizing cues. Researchers have therefore, been extremely interested in measuring the relative contributions of recollection and familiarity [4]. Due to the inherently more complex nature of dualprocess models there are several competing models within the field on how recognition memory develops. Some models assume that recognition is based on a continuous random variable (familiarity) and a discrete random variable based on threshold principals (or a tipping point in which recognition becomes apparent) [6].
References 1. Crowder, R. G. (1976). Principles of learning and memory. New York: Halsted Press. 2. Diana, R., Reder, L. M., Arndt, J., & Park, H. (2006). Models of recognition: A review of arguments in favor of a dual process account. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 1–21. 3. Gillund, G., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1984). A retrieval model for both recognition and recall. Psychological Review, 91, 1–67. 4. Jacoby, L. L. (1991). A process dissociation framework: Separating automatic from intentional uses of memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513–541. 5. Malmberg, K. J. (2007). Recognition memory: A review of the critical findings and an integrated proposal for relating them. Retrieved August 5, 2008.
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Redl, Fritz JERRY GOLD Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, USA
Life Dates 1902–1988
Educational Information Dr. Redl received his Ph.D. in education from the University of Vienna in 1925. During the decade that followed he completed training in psychoanalysis at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. This dual focus on the education and socialization of children, and on psychoanalytic models of understanding personality development and of the treatment of children, typified his work throughout his career.
Accomplishments Dr. Redl worked as a teacher in his native Vienna and in 1936 traveled to the United States for what was originally supposed to be a temporary applied research assignment. His stay in the United States became permanent due to the ascendancy of the Nazis in German-annexed Austria.
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Dr. Redl soon became a professor at the University of Michigan, and moved in 1941 to the School of Social Work at Wayne State University. It was during his 12 year stay at Wayne State that his most important and enduring work on the psychology of delinquency was conducted. In his academic career his work was rarely limited to the classroom. Rather, he sought, and succeeded in applying and testing his psychoanalytically informed ideas in camps, schools and residential settings. In 1953 he moved to the National Institute of Mental Health as the Chief of the Children’s Research Branch, where he continued his investigations into the causes and treatment of aggressive and anti-social behavior in children and adolescents. He also was a co-founder and president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, an interdisciplinary society for the mental health professions.
Contributions Dr. Redl is best known for his practical and theoretical work with impulsive and aggressive children, through which he emerged as a pioneer in the development of group, residential and milieu therapies for juvenile delinquents, conduct disorders and other forms of externalizing psychopathologies of childhood and adolescence. Dr. Redl’s most influential published works, written with his colleague David Wineman, are the volumes Children Who Hate and Controls From Within. In these books, the authors described their work at Pioneer House, a residential treatment center for pre-adolescent boys (ages 8–11) who were referred because of aggressive and anti-social behavior. While such programs had been established previously, Pioneer House was unique at its inception in 1946 because of the theoretical framework that informed and guided the diagnostic and therapeutic efforts of its staff. Specifically, Redl and Wineman introduced concepts from psychoanalytic ego psychology into the study and treatment of juvenile delinquency and antisocial behavior. Their work at Pioneer House was understood to be a clinical experiment in which they and their staff attempted, via selective environmental interventions and interpersonal interactions, to promote the growth and remediation of those ego functions that were lacking or deviant in their young clients. Dr. Redl’s work after the close of Pioneer House in 1948 was a continuation and elaboration of these concerns. He was a leading advocate for the psychological and social needs of children, an influential researcher whose integration of psychoanalytic ego psychology and milieu therapy guided the work of countless programs, and
a much sought-after teacher and lecturer. He also is known for the development of the Life-Space Interview, a method for therapeutic intervention with children and adolescents which is employed during and after problematic behaviors are displayed in the patients’ interactions with peers and adults.
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
Morse, W. (1991). Introduction and perspective. In W. Morse (Ed.), Crisis intervention in residential treatment: The clinical innovations of Fritz Redl. Binghamptom, NY: The Haworth Press. Redl, F. (1966). When we deal with children. New York: The Free Press. Redl, F., & Wineman, D. (1951). Children who hate. New York: The Free Press. Redl, F., & Wineman, D. (1952). Controls from within. New York: The Free Press.
Reference Group Orientation ▶Identity ▶Critical Thinking
Reflective Technique of Mirroring What Is Spoken ▶Active Listening
Refugee ▶Immigrant Children
Regional Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF, RCBF) ▶Cerebral Blood Flow
Regression ▶Acquired Autism
Regression Analysis
Regression Analysis KRISTEN M. GRABILL University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Definition A statistical technique based on the general linear model which uses one or more variables to predict an outcome.
Description Regression analysis uses a model that predicts values of a dependent variable (outcome) from one or more independent variables (predictors). Regression is a commonly used statistical approach, and encompasses both simple and multiple regression approaches.
Simple Regression [1] Simple regression examines the relationship between one predictor variable and one outcome variable. It can be represented with the following equation: Y ¼ A þ BX þ e In this equation, Y (outcome) is the sum of a weighted value (B) of X (predictor) plus starting value (A) and a residual (e). The residual represents variance in the data that is unaccounted for by the predictor. When regression is conducted in research, a commonly reported estimate is R2, which can be interpreted as the percentage of variance in the outcome that is accounted for by the predictor. Researchers also typically report an F-statistic, which is a figure based on the ratio of variance predicted in the model to variance that is unexplained in the model, and determines whether the model is statistically significant.
Multiple Regression [1] Multiple regression predicts an outcome based on the combined effects of more than one predictor. It can be used in several ways based on the way predictors are entered into the model. Types of multiple regression include standard, hierarchical, and stepwise. Standard: Standard multiple regression can be represented with the following equation: Y ¼ A þ Si BXi þ e Similar to the equation for simple regression, Y can be interpreted as the combined effect of summed, weighted values (B) of more than one X (predictors) plus starting
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value (A) and a residual (e). The residual (e) represents error in the data that is unaccounted for by the combined predictors. In multiple regression, the weights (values of B) represent the unique relationships between each X variable and Y while controlling for all other variables. In literature using multiple regression, B weights will often be reported because they represent the unique value of each predictor to the model, in original units. Researchers often report b-weights as well, which are standardized versions of B-weights. As with simple regression, an F-statistic and an R2 estimate are typically reported. However, in multiple regression, R2 can be interpreted as the percentage of variance in the outcome that is accounted for the combined predictors. Researchers using multiple regression must be careful that their predictors are not multicollinear. When two predictors are highly correlated with each other, they are considered to be multicollinear, and this is problematic in multiple regression because it renders estimation of regression values inaccurate. Hierarchical: In hierarchical multiple regression, researchers test whether new variables add anything to a model after predictors are accounted for. Rather than add predictors all at once as with standard multiple regression, predictors are entered into a regression model in a series of blocks based on theoretical rationale. This allows researchers to determine whether there is a significant change in the amount of variance predicted in each subsequent block of the model. In hierarchical multiple regression, researchers often report a change in R2 estimate for each block of the regression analysis. This reflects the percent of variance accounted for by each individual block of the regression, rather than by all variables in the analysis at one time. Stepwise: In stepwise multiple regression, researchers decide whether to include or omit predictors based on statistical criteria. There are several methods for conducting stepwise regression, although it has fallen out of use due to criticism for not being a theory-driven approach to data analysis.
Relevance to Childhood Development Regression is one of the most commonly used statistical analysis tools used in all research fields, including the field of childhood development. For example, PsychInfo search using the terms “child development” and “regression analysis” yields 2,443 results. Therefore, understanding of regression analysis is important for researchers, clinicians, and others work with children to maintain current information about research which informs their fields.
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References 1.
Field, A. (2005). Discovering statistics using SPSS. London: Sage Publications.
Regressive Autism ▶Acquired Autism
Regulation of Emotion ANTHONY R. ARTINO, JR. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Synonyms Emotion control; Emotion management; Emotion regulation; Emotional self-regulation; Self-regulation of emotion
Definition Regulation of emotion refers to the processes whereby individuals monitor, evaluate, and modify their emotions in an effort to control which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express those emotions.
emotions tend to be shorter, more intense, and in response to a particular referent [6, 11]. Using this conceptual framework, then, emotion can be defined as an acute, intense, and typically brief psycho-physiological change that results from a response to a meaningful situation in an individual’s environment [11]. Importantly, emotions are experienced from an individual’s point of view; that is, they are subjective. Of course, as mentioned previously, not all affect researchers subscribe to this conceptualization of emotion (for alternative perspectives, see [2]). Using this definition of emotion as a foundation, emotion regulation simply refers to the processes involved with managing one’s emotions. These regulatory processes can be automatic or controlled, conscious or unconscious [7]. Ultimately, emotion regulation involves processes that change the dynamics of the emotional response [16]. That is, emotion regulatory processes affect the latency, intensity, frequency, and duration of emotional responses in the psychological and physiological domains [5]. Several aspects of this definition of emotion regulation warrant further clarification. First, emotion regulation can involve increasing, maintaining, or decreasing both negative and positive emotions [7, 17]. Second, emotion regulation is generally concerned with regulation of “self” and does not include attempts to influence others’ emotions (although some theories of emotion regulation do include consideration for “other” regulation; [17]). Finally, emotion regulation can occur along a continuum that spans from conscious, effortful, and controlled regulation (the prototypical form of emotion regulation) to unconscious, effortless, and automatic regulation [7].
Description Before discussing regulation of emotion, it is important to first define emotion. Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus among affect researchers as to the one best definition of emotion. Instead, research and theory on emotion have been characterized by much conceptual and definitional confusion [4]. This confusion is due, in part, to the fact that emotion has been studied from a diverse set of disciplinary perspectives, including, for example, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and philosophy [7]. However, in terms of organization and association with other constructs, emotion is often considered a subset of the more general term affect. In particular, affect has been organized into three levels: affective traits, moods, and emotions, with moods and emotions considered two distinct types of affective states [11]. Further, the distinction between moods and emotions is often based on intensity and duration, with moods being longer, more diffuse, and without a particular referent; whereas
Emotion Regulatory Processes An essential goal for affect researchers is to better understand the processes involved in emotion regulation. That is, what do people actually do when they attempt to regulate their emotions? Although there are a multitude of emotion regulatory processes one could conceptualize, Gross [7] proposed a parsimonious model that includes five sets of processes: situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. Situation selection involves approaching or avoiding certain people, places, or objects in an effort to regulate emotion. An example of situation selection would be taking a different route to the playground to avoid an altercation with a bully. Situation modification refers to efforts aimed at directly modifying the situation to alter its emotional impact. An example would be convincing a schoolmate to play in a different area of the playground to avoid an argument with a bossy
Regulation of Emotion
child. Attention deployment processes include strategies that change attentional focus away from emotioninducing situations; for example, distracting oneself from an emotional situation or concentrating deeply on another non-emotional task. Cognitive change involves modifying cognitive appraisals to adjust the emotional response. Examples include denial, reappraisal, and optimistic thinking. Whereas situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, and cognitive change all happen before an emotion is elicited; response modulation processes transpire once an emotional response has occurred. As such, response modulation is meant to directly influence psychological and physiological responding. Examples of response modulation include biofeedback, relaxation, and exercise [7].
Theoretical Perspectives In psychology and education, regulation of emotion has been conceptualized from several different theoretical perspectives. For instance, according to Skinner’s behavioral learning theory, emotion regulation is a process in which individuals learn to respond to observable stimuli depending on the antecedents and consequences of actions as they either are reinforced or punished [15]. Although, according to Skinner’s behavioral learning theory, emotions have a genetic connotation, the expressions and regulation of emotion depend on the individual’s history of reinforcement and stimulus control. In contrast, social cognitive theory conceives emotion regulation as a learning process that occurs largely by observing others [1]. Moreover, social cognitive theory considers cognitive factors, beliefs, values, perceptions, interests, and expectancies as critical aspects of emotion regulation. In this view, emotion regulation is a triadic, reciprocal process whereby individuals control emotions in an effort to influence their environment and their own behavior. In turn, the environment and behavior reciprocate by influencing how individuals experience and express their emotions to ultimately become effective social agents. Finally, from the social cognitive perspective, emotion regulation depends on individuals’ self-efficacy; that is, their beliefs in their capability to effectively manage particular situations and their emotional responses to those situations.
Relevance to Childhood Development For children, there are many developmental pathways to effective emotion regulation. These pathways evolve from efforts of external agents to manage the emotions of children, as well as from the child’s growing capacity to selfregulate [17]. During childhood, children gradually
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acquire the emotion regulation skills and strategies necessary to cope with various developmental challenges [5]. In early childhood, the child’s ability to regulate emotions is dependent on the caregiver’s awareness, flexibility, and responsiveness to the child’s emotional needs. As the child ages, her ability to self-regulate grows as she gains independence, control, and an identity of her own [5]. Thus, like other forms of self-regulation, emotion regulation is initially supervised by caregivers and teachers at early stages of skill acquisition, but as children mature, they begin to develop competent emotion regulation by internalizing the regulatory strategies they have observed in others. The importance of emotion regulation becomes clear as children progress through adolescence. In particular, many adolescents experience emotional conflicts during the transition from elementary to middle school or from middle school to high school [13]. Although most children successfully navigate these stressful transitions, for some the emotional conflicts are not adequately handled and can result in maladaptive behaviors (e.g., school delinquency, overeating, and drug abuse). Consequently, it is important for adults to assist children as they develop and learn to manage their emotions. For example, preadolescents often need assistance understanding that emotions such as anger, fear, and frustration are a natural part of growing up. By simply acknowledging these feelings and helping children identify appropriate strategies for managing their emotions, adults can help children develop adaptive emotion regulatory processes. Ultimately, the hope is that children will learn that although they cannot always control what happens to them, they can control how they think about what happens to them and how they react emotionally [9].
Influences on Learning and Performance From the perspective of learning and performance, emotion regulation is considered a critical competence [13]. Although affect has historically been deemed important to theories of learning and development, moods and emotions have been largely neglected in educational research [14]. Recently, however, educational psychologists have acknowledged the importance of affective states and their impact on learning in academic and non-academic settings. Accordingly, researchers and practitioners have started integrating emotion and emotion regulation into theories of learning and development. In fact, research conducted within the last decade has made it clear that emotions are intimately involved in virtually every aspect of teaching and learning [14]. As such, understanding the nature of emotions as they unfold and are regulated in
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various learning contexts has become an important goal for educational psychologists [10]. In general, emotions are thought to influence learning and performance through several mechanisms. First, emotions affect memory processes such as retrieval and storage of information [10]; that is, memory can be enhanced if the individual’s affective state at the time of retrieval matches his affective state at the time of encoding. Second, emotions influence the type and amount of cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by individuals. For example, positive emotions are generally hypothesized to facilitate the use of flexible, deep processing strategies like elaboration, organization, and metacognitive selfregulation, whereas negative emotions are thought to result in the use of more rigid, shallow processing strategies like simple rehearsal [10]. The third way emotions can influence learning and performance is through an increase or decrease in attentional resources, as well as through general interference with working memory functioning (i.e., excess cognitive load; [10]). Finally, emotions can have an effect on motivational processes, such as self-efficacy beliefs and goal orientations [8]. Although somewhat oversimplified, positive emotions are thought to lead to more adaptive motivational processes, whereas negative emotions are assumed to result in decreased motivation (although some negative emotions, such as fear, may actually increase the extrinsic motivation associated with a task; [13]). It is clear from the dynamic, reciprocal links between emotion and cognition that emotion regulation – under the broad rubric of self-regulated learning – is an essential competency for children to master as they develop and learn across a variety of academic and non-academic contexts. Through effective self-regulation of emotion, children move closer to becoming autonomous, self-regulated learners.
Emotion Regulation and Self-efficacy Emotion regulation is a hallmark of being human and developing as a productive agent in society. From the social cognitive view, self-efficacy beliefs are essential for the effective development of human agency and are the social foundations of all emotion regulation [1]. With this in mind, caregivers and teachers can help children develop selfefficacy for managing and exercising self-control of their emotions. Adults can also help children develop the willingness and ability to delay gratification in order to postpone immediate impulse behaviors and wait for an appropriate time to express their emotions in socially-acceptable ways [3]. In doing so, caregivers and teachers help children develop emotional self-efficacy, which is the belief that they are in control of their emotional experiences [12].
References 1. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. 2. Batson, C. D., Shaw, L. L., & Oleson, K. C. (1992). Differentiating affect, mood, and emotion: Toward functionally based conceptual distinctions. In M. S. Clark (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology: Vol. 13 Emotion (pp. 294–326). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 3. Bembenutty, H. (2008). Self-regulation of learning and test anxiety. Psychology Journal, 5(3), 122–139. 4. Buck, R. (1990). Mood and emotion: A comparison of five contemporary views. Psychological Inquiry, 1, 330–336. 5. Calkins, S. D., & Fox, N. A. (2002). Self-regulatory processes in early personality development: A multilevel approach to the study of childhood social withdrawal and aggression. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 477–498. 6. Forgas, J. (2000). The role of affect in social cognition. In J. Forgas (Ed.), Feeling and thinking: The role of affect in social cognition (pp. 1–28). New York: Cambridge University Press. 7. Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299. 8. Linnenbrink, E. A., & Pintrich, P. R. (2004). Role of affect in cognitive processing in academic contexts. In D. Y. Dai, & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Motivation, emotion, and cognition: Integrative perspectives on intellectual functioning and development (pp. 57–87). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 9. Ormrod, J. E. (2009). Essentials of educational psychology (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 10. Pekrun, R. (2006). The control-value theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18, 315–341. 11. Rosenberg, E. L. (1998). Levels of analysis and the organization of affect. Review of General Psychology, 2, 247–270. 12. Saarni, C. (1999). The development of emotional competence. New York: Guilford. 13. Schunk, D. H., Pintrich, P. R., & Meece, J. L. (2008). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 14. Schutz, P. A., & Lanehart, S. L. (2002). Introduction: Emotions in education. Educational Psychologist, 37, 67–68. 15. Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts. 16. Thompson, R. A. (1990). Emotion and self-regulation. In R. A. Thompson (Ed.), Socioemotional development: Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 36, pp. 367–467). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 17. Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of definition. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), The development of emotion regulation: Biological and behavioral considerations. Monographs of the Society for Research on Child Development, 59, 25–52.
Regurgitate ▶Purging
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Rehabilitation Act of 1973 EVA D. SLOAN St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition Replaced the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, expanded the requirements of states receiving funding for rehabilitation services, and placed special emphasis on those with more severe handicaps.
Description This Act was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America on September 26, 1973 and was written to replace the Vocational Rehabilitation Act. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provided a framework for the Rehabilitation Services Administration to determine how states would meet the needs of handicapped persons [1]. Section 501 of the Act prohibited discrimination in employment of persons in Federal agencies of the executive branch of the United States government. Section 503 required affirmative action for those persons with disabilities and prohibits discrimination in employment of Federal contractors or subcontractors with contracts worth more than $10,000. Section 504 established the civil rights of handicapped individuals and prohibited discrimination in the employment of handicapped persons among Federal agencies or agencies receiving Federal funding. Section 508 required that electronic information and information technology be made available to individuals with disabilities.
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Rehabilitation Act of 1973. US Department of Justice. (2005). A guide to disability rights laws. Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.ada.gov/cguide. htm#anchor65610
Reinforcement JENNIFER M. ALEXANDER, MARIA G. VALDOVINOS Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
Synonyms Self-reinforcement
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termination of an aversive consequence thereby increasing the future probability occurrence of the response under similar circumstances [1, 2].
Description There are two forms of reinforcement: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement [1, 2]. Positive reinforcement is a process by which a stimulus is added to the environment contingent on a response which subsequently increases the future probability of the response. For example, when an infant begins to coo and babble, the feedback provided by its caregiver (e.g., verbal response, physical interaction, facial expressions, etc.) reinforces the cooing and babbling increasing the likelihood of future cooing and babbling. Negative reinforcement is a process by which a stimulus is removed from the environment contingent on a response which subsequently then increases the future probability of the response. For example, if a child is “bugging” an older sibling and the sibling hits the younger child resulting in the child running away, the hitting has been negatively reinforced by the termination of the nagging. In the future, the older sibling is more likely to hit their younger sibling when he is bugging the older sibling. Reinforcement, regardless of it being positive or negative, functions to increase the probability of a response be it a desirable or undesirable behavior. Reinforcement is often used to teach new behaviors, and to increase desirable behaviors in behavior management interventions.
References 1. 2.
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Catania, A. C. (1998). Learning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Miller, L. K. (2006). Principles of Everyday Behavior Analysis (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
R Reinforcement-Maintained Behavior ▶Extrinsically Motivated Behavior
Reinforcers JENNIFER M. ALEXANDER, MARIA G. VALDOVINOS Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
Definition
Definition
Reinforcement is a behavioral process in which a response produces the presentation of a desirable consequence or
A reinforcer is a stimulus that generates an increase in the rate of the response that produced it.
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Description Reinforcers can be characterized as either positive or negative [1]. A positive reinforcer functions to increase the future likelihood of behavior contingent on the stimulus presentation. A negative reinforcer functions to increase the future likelihood of behavior contingent on the stimulus removal. There are different types of reinforcers: primary and conditioned [3]. Primary reinforcers are stimuli that produce their effects on behavior without any history or prior exposure and are often associated with survival functions (e.g., food) [4]. Primary reinforcers may vary in their magnitude temporarily through deprivation and satiation (i.e., motivating operations). Conditioned reinforcers are previously neutral stimuli that come to function as reinforcers because they have been paired with reinforcing stimuli. For example, the word “good” initially upon being heard is neutral; however, through it’s pairing with smiles, hugs, and other affection, the word “good” comes to function as a reinforcer for the behavior that produces it [2]. Conditioned reinforcers are often more effective than primary reinforcers as they are more challenging to affect via satiation.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Catania, A. C. (1998). Learning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Miller, L. K. (2006). Principles of everyday behavior analysis (4th ed.) Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Flora, R. S. (2004). The power of reinforcement. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: Random House.
Reitan, Ralph M. MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Life Dates 1922–present
Introduction Dr. Ralph Reitan is often seen as the “Father of Clinical Neuropsychology” with over 250 publications as well as being one of the foremost American psychologists of the last 50 years. His work with Ward Halstead resulted in the development of the Halstead–Reitan Neuropsychological Battery (HRNB). Dr. Reitan’s work is viewed as
groundbreaking in psychology and neurosurgery, because of its utility in predicting the location of brain lesions. The HRNB remains the most widely used neuropsychological battery in North America.
Educational Information Dr. Reitan received his doctorate in physiological psychology under the supervision of Dr. Ward Halstead at the University of Chicago.
Accomplishments Dr. Reitan’s interest in neuropsychology was seen early in his studies with Ward Halstead and through his interest in biological intelligence. In an effort to understand normal brain functioning Reitan’s early research focused on tests that would predict localized brain-damage. His early research studied World War II veterans. These tests would collectively go on to be known as the Halstead– Reitan Neuropsychological Battery (HRNB). Reitan spent considerable time in conducting research validating the HRNB at the Indiana University Medical Center. Reitan’s major contributions involved an actuarial approach to psychological tests and the use of a fixed battery approach which allowed the collection of predictive data which continued to validate his procedures. In addition to the original validation of the battery, Reitan and others conducted research and validation on the HNRB and its ability to provide a diagnosis, lesion localization and functional impairment. Such work is responsible for the HNRB becoming the most widely used neuropsychological battery in the Americas. Dean [1] reviewed the Halstead– Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery and indicated that, “neuropsychological assessment in North America has focused on the development of test batteries that would predict the presence of brain damage while offering a comprehensive view of a patient’s individual functions. Numerous batteries have been offered as wide-band measures of the integrity and functioning of the brain. However, the HRB remains the most researched and widely utilized measure in the United States” (p. 642). During his time at Indiana University Medical Center, Reitan also worked with refining the HRNB, adjusting individual tests for use with younger patients (9 to 14 years) in what would become The Halstead–Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery for Older Children. With its validation it has become an important measure in older pediatric populations. This battery has proven significant in differentiating between normal and brain-damaged children [2]. Although valid with 9–14 year old patients, Reitan decided there was a need for significant changes for younger children. Reitan attempted a functional
Rejected Children
developed equivalent for children 5–9 years old which is the Reitan-Indiana Neuropsychological Test Battery for Children. This measure represented a vast change of tests from the HRNB. Related perhaps to the age of the subjects, the typical validity and reliability found with the HRNB has not been demonstrated. Dr. Reitan has taught at Indiana University, University of Oregon and University Arizona. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, from both the fields of psychology and medicine. Clearly, Ralph Reitan and his work have made major changes in modern psychology, not the least of which is major responsibility for a viable new specialty in psychology.
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Dean, R. S. (1985). Review of Halstead–Reitan neuropsychological test battery. In J. V. Mitchell (Ed.), The ninth mental measurements yearbook (pp. 642–646). Highland Park, NJ: Gryphon. Reed, H. B. C., Reitan, R. M., & Klove, H. (1965). The influence of cerebral lesions on psychological test performances of older children. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 29, 247–251. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1985). The Halstead–Reitan neuropsychological test battery: Theory and clinical interpretation. Tucson, AZ: Neuropsychology Press. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1993). The Halstead–Reitan neuropsychological test battery: Theory and clinical interpretation (2nd ed.). Tucson, AZ: Neuropsychology Press. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (1996). The diminished effect of age and education on neuropsychological performances of learning-disabled children. Child Neuropsychology, 2, 11–16. Reitan, R. M., & Wolfson, D. (2001). The Halstead–Reitan neuropsychological test battery: Research findings and clinical application. In A. S. Kaufman, & N. L. Kaufman (Eds.), Specific learning disabilities and difficulties in children and adolescents: Psychological assessment and evaluation (pp. 309–346). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rejected Children ERIKA CARPENTER RICH Los Angeles Private Practice, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Synonyms Low-accepted children; Low social status children; Peer rejection
Definition Rejected children are those that are excluded from the activities of the larger group. Within the peer group, there are varying degrees of acceptance. Peer acceptance is measured through ▶sociometrics, whereby peer
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rejection is defined as being actively disliked by the peer group (e.g., the child’s classroom or grade level). Most widely studied in children, peer rejection is linked to a wide array of concomitant difficulties, including academic difficulties, ▶aggression, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and juvenile delinquency.
Description Peer rejection is a phenomenon that cuts across a number of diagnostic categories. Indeed, it is more developmental in nature and a group process than a characteristic of the individual, per se [1]. In order to understand peer rejection, it is important to understand the process of peer acceptance versus rejection as a whole. Often assessed through classroom-wide peer nomination or sociometric techniques, children are assigned to categories of popular, average, neglected, rejected, or controversial [2]. Popular children are widely liked, neglected children do not tend to be actively liked or disliked, controversial children are both actively liked and actively disliked, whereas rejected children are widely disliked. Approximately 15% of children are rejected by their peers. Peer rejection is remarkably stable, even when the rejected child enters a new peer group. In contrast, children who are neglected by their peers tend to shift into the rejected or more well-liked categories over time [1, 2].
Behavioral Characteristics What is it about a child that incites widespread levels of dislike among his or her peer group? Rejection is firmly linked to behavior problems such as aggression, classroom disruptiveness, and inattentiveness [1, 2]. Predictive models highlight the ability of peer rejection to predict these difficulties over time. The well-liked child tends to be cooperative, friendly, and possessing of some particular skill or talent, such as being athletic, smart, funny, or creative. The rejected child is, in contrast, uncooperative, annoying, and does not possess an offsetting skill or ability. This is typically a child who angers easily and is both verbally and physically aggressive. Rejected children might also have an off-putting characteristic, such as being overweight, unattractive, or disheveled. Specific social skills deficits are commonly found in the areas of peer entry, perspectivetaking, and social-cognitive processing, such as understanding the motives of another’s behavior or being able to accurately read social cues [1–3].
Academic and Psychological Maladjustment Rejected children also have academic and psychological difficulties [4]. These children are more likely to be truant,
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suspended, and/or drop out of school [5]. In addition, rejected children have lower levels of classroom participation and lower academic achievement [6, 7]. Children who are rejected by their peers suffer emotional difficulties, as well. Higher levels of depression, loneliness, and anxiety are related to levels of peer rejection [8, 9]. Oftentimes, these children want to have friends and are lonely as a result of their rejection. However, the existence of just one reciprocal friendship appears to function as a protective factor against loneliness and depression in grade school [8, 9]. Although not considered a symptom of any particular disorder per se, peer rejection has been linked to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the research literature [10]. There is a subset of aggressive and rejected children that are likely to affiliate with a deviant peer group [11, 12]. It stands to reason that an aggressive child is more likely to be accepted by a peer group where aggression is more normative. In fact, escalated aggression and antisocial behavior may elevate one’s status within that deviant peer group. In this subset, the rejected child is more likely to have difficulties with substance abuse and criminal behavior [4, 11, 12].
A Predictive Model for Peer Rejection An additive model appears to have the strongest research support and is one that ascribes an independent, partially correlated influence of child characteristics, such as aggressive or withdrawn behaviors, and peer social status on child adjustment. For example, in a longitudinal study of children ages 5–12, researchers found that both aggression and rejection predicted externalizing problems, with the influence of rejection being stronger at earlier points in development [13]. The combination of withdrawn behavior and rejection predicted internalizing problems, with the impact of peer rejection being stronger as the children matured. These findings highlight the complicated nature of peer rejection as a predictor of child outcomes. It is difficult, if not impossible, to account for all of the variables that influence peer acceptance versus rejection. These variables are contingent on the demographics of the social group, the physical environment, and the developmental context. Many of these variables fluctuate across environments and time periods. For example, there is evidence to suggest that peer acceptance is more valuable to members of the majority group (e.g., Caucasians) than to minorities [4]. Similarly, peer rejection has a larger impact on psychological adjustment for girls than boys [13]. A child’s social status, therefore, is a function not
only of that child’s individual characteristics (i.e., behavioral traits, social support, coping skills) but also of the specific group dynamic. The influence of peer rejection itself changes over time, taking on a life of its own [14]. For example, a child might initially be rejected by peers in preschool for aggressive, bossy behavior. Because he is rejected by his peers, these peers then identify him as someone to automatically exclude and to also be the target of victimization. These resultant experiences serve to encourage further aggressive behavior in a cyclical fashion. It may very well be this experience of peer rejection that results in psychological maladjustment.
Intervention Due to the complicated nature of peer rejection, intervention efforts are typically only partially successful or yield mixed results [1]. Because peer rejection results from a combination of specific social skill deficits, the presence of inappropriate behavior, emotional dysregulation, and social problem-solving deficits, it is important for an intervention to have a comprehensive focus. The role of the peer group cannot be ignored, either. It is important for children to be able to identify and capitalize on opportunities to move into new social networks. A reputational bias exists, whereby a child’s reputation precedes him in future social interactions [1]. For example, if a child has a reputation for being aggressive, peers are more likely to notice the times when that child is aggressive than instances of friendly, cooperative behavior [12]. As a result, reputation is difficult to change in the peer group, especially at older ages. Therefore, early intervention is preferred, in order to change the rejected child’s reputation before it becomes stable. Peer-mediated interventions may be met with greater success in changing peer reputation. These interventions incorporate peer coaching or are classroom-based. Such interventions not only provide skill training directly to the rejected child, but encourage awareness of behavior change in the peer group and provide specific opportunities for new friendships to form [1].
References 1. Asher, S. R., & Coie, J. D. (1990). Peer rejection in childhood. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2. Bagwell, C. L., Molina, B. S. G., Pelham, W. E., & Hoza, B. (2001). Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and problems in peer relations: Predictions from childhood to adolescence. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 1285–1292. 3. Bierman, K. L. (2004). Peer rejection: Developmental processes and intervention strategies. New York: Guilford.
Rejecting/Neglecting Parents 4. Buhs, E. S., & Ladd, G. W. (2001). Peer rejection as an antecedent of young children’s school adjustment: An examination of mediating processes. Developmental Psychology, 37, 550–560. 5. Coie, J. D., Lochman, J. E., Terry, R., & Hyman, C. (1992). Predicting early adolescent disorder from childhood aggression and peer rejection. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 783–792. 6. Dodge, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Burks, V. S., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S., Fontaine, R., et al. (2003). Peer rejection and social informationprocessing factors in the development of aggressive behavior problems in children. Child Development, 74, 374–393. 7. Erdley, C. A., Nangle, D. W., Newman, J. E., & Carpenter, E. M. (2001). Children’s friendship experiences and psychological adjustment: Theory and research. In D. W. Nangle, & C. A. Erdley (Eds.), New directions for child and adolescent development: The role of friendship in psychological adjustment (No. 91, pp. 5–24). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 8. Kupersmidt, J. B., & Coie, J. D. (1990). Preadolescent peer status, aggression, and school adjustment as predictors of externalizing problems in adolescence. Child Development, 61, 1350–1362. 9. Ladd, G. W. (2006). Peer rejection, aggressive or withdrawn behavior, and psychological maladjustment from ages 5 to 12: An examination of four predictive models. Child Development, 77, 822–846. 10. Ladd, G. W., Herald-Brown, S. L., & Reiser, M. (2008). Does chronic classroom peer rejection predict the development of children’s classroom participation during the grade school years? Child Development, 79, 1001–1015. 11. Nangle, D. W., Erdley, C. E., Carpenter, E. M., & Newman, J. E. (2002). Social skills training as a treatment for aggressive behavior among children and adolescents: A developmental-clinical integration. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 7, 169–199. 12. Nangle, D. W., Erdley, C. E., Newman, J. E., Mason, C., & Carpenter, E. M. (2003). Popularity, friendship quantity, and friendship quality: Interactive influences on children’s loneliness and depression. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 546–555. 13. Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children “at risk”? Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357–389. 14. Patterson, G. R., DeBaryshe, B. D., & Ramsey, E. (1989). A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior. American Psychologist, 44, 329–335.
Rejecting Parenting Style ▶Indifferent Parenting Style
Rejecting Parents ▶Uninvolved Parents
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Rejecting/Neglecting Parents TAMARA DEL VECCHIO St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA
Synonyms Uninvolved parents
Definition Rejecting/neglecting parents are low on measures of demandingness and responsiveness.
Description Baumrind [1] and Maccoby and Martin [2] have differentiated four parenting styles based on how high or low parents are on each of two independent factors: demandingness and responsiveness. Variations in these factors produce four parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive/indulgent, and rejecting/neglecting. A basic tenet of this typology is the notion that exactly how parents socialize their children and the amount of behavioral control and responsiveness displayed varies across parents. These are considered normal variations in parenting and these four parenting styles are not intended to represent abusive parenting behaviors. Demandingness refers to the level of behavioral control, demands placed, or discipline parents display in their attempts to socialize their children. Responsiveness refers to the level of warmth and sensitivity parents display in their interactions with their children. Parents high on both demandingness and responsiveness display optimal Authoritative parenting and their children evidence competence academically and behaviorally [3, 4]. Authoritarian parenting is high on demandingness but low on measures of responsiveness, suggesting that these parents engage in less sensitive, coercive parenting. Children of authoritarian parents may fare moderately academically, but may lack behavioral control. Permissive parents are highly responsive but lack in demandingness often resulting in children with poor academic functioning and moderate problem behaviors. Rejecting/ neglecting parents lack both demandingness and responsiveness. Rejecting/neglecting parents apply little control and are also less sensitive to their children’s needs. Children of rejecting/neglecting parents tend to fare the most poorly with difficulties across all academic, behavioral, and social domains.
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References 1.
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Baumrind, D. (1973). The development of instrumental competence through socialization. In A. D. Pick (Ed.), Minnesota symposium on child psychology (Vol. 7, pp. 3–46). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent–child interaction. In: P. H. Mussen (Ed.), & E. M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (4th ed., pp. 1–101). New York: Wiley. Maccoby, E. E. (1992). The role of parents in the socialization of children: An historical overview. Developmental Psychology, 28, 1006–1017. Weiss, L. H., & Schwarz, J. C. (1996). The relationship between parenting types and older adolescents’ personality, academic achievement, adjustment, and substance use. Child Development, 67, 2101–2114.
Rejecting-Neglecting Parenting Style ▶Permissive Parenting Style
Relational Aggression KRISTIN D. SAWKA-MILLER Siena College, Loudonville, NY, USA
Synonyms Covert bullying; Indirect aggression; Relational bullying; Social aggression
Definition Relational aggression is the use of exclusionary and/or other nonphysical behaviors to undermine another person’s self-esteem or group status.
Description Relational aggression involves the intent to harm another person through nonphysical injury to or manipulation of relationships. Relationally aggressive behaviors can be covert (i.e., spreading rumors, gossiping, ignoring, excluding) or overt (e.g., directly telling a peer, “If you don’t do what I say, I won’t be your friend”). Similarly, relational aggression can be reactive in that it occurs in response to feeling angry or threatened, or it can serve an instrumental purpose in getting what one wants.
Both males and females engage in relational aggression. While it is a commonly held belief that females exhibit higher levels of relational aggression than males, research addressing gender differences in prevalence rates has yielded inconsistent and contradictory results. Specifically, results of some studies suggest more females engage in relational aggression, others have found no gender differences, and some studies suggest the prevalence is higher for males but it is more apt to be underreported [4].
Relevance to Childhood Development Children who engage in acts of relational aggression typically do so to maintain or improve their position in peer groups. Evidence suggests that relational aggression may cause as much, if not more, damage than physical aggression. Victims are at-risk for negative outcomes such as anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, school avoidance, peer distrust, and low academic achievement [1]. Children who are frequent targets of relational aggression and/or who experience relational aggression in the context of a close friendship are at greatest risk for adjustment problems. Research suggests that efforts to reduce relational aggression by intervening with individual students have generally resulted in little to no positive behavior change [2]. Consequently it is recommended that relational aggression be addressed in the context of broader systemslevel interventions such as school-wide positive behavior support [3] to create positive and safe social climates and decrease antisocial behavior in general.
References 1.
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Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1996). Children’s treatment by peers: Victims of relational and overt aggression. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 367–380. Merrell, K. W., Buchanan, R., & Tran, O. K. (2006). Relational aggression in children and adolescents: A review with implications for school settings. Psychology in Schools, 43(3), 345–360. OSEP Technical Assistance Center for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. What is school-wide PBS? Retrieved, September 22, 2008, from http://www.pbis.org/schoolwide.htm Young, E. L., Boye, A. E., & Nelson, D. A. (2006). Relational aggression: Understanding, identifying, and responding in schools. Psychology in Schools, 43(3), 297–312.
Relational Bullying ▶Relational Aggression
Relational Frame Theory
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Relational Frame Theory (RFT; [13]) is a behavior analytic theory that analyzes and explains the development of language and cognition in terms of learned, generalized, contextually-controlled patterns of relational responding, referred to as arbitrarily applicable relational responding or relational framing.
language able humans show an additional type of relational responding that other animals do not in which they relate objects not based on the physical relation between them but based upon contextual cues that determine which relation is appropriate. For example, imagine a verbally able child is given an exercise involving the hypothetical characters Mr. A. and Mr. B, in which she is told that “Mr. A is taller than Mr. B”. If subsequently asked to say which person is shorter, she will likely say “Mr. B” without needing to be told anything further. This response is based upon the contextual cues “taller” and “shorter” rather than on physical relations. Since the taught relation need not depend in any way on physical relations and hence is arbitrarily applicable to any stimuli no matter what their physical properties, this type of responding is referred to as arbitrarily applicable relational responding.
Description
The Emergence of Relational Framing
Relational Frame Theory (RFT; [13]) is a behavior analytic approach to language and cognition. Behavior analysis has traditionally been regarded as an extremely effective approach with regard to training non-verbal skills in non-humans and non-verbally able humans but has been seen as deficient in terms of its ability to account for the generative nature of human language (see [6]). Relational Frame Theorists would agree that traditional behavioral accounts such as that of Skinner [22] are theoretically inadequate with respect to this aspect of language. However, they argue that the novel generalized relational operant account provided by RFT successfully overcomes the limitation in this respect of earlier behavioral accounts and empirical evidence to date, some of which will be cited below, bears out this contention. As such, Relational Frame Theory includes the rigor, parsimony and strong empirical foundations of behavior analysis, but goes beyond traditional behavioral accounts to explain the generative nature of language, thus ultimately enabling it to present a comprehensive, theoretically unified, empirically well-grounded and practically applicable psychological account of many aspects of higher human functioning.
According to RFT, there are many different patterns of arbitrarily applicable relational responding or, as it is also known, relational framing. These relational patterns or “frames” are forms of operant behavior that humans learn through multiple exposures to interactions with their native language community in which these patterns feature. Learning to name objects is perhaps the earliest and most basic form of relational framing. As in the case of most forms of relational framing, naming is learned, according to Relational Frame Theory, through multiple exemplars of the pattern to which the child is exposed through everyday language interactions. A parent will often say the name of an object (e.g., “This is an apple”) and then reinforce (with smiles, praise etc.) any orientation response (e.g., looking or pointing) towards that object (the actual apple). This teaches “Hear name A -> Look at object B.” The parent might also present an object (e.g., the apple), ask for the name (e.g., “What is this?”), model the pronunciation of the correct name (e.g., “This is an apple”) and then praise the child for production of the same name, which effectively teaches “See Object B -> hear and say name A” (see [1], for a more detailed discussion of this type of interaction). This will happen with many different objects over time. In the beginning, each such interaction may require explicit reinforcement in order for the child to be able to produce it appropriately. Eventually, however, through multiple exposures to this bidirectional pattern (Name [A] goes with Object [B], Object [B] goes with Name [A]), the generalized operant of naming results. At this point the child will be able to respond in accordance with the naming pattern based on
Relational Frame Theory IAN STEWART National University of Ireland Galway, Republic of Ireland
Synonyms RFT
Definition
Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding The key concept in the RFT account of language is arbitrarily applicable relational responding. This can be explained as follows. Many non-human animals can be trained to respond to physical relationships between objects; for example, they can be trained to consistently pick the biggest object from an array. Humans also can do this from a very early age. However, RFT argues that
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contextual cues alone (e.g., such as the word “is”) and will not need to be explicitly taught in both directions. Hence, with a novel object-name combination, the child need only be taught in one direction and will be able to respond immediately and without further training, in accordance with the bi-directional pattern. For example, the child might be shown a novel object (e.g., a pencil) and told “This is a pencil.” Contextual cues including the word “is” will cue the bidirectional relational pattern so that later if asked “Where is the pencil?,” the child will be able to look at or point to the correct object without being explicitly trained to do so (for more detailed descriptions of the learning processes involved see [1, 2, 11, 12, 14, 15]).
Varieties of Relational Framing Once the child has learned this ‘naming’ response pattern then being told the name of a novel object (e.g., “This is a car”), which involves the presentation of contextual cues for this pattern (including the word “is,” for example) will bring to bear the relational frame of coordination (sameness) between word and object. Coordination is just one example of a relational frame. There are many other types of framing also learned on the basis of multiple natural language exemplars, each of which, similar to the example just seen, essentially involves learning to produce particular patterns (frames) of responding in the presence of particular classes of contextual cue. Some further examples include responding in accordance with frames of opposition (e.g., “Big is the opposite of small”; the word “opposite” here is the cue for a relational pattern of opposition), difference (“A boat is different from a ship”; the cue here is “different,” though other words or phrases such as “not” or “other than” could also cue a relation of difference), comparison (e.g., “An elephant is bigger than a mouse”; the cue here is “bigger”; other words and phrases that might function as cues for comparative relations include “greater,” “smaller,” “more than,” “less than” etc.) and perspective-taking (e.g., “I am here, but you are there”; cues for deictic or perspective relations include words such as “I,” “you,” “here,” “there,” “now” and “then”). Furthermore, there is an increasing quantity of empirical support for the existence and development of these and other frames (e.g., [7–9, 20, 21, 23]). Apart from simply demonstrating the existence of such patterns of responding in the behavior of adults and children, RFT researchers have also used the relational frame concept to empirically model several key aspects of complex human cognition including, for example, analogical reasoning (e.g., [24, 25]), rule following (e.g., [10, 18]), perspective-taking (e.g., [17]) and verbal motivation (e.g., [26]).
Properties of Relational Framing Despite their diversity, all relational frames ultimately involve three defining features. (a) Mutual entailment refers to the fact that a relation in one direction between two objects entails or automatically gives rise to a second relation in the opposite direction. For example, if a verbal person is given two foreign coins and told that coin 1 is worth more than coin 2, then they will derive that coin 2 is worth less than coin 1. In other words, the first relation entails the appropriateness of the second relation and this works whichever of the two is trained first (i.e., it is mutual). (b) Combinatorial entailment is the phenomenon in which two relations are combined to form a third relation. For example, given three foreign coins, if coin 1 is worth more than coin 2, and coin 2 is worth more than coin 3, then a “more than” relation is entailed between coins 1 and 3, and a “less than” relation is entailed between coins 3 and 1. (c) Transformation of stimulus functions is extremely important as regards the psychological relevance of relational framing since, from an RFT perspective, it is the process according to which language can control our behavior. In technical terms, if two stimuli, A and B, participate in a relation, and one stimulus (e.g., A) has a psychological function, then under certain conditions the stimulus functions of B may be transformed in accordance with that relation. For instance, imagine a verbally able child who is shown a coin and told that now they can buy candy in the store. Telling them that they can buy candy gives the coin value and thus makes it desirable to have it (in technical terms, this gives the coin an “appetitive” function). If they are then shown a second coin and told that this second coin is worth more than the first then the psychological functions of the second coin may be transformed such that it is now more desirable (or more appetitive) than the first and if given a choice between the two coins the child will choose the second.
Relevance to Childhood Development RFT is an operant account of the development of language and cognition that explains these phenomena in terms of the development of learned patterns of generalized relational responding and the patterns of transformation of psychological functions that these learned patterns produce. As such, it suggests that linguistic and cognitive skills may be trained and it posits important parameters for such training. Indeed, several empirical studies already demonstrate the successful training in young children of relational frames including coordination (e.g., [16]), opposition (e.g., [3]), comparison (e.g., [4]), perspectivetaking (e.g., [19]) and analogical reasoning [5].
Relationships
Based on its potential comprehensiveness as well as its practical utility as an approach to training intellectual skills, Relational Frame Theory is highly relevant to the domain of childhood development. It is a relatively young approach as yet, and thus research based on this approach is only beginning to blossom. However, it offers the potential for a theoretically unified, empirically well-grounded, practically useful conceptualization of a number of core areas of human development including intellectual, linguistic, emotional and moral development. A detailed description of the RFT conceptualization of each these specific areas of development is beyond the scope of this entry but those interested can read further in Hayes et al. [13], and in the empirical citations made above.
References 1. Barnes, D. (1994). Stimulus equivalence and relational frame theory. The Psychological Record, 44, 91–124. 2. Barnes, D. (1996). Naming as a technical term: Sacrificing behavior analysis at the alter of popularity. Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 65, 264–267. 3. Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D., Smeets, P. M., Strand, P., & Friman, P. (2004). Testing and training relational responding in accordance with the relational frame of opposite in young children. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 4, 559–586. 4. Berens, N. M., & Hayes, S. C. (2007). Arbitrarily applicable comparative relations: Experimental Evidence for relational operants. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40, 45–71. 5. Carpentier, F., Smeets, P. M., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Stewart, I. (2004). Matching derived functionally-same stimulus relations: Equivalenceequivalence and classical analogies. The Psychological Record, 54, 255–273. 6. Chomsky, N. (1959). A review of B.F. Skinners ‘Verbal Behavior’. Language, 35, 26–58. 7. Dymond, S., & Barnes, D. (1994). A transfer of self-discrimination response functions through equivalence relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62, 251–267. 8. Dymond, S., & Barnes, D. (1995). A transfer of self-discrimination response functions in accordance with the arbitrarily applicable relations of sameness, more-than and less-than. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 64, 163–184. 9. Dymond, S., & Barnes, D. (1996). A transfer of self-discrimination response functions in accordance with the arbitrarily applicable relations of sameness and opposition. The Psychological Record, 46, 271–300. 10. Hayes, S. C. (1989). Rule-governed behavior: Cognition, contingencies, and instructional control. New York: Plenum. 11. Hayes, S. C. (1991). A relational control theory of stimulus equivalence. In L. J. Hayes, & P. N. Chase (Eds.), Dialogues on verbal behavior (pp. 19–40). Reno, NV: Context Press. 12. Hayes, S. C. (1994). Relational frame theory: A functional approach to verbal events. In. S. C. Hayes, L. J. Hayes, M. Sato, & K. Ono (Eds.), Behavior analysis of language and cognition (pp. 9–30). Reno, NV: Context Press. 13. Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (2001). Relational frame theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York: Kluwer/Plenum.
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14. Hayes, S. C., & Hayes, L. J. (1989). The verbal action of the listener as a basis for rule-governance. In S. C. Hayes (Ed.), Rule-governed behavior: Cognition, contingencies, and instructional control (pp. 153–190). New York: Plenum. 15. Hayes, S. C., & Hayes, L. J. (1992). Verbal relations and the evolution of behavior analysis. American Psychologist, 47, 1383–1395. 16. Luciano, C., Gomez-Becerra, I., & Rodriguez-Valverde, M. (2007). The role of multiple-exemplar training and naming in establishing derived equivalence in an infant. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 87, 349–365. 17. McHugh, L., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2004). Perspective-taking as relational responding: A developmental profile. The Psychological Record, 54, 115–154. 18. O’ Hora, D., Barnes-Holmes, D., Roche, B., & Smeets, P. (2004). Derived relational networks and control by novel instructions: A possible model of generative verbal responding. The Psychological Record, 54, 437–460. 19. Rehfeldt, R. A., Dillen, J. E., Ziomek, M. M., & Kowalchuk, R. E. (2007). Assessing relational learning deficits in perspective-taking in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder. The Psychological Record, 57, 23–47. 20. Roche, B., & Barnes, D. (1996). Arbitrary application relational responding and sexual categorization: A critical test of the derived difference relation. The Psychological Record, 46, 451–475. 21. Roche, B., & Barnes, D. (1997). A transformation of respondently conditioned functions in accordance with arbitrarily applicable relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 67, 275–301. 22. Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. New York: Appleton-CenturyCrofts. 23. Steele, D. L., & Hayes, S. C. (1991). Stimulus equivalence and arbitrarily applicable relational responding. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 56, 519–555. 24. Stewart, I., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (2004). A functionalanalytic model of analogy using the relational evaluation procedure. The Psychological Record, 54, 531–552. 25. Stewart, I., Barnes-Holmes, D., Roche, B., & Smeets, P. M. (2002). A functional analytic model of analogy: A relational frame analysis. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 78, 375–396. 26. Whelan, R., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Dymond, S. (2006). The transformation of consequential functions in accordance with the relational frames of more-than and less-than. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 86, 317–335.
Relationships DOUGLAS K. SYMONS Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Attachments; Family relationships; Interpersonal processes; Parent-child relationships; Sibling relationships; Teacher-child relationships
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Relative Performance Indexes
Definition A relationship is an interpersonal process with ongoing involvement over time. In children, relationships are usually classified by whom the relationship is with: parents, siblings, peers, and significant others in a child’s life such as a teacher.
Description Relationships constitute the social landscape within which a child develops. There are many different kinds of relationships that develop and take on different degrees of importance across childhood. Initially, the parent-child relationship is the most important. Then siblings within the family environment are a focus during the preschool period and beyond. Upon school entry, peer relationships become critical, and in adolescence, these are related to the formation of intimate and romantic relationships [1]. At a purely behavioral level, a relationship consists of a history of verbal and non-verbal behaviours which are interdependent between individuals, but this ignores cognitive components of relationships that are also essential. In keeping with this cognitive approach, there are several generalized principles that are helpful to understand what a relationship is [2]. First, a relationship is an entity unto itself, that is, it is an “organized whole.” It cannot be predicted simply by knowing the individual characteristics of each member of the relationship. As it may have unique characteristics, the relationship itself can be the unit of focus and analysis. For example, a bullying relationship between peers could arise when one child believes it is okay to exploit others within a relationship and the other child is passive and can be victimized. But predictive models of bullying relationships are not foolproof, so knowing this information about the individual characteristics of two children does not necessarily mean a bullying relationship will arise. Second, relationships exhibit “coherence and continuity,” that is, there should be stability across time and across contexts. Surface behavior may change, but the underlying functions and processes remain predictable. For example, a parent who is critical of their young child by teasing them about their appearance may continue to do so into adolescence, or they may be critical of their educational attainment and occupational aspirations instead. What is common is that the relationship is negative and contains parental criticism, even though the surface behavior of this criticism changes. Third, individuals “internalize relationships,” usually through representational models of how the self and other behave in relationships. This may include expectations of social behavior, schemas for how relationships function, and internal working models of secure
base behaviour. For example, a child may be neglected by parents throughout childhood, and develop the expectation that “I cannot and should not count on others.” Others might have received criticism throughout childhood, developed a poor self-image, and thus feel unloved. Fourth, represented relationships are “carried forward” and thus affect future relationships. Continuing with the above examples, this child may develop future relationships in which they are emotionally avoidant of others, given their expectation that others are not there to meet their needs in times of stress and/or they themselves are ultimately unlovable. These general principles are for dyadic relationships between a child and someone else, but can also be used to describe larger networks of relationships, such as within a family. Each kind of relationship mentioned above (e.g., parent, sibling, peer, teacher) has extensive research within and across domains as described elsewhere in this volume.
References 1.
2.
Kobak, R. R., & Sceery, A. (1988). Attachment in late adolescence: Working models, affect regulation, and perception of self and others. Child Development, 59, 135–146. Sroufe, L. A., & Fleeson, J. (1988). The coherence of individual relationships. In R. A. Hinde & J. Stevenson-Hinde (Eds.), Relationships among families: Mutual influences (pp. 27–47). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Relative Performance Indexes ▶Age Equivalent
Relativistic Philosophy ▶Constructivist Psychotherapy
Reliability JEREMY R. SULLIVAN University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Consistency; Dependability; Repeatability; Stability
Reliability
Definition Reliability is used within the context of psychological assessment and educational testing to refer to the consistency of assessment results. Reliability may refer to consistency over time, within the individual items on a test, across more than one rater or scorer, or across more than one form of a test. Which of these types of reliability are most relevant will depend on the type and purpose of the psychological or educational test.
Description Reliability refers to the extent to which scores on a psychological or educational test are consistent or stable. Note that reliability refers to scores or results obtained on a test, rather than to the test itself (see [2, 4]). This is because indices of reliability may vary from a small to large degree with different samples of people, across different time intervals, and with different gender, age, or ethnic groups. For some purposes or for some scores or for some groups, reliability may be high, while for others reliability may be low. Thus, reliability is a characteristic of the scores obtained with a test rather than a characteristic of the test itself. Test results provide a limited measure of performance on a limited number of tasks at one particular time. Test users would like to think that such test results are consistent over different testing occasions, different raters, or different samples of items from the same content domain. If a score is stable, rather than fluctuating randomly, users will have more confidence that a score is an accurate estimate of performance or functioning. Score reliability typically is measured quantitatively with a correlation coefficient such as Pearson r, with coefficients closer to 0.0 indicating less reliability and coefficients closer to +1.0 indicating greater reliability. Reliability can be estimated in many different ways, depending on the purpose of the psychological or educational test and types of items and scores included on the test. Four broad categories of methods of estimating reliability are described below. For more detailed discussion of specific reliability analyses, the reader is referred to those resources cited in the References list. For example, see Thorndike [3] for a more mathematical treatment of reliability. The first method of estimating reliability is internal consistency, which refers to consistency within the items on a test or assessment procedure. High internal consistency coefficients indicate that the items on a test are strongly intercorrelated, suggesting that each item is assessing the same construct. Methods of estimating internal consistency involve administering the test to a sample
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of people, dividing the items in different ways, and then correlating the scores from different parts of the instrument. For example, the split-half method is often used with power tests, in which test items become progressively more difficult. With the split-half method, test items are divided into two equivalent halves, usually based on odd and even items in order to control for the effect of increasing difficulty. Then the two halves are scored separately, which provides two scores for each individual. Finally, scores on the two halves of the test are correlated across the entire sample, and the correlation coefficient indicates the degree to which consistent results are obtained from the two halves of the test. The correlation will be more meaningful with a larger number of items. One of the limitations with the split-half method is that it tends to result in small correlation coefficients, thereby providing an underestimate of internal consistency. The SpearmanBrown formula is often used to provide a corrected estimate of split-half reliability. Other commonly used methods of estimating internal consistency are the Kuder-Richardson formula (K-R 20) and coefficient alpha (also referred to as Cronbach’s alpha). These methods split all the items on the test every possible way and then provide the average of all possible split-half correlation coefficients. The KuderRichardson formula is used when responses are scored dichotomously (e.g., correct or incorrect, True or False), and coefficient alpha is used when responses are not dichotomous (e.g., self-report measures using a 5-point scale). Because these methods do not require the user to split the test items, these methods are often preferred to the split-half method in cases where difficulty is not a consideration (e.g., personality and interest inventories, which do not have correct and incorrect responses). The second method of estimating reliability is testretest reliability (sometimes called stability), which is used to estimate the consistency or stability of test scores over time. Test-retest analyses involve administering the same test twice to the same group of people with some time interval between administrations. This time interval often ranges from 1 week to 1 month, but shorter or longer intervals are sometimes appropriate for some types of tests. Once scores are obtained for the two administrations, these sets of scores are correlated. If the results are highly stable, each individual will obtain a score on the second administration that is similar to their score on the first administration. Lower correlation coefficients suggest a larger degree of error and more variability in test performance over time. The time interval between test administrations is an important consideration with test-retest reliability. If the
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interval is too short, people may remember their responses from the first assessment and simply give the same answers again, resulting in an inflated correlation coefficient. If the interval is too long, the results will be influenced by developmental changes, interventions, and exposure to subsequent learning experiences. This will result in a smaller coefficient. Thus, test-retest coefficients tend to decrease in magnitude as the time between administrations increases, and it is impossible to evaluate the quality of a test-retest coefficient without knowing the interval between administrations. Reliability analyses of scores on speed tests are likely to employ the test-retest method, as internal consistency methods are likely to produce inflated coefficients. Another factor influencing test-retest reliability is the theoretical stability of the construct under investigation. For example, with scores on an intelligence test, users would want test-retest coefficients to be very high because intelligence is conceptualized as a relatively stable construct. With scales measuring emotional functioning such as depression or anxiety, users typically allow for lower coefficients, because these constructs are more influenced by changing environmental factors such as stressors and exposure to intervention. Thus, stability coefficients for scores on personality and interest inventories are typically lower than coefficients for scores on cognitive tests. The third method of estimating reliability is alternate forms reliability (sometimes called equivalence or parallel forms reliability), which examines consistency across two different forms of the same test or assessment procedure. The process of establishing evidence for alternate forms reliability involves giving two different but equivalent (i.e., based on the same content and specifications and the same number of items in the same format) forms of the test to the same group of people, with no time interval between administrations. After administering the two forms, the scores are correlated. High correlations suggest that the two alternate forms are equivalent or similar in terms of the content or behaviors that are measured. The alternate forms method is frequently used with standardized tests of academic achievement. In this case, test users may want to measure educational progress, but it would be inappropriate to administer the exact same test over and over to the same student due to practice effects. Thus, different forms of the same test can be used to monitor progress, but users need evidence that the different forms are equivalent. As an example from classroom assessment, teachers sometimes develop two or more forms of a classroom test to control for cheating (i.e., students are less likely to look at one another’s tests because there are several different forms of the test). In
such cases, teachers would want to ensure that the different forms are equivalent in terms of item content and difficulty so that students’ scores are not influenced by which form of the test they take. The fourth method of estimating reliability is interrater reliability, which refers to consistency of scores across two (or more) different raters or scorers; that is, would two people who scored the same test award the same scores? Interrater reliability is especially important for providing evidence for reliability of scores on subjective tasks, where judgment is required by the rater. These types of tasks include essay tests, performance assessments, and projective psychological tests. Test users would like to think that an individual’s score on these subjective tests is not influenced by the professional doing the scoring, but rather is an accurate measure of the test-taker’s true knowledge, abilities, or perceptions. The process of examining interrater reliability involves giving a set of responses requiring judgment to two or more raters and having them independently score the responses. Then scores are correlated to see how consistent the raters were. Interrater reliability generally is not considered important for objective tests because no judgment is required to score these tasks (e.g., interrater reliability should be perfect for a multiple choice test). An important influence on the degree of interrater reliability is the quality of the criteria used to evaluate responses. Well-defined scoring criteria and rubrics, and guided practice in using them, generally lead to greater consistency across scorers. Thus, interrater reliability can be improved by making scoring categories more distinct and by training raters in scoring procedures. Generally speaking, reliability coefficients are influenced by a number of factors in addition to those factors discussed above. For example, reliability coefficients are influenced by the number of assessment tasks or items on a test (in general, more items typically result in more reliable scores) and the spread of scores on the test (distributions with a wide spread of scores typically result in higher correlation coefficients). Reliability is also directly related to measurement error: as measurement error increases, so do the randomness and inconsistency of scores, thereby decreasing reliability. In light of the multiple factors that influence reliability and the different methods used to estimate reliability, there is no universally agreed upon correlation coefficient that can be used as a cutoff for a minimally acceptable level of reliability. If the results of an instrument could lead to decisions that have lasting consequences or that have a significant impact on a person’s life (e.g., tests of
Religion
intelligence and scholastic aptitude), then users would want the instrument to have very high reliability coefficients. Users also can compare the reliability coefficients obtained with the instrument they are considering with those coefficients of other instruments in the area to see if they compare favorably. Users also should examine whether reliability coefficients are significantly different for different groups, such as gender, socioeconomic, ethnic, and age groups. Sometimes coefficients will be smaller for different groups, suggesting caution in using the test with these groups. Conceptually, reliability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for validity. That is, if a test produces scores that are random and inconsistent, the ability of these scores to facilitate accurate predictions and classifications (e.g., clinical diagnosis, special education placement) will be severely compromised [1]. At the same time, score reliability does not guarantee that the score will lead the test user in the right direction with regard to decision making; appropriate uses and interpretations of test scores are issues of validity.
Relevance to Childhood Development Tests or standardized procedures are often used for clinical decision making, instructional decision making, educational placement, and research purposes. In order to have confidence that the results of these procedures are consistent and stable, there should be evidence of reliability analyses. The more pieces of evidence for reliability that users have available, either in test manuals or in the research literature, the more comfortable they are using these tests and procedures. Suppose a teacher administers a classroom test designed to assess the extent to which students have met instructional objectives. After administering and scoring the test, the teacher may wonder: “How similar would students’ scores have been if I had tested them yesterday, or tomorrow, or next week?”; “How would the scores have differed if I had used a different sample of items or tasks that measured the same objectives?”; or “How much would the scores have differed if a different teacher scored the tests?” Similar questions arise when a psychologist is interested in assessing the social, emotional, behavioral, or intellectual functioning of children and adolescents. These are the types of assessment-related questions that reliability analyses attempt to answer.
References 1.
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
2. 3. 4.
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Thompson, B. (Ed.). (2003). Score reliability: Contemporary thinking on reliability issues. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Thorndike, R. M. (2005). Measurement and evaluation in psychology and education (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Urbina, S. (2004). Essentials of psychological testing. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Religion BADY QUINTAR Nova Southeastern University (CPS), Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Definition Religion is defined by Webster’s dictionary (Unabridged) as the “belief in a divine or superhuman power or powers to be obeyed and worshiped as the creator(s) and ruler(s) of the universe.”
Description Throughout human existence, man has had the need to understand and explain to himself and others the origins and meanings of the common natural phenomena and the wonders of the world around him. Early men, in every known culture, used their creative imagination to make up stories about the natural events such as floods, earthquakes, eclipses of the sun and moon, and the like. Often in their attempt to make their stories credulous, they gave them anthropomorphic qualities. The Greeks, for example, as early as 2000 B.C., created highly imaginative, wise and instructive myths about gods, which were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth long before the invention of the printing press. In fact, they were the first people who created gods and goddesses that looked like real human beings with human characteristics including virtues, vices, cherished values and ideals. They were described as bigger than life, immortal, forever young, beautiful, powerful, and living a life of leisure. Like human beings they were born, grew up, fell in love, got married, and had children. Ordinary people worshipped them, built temples for them, and were always at their mercy. In essence, people were concerned with the impact of the external world’s forces on their day-to-day living. It was not until the teaching of Socrates who lived from 469 to 399 B.C. that the direction of Greek philosophy was changed from concern with the external world to concentration upon man’s inner nature. His student Plato who lived from 429 to 347 B.C. rejected the notion that
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knowledge is derived mostly from sensory phenomena. He believed that the soul (psyche), unlike the body, is immortal and contains the imperishable ideas which are the basis of our mental activities. For several centuries men struggled with the Platonic dualism of mind and body. During the nineteenth century several thinkers made meaningful advances in the field of social psychology, anthropology, psychiatry, and neurological discoveries. During this century studies concerning the psychology of religion began in earnest. Religion was not being considered only as a matter of faith, but as an important subject of intellectual and academic inquiry. Religion was conceptualized as a system of communication which has occupied the mind of human kind from the dawn of civilization. Throughout recorded history philosophers, theologians, anthropologists, and religious scholars attempted to explore and answer some of the vexing questions regarding human existence, deity, destiny, life and death, resurrection, salvation, and human suffering. With the dawning of the twentieth century, different approaches to the study of the origins and functions of religions were explored by several original thinkers such as William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Justav Jung. James wrote, in his Varieties of Religious Experiences (1901–1902) that individual religious experiences rather than adherence to dogmas or doctrines of organized religions are the real essence of religious life. Freud in Totem and Taboo (1913) drew a connection between primitive men’s religious views and practices and the observed behaviors of obsessive-compulsive neurotics. Furthermore, in The Future of an Illusion (1927) and Moses and Monotheism (1939), Freud advanced the notion that religious ideas stemmed from men’s need to protect themselves from the uncontrollable and destructive forces of nature. The need for protection from an external powerful agent is somewhat reminiscent of a helpless child who looks for a powerful father who can protect and comfort him. Freud assumed that men found it necessary to resort to religious beliefs and practices to comfort and protect them. He never altered his idea that religion was an obsessional neurosis. Jung, on the other hand, assumed that the absence of religion was the chief cause of psychological disorders in the adult population. He believed that religion played a significant part in the daily life of every human being regardless of race, ethnicity, social class, and country of residence. Whether organized or not, religion has been instrumental in the socialization process by preaching cherished values including love, honesty, respect, charity, compassion, and the like. How such virtuous values are transmitted to others in the course of socialization varies
from one religion to the other. Thus, the so-called patriarchal religions; namely, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, including the various subdivisions in each one of them, tend to be authoritarian. God is viewed as the absolute ruler who demands obedience from his followers and who is highly punitive toward those who challenge his absolute authority. Prior to the emergence of the Roman Empire, Christianity was less authoritarian and more humanistic. They offered hope, love, justice, and salvation to the poor, the deprived, the humble, and the hopeless. They followed the simple and profound teachings of Jesus who reassured his faithful followers that the kingdom of God is within them. This humanism reflected in early Christianity is reminiscent of that noted in the teachings of Socrates and Zen-Buddhism who advocated that no knowledge is valuable or meaningful unless it grows out of ourselves.
Relevance to Childhood Development In the process of socialization, parents typically assume the responsibility of passing on important religious and moral values and beliefs to their children. Harms (1944), after the analysis of data gathered from children who were asked to draw what they thought God looked like and to comment about his nature, distinguished the following three stages of religious growth: (a) The fairy-tale stage which included children between 3 to 6 years of age. These children made no distinction between religion and fairy tales. (b) The realistic stage covered children from 7 to 12 years of age. These children tended to be matter-of-fact, questioned the veracity of religious stories, and viewed God as an omnipotent anthropomorphic figure with physical features. (c) The individualistic stage corresponding to the age of 12 years through adolescence. Harms encountered a variety of views including the one where God is seen as a spiritual being with whom one may have a very personal relationship. It is worth noting that Harm’s threefold classification corresponds to the following Piaget’s three stages of cognitive development: preoperational thinking (2–7 years), concrete operational thinking (7–11 years), and formal operational thinking (12 years-adulthood).
References 1. 2. 3.
Ashton, E. (2000). Religious education in the early years. New York: Routledge. Cooper, S. (2002). God at the kitchen table. New York: Three Rivers Press. Fromm, E. (1951). Psycho-analysis and religion. London: Victor Gollanez.
Reminiscence 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Harms, E. (1944). The development of religious experience in children. American Journal of Sociology, 50, 112–122. Jung, C. G. (1953). Collected works (R.F.C. Hull, Trans). Vol. 12. Psychology and Alchemy. London: Routledge. Osborne. R. (1998). Talking to your children about God. Harper Collins. Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: N.Y., International University Press. Spinks, G. (1967). Psychology and religion. Boston, MA. Beacon Press Books.
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Remeron® Synonyms Mirtazapine; Remeron SolTab®
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the treatment of depression.
Description
Reluctant Speech ▶Selective Mutism
REM ▶Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
REM Sleep ▶Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
Remarried Families ▶Stepfamilies
This medication works by increasing the release of norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain. It is available as a tablet (Remeron®) or as a disintegrating tablet (Remeron SolTab®). The recommended starting dose is 15 mg taken once a day at night. Maximum suggested dose is 45 mg a day. Dosage increases should be made slowly to prevent side effects. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor. It may take 4 weeks before improvement in symptoms is seen. Concomitant use in patients taking monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors is not advised. Some side effects of this medication include drowsiness, difficulty thinking, constipation, dry mouth, increased appetite and weight gain, dizziness, light-headedness when standing, and abnormal dreams.
Relevance to Childhood Development Remeron® is not FDA approved for use in children. A medication guide must accompany this medication containing information related to the increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults compared to those not taking the medication. Doctors will monitor patients closely for worsening of symptoms, change in behavior, and thoughts of suicide. Patients are strongly encouraged to notify their health care provider to report sudden changes in mood, behavior, thoughts, or feelings.
References
Remembrance
1. 2.
▶Memorization 3.
Remeron SolTab® ▶Remeron®
AHFS drug information. 24th ed. Maryland: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. 2008. pp 2444–2445. Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp Inc.; Accessed August 5, 2008. Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language. USP DI Vol II. 27th ed. Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex, 2007. pp 1104–1106.
Reminiscence ▶Memorization
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Repeatability
Repeatability ▶Reliability
Repression ▶Inhibition
Research Ethics Review Boards ▶Institutional Review Boards
Residential Care ▶Group Homes
Residential Group Care ▶Group Homes
Resilience MYSTI S. FRAZIER University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Coping; Protective factors
Definition Resilience refers to a child’s ability to emotionally, mentally, and physically adjust to life after experiencing adversity. Resilience often is investigated in children who have experienced abuse and/or neglect for substantial periods of time in early life. More generally, resilience can be the positive adaptation to one’s environment through intelligence, resourcefulness, and good mental health [1].
Description Resilience is a difficult term to define with precision. Research on such a broad psychosocial construct has led
to many different theories and ideas about what developmental influences lead to resilience in children. Overall, the concept of resilience should include many dynamics such as living environment, genetic influence, parenting, coping skills, intelligence, academic achievement, and protective factors. In most cases children are considered resilient only if they have experienced some major life stressor, current or past hazard, or a demonstrable risk [2]. However, children who do not have such traumatic experiences also have shown resilience from ordinary life stressors, such as divorce [1]. Psychologists began researching resilience among children in the 1970s [2]. They began by studying the genetic and experiential differences between children in various adverse situations. These studies helped develop new ideas about the abilities disadvantaged children develop to lead more functional and healthy lives. Current research is focusing on biological factors and psychosocial factors that play a larger role in the development of resilience than was first expected [1, 3, 4]. It is not entirely clear to researchers why some children who have experienced extreme adversity have developmental advantages over others who experience similar situations. One consideration is biological. Adverse experiences are thought to affect neural plasticity, reducing the ability of the brain to function effectively [3]. Also, genetic adaptations are a consideration since it is clear to researchers that some families develop resilience better than others [3]. However, this research is still in its infancy and longitudinal designs must be employed in order to accurately test these relationships. Examples of environmental risk variables often included in research on childhood resilience include poverty, parental psychopathology, poor parenting skills, negative parent–child interactions, limited maternal education, minority status, stressful life events, and large family size [1]. Interestingly, several researchers are finding that the number of risk factors is more predictive of developing psychopathology than the presence of any particular risk factor (e.g., see [1]). Protective factors that contribute to the development of resilience in children include emotional regulation, formation of positive relationships, intelligence, successful academic performance, positive parenting behaviors, and coping skills [2, 4, 5]. In early life, positive parenting is important to the development of a high functioning individual and research has shown that children who received better parenting had higher self-esteem, better test scores, and greater conscientiousness than those who did not [2]. However, there is a danger in adolescence when youth who have developed strong resilience
Response Generalization
participate in risky behaviors because they feel they are invincible to certain problems [5]; that is, they become over-confident in their abilities to combat adversity.
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Definition A loss of reinforcers following the occurrence of a behavior resulting in a decrease in the future likelihood of that behavior.
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
5. 6.
Sameroff, A. J., & Rosenblum, K. L. (2006). Psychosocial constraints on the development of resilience. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1094, 116–124. Masten, A. (2001). Ordinary magic: resilience processes in development. The American Psychologist, 56(3), 227–238. Curtis, W. J., & Cicchetti, D. (2003). Moving research on resilience into the 21st century: theoretical and methodological considerations in examining the biological contributors to resilience. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 773–810. Walsh, W. A., Dawson, J., & Mattingly, M. J. (2010). How are we measuring resilience following childhood maltreatment? Is the research adequate and consistent? What is the impact on research, practice, and policy? Trauma, Violence and Abuse, 11(1), 27–41. Ahern, N. R., Ark, P., & Byers, J. (2008). Resilience and coping strategies in adolescents. Paediatric Nursing, 20(10), 32–36. Ungar, M., & Lerner, R. M. (2008). Introduction to a special issue of research in human development:Resilience and positive development across the life span. A view of the issues. Research in Human Development, 5(3), 135–138.
Resiliency ▶Self-care
Resistant Attachment
Description B.F. Skinner described the basic principles of behavior and behavior change including reinforcement, extinction, and punishment. Punishment is defined as a consequence of behavior that results in a future decrease of the frequency of the behavior. There are two types of punishment: the presentation of an aversive stimulus and the removal of a positive reinforcer. Response cost is the removal of a positive reinforcer contingent on the occurrence of a behavior and results in a decrease in the future frequency of the behavior [1, 2]. One common situation in which a response cost is used to decrease undesired behavior is in a token economy behavior change system. Tokens are exchangeable for positive reinforcers and delivered to an individual contingent on desired behavior. A response cost is in effect when tokens are removed contingent on the occurrence of undesired behavior. A commonplace example of a response cost is a ticket issued by a police officer for offenses such as speeding while driving. The removal of money (a positive reinforcer) contingent on the occurrence of the undesired behavior may decrease the future likelihood of the behavior (i.e., speeding).
References 1.
▶Ambivalent Attachment 2.
Respondent Conditioning
Ashbaugh, R., & Peck, S. (1998). Treatment of sleep problems in a toddler: A replication of the faded bedtime with response cost protocol. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31, 127–129. Conyers, C., Miltenberger, R., Maki, A., Barenz, R., Jurgens, M., Sailer, A., et al. (2004). A comparison of response cost and differential reinforcement of other behavior to reduce disruptive behavior in a preschool classroom. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37, 411–415.
▶Conditioning
Response Cost JUDAH B. AXE Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA
Response Generalization BRADY J. PHELPS South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA
Synonyms
Synonyms
Loss of privileges; Loss of reinforcement
Response induction; Response variability
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Response Induction
Definition In the operant conditioning of B.F. Skinner, response generalization refers to the spreading of the effects of a behavior strengthening contingency to other responses that are similar to the target response that resulted in the behavior strengthening consequence.
Description Response generalization is said to have occurred if a procedure that increases the likelihood of a target operant response causes an increase of other responses that resemble the target response [1]. The other responses to which response generalization spreads need not bear physical or topographical similarity to the reinforced operant. The other responses that are strengthened in response generalization are typically members of the same operant response class; an operant response class is a grouping of operants that share a common function such as putting on a coat, folding your arms and rubbing your hands over your arms and stamping your feet; all of these operants serve the same function of trying to keep warm [7]. Rats that were reinforced for running a maze but subsequently put in a water maze showed improved and faster maze swimming; strengthening maze running generalized into strengthened maze swimming [2, 5]. Response generalization has to be distinguished from stimulus generalization; the latter is a process in which reinforcing a response in the presence of a specific stimulus increases the likelihood the same response will occur in the presence of similar stimulus events. In response generalization, the response varies while the stimulus conditions remain unchanged, whereas in stimulus generalization the response stays the same but the stimulus conditions change [6]. Response generalization is one of the sources of variation in responding that is the basis for shaping a novel operant. In general, the more a response is subject to continuous reinforcement, in which every occurrence of the target response is reinforced, the response is strengthened but the response also becomes more stereotyped. That is, a response often shows less variability the more times it is reinforced. But if an operant is then reinforced intermittently or if reinforcement is discontinued as in extinction, operant variability increases. If reinforcement is then made contingent on one of the variations, the new variation is subsequently strengthened and itself shows additional response generalization. After several such periods of reinforcement followed by intermittent reinforcement or extinction, entirely novel behavior is observed [3, 6, 7]. Response generalization occurs after the reinforcement of either animal or human behavior; in particular
response generalization as been observed to occur with typical operants such as lever pressing, key pecking and maze running by animals, as noted previously. Among humans, response generalization has been observed in the midst of learning new verbal behaviors [2]. In another instance, a study conducted in 1991 observed response generalization after pizza delivery drivers were given training to increase seat belt use. Training consisted of meetings with drivers in which seat belt use was emphasized and having drivers make an overt commitment to seat belt use. The delivery vehicles were subsequently equipped with monitors that enabled trainers to record seat belt usage and drivers were provided feedback pertaining to the frequency of seat belt use. As expected, the frequency of seat belt use increased as well as the appropriate use of turn signals, which was not part of the intervention. The seat belt training led to response generalization of increased turn signal use, and both behaviors are instances of a response class of safe driving behaviors [2, 4].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Grant, L., & Evans, A. (1994). Principles of behavior analysis. New York: Harper Collins. Iversen, I. H., & Lattal, K. A. (1991). Experimental analysis of behavior. New York: Elsevier. Ludwig, T. D., & Geller, E. S. (1991). Improving the driving practices of pizza deliverers: Response generalization and moderating effects of driving history. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 24, 31–44. Keller, F. S., & Schoenfeld, W. N. (1950). Principles of psychology. New York: Appleton-Century Crofts. Pear, J. J. (2001). The science of learning. New York: Psychology Press. Pierce, D. W., & Cheney, C. D. (2008). Behavior analysis and learning (4th ed.). New York: Psychology Press.
Response Induction ▶Response Generalization
Response Variability ▶Response Generalization
Response-to-Intervention ▶Early Intervention
Restrictive Play
Restitution ▶Overcorrection ▶Positive Practice
Restlessness ▶Hyperactivity
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Restricted Environmental Stimulation ▶Sensory Deprivation
Restrictive Play TABITHA BOND Scott Center for Autism Treatment, Melbourne, FL, USA
Synonyms
Restoril®
Limited play; Stereotypic play
Definition Temazepam
Restrictive play is a category of behavior representative of continuous, preoccupied interaction with a specific object.
Definition
Description
A prescription medication FDA approved for the shortterm treatment of insomnia (difficulty sleeping).
Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders typically exhibit restrictive play skills [1]. These restrictions result in the individual engaging in bizarre and obsessive behaviors while interacting with objects or toys [2]. While engaging in these behaviors, the individual is completely absorbed in the object while all other items, activities, and individuals in the environment are excluded from their attention. Examples include: repeatedly watching the same movie, dismantling objects, lining up items, spinning a block, opening or closing doors, or banging objects [5]. These behaviors are repetitive in nature and do not resemble the appropriate function for the object. Consistently engaging in restrictive play behaviors results in limited verbal and nonverbal exchanges, minimal toy sharing, and solitary play in a social environment. Individuals with restrictive play also exhibit aversions to change in routines and familiar environments [3]. In addition to these behaviors, individuals may engage in other non-restrictive behaviors including ritualistic behaviors, stereotypical behaviors (e.g., hand flapping), and limited joint attention (e.g., concentrating on a common event or object) [6]. Without treatment, individuals with restrictive play develop fixations and obsessions with items or activities and miss opportunities to develop necessary play skills such as parallel, associative, cooperative, sociodramatic, and rough-and-tumble play [2]. Deficits in these skill areas often result in social isolation and rejection from peers [6], thereby increasing restrictive play and creating an ongoing cycle.
Synonyms
Description This medication is a benzodiazepine, a central nervous system depressant, available in capsules. The recommended starting dose for this medication is 15 mg or 30 mg taken once a day at bedtime. Maximum suggested dose is 30 mg a day. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor and is usually taken only for 7–10 days. This medication may become habit forming. Some side effects are listed here: drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, memory impairment, headache, amnesia, diarrhea, and blurred vision. Certain side effects may go away during treatment.
Relevance to Childhood Development Restoril® is not FDA approved for use in children younger than 18 years old.
References 1. 2. 3.
AHFS Drug Information. 24th ed. Maryland: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. 2008. pp. 2601. Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp Inc.; Accessed August 26, 2008. Advice for the Patient: Drug Information in Lay Language. USP DI Vol II. 27th ed. Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex, 2007. pp. 237–243.
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Behavioral interventions are an effective course to treating the repetitive and obsessive behaviors present in restrictive play. Treatment for these behaviors includes redirecting, prompting and modeling procedures [5]. Repetitive, inappropriate behaviors exhibited are replaced by physical support through modeling and prompting the individual to engage in the correct pretend play behavior. For example, banging a toy car onto the ground is replaced by hand over hand guidance in rolling the car over the ground. Visual support procedures – utilizing physical examples of the behavior paired with pictures, icons, or words – are also effective [4]. Peer models can also be introduced to engage the restrictive play individual in appropriate play skills through imitation and modeling.
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
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Dodd, S. (2005). Understanding autism. Marrickville: Elsevier Australia. Kemple, K. M. (2003). Lets be friends: Peer competence and social inclusion in early childhood programs. New York: Teachers College Press. Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (1996). Child psychopathology. New York: The Guilford Press. Morrison, R. S., Sainato, D. M., Delia, B., & Endo, S. (2002). Increasing play skills of children with autism using activity schedules and correspondence training. Journal of Early Intervention, 25, 58–72. Radunovich, H. L., & Kochert, J. L., (2008). Creating a successful early learning environment for children who have autistic spectrum disorders. EDIS, FCS2287/FY1056. Retrieved January 7, 2009, from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/document_fy1056 Suhrheinrich, J., Stahmer, A. C., & Schreibman, L. (2006). A preliminary assessment of teacher’s implementation of pivotal response training. Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 1–13.
Retardation, Degrees of LAUREN ALEXANDER, ANGELA WAGUESPACK Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Synonyms Severity of mental retardation
Definition “Degrees of retardation” is a term used to describe the current and/or predicted functioning level of an individual with mental retardation. The most widely used classification system in the professional literature describes four levels of mental retardation: mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Educators historically have used a classification
system that includes terms such as educable mentally handicapped (EMH) or trainable mentally handicapped (TMH); however, these terms have generally been eliminated in special education.
Description Mental retardation is a condition manifested in the developmental period which consists of two necessary components: subaverage general intellectual functioning and concurrent deficits in adaptive functioning in areas such as communication, self-care, functional academic skills, social/ interpersonal skills, etc. The term “mental retardation” has been replaced with the term “intellectual disability” in some professional communities. Degrees of mental retardation describe the level at which an individual would be expected to function given the extent of impairment. More recently, less emphasis has been placed on the degree of impairment and more on the level and amount of support needed for daily living of individuals with this condition. Mild retardation describes approximately 85% of individuals affected by mental retardation. The expected subaverage intellectual quotient (IQ) range is 50–55 to approximately 70. Individuals within this range often acquire the skills comparable to those of a typical sixth grader and some may be able to complete education through high school at a decelerated pace. They are likely to be able to complete activities of daily living (ADLs) and may be able to live independently with the appropriate support. Moderate retardation describes approximately 10% of individuals affected by mental retardation. The expected IQ range is 35–40 to 50–55. Individuals functioning at this level often acquire communication skills in childhood and attend to their own personal care (with moderate supervision); however, they function well below peers in terms of academic skill attainment. These individuals typically benefit from living in a supervised setting and can perform semiskilled work under appropriate supervision. Severe retardation describes approximately 3–4% of individuals affected by mental retardation and includes individuals whose cognitive functioning is measured to be within the range of 20–25 to 35–40. The school curriculum for individuals functioning within this range often includes functional academic skills, as well as life skills which support a meaningful transition from school to adult living. These individuals may be able to master some basic self-care skills; however, they typically require a supervised living situation. Profound retardation describes approximately 1–2% of individuals affected by retardation. The expected IQ
Retention
range is 20–25 and below. Individuals with this designation typically have an identifiable cause for their retardation and have other health conditions and/or disabilities as well. A highly structured environment with supervision and assistance in daily living skills is generally necessary in fostering optimal quality of life for these individuals.
Relevance to Childhood Development Mental retardation is an enduring condition and although adaptive functioning generally improves in all but the most impaired individuals, the disability is often evident throughout an individual’s life. Age of identification, etiology, and developmental progress varies depending on the severity of impairment. An individual’s level of impairment will become more evident as he/she advances in age and the gap between his/her functioning and that of sameaged peers widens. Typically, a child with mild mental retardation will not be identified as such until approximately the first or second grade, when academic expectations are sharply increased. Accordingly, children with moderate mental retardation will likely be identified before ever beginning school since their impairments are more severe than those with mild mental retardation. Children with severe and profound mental retardation will likely be identifiable as such well before early childhood, typically between birth and toddlerhood. As the degrees of mental retardation progress from mild to profound, so does the likelihood that an identifiable cause for the disability is known. For instance, only about 50% of individuals with mild mental retardation have a known cause for their impairment while almost all individuals with severe to profound mental retardation have a known cause for their condition. Factors such as genetics, including chromosomal abnormalities, acquired syndromes, developmental factors, and the influence of the environment and sociocultural context can all play a role in the etiology of any degree of mental retardation. Infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood will be most prototypical for a child with mild mental retardation and less so for a child with more severe forms of mental retardation. In fact, the stages of development for a child with mild mental retardation typically progress similarly as a child without mental retardation. These children often communicate and play like other children and tend to display similar levels of developmental functioning. It is not until entering school that these children are identified because academic and social demands increase significantly at this time. Adolescence often proves to be a challenging stage of development for children with mild
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and moderate mental retardation because their impairment is such that they often cannot perform the academic and social tasks demanded of them, but they are skilled enough to recognize that they are academically and socially delayed relative to their peers. The entire lifespan is likely to be recognizably impaired for an individual with severe or profound mental retardation. There may be sensorimotor difficulties, significantly delayed speech and language skills, and significantly impaired social interactions. These children may never participate in a regular education classroom environment, instead beginning specialized education and training suited for their needs at a young age and continuing throughout life.
References 1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
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American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder- text revision (4th ed.). Washington DC: APA. Definition of Intellectual Disability. Accessed 1 April 2009. http:// www.aamr.org/content_100.cfm?navID=21 FAQ on Intellectual Disability. Accessed 1 April 2009. http://www. aamr.org/content_104.cfm Heward, D. L. (2003). Exceptional children (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Mental Retardation. Updated 24 March 2009. http://www.nlm.nih. gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001523.htm Mental retardation. (2007). In: Sadock , B. J., & Sadock, V. A. (Eds.), Kaplan & Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry. 10th ed. (pp. 1138–1157). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs’ IDEA Website. http://www.idea.ed.gov/explore/home
Retention JILL DRIEST Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL, USA
Synonyms Memorization; Non-promotion
Definition Retention is the process where students are held back from advancing to the next grade level and are required to repeat the grade just completed.
Description Retention requires that a student repeat a grade rather than being promoted to the next grade level. Most commonly,
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students are retained for failure to pass a standardized assessment measure, learning difficulties, or emotional immaturity. The assumption is that the act of retention will remedy any academic deficits or emotional immaturities found in these students [2]. Retention is most commonly regarded as an alternative to social promotion. Social promotion is a process by which children are promoted to the next grade level regardless of their ability to succeed academically. Both of these practices are heavily debated in the literature [1]. The majority of research on retention suggests that the practice is neither a beneficial nor an effective practice [2]. In fact, retention may actually harm academic and social adjustment. Studies demonstrate that those students who are retained are more likely to be retained again, drop out of school, and have problems with peer relationships and self-esteem. Likewise, these students are also more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors including abusing drugs and alcohol, violence, and promiscuous sexual activity [3]. Some studies suggest that retaining a student early on in their academic career allows for positive effects socially and academically. However, these benefits seem to be only temporary, as only a few years after the retention these benefits are no longer apparent [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development Despite the controversy associated with retention, the practice is still widely used and accepted in the United States. In fact each year, approximately 15% of students in the United States are retained. Of these students, males, minorities, inner-city children, and those from low socioeconomic status are more likely to be forced to repeat a grade [3, 4].
References 1.
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Jacob, R. T., Stone, S., & Roderick, M. (2004). Ending social promotion: The response of teachers and students. Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research. Jimerson, S. R., Carlson, E., Rotert, M., Egeland, B., & Sroufe, L. A. (1997). A prospective, longitudinal study of the correlates and consequences of early grade retention. Journal of School Psychology, 35(1), 3–25. National Association of School Psychologists. (2003). Position statement on student grade retention and social promotion. Bethesda, MD: NASP. National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). The condition of education: Grade retention [Online article]. Washington, DC: Author. Available:http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2006/section3/ indicator25.asp Roderick, M., & Nagaoka, J. (2005). Retention under Chicago’s highstakes testing program: Helpful, harmful, or harmless? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 27(4), 309–340.
Reticence ▶Shy Children
Reticular Activating System EDALMARYS SANTOS1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Reticular Activating System (RAS); Reticular formation
Definition The RAS refers to a network of nerves and connections that originate in the superior portion of the brainstem which together serve the purpose of modulating attention and arousal [3].
Description The RAS, also known as the reticular formation, refers to a network of nuclei and fibers that extend throughout the central portion of the brainstem from the medulla to the midbrain [1, 2]. While the RAS is described as the primary source/ site of brain activation (e.g. [4]), this is just one portion of the functional role the RAS plays. The superior portion of the RAS, which is based in the upper pons and extends into the midbrain, regulates arousal level and consciousness [1]. In contrast, the inferior portion of the RAS, which lies in the lower pons and medulla, tends to be primarily involved in motor and autonomic function [1]. Due to its direct and indirect connections throughout the system, lesions of the RAS may vary tremendously in terms of functional impact. Specifically, lesions of the RAS may lead to manifestations ranging from dysregulation of sleep in wakefulness and impaired attention to lethargy and/or coma and even death.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS Dictionary of Neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of Neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Rett Syndrome
Reticular Activating System (RAS) ▶Reticular Activating System
Reticular Formation ▶Reticular Activating System
Rett Syndrome RANIA D. HADJICOSTA, XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Definition Rett Syndrome (RS), according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) [1], is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and as such it is characterized by substantial and pervasive reciprocal, social, communicative and behavioral impairments, which are qualitatively deviant based on the child’s developmental level and mental age. The most notable difference between RS and the other PDDs, including Autism, Asperger’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and PDD Not Otherwise Specified is that RS appears almost only in girls and is not evident from birth [1].
Description Rett syndrome (RS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that contributes significantly to severe intellectual disability in 1:10,000 to 1:23,000 females worldwide [2], making RS the second major cause of mental retardation in females, following Down syndrome [3]. RS was first recognized in 1966 by the pediatrician Andreas Rett [4], but increased awareness about the disorder in the English medical literature was brought by Hagberg and colleagues in 1983 [5]. In RS, deficits develop following a normal prenatal and perinatal period and after a period of apparently normal development from birth and until, at least, the fifth month of age. The onset after the fifth month of age is provided by the criteria set in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) [1], even though others have
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estimated the onset of the disorder to be at the sixth [6] or even the seventh month of age [5]. Generally the onset of the disorder is estimated to be before the age of 4 years, indicated by a deceleration in head growth, usually leading to microcephaly [1]. Other notable features of RS are the loss of purposeful and intended hand movements and hand skills between the 5th and the 13th month of age and the development of repetitive, stereotyped hand-washing, hand-wringing, clapping, flapping, or mouthing gestures. Interest in the social environment deteriorates, as well, within the first years of onset; deficits in the child’s gait and trunk movements are also present [1]. Finally, impairment in expressive and receptive language development along with severe psychomotor retardation are also characteristic [1]. In addition, according to Hagberg and colleagues [5], developmental stagnation after a period of apparently normal development is followed by a rapid deterioration of the mental status of the child, leading to dementia with autistic features. However, a period with a relatively stable mental status follows after the onset of RS, but it is marked by the emergence of other neurological abnormalities, including spasticity of the lower limbs and epilepsy [5]. Additional supportive criteria for the diagnosis of RS, which were developed to assist the diagnosis and describe the phenotype of the condition, include: breathing dysfunctions such as episodic hyperventilation or breath-holding [7], EEG abnormalities, seizures, peripheral vasomotor disturbance, scoliosis or kyphosis, growth retardation, and hypotrophic small feet [4, 6]. Furthermore, bruxism, impaired sleeping patterns, air swallowing or abdominal bloating, changed sensitivity to pain, inexplicable episodes of laughing [7], as well as other neurological abnormalities, such as dystonia and Parkinsonism [8] might be present . Finally, the diagnosis of RS is excluded if there is evidence of a storage disorder, retinopathy, cataract, or optic atrophy, an identifiable metabolic or neurodegenerative disorder, an acquired neurological disorder, evidence of perinatal or postnatal brain injury [6] due to anoxia, ischemia or trauma [10], infantile autism [9, 10], Angelman (or Happy Puppet) syndrome, congenital metabolic defects [10], or untreated phenylketonuria or tuberous sclerosis [9].
Suggested Staging System Hagberg and Witt-Engerstro¨m [9] suggested a four-stage model of describing the developmental course of RS, in order to facilitate the description of the disorder from infancy to adolescence. According to their staging system, Stage I, named the “Early onset stagnation stage”, starting
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between the 6th and the 18th month of life, is characterized by delayed developmental progress following an apparently normal prenatal, perinatal and early psychomotor development. During this stage decelerating head growth, and diminished play, communication, and eye contact are evident. The symptoms during this period, however, are nonspecific, and diagnosis is usually not made before Stage II, the “Rapid destructive stage”, when stagnation of development is more obvious [9]. Stage II typically covers the ages between 1 and 3 or 4 years of life and during this phase individuals experience rapid personality change [7], rapid loss of social interaction, communicative skills and loss of acquired language [9]. Loss of hand skills, development of hand stereotypies, and emergence of autistic symptoms, dementia, irregular breathing, and seizures are also characteristic features of Stage II [9]. In Stage III, the “Pseudostationary stage”, which covers the preschool to the early school years, communicative skills improve, autistic features tend to resolve and mood stabilizes [7]. However, neuromotor problems slowly worsen, rigidity becomes more obvious, significant hand dyspraxia develops and during this stage even more females develop epileptic seizures. It is, nevertheless, noted that some individuals may remain in this stage most of their lifetime [9]. For those who will move to Stage IV, the “Late motor deterioration stage” covering the teenage to early adult years, however, motor deterioration is the main feature. Individuals who were able to walk now lose this ability and some become wheelchair-bound. Scoliosis becomes severe and trophic foot disturbances associated with persistent growth retardation become apparent. On the other hand, during Stage IV epilepsy may become less problematic and emotional contact may show some improvement, but intellectual disability becomes more severe [9].
Etiology Approximately 99.5% of RS cases are sporadic, not following a familial pattern of occurrence, thus making the identification of the cause of the syndrome difficult to establish. Initial observations indicating the inheritance through maternal lines, however, associated with the findings of nonrandom patterns of XCI in obligate carrier females suggested that RS is an X-linked dominant condition caused by mutations in a gene that undergoes X-inactivation [8]. In 1999, Amir and colleagues [11] were the first to denote that RS is caused by mutations in X-linked MECP2, encoding methyl-CpG-binging protein 2; further research showed that the majority of RS cases
(approximately 90–95%) involve such mutation in the MECP2 gene on the x-chromosome [2, 4, 6, 11]. This mutation appears to give a growth disadvantage to neuronal and lymphoblast cells, which leads in skewing of Xinactivation, something which also contributes to the large degree of phenotypic variation. Also, recent evidence collected from studies on mice and rat models suggests that MECP2 may have a role in regulating neuronal activity dependent expression of specific genes such as Hairy2a in Xenopus and Bdnf [6]. However, consistent with the sporadic occurrence of RS most mutations occur de novo, making the investigation of the exact mechanism by which the mutation occurs in the DNA of RS individuals, but also the mechanism by which loss of MECP2 function results in the pathogenesis of RS, even more difficult [12]. In addition to the mutation in MECP2, it seems that at least a small proportion of atypical cases may result from mutations in the X-linked gene cyclin-dependent kinaselike 5 (CDKL5), alterations in which were found to cause early-onset epilepsy and infantile spasms with severe mental retardation. Nonetheless, the relationship between MECP2 and CDKL5, and whether they cause RS through the same or different mechanisms is yet to be established [6].
RS in Males Although RS was initially thought to be a disorder exclusively affecting females, a number of males with a Rett-like phenotype have been reported, including males who have a XXY karyotype, who are mosaic for severe mutations, and who may have milder mutations. For example, Dayer and colleagues [13] report a case of one male displaying RS symptomatology, providing detailed developmental descriptions of the child’s condition, whose mother, however, was heterozygous for the mutation in the MECP2 gene while having normal intellectual ability and no evident neurological symptoms. MECP2 mutations that cause classic RS in females typically lead to neonatal encephalopathy and death in the first year of life in males with a normal karyotype. However, the same mutations may result in an RS phenotype in males with Klinefelter syndrome (47, XXY) or somatic mosaicism. Moreover, some of these mutations have been reported in males with classic RS and a normal karyotype, suggesting that genetic modifiers suppress the infantile lethality typically seen in males with loss-offunction MECP2 mutations. On the other hand, some MECP2 mutations that do not cause RS in females can cause moderate, nonspecific to profound mental retardation or other psychiatric disorders in males. Deficits in
Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale: Second Edition
language and motor skills, obesity, autistic features, and epilepsy are also common in this category of mutations [3, 13]. There are also rare occurrences of CDKL5 mutations in males suffering from severe mental retardation, infantile spasms, or early-onset epilepsy [14].
Management RS is a lifelong condition with no treatment protocols currently available, thus planning appropriate management protocols is warranted. Thorough assessment of RS children by a multidisciplinary team should be the first step in the preparation of efficient and individualized management plans, taking into consideration the specific phenotypic and personal needs of every RS child. Management interventions should include psychosocial support for the families, development of appropriate education plans, and assessment of available community resources. In addition, along with the pharmacological treatments, which may lead to an improvement in the person’s wellbeing and quality of life, reduction in the episodes of hyperventilation, and improvement of sleep dysfunction, some other practical strategies should also be applied with an aim to minimize, to the degree possible, further deterioration [6]. For example, decreasing repetitive purposeless hand movements can be achieved by the use of arm restraints, such as soft elbow splints, which can also be helpful in training specific hand skills, such as self feeding. These methods can also be helpful in decreasing agitation and self injurious behavior. Regarding verbal expressive language, alternative forms of communication may be used, including communication boards, technical devices, and switch activated systems. These can also be used for making choices and facilitate environmental access.
Relevance to Childhood Development RS is a disorder usually first diagnosed in childhood [1]. The severity of symptoms is evident across cognitive, communication, motor, orthopedic, gastroenterological, respiratory, and sleep domains; and research has shown that great heterogeneity in symptoms occurs, not due to genetic/ physiological differences alone but due to life experiences as well. Genetic testing alone is not sufficient to fully describe each person’s unique phenotype. Thus, genetic assessment should be supplemented with a battery of measures that not only assess observable behaviors but that can be linked back to assessed gene expression. In addition, measures of communication, social skills, adaptive skills, and communication are warranted and should constitute parts of an overall multidisciplinary RS assessment protocol [14].
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References 1. American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th ed., Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 2. Armstrong, D. D. (2005). Neuropathology of Rett syndrome. Journal of Child Neurology, 20, 747–753. 3. Moser, S. J., Weber, P., & Lu¨tschg, J. (2007). Rett syndrome: Clinical and electrophysiologic aspects. Pediatric Neurology, 36, 95–100. 4. Colvin, L., Fyfe, S., Leonard, S., Schiavello, T., Ellaway, C., Klerk, N., et al. (2003). Describing the phenotype in Rett syndrome using a population database. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 88, 38–43. 5. Hagberg, B., Aicardi, J., Dias, K., & Ramos, O. (1983). Progressive syndrome of autism, dementia, ataxia and loss of purposeful hand use in girls: Rett’s syndrome: Report of 35 cases. Annals of Neurology, 14, 471–479. 6. Weaving, L. S., Ellaway, C. J., Cecz, J., & Christodoulou, J. (2005). Rett syndrome: clinical review and genetic update. Journal of Medical Genetics, 42, 1–7. 7. Hagberg, B. (1989). Rett syndrome: Clinical peculiarities, diagnostic approach, and possible cause. Pediatric Neurology, 5, 75–83. 8. Amir, R. E., & Zoghbi, H. Y. (2000). Rett Syndrome: Methyl-CpGBinding protein 2 mutations and phenotype – genotype correlations. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 97, 147–152. 9. Hagberg, B., & Witt-Engerstro¨m, I. (1986). Rett syndrome: A suggested staging system for describing impairment profile with increasing age towards adolescence. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 24, 47–59. 10. Dunn, H. G. (2001). Importance of Rett syndrome in child neurology. Brain and Development, 23(Suppl. 1), S38–S43. 11. Amir, R. E., Van den Veyver, I. B., Wan, M., Tran, C. Q., Francke, U., & Zoghbi, H. Y. (1999). Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in Xlinked MECP2, encoding methyl-CpG-binding protein 2. Nature Genetics, 23, 185–188. 12. Amir, R. E., Van den Veyver, I. B., Schultz, R., Malicki, D. M., Tran, C. Q., Dahle, E. J., et al. (2000). Influence of mutation type and X chromosome inactivation on Rett syndrome phenotypes. Annals of Neurology, 47, 670–679. 13. Dayer, A. G., Bottani, A., Bouchardy, I., Fluss, J., Antonarakis, S. E., Haenggeli, C., et al. (2007). Case report: MECP2 mutant allele in a boy with Rett syndrome and his unaffected heterozygous mother. Brain and Development, 29, 47–50. 14. Matson, J. L., Fodstad, J. C., & Boisjoli, J. A. (2008). Nosology and diagnosis of Rett Syndrome. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2, 601–611.
Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale: Second Edition JESSICA R. GURLEY Argosy University, Arlington, VA, USA
Synonyms Anxiety; Symptoms checklists
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Definition
References
The Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale: Second Edition (RCMAS-2) is an update to the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). It is used to help mental health professionals identify children and adolescents between the ages of 6 and 19 who are experiencing symptoms consistent with anxiety disorders [1, 3].
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Description
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The RCMAS-2 is a 49-item self-report measure of anxiety for children and adolescents between the ages of 6 and 19. It was written at a second grade reading level and there is an audio version available. The items on the RCMAS-2 can be used to calculate a Total Anxiety Score, three scale scores, and two validity indices. One of the validity indices – Inconsistent Responding Index – assesses whether or not the child/adolescent attended to the items on the RCMAS2. The other validity index – Defensiveness – is an update to the RCMAS Lie scale [3]. It was designed to assess whether the examinee was presenting him or herself in an overly positive manner [1, 3]. The three scales – Physiological Anxiety, Worry, and Social Anxiety – assess different subtypes of anxiety [1, 4]. In addition to the standard form, the RCMAS-2 has a short form. The short form consists of the first ten items of the RCMAS-2 and can be used to screen children and adolescents who may benefit from additional evaluation or intervention [3]. The RCMAS-2 was recently published; consequently, there is little research on it. In the manual for the RCMAS-2, the authors report there is a high correlation between the RCMAS-2 and the RCMAS, so the research on the RCMAS may extend to the RCMAS-2 [3].
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Pina, A. A., Silverman, W. K., Saavedra, L., & Weems, C. F. (2001). An analysis of the RCMAS lie scale in a clinic sample of anxious children. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 15, 443–457. Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale. (n.d.). In The fourteenth mental measurements yearbook. Retrieved August 10, 2008, from EBSCOHost Mental Measurements Yearbook database. Reynolds, C. R., & Richmond, B. O. (2008). Revised children’s manifest anxiety scale: Second edition (RCMAS-2). Los Angeles, CA: WPS. Stark, K. D., & Laurent, J. (2001). Joint factor analysis of the children’s depression inventory and the revised children’s manifest anxiety scale. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30, 552–567. Valera, R. E., & Biggs, B. K. (2006). Reliability and validity of the revised children’s manifest anxiety scale (RCMAS) across samples of Mexican, Mexican American, and European American children: A preliminary investigation. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping: An International Journal, 19, 67–80.
Reward Discounting ▶Academic Delay of Gratification
Rey Complex Figure Test AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Synonyms Complex figure; Rey figure; Rey-Osterrieth
Definition Scoring & Psychometrics The RCMAS-2 can be scored by hand in less than 10 min. The raw scores for the Total Anxiety Scale are transformed into T scores while the raw score for the scale scores are transformed into scaled scores. There are three sets of norms, each representing different age groups [1, 3]. The RCMAS-2 was standardized on 2,300 children and adolescents between the ages of six and 19. Approximately 50% of the children in the standardization sample were female [3].
Relevance to Childhood Development The RCMAS-2 can be used to screen children and adolescents for symptoms of anxiety. It can also be used as part of a comprehensive psychological evaluation.
A neuropsychological test used to assess visuospatial/ constructional ability and visual memory.
Description The complex figure task devised by Rey in 1941 [1] is considered to be one of the most widely used neuropsychological tests because of its ease of administration and the variety of cognitive processes which it can potentially be used to assess. The original purpose of the test was to assess visuospatial/constructional ability and visual memory ability in brain injured individuals. However, it is commonly used to assess a broader range of cognitive abilities including planning, organization and fine motor skills. Since the original drawing, there have been a number of elaborations of the test, the most commonly
Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2
known of these is the Rey-Osterrieth Complex figure and the Taylor alternate version [2].
Administration Each version of the complex figure test is administered using the same general format. The individual is shown a card with the figure printed on it and asked to copy the figure as carefully as possible on to a blank piece of paper. Then, after a 2 min delay and again after a 30 min delay, and without prior warning, the participant is asked to reproduce the figure from memory [3]. It has been reported that minor variations in length of delay does not have a significant effect on the production of the figure [3] because, for most people, the amount of detail that is forgotten occurs in the first few minutes following the initial copying of the figure [3]. There are various methods of scoring for the ROF depending on the particular version that has been used, and these are outlined in Spreen and Struss [2]. However, for the traditional ROF, each of the figures produced is scored separately on 18 different scoring units [2]. Each unit receives a score between 0–2 and is considered both in terms of accuracy and position relative to the whole design. For example, two points are given if the unit is totally correct and placed correctly, one point is given if the unit is correct but incorrectly placed, or distorted but correctly placed, half a point is given if the unit is poorly place and distorted and no points are given if the unit is missing [2]. Total score ranges from 0–36. Some researchers use an administration system in which they hand the participant a different colored pen to use every 30 s. This is done so that they can see the order in which the different units of the figure were completed. This system of administration can be used as a measure of planning. Age and intellectual ability influence the performance on the ROF [2]. Therefore, the ROF can be use in adult populations to assess brain impairment. For example, patients with frontal lesions have been reported as having more difficulty planning the task. On the other hand, patients with hemineglect may only partially copy the figure. (Hemineglect refers to an impairments in functioning that may occur after damage to one side or hemisphere of the brain, resulting in a deficit in attention to, and awareness of, one side of space. This is lack of attention or awareness is usually contralateral to the side of damage.)
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a piecemeal manner based on copying around the perimeter of the figure, rather than reproducing the base rectangle as the starting point. However, by about 13 years of age, a more holistic approach to the copy of the figure is evident, with the rectangle as the base strategy being utilized [4]. By age 9 most children are able to accurately complete the ROF and reproduce it with about 75% accuracy [4]. Because the ability to produce the ROF systematically develops in normally functioning children, the ROF is able to be used in clinical contexts with children who have difficulties, including developmental delays or medical conditions. For example, children with closed head injury are likely to make many more mistakes than those without head injury, and are also more likely to use a piecemeal approach [4]. Studies on children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder indicate that their productions of the ROF are often poorly organized, and they perform poorly on recall of the figure [4].
References 1. 2. 3.
4.
Lezak, M. D. (1995). Neuropsychological assessment (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spreen, O., & Strauss, E. (1998). A compendium of neuropsychological tests (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Berry, D. T. R., & Carpenter, G. S. (1992). Effect of four different delay periods on recall of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure by older persons. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 6, 80–84. Knight, J. A., & Kaplan, E. (2003). The handbook of Rey-Osterrieth complex figure usage: Clinical and research applications. Lutz, Fl: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
Rey Figure ▶Rey Complex Figure Test
Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2 JENNA J. BARRY Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
Relevance to Childhood Development The ability to produce the ROF systematically develops with age [4]. Younger children tend to draw the figure in
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Synonyms RADS; RADS-2
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Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2
Definition The Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2 (RADS-2) is an updated version of the original RADS, a paper-andpencil self-report measure of the severity of depressive symptoms in adolescents [1].
Description and Relevance to Childhood Development Adolescence is a time of social and physical development and self-discovery, but for some, it is an arduous transitional period. Social and academic pressures can overwhelm some adolescents, and can sometimes lead to a decrease in self-esteem and an increase in emotional disturbances. Depression is one of the most frequently diagnosed mental disorders in the United States [4], with about 20% of adolescents experiencing a depressive episode before they reach adulthood. Depression ranges from mild to severe and can include feelings of sadness, crying, loneliness, dysphoria, somatic complaints, suicidal ideation, loss of motivation and/or pleasure, and apathy. Awareness of these variations in depressive symptomatology is important for all professionals working with children and adolescents. If left untreated, depression can lead to serious and sometimes fatal consequences [3]. Psychologist William M. Reynolds began the development of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS; [2]) in 1981 in order to assess the severity of depressive symptoms in adolescents in both clinical and school settings. Prior to the RADS, there was no scale measuring the severity of depressive symptomatology in adolescents. The RADS-2 [1] expands the initial RADS by defining four factorially-derived subscales to explain various components of depression (Dysphoric Mood, Anhedonia/ Negative Affect, Negative Self Evaluation, and Somatic Complaints). The second edition also extends the age range, is restandardized (n = 3,300) based on census data from the year 2000, includes a representative number of the Hispanic population, provides standard T scores and percentile ranks for comparison, includes a test booklet for hand scoring, and has an updated manual with extensive psychometric information and interpretive guidance. It is important to note, however, that the RADS-2 is not a formal classification measure; therefore, it does not assess other types of psychopathology often comorbid with depression, such as suicidal ideation [1, 5]. The RADS-2 is a 30-item, easily administered paperand-pencil screening measure evaluating broad domains of depressive symptoms. The test requires a third grade reading level and is used with adolescents 11 to 20 years old. Sentences are short and easy to read. Each item
measures the frequency of a specific symptom of depression. Adolescents are asked to endorse how they “usually feel” using a 4-point Likert response format, where 1 = almost never, 2 = hardly ever, 3 = sometimes, and 4 = most of the time. Seven items are reversed scored to reduce response bias. Scores range from 30–120, with high scores on the Depression Total scale indicating a higher frequency of depressive symptoms. The RADS-2 does not provide a formal diagnosis of depression; however, the items are consistent with current DSM and ICD diagnostic criteria, and the measure provides an empirically based score that indicates the clinical severity of depression symptoms in adolescents [1]. Each of the subscales can be totaled for a more detailed picture of the symptoms in each of the four domains. The Dysphoric Mood subscale on the RADS-2 contains eight items that evaluate sadness, crying behavior, loneliness, irritability, worry, and self-pity. The Anhedonia/Negative Affect subscale contains seven reversed-scored items that appraise affect and engagement in pleasurable activities. The Negative Self-Evaluation subscale contains eight items evaluating feelings of low self-worth, self-denigration, thoughts of self-harm, and thoughts that no one cares. The Somatic Complaints subscale contains seven items and assesses somatic (i.e., physical) complaints about the self such as anger, stomachaches, feeling sick, fatigue, sleep disturbance, boredom, and dissatisfaction. High scores on any of the subscales represent a higher level of pathology. The RADS-2 demonstrates excellent psychometric properties as evidenced by high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity estimates [1]. Internal consistency reliability for the RADS-2 total scale was .93 for the total school sample; internal consistency for the subscales of the RADS-2 ranged from .80 to .87 [1]. Test-retest reliability for the Total Scale was reported to be .85, with the subscales ranging from .77 to .84. Validity has been established for the RADS-2 as evidenced by strong relationships between the RADS-2 and clinical measures of depression (e.g., Hamilton Depression Rating Scale), moderate relationships among the RADS-2 and related constructs such as anxiety and loneliness, and weak relationships among the RADS-2 and measures of intelligence, social desirability, and school achievement.
References 1.
2.
Reynolds, W. M. (2002). Reynolds adolescent depression scale – 2nd edition: Professional manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. Reynolds, W. M. (1987). Reynolds adolescent depression scale: Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
Reynolds Child Depression Scale 3.
4.
5.
Reynolds, W. M. (1986). Model for the screening and identification of depressed children and adolescents in school settings. Professional School Psychology, 1, 117–129. Reynolds, W. M., & Johnston, H. F. (1994). The nature and study of depression in children and adolescents. In W. M. Reynolds, & H. F. Johnston (Eds.), Handbook of depression in children and adolescents (pp. 3–17). New York: Plenum. Reynolds, W. M. (2003). The Reynolds adolescent depression scale – Second Edition (RADS-2). In M. Herson, M. J. Hilsenroth, & D. L. Segal (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychological assessment (Personality assessment (p. 2), pp. 224–236). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Reynolds Child Depression Scale JENNA J. BARRY Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
Synonyms RCDS
Definition The Reynolds Child Depression Scale (RCDS) is a 30-item self-report paper and pencil survey assessing the frequency of depressive symptoms in children ages 8–12.
Description and Relevance to Childhood Development Depression is one of the most frequently diagnosed mental illnesses in the U.S. [3, 4], with nearly five percent of children and adolescents suffering from depression at any one point in time [2]. This disorder can often go without notice, as it is often conceptualized as a quiet disorder with symptoms such as sadness and social withdrawal, unlike other childhood disorders (e.g., ADHD) that may present with overt behavioral problems. However, some children suffering from depression will act out in school or at home, so it is important to pay close attention to the child’s overall behavior in order to know if they are suffering from depressive symptoms. Like adolescent and adult depression, childhood depression is more than just feeling down once in a while. Rather, it is characterized by symptoms such as frequent sadness or crying, feelings of hopelessness, social withdrawal or isolation, low self-esteem, and stomachaches or headaches. Depression varies in level of severity, with some people reporting mild depressive symptoms (e.g., feeling down), and others reporting more severe symptoms (e.g., suicidal ideation and self-injurious behaviors; (2)). However, if left untreated, mild symptoms
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can lead to more severe symptoms, highlighting the importance of assessment and treatment in the presence of any type of depressive symptoms. The Reynolds Child Depression Scale (RCDS; 1989), developed by William Reynolds, is a 30-item self-report measure of depression that can be used to assess frequency of depressive symptomatology in children. The scale was developed based on the symptom criteria as delineated in the DSM-III and the research diagnostic criteria (RDC; [1]). Item criteria were also checked against the DSM-IIIR upon its release. The scale uses a Likert-style response format (1=almost never, 2=sometimes, 3=a lot of the time, 4=all the time) for 29 of the items, and a 1 through 5 scale using faces representing a range of emotions, from sad to happy, for the final item. There are seven reverse-scored items (e.g., I feel happy). Children are asked to answer the questions based on how they have felt in the past two weeks. A high score on the RCDS is representative of higher depressive symptomatology, with scores ranging from 30 to 121. The scale is written at a second-grade reading level, takes about 10 min to complete, and is primarily used for children in grades 3 through 6 (ages 8 through 12); however, it is recommended that children in grades 3 and 4 (ages 8 and 9) have the items read aloud to them [1]. The RCDS is not a diagnostic tool as it merely provides information regarding the frequency of the child’s depressive symptoms. It does provide a cutoff score that can be used to identify a child as depressed or non-depressed; however, this score should not be used alone for diagnostic purposes [1]. Critical items are said to distinguish depressed children from non-depressed children. The six critical items on the RCDS resulted in significantly different responses for depressed versus non-depressed children. Depressed children were more likely than non-depressed children to endorse the critical items (to answer all the time on items 6, 9, 12, 13, and 20, and a lot of the time or all the time on item 14). These six items focused on withdrawal, isolation, self-injurious thinking, and disliking one’s self, all symptoms of major depression [1]. This scale was subjected to rigorous field testing throughout the 1980s in order to obtain evidence for psychometric properties. Internal consistency has been shown through Cronbach’s alphas of 0.88 and above, found consistently in studies across the world [1, 5, 6]. The measure is shown to be psychometrically sound and content valid due to high item-total scale correlations (most items in the 0.40–0.50 range; [1]). Test-retest reliability coefficients have ranged from 0.66 in one study with students from Barcelona [5] to 0.82 in another study with students from the Midwest [1]. Criterion-related validity was shown through a correlation of 0.84 between the RCDS and the
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Children’s Depression Rating Scale-Revised [1]. Convergent validity was shown through moderately high correlations between the RCDS and other measures of depression, self-esteem, and anxiety. Discriminant validity was evidenced by a lack of relationship between depression and measures of academic achievement and ability [1]. The RCDS provides researchers with an easily understood self-report measure of depression that has been validated through research studies across the world. This scale is a valuable tool for clinicians and researchers alike, as it can identify the frequency of depressive symptomatology in children, and help distinguish between depressed and non-depressed children (although a formal interview would be needed for a final diagnosis of depression).
Right Hemisphere Syndromes DAVID MORRISON, MARY JOANN LANG Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Definition Knowledge of prevalence and patterns of right hemisphere deficits appears to be incomplete. In fact, a descriptive definition of right hemisphere syndrome and consistent terminology would assist in enhancing communication and providing services for this set of signs and symptoms. The most common right hemisphere syndromes include right hemisphere dysfunction, nonverbal learning disabilities, and Asperger’s syndrome.
References 1. 2. 3.
4.
5.
6.
Reynolds, W. M. (1989). Reynolds child depression scale: Professional manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (2008). http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/the_depressed_child Reynolds, W. M. (1986). Model for the screening and identification of depressed children and adolescents in school settings. Professional School Psychology, 1, 117–129. Reynolds, W. M., & Johnston, H. F. (1994). The nature and study of depression in children and adolescents. In W. M. Reynolds, & H. F. Johnston (Eds.), Handbook of depression in children and adolescents (pp. 3–17). New York, NY: Plenum Press. Masip, A., Campos, J., & Olmos, J. (2008). Psychometric properties of the Reynolds Child Depression Scale in community and clinical samples. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 11, 641–649. Reynolds, W. M., & Graves, A. (1989). Reliability of children’s reports of depressive symptomatology. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 647–655.
Rey-Osterrieth ▶Rey Complex Figure Test
RFT ▶Relational Frame Theory
Right Hemisphere Learning Disability ▶Nonverbal Learning Disability
Description The right hemisphere is responsible for visual data storage, recognition of shapes and forms, spatial perception, and copying and drawing geometric shapes and representational pictures. It also excels in metric angle judgments and linear arithmetic problem solving [6]. While it may appear to be superior to the left hemisphere in regard to attention capacity, this is merely due to the right hemisphere’s ability to integrate complex, nonlinear information quickly. Right hemisphere syndromes include right hemisphere dysfunction, nonverbal learning disabilities, and Asperger’s syndrome.
Right Hemisphere Dysfunction Ardila and Ostrosky-Solis [1] first presented the concept of right hemisphere dysfunction in the mid-1980s. The authors indicated that the right hemisphere dysfunction produced additional symptoms not usually seen in nonverbal learning disabilities. They indicated that there were deficits related to the rhythm, stress, and intonation of connected speech. These authors also indicated that patients may have more significant deficits in frontal lobe functioning with regard to planning and organization, as well as tactile and spatial deficits. In 1989, Pimental and Kingsbury looked at the many different classifications that had been presented for right hemisphere dysfunction [7]. The main features of right hemisphere dysfunction include: Fluent speech that appears illogical and loosely generalized; difficulty ordering, organizing, and understanding complex situations; verbal comprehension may be poorly developed as a result of literal interpretation; difficulty dealing with speech intonation resulting in monotone speech; failure
Right Hemisphere Syndromes
to stay alert; perceptual deficits; spatial organization, as well as visuo-spatial memory, and slowed reaction times. Many descriptions have been given of children with social and emotional issues. These descriptions associate the child’s lack of social navigational skills and their poorly developed spatial and mathematical skills. Researchers have taken many different approaches to understanding these deficits and have come up with many different classification terms such as, “minimal brain dysfunction,” “nonverbal learning disability,” “developmental learning disability of the right hemisphere,” “social and emotional learning disability,” and “developmental right hemisphere syndrome” [10]. All of these terms have been developed under the context of right hemisphere dysfunction. Two syndromes discussed in the literature related to right hemisphere dysfunction are nonverbal learning disability syndrome and Asperger’s syndrome.
Nonverbal Learning Disabilities Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD) is a more recent syndrome being researched. Although a few publications have been done on the syndrome, many mental health professionals are unfamiliar with it. The syndrome is not recognized by federal special education law, which, more than likely, classifies children with the specific symptoms as “Other Health Impaired” [8]. Some children may also be more specifically classified as orthopedically handicapped, learning disabled, or emotionally disturbed. These classifications are appropriate for children who have neurologically acquired NLD syndrome, but those who have acquired the syndrome through more common developmental cases may need a different classification. Byron Rourke, in the early 1980s, identified a learning disability based on the right and left hemisphere functions. His model was expanded and revised in order to document the range and diversity of deficits in this disorder. Rourke [9] grouped the deficits into three major areas: Neuropsychological, academic, and social emotional/ adaptive. Rourke believes that nonverbal learning disability syndrome is present, “at birth or shortly thereafter, and is not complicated by subsequent neurological disease, disorder, or dysfunction” ([9], p. 6). A summary of the content and dynamics of NLD syndrome was summarized by Rourke in an edited text titled, “Syndrome of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities” in 1995. The model that represents these dynamics is shown on the following page:
Intellectual Functioning On formal measures of intelligence, children with NLD syndrome will normally score higher on Verbal IQ than
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Performance IQ. This shows the incongruity between verbal, language-based cognitive abilities and nonverbal, visual-spatial cognitive abilities [8]. The greater the difference between scores, the more likely the diagnosis; small point differences can still be significant if there is evidence of the disorder in other domains.
Executive Functions One of the primary impairments in NLD syndrome is executive functioning. This includes abstract reasoning, logical analysis, cognitive flexibility, and the ability to focus attention and/or redirect it [8]. Executive functioning deficits tend to be more prevalent in severe cases of nonverbal learning disabilities syndrome. In addition, children with NLD syndrome have significant difficulties with cause-effect relationships and have deficiencies in appreciation of incongruities [10]. These problems tend to persist and only get worse as the child gets older.
Memory Functions Children with NLD syndrome tend to have lower levels of nonverbal memory ability. Nonverbal tasks that are less complex, such as rote verbal capacities and rote verbal memory skills, tend to be well developed. Children who struggle with remembering complex verbal material probably did not understand the material when it was first presented. Those that struggle on more difficult memory and learning tasks support Rourke’s hypothesis that children with NLD syndrome will be able to perform well only on memory and learning tasks that are confined and simple [8].
Language Functions Receptive and expressive vocabulary measures usually see high performance levels from children with NLD syndrome. Children with right hemisphere dysfunction will perform poorly on measures of speech prosody and intonation [8]. Friends and peers will often complain that the child will dwell on boring topics; this is because the child relies on verbalization to carry them through their social interactions. With simple and repetitive speech, the child is seen as having restricted interests, which is one of the common features of Pervasive Developmental Disorders.
Visual-Spatial Abilities Children with NLD syndrome perform low on measures of visual processing and visual-spatial abilities. They have difficulties with visual perception, visual-spatial cognitive abilities, and visual processing. Children with NLD syndrome will exhibit difficulties drawing or copying images and have poor handwriting skills. Despite the difficulties
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that are manifested at first, as time passes and these difficulties are worked on, children with NLD syndrome will be able to improve their handwriting, ability to copy simple shapes, coloring, and pasting [10]. While simple visual-spatial abilities may improve, the more complex skills will only get worse as the child ages.
Sensory-Perceptual Ability and Motor Functioning as Related to the Left Side Children with NLD syndrome will demonstrate difficulties with tactile discrimination, haptic discrimination (involves touch), and fine motor coordination [10]. Their fine motor skills and sensory skills are worse on the left side of their body, when compared to the right side. In addition to fine motor skill difficulty, children with NLD syndrome perform low on gross motor activities, such as playing sports. They lack the athleticism that their peers may possess and have a difficult time playing competitive games.
Educational and Academic Performance Spelling and word recognition are easier than math for children with NLD syndrome. Math relies primarily on spatial and nonverbal concepts, which, as mentioned earlier, are areas in which children with NLD syndrome struggle. The more basic, mechanical aspects of academics are better understood than areas of academia that require more applied aspects. Reading comprehension and mathematical reasoning abilities are weaker than spelling, vocabulary, and simple math calculation abilities [8]. It is difficult for children with NLD syndrome to generate their own ideas, making it hard for them to write meaningful essays and papers. Children with NLD syndrome also have poor time management skills. They tend to have a distorted sense of time when engaging in common activities. They may be unable to estimate the amount of time that has elapsed in a given activity, as well as the time of day.
Social Performance NLD syndrome can significantly impair a child’s social skills because they have poor “body language,” facial expressions, and tone of voice abilities. Children with NLD syndrome tend to miss important social cues, further leading to deficits in social perception. They are unable to perceive social situations accurately and often respond incorrectly when spoken to. If the topic changes, they have problems adapting to the change in circumstances. Additionally, they have deficits in reasoning and generalization of knowledge.
Problems forming close relationships and meaningful friendships may not be perceived until late childhood or early adolescence. Establishing intimacy is very difficult for individuals with NLD syndrome, and Rourke [9] stated these problems are related to a lack of “tactileperceptual and psychomotor prowess required for smooth affectional encounters” (p. 17). When the child is young, they may often be seen as hyperactive. As the child ages, however; they move towards hypoactivity, which involves social withdrawal and social isolation. This increases the risk of the development of psychosocial disturbances, especially when related to internalization, in older childhood and adolescence [10].
The Relationship Between Nonverbal Learning Disabilities Syndrome and Asperger’s Syndrome There is evidence of a significant overlap in symptoms between NLD syndrome and Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Children with either NLD syndrome or AS experience the same basic difficulties in nonverbal social interaction, and tend to rely heavily on language as a means of learning about themselves and the world around them. This reliance on language is appropriate for telling of categorical information, but not appropriate for conveying direct experience. The neuropsychological assets and deficits of NLD syndrome are also very characteristic of AS. Children with NLD syndrome or AS are unable to form representations of their world and do not have the ability to code and represent each novel experience they have. As a result, these children will tend to be more interested in the rule-based aspects of learning and have major difficulties with abstract reasoning and generalizing ideas. When processing new information, children with NLD syndrome or AS will rely primary on their poorly developed deductive reasoning, while completely discarding inductive reasoning. A variety of researchers identified an impairment pattern in individuals with AS. This pattern suggests possible dysfunction in the right hemisphere. Through case reports, Ellis and Gunter [3] found AS to be a result of right hemisphere dysfunction due to incomplete and/or dysfunction of white matter. More recently the focus is also placed on the role of the right hemisphere in both NLD syndrome and AS. This focus, however, has been applied more widely. Consideration is focused on two basic processes, including cognitive development and brain maturations. These mental processes promote brain integration and adaptability. Children with either NLD syndrome or AS are impacted by these mental processes.
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Primary neuropsychological assets
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Primary Neuropsychological Deficits
Auditory perception simple motor rote material
Tactile perception Visual perception Complex psychomotor Novel material
Secondary neuropsychological assets
Secondary Neuropsychological Deficits
Auditory attention verbal attention
Tactile attention Visual attention Exploratory behavior
Tertiary neuropsychological assets
Tertiary Neuropsychological Deficits
Auditory memory verbal memory
Tactile memory Visual memory Concept formation Problem solving
Verbal neuropsychological assets
Verbal Neuropsychological Deficits
Phonology Verbal reception Verbal repetition Verbal storage Verbal associations Verbal output
Oral-motor praxis Prosody Phonology>Semantics Content Pragmatics Function
Academic assets Graphomotor (late) Word decoding Spelling Verbatim memory
Academic deficits Oral-motor praxis Reading comprehension Mechanical arithmetic Mathematics Science
Socioemotional/Adaptive assets
Socioemotional/adaptive deficits Adaptation to novelty Social competence Emotional stability Activity level
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Asperger’s Syndrome Asperger [2] indicated that early development of children with AS would be normal. Their language development is quick and they show a high interest in language. Asperger focused on this for quite some time, until he began to also recognize the preservation of formal language skills, such as phonology and syntax, rather then the pragmatics of language. Attachment and early social skills are not extremely unusual, but the absence of deviant language may impede recognition. Children with AS have unusual interests, which affect how they acquire normal skills.
Motor Functioning Praxis Children with AS have delayed motor skills and motor coordination. These motor delays are listed in the DSMIV as diagnostic criteria for AS. Young children with AS might not have major motor skill impairment but, as they age, they become more dependent on developmental aspects other than simple motor capacities [11]. Some areas in which a delay in acquisition of motor skills is evident are: Pedaling a bicycle, catching a ball, opening jars, climbing monkey bars, etc. [5]. They have visibly poor posture and appear to have significant visual-motor coordination deficits.
Social Functioning Although children with AS have identifiable social isolation, they are usually aware of and interested in others. They are often eager to relate to others and understand them. Children with AS have difficulty approaching others and engaging them in conversation. Their conversations are usually long-winded and often meaningless. They fail to realize when a person is losing interest and is seemingly uncomfortable with the conversation. As the child ages, they have problems with spontaneous social interaction. The constant social rejection can have a profound effect on the child’s mood and mental state. The child may respond inappropriately to the context of affective social interaction. They appear to be insensitive or disregarding emotional expressions. While the child with AS may be able to formally explain a person’s emotions and intentions, they are unable to do so while in a continuing conversation without a period of rest to gather their thoughts.
Communication Speech development is not a main concern in a young child with AS. Their language and speech develop
improperly as they age and, as a result, they experience significant difficulty in pragmatic or conversational skills. In 1994, Klin identified three distinct ways of communication in children with AS [4]: "
(1) They use a minute number of inflection patterns and do not adjust them based on what they are trying to communicate; (2) Conversation is egocentric and onesided as they try to verbalize every thought without filtering what actually needs to be said aloud; (3) The child with AS tends to focus only on what they know and are interested in, which may result in a long list of facts without a conclusion.
The fixation on one topic is known as restricted and repetitive behavior, as the child with AS is unable to move on to topics which they know nothing about. They have a vast array of knowledge about random facts, such as snakes, names of stars, and railway schedules.
Conclusion There is strong evidence pointing towards major similarities in characteristics between children with AS and children with NLD syndrome. This similarity may aid in distinguishing AS from higher functioning autism. AS is a newly researched syndrome and will become better understood as years pass and more researchers gain interest in focusing on its unique characteristics.
References 1. Ardila, A., & Ostrosky-Solis, F. (1984). The right hemisphere and behavior. In A. Ardila & F. Ostrosky-Solis (Eds.), The right hemisphere: Neurology and neuropsychology (pp. 3–49). New York: Gordon & Breach. 2. Asperger, H. (1944). Die “Autistschen Psychopathen” im Kindesalter. Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, 76–136. 3. Ellis, H. D., & Gunter, H. L. (1999). Asperger syndrome: A simple matter of white matter? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 192–200. 4. Klin, A. (1994). Asperger syndrome. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinics of North America, 3, 131–148. 5. Klin, A., Sparrow, S. S., Volkmar, F. R., Cicchetti, D. V., & Rourke, B. P. (2000). Asperger Syndrome. In B. P. Rourke (Ed.), Syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities: Neurodevelopmental manifestations (pp. 93–118). New York: Guilford Press. 6. Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. 7. Pimental, P. A., & Kingsbury, N. A. (1989). The injured right hemisphere: Classification of Related Disorders. In Neuropsychological aspects of right brain injury. Austin, Tx: Pro-Ed. 8. Roman, M. A. (1998). The syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities: clinical description and applied aspects. Current Issues in Education, 1(7). Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://cie.asu.edu/ fall98/roman.roman.html
Risk Factors 9. Rourke, B. P. (Ed.). (1995). Syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities: Neurodevelopmental manifestations. New York: Guilford Press. 10. Rourke, B. P., & Tsatsanis, K. D. (2000). Nonverbal Learning Disabilities and Asperger’s Syndrome. In A. Klin, F. R. Volkmar, & S. S. Sparrow (Eds.), Asperger’s syndrome (pp. 231–253). New York: Guilford Press. 11. Volkmar, F. R., & Klin, A. (2000). Diagnostic Issues in Asperger Syndrome. In A. Klin, F. R. Volkmar, & S. S. Sparrow (Eds.), Asperger’s Syndrome (pp. 25–71). New York: Guilford Press.
Risk LISA M. DEBELLIS Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA
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relationship with a school teacher may serve as a protective factor in his or her positive development over time. An extensive review of popular protective factors found in resilience literature shows that protective factors generally tend to fall into one of three categories including individual attributes, family qualities, and supportive systems outside the family. Risk and protective factors are central concepts in the Developmental Psychopathology framework used to study normal and abnormal development among children and adolescents.
References 1.
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Synonyms Risk factors; Threat; Vulnerability
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Definition
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A risk is a harmful circumstance or attribute which can cause developmental threat or assault.
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Fergusson, D. M., & Horwood, L. J. (2003). Resilience to childhood adversity: Results of a 21-year study. In S. S. Luthar (Ed.), Resilience and vulnerability: Adaptation in the context of childhood adversities (pp. 130–151). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Luthar, S. S., & Brown, P. J. (2007). Maximizing resilience through diverse levels of inquiry: Prevailing paradigms, possibilities, and priorities for the future. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 931–955. Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71(3), 543–562. Masten, A. S., & Powell, J. L. (2003). A resilience framework for research, policy, and practice. In S. S. Luthar (Ed.), Resilience and vulnerability: Adaptation in the context of childhood adversities (pp. 1–25). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Description Risk factors are defined as stressors or conditions that predict negative outcomes on a person’s development. Risk is an especially important component of Resilience Theory, a popular framework used in both applied and basic psychological research. Individuals who have exhibited resilience are viewed as achieving normal functioning despite the adverse conditions they have faced. The emphasis is placed upon the process of bouncing back after exposure to risk; in other words, the term does not attempt to explain or describe a characteristic an individual child possesses. Because many risk factors seem to occur together and their effects seem to accumulate over time, such as school dropout and poverty, researchers have recently begun to study cumulative risk, which is studied by pooling or aggregating information related to the risk factors. For example, a student who lives in a single parent household may not be considered at risk for substance abuse; but, a child who lives in a single parent household and has been retained in school may be at risk for substance abuse. Protective factors keep individuals safe from the threat or assault associated with exposure to different risk factors, and may assist individuals to overcome risks. In the example provided above of the child at risk for substance abuse, a positive
Risk Factors AARON R. SCHANTZ, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms Associated factors; Early predictors; Psychological correlates; Risk
Definition Risk factors are variables within the child or the surrounding environment that correlate with an increased probability of the child experiencing negative outcomes.
Description Risk factors are areas of considerable interest to professionals who work with children. These characteristics of a child’s life consist of various issues that reside in the community (e.g., public violence), the family (e.g., parent’s educational attainment), the school (e.g., teacher education), and within the child (e.g., temperament).
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The more risk factors present in the life of a child, the more likely the child will experience negative outcomes. Development of physical or mental health problems, substance use disorders, difficulties in academic functioning, unemployment, teenage pregnancy, violence, and juvenile delinquency are some of the most common outcomes associated with risk factors experienced in childhood. The link between risk factors and potential outcomes is identified when researchers statistically correlate the presence of a factor in the past and whether the negative outcomes were experienced. Because these studies are correlational, it cannot be said that the presence of the risk factor causes the later problems in functioning, only that a higher probability exists. For instance, certain demographic variables such as low parental income are considered risk factors in pediatric mental health because children in these homes may have fewer available supports. For example, the cost of hiring a tutor or consulting with a psychologist may be unaffordable. Effects of risk factors are experienced as a manifestation of the child’s biology (including genetic predispositions) and environment. As a result of this interplay of nature and nurture, two children with the same risk factor in dissimilar environments could experience different impacts on their development. A child who was exposed to alcohol in utero (a biological risk factor) may be at a greater risk for disruptive behavior disorders later in life; however, if the child were raised by parents with strong parenting skills, the negative outcomes of the alcohol exposure could be reduced. If a child lives in a household with parental discord (an environmental risk factor), but has strong academic skills, the child is on a more positive developmental trajectory than a child with parental discord and poor academic skills. Risk factors can have a cumulative effect. In the example above, parental discord at home could likely make it more difficult for the child to pay attention in school, and the emotional troubles could lead to externalizing behaviors. For a child already struggling with academics, the effects on school performance can seem to multiply. A child with prenatal alcohol exposure, if raised by a parent with alcohol dependence, may additionally experience emotional or physical neglect. These and other risk factors increase the child’s likelihood of developing a behavior disorder. Prevention programs are often initiated by screening a group of children in a particular school or community for the presence of risk factors. Once identified, the risk factors become the target of intervention to avert the foreseen negative outcomes for the child. Perhaps the
most widely known prevention program is Project Head Start. Head Start identifies children with economic disadvantages and offers educational interventions to improve the child’s academic performance. Prevention programs like Head Start are designed to build upon the child’s strengths and supports. Selection of appropriate early intervention strategies can mitigate or perhaps eliminate the effects of the risk factor and positively affect the child’s developmental trajectory.
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Dallaire, D. H., Cole, D. A., Smith, T. M., Ciesla, J. A., LaGrange, B., Jacquez, F. M., et al. (2008). Predicting children’s depressive symptoms from community and individual risk factors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37, 830–846. Deater-Deckard, K., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (1998). Multiple risk factors in the development of externalizing behavior problems: Group and individual differences. Development and Psychopathology, 10, 469–493. Essex, M. J., Kraemer, H. C., et al. (2006). Exploring risk factors for the emergence of children’s mental health problems. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63, 1246–1256. Gutman, L. M., Sameroff, A. J., & Cole, R. (2003). Academic growth curve trajectories from 1st grade to 12th grade: Effects of multiple social risk factors and preschool child factors. Developmental Psychology, 39, 777–790. Kazdin, A. E., Kraemer, H. C., et al. (1997). Contributions of riskfactor research to developmental psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 17, 375–406. U.S. Census Bureau. (1997). Census brief: America’s children at risk. Retrieved September 24, 2008 from http://www.census.gov/prod/3/ 97pubs/cb-9702.pdf U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). Child delinquency bulletin series: Risk and protective factors of child delinquency. Retrieved September 24, 2008 from http://www.helpingamericasyouth.gov/exhibithall/ Child%20delinquency_Risk%20and%20Protective%20Factors.pdf U.S. Office of the Surgeon General. (n.d.). Mental health: A report of the surgeon general. Retrieved September 30, 2008 from http://www. surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/home.html
Risley, Todd R. DEREK D. REED1, JAMES K. LUISELLI2 1 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA 2 The May Institute, Inc., Randolph, MA, USA
Life Dates (1937–2007)
Introduction Dr. Risley was a pioneer in the field of applied behavior analysis whose research in speech shaping, language
Risperdal®
acquisition, time out procedures and incidental learning has influenced the broader fields of education, child development, and psychology. Dr. Risley’s motto, “do good and take data,” is evidence of his lifelong commitment to finding socially valid, empirically supported approaches to education and rehabilitation [1, 5].
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young children found that the degree to which parents talked to their children during the early years of their lives predicted academic performance and intelligence test scores later in life [3]. Later in his career, Dr. Risley devoted his time to training parents how to raise their children using the information obtained from his lifelong research career.
Educational Information Dr. Risley obtained his B.A. from San Diego State College, where he was mentored by Virginia Voeks, who ultimately encouraged him to pursue the study of learning and child psychology at the University of Washington’s Institute of Child Development [5]. While obtaining both his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Washington, Dr. Risley worked alongside many child psychology and development leaders, such as Ivar Lovaas and Montrose Wolf – both of whom were post-doctoral fellows – and studied under the advisement of Donald Baer, an internationally renowned researcher and professor in the area of child psychology, development, and applied behavior analysis [2, 4, 5]. Dr. Risley and his colleagues from the University of Washington would ultimately shape the field of behavior analysis away from strict animal experimentation to the direct application of Skinner’s behaviorism to the improvement of social problems, culminating in the creation of applied behavior analysis.
References 1. 2.
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Dunlap, G., & Lutzker, J. R. (2008). Todd R. Risley (1937–2007). Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 10, 148–149. Fixsen, D., & Dunlap, G. (2004). A celebration of the contributions of Montrose M. Wolf and Todd R. Risley. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 6, 121–123. Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H Brookes. Lutzker, J. R. (2008). Todd R. Risley (1937–2007). American Psychologist, 63, 559. Risley, T. R. (2002). Do good, take data. In W. J. O’Donohue, D. A. Henderson, S. C. Hayes, J. E. Fisher, & L. J. Hayes (Eds.), A history of the behavioral therapies: Founders’ personal histories (pp. 267–287). Reno, NV: Context Press.
Risolid ▶Chlordiazepoxide
Accomplishments Dr. Risley was a founding Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis from 1971 to 1974, and served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. In addition, Dr. Risley served as the President of both the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy (1976–1977) and the Behavior Analysis Division of the American Psychological Association (Division 25). Dr. Risley also served as Director of Alaska’s Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities from 1988 to 1990 [4]. Dr. Risley’s book Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children [3], was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Risperdal – M-Tab® ▶Risperdal®
R Risperdal® ANNA L. LOPEZ University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Contributions
Synonyms
During Dr. Risley’s illustrious career in child psychology, he was directly involved in the formation and implementation of 16 major human service organizations and settings. From these endeavors, Dr. Risley contributed to the science of child behavior and development with the publication of more than 50 scientific works [5]. Dr. Risley’s 12-year longitudinal study with Dr. Betty Hart on the development of language in
Risperidone; Risperdal – M-Tab®
Definition Risperdal® is the brand name for Risperidone, an atypical antipsychotic agent. It is FDA approved for the treatment of shizophrenia in adults and youth ages 13–17. Risperdal® is also FDA approved for the treatment of Bipolar I disorder in children and adolescents
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10–17 years of age as well as for treatment of irritability associated with autistic disorder in children and adolescents ages 5–16.
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Description This medication is an atypical antipsychotic, commonly used for acute and maintenance treatment of schizophrenia related psychotic disorders. Risperdal® is available in tablet (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 mg), liquid (1 mg/mL), and disintegrating tablet, known as Risperdal M-Tab® (0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 mg). Risperdal Consta®, the long-acting injectable form, has not been studied in the pediatric population. Recommended initial dose for treatment of Bipolar mania in children and adolescents is 0.5 mg/day with an effective dose range of 0.5–6 mg a day. For treatment of irritability associated with autistic disorder, initial dose recommended is 0.25 mg a day with an effective dose range of 0.5–3 mg a day. When using Risperdal® with children, careful monitoring of both weight and liver function is recommended. Most common side effects include sedation and weight gain. Other reported side effects include loss of appetite, fatigue, upper respiratory tract infection, vomiting, coughing, constipation, fever, increase in saliva, dystonia, abdominal pain, anxiety, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, tremor, dyspepsia, rash, and akathisia. Long-term side effects associated with atypical antipsychotic use include withdrawal, tardive dyskinesia, parkinsonism, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome.
Relevance to Childhood Development Risperidone is the only FDA approved medication for treatment of irritability associated with autistic disorder in children and youth ages 5–16. In previous studies, Risperdal® was found effective when used for the treatment of pediatric bipolarity. Previous research supports that Risperdal® may also help with aggression in children and adolescents diagnosed with Conduct Disorder.
References 1.
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Dziegielewski, S. F. (2006). Schizophrenia and the psychotic disorders. In S. F. Dziegielewski (Ed.), Psychopharmacology handbook for the non-medically trained (pp. 159–186). NY: W.W. Norton. Kuich, K. W., & Findling, R. L. (2008). Bipolar disorders. In R. L. Findling (Ed.), Pediatric psychopharmacology (pp. 229–263). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric. Marangell, L. B., & Martinez, J. M. (2006). Antipsychotics. In L. B. Marangell & J. M. Martinez (Eds.), Concise guide to psychopharmacology (pp. 91–133). VA: American Psychiatric. Raishevich, N., Pappadopulos, E., & Jensen, P. S. (2008). Disruptive behavior disorders and aggression. In R. L. Findling (Ed.), Pediatric
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psychopharmacology (pp. 99–142). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric. Stigler, K. A., Erickson, C. A., Posey, D. J., & McDougle, C. J. (2008). Autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. In R. L. Findling (Ed.), Pediatric psychopharmacology (pp. 265–300). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2009). Risperdal prescribing information. Retrieved from http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/ drugsatfda_docs/label/2009/020272s056,020588s044,021346s033, 021444s03lbl.pdf
Risperidone ▶Risperdal®
Ritalin ▶Stimulant Medications
Ritalin® ANNA L. LOPEZ University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Methylphenidate; Ritalin-SR®, Ritalin-LA®
Definition Ritalin® is a stimulant medication FDA approved for children 6 and older for the treatment of ADHD and narcolepsy.
Description Ritalin® is a central nervous system stimulant used for the treatment of impulsiveness and hyperactivity in children with ADHD. It is also used in the treatment of narcolepsy. Similar to most other stimulant medications, the active ingredient in Ritalin® is methylphenidate. Ritalin® is available in three forms: Ritalin® immediate release tablets (5, 10, 15, or 20 mg), Ritalin SR® slowly absorbed tablets (20 mg), and Ritalin LA® extended release capsules (10, 20, 30, or 40 mg). Ritalin® and Ritalin SR® tablets
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should not be crushed or chewed and must be taken whole. Ritalin LA® capsules may be opened and contents may be sprinkled on apple sauce. Common side effects include headaches, stomach aches, difficulty sleeping, nausea, loss of appetite, and nervousness. Other side effects including abdominal pain, weight loss, and tachycardia may occur more frequently in children. Note that there are various stimulants believed to have the same treatment effect on ADHD; however, individual reactions may be different to each of these agents.
Relevance to Childhood Development Methylphenidate, the active ingredient in Ritalin®, is the most commonly used stimulant prescribed for children with ADHD. Beneficial effects of psychostimulants may include reduced hyperarousal, reduced motor restlessness, enhanced concentration, and less aggressive and antisocial behavior. Ritalin® is not FDA approved for children under the age of 6.
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Greydanus, D. E., Feucht, C., & Tzima-Tsitsika, E. (2008). Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In D. E. Greydanus, J. L. Calles, & D. R. Patel (Eds.), Pediatric and adolescent psychopharmacology: a practical manual for pediatricians (pp. 77–102). NY: Cambridge University Press. Marangell, L. B., & Martinez, J. M. (2006). Stimulants. In L. B. Marangell & J. M. Martinez (Eds.), Concise guide to psychopharmacology (pp. 171–200). VA: American Psychiatric. Paykina, N., & Greenhill, L. (2008). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In R. L. Findling (Ed.), Pediatric psychopharmacology (pp. 33–97). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric. Sadock, B. J., & Sadock, V. A. (2003). Psychiatric treatment of children and adolescents. In B. J. Sadock & V. A. Sadock (Eds.), Kaplan and sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry (pp. 1295–1307). PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2009). Ritalin, Ritalin SR. Retrieved from http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/ label/2007/010187s069,018029s040,021284s011lbl.pdf
Ritalin-SR®, Ritalin-LA® ▶Ritalin®
Ro-0690 ▶Chlordiazepoxide
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Rogerian Psychotherapy ▶Client-Centered Therapy
Rogers, Carl JENNIFER BECKER University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Life Dates 1902–1987
Educational Information Carl Rogers was one of six children born to Walter and Julia Rogers, both from wealthy families with college degrees, at a time when college education was not prevalent. He was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois until 1914, when his family moved away from the city to a farm outside of Chicago, which allowed him to develop an interest in science and experimentation at a young age. All throughout high school, Rogers collected, studied, and experimented with Cecropia caterpillars and moths. As he continued his education, he followed in his father’s footsteps majoring in Scientific Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin. Midway through completing his college degree, Rogers traveled through China, switching his major to History in hopes of pursuing a career in the Christian ministry. Roger’s poor health as a child and throughout his life forced him to return home from China and brought about unexpected consequences in several areas of his life. With his return to the United States and the University of Wisconsin, Rogers became active in university life, joined the fraternity, Alpha Kappa Lambda, and developed a relationship with another student, Helen, who went on to become his wife in the summer of 1924 after his graduation from college. Rogers was still determined to become a minister and continued his education at Union Theological Seminary, where he also took courses at the neighboring Teachers College of Columbia University. While attending Teachers College he took a course in clinical psychology taught by
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Leta Hollingworth, after which he once again changed career paths, leaving Union to continue doctoral studies at Teachers College. He graduated with his Ph.D. from the Clinical Psychology program at Columbia University in 1931.
colleagues left to create the Center for Studies of the Person (CSP), an organization which is still alive today. Rogers continued his work there for 20 years and remained a resident fellow at CSP until his death.
Contribution Accomplishments Carl Rogers is one of the founders of the Humanistic approach to psychology, which in combination with Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism makes up the big three forces in psychology. Humanism is a system of thought that accepts an optimistic view of human nature with a focus on human values, needs, worth, and well-being. On December 11, 1940, out of the school of Humanistic Psychology, Carl Rogers held a lecture entitled, “Newer Concepts in Psychotherapy.” This event marked the beginning of Rogers’ clinical approach known as Person- or Client-centered therapy, which is his most celebrated achievement in the field of psychology. This approach was revolutionary at the time because his therapy was nondirective, emphasized the importance of the therapeutic relationship, and involved face-to-face contact with clients. Rogers’ Client-centered therapy was based on a method involving release, insight, and positive action and this approach is centered on the therapist allowing the client to guide their own way through therapy. The Clientcentered approach is composed of three facilitative conditions known as the core conditions: congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy. The end point of Client-centered therapy comes when the client becomes a fully-functioning person. In his book Client-Centered Therapy (1951), Rogers defines a fully-functioning person as one who is open to experience, able to accept the self, able to cope with life, and able to love and be loved. Carl Rogers published many books throughout his lifetime, including: The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child (1939), Client-Centered Therapy (1951), On Becoming a Person (1961), and A Way of Being (1980), along with many others. His success led to a professorship at the University of Ohio in 1939 where he remained for 4 years. In 1946 he was elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA). In 1957 he left Chicago to return to the University of Wisconsin to work in both the Psychology and Psychiatry departments. The publication of his book, On Becoming a Person, which explored the application of Client-centered theory to all aspects of life, gained him overnight success and influence he had never imagined. The success of this book led to his resignation from the University of Wisconsin and the beginning of his work at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI). After leaving WBSI, he and a group of
Carl Rogers is world-renowned and one of the most notable and influential American psychologists. In his final years, Rogers considered the application of his personcentered approach to world problems and issues. Carl Rogers is less known in the field of psychology for his work with world peace and political issues, nevertheless it remains one of the most significant contributions in his life. In particular, Rogers was interested in helping people from different countries to learn how to cross cultural and racial boundaries by learning and understanding how to respond to others in a person-centered way. In 1985, Rogers led a conference on the “Central American Challenge” that brought together leaders from 17 different countries. This conference, held in Austria, displays the dedication and commitment of Rogers to the preservation of world peace and other political issues. Rogers died in 1987, ironically right before being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. From Rogers’ client-centered approach and its applications in therapy and psychology to his work toward world peace, he is a distinguished and remarkable man whose contributions remain important today.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Hothersall, D. (2004). History of psychology. New York: McGraw Hill. Rogers, C. R. (1939). The clinical treatment of the problem child. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C. R. (1949). The attitude and orientation of the counselor in client-centered therapy. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 13, 82–94. Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C. R. (1980). A way of being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C. R., & Russell, D. E. (2002). Carl Rogers: The quiet revolutionary. Roseville, CA: Penmarin.
Role-Playing DAVID HACKETT Argosy University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Behavior rehearsal; Psychodrama
Role-Taking
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Definition
Skills Training
Role-playing is a technique, most often utilized in psychotherapy and skills training, whereby the child is instructed to reenact a response encountered in a specified situation. Widely used in the assessment and treatment of maladaptive behaviors characteristic of childhood disorders, the use of role-play provides an efficient means of sampling the child’s behavioral skills and/or deficits [3, 2].
Role-playing is commonly used in skills training to improve assertiveness, anxiety, social skills, aggression, and other interpersonal difficulties. Role-playing is a technique typically employed in behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions to treat dysfunctional and maladaptive behaviors exhibited by children with clinically significant behavioral difficulties that impair one or more domains of functioning [4]. Thus, interventions that typically employ role-playing, within the realm of skills training, may involve for example, teaching socially phobic children how to interact in social or performance-based situations that invoke considerable distress. Role-playing is used to simulate problematic social. Typically in these sessions a deficit in some domain of functioning is identified and role-playing is often indicated to remediate such deficits. In this setting, adaptive behaviors are rehearsed through role play with the therapist acting as both teacher and model. This allows the therapist to monitor the child’s performance while offering immediate corrective feedback [1, 3].
Description Psychotherapy Role-playing is a relatively nonthreatening technique used as a means of assessment, intervention, and engagement of children in psychotherapy. In general, due to the indirect and contrived nature of this technique, role-play can be used as an effective substitute to traditional “talk therapies,” particularly with those children who present as suspicious, guarded, fearful, or depressed as it provides a mode of interaction wherein the child is partially removed from that which he or she may be avoiding; dolls or puppets can also be used to further “remove” the child from direct involvement [1, 4]. Role-playing provides an opportunity for the child to act out a problematic behavior while serving as a performance base for later interventions [3]. A typical role-play involves at least two individuals engaged in the reenactment of a given scenario, either hypothetical or real. Ideally, the role plays should be as realistic as possible so as to evoke the feelings associated with the identified problematic situation. In the case in which the therapist is playing an individual known to the child (e.g., a teacher, parent, or friend), relevant information about that character, such as examples of what that individual might say, mannerisms they may use, or how they typically react would need to be gathered through systematic questioning in order to provide information about that individual as well as to enhance the realistic quality of the interaction [2]. Role-play, as a therapeutic tool, provides valuable insight as to how the child views his or her environment, as well as the dynamic interplay between the environment and the child. Furthermore, role-playing can provide a wealth of information about the nature and quality of the child’s interpersonal functioning [4, 2]. As an experiential technique, role-playing is often used in the treatment of trauma whereby affective states related to a trauma are aroused so that the child is able to reinterpret an earlier, traumatic experience through reenactment [1, 4].
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Relevance to Childhood Development Psychotherapy with children differs from adult psychotherapy as children typically lack the cognitive abilities to comprehend and assimilate that which is primarily language oriented [4]. Following a Piagetian model of cognitive development, a child whose cognitive capacities are characterized by the concrete operations stage cannot yet engage in ▶metacognition. As such, it is likely that children in this stage of cognitive development struggle with the expression of emotional concepts. Often a child may have difficulty expressing his own feeling states, yet he is able to talk of them when speaking in the third person. For these reasons, role-playing is often used within the context of psychotherapy with children [2, 4].
References 1. 2.
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Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond. New York: Guilford Press. Friedberg, R. D., & McClure, J. M. (2002). Clinical practice of cognitive therapy with children and adolescents: The nuts and bolts. New York: The Guilford Press. Kendall, P. C., & Braswell, L. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for impulsive children (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Levenson, R. L., & Herman, J. (1991). The use of role playing as a technique in the psychotherapy of children. Psychotherapy, 28, 660–666.
Role-Taking ▶Perspective-Taking
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Rorschach Inkblot Method
Rorschach Inkblot Method EDWARD B. JENNY Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Inkblot test; Rorschach test
Definition The Rorschach Inkblot Method is a performance-based personality assessment measure. The test consists of ten inkblots. Five inkblots include only shades of grey and black, two include red pigment along with the grey and black and three inkblots have a variety of colors. Testtakers are shown each inkblot, one at a time, and asked “What might this be?”
Description The Rorschach Inkblot Method was developed by Hermann Rorschach in 1921. From the start Rorschach viewed his method as a perceptual task rather than an association or projective task. His great insight was to propose a method for coding how respondents formed percepts, that is, using color, shape, etc. Due to his untimely death from appendicitis, we will never know in what direction Rorschach might have taken his method. Although there have been numerous approaches proposed for scoring and interpreting the Rorschach, in 1974 John Exner introduced the Comprehensive System utilizing the most robust and best researched scoring categories and introducing several new ratios and scores. Although criticized as lacking validity and reliability by some researchers [6], others point to extensive positive findings that place the Rorschach on par with other personality instruments such as the MMPI-2 [4]. There are two components to the standardized administration of the Rorschach. In the free association phase respondents are given each of the ten inkblots sequentially and asked “what might this be.” Responses are taken down verbatim by the examiner. In the second, or inquiry phase, the responses are repeated back to the respondent with the instruction to indicate where on the inkblot they saw the percept and what about the inkblot makes it look like that. In this way a record of the responses is collected with enough data to consistently translate the responses into a form that can be coded and interpreted. Coding of Rorschach responses involves describing each response in terms of location (where on the inkblot the response was perceived), determinants (what aspects
of the inkblot contribute to the response) and contents (categories of items perceived). In terms of location, a response might utilize the entire inkblot (W or whole), a commonly reported region (D) or an unusual detail (Dd) that is utilized by fewer than 5% of the normative sample. In addition to these three location codes, if a respondent incorporates the white space areas of the inkblot, an S is added to the location code (WS, DS, DdS). Determinants describe what aspects of the inkblot the respondent attended to in creating a response. For example the outline or shape of an inkblot might be the dominant contributor to one response whereas another might take into account the color or shading features of an inkblot. Each response is then scored for its conformity to the actual contours of the inkblot. Percepts that “fit” the area to which they are ascribed are seen as better integrated and connected to the reality of the blot whereas less wellfitting percepts are thought to represent greater use of internal fantasy at the expense of the real features of the stimulus. Research has shown that respondents perceive many more things in the inkblots than they report to the examiner. The selection of some percepts and rejection of others is largely a function of personality dynamics. The respondent attempts to complete the task of saying what the blot might be to the best of his or her ability according to the perceived demands of the examiner.
Relevance to Childhood Development Although the Rorschach has a long history of use with children there is some controversy over normative data for this population. A normative sample of 1,390 children aged 5–16 has been published [2] but is largely based on data collected from 1973 to 1986. More recent samples have suggested different values for some structural variables in the Comprehensive System [3], however these results have been challenged on methodological grounds [5].
References 1.
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Exner, J. E., Jr. (2003). The Rorschach: A comprehensive system: Vol. 1. Basic foundations and principles of interpretation (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Exner, J. E. (2001). A Rorschach workbook for the comprehensive system (5th ed.). Asheville, NC: Rorschach Workshops. Hamel, M., Shaffer, T. W., & Erdberg, P. (2000). A study of nonpatient preadolescent Rorschach protocols. Journal of Personality Assessment, 75, 280–294. Meyer, G. (2004). The reliability of the Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) compared to other psychological and medical procedures: An analysis of systematically gathered evidence. In M. Hersen (Editor-in-Chief), M. Hillsenroth, & D. Segal (Eds.), Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological
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Assessment: Vol. 2 Personality Assessment (pp. 315–342). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Weiner, I. B., & Greene, R. L. (2008). Handbook of personality assessment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Wood, J. M., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (1999). The Rorschach inkblot tests: A case of overstatement? Assessment, 6, 341–349.
Rorschach Inkblot Test ▶Rorschach Test
Rorschach Test STEVEN R. SMITH University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
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most salient in forming their responses. The clinician is limited in what aspects of the client’s response can be queried and the types of questions that can be asked. For example, clinicians are forbidden to use leading questions or questions that might give the client a new vocabulary for describing features of the blot.
Scoring Like all standardized psychological tests, the RIT makes use of a norms-based scoring procedure. The client’s verbal output is transcribed verbatim and this output is then scored based on several different aspects of their response. Specifically, each response is coded for location, complexity, integration, content, and use of space, color, and shading. In addition, responses can be coded for “Special Scores,” which are aspects of a client’s response that might signal cognitive slippage or psychopathology. Together, scores are summed and compared to age-matched normative samples in order to generate clinical hypotheses.
Synonyms
Norms and Psychometrics
Inkblot Test; Rorschach Inkblot Method; Rorschach Inkblot Test
Exner’s normative samples for children and adolescents are dated and some have questioned their validity with current populations. Although some other normative samples are available for child and adolescent populations, it is advisable to use the norms available in the 2003 manual. However, Meyer and Viglione [7] recommend that adjustments be made according to irregularities found between Exner’s samples and a large number of international normative samples. A number of studies have supported the reliability of the Exner system, both in terms of internal consistency and inter-rater agreement [2–10]. Validity for any test is contingent upon sample, referring question, setting, and use. The RIT has been shown to be particularly useful in the assessment of thought disorder, aggressive tendencies, personality disorder, treatment outcome, and cognitive dysfunction. Interested readers should make use of the number of recent summaries of this work; clinicians should remain abreast of the most recent research because Rorschach research is quite active at the moment.
Definition A performance-based personality assessment measure for ages five and older.
Description The Rorschach Inkblot Test (RIT) is a semi-structured, standardized, personality assessment for use with individuals 5 years and older. The RIT stimulus consists of ten inkblots; five are black-and-white (and shades of grey), two are bi-chromatic, and three are multicolored. They are presented in a standard order according to a structured administration procedure. Although several systems for administration and scoring have been used throughout the history of the test, the most common system is that of Exner [1]. Recent surveys have shown that the Rorschach is one of the most commonly used personality assessment measures by psychologists working with children and adolescents.
Domains of Assessment Administration The standardized administration consists of two steps. In the first step, the client is shown, one at a time, the ten blots and asked what the images might be. The client is allowed to respond how they see fit provided they give enough responses for scoring purposes. In the second phase, the client is shown the blots again, but asked to elaborate on what aspects or features of the blot were the
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According to available research, the RIT appears to be particularly useful for the assessment of personality and emotional functioning. Like other performance-based (projective) techniques, the Rorschach allows for the examination of spontaneously-generated behaviors that serve as in vivo demonstrations of personality or personal characteristics. The RIT appears to be particularly strong for assessing problem-solving, thinking styles, reality testing,
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and perceptual soundness. The measurement of interpersonal expectations and orientation, dependency, and aggression has been supported by research. Although research evidence exists to suggest that the RIT is effective in measuring depression and anxiety in adult samples, such evidence is less well-established with child samples.
References 1. Exner, J. E. (2003). The Rorschach: A comprehensive system (4th ed.). New York: Wiley. 2. Gronnerod, C. (2003). Temporal stability in the Rorschach method: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80, 272–293. 3. Hamel, M., Shaffer, T. W., & Erdberg, P. (2000). A study of nonpatient preadolescent Rorschach protocols. Journal of Personality Assessment, 75, 280–294. 4. Meyer, G. J., & Archer, R. P. (2001). The hard science of Rorschach research: What do we know and where do we go? Psychological Assessment, 13, 486–502. 5. Meyer, G. J., Hilsenroth, M. J., Baxter, D., Exner, J. E., Fowler, J. C., Piers, C. C., et al. (2002). An examination of interrater reliability for scoring the Rorschach comprehensive system in eight data sets. Journal of Personality Assessment, 78, 219–274. 6. Meyer, G. J., Mihura, J. L., & Smith, B. L. (2005). The interclinician reliability of Rorschach interpretation in four data sets. Journal of Personality Assessment, 84, 296–314. 7. Meyer, G. J., & Viglione, D. J. (2008). An introduction to Rorschach assessment. In R. P. Archer, & S. R. Smith (Eds.), Personality Assessment (pp. 281–336). New York: Routledge. 8. Society for Personality Assessment. (2005). The status of the Rorschach in clinical and forensic practice: An official statement by the board of trustees of the Society for Personality Assessment. Journal of Personality Assessment, 85, 219–237. 9. Viglione, D. J., & Hilsenroth, M. J. (2001). The Rorschach: Facts, fictions, and future. Psychological Assessment, 13, 452–471. 10. Viglione, D. J., & Taylor, N. (2003). Empirical support for interrater reliability of Rorschach comprehensive system scoring. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 59, 111–121.
Rorschach, Hermann EDWARD B. JENNY Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Life Dates 1884–1922
Introduction Hermann Rorschach is best known for developing the Rorschach Inkblot Test, a performance-based measure of personality dynamics. The Rorschach inkblot Method is one of the most frequently used assessment measures in clinical practice.
Educational Information Herman Rorschach was born 1884 in Zurich Switzerland. His father studied art and moved to Schaffhausen where he taught painting. Rorschach was himself recognized as a talented artist in his own right and was known for his detailed drawings of patients in their hospital charts. In 1897 Rorschach’s mother died from complications of diabetes and his father died in 1903, apparently the result of exposure to lead contained in his paints. Rorschach studied medicine at the University of Zurich from 1904 to 1909, obtaining his medical degree in 1909 and specializing in Psychiatry. In 1910 he met and married Olga Stemplin, a Russian national, lived for time in Russia and joined a lucrative practice but returned to Switzerland out of attachment for his homeland. Although he intended to return to Russia he never did.
Accomplishments Rorschach served as an assistant at the asylum in Munsterlingen from 1909 to 1913. In 1914 he served as assistant at the Waldau psychiatric hospital. His wife, who had been living with family in Moscow since late 1913 was detained and unable to return to Switzerland until 1915 as a result of wartime tensions. In 1915 Rorschach accepted the position of Assistant Director at the Herisau Asylum in Appenzell.
Contributions Inspiration for Rorschach’s inkblot test came from at least two sources. Between 1900 and 1914 the University of Zurich’s psychiatric hospital, the Burgholzli, became an active site of innovation in the humane treatment of the mentally ill. In 1898 Eugene Bleuler took over as head of the hospital and appointed Carl Jung as the assistant director. The Burgholzli became famous for its work on word association and the study of schizophrenia (then called dementia praecox). One explanation of schizophrenia arising from this work was that it was a disturbance in associational ability. A second source of inspiration came from a common parlor game at the time called Klecksographie. In this game blots of ink are applied to blank paper which is then folded over to create a symmetrical image. Players compete to name as many possible images seen in the inkblots. It is rumored that Rorschach was so enamored of this game that he earned the nickname Klex [1]. Rorschach experimented with a large number of inkblots, modifying them so as to create images that elicited complex responses from subjects. He selected ten inkblots and administered them to 288 hospital
Rosenthal Effect
patients and 117 nonpatients giving them the simple instruction “what might this be?” The results of this investigation were published in a 1921 monograph entitled Psychodiagnostics. Although commonly referred to as a projective instrument, Rorschach’s real innovation lay in his description of the manner in which respondents utilized various attributes of the inkblots to form their perceptions. In Psychodiagnostics Rorschach proposed an elegant system for coding and interpreting the limitless possible responses provided by examinees. Unfortunately, Rorschach did not live long enough to complete his work. He died in 1922 at the age of 37 from peritonitis secondary to a ruptured appendix. After Rorschach’s death the monograph languished but was kept alive by close friends of Rorschach including Emil Oberholzer who would play a role in introducing the work to American psychiatrists who came to Zurich to study.
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The Rorschach inkblot method continues to be one of the most commonly administered personality assessment instruments.
References 1.
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Exner, J. E., Jr. (2003). The Rorschach: A comprehensive system: Vol. 1. Basic foundations and principles of interpretation (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Pichot, P. (1984). Centenary of the birth of Hermann Rorschach. Journal of Personality Assessment, 48(6), 591–596. Weiner, I. B., & Greene, R. L. (2008). Handbook of personality assessment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rosenthal Effect ▶Pygmalion Effect
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Sadness ▶Cross-Culture Perspective on Bereavement Springer
Sally-Ann Task ▶False Belief Task
SAT Reasoning Test ▶Scholastic Aptitude Test
SAT-I ▶Scholastic Aptitude Test
Saturnism ▶Lead Poisoning
Sand Tray Therapy ▶Play-Group Therapy
Satz, Paul TRACEY MCLELLAN University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Sanval ▶Ambien (Zolpidem)
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis ▶Whorfian Hypothesis
Introduction Dr. Satz is an internationally-renowned clinical neuropsychologist who has devoted many years to advancing our understanding of human brain injuries and how effective therapeutic strategies can enhance recovery of function. His varied research interests also include dyslexia, learning disabilities, brain laterality and remediation in schizophrenia [1, 4].
Educational Information
Sarafem ▶Fluoxetine
Dr. Satz received his doctorate of philosophy in clinical psychology from the University of Kentucky, College of Medicine, in 1963. His dissertation on the block rotation task won the Creative Talent Award given by the American Institute of Research.
Sam Goldstein & Jack A. Naglieri (eds.), Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9, # Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2011
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Accomplishments While at the University of Florida, Dr. Satz developed the first neuropsychology research laboratory as well as the first neuropsychology clinical service. Many prominent clinical researchers have been mentored by Dr. Satz at these facilities and he also helped establish the Association of Post-Doctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology [5]. In addition, Dr. Satz was one of the early founders of the International Neuropsychology Society, helped develop Division 40 of the American Psychological Association (APA), and he was awarded the APA Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions.
Savantism ▶Idiot Savant
SB5 ▶Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales
Contributions Dr. Satz has made an invaluable contribution to the development of neuropsychology as a distinct research and professional discipline. He has been one the most productive researchers in neuropsychology as evidenced by more than 300 publications that he has authored and coauthored. Dr. Satz has also coauthored several books including The Disabled Learner, Middle Childhood: Development and Dysfunction, and Neuropsychology of Human Emotion (e.g., [2, 3]).
Current Involvement Dr. Satz is currently Professor Emeritus and Chief of the Neuropsychology program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
References 1.
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Light, R., Asarnow, R., Satz, P., Zaucha, K., McCleary, C., & Lewis, R. (1998). Mild closed-head injury in children and adolescents: Behavior problems and academic outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66(6), 1023–1029. Ozkaragoz, T., Satz, P., & Noble, E. P. (1997). Neuropsychological functioning in sons of active alcoholic, recovering alcoholic, and social drinking fathers. Alcohol, 14(1), 31–37. Satz, P., & Fletcher, J. M. (1988). Early identification of learning disabled children: an old problem revisited. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56(6), 824–829. Satz, P., Zaucha, K., McCleary, C., Light, R., Asarnow, R., & Becker, D. (1997). Mild head injury in children and adolescents: A review of studies (1970–1995). Psychological Bulletin, 122(2), 107–131. University of Florida Clinical and Health Psychology. (2008). Retrieved August 28, 2008, from http://www.neuropsyc.phhp. ufl.edu/
Savant Syndrome ▶Idiot Savant
Scaffolding BRYAN ROTELLA Niagara University, NY, USA
Synonyms Dynamic assessment; Peer-tutoring; Zone of proximal development
Definition A learning process by which interaction with another individual occurs, resulting in higher competency.
Description The term instructional scaffolding is a metaphor referencing its original meaning in construction; a temporary framework to support building. Related to instruction, scaffolding is a tool (i.e., assistance from others) for an individual to reach another level of knowledge or skill that could not have been gained without assistance. Wood, Bruner, and Ross first developed the term for pedagogical purposes, in their 1976 article, “The role of tutoring in problem solving” [6]. They described the term as a means of one on one learning through a tutoring model. This social dynamic later coined as “scaffolding” was a critical component of Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory. ZPD is a process by which a learner gains knowledge from interactions with their surroundings. Social interactions and their influence on a learner’s education are an important part of ZPD. Comparatively, the concepts of ZPD and scaffolding are both based on the assertion that the individual learner will acquire more knowledge through more dialectic interactions than they would if attempting to learn in isolation.
Schemas
In scaffolding, speech (discourse) is a critical tool and is typically thought of as facilitating intellectual growth. However, the social process of scaffolding also facilitates the development of other intrapsychological processes that promote successful learning such as motivating the student, managing frustration, and regulating attention. Scaffolding is expected to be temporary with supports (surrounding individuals who are more knowledgeable) and should move in the direction of higher competency [4]. Scaffolds (the more knowledgeable individuals) are not limited to school teachers. They can be parents, mentors, peers, tutors or anyone who will facilitate growth in a skill or ability [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development Tanner and Jones [5] showed that scaffolding in teaching styles effectively accelerated metacognitive skill development. Comparatively, in free play, children may be able to solve a problem without assistance but may not be aware of the relationship between the actions that created the solution. This suggests that there will not be a solid understanding of procedures for the solution of the task, which would result in the inability to use it for future tasks. Studies also show that scaffolding results in children becoming self-regulating and independent of adult help [1, 3].
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Scalloped Response Pattern ▶Fixed Interval Schedule
SCC ▶Standard Celeration Charting
Schema (Singular) ▶Schemas
Schemas STEPHANIE A. GROTE-GARCIA University of the Incarnate Word College of Education, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
References 1.
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Coltman, P., Petyaeva, D., & Anghileri, J. (2002). Scaffolding learning through meaningful tasks and adult interaction. Early Years, 22, 39–49. Davis, E., & Miyake, N. (2004). Explorations of scaffolding in complex classroom systems. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(3), 265–272. Gallimore, R., & Tharp, R. (1990). Teaching mind and society: teaching schooling and literate discourse. In L. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education. Cambridge: CUP. Stone, A. C. (1998). The Metaphor of Scaffolding: Its Utility for the Field of Learning Disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31(4), 344–364. Tanner, H., & Jones, S. (2000). Scaffolding for success: Reactive discourse and the effective teaching of mathematical thinking skills. In T. Rowland & C. Morgan (Eds.), Research in mathematics education (Vol. 2). London: BSRLM. Wood, D. J., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychiatry, 17, 89–100.
Scale Scores ▶Norm-Referenced Scores
Synonyms Schema (singular); Schemata
Definition Schemas refer to theoretical mental structures that assist individuals in simplifying and organizing knowledge. Phrases used to describe schemas have included the following: mental frames, global knowledge structures, building blocks of cognition, organized knowledge of the world, organized memory structures, and packaged units of knowledge.
Description Included in schemas are the prior experiences, established knowledge, and abstract representations of events, objects, and relationships in the world of an individual. An individual’s schemas tend to influence what he or she perceives, understands, infers, remembers, and comprehends. The schemas of an individual are not stagnant. As an individual lives through different experiences and gains additional knowledge, his or her schemas continue to develop. Similarly, the more experience and knowledge
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an individual can add to a particular schema, the more complex that schema becomes. For example, due to the magnitude of their experiences, professional-culinary chefs hold a more complex schema for cooking gourmet meals than do inexperienced cooks.
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Kant, E. (1963). Critique of pure reason (1st ed., 1781; 2nd ed., 1787, trans: Smith, N.K.) London: Macmillan. Kelly, G. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs (Vols. 1 and 2). New York: Norton.
Relevance to Childhood Development The term “schema” is significant to the field of childhood development because it has influenced learning theories, teaching methods, and curriculum design. Two lines of work associated with childhood development and influenced by the notion of schemas are cognitive constructivism and cognitive-developmental constructivism. These two theoretical lines of work share the idea that individuals generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences. They have also been associated with the ideas of Jean Piaget [1] who focused on child-centered learning. Piaget’s belief in child-centered learning was directly related to the theoretical idea of schemas. In addition to learning and remembering, schemas have also been linked to achievement in reading comprehension [2, 3]. A reader is able to comprehend at a higher level when he or she has a well-developed schema that relates to the content being read. In addition, a reader with schemas that are less complex is likely to find the reading selection to be difficult to comprehend. The relationship between prior knowledge and reading comprehension is explored within the realms of schema theory, which is associated with Rumelhart [3]. Not only has the idea of schemas influenced learning theories, it has also assisted in designing effective teaching methods and learner-centered curriculum. With these multiple areas of influence, it is clear that the theoretical idea of schemas has played an important role in child development.
References 1.
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Piaget, J. (1928). Judgment and reasoning in the child (trans: Warden, M.). New York: Harcourt Brace (Original work published in French 1924). Anderson, R. C. (1984). Role of the reader’s schema in comprehension, learning, and memory. In R. C. Anderson, J. Osborn, & R. J. Tierney (Eds.), Learning to read in American schools: basal readers and content texts (pp. 243–257). Philadelphia: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rumelhart, D. E. (1980). Schemata: the building blocks of cognition. In R. J. Spiro, B. C. Bruce, & W. F. Brewer (Eds.), Theoretical issues in reading comprehension (pp. 33–49). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Goodman, N. (1978). Ways of worldmaking. Indianapolis: Hackett. Head, H. (1926). Aphasia and kindred disorders of speech. New York: Macmillan.
Schemata ▶Schemas
Schizophrenia STEVEN L. PROCTOR Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Synonyms Childhood schizophrenia
Definition Schizophrenia is a chronic and debilitating psychiatric illness that represents a profound disruption of the most fundamental human attributes which include, emotion, language, thought, and perception.
Description The term schizophrenia was first coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler in 1908 following psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin’s distinction between what he called “dementia praecox” and other forms of madness. The term schizophrenia comes from the Greek words schizo (split) and phrenos (mind) [2]. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a mental illness in which component processes are in a state of dysregulation. These processes include neurotransmitter systems, attention and memory, formation of beliefs and abstract thinking, and performing behavioral activities in a socially meaningful context. Schizophrenia is characterized by impairments in social functioning (e.g., work, home, school) and difficulties in caring for oneself (e.g., poor hygiene). In addition to problems in daily living, individuals with schizophrenia experience a wide range of symptoms including positive symptoms, negative symptoms, cognitive impairments, and problems dealing with the regulation of mood. Positive symptoms refer to features which are present or added
Scholastic Achievement Test
to an individual’s typical presentation (e.g., delusions; hallucinations; bizarre, disorganized behaviors). Delusions, in particular, can be broken down into smaller subsets; persecutory delusions, delusions of being controlled, thought broadcasting, thought insertion, thought withdrawal, delusions of guilt or sin, somatic delusions, and grandiose delusions. Negative symptoms refer to features which are absent or taken away from an individual’s typical presentation (e.g., alogia, avolition, psychomotor retardation, flattened affect, anhedonia). Positive symptoms appear to be more responsive to psychopharmacological treatment whereas negative symptoms tend to be more treatment-resistant and follow a more chronic and stable course. Cognitive impairments include difficulties with memory, planning, and abstract thinking, while problems dealing with the regulation of mood include depression, anxiety, and anger [1]. Schizophrenia has been observed across a wide range of different populations and cultures with prevalence rates among adults ranging from 0.5 to 1.5% [1]. The onset of schizophrenia typically occurs between late adolescence and early adulthood. Schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency although men typically present earlier (between 18 and 25) than women (between 25 and the mid-30s). Studies suggest that urban-born individuals are at an elevated risk of a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia compared with rural-born individuals [2]. Although rare, the onset of schizophrenia may also begin later in life (e.g., after age 45). For this particular cohort, the proportion of affected women is significantly greater than that of men. The risk for schizophrenia of first-degree biological relatives of individuals with schizophrenia is 10 times greater than that of the general population [1]. The course and prognosis of schizophrenia follows the “Law of 1/3’s” which states that about one third of people have nearly complete remission with only mild relapses and little disruption to their daily lives, one third has a variable pattern of symptom exacerbation with more interruption to daily functioning, and the final third has chronic symptoms that impair most aspects of daily life. The life expectancy of individuals with schizophrenia is shorter than that of the general population due in most part to suicide. Approximately 10% of individuals with schizophrenia commit suicide and between 20 and 40% make at least one attempt over the course of the illness [1]. Currently, treatments in schizophrenia are not viewed as a “cure” for the illness, but rather as strategies which help manage the illness and minimize disruption in life. Psychiatric rehabilitation has emerged as an approach to organizing a diversity of treatments for the purpose of
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overcoming disabilities [2]. Psychiatric rehabilitation efforts, in general, target multiple levels of functioning to optimize treatment outcome and prevent relapse.
Relevance to Childhood Development The essential features of schizophrenia are the same in children as they are for adults, although a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia may be particularly difficult to make for this age group. Delusions and hallucinations may be far less elaborate in children than in adults and visual hallucinations may be more common. The presence of disorganized speech may also present complications in assigning a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia in children. A number of childhood disorders possess symptoms comparable to those of disorganized speech (e.g., Communication Disorders, Pervasive Developmental Disorders) as well as disorganized behavior (e.g., Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) [1]. These symptoms should not be attributed to schizophrenia without further consideration of these more common childhood disorders.
References 1.
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Combs, D. R., & Mueser, K. T. (2007). Schizophrenia. In M. Hersen, S. M. Turner, & D. C. Beidel (Eds.), Adult psychopathology and diagnosis (5th ed., pp. 234–285). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Schizophrenia Spectrum disorders ▶Childhood Schizophrenia
Scholastic ▶Academic Achievement
Scholastic Achievement Test ▶Scholastic Aptitude Test
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SAT DANIEL PATANELLA New York City Department of Education, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms SAT-I; SAT reasoning test; Scholastic achievement test; Scholastic aptitude test; Scholastic assessment test
Definition The SAT is a standardized, high-stakes college entrance examination widely taken by students throughout the United States. It consists of three distinct parts: a mostly multiple-choice verbal section, a multiple-choice mathematics section and, as of 2005, an essay section.
Description The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized, high-stakes college entrance examination widely taken by students throughout the United States. It is nearly a century old, being first administered in 1926 and initially largely developed by Carl Campbell Brigham (1890–1943) who had earlier worked on the Army Alpha and Beta intelligence tests. The test itself was originated for and is owned by the College Entrance Examination Board, and is administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The chief rival of the College Board is American College Testing, who publishes the ACT test; traditionally the SAT was taken primarily by students on either coast of the United States and the ACT was taken by Midwesterners. Until 1990, the SAT was known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test; between 1990 and 1993, the test was known as the Scholastic Achievement Test. Currently, the College Board does not attach any official meaning behind the acronym “SAT” although the test is still sometimes referred to by an earlier name such as the Scholastic Achievement Test in the research literature. The SAT Reasoning Test stands apart from the various SAT subject tests that are also offered by the College Board. Neither the College Board nor ETS describe the SAT as an intelligence test, although research does indicate high correlations between SAT scores and overall general intelligence or g. The College Board currently describes the SAT Reasoning Test as an assessment of critical thinking skills. Since the 1960s, the College Board has released descriptive data on every SAT as a public service, which has led some researchers to use SAT scores as an estimate of the quality of overall high school education throughout the United
States; this unintended use may not be valid. Regardless, both the College Board’s research and research done in academia agree that the SAT is a predictor of college grade point average, making the SAT a heavily-weighed factor in most admissions processes. The new SAT Reasoning Test’s predictive ability is about the same as the older versions. The current version of the SAT Reasoning Test contains three components, each worth between 200 and 800 points, and with a mean of about 500. Each of those components, in turn, consists of three sections. There is also an unscored section consisting of new items that are being piloted for potential future use. Thus, the final SAT score ranges from 600 to 2,400, based on the nine scored sections of the test. Aside from the first and last sections of the test, the sequence of the remaining sections is jumbled. The SAT is a timed test, taking a total of three-and-threequarters-of-an-hour for the student to complete (not counting time spent receiving instructions). Students within the United States and its territories may take the SAT at seven different times of the year, whereas students elsewhere may take it at six different times. The critical reading section of the current SAT replaces what was formerly known as the verbal section of the test, and is largely concerned with answering questions based on reading passages instead of the analogy-type questions that used to appear on the SAT. The mathematics section of the current SAT includes higher-level questions than did the older SAT, which did not require more than basic algebra, and omits the quantitative comparison-type questions in favor of more straightforward items. The writing section of the current SAT is similar to the old SAT writing subject test and consists of both an extended essay as well as multiple choice items directed toward issues related to fluent writing and revision techniques. The essay topic itself is broad enough to be accessible to the widest possible variety of students’ socioeconomic background and, in fact, many of the changes made to the SAT Reasoning Test in general seem to reduce the possibility of ethnic and racial bias that some researchers reported in earlier editions. As colleges overall expanded their pools of applicants and the demographics of the average group of students taking the SAT changed, the average SAT score declined from the 1960s to the 1980s. This decline, coupled with concerns over the thresholds needed for admission to select colleges, has partially led to two distinct trends. The first is the rise of the test-prep program; companies such as the Princeton Review and Kaplan offer courses which, some research shows, increase students’ scores on tests like the SAT. The second is the trend within some
School Climate
mostly liberal arts schools to diminish the importance of SATscores in favor of high school grade point averages and other, more subjective, criteria.
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Scholarship ▶Literacy
Relevance to Childhood Development The SAT has provided a rite-of-passage for generations of American adolescents as they prepare to transition to an adult life beyond their high school experience. Given its status as a rigorously designed standardized test developed by a premier testing company, the SAT was (and still is) a key component to acceptance into competitive college programs and thus the results of the test are extremely high-stakes. Long before the standardized testing boom that emerged in response to the No Child Left Behind act, both the SAT and the stress accompanying preparation for it, were well known to both parents and children. As perhaps the highest-profile standardized test taken by the greatest number of Americans, the literature concerning the SATexemplifies the strengths, weaknesses, and controversies surrounding standardized educational tests.
School Adjustment ▶School Readiness
School Climate MICHAEL BLOCK Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Synonyms Acknowledgement This work represents the scholarship of the author and does not imply any official position of the New York City Department of Education.
References 1. 2.
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Breland, H. M. (1979). Population validity and college entrance measures. New York: College Entrance Examination Board. Bridgeman, B., McCamley-Jenkins, L., & Ervin, N. (2000). Predictions of freshman grade-point average from the revised and recentered SAT I: Reasoning test, Research Report 2000–1. New York: College Entrance Examination Board. College Board (2009). Official SAT reasoning test page. Accessed Jan 11, 2009, from http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/ about/SATI.html Crouse, J., & Trusheim, D. (1988). The case against the SAT. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Frey, M. C., & Detterman, D. K. (2004). Scholastic assessment or g? The relationship between the scholastic assessment test and general cognitive ability. Psychological Science, 15, 373–378. Grissmer, D. W. (2000). The continuing use and misuse of SAT scores. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 6, 223–232. Messick, S., & Jungeblut, A. (1981). Time and method in coaching for the SAT. Psychological Bulletin, 89, 191–216. Wilson, K. M. (1983). A review of research on the prediction of academic performance after the freshman year. New York: College Entrance Examination Board.
Scholastic Assessment Test ▶Scholastic Aptitude Test
Classroom climate; School culture
Definition School climate is often referred to as the social atmosphere of a setting or learning environment in which students have different experiences, depending upon the protocols set up by the teachers and administrators.
Description There are many key components that make for a positive school climate. It may be described as an orderly environment in which the school family feels valued and able to pursue the school’s mission free from concerns about disruptions and safety. Providing a caring and safe atmosphere are two essential factors that are often mentioned. Research on school climate often indicates several environmental conditions as being critical in establishing a positive school climate. These include the following: ● A physical environment that is welcoming and conducive to learning ● A social environment that promotes communication and interaction ● An affective environment that promotes a sense of belonging and self-esteem ● An academic environment that promotes learning and self-fulfillment Research shows that school climate can affect many areas and people within schools. For example, a positive school
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climate has been associated with fewer behavioral and emotional problems for students. Additionally, specific research on school climate in high-risk urban environments indicates that a positive, supportive, and culturally conscious school climate can significantly shape the degree of academic success experienced by students. Furthermore, researchers have found that positive school climate perceptions may supply high-risk students with a supportive learning environment yielding healthy development, as well as preventing antisocial behavior. School climate research suggests that positive interpersonal relationships and optimal learning opportunities for students in all demographic environments can increase achievement levels and reduce maladaptive behavior. Regarding the roles of teachers and administrators, it has been found that a positive school climate is associated with increased job satisfaction for school personnel. Finally, student perspectives are important during the transition from one school level to another. Attending a new school can be frightening for students and this apprehension can adversely affect students’ perceptions of their school’s climate and learning outcomes. Therefore, research has shown that providing a positive and supportive school climate for students is important for a smooth and easy transition to a new school. Educators and parents have multiple options to enhance school climate and students’ overall educational experience. The following is a sample list of possible interventions to improve school climate: ● Increased parent and community involvement ● Implementation of character education or the promotion of fundamental moral values in children ● Use of violence-prevention and conflict-resolution curricula ● Peer mediation ● Prevention of acts of bullying ● Teachers and principals treat students fairly, equally and with respect ● Implementing programs that encourage a safe environment for staff and students ● Personalization through adopt-a-kid programs, honoring most-improved students, and block scheduling Many researchers have developed measures of school climate. Examining these measures and the attributes specifically assessed provides further detail into the nature of school climate. These assessments consider multiple factors and individuals within the school system using direct measures, such as surveys and interviews, and indirect measures, such as disciplinary and attendance records The School Climate Survey contains seven dimensions of
school climate and specifically assesses students’ perceptions in the following areas: ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Achievement motivation Fairness Order and discipline Parent involvement Sharing of resources Student interpersonal relationships Student–teacher relationships
The Charles F. Kettering Ltd. (CFK) School Climate Profile is also widely used to measure school climate. This survey is comprised of four sections and is given to teachers, administrators, and students. Part A, the General Climate Factors, is comprised of the following eight subscales [9]: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Respect Trust High morale Opportunity for input Continuous academic & social growth Cohesiveness School renewal Caring
Relevance to Childhood Development School culture and school climate are useful terms for the intangibles that can affect learning. As such, they deserve serious attention in the effort to improve performance. Comprehensive models that have been developed for school reform have invariably included change in school culture and school climate.
References 1. Freiberg, H. J. (1998). Measuring school climate: Let me count the ways. Educational Leadership, 56(1), 22–26. 2. Halpin, A. W., & Croft, D. B. (1963). The organizational climate of schools. Chicago: Midwest Administration Center of the University of Chicago. 3. Hanna, J. W. (1998). School climate: Changing fear to fun. Contemporary Education, 69(2), 83. 4. Harris, S. L., & Lowery, S. (2002). A view from the classroom. Educational Leadership, 59(8), 64–65. 5. Haynes, N. M. (1998). Creating safe and caring school communities: Comer school development program schools. Journal of Negro Education, 65, 308–314. 6. Haynes, N. M., & Comer, J. P. (1993). The Yale school development program process, outcomes, and policy implications. Urban Education, 28(2), 166–199. 7. Haynes, N. M., Emmons, C., & Comer, J. P. (1993). Elementary and middle school climate survey. New Haven, CT: Yale University Child Study Center. 8. Hoy, W. K., Smith, P. A., & Sweetland, S. R. (2002). The development of the organizational climate index for high schools: Its measure
School Dropout and relationship to faculty trust. The High School Journal, 86(2), 38–49. 9. Johnson, W. L., & Johnson, M. (1993). Validity of the quality of school life scale: A primary and second-order factor analysis. Educational & Psychological Measurement, 53(1), 145–153. 10. Moos, R. H. (1979). Evaluating educational environments: Procedures, measures, findings, and policy implications. San Francisco: JosseyBass.
School Culture ▶School Climate
School Dropout LATOYA S. STEWART, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
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receive public assistance, and be imprisoned [7]. Given the prevalence and negative consequences of school dropout, legislation such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was put in place to hold schools accountable for student achievement and success. NCLB requires all school districts to provide a yearly report of students’ performance and statewide assessments as well as school dropout and graduation rates. Individuals usually decide to drop out of school by tenth grade when they are at the age of 16 to legally make that choice. Numerous risk factors involving the individual student, student’s family, school, and community typically result in the decision to leave school. Such risk factors may be placed in three broad categories: (1) social background including factors such as race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status [SES], family structure, and inner-city residence; (2) academic background including factors such as ability, test scores, history of grade retention, school engagement, school grades, course failures, truancy, and behavioral problems; and (3) school characteristics including structure and school social organization [9].
Synonyms
Social Background
School leaving
School dropouts are more likely to be boys than girls, and more likely to be individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups, low-income families, single-parent households, highly stressful (e.g., divorce, death, marriage) households, born to teenage mothers, and from families in which one or both parents also did not complete high school [10]. Among these factors, parents’ educational level seems to have the most consistent effect on school dropout. Specifically, low parent educational level seems to increase the likelihood of school dropout because such parents are less likely to be able to teach their children basic prerequisite skills for learning. Children who start school without the basic skills for learning tend to perform poorly in school. Low academic achievement tends to increase students’ alienation from school, leading to absenteeism, which in turn increases the risk for school dropout [12].
Definition School dropout is defined as leaving school without a high school diploma.
Description School dropout is of great concern in the United States as a significant number of students leave before earning a diploma. Current estimates place the overall dropout rate at 9.4% [14]. This estimate is even higher among students with disabilities, as well as low income and ethnic minority students [8]. For example, in 2000–2001, 41.1% of students age 14 and older with disabilities dropped out of school [13]. Low income students are more than twice as likely to leave school early when compared to middle-income students and about ten times more likely than students from high-income families [4]. In 2005, the dropout rates for Hispanic and African-American students were 22.1% and 10.4%, respectively [14]. Compared with individuals who complete high school, dropouts have fewer employment opportunities and, if employed, earn significantly less [3]. Further, school dropout negatively affects the economy, as billions are spent on welfare, unemployment, and crime prevention to support school dropouts who are more likely to be unemployed,
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Academic Background Poor academic achievement is one of the strongest predictors of school dropout. Specifically, students who eventually drop out of school typically have a history of failing courses, receiving low grades even as early as the first grade, taking lower level courses in middle and high school, being retained at least one year and receiving special education services. They also typically have
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a history of behavioral problems, low engagement in classroom via frequent absences, lack of classroom participation, inattention, and disengagement in school functions and extracurricular activities [5].
School Characteristics The school’s structure and social organization have been linked to school dropout. Schools are organized in a way that “push” out some types of students, particularly those who manifest the social and academic characteristics mentioned above [9]. School structure, which includes sector and enrollment, is an important factor related to school dropout. For example, private schools (e.g., Catholic schools) and schools with smaller student population have been found to have lower rates of school dropout than public and urban schools [11] as the former are often described as more favorable learning environments for students. Interviews with individuals who have dropped out of high school revealed that a large number often leave school due to negative relationships with teachers and/or peers; they believe their teachers do not care about them or their progress in school, and are unwilling to support them when problems arise [5]. Among the various characteristics within the three broad categories associated with school dropout, poor academic performance, low SES, and behavioral problems seem to be the three main risk factors [10]. Further, the combination of two or more risk factors increases the likelihood of school dropout [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development School dropout is a serious problem that has profound consequences for the individual student, the school system, the community, and society at large. The decision to leave school does not happen overnight and is often the end product of a combination of multiple social, academic, and school risk factors that begin early in life [2]. Some risk factors are present as early as the first grade (e.g., receiving low grades, behavior problems, receiving special education services), while others are present even before school enrollment (e.g., single-parent households, low parent educational level, poverty, and ethnicity). Therefore, prevention and intervention programs across different settings (i.e., school, family/home, and community) targeting school dropout risk factors should be in place from early childhood and sustained throughout the school years, in order to prevent and reduce the likelihood of school dropout in later years. Some school-level programs that have been advocated include: (1) eliminating grade retention; (2) individualizing school programs to meet
students’ needs; (3) providing counseling services; (4) providing supportive learning environments that allow students the opportunity to be successful; and (5) providing a balance of academic and extracurricular activities [6, 10].
References 1. Alexander, K. L., Entwistle, D. R., & Kabbani, N. S. (2001). The dropout process in life course perspective: Early risk factors at home and school. Teachers College Record, 103, 760–822. 2. Christenson, S. L., & Thurlow, M. L. (2004). School dropouts: Prevention considerations, interventions, and challenges. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 36–39. 3. Christle, C. A., Jolivette, K., & Nelson, C. M. (2007). School characteristics related to high school dropout rates. Remedial and Special Education, 28, 325–339. 4. Coalition for Juvenile Justice. (2001). Abandoned in the back row: New lessons in education and education and delinquency prevention. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from http://juvjustice.org/resource_122. html 5. Croninger, R. G., & Lee, V. E. (2001). Social capital and dropping out of high school: Benefits to at-risk students of teachers’ support and guidance. Teachers College Record, 103, 548–581. 6. Janosz, M., LeBlanc, M., Boulerice, B., & Tremblay, R. E. (2000). Predicting different types of school dropouts: A typological approach with two longitudinal samples. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 171–190. 7. Kaufman, P., Alt, M. N., & Chapman, C. D. (2001). Dropout rates in the United States: 2000 (No. NCES 2002-114). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education. 8. Kemp, S. E. (2006). Dropout policies and trends for students with and without disabilities. Adolescence, 41, 235–250. 9. Lee, V. E., & Burkham, D. T. (2003). Dropping out of high school: The role of school organization and structure. American Educational Research Journal, 40, 353–393. 10. Rumberger, R. W. (1987). High school dropouts: A review of issues and evidence. Review of Educational Research, 57, 101–112. 11. Rumberger, R. W., & Thomas, S. L. (2000). The distribution of dropout and turnover rates among urban and suburban high schools. Sociology of Education, 73, 39–67. 12. Suh, S., & Suh, J. (2007). Risk factors and levels of risk for high school dropouts. Professional School Counseling, 10, 297–306. 13. U.S. Department of Education. (2003). Twenty-fifth annual report to congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/ about/reports/annual/osep/2003/25th-vol-1-sec-1.pdf 14. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2007). Dropout rates in the United States: 2005, NCES 2007059. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/ 2007059.pdf
School Leaving ▶School Dropout
School Psychology 3.
School Performance/Achievement ▶Academic Achievement
School Psychologist
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Ysseldyke, J., Burns, M., Dawson, P., Kelley, B., Morrison, D., Ortiz, S., et al. (2008). The blueprint for training and practice as the basis for best practices. In A. Thomas, & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V, Vol. 1 (pp. 37–69). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.
School Psychology
JACKIE KIBLER University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
KATHERINE R. KROHN University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
Definition
Definition
A psychologist trained in psychology and education whose aim is to enhance the potential of children.
School psychology is a field of study and professional practice focusing on the educational and psychological needs of children, youth, and families. Although closely related to many other fields such as clinical and counseling psychology, developmental psychology, applied behavior analysis, special education, education, and school counseling, school psychology is a unique discipline. It requires training in child development, learning, behavior, motivation, and mental health, to name a few, as well as in the assessment, consultation, and intervention of these domains.
Description School psychologists are professionals who have completed graduate study in the areas of psychology and education. The training of school psychologists is guided by Blueprint III, a statement on the training and practice of school psychologists developed by leading experts in the field [3]. The field of school psychology works to enhance the academic, emotional, and social potential of children [2]. School psychologists assist with the development and implementation of prevention and intervention efforts for children. School psychologists use consultation and assessment measures to assist in these efforts. Many times school psychologists are employed to work within schools to accomplish these goals. However, school psychologists may work in other settings such as hospitals, health centers, private practice, and university settings. School psychologists work with educators, parents, community advocates, school administrators and others to enhance the learning environment for students. The National Association of School Psychologists is the professional organization for the field of school psychology. Division 16, the Division of School Psychology, of the American Psychological Association has also helped to develop the profession of school psychology through research activities and advocacy. Both organizations have developed a code of ethics to help guide the profession [1].
References 1. 2.
Jacob, S., & Hartshorne, T. S. (2007). Ethics and law for school psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. National Association of School Psychologists (2003). Who are school psychologists? Retrieved August 20, 2008, from http://www. nasponline.org/about_sp/whatis.aspx
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Description School psychology is a relatively young field that is rooted in child development, clinical psychology, and special education. The origin of school psychology is generally traced to Lightner Witmer’s establishment of the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896. However, development and use of the terms school psychology and school psychologist did not emerge until approximately two decades later when Arnold Gesell was first appointed to the position of school psychologist [1]. The first comprehensive picture of the field was assembled at the Thayer Conference of 1954, during which the training, credentialing, and practice of school psychology were delineated [3]. Descriptions of and practices within the field have evolved substantially, accompanying economic, social, and legal impetus. Currently, the two most influential bodies in the field are the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the Division of School Psychology (Division 16) of the American Psychological Association (APA). With clear ties to both psychology and education, APA and NASP have similar descriptions for the profession of school psychology. Both emphasize concern for the development, mental health, and education of children and
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adolescents; collaboration and consultation with parents, educators, and other professionals; and the provision of services within the context of educational settings, although school psychologists are not limited to those settings [3]. However, NASP and APA currently disagree on the minimum requirements for becoming a school psychologist, with the former advocating a specialist degree and the latter a doctorate degree. Additionally, APA regards school psychology as a specialty within the broader field of psychology rather than as a separate profession. This distinction is reflected in the beginning of APA’s archival definition of school psychology found on their website: “a general practice and health service provider specialty of professional psychology that is concerned with the science and practice of psychology with children, youth, families; learners of all ages; and the schooling process.” Another approach to defining the field of school psychology is to examine the roles and responsibilities of a school psychologist. According to NASP, the major roles assumed by most school psychologists include consultation, evaluation, intervention, prevention activities, research, and planning. School psychologists collaborate with parents, educators, administrators, and other service providers in order to develop interventions for particular student problems and to strengthen communication and relationships between all parties involved. Assessments are conducted in order to evaluate eligibility for special education services, current academic skills (e.g., achievement testing, curriculum-based testing), aptitude for learning (e.g., intelligence testing), behavioral and social-emotional status, and school and classroom environments. Assessment results are linked to appropriate interventions, which may be designed for individual students, groups of students, or families. Interventions may involve counseling, crisis responses, implementation of behavior management plans, and the allocation of more intensive and individualized academic support. Preventive efforts largely center on the delivery of training to parents and school personnel, the development of programs to improve the physical and psychological health and safety of students, and the effectiveness and efficiency of instructional delivery. Specific responsibilities of school psychologists vary widely and depend on a number of factors: where school psychologists work, academic preparation and specialization, degree (e.g., specialist versus doctorate) and licensure obtainment, size and location of the employment setting, and state laws governing educational practices and services. Although the majority of school psychologists work in public and private school districts, many are
also employed in clinics and hospitals, universities, residential settings, and private practice. Some responsibilities performed by school psychologists working in school districts (e.g., serving on Individualized Education Plan team meetings) are not likely to be performed in other settings. Academic preparation (e.g., extent of counseling focus), specialization in a particular area of study (e.g., autism, behavior disorders), and the obtainment of a certain degree or license may impact a school psychologist’s employment setting and job description. For example, a doctorate degree is the minimal requirement for employment in private practice. School psychology practices are guided by federal legislation, state legislation, and case law; thus, variability exists between states. All school psychologists are impacted by a prominent federal special education legislation known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), among others, although states may make even more stringent requirements as they are permitted some flexibility in how they implement the federally mandated services. For example, IDEIA requires that assessments be conducted in a multifaceted, multiinformant, and nondiscriminatory nature, yet school districts differ in their current assessment practices for identifying learning disabilities (i.e., some administer traditional standardized testing while others use brief, repeated measures of performance to monitor students’ responsiveness to appropriate and increasingly intensive interventions). Differentiating school psychology from related fields in education and psychology is particularly important due to overlap that exists between services provided and academic preparation, as well as the widespread tendency to equate school psychology with school counseling. Compared to school counselors, school psychologists tend to receive more training in individual assessment methods and intervention techniques, have historically focused more on students with disabilities, and often have more schools and larger numbers of students to serve. Although the terms educational psychology and school psychology are sometimes used interchangeably, they have separate divisions within APA (15 and 16, respectively), with the former placing a greater emphasis on research and the latter on applied practice. School psychology programs are often found in university departments of education, although occasionally they are enveloped in psychology departments. School, clinical, and counseling psychology are collectively considered the three health care areas of professional psychology, all of which can lead to the title of board-licensed psychologist. Despite the similar focus on working with children, adolescents, and families, clinical
School Readiness
and counseling psychology generally do not prioritize school and educational issues. Changes in the field of school psychology are continually occurring, enhancing the effectiveness of the field by identifying demands on the profession and assessing the current ability to meet those demands. One major trend is the shift from the focus on assessment practices for purposes of identifying students for special education eligibility (leading to school psychologists being described as “gatekeepers” to special education services) to a tieredmodel of preventive service delivery. Specifically, primary prevention activities (directed at entire classes, schools, or districts), or at least secondary prevention activities (i.e., early identification and intervention of academic, social, and emotional issues), are being stressed to reduce the need for more individualized, intensive, costly, and potentially stigmatizing interventions later [5]. Also, the emphasis on training culturally and linguistically diverse school psychologists, or at least preparing psychologists that are knowledgeable and sensitive to cultural issues that impact child development, family functioning, and academic skill acquisition, continues to increase, especially in response to the growing population of students who are bilingual and monolingual enrolling in public schools in the United States. As Reschly and Ysseldyke [4] contend, “the past is not the future” for school psychology, especially considering the current paradigm shift toward increased problem-solving, accountability, and practices designed to make improvements in the lives of children rather than mere predictions. Substantial changes are expected to occur on an international level, considering that school psychology is still in its infancy in many countries [2].
References 1.
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Fagan, T. K., & Wise, P. S. (2000). School psychology: Past, present and future (2nd ed.). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Farrell, P. T., Jimerson, S. R., & Oakland, T. D. (2007). School psychology internationally: A synthesis of findings. In S. R. Jimerson, T. D. Oakland, & P. T. Farrell (Eds.), The handbook of international school psychology (pp. 501–509). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Merrell, K. W., Ervin, R. A., & Gimpel, G. A. (2006). School psychology for the 21st century: Foundations and practices. New York: The Guilford Press. Reschly, D. J., & Ysseldyke, J. E. (2002). Paradigm shift: The past is not the future. In A. Thomas, & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology IV (pp. 3–20). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists Publications. Barringer, M., & Saenz, A. (2007). Promoting positive school environments: A career in school psychology. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Career paths in school psychology: Where your degree can take you. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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School Readiness STACY L. BENDER, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms Academic readiness; School adjustment; School transition
Definition School readiness refers to the competencies a child possesses upon school entry that are essential to academic and social development.
Description School readiness has been emphasized as early as 1836, after compulsory education laws were passed which mandated all children to attend formal education. During the past 40 years, there has been an increase in early childhood programs as well as research literature investigating school readiness. Programs began to foster and teach academic and social skills that are necessary for all children to develop in order to succeed in school. During this time, early childhood programs were targeted at low-income children in hopes of enhancing their development through educational, health, and family services. The rising concern and awareness of the importance of young children entering school with adequate skills have been a result of initiatives and policies such as the National Education Goals (2000), the National School Readiness Indicators Initiative (2004), and the reauthorization of the School Readiness Act (2005). These policies support individual success of young children around the country and require quality standards for early childhood programs. Although school readiness has varied definitions, five areas of development are considered to be the most significant domains of a young child and should be assessed by educators and families upon school entry: (1) physical well-being and motor development, (2) social and emotional development, (3) approaches to learning, (4) language development, and (5) cognitive development and general knowledge. Physical well-being and motor development include the child’s physical health status, disabilities, and motor abilities, such as gross and fine motor skills. Social and emotional development refers to the child’s ability to interact appropriately with others and self-regulate their emotions and behaviors. This type of development allows the child to interpret and express their own feelings as well as understand feelings of other people. Approaches to
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learning refer to the child’s utilization of skills and knowledge, such as persistence and enthusiasm as well as the learning styles and habits a child uses to approach learning. Language development refers to the child’s communication skills, such as speaking, and the beginning stages of literacy, such as print awareness and letter-sound associations. Lastly, cognitive development and general knowledge relate to the child’s ability to develop thinking and problem solving skills which includes mathematical knowledge and imagination. All of these domains are considered complementary to one another and are taken together in order to understand how the child is developing.
Relevance to Childhood Development The first five years of childhood are vital to development. Children are exposed to many experiences and environments, which set the stage for future development and learning opportunities. These experiences also shape the brain development of the child, given the rapid brain growth and neuronal connections during these years. Therefore, it is important to provide early opportunities for children to develop academic and social skills that will assist them to become ready for school. In addition to schools, children’s families and communities help prepare them for school entry by providing enriched environments which support the child’s development in the physical, social, emotional, language, literacy, and cognitive domains. Researchers have investigated children attending highquality early childhood education programs (e.g. Pre-Kindergarten) and have found various benefits. These include increased cognitive and language development, increased reading and math achievement, and the promotion of social and behavioral skills in children. These skills, when present at school entry, are likely to have positive, longterm effects which persist into elementary school and are strongly correlated with later skills. Low-income children, who are typically considered to have unfavorable educational outcomes, also benefit from attending high-quality early childhood education programs. These programs build a strong foundation of learning and teach necessary skills for school entry.
References 1. Arndt, J. S., & McGuire-Schwartz, M. E. (2008). Early childhood school success: Recognizing families as integral partners. Childhood Education, 84, 281–286. 2. Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A. C., Klebanov, P., et al. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1428–1446. 3. Groark, C., Mehaffie, K. E., McCall, R. B., & Greenberg, M. T. (Eds.) (2007). Evidence-based practices and programs for early childhood care and education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
4. Howes, C., Burchinal, M., Pianta, R., Bryant, D., Early, D., Clifford, R., et al. (2008). Ready to learn? Children’s pre-academic achievement in pre-kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 27–50. 5. Laverick, D. M. (2007). Starting school: Welcoming young children and families into early school experiences. Early Childhood Education, 35, 321–326. 6. National Association for the Education of Young Children. (NAEYC) (2008). Retrieved September 17, 2008, from http://www.naeyc.org/ 7. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (NICHD) (2008). Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://www. nichd.nih.gov/ 8. Snow, K. L. (2006). Measuring school readiness: Conceptual and practical consideration. Early Education and Development, 17, 7–41. 9. United States Department of Education. (2008). Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://www.ed.gov/programs/earlyreading/faq. html 10. Winter, S. M., & Kelley, M. F. (2008). Forty years of school readiness research: What have we learned? Childhood Education, 84, 260–266.
School Situations Questionnaire ▶Barkley School Situations Questionnaire
School Transition ▶School Readiness
School-Entry Skills ▶Learning Readiness
Scop-Dex (Mixture with Scopolamine) ▶Dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine, Dextrostat)
Second Generation Antipsychotics ▶Atypical Neuroleptics
Secular Trends
Secondary Encopresis ▶Encopresis
Secondary Process ▶Reality Principle
Secondary Reinforcement ▶Token Economies
Second-Culture Acquisition ▶Cultural Assimilation Model
Secular Trends ROBERT SEAN BANNON Emporia State University, Emporia, KS, USA
Definitions Marked changes in physical development that have occurred over generations.
Description Secular increases in height, weight and early maturation are currently the subject of multiple studies. Childhood growth rates have increased dramatically over the past 50–100 years. Advancement in medicine and technology as well as marked increases in standard of living and nutrition have been cited as core factors in secular trends over the past century. Secular increases in the areas of maturation and growth have been observed in developed countries, while underdeveloped countries have exhibited modest to no alteration in these areas.
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Improved environmental conditions within a general population have resulted in secular increases, while delayed size and maturation may be attributed to the presence of negative or adverse conditions. Industrialized and developing countries are also witnessing an increased elderly population, increased life expectancy and decline in mortality.
Relevance to Childhood Development The most important and widely studied aspect of secular trends is the age of onset of puberty in girls. Recent comparison studies of the United States and other countries have provided conflicting data regarding the decreasing of the age of onset of puberty and the development of secondary sex characteristics in young girls. Factors affecting the age of onset include environmental conditions, ethnicity, geographical location, nutrition and race. According to studies, the age of puberty onset in American girls over the past 40 years has decreased from 0.5 to 1.0 years, with African-American girls maturing 0.5–1 year earlier than Caucasian girls. Studies suggest 1 in every 7 Caucasian American girls and 1 in every 2 African American girls develop breasts and pubic hair by the age of 8. Additionally, data suggest that the age of first menstruation of girls from the United States has decreased from 17 to 13. Data suggesting the decrease in puberty age of onset were supported during a study of Chinese schoolgirls in Hong Kong, where the sexual maturation median age is one of the earliest in the world; the median age of puberty onset was 9.78 years, pubic hair development was 11.6 years and menarche was 12.4 years. While the United States and other countries have displayed a decrease in age of onset of puberty, the trend was not supported during an evaluation of Northern European countries. Several theories have been purported to explain the decrease in puberty onset age including weight gain, hormones in meat and milk, and sexualized images provided by the general media. Additional theories are being considered, but possess insufficient data and further research is required.
References 1. 2. 3.
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Dasgupta, P., & Hauspie, R. (2001). Perspectives in human growth development and maturation. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Kaplowitz, P. (2006). Pubertal development in girls. Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology, 18(5), 487–491. Mesa Community College Psychology Department. (2006). The secular trend. The developmental psychology student netletter. Mesa, AZ: Author. Retrieved, December 12, 2008, from http://www.mc. maricopa.edu/dept/d46/psy/dev/fall00/Seculartrend/trend.html Slee, P. T. (2002). Child adolescent and family development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Selective Attention
Selective Attention MEI Y. CHANG, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Focused attention
Definition Selective attention refers to the ability to maintain a cognitive set in the presence of background noise or distraction [1]. Selective attention acts like a filter that blocks some channels while allowing others to be processed [2]. While Sohlberg and Mateer [7] distinguished between focused and selective attention by relating the “ability to respond discretely” to specific stimuli to the focusing aspect of attention and the capacity to avert distractions to selective attention, Miller [4] suggested that selective attention has been used as an interchangeable term for focused attention in the neuropsychology literature.
Description Models of attention commonly divide attention into component processes such as alertness/arousal, selective or focused attention, divided attention, alternating attention, and sustained attention or vigilance, of which selective/focused attention is one of the most studied aspects in attentional functioning [3, 8]. Vanderploeg [10] additionally indicated that there is a great deal of overlap among the various attentional models built; selective attention or an attentional focus is one of the six basic factors appearing to encompass the components described by the different researchers. Other basic factors of attention proposed include arousal, capacity, control of the attentional capacity system, sustainability/vigilance, and appraising of stimuli. Selective attention involves initial concentration directed toward a particular activity and then execution of inhibition of responses to some stimuli over the targeted activity; it enables an individual to choose to pay attention to a specific stimulus and ignore potential external and internal distracters [4]. Mirsky [5] illustrated the ability to scan an array of stimuli and selectively respond as focus-execute, in which focused attention is the perceptual ability to scan a stimulus array, while the execute component is the ability to make a response. Similarly, Lezak [3] refers to selective attention as the capacity to highlight important stimuli or ideas being dealt with
while holding the awareness of competing distractions in check. Such capacity is commonly referred to as concentration.
Neuroanatomy of Selective Attention According to Mirsky and his colleagues [5], the brain structures involved with the regulation of selective/ focused attention are the superior temporal cortex, the inferior parietal cortex, and the corpus striatum structures (including the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus). Posner and Peterson [6] believed that selective attention was linked to the functions of the anterior cingulate and the supplemental motor areas.
Relevance to Childhood Development Most investigators conceive of attention as a system in which processing occurs sequentially in a series of stages within different brain systems involved in attention. Disorders of attention may arise from lesions involving different points in this system. An attention task requires a focused, selective, sustained, and effortful performance; therefore, assessing the performance of the various points in the attention system will be imperative in indicating aspects of impairments in attentional functioning. Examples of neuropsychological tests that measure selective attention include the Auditory Attention subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-III) [9] and the Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT). On the WJ-III, the examinee must overcome the effects of auditory distractions (background noise) to understand oral language. On the SCWT, the examinee is required to selectively attend to the color of the ink that the word is printed in and name that color while ignoring the word itself that actually names a color that is different from the color of the ink [4]. Slow or hesitant performance on this part of the Stroop task may be indicative of difficulty concentrating and warding off distractions, which may suggest impaired selective attention [3].
References 1. Baron, I. S. (2004). Neuropsychological evaluation of the child. New York: Oxford University Press. 2. Broadbent, D. E. (1958). Perception and communication. New York: Pergamon. 3. Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. 4. Miller, D. C. (2007). Essentials of school neuropsychological assessment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 5. Mirsky, A. F., Anthony, B. J., Duncan, C. C., Ahearn, M. B., & Kellam, S. G. (1991). Analysis of the elements of attention: A neuropsychological approach. Neuropsychology Review, 2, 109–145. 6. Posner, M. I., & Peterson, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.
Selective Mutism 7. Sohlberg, M. M., & Mateer, C. A. (1989). Introduction to cognitive remediation. New York: Guilford. 8. Strauss, E., Sherman, E. M. S., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological tests. New York: Oxford University Press. 9. Woodcock, R. W., McGrew, K. S., & Mather, N. (2001). WoodcockJohnson III tests of cognitive abilities. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. 10. Vanderploeg, R. D. (2000). Clinician’s guide to neuropsychological assessment. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Selective Mutism ANGELA D. MITCHELL1, HEIDI KING1, EMILY L. SPORTSMAN2, ANDY V. PHAM2, JOHN S. CARLSON2 1 Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA 2 Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms Aphasia voluntaria; Elective mutism; Functional mutism; Mutism; Reluctant speech; Voluntary mutism
Definition Selective mutism is a type of childhood anxiety disorder in which a child does not speak in certain social situations where speech is expected despite speaking in other situations. The child’s mutism must persist at least 1 month (not including the first month of school), and the mutism cannot be due to a lack of comfort with or knowledge of the language required in the social situation. The child’s silence must not be better accounted for by other disorders (e.g., communication disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, schizophrenia), and this disorder is typically presented before age 5 years; however, it may not be identified until the child enters school. Finally, the child’s failure to speak must interfere with his or her educational or occupational functioning or with his or her social communication [1]. In the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders the term Selective Mutism replaces the former term, elective mutism. This change in terminology better reflects the nonoppositional nature of the disorder.
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certain social situations where speaking is expected, such as in school or with peers. However, these children do demonstrate the ability to speak in other situations. Often, a child with selective mutism will speak at home but not in a school or community setting. The child may communicate in nonverbal ways such as with gestures of the body, hands or head or by pushing and pulling. In some cases the child may make short mono-syllabic utterances or use an altered voice. Children with selective mutism are often shy, socially withdrawn and afraid of embarrassment. Selective mutism has historically been characterized as a rare disorder with prevalence rates of less than 1% [1]. However, according to a study conducted by Kopp and Gillberg [13], the prevalence rate may be much higher. Moreover, selective mutism appears to be more prevalent in girls in clinically-referred samples [14]. In clinical settings, children with selective mutism are usually also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, often social phobia. Etiology of SM. The cause of selective mutism is unknown; however, recent work in the literature indicates that selective mutism may be a variant of an anxiety disorder, specifically social phobia [3], and may represent the severe end of the spectrum of social anxiety and speech inhibition [4]. Often there is a close relative or parent who has a history of exhibiting significant shyness, anxiety disorders and/or SM [17]. Other possible theories proposed as explanations for the cause of SM suggest that it is the result of traumatic experiences such as abuse, divorce, death, a life threatening experience and moving frequently [15]. Assessment of SM. When assessing for SM it is important that a comprehensive evaluation is conducted to rule out any other disorders. A comprehensive assessment should include a physical examination and medical history, and a developmental history of language, motor, cognitive, and social milestones. Psychological assessment of the child’s current social and emotional functioning is necessary along with assessment of the child’s cognitive and academic skills. In order to aid in treatment planning, a functional behavioral assessment should be completed to determine in what settings and to whom the child speaks so that intervention may target those settings and individuals [9].
Description Selective Mutism (SM) was first identified as aphasia voluntaria by Kussmaul in 1877 as being a condition where individuals who had the ability to speak would not speak in certain situations or to certain individuals. Children with selective mutism consistently fail to speak in
Relevance to Childhood Development Given that one of the diagnostic criteria of selective mutism is impairment in educational functioning and/or social communication, children with this disorder typically present with academic and social/emotional
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difficulties such as delayed word attack and oral reading skills, limited opportunities for social interaction, and less involvement in school activities. Moreover, the ability of teachers and other school professionals (e.g., school psychologists) to assess academic and intellectual functioning may be impaired due to the child’s reluctance to speak when queried. Because a child’s mute behavior becomes more entrenched without intervention as time passes, and because of the possible negative impact of selective mutism on a child’s educational and social functioning, early intervention is most beneficial [10]. Chronic anxiety symptoms can develop into adult social anxiety or social phobia, and people who were afflicted with selective mutism as children may continue to experience discomfort in social situations and difficulty conversing with others. Although selective mutism is classified as a Disorder Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence, some researchers suggest it would be better categorized as an anxiety disorder. This conceptualization informs current treatments. Treatments include psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy and/or medication. It is important to identify and treat any specific speech or language related problems. Medications used to treat social phobia have been used successfully to treat children with selective mutism. Research indicates that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may be the most effective type of medication in cases of selective mutism that are resistant to behavioral and psychosocial treatments; SSRIs include fluvoxamine (Luvox), sertraline (Zoloft), and fluoxetine (Prozac). Interventions that focus primarily on family functioning have shown some effectiveness, but current treatment trends that call for integrating families into treatment implementation are gaining popularity. Behavioral techniques incorporating the child and the environment into the assessment and intervention process are the most frequently used methods and are quite effective. Systematic desensitization is one type of behavioral intervention that has been applied to selective mutism. Behavioral interventions that include the use of reinforcement, token procedures, self modeling, self monitoring, prompting, stimulus fading, and response initiation procedures have proven to be successful in treatment [15]. The most effective treatments include an in-depth analysis of the child and the environment in order to design treatment plans that are tailored to the client. These treatments focus on altering the interpersonal and environmental factors that are contributing to symptoms of selective mutism. Multidimensional approaches address behavior and family systems and may incorporate medication if acceptable to the family.
References 1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: Fourth Edition – Text Revision. Washington, DC: Author. 2. Anstendig, K. (1998). Selective mutism: A review of treatment literature by modality from 1980–1996. Psychotherapy, 35, 381–390. 3. Anstendig, K. D. (1999). Is selective mutism an anxiety disorder? Rethinking its DSM-IV classification. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 13, 417–434. 4. Black, B., & Uhde, T. (1995). Psychiatric characteristics of children with selective mutism: A pilot study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 847–856. 5. Carlson, J. S., Kratochwill, T. R., & Johnston, H. F. (1994). Prevalence and treatment of selective mutism: A survey of child psychiatrists. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 4, 281–291. 6. Carlson, J., Mitchell, A., & Segool, N. (2008). The current state of empirical support for the pharmacological treatment of selective mutism. School Psychology Quarterly, 23(3), 354–372. 7. Cunningham, C. E., McHolm, A., Boyle, M. H., & Patel, S. (2004). Behavioural and emotional adjustment, family functioning, academic performance, and social relationships in children with selective mutism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 1363–1372. 8. Ford, M. A., Sladeczek, I. E., Carlson, J., & Kratochwill, T. R. (1998). Selective mutism: Phenomenological characteristics. School Psychology Quarterly, 13, 192–227. 9. Freeman, J. B., Garcia, A. M., Miller, L. M., Dow, S. P., & Leonard, H. L. (2004). Selective mutism. In T. L. Morris, & J. S. March (Eds.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents (pp. 280–304). New York: Guilford. 10. Giddan, J. J., Ross, G. J., Sechler, L. L., & Becker, B. R. (1997). Selective mutism in elementary school: Multidisciplinary interventions. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 28, 127–133. 11. Golwyn, D., & Weinstock, R. (1990). Phenelzine treatment of elective mutism: A case report. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 51, 384–385. 12. Jackson, M. F., Allen, R. S., Boothe, A. B., Nava, M. L., & Coates, A. (2005). Innovative analyses and interventions in the treatment of selective mutism. Clinical Case Studies, 4, 81–112. 13. Kopp, S., & Gillberg, C. (1997). Selective mutism: A populationbased study: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 257–262. 14. Kristensen, H. (2000). Selective mutism and comorbidity with developmental disorder/delay, anxiety disorder, and elimination disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 249–256. 15. Krysanski, V. L. (2003). A brief review of selective mutism literature. Journal of Psychology, 137, 29. 16. Leonard, H., & Dow, S. (1995). Selective mutism. In J. S. March (Ed.), Anxiety disorder in children and adolescents (pp. 235–250). New York: Guilford. 17. McInnes, A., Fung, D., Manassis, K., Fiksenbaum, L., & Tannock, R. (2004). Narrative skills in children with selective mutism: An explorative study. American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology, 13, 304–315. 18. Omdal, H., & Galloway, D. (2008). Could selective mutism be reconceptualised as a specific phobia of expressive speech? An exploratory post-hoc study. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 13, 74–81. 19. Standart, S., & Le Couteur, A. (2003). The quiet child: A literature review of selective mutism. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 8, 154–160.
Self Identity: Sexual Abuse of Adolescents
Selective Serotoninreuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) ▶Paxil (Paroxetine)
Self ▶Self-Concept
Self Identity: Sexual Abuse of Adolescents MARIA-EVA TSOLA, XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms Child rape; Sexual assault; Sexual exploitation; Sexual maltreatment; Sexual molestation; Sexual victimization
Definition Child sexual abuse is sexual contact with a child that occurs as a result of force or in a relationship where it is exploitative and unequal because of an age difference or caretaking responsibility. Sexual abuse appears to disrupt the progression of self-identity formation; these disturbances may include identity diffusion, fragmentation of self, and distortions in body image.
Description A wide variety of behaviors are encapsulated in the definition of child sexual abuse, including rape, molestation, prostitution, or incest with children and the creation of pornography. In addition to certain sexual behaviors, child sexual abuse has a number of characteristics. These include lack of consent, ambivalence, exploitation, secrecy, force, and intent [1]. Prevalence studies reveal that females are the most frequent victims of child sexual abuse, but males are likely to be abused at earlier ages, for shorter durations, and the perpetrator is more often a stranger or nonrelative. Sexual abuse can occur at any point from infancy through adolescence [1, 2]. For all children, poverty has been found to be an important risk factor. For girls, other factors that increase the risk of
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victimization include: the presence of a stepfather; a sexually punitive mother; living separately from the mother; emotional distance from the mother; and having two or fewer childhood friends [1, 2].
Relevance to Childhood Development Depending on their developmental stage, children may be particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of sexual abuse due to their dependency on adults for care and protection, their limited ability to influence the events and environment in which they live, and their cognitive and emotional developmental level [3]. A number of interactive factors probably make a significant contribution to the development of negative self-representations in sexually abused children. The age at which the first abusive incident took place, the duration and severity of abuse, the relationship of the perpetrator to the child, and the use of force by the perpetrator, collectively influence the severity of psychological symptoms that present during and following sexual abuse [1, 3–6]. The literature concerning the psychological consequences of sexual abuse for the period of childhood and adolescence indicates a broad range of adverse effects including affect dysregulation, disruptive and aggressive behaviors, precocious sexualized behaviors, insecure and atypical attachment patterns, sexual identity confusion, impaired peer relationships, conversion disorders and academic underachievement [4–10]. Progression of the psychological effects of child and adolescent sexual abuse is associated with particular psychiatric disorders. Adult psychiatric outcomes that are frequently reported and associated with sexual abuse include borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use disorders, anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, phobias, sexual disorders, multiple personality disorder, panic disorder, and somatization disorder. Suicidal ideation and attempted suicide are also very common among victims of childhood sexual abuse [1–6, 8, 10, 11]. A number of core psychopathological features appear to be shared by the different psychiatric disorders to which victims of abuse appear to be most susceptible to. Disturbances in sense of self, are involved in the majority of these disorders ranging from the identity diffusion of borderline personality disorder to the fragmentation of self fundamental to multiple personality disorder. Profound distortions in body image can occur in the eating, dissociative, and somatoform disorders. All of these disorders show evidence of high rates of selfinjurious behavior including self mutilation, suicide attempts, and risk taking which constitute a sign of
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fundamental problems with self-esteem, internal conflicts, and estrangement from self [2, 9]. Sexual abuse therefore appears to disrupt the progression of selfidentity formation. The pubertal period contains multiple developmental tasks. Adolescents must establish a new and positive sense of self; choose an adult role; develop the capacity for intimacy and achieve mature sexual expression; establish strong intimate interpersonal relationships particularly with peers; initiate the process of developing autonomy, and crystallize their personal value systems [13]. Even though sexual abuse significantly compromises the adolescent’s ability to accomplish each of these important tasks, the most commonly reported adult outcome of childhood sexual abuse is a severe disturbance in the individual’s sense of self [5, 6, 9]. Several studies indicate that the intrinsic helplessness and powerlessness associated with child sexual abuse may result in a diminishment of the child’s developing sense of his or her competencies, locus of control, and efficacy, and in severe difficulty defining and integrating different aspects of the self [1, 12, 13]. The effects of this inability to acquire a coherent sense of self appear to be long-term. Data on the relationship of abuser to victim indicate that predominantly in the case of abuse by a family member, the victim’s sense of trust is violated [1]. Close relatives, who would, under normal circumstances, serve as objects for identification and introjection come to be viewed by the abused child as punitive, rejecting, dangerous, and deceitful. In addition, children may integrate elements of their abuse into basic beliefs that subsequently function as a universal model of self, others, and the world [4, 6–8]. The individual may have conflicting thoughts and feelings about the self. Self-identification as a “victim” may result in low self-esteem and create a pattern of selfdestructive behavior [6]. These core relational schemas seem to hinder the individual’s later ability to create and maintain meaningful interpersonal attachments [4, 8, 9]. Relational disturbance generally comprises conflictual or chaotic relationships, problems with forming intimate adult relationships, and behaviors that are likely to disrupt close relations with others [8].
References 1. Whetsell-Mitchell, J. (1995). Rape of the innocent: Understanding and preventing child sexual abuse. London: Taylor & Francis. 2. Putnam, F. W., & Trickett, P. K. (1993). Child sexual abuse: A model of chronic trauma. In D. Reiss, J. E. Richters, M. Radke-Yarrow, & D. Scharff (Eds.), Children and violence. New York: Guilford. 3. Edsall, S., Karnik, N. S., & Steiner, H. (2005). Childhood trauma. In W. M. Klykylo & J. Kay (Eds.), Clinical child psychiatry (2nd ed.). Chichester: Wiley.
4. Azar, S. T. (2002). Parenting and child maltreatment. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Social conditions and applied parenting (2nd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 361–387). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 5. Browne, A., & Finkelhor, D. (1986). Impact of child sexual abuse: A review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 99(1), 66–77. 6. Rowan, E. L. (2006). Understanding child sexual abuse. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 7. Briere, J., & Runtz, M. (1986). Suicidal thoughts and behaviors in former sexual abuse victims. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science (special issue on family violence), 18, 413–423. 8. Briere, J. (2002). Treating adult survivors of severe childhood abuse and neglect: Further development of an integrative model. In J. E. B. Myers (Ed.), The APSAC handbook on child maltreatment. Newbury Park: Sage. 9. Briere, J., & Elliott, D. M. (1994). Immediate and long-term impacts of child sexual abuse. The future of children (Vol. 4, pp. 54–69). [A publication of the Center for the Future of Children, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation]. 10. Briere, J., & Elliott, D. M. (2003). Prevalence and psychological sequelae of self-reported childhood physical and sexual abuse in a general population sample of men and women. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27, 1205–1222. 11. Widom, C. S., & Marmorstein, N. R. (2006). Childhood victimization and illicit drug use in middle adulthood. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 20, 394–403. 12. Cole, P. M., & Putnam, F. W. (1992). Effect of incest on self and social functioning: A developmental psychopathology perspective. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 174–184. 13. Moshman, D. (2005). Adolescent psychological development: Rationality, morality, and identity (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Self Management LASHAWN JACKSON1, SALLY MEYER2, TERI BERCHTOLD2, BRETT R. NELSON2 1 Fontana, CA, USA 2 California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
Synonyms Self-monitoring; Self-regulation
Definition Self-management is an intervention technique used to help students manage the accuracy and amount of work completed in a given time frame using a checklist or form [9]. This technique is also helpful in establishing increased levels of autonomy for career, personal, and extracurricular activities [4].
Description In many classrooms, behaviors such as inattention or disruption may prevent students from actively engaging in academic activities or on-task behaviors [2]. The amount
Self Management
of time a student spends actively thinking about or working on academic content [2] is determined by various internal and external factors such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Emotional Disturbance (ED), poor executive functioning, depression, temperament, adjustment issues, etc. Students who have trouble focusing, are off-task, or engage in problem behavior can improve their academic achievement using self-management [9]. Individuals with disorders (e.g., ADHD or Autism) requiring behavior modification can benefit from self-monitoring as well [4]. Some of the steps of a self-management intervention include: (1) Identify the purpose or benefits of the student discontinuing their off-task/problem behavior; (2) ask the student to help with the self-management plan along with ideas for rewards or incentives (the rewards need to be powerful and occur frequently to sustain self-management behaviors); (3) create a user friendly self-management form that does not require much work for anyone involved Get class notebook out. _____Yes ____No Get out pencil and copy off the board. _____Yes ____ No Write down class or homework assignment. _____Yes ____No Look at teacher when she is talking and raise hand to answer. _____Yes ____No
Self Management. Fig. 1 Sample self-management form 1.
Get out paper for classroom assignment. _____
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Self Management. Fig. 2 Sample self-management form 2.
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(see Figs. 1 and 2); (4) demonstrate, model, or train how the self-management form or recording device will be used; (5) provide a small amount of time (e.g., 5–15 min) to check for understanding in relation to the selfmanagement form and plan; (6) examine progress with the student and slowly lessen involvement with a goal of having the student function without an outside reinforcement system.
Relevance to Childhood Development One major objective in education is to cultivate selfsufficiency and autonomy for childhood, adolescence, and life. Self-management has extensive utility for children and adolescents with or without disorders and can be modified to help multiple types of learners. Research also suggests that self-monitoring is a useful practice that assists in developing proper social skills. This technique can help decrease or extinguish behaviors that lead to negative labels (e.g., lazy, trouble maker, etc.), which lead to self-fulfilling prophecies manifested in the classroom. Furthermore, self-monitoring can build an increased sense of control over one’s actions. Research studies show that self-management techniques can improve academic achievement, improve ontask behavior, and decrease problem behavior. Additionally, self-management requires the student to review their own behavior and determine if they are succeeding or are in need of improvement [10].
References 1. Baggetun, R., & Wasson, B. (2006). Self-regulated learning and open writing. European Journal of Education, 41(3/4), 453–463. 2. Briesch, A., & Chafouleas, S. (2009). Review and analysis of literature on self-management interventions to promote appropriate classroom behaviors (1988–2008). School Psychology Quarterly, 24(2), 106–118. 3. Brown, G. T. L., & Hirschfeld, G. H. F. (2007). Students’ conceptions of assessment and mathematics: Self-regulation raises achievement. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 7, 63–74. 4. Buckmann, S. Don’t forget about self management. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/behavior/selfmagt. html 5. Gureasko-Moore, S., DuPaul, G. J., & White, G. P. (2007). School Psychology Review, 36(4), 647–664. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgibin/cgiwrap/specconn/main. php?cat=behavior§ion=main&subsection=pbsint/self.Teaching Self Management Skills. 6. Kapalka, G. M. (2007). Self management definition and how it works in the area of parenting your out of control child: An effective, easy-to-use program for teaching self-control. Center for Behavior Modification, Brick, NJ, US, Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. 1x, 174. 7. Lizzio, A., & Wilson, K. (2006). Enhancing the effectiveness of selfmanaged learning groups: Understanding students’ choices and concerns. Studies in Higher Education, 31(6), 689–703.
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8. McPherson, K. M., Kayes, N., & Weatherall, M. (2009). A pilot study of self-regulation informed goal setting in people with traumatic brain injury. Clinical Rehabilitation, 23, 296–309. 9. Naglieri, J. A., & Pickering, E. B. (2003). Helping Children Learn: Intervention Handouts for Use in School and at Home. Baltimore: Brookes. 10. Peterson, L. D., Young, K. R., Salzberg, C. L., West, R. P., Hill, M. (2006). Using self-management procedures to improve classroom social skills in multiple general education settings. Education and Treatment of Children, 29(1), 1–21. 11. Ponitz, C. C., McClelland, M. M., Matthews, J. S., & Morrison, F. J. (2009). A Structured Observation of Behavioral Self-Regulation and its’ Contribution to Kindergarten. Developmental Psychology, 45(3), 605–619.
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aesthetic needs in facilitating the journey towards selfactualization. This hierarchical system was established to capture the dynamic, interrelated events and behaviors that make up the developmental process. Maslow proposed this prepotency hierarchy where human behavior is dominated by the lower, more basic needs. Achievement of or interest in a higher need usually requires the fulfillment of a lesser need. For example, if one is hungry or lonely their energy and cognitive resources will be spent meeting those needs and not attempting to conceptualize and understand their full potential as an individual. Characteristics of self-actualization include living in the present moment, being spontaneous and creative, trusting oneself and one’s decisions without fear of regret, and being open to all possibilities. Achieving these characteristics requires that an individual has sufficiently met all other needs in the hierarchy. Successful matriculation through the previous four tiers does not always result in self-actualization. Selfactualization is a process that can only begin when all other needs are met; this process may never be completed during a lifetime.
Definition
Relevance to Childhood Development
Self-actualization is the tendency to actualize and the desire for self-fulfillment. This includes the desire to reach full potential and become what one is capable of becoming.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, including self-actualization, can be incorporated into many of the other well-known theories of human development in that most theories include the attainment or development of certain behavioral and emotional characteristics. Maslow’s hierarchy, like many of the developmental stage theories, is a progression; a child must accomplish goal A before goal B can be addressed. During infancy and early childhood, individuals rely on others for fulfillment of their basic needs including food, water, safety, love, and eventually esteem. Many environmental factors can influence whether or not children’s needs are met including socioeconomic status, parental/guardian resources, and quality of education. It isn’t until adolescence or early adulthood that individuals move toward becoming solely responsible for fulfillment of their needs. An individual’s ability to fulfill their own needs in adulthood often depends on how successfully their caregivers fulfilled their needs as a child. If, and only if, all environmental factors provide for a healthy development will an individual have the potential to reach the level of self-actualization in adulthood.
Self-Actualization LAURA BARNEY University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms
Description The term self-actualization was first introduced into the psychology field by Kurt Goldstein, an organismic theorist, but was popularized and expanded on by Abraham Maslow who included the concept in his well-known developmental theory: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs consists of five tiers often depicted in pyramid form with the most basic needs at the bottom. The hierarchy begins with the Physiological needs, which include food, water, breathing, sex, and sleep. The second tier includes needs related to Safety and security such as physical health, resources such as money, nurturance, and shelter. The third tier represents the need for Love and Belonging by family, friends, and intimate partners. Esteem makes up the fourth tier and includes self-esteem, confidence, need for achievement and recognition, and respect for self and others. The fifth and final tier is the need for Self-actualization, the realization of one’s full potential and the desire to reach that potential. In addition to the five levels of the hierarchy, Maslow discussed the importance of cognitive and
References 1.
Goebel, B., & Brown, D. (1981). Age difference in motivation related to Maslow’s need hierarchy. Developmental Psychology, 17, 809–815.
Self-Care Development 2. 3. 4. 5.
Goldstein, K. (1939). The organism: a holistic approach to biology derived from pathological data in man. New York: American Book. Magill, F. N. (1998). Psychology basics. Pasadena: Salem. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370–396. Maslow, A. H. (1962). Some basic propositions of a growth and selfactualization psychology. Glenview: Addison Wesley Longman.
Self-Annihilation
References 1.
2. 3.
BERNADETTE HASSAN SOLO´RZANO, BRENDA L. VERASTIGI Our Lady of the Lake University Community Counseling Service, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Adaptive behavior; Resiliency; Self-treatment; Stress management; Stress reduction
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among the emergency responders was much larger than expected. In 2001 during the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, critical incident debriefers were on site to assist professionals during their breaks. Health care professionals spend many years studying to prepare themselves to be well trained. Self-care should be equally emphasized and not seen as self-indulgence.
▶Suicide
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Figley, C. R. (Ed.). (1995). Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Moore, T. (1992). Care of the soul: A guide for cultivating depth and sacredness in everyday life. New York: HarperCollins. Prevent and counteract job burnout and compassion fatigue. Retrieved, December 17, 2008, from http://myselfcare.org/dennis.htm Sussman, M. B. (Ed.). (1995). A perilous calling: The hazards of psychotherapy practice. New York: Wiley. Zukav, G. (1989). The seat of the soul. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Self-Care Behaviors ▶Activities of Daily Living
Definition Self-care includes the decision and actions used with the intention of enhancing a healthy lifestyle. Among helping professionals it is a tool to avoid compassion fatigue and professional burnout [1, 3, 4].
Description Self-care is essential to prevent burnout, stress, and compassion fatigue particularly among members of the helping professions. Exercising, meditation, Tai Chi, reading, listening to music, and eating balanced meals are examples of self-care. Any form of self-care is more effective when an individual is able to maintain a healthy perspective [2, 5]. When a mental health professional’s psychological and/or physical health affects their work, their ability to help their clients begins to be compromised thus creating a possible ethical problem. Therapists, crisis responders, medical professionals, police and firefighters, animal shelter workers, and veterinarians are but a few examples of people who experience loss and trauma that results in serial grieving. Critical Incident Briefing was implemented to facilitate some immediate release of emotions for these individuals. This response became increasingly important after the Oklahoma City bombing when a year later the suicide rate
Self-Care Development NORMA S. GUERRA, ALLEGRA MONTEMAYOR University of Texas, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms A personal skill of caring for oneself; Thoughtful attendance to oneself
Definition Self-care development involves the progressive expansion of skills related to caring for oneself that are refined by experience, direct instruction and maturity. Self-care includes the ability to improve, restore and maintain one’s own personal health and psychological wellness [2].
Description Self-care involves any activity of caring for personal needs. These needs may be addressed physically such as eating or exercising to maintain a healthy body or psychologically
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Self-Choice
such as moving away from potentially dangerous situations or emotions. Self-care strategy development has also been linked to self-sufficiency and self-management. Developmental milestones in evaluating normal child growth often consider personal self-management and care for self. Self-care developmental techniques involve identifying explicit and implicit patterns of need and developing appropriate and socially acceptable strategies to respond and contribute to productive and functional personal growth and development. As the child grows and learns to meet personal needs, self-care can be observed in selfinitiated behaviors. For example, the child moves from “falling asleep” to sleeping for rest for energy to play or to learn. Self-care might also be observed in verbal communications. With increasing skill and accomplishment, self-managed and self-determined goals related to self care are accomplished. As cognitive capacity and socialization develops so too does self-care. Self-care development is facilitated by creating an environment conducive to learning: teaching the child to listen to self, to identify internal and external needs, and to manage personal care will assist with development [3].
approximations. Poor self-care choices often lead to greater behavioral problems that may impact daily lives and school. Poor self-care strategies can affect health as well as relationships with families or peers [1].
Importance of Parent–Teacher Relationships Early childhood programs that promote communication between parents, children and teachers can help to build a strong working relationship in support of self-care. This communication can help early childhood professionals to better understand the parent’s perception and to help them as they developmentally teach self-care techniques to their children.
References 1. 2.
3.
Kerrebrock, N., & Lewit, E. M. (1999). Children in self-care. The Future of Children, 9, 151–160. Kottler, J. A. (1999). The therapist’s workbook: Self-assessment, selfcare, and self-improvement exercises for mental health professionals. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Pettine, A., & Rosen, L. A. (1998). Self-care and deviance in elementary school-age children. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54, 629–643.
Self-Care Techniques Developmentally, self-care techniques will change with maturity, skill and experience. For example, an infant cries as a technique for self care. By school age, telling the teacher about a bully may offer a more appropriate strategy and by adolescence, using self-reflective questions to identify triggers that create stressors may provide a foundation from which future self-care techniques develop. Self-care techniques involve the development of selfmanaged, activity processing resources implemented in response to needs and desires. Building strong support systems and developing internal resources are important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Relevance to Childhood Development Self-care in children is an important part of individual development. It can be related to sense of identity, self confidence, independence and impacts social relationships both within and outside the family. Some self-care activities include: grooming, personal hygiene, physical activity, eating properly, and maintaining safety. These factors are beneficial to development; they involve the child in self-regulating a better quality of life. The family plays a critical role in the development of these self-care strategies. Family members teach children self-care through direct instruction and modeling and the child often learns these skills through trial and error and gradual
Self-Choice ▶Autonomy
Self-Concept DARSHON ANDERSON Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Self; Self-esteem; Self-image; Self-representation; Sense of oneself; Sense of self
Definition An organized set of perceptions, cognitions, or evaluations that one holds about their abilities and characteristics.
Description Social interactions, experiences, and the interpretation of those interactions and experiences that an individual has with their environment mold the self-concept. The perceptions that an individual holds about themselves and/or
Self-Destruction
abilities are influenced especially by reinforcements from those close around them such as parents, friends, other significant role models, and the attributions that individual gives for their own behaviors [1, 2]. Two distinct aspects of the self-concept that are interrelated in experiences include self-esteem and identity [3]. Self-esteem seeks out opportunities to enhance the evaluations one holds about themselves whereas identity gives structure (to the self-concept) and stabilizes the self in social systems. The self-concept is seen as multifaceted and hierarchical because the perception an individual holds about themselves encompasses various areas of life including social life (e.g., family, friends, religion) academic (e.g., school) and nonacademic activities (e.g., work, hobbies) [2]. In many scientific references, self-concept has been linked to individual achievement and correlations between it and other constructs examined [4]. Research suggests that it is possible for an individual to hold a positive self-concept in one area of life and a negative self-concept in another separate area. The evaluation an individual holds about themselves is not static and may change over time and across situations. Most changes to an individual’s previous evaluation of themselves result from taking on new roles and/or life transitions [5]. Research has found that evaluations generally become more favorable over the lifespan, evaluations are represented by a moving baseline that is determined by situational factors, and that environmental stability plays a key factor in evaluation stability [5]. Research has also described the self-concept as the “working” or “assessable” self-concept due to its continually active state and the shifting amount of assessable selfknowledge available to the individual at a certain point in time [6]. The “working” self-concept lends support to the changing nature of the individual’s self-evaluations across time and situations.
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from parents, friends, and significant role models so they will not rely too heavily on their own self-perceived competency for evaluations, which could result in a lower selfconcept. Research suggests children in middle to late childhood seek to maintain a positive self-image by utilizing overestimation, selective social comparison, and strategic association with others [8]. As the child continues to grow, life transitions and new roles taken will continue to shape and influence their self-perceived competencies and self-evaluations.
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7.
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Nairne, J. (2009). Psychology (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Shevelson, R., & Bolus, R. (1982). Self-concept: The interplay of theory and methods. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 3–17. Gecas, V. (1982). The self-concept. Annual Reviews of Sociology, 8, 1–33. Shevelson, R., Hubner, J., & Stanton, G. (1976). Self-concept: Validation of construct interpretations. Review of Educational Research, 46, 407–441. Demo, D. (1992). The self-concept over time. Annual Reviews of Sociology, 18, 303–326. Markus, H., & Wurf, E. (1987). The dynamic self-concept: A social psychological perspective. Annual Reviews of Sociology, 38, 299–337. Skipek, D. J., Gralinski, J. H., & Kopp, C. B. (1990). Self-concept development in the toddler years. Developmental Psychology, 26, 972–977. Cole, D., Maxwell, S., & Martin, J. (2001). The development of multiple domains of child and adolescent self-concept: A cohort sequential longitudinal design. Child Development, 72, 1723–1746.
Self-Consequating ▶Self-Reinforcement
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Relevance to Childhood Development Self-concept begins to develop in children after becoming aware of themselves as distinct physical entities. Once the child recognizes their distinctness as a representation of the self, evaluations of the self are able to follow and can be seen in children as early as 18 months of age [7]. Behaviors that indicate a child has developed a concept of themselves include using self-referential terms (e.g., using their name or pronouns), use of evaluative words (e.g., dirty, bad, good), and references to competencies (such as saying “I can’t” do something). During middle to late childhood (e.g., early elementary school years), self-concept is greatly shaped by self-perceived academic competence, social acceptance, and sports competence [8]. It is important during this time that children have positive feedback
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Self-Control ▶Academic Delay of Gratification ▶Impulse Control ▶Inhibition ▶Self-Regulation ▶Temporal Discounting
Self-Destruction ▶Suicide
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Self-Determination
Self-Determination MAARTEN VANSTEENKISTE1, BART SOENENS1, WILLY LENS2 1 Ghent University, Gent, Belgium 2 University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
authorities (i.e., heteronomous independence). Conversely, people may volitionally turn to others for advice (i.e., autonomous dependence) or people may feel pressured to rely on others (i.e., heteronomous dependence) [7, 8].
Relevance to Childhood Development Synonyms Autonomy; Psychological freedom; Volition
Definition Self-determination theory focuses on the extent to which individuals’ behavior is self-determined versus controlled. When acting in a self-determined fashion, people experience a sense of freedom, choice, and volition during their activity engagement.
Description Key studies on self-determination have been conducted by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan [1, 4, 5]. Within the selfdetermination theory, it is argued that the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness will energize individuals’ autonomous engagement in an activity. Within self-determination theory, the concept of autonomy is contrasted with heteronomy and is differentiated from the concepts of independence versus dependence: Autonomy versus heteronomy: When being selfdetermined one is acting in an autonomous or volitional way because the activity spontaneously emanates from one’s emerging interests or is congruent with one’s abiding values. Acting in a self-determined fashion means that one endorses one’s action at the highest level of reflection such that one fully stands behind one’s activity. The opposite of autonomy or self-determination is heteronomy, that is, feeling controlled to partake in the activity, either because external forces or intra-individual demands are pushing one to engage in the activity [5, 6]. Independence versus dependence: Self-determination or autonomy needs to be differentiated from the concept of independence. Independence refers to being self-reliant and making decisions without the interference of others. Independence is contrasted with dependency which implies relying on others for advice or help. One can act independently or remain dependent on others for both autonomous (self-determined) or heteronomous (nonself-determined) reasons. Thus, people may volitionally choose to act independently (i.e., autonomous independence) or people may feel pressured to act independently, for instance, out of rebellion against controlling
From the perspective of separation-individuation theory, development towards independence implies that adolescents increasingly take responsibility for themselves without strongly depending or relying on their parents. This development would be particularly salient during adolescence and would contribute to maturity and psychosocial adjustment primarily during adolescence. In contrast, autonomy or volitional functioning as defined in selfdetermination theory is thought to be essential to optimal human development across the lifespan. Research has shown the importance of interpersonal support of autonomy for individuals’ adjustment from early childhood to late adulthood [2]. Within self-determination theory, an autonomous versus controlled functioning is said to result from being exposed to an autonomy-supportive versus controlling environment. The provision of choice by parents and teachers represents one key ingredient of an autonomysupportive environment that will promote autonomous functioning. In line with this, several studies have convincingly demonstrated that choice provision does increase one’s interest and subsequent persistence at the activity at hand. However, children cannot be provided with unlimited freedom to fully choose their own course of action as parents, teachers and other socializing agents will introduce various norms, rules and regulations over which children have little or no choice. Although choice is constrained in these situations, children can still volitionally stick to these rules or freely adopt the norms that are transmitted to them. The volitional acceptance of these norms and rules will be facilitated when parents and teachers at home or in classroom settings succeed in presenting rules and instructions in an informal fashion rather than in a controlling manner [3]. This will be the case when the presented rules and instructions are sufficiently explained (rationale provision) and when socializing agents empathically solicit children’s opinion when these rules and norms are introduced. When teachers and parents are controlling, however, they tend to use controlling reward systems or severe punishments; they will rely on evaluative systems, make use of strict deadlines and will use controlling language (‘should’; ‘expect’) as to ensure compliance. However, such controlling environments do yield a substantial cost as indexed by reduced
Self-Efficacy
interest in the activity at hand, lowered creativity and decreased well-being. Thus, from the self-determination perspective, it is fundamental to create an autonomysupportive (i.e., volition promoting) environment if one is to facilitate children’s well-being and growth.
References 1.
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Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across life’s domains. Canadian Psychology, 49, 14–23. Grolnick, W. S. (2003). The psychology of parental control: How wellmeant parenting backfires. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Ormrod, J. E. (2003). Educational psychology: Developing learners (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Ryan, R. (1995). Psychological needs and the facilitation of integrative processes. Journal of Personality, 63, 397–427. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and wellbeing. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2006). Self-regulation and the problem of human autonomy: Does psychology need choice, self-determination, and will? Journal of Personality, 74, 1557–1586. Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., Lens, W., Luyckx, K., Beyers, W., Goossens, L., et al. (2007). Conceptualizing parental autonomy support: Adolescent perceptions of promoting independence versus promoting volitional functioning. Developmental Psychology, 43, 633–646. Vansteenkiste, M., Zhou, M., Lens, W., & Soenens, B. (2005). Experiences of autonomy and control among Chinese learners: Vitalizing or immobilizing? Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 468–483.
Self-Directed Learning ▶Self-Regulation
Self-Discipline ▶Self-Regulation
Self-Efficacy
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Description Bandura, acknowledged as one of the principal initiators of self-efficacy theory, suggested that one’s perceived selfefficacy has a powerful influence over one’s choice of an activity, the kind of effort one expends, and how much one is able to maintain that effort in the face of difficulty. Consequently, self-efficacy beliefs have been proposed to influence children’s motivation. Schunk suggested that there are four leading sources for how children develop their self-efficacy level for a given achievement. These four sources are: past performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological indexes. Schunk explained that learners who have had positive past experiences with a learning task tend to develop higher self-efficacy levels than those with negative experiences. As learners observe successful performances of peers, they also develop high self-efficacy levels. Learners who have been convinced by an authoritative figure that they are capable tend to see themselves as capable too, thus developing high selfefficacy. Lastly, learners who tend to have low anxiety symptoms when performing a task, as would be indicated by changes in heart rate, will likely interpret the situation as one for which they have high self-efficacy. In general, success raises efficacy and failure lowers it. Lowered efficacy can affect children’s motivation negatively, although once a child develops a strong sense of efficacy, one or two occasions of failure will not have much effect. Self-efficacy is not a personality trait or part of one’s character, and there is no such thing as a “self-efficacious” person. Rather, self-efficacy is an appraisal that one makes and a belief that one has about his or her competence to succeed at a particular task, similar to one’s confidence level, although confidence is more global. Self-efficacy is situation specific, a context-specific assessment of competence to perform a specific task.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children tend to behave in ways that are consistent with their perceptions about themselves. Those who have positive beliefs about themselves tend to put in more effort, persist in the task, use effective strategies, and are therefore more successful in school. Young children often develop self-efficacy based on their own improvement over time while older children tend to evaluate themselves based on how they compare to their peers.
Definition
References
Self-efficacy refers to the beliefs that individuals have about their capabilities to complete a particular task successfully.
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Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unified theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.
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Bandura, A. (1995). Exercise of personal and collective efficacy in changing societies. In A. Bandura (Ed.), Self-efficacy in changing societies (pp. 1–45). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Borich, G., & Tombari, M. (1995). Educational psychology: A contemporary approach. New York: HarperCollins College. Pajares, F., & Miller, M. D. (1994). Role of self-efficacy and selfconcept beliefs in mathematical problem solving: A path analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 193–203. Schunk, D. H. (1991). Self-efficacy and academic motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26, 207–231.
Self-Esteem KRISTOPHER I. BRADLEY Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Self-concept; Self-image; Self-worth
Definition Self-esteem is defined as a person’s evaluation of their own self-worth.
Description Self-esteem is how positively or negatively a person views their worth. People who have a favorable global evaluation of themselves are said to have high self-esteem, while people who have an unfavorable global evaluation of themselves are said to have low self-esteem. High selfesteem has been shown to have a strong relationship with life satisfaction [1] and with happiness [2]. Studies have also demonstrated a correlation between self-esteem and other attitudes and behaviors, such as school performance, but it is important to note these correlations are not always strong and that these correlations do not mean causality. While it is possible a person with high self-esteem will get good grades, it is also possible that a person will get good grades and then view themselves more positively and thereby increase their self-esteem [3]. One of the most common methods of measuring selfesteem is a self-report measure called the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale [4]. The scale consists of ten questions with the choices of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. As with other self-report measures, it is impossible to know for certain if the respondent truly believes in their replies or if their replies are an attempt to appear socially desirable. Also, one of the issues with using a self-report measure for self-esteem is
that the answers rely on the respondent’s perception and not necessarily on reality. For example, people with high self-esteem may claim to be more attractive and intelligent than the average person, but their peer ratings of their attractiveness and their IQ scores might not differ from the average person [5]. People with high selfesteem also claim to be more popular and socially adept, but when judged by their peers, they again appear to be average [3]. While there are benefits to high self-esteem, such as happiness and life satisfaction, there are also potential drawbacks such as aggression and prejudice. Low-self esteem was once theorized to be the cause of violent and aggressive behavior, but recent theories postulate the opposite. When people with overinflated judgments of their self-worth are threatened, they are more likely to become aggressive [6]. Evidence has also shown people are more likely to become more prejudiced when their self-esteem is threatened. Individuals who had an experimental threat to self-esteem were able to restore their selfesteem by derogating out-group members [7]. While self-esteem can be related to self-concept and self-efficacy, they are not exactly the same. Self-concept is defined as our knowledge of who we are and can include our physical characteristics, our psychological states, and our considerations of how other people may judge us. Selfefficacy is defined as the belief in one’s ability to carry out specific actions that produce desired outcomes in a particular domain [8].
References 1.
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Diener, E., & Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 653–663. Furnham, A., & Cheng, H. (2000). Lay theories of happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 227–246. Baumeister, R., Campbell, J., Krueger, J., & Vohs, K. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4, 1–44. Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Gabriel, M., Critelli, J., & Ee, J. (1994). Narcissistic illusions in selfevaluations of intelligence and attractiveness. Journal of Personality, 62, 143–155. Baumeister, R., Smart, L., & Boden, J. (1996). Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem. Psychological Review, 103, 5–33. Fein, S., & Spencer, S. (1997). Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 31–44. Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (1999). Social psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley.
Self-Evaluation in Academic Settings
Self-Evaluation in Academic Settings TIMOTHY J. CLEARY University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Synonyms Self-reflection; Self-regulation; Strategic thinking
Definition Self-evaluation is a key regulatory process through which an individual compares self-generated or externallyprovided performance information to personal standards or goals [1, 2].
Description Self-Evaluation Within a Self-Regulation Framework Several theoretical models of self-regulated and strategic learning have been developed over the past few decades to enumerate the basic mechanisms and processes through which students exert control over their learning, skill development, and pursuit of personal academic goals [3]. From a social-cognitive perspective, self-regulated functioning involves self-generated thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are planned and cyclically adapted based on performance feedback in order to attain self-set goals. Zimmerman proposed one such cyclical model that depicts self-regulation in terms of three sequential phases: forethought (i.e., processes that precede efforts to learn or perform; goal setting and strategic planning), performance control (i.e., processes occurring during learning efforts; self-monitoring and self-control), and selfreflection (i.e., processes occurring after learning or performance; self-judgments and self-reactions) [1]. These phases are hypothesized to be interdependent so that changes in forethought processes will induce changes during the performance phase which will, in turn, influence self-reflection processes. A self-regulatory cycle is completed when self-evaluation processes influence forethought beliefs and behaviors during future learning efforts. The act of self-reflection is a multi-faceted decisionmaking component of the cyclical loop whereby individuals engage in various types of self-judgments (i.e., self-evaluation, causal attributions) and evaluative reactions (i.e., satisfaction, adaptive inferences). Each of
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these reflective processes have been shown to be significant predictors of student achievement and motivational beliefs [4–6]. For example, individuals who attribute success and or failure to controllable factors, such as strategy use and effort, and who exhibit positive adaptive inferences, such as modifying strategies following failure, will typically demonstrate enhanced levels of achievement and more positive perceptions of efficacy, task interest, and satisfaction [4, 6]. In other words, when individuals engage in self-reflection phase processes and focus on their use of strategies or other personal processes, students are more likely to sustain high levels of motivation and strategic planning. However, before students immerse themselves into attribution and adaptive inference reflections, they must first self-evaluate how their current academic performance compares to a personal or objective standard. Ultimately, identifying a performance outcome as successful or unsuccessful sets the stage for further self-reflective thought and action. The goal of this brief entry is to illustrate the process of self-evaluation, with particular emphasis placed on the nature and type of evaluative standards used to judge performance outcomes. Research has shown that the type of standards one uses to evaluate a performance has important achievement, regulatory, and motivation implications [4, 5]. Examples of applied self-regulation intervention programs that emphasize self-evaluation will also be presented.
Nature of Self-Evaluative Standards In order to self-evaluate performance and skill development, students need to employ a standard or benchmark as a point of comparison. These standards take many forms and can vary across source, type, and level of difficulty. Sources of evaluative standards. Evaluative standards can be generated by external sources, such as parents, teachers, and curriculum developers, or by an individual student. In terms of external sources, parents who pressure their children to attain a minimum grade of B in all classes or a teacher who sets a standard of 90% homework completion for receiving bonus points are typical examples of how external standards might be imposed on students. Another external source, which tends to be more objectively and systematically-derived, involves curriculum benchmarks and/or basic academic skill levels. For example, researchers have established early literacy benchmarks for students in kindergarten that are typically used to determine the intensity and level of intervention services that students need to improve their reading skills [7].
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All forms of externally-initiated standards are important in self-regulation models because they provide a benchmark against which students can judge the effectiveness or acceptability of their test grades or other performance indicators. From an autonomy-supporting or self-regulatory perspective, however, one must be cognizant that external standards may or may not be used by students when evaluating their school-based performance if they do not accept these standards as relevant or important to their academic success. Motivation researchers have shown that when students are afforded the opportunity to develop their own goals or self-standards they will often become more interested and engaged in academic activities [8]. As a practical example, a 14-year old aspiring writer will not automatically use readily available external evaluative criteria, such as English course grade, as the basis for judging her writing skills if she does not believe or accept this grade to reflect her writing potential. In contrast, she may place greater emphasis and value on her normative performance (i.e., a top-three placement) in creative writing competitions. In this situation, the student will probably not become overly concerned about a grade of B in her English class, yet will experience significant emotional and motivation turmoil if she does not perform well in the writing competitions. In short, although evaluative standards can be self-generated or provided through external sources, they will be used most frequently and have the greatest impact on student behavior and motivation when they are personally meaningful or relevant to that student. Types of self-evaluative criteria. Students can use different types of evaluative criteria to judge their competency and skills. Three common types of evaluative standards include: (a) mastery, (b) previous performance, and (c) normative [1]. These different criteria are important to consider because they can play an influential role on the conclusions and interpretations one generates about performance and personal competency. Mastery criteria typically involve using markers or benchmarks that represent core sets of skills ranging from novice to expert. Schools often use mastery criteria in their curriculum materials as well as part of the Individual Education Program (IEP) utilized within Special Education circles. This type of criterion is important because it focuses students’ attention on key indices of skill development or progress towards an important academic outcome. The second type of criteria, called prior performance or self-criteria, is a standard that is used to directly assess growth by comparing prior outcomes of an individual to his or her current performance outcomes. Both mastery
and self-criteria are emphasized in applied self-regulation intervention programs because they naturally direct students’ attention and reflective thoughts on their own behaviors and outcomes, a necessary condition for nurturing the development of self-directed or regulated learners [9]. Normative comparisons are a third type of criteria that are commonly observed in school environments, particularly in settings which emphasize, either directly or indirectly, public displays of student performance. In short, students employing this type of standard evaluate their skills and performance relative to their peer group. Social comparisons can yield impressive motivational benefits for students, particularly for those who are high achievers, because they imply that students are more competent or capable than others. Unfortunately, when students struggle in school and rely on normative comparisons to judge their capabilities, there is a high probability that their sense of efficacy and competence and resulting motivation will be adversely affected [1]. Of greatest importance, however, is that reliance on normative standards shifts students’ attention from personal progress and growth to factors that are largely unpredictable and out of their control. When academically at-risk students begin to focus much of their energy and attention on how their peers perform they can often lose sight of or fail to recognize actual progress that they are making; such as when a student improves her math test grades from a 69% to a 79% yet focuses only on the class average score 88%. If this student does not learn to monitor and evaluate progress based on self-criteria, she will probably not see the ten-point improvement in a positive fashion and may begin to exhibit adverse negative emotional and regulatory reactions, such as feelings of anxiety and incompetence. Level of difficulty. The difficulty level of the standards that students use to judge their performance outcomes can also play an important role in cultivating adaptive or dysfunctional self-evaluations. Suppose a seventh-grade student, Natasha, earned science test grades between 65% and 72% over a 2 month period. In the hopes of increasing her performance, Natasha decided to establish a difficult and challenging goal of 95% for her science tests. On her next two tests she received scores of 77% and 79%, respectively. One of her classmates, Tony, earned identical science test grades but developed a more modest yet challenging science test grade standard of 83%. Despite exhibiting identical science test scores, it is highly probable that Natasha and Tony will evaluate their performances in qualitatively distinctive ways. For example, because Natasha’s test performance fell far below her self-standard or goal she is at-risk for developing feelings of
Self-Evaluation in Academic Settings
dissatisfaction, anxiety, and low self-efficacy. In contrast, Tony is much more likely to interpret his grades of 77% and 79% as successes because he is increasingly getting closer to his standard of success. Similar to normative comparisons, when students develop and/or use personal standards that are overly difficult or challenging, they will have much greater difficulty recognizing personal progress, even when adequate or some growth is being made [8]. Setting short-term and moderately challenging standards is important from a regulatory viewpoint because such standards provide students with multiple opportunities to evaluate and reflect on their personal mastery of key academic skills or tasks.
Application of Academic Self-Evaluation Interventions Across Grade Levels Over the past couple of decades, the number of schoolbased self-regulation intervention programs has steadily increased [10–14]. Regardless of the variations in the theoretical foundations or developmental focus, these programs place primary importance on teaching students to self-evaluate using mastery- or self-criteria. As indicated previously, the use of these types of standards or self-evaluative criteria promotes adaptive self-regulation because students are continuously prompted to focus on their own behaviors and performances rather than on external or uncontrollable factors. Butler’s Strategic Content Learning (SCL) program has been successfully applied in middle school, high school, and college settings. A basic assumption of this approach is that students are active interpreters of task demands, their own knowledge and skills, and their development of these skills in relation to self-generated goals and standards [11, 12]. The SCL adheres to a largely constructivist paradigm whereby tutors are primarily responsible for facilitating or helping students generate their own strategies for solving academic-related activities. Another school-based intervention, called the SelfRegulation Empowerment Program (SREP), evolved from social-cognitive foundations and has been implemented with secondary school youth. This intervention involves teaching students to engage in the three-phase cycle of selfregulation, but places particular importance on teaching students how to adaptively reflect on personal progress [10, 15]. In one study, ninth-grade students who were failing or near failing in biology participated in approximately 22 sessions of SREP over a period of 2.5 months [15]. A key part of this program was the use of a SelfRegulation Graph as the primary vehicle to link all three cyclical phases. In this graphing procedure, students were taught to plot test grade standards or goals, to self-record
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their strategies, and then to plot their actual test grades. The use of this graph enabled students to use self-criteria (i.e., difference between their test grade standards and actual test grades) to evaluate the adequacy of their math test scores and to also link these self-evaluative judgments to their use of specific learning strategies. Emphasizing self-evaluation and other self-regulation principles in school-based settings is not only appropriate in middle school, high school, and college settings but also in the primary grades [13, 14]. Graham, Harris and colleagues have conducted extensive research on the effectiveness of the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) program for over 20 years [13]. Much of this research has focused on children in the primary grades with writing skill deficits. As part of this program, students are taught strategies to improve their writing performance but are also instructed to self-record and graph writing outcomes and then to compare these scores to a goal or set criterion. An interesting component of SRSD instruction is that students are not only taught to evaluate their behaviors and performance from a summative perspective, but also are often instructed to evaluate their engagement and execution of the writing process. This focus on self-evaluation is particularly useful in promoting adaptive regulatory behaviors because it directs students’ attention on the essential processes that are needed to successfully perform an academic task. Research has shown that when novices or inexperienced learners focus on outcomes before they master the requisite strategies or skills for a task, they will often not attain a high level of performance and may actually demonstrate lower motivational levels [6]. Researchers examining the effectiveness of math-based self-regulation interventions in the primary grades have also supported the basic premise that self-evaluative standards based on self-criteria are effective in promoting adaptive regulation and achievement [14]. Fuchs and colleagues conducted a study with third-grade students to examine the contribution of self-evaluation and goalsetting to students’ math problem-solving skills. In this study students were instructed to chart their daily scores on a math worksheet and then evaluate whether their scores beat prior performances. Similar to other intervention programs, the process of comparing one’s own performance outcomes over time is important because it directs students’ attention on their own behaviors and performance attainments, limiting the attention they devote to irrelevant or distracting factors that will not improve their performance. In sum, the use of self-evaluative standards is a critical component of the cyclical model of self-regulation
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because it helps to operationally define whether students’ skills and performance outcomes are adaptive. However, the mere act of self-evaluating is not enough to promote adaptive self-regulatory thought and action. It is also important to help students select personallymeaningful or valuable evaluative standards that naturally direct their attention on the essential task components which they are expected to perform. It is when students focus on the adequacy of their own skills and regulatory strategies that they can most effectively initiate modifications and adaptations to optimize their successes.
References 1. Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A socialcognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). Orlando, FL: Academic Press. 2. Winne, P. H. (2001). Self-regulated learning viewed from models of information processing. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Self-regulated learning and academic achievement (2nd ed., pp. 152–190). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 3. Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of self-regulation. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 4. Cleary, T. J., Zimmerman, B. J., & Keating, T. (2006). Training physical education students to self-regulate during basketball freethrow practice. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 77, 251–262. 5. Kitsantas, A., Reiser, R. A., & Doster, J. (2004). Developing selfregulated learners: Goal-setting, self-evaluation, and organizational signals during acquisition of procedural skills. The Journal of Experimental Education, 72, 269–287. 6. Zimmerman, B. J., & Kitsantas, A. (1997). Developmental phases in self-regulation: Shifting from process to outcome goals. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 29–36. 7. Shinn, M. R. (2008). Best practices in curriculum-based measurement. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Series Eds.), Best practices in school psychology (Vol. 1, 5th ed., pp. 349–362). Washington: National Association of School Psychologists. 8. Zimmerman, B. J. (2008). Goal setting: A key proactive source of academic self-regulation. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 267–296). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. 9. Fryer, J. W., & Elliot, A. J. (2008). Self-regulation of achievement goal pursuit. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 53–76). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. 10. Cleary, T. J., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2004). Self-regulation empowerment program: A school-based program to enhance self-regulated and self-motivated cycles of student learning. Psychology in the Schools, 41, 537–550. 11. Butler, D. (1998). The strategic content learning approach to promoting self-regulated learning: A report of three studies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 682–697. 12. Butler, D. L., Beckingham, B., & Lauscher, H. J. N. (2005). Promoting strategic learning by eight-grade students struggling in mathematics: A report of three case studies. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 20, 156–174.
13. Graham, S., & Harris, H. R. (2005). Improving the writing performance of young struggling writers: Theoretical and programmatic research from the center on accelerating student learning. The Journal of Special Education, 39, 19–33. 14. Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Prentice, K., Burch, M., Hamlett, C. L., Owen, R., et al. (2003). Enhancing third-grade students’ mathematical problem solving with self-regulated learning strategies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 306–315. 15. Cleary, T. J., Platten, P., & Nelson, A. C. (2008). Effectiveness of selfregulation empowerment program with urban high school students. Journal of Advanced Academics, 20(1), 70–107.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy ANNE FIERRO VANDERLAAN Saybrook University, Meridian, ID, USA
Synonyms Expectancy effect; Pygmalion effect
Definition The self-fulfilling prophecy holds that what a person believes about him/herself (or what others believe about them) will influence their performance. The self-fulfilling prophecy can act positively or negatively, depending on whether expectations are positive or negative.
Description In educational contexts, the self-fulfilling prophecy is often used to explain differences in performance among students, such that a high-performing student might be responding to high expectations from others (e.g., teachers, parents, classmates) while a low-performing student might be responding to low expectations. [2] illustrated the self-fulfilling prophecy through an experiment in which elementary school teachers treated students differently based on their initial positive expectations of those students, and over the course of the school year, students performed in ways that were consistent with teachers’ positive expectations. Subsequent research suggests that the effect can be positive or negative depending on whether teachers’ expectations are positive or negative. Thus, if teachers have positive expectations for a student, they are more likely to ask that student more difficult questions, smile and establish eye contact more often, and call on them more often in class, thereby gradually leading to better performance from the student. On the other hand, if a teacher has negative expectations for a student, the teacher is likely to
Self-Injurious Behavior
behave more critically or negatively, thereby creating a less rewarding environment for the student. In both situations, the student responds to cues from the teacher which leads to performance that is consistent with the teacher’s expectations. If parents and teachers understand how positive and negative expectations can change behavior, they can use this phenomenon to influence the child to behave in ways that are consistent with expectations. Expectations may be based on numerous characteristics, such as students’ gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language, appearance, and test scores.
References 1.
2. 3. 4.
Jones, R. A. (1977). Self-fulfilling prophecies: Social, psychological, and physiological effects of expectancies. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Snowman, J., & Biehler, R. (2006). Psychology applied to teaching (11th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Tauber, R. T. (1997). Self-fulfilling prophecy: a practical guide to its use in education. Westport: Praeger.
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Self-Inflicted Violence ▶Self-Injurious Behavior
Self-Injurious Behavior HEATHER C. TREPAL The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Cutting; Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI); Self-harm; Selfinflicted violence; Self-mutilation
Definition Self-injurious behavior (SIB) includes self-inflicted harm to the body, with or without tissue damage, without the intent to die.
Description
Self-Fulfillment ▶Self-Actualization
Self-Harm ▶Self-Injurious Behavior
Self-Help Skills ▶Adaptive Behavior
Self-Image ▶Self-Concept ▶Self-Esteem
SIBs are usually employed to reduce anxiety and tension in the mind and body and to relieve emotional pain [4]. They may also be used to punish the self and to express anger and emotions that cannot be put into words. There is some evidence that those who employ SIB do so in an attempt to feel “real” and avoid dissociation or emotional detachment [3]. Cutting and burning are the most common forms but other behaviors, ranging from hair-pulling to bone-breaking may also be classified as forms of SIB. Self-hitting and head banging are usually associated with children with autism or developmental disabilities. Piercing and tattooing are not considered SIB since they are usually associated with bodily decoration. Variables contributing to the development and reliance on SIBs are complex and may include a host of life experiences such as abuse, neglect, loss, violence and the inability to recognize, express or handle emotions [5]. Although not sex specific, there is some evidence that females in their teens are at the greatest risk of developing and relying on these behaviors [2]. At present, SIB does not have a formal diagnostic category in the DSM-IV-TR [1]. SIBs have been diagnostically linked to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), but this assumption has been challenged by recent prevalence studies. It has also been theorized that endorphins, the natural painkillers in the body which are released when someone self-injures, may play a role in
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the addictive or repetitive nature of self-injury. Many myths surround SIBs, with the most common being that those who self-harm want to commit suicide. The behaviors often mean just the opposite and through SIB adolescents are able to relieve emotions that might lead to suicide. Serious risks may result from SIB including infection and unintentional fatal harm. Therefore, it is important that children who self-injure receive a thorough risk assessment. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and psychotropic medications have all shown promise in treating these behaviors.
References 1.
2.
3.
4. 5.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author. Briere, J., & Gil, E. (1998). Self-mutilation in clinical and general population samples: Prevalence, correlates, and functions. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68, 609–620. Favazza, A. R. (1996). Bodies under siege: Self-mutilation and body modification in culture and psychiatry (2nd ed.). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Suyemoto, K. L. (1998). The functions of self-mutilation. Clinical Psychology Review, 18, 531–554. van der Volk, B. A., Perry, C., & Herman, J. L. (1991). Childhood origins of self-destructive behavior. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1165–1173.
Self-Judgment PATRICIA PHAEDONOS1, XENIA ANASTASSIOUHADJICHARALAMBOUS2 1 Center for Therapy, Training and Research, Nicosia, Cyprus 2 University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Definition Self-judgment results from thoughts individuals have about themselves and the meanings attached to those thoughts. The thoughts, hence, produce related feelings such as anxiety, anger, and depression. Judgments (The process of forming an opinion, or reaching a conclusion based on the available material.) people make about themselves can become habituated as they are used to explain and validate unhelpful thoughts (e.g., If I am harsh on myself, other people will not be as harsh) and they might, accordingly, be intended to protect people against emotional pain, failure and rejection.
Description Bandura (1993) introduced the notion of self-efficacy (An individual’s sense of their abilities, of their capacity to deal with the particular sets of conditions that life puts before them.) [2]. He stated that individuals need other people to be with them, to listen to them and to pay attention to them. Furthermore, new challenges appear continuously as people grow older. As a result, people attempt to become more competent, engage in new behaviors and therefore make new judgments of their personal effectiveness. These judgments concerning personal effectiveness usually determine and influence how individuals might think, feel and behave. Moreover, people’s judgments may affect their motivation and willingness when it comes to coping with challenging situations. On the one hand, the more able people perceive they are, the more likely they are to persist with a challenge. On the other hand, the less able people think they are, the less likely they are to cope with a difficulty. Self-judgments compose one’s self-esteem (The degree to which one values oneself.) after evaluating how one acts during times of perceived importance. One’s understanding of a situation might distort healthy self-attitudes. That might happen because people commonly are much more judgmental and critical when it comes to themselves, whereas they are usually more understanding when it comes to other people, sometimes even strangers [4]. Neff (2003) discusses the notion of self-compassion (An emotionally positive self-attitude that should protect against the negative consequences of self-judgment.). It is argued that if people accept that failure is a part of human experience, they will subsequently become less selfjudgmental. In addition, as one becomes less judgmental of oneself, then there is no need to compare to other people to enhance their self-esteem and they can therefore be less judgmental concerning other people [5]. Self-compassion requires self-forgiveness. It does not necessarily mean that failures must not be credited, nevertheless it means that individuals are not too harsh on themselves when they perceive a failure. A person that has self-compassion is not threatened during a failure, but challenges oneself and tries to improve. That is, a person feels safe to allow oneself to discover unhelpful thoughts, feelings and behaviors. People do not keep away or hold back distressing feelings in order to feel self-compassion. Self-compassion protects people from negative selfjudgment [6, 7]. According to Neff (2003) self-compassion consists of three elements. The first one is “self-kindness,” which means that one is being kind and understanding of
Self-Monitoring
oneself. The second element is “common humanity,” which is identifying one’s experiences as parts of the larger human experience and not personal ones. Accepting that failure and inadequacy are common, in respect to other people, reduces personal blame and negative self-judgment. The third element is “mindfulness” which implies that people should not identify with unhelpful thoughts, but hold them in balanced awareness and help oneself accept situations as they occur [5]. Thus, individuals can allow themselves to become less self-judgmental, and deal with their thoughts and feelings as they are, without having their self-esteem affected. In order to accept the experience for what it is, one must be aware of their unhelpful thoughts. If individuals dwell on emotions connected to failure or inadequacy, they are more likely to judge themselves negatively. Neff (2003) supports that the less selfjudgmental one is, the more balanced self-awareness one gains [5]. Distress can be reduced when individuals move away from negative thoughts and permit themselves to be aware of their thoughts without being self-judgmental. People who are trained to use mindfulness can focus their attention to the present and become aware of how their thoughts can guide them to behave in a certain way. Individuals, therefore, allow themselves to become less judgmental of themselves, because their focus is detached from the assessments they make concerning rejection and failure [1, 3].
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
5. 6. 7.
Allen, N., & Knight, W. (2005). Mindfulness, compassion for self, and compassion for others: Implications for understanding the psychopathology and treatments of depression. In P. Gilbet (Ed.), Compassion: Conceptualizations, research and use in psychotherapy (pp. 239–262). London: Routledge. Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28, 117–148. Frewen, P. A., Evans, E. M., Maraj, N., Dozois, D. J. A., & Patridge, K. (2008). Letting go: Mindfulness and negative automatic thinking. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 758–774. Lee, D. (2005). The perfect nurturer: The model to develop a compassionate mind within the context of cognitive therapy. In P. Gilbet (Ed.), Compassion: Conceptualizations, research and use in psychotherapy (pp. 326–351). London: Routledge. Neff, K. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2, 85–101. Williams, M. (2008). Mindfulness, depression and modes of mind. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 721–733. Zvolensky, J., Solomon, S. E., McLeish, A. C., Cassidy, D., Bernstein, A., Bowman, C. J., et al. (2006). Incremental validity of mindfulnessbased attention in relation to the concurrent prediction of anxiety and depressive symptomatology and perceptions of health. Cognitive Behavior Therapy, 35(3), 148–158.
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Self-Knowledge ▶Self-Understanding
Self-Management ▶Self-Regulation
Self-Monitoring Synonyms Self-management; Self-observation
Definition As part of self-regulation, self-monitoring is the process of observing and recording one’s own behavior.
Description To achieve a goal, one must observe, evaluate, and record the process and be aware of how well one is doing. Selfmonitoring is critical to determine whether one is making progress at a task. Self-monitoring has been documented to increase students’ attention and the number of tasks they complete. Through self-monitoring, individuals can modify their behaviors so that inappropriate behaviors can be replaced with more appropriate ones. Typically, individuals who see that they are making progress towards their goals are more likely to sustain their efforts and can lead to a sense of accomplishment. Thus, self-monitoring can lead to increased motivation. Researchers have offered a few suggestions for promoting self-monitoring: 1. Encourage children to create questions about the material they are learning, and then answering the questions they create 2. Demonstrate to children the process of evaluating their own performance 3. Delay feedback so that children can evaluate their own performance 4. Suggest specific criteria so that children can use them as a guide to evaluate their performance 5. Encourage independent learning over time
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Relevance to Childhood Development Young children often have difficulty monitoring their own behavior. However, as they mature cognitively and through guidance, children are more able to control and observe their actions. Children may not always be aware of how frequently or how well they do something. To help them focus on their behaviors, adults can ask them to observe and record their behaviors. Through this strategy, significant improvements in children’s academic and social behaviors can be seen.
References 1.
2. 3.
Harris, K. R. (1986). Self-monitoring of attentional behavior versus self-monitoring of productivity: Effects of on-task behavior and academic response rate among learning disabled children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 19, 417–423. Schunk, D., & Zimmerman, B. J. (1997). Social origins of selfregulatory competence. Educational Psychologist, 32, 195–208. Winne, P. H. (1995). Self-regulation is ubiquitous but its forms vary with knowledge. Educational Psychologist, 30, 223–228.
Self-Motivation ▶Self-Reinforcement
Self-Mutilation ▶Self-Injurious Behavior
Self-Observation ▶Self-Monitoring
Self-Percept ▶Sense of Self
Self-Reflection ▶Self-Evaluation in Academic Settings
Self-Regulated Learning Definition Self-regulated learning is the process of taking responsibility for and having awareness and control over one’s own learning.
Description Self-regulated learning describes learning that is guided by strategic actions (planning, self-monitoring, control, and evaluation). In particular, self-regulated learners set goals, reflect on past experiences, use strategies, monitor their progress, and are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. As a result of these actions, self-regulated learners tend to do well academically. Examples of self-regulated learning would be scheduling ahead and organizing effectively to achieve desired goals. Periodically checking to see if progress is being made towards the goal is an example of self-monitoring, a crucial step in self-regulated learning. If progress is not being made, self-regulated learners will modify their plan accordingly to reach their goal. Control includes the ability to direct one’s attention to the goal at hand and not letting outside distractions interfere in the learning process. Lastly, evaluation is simply assessing the outcome of one’s efforts so that improvements can be made for future tasks.
Relevance to Childhood Development In order help students develop self-regulation, there are a couple of strategies suggested by researchers: 1. Scaffold students’ learning process and then gradually allow students to take responsibility over their own learning. 2. Emphasize the relationship between taking responsibility and academic achievement. 3. Encourage students to set their own goals and then monitor and evaluate their progress. 4. Frequently allow students to monitor their comprehension and evaluate their own performance. Children often begin the learning process from watching others (also known as vicarious learning). When children are given a task to accomplish with a set goal from a parent or a teacher, they learn strategies to complete the goal. Over time, they are able to set their own learning goals. In relation to the development of self-regulated learning, as children learn initial strategies to accomplish small tasks and goals, for example, completing their homework
Self-Regulation
on time, they will eventually set higher goals for themselves later on, such as completing college. As children grow, they become increasingly competent in evaluating their own performance. Young children often seek adults’ approval as a means of evaluation on how well they have done. Older children (middle school students) show an increase in self-awareness and selfevaluations become more frequent and accurate.
References 1. 2.
3.
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5.
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review Psychology, 52, 1–26. Brown, A. (1987). Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation and other more mysterious mechanisms. In F. E. Weinert & R. H. Kluwe (Eds.), Metacognition, motivation, and understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Pintrich, P. R. (2000). The role of goal orientation in self-regulated learning. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 451–502). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Zimmerman, B. J. (1998). Developing self-fulfilling cycles of academic regulation: An analysis of exemplary instructional models. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds.), Self-regulated learning: From teaching to self-reflective practice (pp. 1–19). New York: Guilford Press. Zimmerman, B. J., & Schunk, D. (2001). (Eds.). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theoretic perspectives (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Self-Regulation HE´FER BEMBENUTTY Queens College of the City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA
Synonyms Academic delay of gratification; Active learning; Autonomy; Delay of gratification; Impulse control; Self-control; Self-directed learning; Self-discipline; Self-evaluation in academic settings; Self-management
Definition Self-regulation of learning refers to the process in which learners self-initiate thoughts, behaviors, and feelings in order to pursue valuable academic goals.
Concept of Self-Regulation During the last 3 decades, self-regulation of learning has emerged as an important area of research helpful to
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explain academic success. The seminal work of Albert Bandura placed self-regulation of learning as a pivotal component of any major academic endeavor. For instance, self-regulation of learning has been studied in most major areas of human development and learning such as in school, college, and medical settings, sport and industrial organizational tasks, and in direct classroom instruction as well as on online instruction. According to Bandura [1], individuals can influence and be in dominion of their environment in order to fulfill important goals. They can produce desired consequences and manage their behavior in a purposeful manner to secure objective attainment and realization. Likewise, Zimmerman [5] observed that students could engage in self-directive learning processes by using their social and cognitive resources in order to attain academic achievement. Zimmerman [5] proposed that learners have the capacity to engage in a cyclical self-regulated learning process in which they establish standards, set academic goals, regulate their beliefs and motivation, select learning strategies to be used, monitor their academic progress, and self-evaluate their progression toward goal completion. Further, Zimmerman [5] observed that in the face of obstacles, learners need to delay gratification [2]. Skilled self-regulated learners are those who generate extraordinary motivational beliefs in order to secure goal accomplishments. They are also those who when conflicts arise between pursuing important academic goals and alternative tempting options, learn how to remain taskfocused despite immediate impulses to succumb to attractive temptations. On the other hand, less-skilled selfregulated learners are unable and often unwilling to generate appropriate self-efficacy beliefs, interest, task value, and outcome expectancies that could secure their successful attainment of predetermined academic goals. These differences between these two types of learners may be explained by learners’ personal characteristics such as personal goals, vicarious experiences, history of reinforcement, and modeling, as well as environmental and social conditions that influence learning. Self-regulated learners value learning and set suitable achievement goals. They plan and manage time effectively. They hold positive beliefs about their own abilities and use appropriate cognitive strategies such as critical thinking, organization, rehearsal, and elaboration. By contrast, less regulated learners do not see the value of learning and are often unwilling or unable to set goals. They act reactively and impulsively rather than reflectively and often fail to delay gratification. They focus on rote memorization rather than on deep and effective learning strategies.
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Cyclical Phases of Self-Regulation According to Zimmerman [5], self-regulation of learning involves three cyclical phases. Specifically, during the forethought phase, learners, as proactive agents, engage in selfgenerating goals, strategic planning, intrinsic interest on tasks, and sustain self-efficacy beliefs. Then, self-regulated learners proceed to self-monitor their goals, beliefs, and use of strategies by comparing their performance with appropriate standards, by seeking help when it is necessary, and by engaging in social and environmental control. During this performance phase, learners initiate actions by which they enact volitional control and use strategies such self-instruction, imagery, self-monitoring, and attention control. Finally, during the self-reflective phase, the process of self-regulation ends with learners’ self-reflection of their level of satisfaction with task completion and self-evaluation of task completion. During this phase, learners initiate self-evaluation of their performance, examine their attributions and self-reactions, and adapt their performance according to their successes or failures.
Components of Self-Regulation An important motivational factor associated with selfregulation and academic achievement is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to the beliefs that individuals possess about their ability to perform an expected task [1, 5]. Students with high self-efficacy may decide to continue working on an important assignment when anxiety arises or when faced with tempting alternative activities. However, students with low self-efficacy beliefs may not only succumb to a temptation, they may let disruptive thoughts interfere with performance. Effort regulation is another self-regulatory variable associated with achievement [4]. Effort regulation refers to students’ intention to put forth resources, energy, and time to secure completion of important academic tasks [4]. In an academic setting, self-regulation of academic tasks is imperative because it could determine academic achievement and performance. It is well documented that deficiencies in self-regulation of learning, cognitive capacity, and poor study habits interfere with academic performance among learners [5]. Self-regulation has three components. First, selfregulated learners engage in self-observation by scanning, examining, and viewing their own behavior, feelings, emotions, and reactions. Second, effective learners engage in self-judgment by comparing their behavior and actions to established standards such as teachers’ rubrics or consulting knowledgeable peers or adults. Third, skilled learners engage in self-reflection by responding effectively to the outcomes of their efforts. These appropriate responses range from
engaging in self-praise and self-reward for successfully completing designated tasks to changing strategies that were not helpful in the attainment of specific goals.
Relevance to Childhood Development Self-regulation during skills acquisition could explain individual differences among learners. In the classroom, some students exhibit adaptive self-regulatory strategies and motivational patterns while engaging in academic tasks, such as exerting appropriate effort for success, enjoying the challenge, using appropriate learning strategies, setting specific goals, and displaying high self-efficacy levels [3]. In contrast, other students cease trying, lose interest in the activity, are unable to set specific goals and strategies, and have low self-efficacy [3]. Students exhibiting low skills to self-regulate their behavior rarely achieve high levels of academic success.
References 1. 2. 3.
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5.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Bembenutty, H., & Karabenick, S. A. (1998). Academic delay of gratification. Learning and Individual Differences, 10(4), 329–346. Pintrich, P. R., & Schunk, D. H. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill Prentice-Hall. Pintrich, P. R., Smith, D. A. F., Garcı´a, T., & McKeachie, W. J. (1993). Reliability and predictive validity of the motivational strategies for learning questionnaire (MSLQ). Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53, 801–813. Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Self-Regulation of Emotion ▶Regulation of Emotion
Self-Reinforcement ANTHONY R. ARTINO, JR. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Synonyms Reinforcement; Self-reward
Self-consequating;
Self-motivation;
Self-Reinforcement
Definition Self-reinforcement is a process whereby individuals control their own behavior by rewarding themselves when a certain standard of performance has been attained or surpassed.
Description Self-reinforcement is a method of self-conditioning that acts to strengthen the association between certain stimuli and certain responses [8]. In the behavioral theory of operant conditioning, the most fundamental principle is that a response followed by a reinforcer is strengthened and is therefore more likely to occur again [7]. Reinforcement, then, is the act of following a response with a reinforcer and is one of the primary tools of operant conditioning. Socially-mediated reinforcement (or direct reinforcement) involves the delivery of reinforcement from another person [3, 7]. In his description of social cognitive theory, Bandura [3] proposed two other forms of reinforcement: vicarious reinforcement and self-reinforcement. Vicarious reinforcement occurs when an observer witnesses another person being reinforced for a behavior, which results in the observer increasing his production of that behavior [2]. Self-reinforcement, on the other hand, occurs when an individual establishes a personal standard of conduct and then rewards himself based on successful attainment of that standard [3]. An example of this would be a student who decides she will treat herself to dessert if she can complete one more chapter in her textbook. Self-reinforcement processes have played a prominent role in behavioral theories of self-regulation (sometimes referred to as self-control or self-management; [4, 5]). Self-regulation of behavior involves three key subprocesses: self-monitoring, self-instruction, and selfreinforcement [6]. Although scholars differ somewhat in their description of the self-reinforcement sub-process, they all agree that behavior can be acquired and maintained through the self-administration of reinforcers that are contingent on the performance of certain responses [4]. For example, Bandura [1] argued that self-reinforcement represents an essential facet of selfregulation in that individuals regulate their behavior by making self-rewards contingent on self-prescribed standards of performance. In Bandura’s [1] view, selfreinforcement has three defining properties. First, individuals must have full control of reinforcers such that they are freely available. Second, reinforcers are selfadministered contingent upon performing requisite behaviors, which necessarily entails the self-denial of awards until the conditional behavior has been
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accomplished. Finally, self-reinforcement requires the adoption of performance standards that determine the specific criteria for reinforcement [1]. Social cognitive theorists have described selfreinforcement (or so-called self-consequating) as one of the many strategies used by students to self-regulate their learning and motivation [8, 10]. In an attempt to address the dynamic, adaptive nature of self-regulation, contemporary social cognitive views go beyond previous behavioral theories by considering not only behavioral factors but also cognitive and affective components [6]. For example, Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons [10] found that elementary school students reported using various self-consequating strategies, such as giving themselves concrete rewards for finishing school work in the face of other more appealing activities. Moreover, Wolters [8] described empirical evidence that in addition to concrete rewards or pleasing behavioral activities, students may also make verbal statements to themselves as a more immediate way of self-consequating their motivation and behavior. For instance, while reading a textbook, a student might tell himself, “You read another chapter, great job! You are making outstanding progress now.” Ultimately, using such self-praising or self-reinforcing statements has been found to be an effective means of increasing one’s effort while completing academic tasks [8].
Relevance to Childhood Development As an important component in self-regulation, selfreinforcement has been shown to be an effective strategy for controlling behavior, motivation, and learning. Furthermore, evidence from several theoretical perspectives indicates that learners who use self-reinforcement strategies also report more adaptive motivational beliefs, such as greater self-efficacy beliefs, the use of various cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies [9], and improved study habits and academic performance [5]. In sum, selfreinforcement is positively associated with a variety of favorable academic outcomes in children. Research has also revealed that self-reinforcement strategies can be learned and therefore can be taught by parents and teachers to support the growing independence of children. What is more, the reinforcement itself may be more important than the agent of reinforcement (self or others; [6]). In fact, research has shown that self-reinforcement can be as effective in modifying student behaviors as reinforcement administered by a teacher [5]. Self-reinforcement helps children become active agents of their personal and academic endeavors. It does so by giving them the personal belief that the outcomes of their efforts depend, in large part, on them, and that they decide
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what consequences should follow their efforts and actions. Developmentally, self-reinforcement is initially supervised by parents and teachers at early stages of skill acquisition [6]. However, independence and free choice of self-rewards are internalized by children as they mature and acquire a stable level of self-regulation. Moreover, as children acquire the skills of self-reinforcement, teachers and parents continue to serve as social models for appropriate selfreinforcement behaviors. Eventually, children internalize the basic patterns of the models and begin to select, on their own, appropriate reinforcement consistent with the task at hand and their cognitive and social development. Although direct reinforcement administered by parents and teachers is important, the ultimate goal is for children to acquire the ability to engage in successful self-reinforcement of their own behavior, motivation, and learning.
Self-Representation ▶Self-Concept
Self-Restraint ▶Inhibition
Self-Reward ▶Self-Reinforcement
References 1. Bandura, A. (1976). Self-reinforcement: Theoretical and methodological considerations. Behaviorism, 4, 135–155. 2. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 3. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 4. Jones, R. T., Nelson, R. E., & Kazdin, A. E. (1977). The role of external variables in self-reinforcement: A review. Behavior Modification, 1, 147–178. 5. Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Human learning (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. 6. Schunk, D. H. (2008). Learning theories: An educational perspective (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. 7. Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 8. Wolters, C. A. (2003). Regulation of motivation: Evaluating an underemphasized aspect of self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(4), 189–205. 9. Wolters, C. A. (2004). Advancing achievement goal theory: Using goal structures and goal orientations to predict students’ motivation, cognition, and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 236–250. 10. Zimmerman, B., & Martinez-Pons, M. (1986). Development of a structured interview for assessing student use of self-regulated learning strategies. American Educational Research Journal, 23, 614–628.
Self-Talk CHANGIZ MOHIYEDDINI, CECILIA A. ESSAU Roehampton University, London, UK
Synonyms Egocentric speech; Inner speech; Internal dialogue; Internal monologue; Private speech; Verbal rehearsal and selfstatements
Definition Self-talk refers to a person’s talk to oneself about oneself (e.g., [4, 29, 31, 33]). Self-talk includes all the intentional and automatic self-focused aloud or within one’s own thoughts that run through an individual’s mind [9]. The notion of automatic self-talk emphasizes that individuals are not always aware of doing so [35].
Description
Self-Reliance ▶Autonomy
Self-Report Measures ▶Behavior Assessment System for Children: Second Edition (BASC-2)
Self-talk seems to be one of the most frequent cognitive activities in human life, in that almost every minute of our waking lives we talk to ourselves [24]. Hence, it is plausible, following the common notion in psychology that emotions and behavior can be generated through multiple cognitive processes, to assume that self-talk may provide a direct impetus for human emotion and behavior [10]. Yet on the other hand, it could be expected that the emotional states that are activated by self-talk may intensify the impact of self-talk and contribute additionally to influence behavior [23].
Self-Talk
A growing body of empirical results has helped to expose the role of self-talk as an important strategy in reasoning [16], problem solving [8] or in planning (Morin, 1988). A burgeoning literature shows that selftalk is closely related to self-awareness [24], self-efficacy (e.g., [32]) and plays a crucial role in self-regulation [9, 21]. According to Depape et al. [8], self-talk seems to be a prerequisite of personal intelligence [12, 13] and of emotional intelligence [30] since it helps to integrate perspectives of others in one’s own private speech and perspective. Segrist (1995) maintains that self-talk fosters both private self-consciousness and public self-consciousness because it facilitates acquiring information about the self. According to Morin [24], the frequency, duration and intensity of self-talk increases when conflicting perspectives within the self or between self and others occur. It is crucial to differ between self-talk with positive (e.g., you can do it!) or negative (e.g., you are a loser) contents. Empirical results show that positive self-talk fosters creativity [3] and is associated with higher athletic performance [7, 22] whereas negative self-talk is related to poorer athletic performance (e.g., [17, 20]). These findings have stimulated interest in intervention programs fostering positive self-talk and reducing negative self-talk in athletes (e.g., [1, 34]). Reinforcement of athletes to use positive self-talk and avoid negative self-talk is perceived to be one of the most strongly advocated and frequently applied coaching strategies [15, 28]. Another line of inquiry has focused on the antecedents and consequences of self-talk in abnormal behavior and psychological disorders (e.g., [5, 14, 27, 36]). Studies have shown that negative self-talk in adults is related to onset and progression of depression [2], agoraphobia [6], drinking [26], and pathological gambling [11]. According to Kimberli et al. [19] studies with adolescents provide consistent findings with the adult literature. Hence, a cornerstone of cognitive-behavioral therapy of emotional disorders is the reduction of automatic negative self-talk and its replacement with neutral or positive selftalk (e.g., [18]).
References 1. Andersen, M. B. (2000). Doing sport psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 2. Beck, A. T., Brown, G., Steer, R. A., Eidelson, I., & Riskind, J. H. (1987). Differentiating anxiety and depression utilizing the cognition checklist. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 179–183. 3. Bibler, V. S. (1983). Thinking as creation: Introduction to the logic of mental dialogue. Soviet Psychology, 22, 33–54. 4. Brinthaupt, T. M., Hein, M. B., & Kramer, T. E. (2005). The self-talk scale: Development, higher-order factor analysis, and validation. Manuscript submitted for publication.
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5. Burns, D. (1980). Feeling good: The new mood therapy. New York: William Morrow. 6. Chambless, D. L., Caputo, G. C., Bright, P., & Gallagher, R. (1984). Assessment of fear in agoraphobics: The body sensations questionnaire and the agoraphobic cognitions questionnaire. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 52, 1090–1097. 7. Cohn, P. J. (1991). An exploratory study on peak performance in golf. Sport Psychologist, 5, 1–14. 8. Depape, A. M. R., Hakim-Larson, J., Voelker, S., Page, S., & Jackson, D. L. (2006). Self-talk and emotional intelligence in university students. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 38, 250–260. 9. Duncan, R. M., & Cheyne, J. A. (2002). Private speech in young adults: Task difficulty, self-regulation, and psychological predication. Cognitive Development, 16, 889–906. 10. Eysenck, M. W. & Keane, M. T. (2005). Cognitive psychology. London: Taylor & Francis. 11. Gaboury, A., & Ladouceur, R. (1989). Erroneous perceptions and gambling. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 4(4), 411–420. 12. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. 13. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books. 14. Girodo, M., & Roehl, J. (1978). Cognitive preparation and coping self-talk: Anxiety management during the stress of flying. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 978–989. 15. Gould, D., Hodge, K., Peterson, K., & Giannini, J. (1989). An exploratory examination of strategies used by elite coaches to enhance self-efficacy in athletes. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 11, 128–140. 16. Harris, K. R. (1986). The effects of cognitive-behavior modification on private speech and task performance during problem solving among learning-disabled and normally achieving children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 14, 63–67. 17. Highlen, P. S., & Bennett, B. B. (1979). Psychological characteristics of successful and nonsuccessful elite wrestlers: An exploratory study. Journal of Sport Psychology, 1, 123–137. 18. Kendall, P. C., & Choudhury, M. S. (2003). Children and adolescents in cognitive-behavioral therapy: Some past efforts and current advances, and the challenges in our future. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 89–104. 19. McPherson, S. L. (2000). Expert-novice differences in planning strategies during collegiate singles tennis competition. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 22, 39–62. 20. Meichenbaum, D. (1977). Cognitive-behavior modification: An integrative approach. New York: Plenum. 21. Mellalieu, S., & Hanton, S. (2008). Advances in applied sport psychology. A Review. London: Routledge. 22. Mohiyeddini, C., Pauli, G., & Bauer, S. (2009). The role of emotion in bridging the intention–behaviour gap: The case of sports participation. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 10, 226–234. 23. Morin, A. (1993). Self-talk and self-awareness: On the nature of the relation. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 14, 223–234. 24. Morin, A., & Everett, J. (1990). Inner speech as a mediator of selfawareness, self-consciousness, and self-knowledge: An hypothesis. New Ideas in Psychology, 8, 337–356. 25. Oei, T. P., & Young, R. M. (1987). The roles of alcohol-related selfstatements in social drinking. International Journal of the Addictions, 22(10), 905–915. 26. Padesky, C. A. (with Greenberger, D.) (1995). Clinicians guide to mind over mood. New York: Guilford. 27. Park, J. K. (2000). Coping strategies used by Korean national athletes. Sport Psychologist, 14, 63–80.
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28. Piaget, J. (1965). The language and thought of the child. New York: Humanities Press. 29. Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9, 185–211. 30. Siegrist, M. (1995). Inner speech as a cognitive process mediating self-consciousness and inhibiting selfdeception. Psychological Reports, 76, 259–265. 31. Treadwell, K. R. H., & Kendall, P. C. (1996). Self-talk in youth with anxiety disorders: States of mind, content specificity, and treatment outcome. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(5), 941–950. 32. Vargas-Tonsing, T. M., Myers, N. D., & Feltz, D. L. (2004). Coaches and athlete0 perceptions of efficacy-enhancing techniques. The Sport Psychologist, 18, 397–414. 33. Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge: MIT Press. (Original work published 1934.) 34. Williams, J. M., & Leffingwell, T. R. (2002). Cognitive strategies in sport and exercise psychology. In J. L. Van Raalte & B. W. Brewer (Eds.), Exploring sport and exercise psychology (pp. 75–98). Washington: American Psychological Association. 35. Winsler, A., & Naglieri, J. (2003). Overt and covert verbal problemsolving strategies: Developmental trends in use, awareness, and relations with task performance in children aged 5 to 17. Child Development, 74, 659–678. 36. Zarb, J. M. (1992). Cognitive-behavioral assessment and therapy with adolescents. New York: Brunner Mazel.
Self-Treatment ▶Self-Care
Self-Understanding PHYLLIS CURTIS-TWEED Medgar Evers College/CUNY, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Synonyms Self-Knowledge
Definition Self-understanding is the individual’s cognitive representation of the self which includes awareness of one’s characteristics, traits, talents and abilities, as well as thoughts and attitudes that one has about the self.
Description Self-understanding focuses on the cognitive processes involved in personal identity and individuation as opposed to other-oriented processes of social
understanding. It emerges in early childhood and develops through late adolescence as the individual has various experiences and as cognitive processes mature. Selfunderstanding includes self-evaluation that is foundational to self development, including self-worth and selfesteem.
Relevance to Childhood Development Most research on the development of self-understanding focuses on early childhood through late adolescence, ages 4–18. Self-understanding emerges in childhood and develops through late adolescence as children become increasingly aware of their own characteristics, traits, talents and abilities. These self-perceptions are based on the experiences of the self in context, such as interactions with others including parents, peers or society at large. Such experiences foster positive or negative self perceptions relative to the image reflected by the other and internalized by the self. In the nineteenth century, William James proposed that the self consisted of the “I” or subjective and “me” or objective self [2]. The subjective self embodies unconscious processes that may not be observable. The objective self is action oriented and observable. James proposed that the subjective self may be understood through its objective component. According to James, experience is the source of knowledge about the self. G.H. Mead [3] further proposed that self perception is derived from interpersonal interaction, in that one derives a sense of “me” from the perspectives of others. Experiences internalized by the subjective self inform self-understanding, and consequently impact behavior manifested by the objective self. On the basis of the work of James and Mead, Damon and Hart developed a self understanding model in which they conceptualize individuation or the differentiation of the self from society [1]. In Damon and Hart’s model (1988), self-understanding is divided into two dimensions, the “self-as-object” or the “me,” and the “self-assubject” or the “I” self (p. 10). These dimensions are further divided into seven subcomponents with four agerelated organizing principles which are hierarchical in level of complexity. The dimension of self-as-subject includes perceptions of the self as physical, active, psychological, and social. The dimension of the self-as-object includes the sense of continuity, distinctness and agency. The age-related organizing principles are categorical identification in early childhood, comparative assessments in middle-late childhood, interpersonal implications in early adolescence, and systematic beliefs and plans in late adolescence. Damon and Hart stress that while the development
Selman’s Stages of Friendship Development
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of the organizing principles may be age-related, all dimensions are manifested during each age period. For example, at all ages, individuals have a sense of their physical, active social and psychological characteristics. Early selfcharacterizations are used in increasingly complex reconceptualized states in later age periods. For example, an individual in early childhood might describe him or herself in terms of a physical property, like being thin. However, by late adolescence, the description should include a reflection of personal or moral standards, like associating being thin with eating moderately in consideration of world hunger. According to researchers, the attainment of higher developmental levels of self understanding provides preferable conditions for positive psychological development. Self-understanding is not synonymous with but is foundational to self-esteem, self-concept, and self-identity.
Description
References
At this level, actions are often equated with physical characteristics or capabilities rather than psychological intentions. This level is associated with the least differentiated level of social perspective coordination, Level 0.
1. 2. 3.
Damon, W., & Hart, D. (1988). Self-understanding in childhood and adolescence. New York: Cambridge University Press. James, W. (1985). Psychology: The briefer course. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press (Originally published, 1892). Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Self-Worth ▶Self-Esteem
Selman’s Stages of Friendship Development PHYLLIS CURTIS-TWEED Medgar Evers College/CUNY, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Definition Selman’s Stages of Friendship Development describe the social cognitive development of children as they make meaning of interpersonal interactions in the context of friendship. The friendship stages are based on Selman’s social perspective coordination stages, which describe children’s growing ability to differentiate and coordinate social perspectives in interpersonal interaction. The stages are age-related and hierarchical in complexity.
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Selman’s levels of friendship development describe children’s increasing capacity for mutual collaboration through the processes of intimacy and autonomy that occur in the context of friendship. Friendship levels are closely related to levels of social perspective coordination which describe the child’s increasing capacity to coordinate perspectives. The friendship levels may be understood as an expansion on social perspective coordination as applied to the context of friendship. The levels coordinate strongly with developmental stages so that each level is associated with an age range. The behaviors are seen typically to emerge at the lower age limit and to be crystallized by the upper age limit. The five levels begin at 0 and end at 4.
Level 0: Ages 3–6 Egocentric Understanding of Friendship
Level 1: Ages 5–9 Unilateral Understanding of Friendship Children realize that feelings and intentions may keep together or divide friendships. However, they tend to understand these feelings and intentions from only one individual’s perspective as opposed to reciprocal perspectives within a relationship. For example, Selman and Schultz [1] state that children at this level might understand not being invited to a party in terms of being denied something they want to do but not necessarily in terms of being rejected by another. At this level of social perspective coordination, children can differentiate between physical actions and psychological characteristics, such as intentions and feelings. However, this understanding is not sophisticated enough to detect differences between outward behaviors or appearances and inward feelings. Selman and Schultz [1] state that a child at this level still interprets subjective states of others in terms of surface actions (e.g., he must be happy because he is smiling).
Level 2: Ages 7–12 Reciprocal Understanding of Friendship At this level, children use reciprocal social perspective coordination, and conceptualize trust, jealousy, and rejection in friendship in terms of reciprocal expectations for behavior, feelings and intentions. In level 2 social perspective coordination, children can view their own actions
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from a second person perspective, and understand that one person may have multiple feelings simultaneously. They also understand that inward feelings may diverge from outward experiences (e.g., a person’s smile does not necessarily mean that they are happy). They also understand that one can use outward appearance to mask inward feelings and prevent others from knowing how they really feel.
Level 3: Ages 10–15 (May Start as Early as 8) Mutual Understanding of Friendship At this level, children understand mutual commitment within a relationship, rather than simply understanding each other’s perspectives. Friendship is viewed as a bond of commitment that developed over time and through mutually shared experiences. Such a bond is not easily broken. Conceptualizations of jealousy, trust, and rejection are included in the bond of commitment between friends. This level is characterized by intense exclusivity in friendships as exemplified by some strong attachments in adolescent friendships. At this level in social perspective coordination, the child can step outside the perspectives of self and other to take a third person perspective to view friendship as an ongoing system characterized by reciprocity and mutually shared experiences.
social cognitive development. Selman views progression in social coordination to be developmentally-related differentiations and integrations of meaning-making regarding children’s personal experiences and social interactions. Selman has defined stages of interpersonal understanding in four domains, including friendship, peer groups, parent-child relations and individuals based on his social perspective coordination model. The levels of social perspective coordination are used to describe how children come to achieve their interpersonal understanding in the four domains. Selman’s friendship stages specifically provide a tool for the in-depth understanding and explanation of social and emotional development in the context of friendship. This model has been used in pair-therapy to help children share experiences and negotiate conflicts in dyadic relationships. It has also provided the foundation for the developmental of the interpersonal negotiation strategies model and for other intervention strategies.
References 1.
Level 4: Ages Adolescence Through Adulthood Interdependent Understanding of Friendship At this level, individuals move beyond the exclusivity of the previous level to understand that friends may be mutually close but also autonomous and independent. At this level of social perspective coordination, individuals also achieve a conception of the unconscious, an understanding that individuals may be affected by thoughts and feelings that are not necessarily self-reflectively or objectively perceived. There is also an awareness that the meanings of friendship may be deeply entrenched in symbolic communication and understandings developed on the basis of shared history. Therefore, in interpersonal interaction, long standing friends may be able to communicate with a simple look or other symbolic gesture on the basis of their knowledge of one another.
Relevance to Childhood Development Robert Selman has an ongoing interest in understanding and facilitating growth in children’s development of interpersonal understanding or the capacity to coordinate perspectives. According to Selman, this developing ability to differentiate and coordinate the social perspectives of self and other cognitively and emotionally is the essence of
Selman, R., & Schulz, L. (1990). Making a Friend in Youth: Developmental theory and Pair therapy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Semantics Definition The study of meaning in language
Description Semantics is specifically concerned with how words and sentences convey meaning. Within semantics there are two forms of meaning, denotation and connotation. Denotation is the dictionary definition of a word, and connotation is a word’s emotional overtones, assumptions, and other ambiguous meanings. The combination of denotation and connotation create word meanings in different contexts. Semantics encompasses word and sentence meaning, but also extends to the understanding of discourse. Discourse is the highest level of semantics, including conversation, stories, paragraphs, chapters, and books. Also, gestures, body language, and personal space all have semantic meaning.
References 1.
Sternberg, R. J. (2006). Language: Nature and Acquisition. In R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Cognitive Psychology Fifth Edition (pp. 341–379). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Sensorimotor Dysfunction
Semi-Objective Scales ▶Rating Scales
Sense of Oneself ▶Self-Concept
Sense of Self JANET L. ETZI Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA, USA
Synonyms Identity; Self-Concept; Self-percept
Definition The lived experience of being a self, and with the end of infancy and the development of a sense of a subjective self, identifying oneself as who one is.
Description The sense of self has only recently been conceptualized in a systematic and comprehensive way by Daniel Stern [5]. Prior to Stern’s work the self was discussed in the disciplines of philosophy and psychology, but without rooting it in any empirical science. Hence its usefulness was limited for psychology and for development even though it was taken for granted in many instances. For example, identity development was mapped out by Erikson [3] and identity disturbances were thought to occur in dissociative disorders [1]. However, without a systematic conceptualization or one based on empirical evidence, these phenomena only raised more questions about the role of the self or identity, rather than explaining them. Stern delineated four major senses of the self: the sense of an emergent self, the sense of a core self (self vs. other), the sense of a core self (self with other), and the sense of a subjective self. His use of the term “sense” is deliberate and proposes an immediately lived and experienced, or sensed, self. This understanding of the self is new for psychology and due to its basis in empirical findings from infancy research, the sense of self, the subjectively experienced self, can now be studied in a more systematic and rigorous fashion. The sense of self is the subjective
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perspective of the human person which changes qualitatively from infancy onward.
Relevance to Childhood Development The relevance of the sense of self as a concept to childhood development is significant in its scope and its provision of a framework for exploring subjectivity. For those disciplines studying childhood development, the concept provides a useful foundation especially for addressing the subjectivity of the self. Childhood development has been dominated by the study of measurable capacities, skills and traits which are known to undergo significant change and organization in the childhood years. Any interest in subjectivity or the experience of being a self has been relegated to philosophers and poets or perhaps clinicians and education specialists. With the grounding of a concept in empirical evidence and developmental and neurodevelopmental science, the understanding of the self and its increasing differentiation and emerging organization as it develops has increased in important ways. The orientation to development studies referred to as life span developmental psychology [2] benefits from a rigorous conceptualization of the sense of self since it addresses developmental phenomena occurring across the life span. It can use the sense of self concept as an anchor for the many complex psychological processes being studied including resilience, wisdom, memory and the effects of trauma on identity. Siegel [4] addresses the developing mind by integrating neuroscience and attachment theory to show the self as the integration of evolving processes of meaning making and interpersonal relationships, and that there is no self without the other. Siegel’s work has brought the idea of the self to its most useful place since it is now being harnessed to the exploration of the brain/mind and the very nature of what it is to be a self.
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author. Baltes, P. (1980). Life span developmental psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 65–110. Erikson, E. (1963). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. Siegel, D. (1999). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. New York: Guilford Press. Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the human infant. New York: Basic Books.
Sensorimotor Dysfunction ▶Developmental Coordination Disorder
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Sensory Aphasia
Sensory Aphasia ▶Childhood Aphasia
drawing information from the local environment. It has been associated with a number of psychological adversities (see below) but also with neural plasticity and therapeutic potential.
Types/Sources of Sensory Deprivation
Sensory Curiosity ▶Curiosity
Sensory Deprivation PENNY STRIBLING, CECILIA ESSAU Roehampton University, London, UK
Synonyms Restricted environmental stimulation
Definition Sensory deprivation involves partial or complete loss of sensory stimulation, usually under involuntary circumstances. It has been associated with a number of psychological adversities but also with neural plasticity and therapeutic potential.
Description Gathering information from the social and physical environment involves perceptual mechanisms, which in turn draw upon information supplied by the senses. Senses are cell types that have evolved to respond to different types of environmental stimuli, including vision, hearing, touch (somatic sensation), taste (gestation), smell (olfaction), balance (equilibrioception), proprioception (kinesthetic sense), and temperature (thermoception). These may be located in specialist receptor organs (e.g., nose, eyes) or located at nerve endings on the skin. The environmental data collected by these receptors are carried to the brain and cortex, where they are mediated by cognitive processes. Sensory deprivation involves partial or complete loss of sensory stimulation, usually under involuntary circumstances. The term refers to a plurality of experiences, rather than a unitary experience. It can occur in one or more of these sensory modalities, and can sometimes be attributable to sensory overload to another modality, or sensory distortion, which prevents the individual from
One motivation for exploring the effects of sensory deprivation is to gain a better understanding of the development of human perception, and the relative contribution of nature and environment upon these processes. The main foci of developmental inquiry into the effects of sensory deprivation have focused on two main areas, firstly, the effects upon typically-developing children, and secondly those with markedly atypical development where sensory impairment or difference is a mediating factor. Research into the first type focuses upon children whose development is unfolding in sub-optimal or inadequately stimulating environments. These sensorilydeprived environments may be a consequence of active (violent) or passive abuse (e.g., neglect), over-anxious parenting, or chronic parental illness or disabilities. The second type of sensory deprivation is associated with a range of congenital and acquired sensory abnormalities (e.g., visual impairment or blindness). It may be acquired, possibly associated with a number of identifiable neural insults, or reflect a wide range of neuropsychological disorders. The nature of the deprivation and the developmental consequences may vary according to many factors, including the precise source of deprivation. In recent times, interest in this area has been somewhat influenced by its perceived relevance to other debates within psychology, both in the developmental field and elsewhere. Some common sources of sensory impairment are outlined in more detail below.
Early Research In the 1950s and 60s there was a flowering of research into artificially-induced sensory and perceptual deprivation involving adult participants, the most famous under the direction of Hebb at McGill University (for review see [31]). In adults, sensory deprivation was associated with a number of cognitive and perceptual distortions, and more latterly, which came to be associated with panic, mental confusion, time distortion, hallucinations and depression.
Ethical Implications of Researching Sensory Deprivation One of the difficulties in understanding the role of sensory deprivation in child development relates to the potentially
Sensory Deprivation
detrimental effect of experimentally inducing such experiences. Some commentators consider that sensory deprivation must be experienced for a longer duration than 1 day, to avoid confounding by other effects. Clearly, a need for prolonged exposure could lead to unquantifiable harm to juvenile participants, as would withholding intervention in a non-treatment control group drawn from a population with sensory disabilities. In the case of studies involving adults, there has been concern over the application of pure research in sensory deprivation for military purposes (e.g., [29]). Contemporary anti-terrorism practices based on sensory deprivation work have attracted considerable political controversy. For example, McCoy [13] proposes that the CIA used psychological work on sensory deprivation as the cornerstone of practices designed to precipitate psychological breakdown. This has led to the APA’s [1] position statement on psychology’s role in such research. Such concerns have had severe implications for the conduct of research in this area. This has resulted in some diversification in the pursuit of evidence. Subsequent directions have included prospective research with non-human participants, and retrospective research with victims of repressive political systems or highly impoverished environments. Subsequent basic research has largely been undertaken with animals rather than humans.
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milk dispenser, and a wire version. At times of stress, infant monkeys clung to the terry cloth models, but not the wire version, including the latter when designed to dispense milk. Harlow concluded that lack of contact comfort was psychologically stressful to infant monkeys. However it is unclear if some of the behavioral sequelae related to loss of opportunities to develop social interactional skills, or sensory deprivation per se. There is evidence that early deprivation may have extended consequences for neural development. Rat studies have highlighted physiological correlates of early sensory deprivation, including decreases in brain volume, e.g., dendritic volume and glial density (Greenough, 1976). In addition to psychophysiological studies, the behavioral sequelae of such impoverished environments have been explored in a number of studies. Sackett [21] observed higher levels of motor activity in dark reared rats that persisted over time, however resistance to novelty proved somewhat more amenable to change. Dodwell, Tinney, and Emerson [5] found that kittens reared in dark conditions displayed more visual stimulus-seeking behavior than controls. Although non-human primates have many similarities in neural architecture, it remains unclear how far these findings may be generalized onto developmentally immature humans.
Animal Studies
Developmental Studies and Sensory Deprivation
Animal studies allow the exploration of both the physical and behavioral consequences of early deprivation, whilst human studies tend to only provide good access to the latter. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, most developmental research has been conducted using animals, mainly, but not exclusively, mammalian species including laboratoryreared rats, cats and primates, although there are now increasing concerns about animal welfare. Typically, such research involves comparisons between animals reared in a range of deprived conditions, and enriched conditions. This research has provided some evidence for correlations between deprivation, neural development, and behavior. The work of Harlow and colleagues suggests that the effects of early sensory deprivation may be long-term and have severe consequences for normal social functioning. They conducted a well-known but controversial series of experiments on rhesus monkeys between 1957 and 1963 examining maternal deprivation as a source of sensory deprivation. Some monkeys were removed form their mothers and placed in various conditions involving a terry cloth “mother” representation with or without a
Animal studies suggest that optimal maturation of the infant’s brain and the subsequent behavior of the organism is somewhat contingent on the sensory information available to it. One of the key ideas of mid twentieth century Developmental Psychology is the notion that human development is predicated on interaction with people and the physical environment to some degree (c.f. Piaget, Bowlby). In common with many areas of psychology, evidence from sensory deprivation research has been mobilized in debates between supporters of nativist (e.g., Chomsky) and empiricist (e.g., [7]) theories of brain development. Whilst there is direct empirical evidence that sensory stimulation may enhance infant development (e.g., [22]) ethical constraints mean that there is rather less research about how sensory deprivation may negatively influence development. The available evidence is typically drawn from studies of the effects of early sensory deprivation due to sensory disability, or where development is unfolding in less than optimal circumstances during sensitive periods, or over a sustained time span. Some of the latter is principally correlational, and secondary to
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the central concerns which the research was designed to address. Studies of sensory deprivation, and variables around the onset and duration of sensory deprivation, have provided useful evidence of “sensitive” or “critical periods” in development, both in terms of the temporal correlates of consequential damage, and recovery for the adverse circumstances.
The Effects of Neglect Important evidence has been provided by studies of children recovered from extreme deprivation and neglect, where human (in)action provides sub-optimal sensory stimulation over a period of time. This may involve familial neglect, or institutional neglect experienced by those developing in public care systems. However more can often be said about the social context in which neglecting abuse occurs, and adolescent social outcomes, than the precise nature of the sensory deprivation which is alleged to have taken place. It can be difficult to isolate the effects of other adverse life events such as poor nutrition. The potential for recovery from these adverse sensory events has proved to be a major preoccupation in this research field. The Harlow studies (see above) linked deprivation of the mother’s stimulation to poor social outcomes. Bowlby’s study of children hospitalized for tuberculosis who had limited contact with their parents showed lower IQ scores in this group. However, it is difficult to partial out the effects of their illness, or the quality of care received, possible sensory deprivation, etc. One of the best known cases where sensory deprivation had a potentially clear role is that of “Genie.” She was raised in Los Angeles and experienced severe sensory and social isolation from the age of 20 months to 13 years 7 months at the hands of an authoritarian father and a visually impaired mother [4]. Although Genie did acquire some vocabulary and assembled word strings, she appeared unable to acquire standard syntax. This provides some support for Lennenberg’s hypothesis that there may be critical (or at least vulnerable) periods for aspects of language learning. It was also noted that Genie displayed enhanced development in gestalt perceptual skills, considered to be a right hemisphere compensation for sensory impairment to left-hemisphere function (language experience). However, these inferences may have been confounded. There has been an ongoing controversy as to the extent to which Genie may have been globally mentally retarded. Further evidence has come from studies of children who had been previously cared for in severely depriving
state institutions in Romania. Some of these were adopted outside the country during early childhood, and future care usually took place in relatively enhanced settings. In a study conducted when adoptees were 6 years old, Rutter, O’Connor and the English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team [20] found that children kept in state institutions for up to 42 months showed a comparable rate of progress to control English children adopted before 6 months of age. A substantial minority had much poorer adjustment. Whilst it is not possible to partial out the precise contribution of sensory deprivation in these outcomes, it provides further evidence of the reversibility of effects of early deprivation. Much research has been concerned with the behavioral consequences of early neglect or abuse later in the developmental trajectory. Early neglect or abuse has been associated with higher aggression in adolescents, for example, Bowlby’s (1946) group comparisons of juvenile delinquents (thieves and non thieves) found a higher percentage of the former group had been separated from their mothers for 6 months or more within the first 5 years of life, and inferred that that maternal deprivation led to juvenile delinquency. There is some evidence that behaviors arising from early experience may be linked to vulnerability to new adversities (see [3]), perhaps by putting themselves in circumstances where sensory deprivation may be re-established. Nevertheless, the degree to which early experience of sensory deprivation is represented in enduring change in the child’s development, and the persistence of maladaptive behavior awaits further clarification. Outcomes may be open to influence by a range of variables, including time.
Neural Plasticity Neural plasticity refers to structural cortical changes which create or modify functions in the brain in response to environmental input. It can offer the possibility of compensating for localized impairment of isolated areas of sensory processing. This is often referred to as the “Sensory Compensation Hypothesis” (e.g., [19]). There have been several empirical studies that have challenged the generalizability of this assumption (e.g., [11]). Noting that hearing impaired individuals often develop higher visual acuity, and persons with visual impairments often display superior auditory and tactile performance, neurobiologists have been keen to explore the implications of localized sensory deprivation in their studies of brain plasticity. There has also been increasing interest in the extent to which early or later brain plasticity may influence the course of development, both within hypothesized “sensitive periods” and beyond them.
Sensory Deprivation
However, the benefits may be balanced by other loss of function, thus Stevens and Neville [23] characterize neuroplasticity as a “double-edged sword.”
Sensory Experience in Clinical Populations with a Sensory Impairment Sensory impairment may have a minor or profound influence on child development trajectories, which is somewhat dependent on the nature and severity of the impairment. The degree of impairment may also be associated with the context in which development is taking place, e.g., the availability of assistive technologies and early intervention. It is often difficult to precisely describe its unique influence, as a number of other variables may be in play (e.g., intelligence). In these populations, normal stages of sensory processing from the sense organ (e.g., the retina) are interrupted at some point, either due to some congenital disorder or acquired. Sometimes this will involve multiple senses. Thus children with sensory impairments do not have the same potential for sensory experience as nonimpaired individuals, regardless of any limitations upon the opportunities available to the latter group. At this stage, it becomes more useful to think in terms of restricted access to sensory experience rather than sensory deprivation.
Sound Deprivation via Hearing Loss Deaf or hard of hearing children experience some degradation of the stimulus to the cochlear and/or some impairment in the function of the cortical regions associated with processing. The sensory deprivation involved in hearing loss may have pervasive implications for child development. Hearing losses fall into two broad categories, although there may be a mixed expression in any individual. These are firstly conductive hearing loss (where there is some impediment to the passage of sound), and secondly, sensorineural loss, which involves damage to the nerves or hair cells of the middle or inner ear. This may result in sound distortion rather than sound dampening. Pre-lingual and early acquired deafness can have pervasive effects upon child development. Precise developmental trajectories are influenced by a number of factors, including the use of sound perception support technologies like cochlear implants and the age of implantation (for discussion see [6]). Cognitive, linguistic and socio-communicative developmental delays can be somewhat offset by early introduction to a sign language. Children born into signing families may have no developmental delay in acquiring language. The constraints on social experience may delay the onset of Theory of Mind capacity in this population [17].
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There is much evidence that hearing loss is accompanied by cortical reorganization. This may involve compensatory development and augmentation of other senses. However, such benefits may be offset by degradation or nondevelopment of mechanisms within the affected sense. This is most relevant when the possibility exists for corrective intervention such as the use of amplification devices or cochlear implants. Earlier implantation is often associated with better outcomes, especially where there are no comorbid impairments such as general learning difficulties.
Light Exclusion and Visual Impairment For some species, the consequences of light exclusion or diffusion for short periods are apparently negated after a period of normal light exposure. In humans, there may be temporary refocus of other sensory media which can be rebalanced. For example, Lewald [9] reported that nonimpaired participants’ orientation to acoustic targets were increased following 90 min of light exclusion, an effect negated after 3 h of re-exposure to normal lighting conditions. An important source of evidence for the effects of light deprivation on human development is drawn from studies of children with visual impairments, especially those with corrected vision. The term “visual impairment” is a category descriptor for a wide range of neurobiological and physiological impairments that result in less that optimal vision. Some may experience low visual acuity, and others may be restricted to light perception only, about one in ten may have no vision at all. These impairments may be congenital, or later acquired. There may also be comorbid symptoms which further complicate the course of development. Like deaf children, this group may be delayed in sociocognitive development [18]. This may be related to light deprivation, in restricting access to the visual information used to manage social encounters with others such as eye gaze and gestures. There is some evidence that this may lead to pragmatic impairments in this population, although it has been unclear whether this reflects some confounding with comorbid disorders. However, James and Stojanovik (2006) observed such impairments in a small cohort of visually impaired children without copresent pathologies. Blind children are likely to require additional educational support to learn tasks commonly taught using imitation, or visual inspection, including self care routines. Many researchers have focused upon the implication of visual deprivation for the notion of critical or sensitive periods (see above). Lewis and Maurer’s [10] study of children with dense congenital cataracts has provided
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evidence of multiple sensitive periods where adversity can influence visual development. Their findings suggest domain specificity, with longer critical periods being reported in terms of acuity and peripheral vision, but shorter periods of sensitivity in relation to global motion perception.
Sensory Deprivation and the Etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders Distinctive behaviors and socio-cognitive deficits observed in congenitally blind and deaf children can also feature in the presentation of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). For example, the terms “blindisms,” “deafisms,” and “autisms” may be mobilized to refer to substantially similar stereotypical behaviors. These overlaps, together with high functioning persons’ with autism own reports of sensory problems, have led some commentators to hypothesize that sensory impairment may have some etiological role in the disorder. Treatments involving sensory deprivation or sensory substitution are sometimes used to manage the behavior of children with severe learning impairments. Zentall and Zentall [30] proposed that there may be an optimal level of sensory stimulation for “disordered” children, e.g., those with hyperactive behaviors and autism. They suggest that their “optimal stimulation model” supported by sensory interventions may offer opportunities for individuals to attain homeostasis. A treatment approach that attempts to create an optimal sensory environment is that of the “Snoezelen” or other “sensory” room, where light levels and ambient noise may be reduced, and substituted with managed single or multiple sensory stimuli in an effort to reduce challenging behaviors or stimulate motivationally challenged or severely mentally impaired individuals. However effective these may be in addressing target behaviors, it is unclear if they provide evidence for sensory problems in these populations. It is unclear whether the processing of available sensory information in ASD may be linked to cognitive impairment, and to what extent it may be elective, e.g., eye and ear covering to screen out unwanted stimuli. Autism may involve multiple sources of sensory deprivation, which would be quite challenging to unravel. However, in producing symptoms that have parallels with those observed in neglected or individuals with sensory impairments some possible crossover in intervention practices may be identified.
Future Directions The early focus in the study of sensory deprivation moved from direct effects to behavioral and functional recovery
(e.g., [27]). Much relied on observed correlations between behaviors, known sources of sensory impairments or life events. However, the relationships between these variables are generally not linear, and the consequences of sensory deprivation are more complex and nuanced than earlier work may have suggested. Moreover, the brain plasticity which offers scope for compensatory development may also be responsible for loss of functional capacity where very early intervention is not possible. The development of sophisticated neuro-imaging techniques will facilitate more sophisticated modeling of neural processes, which in turn should provide greater clarity about the operation of these variables.
References 1. American Psychological Association. (2005). Report of the American Psychological Association presidential task force on psychological ethics and national security. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 2. Bruner, J. S. (1959). The cognitive consequences of early sensory deprivation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 21, 89–95. 3. Clarke, A. M., & Clarke, A. D. B. (2000). Early experience and the life path. London: Jessica Kingsley. 4. Curtiss, S. (1977). Genie: A psycholinguistic study of a modern day ‘wild child’. New York: Academic Press. 5. Dodwell, P. C., Timney, B. N., & Emerson, V. F. (1976). Development of visual stimulus-seeking in dark-rearing kittens. Nature, 260(5554), 777–778. 6. Harrison, R. V., Gordon, K. A., & Mount, R. J. (2005). Is there a critical period for cochlear implantation in congenitally deaf children? Analyses of hearing and speech perception performance after implantation. Developmental Psychobiology, 46(3), 252–261. 7. Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1996). Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 8. Kral, A., & Eggermont, J. J. (2007). What’s to lose and what’s to learn: Development under auditory deprivation, cochlear implants and limits of cortical plasticity. Brain Research Reviews, 56(1), 259–269. 9. Lewald, J. (2007). More accurate sound localization induced by short-term light deprivation. Neuropsychologia, 45(6), 1215–1222. 10. Lewis, T. L., & Maurer, D. (2005). Multiple sensitive periods in human visual development: Evidence from visually-deprived children. Developmental Psychobiology, 46(3), 163–183. 11. MacDougall, J. C., & Rabinovitch, M. S. (1971). Early auditory deprivation and sensory compensation. Developmental Psychology, 5(2), 368. 12. McClean, J. H., Darby-King, A., & Bonnell, W. S. (2001). Neonatal olfactory sensory deprivation decreases BDNF in the olfactory bulb of the rat. Developmental Brain Research, 128, 17–24. 13. McCoy, A. (2006). A question of torture: CIA interrogation from the cold war to the war on terror. New York: Metropolis. 14. Moscovici, S., & Doms, M. (1982). Compliance and conversion in a situation of sensory deprivation. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 3(2), 81–94. 15. Ornitz, E. M. (1985). Neurophysiology of infantile autism. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 24, 251–262. 16. Ornitz, E. M. (1988). Autism: A disorder of directed attention. Brain Dysfunction, 1, 309–322.
Separation Anxiety 17. Peterson, C. C., & Siegal, M. (1995). Deafness, conversation & theory of mind. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 36(3), 459–474. 18. Roch-Levecq, A. C. (2006). Production of basic emotions by children with congenital blindness. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 507–528. 19. Rosenzweig, M. R. (1966). Environmental complexity, cerebral change, and behaviour. American Psychologist, 21, 331–332. 20. Rutter, M., O’Connor. T. and the English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team. (2004). Are there biological programming effects for psychological development? Findings from a study of Romanian adoptees. Developmental Psychology, 40(1), 81–94. 21. Sackett, G. P. (1967). Response to stimulus novelty and complexity as a function of rats early rearing experiences. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 63(3), 369–375. 22. Schanberg, S. M., & Field, T. M. (1987). Sensory deprivation stress and supplemental stimulation in the rat pup and pre-term human neonate. Child Development, 58, 1431–1447. 23. Stevens, C., & Neville, H. (2006). Neuroplasticity as a double-edged Sword: Deaf enhancements and dyslexic deficits in motion processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(5), 701–714. 24. Suedfeld, P. (1980). Restricted environmental stimulation: Research and clinical applications. New York: Wiley Interscience. 25. Talay-Ongan, A., & Wood, K. (2000). Unusual sensory sensitivities in autism: A possible crossroads. International Journal of Disability, Development & Education, 47(2), 201–212. 26. Tees, R. C., & Symons, L. A. (1978). Intersensory coordination and the effects of early sensory deprivation. Developmental Psychobiology, 20(5), 497–507. 27. Tees, R. T., & Midgley, G. (1978). Extent of recovery of function after early sensory deprivation. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 92(4), 768–777. 28. Thurrell, R. G., & Rice, D. G. (1970). Eye rubbing in blind children: Application of a sensory deprivation model. Exceptional Children, 36(5), 325–330. 29. Watson, P. (1978). War on the mind: The military uses of psychology. New York: Basic Books. 30. Zentall, S. S., & Zentall, S. R. (1983). Optimal stimulation: A model of disordered activity and performance in normal and deviant children. Psychological Bulletin, 94(3), 446–471. 31. Zubeck, J. P. (1964). Effects of prolonged sensory and perceptual deprivation. British Medical Bulletin, 20(1), 38–42.
Sensory Integrative Dysfunction ▶Developmental Coordination Disorder
Sensory Motor Stage ▶Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period
Sensory Register ▶Iconic Memory
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Sentence Structure ▶Syntax
Separation ▶Ainsworth’s Procedure ▶Divorce-Stress-Adjustment Perspective
Separation Anxiety ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Separation, attachment and
Definition Behavioral and emotional manifestations of fear, worry, or upset associated with separation from home or from individuals to whom the child is attached. When symptoms are excessive or developmentally inappropriate, separation anxiety may be considered clinically significant.
Description Separation anxiety is common throughout preschool age in children, typically emerging around 8–9 months of age. Intensity of reactions lessen over time, with developmentally normal separation anxiety typically disappearing by age 3 years, when children become capable of forming a mental image of the absent caregiver or attachment figure [2]. Length and intensity of separation anxiety reactions are often dependent on the child’s temperament and age, as well as the parent’s reaction to the child. Novel and unexpected separations can also cause a more intense or prolonged reaction. Separation anxiety that is prolonged and developmentally excessive and inappropriate may lead to a diagnosis of Separation Anxiety Disorder [1]. These more serious reactions are often accompanied by physical complaints, nightmares, sleep difficulties, and refusal to leave home or the proximity of attachment figures for normal or routine activities.
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References 1.
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author. Boyd, D., & Bee, H. (2008). Lifespan development. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Separation, Attachment and DOUGLAS K. SYMONS Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Separation anxiety
Definition Separation is the physical removal of children from attachment figures, usually the caregiver to whom they are attached. Separation and Loss is the title of John Bowlby’s second volume in his trilogy of Attachment Theory [2]. Within this book, he addresses naturalistic responses in humans to separation from an attachment figure. Normative reactions include anxiety and anger, and in more extreme forms, depression. In child development, what constitutes separation and the subsequent behavioral response changes with age, and is reflective of the relationship itself. Separation from attachment figures has also been studied across the human life-span and in nonhuman primates.
Description Separation of an infant from an attachment figure typically results in a distress reaction such as crying. Around age 1, this almost always occurs, unless the attachment relationship is an avoidant one [1]. As children get older, they are capable of emotional regulation and representational thinking, and thus more tolerant of separations from attachment figures, particularly when they are predictable or explained. For example, children going to school and parents working outside the home are predictable separations that should not result in crying and distress in children once they have begun school, and if they do, there may be cause for concern that the child has separation anxiety. In Bowlby’s Attachment Theory, he described normative responses to separation from attachment figures that he observed in children that were in residential care, and
thus separated from their mothers. The three phases are protest, despair, and detachment. The protest phase begins immediately upon separation, and lasts up to weeks on end. It is indicated by outward signs of distress such as crying, tantrum behavior, and searching for the return of the parent. Protest decreases during the despair phase, and children become withdrawn and helpless. The detachment phase implies loss of the original attachment, and children are emotionally distant from an attachment figure even if they returned. While these are normative responses to prolonged separation, there are also individual differences that define an attachment relationship. In Ainsworth’s Strange Situation used to classify an infant–caregiver relationship, separations from and reunions with a parent are actually part of the task. In an insecure–avoidant relationship, for example, protest is minimal, as are smiling and greeting after reunion. In fact, there seems to be indiscriminate response to the parent and a stranger, and the child may even avoid the parent after the separation. In insecure-resistant infants, there is greater protest (e.g., crying, tantrums, anger), more clinging behaviour, and this distress is slow to resolve after reunion. Secure infants may protest the departure of a parent, but this distress is resolved after the separation ends. Overt behavior is also not the only way in which separation is studied. It is subject to some of the same physiological markers as other stressors, such as an elevated noradrenergic or cortisol response [3, 6]. Separation and attachment have been examined in common circumstances for children, such as family disruption in marital separation and divorce, serious illness requiring hospitalization, parents being away for extended work periods [5], children removed from parent’s homes due to maltreatment and/or neglect, and children separated from parents during disasters and war-time events [7]. There is evidence that either marital separation of at least 6 months or divorce has a negative impact on teenager’s attachments to parents, particularly when the separation occurs earlier rather than later in a child’s life [10]. A history of child maltreatment is associated with later disorganized attachment, and this is likely due to a background of frightening parent–child experiences [8]. In this case, children may need to be taken into care and separated from the parent, although this is seen as an instance where parent–child separation is necessary and hopefully helpful for the child in the long run. These are all negative life events that include family disruption and separation from parents, and such events are associated with a decline in attachment security from infancy to adulthood in a predictable fashion [4, 9] and more normative parent–child separations such as those that come
Seroquel XR
from a parent working outside the home were initially hypothesized to result in attachment security problems for children based on Bowlby’s original descriptions of separation. However, a large scale analysis of this kind of separation has not supported this hypothesis. So separation in and of itself does not have negative consequences for children, but may when combined with other negative family circumstances.
References 1. Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behaviour of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41, 49–67. 2. Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss. 1: Attachment. New York: Basic Books. 3. Field, T. M. (1996). Attachment and separation in young children. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 541–561. 4. Lewis, M., Feiring, C., & Rosenthal, S. (2000). Attachment over time. Child Development, 71, 707–720. 5. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1997). The effects of infant child care on infant-mother attachment security: Results of the NICHD study of early child care. Child Development, 68, 860–879. 6. Reite, M., & Field, T. M. (1985). The psychobiology of attachment and separation. New York: Academic Press. 7. Rusby, J. S. M., & Tasker, F. (2008). Childhood temporary separation: Long-term effects of the British evacuation of children during World War 2 on older adults’ attachment styles. Attachment and Human Development, 10, 207–221. 8. Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Shuengel, C., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (1999). Disorganised attachment in early childhood: Metaanalysis of precursors, concomitants, and sequelae. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 225–249. 9. Waters, E., Merrick, S., Treboux, D., Crowell, J., & Albersheim, L. (2000). Attachment security in infancy and early adulthood: A twenty-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 71, 684–689. 10. Woodward, L., Fergusson, D. M., & Belsky, J. (2000). Timing of parental separation and attachment to parents in adolescence: Results of a prospective study from birth to age 16. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 162–174.
This medication is a benzodiazepine, a central nervous system depressant, available in tablets and capsules. The recommended starting dose for this medication is 10 or 30 mg taken 3 times a day to 4 times a day. Maximum suggested dose is 120 mg daily. This medication should only be taken as directed by a doctor and is usually taken only for a short period of time. This medication may become habit forming. Some side effects are listed here: drowsiness, dizziness, memory impairment, headache, amnesia, rash, tremor, and blurred vision. Certain side effects may go away during treatment.
Relevance to Childhood Development Serax® is not FDA approved for use in children under 12 years of age. This medication may cause paradoxical effects in children and adolescents, meaning they may become hyperactive or show aggressive behavior. Children may be more sensitive to the side effects of Serax®.
References 1.
2. 3.
American Management Association. (2008). AHFS drug information (24th ed., pp. 2599–2600). Maryland: American Society of HealthSystem Pharmacists. Lexi-Drugs Online [database online]. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp. Accessed August 26, 2008. Medical Economics Staff. (2007). Advice for the patient: Drug information in lay language. USP DI Vol II. (27th ed., pp. 237–243). Kentucky: Thompson Micromedex.
Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED)
Serax® Seroquel ▶Quetiapine
Synonyms Oxazepam
Definition A prescription medication FDA approved for the treatment of anxiety and management of alcohol withdrawal.
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▶Behavior Disorders
ANISA FORNOFF Drake University, Ankeny, IA, USA
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Seroquel XR ▶Quetiapine
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Serotonin
Serotonin COLLIN DAVIDSON Oklahoma State University
Synonyms Neurotransmitters
Definition A type of neurotransmitter which is involved in communication between neurons in the central nervous system.
disorders such as MDD and OCD with SSRIs is fairly commonplace although warnings have been put in place due to increased risk of suicide among children, adolescents, and young adults. A cost-benefit analysis prior to the use of SSRIs in treatment and careful monitoring of individuals in this age range is recommended.
References 1. 2.
3.
Description Serotonin affects areas of the brain typically involved in depression, eating, sleeping, memory, sexual behavior, and aggression. Serotonin, like other neurotransmitters, aids in communication between neurons by passing from the axon of one neuron through the synapse, or gap between neurons, to the dendrites of another neuron. Serotonin is received by 5-hydoxytryptamine (5-HT) receptors in nerve cells and most often acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter. Serotonin can be toxic in high doses which has been termed serotonin syndrome. Serotonin syndrome typically results from taking two or more drugs designed to increase serotonin and produces symptoms such as hallucinations, vomiting, diarrhea, increased body temperature and heart rate, shivering, and confusion among others. If treatment for serotonin syndrome is not sought it can be lethal [1]. Psychopathology has been related to problems in serotonergic systems of the brain such as Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) wherein individuals with such disorders tend to have low levels of serotonin. Both disorders have been found to be effectively treated using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) [2, 3] which temporarily block the presynaptic neuron from reabsorbing the serotonin, thus allowing for more serotonin to reach the receptor sites on the postsynaptic neuron. Several types of SSRIs are available such as citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram oxalate (Lexapro), paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac), and sertraline (Zoloft). Research has shown that SSRIs are effective for treating depression, OCD, and bulimia nervosa.
Mills, K. C. (1995). Serotonin syndrome. American Family Physician, 52, 1475–1482. Pigott, T. A., & Seay, S. M. (1999). A review of the efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 60, 101–106. Usala, T., Clavenna, A., Zuddas, A., & Bonati, M. (2008). Randomised controlled trials of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in treating depression in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 18, 62–73.
Sertraline ▶Zoloft®
Servicing Oneself ▶Masturbation
Serzone® ▶Nefazodone
Sesame Street CAROLINE MCKNIGHT University of North Carolina, Chapel, NC, USA
Relevance to Childhood Development Since serotonin has been linked to the aforementioned disorders, examination of these disorders in childhood is relevant. Treatment of children with psychological
Definition Sesame Street is an educational children’s television program aimed at children 3–5 years of age that is most
Severe Mental Retardation
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well-known for Muppet characters such as Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and others.
and emotional development, have become crucial in meeting the needs of young children.
Description
References
In March 1968, Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) was established through which Sesame Street was broadcast. Initially, CTW was given $8 million to fund a 2 year project with the primary aim being to enhance school readiness in preschoolers, particularly children ages 3–5 years, with minority and low-income backgrounds. Funding for the program came from the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and private foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation and others. The principal creators of Sesame Street in 1968 were Joan Ganz Cooney, Director of CTW, Lloyd Morrisett, vice president of the Carnegie Corporation and Gerald Lesser, a professor at Harvard University. Other creators included experts in child development as well as experts from the field of commercial television. One pivotal move by the creators was using Jim Henson’s Muppets as main characters on the program. Along with songs resembling commercial jingles, Sesame Street was entertaining and educational, a first in the domain of “Edu-tainment.” The five broad areas on which creators of Sesame Street intended to focus included social, moral and affective development; language and reading; mathematical and numerical skills; reasoning and problem solving; and perception. In addition to summative research, which was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Sesame Street on children it was reaching, another major component of Sesame Street was the emphasis on formative research. Research findings have concluded that for children who were 3–3.5 years old, watching Sesame Street was a strong predictor of vocabulary development. These findings were not as significant for older children. Importantly, children’s vocabulary size increased when they watched Sesame Street alone, indicating that it was not necessary for parents to view and discuss the show with their child. In addition, viewing Sesame Street has been linked to: future positive performance in reading, math and school readiness; better ability at recognizing letters and reading books at an earlier age; and better grades in science, English and math 10–15 years later.
Relevance to Childhood Development Because of the ubiquitous nature of television, it has become an almost steady companion in children’s most critical years of development. Therefore, programs such as Sesame Street, which promote positive cognitive, social
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Fisch, S. M. (Ed.). (2000). G is for “Growing”: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame Street. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Incorporated. Rice, M. L., Huston, A. C., Truglio, R., & Wright, J. (1990). Words from “Sesame Street”: Learning vocabulary while viewing. Developmental Psychology, 26, 421–428.
Setting (Great Britain) ▶Ability Grouping
Severe Emotional and Behavioral Problem ▶Conduct Disorder
Severe Mental Retardation LINDSAY J. CUMMINGS Argosy University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Synonyms Cognitive impairment; Developmental delay; Developmental disabilities; Intellectual disability; Mental deficiency
Definition Severe Mental Retardation is defined by the presence of significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning as well as significant limitations in adaptive functioning (adaptive behavior) present prior to the age of 18 years. Individuals with a diagnosis of severe mental retardation generally obtain IQ scores within the range of 20–25 to 35–40 [1, 3, 4].
Description Severe mental retardation (MR) is described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth
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Edition-Text Revision [2] as impairment comparable to a range of IQ scores that fall within the range of 20–25 to 35–40 [2]. Individuals with severe MR are limited in the areas of intellectual functioning and adaptive skills, typically exhibiting limited or absent levels of communicative speech. They are also likely to experience comparable limitation in the areas of self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure, and work skills [2]. Symptoms are likely to manifest in both the individual’s ability to master a range of cognitive skills and their ability to respond to environmental cues [5]. Individuals who fall within this diagnostic category comprise approximately 3–4% [2] of all individuals with mental retardation. Unique to this level of impairment is the strong likelihood of an identified etiology of genetic or neurological syndrome resulting in mental retardation, as well as a variety of other physical and psychological symptoms present from birth or early childhood. Concurrently, the presence of additional physical impairments such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and vision or hearing difficulties have been found to increase with level of intellectual impairment (intellectual disability). Co-morbid medical complications are also common. Training typically focuses on areas of deficit such as self-care or social skills during school age and beyond. Individuals with severe MR are often able to function within a “workshop” or similar type of vocational environment. They generally adapt well to life within their family or group home environment, although some level of support and assistance will typically be necessary throughout their lives [2].
References 1.
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American Association on Mental retardation. (2004). Fact Sheet: Frequently asked questions about mental retardation. Retrieved October 2, 2009, from http://www.aamr.org/Policies/faq_mental_retardation. shtml American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed. – text revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Ingalls, S., & Goldstein, S. (1999). Learning disabilities. In Goldstein, S. & Reynolds, C. R. (Eds.), Handbook of neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders in children (pp. 101–153). New York: The Guilford Press. Hodapp, R. M., & Dykens, E. M. (2003). Mental retardation (intellectual disabilities). In Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (Eds.), Child psychopathology (pp. 486–519). New York: The Guilford Press. McLaughlin, P. J., & Wehman, P. (Eds.). (1996). Mental retardation and developmental disabilities (2nd ed.). Austin: Pro-ed.
Severity of Mental Retardation ▶Retardation, Degrees of
Sex-Education Programs GINA COFFEE Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Synonyms Sexuality education
Relevance to Childhood Development A diagnosis of severe mental retardation has weighty implications for both the child and his caretakers throughout development. Accessing services the child is entitled to often requires a working knowledge of government and school systems, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This program provides adaptive education to all children within the least restrictive environment possible. Adaptations may also include school-provided speech, physical, or occupational therapies as appropriate. Within the family or caretaking environment, education of the parent or primary caretaker is essential regarding available resources and developmental expectations. Because the development of children with Severe Mental Retardation is significantly limited in most cases, families of children with this diagnosis should be aware of what it means for their child in particular.
Definition According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), “Sexuality education is a lifelong process of acquiring information and forming attitudes, beliefs, and values. It encompasses sexual development, sexual and reproductive health, interpersonal relationships, affection, intimacy, body image, and gender roles” [6]. A sex-education program is one way by which children may learn about sexuality.
Description In today’s society, the sexual health of youth is of paramount importance. According to a recent study by The Guttmacher Institute [1], adolescents in the United States are having sexual intercourse, becoming pregnant, and contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Specifically, 46% of all adolescents aged 15–19 years old have
Sex-Education Programs
engaged in sexual intercourse. In addition, approximately 750,000 teenage girls become pregnant each year. Of these pregnancies, 82% are unintended and over 25% are terminated by abortion. In comparison to other developed countries, such as England, Wales, Canada, the Netherlands, and Japan, this rate of teenage pregnancy ranges from twice to eight times greater. Finally, estimates of adolescent STI contraction approximate nine million new cases per year. Given the seriousness of these findings, it appears imperative that measures be taken to ameliorate these problems. One possible solution to the sexual health problems of youth is sexuality education. Recently, Kirby [3] reviewed the effectiveness of programs for reducing teen pregnancy and STIs. Five general types of sexuality education exist: comprehensive sexuality education, abstinence-based, abstinence-only, abstinence-only-until-marriage, and fear-based programs [6]. Historically, controversy has existed regarding comprehensive sexuality education versus abstinence-only education, and this controversy has had a significant impact on federal funding of sexuality education programs [1]. That is, until recently only abstinence-only programs received federal funding. In practice, then, fewer adolescents were receiving information about birth control, and more adolescents were receiving information about abstinence. Interestingly, however, research demonstrating the effectiveness of abstinence-only education is lacking [1]. Abstinenceonly education does not appear to delay the onset of engagement in sexual activities, and it may inadvertently result in an increase in unwanted pregnancies and STIs – as youth may be discouraged from using contraception. Conversely, research suggests that comprehensive sexuality education, including an emphasis on skills building, is effective in reducing/preventing adolescent pregnancy and contraction of STIs [1, 3]. Sex-education programs are based on a model of comprehensive sexuality education emphasize abstinence is the only 100% effective method of preventing pregnancy and STIs and also address contraception, particularly for adolescents who are already sexually active [3]. The goals of comprehensive sexuality education may be viewed in terms of long-term goals and instrumental goals that work toward the attainment of the long-term goals. The long-term goals are threefold: (a) to postpone the onset of sexual intercourse, (b) to increase the use of contraception and condoms, and (c) to decrease pregnancy and birth rates. The instrumental goals of comprehensive sexuality education are fourfold: (a) to deliver correct knowledge to youth regarding human sexuality, (b) to offer a forum for youth to “develop and understand their values, attitudes, and
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insights about sexuality,” (c) to assist youth in the acquisition and improvement of interpersonal skills, and (d) to help youth demonstrate responsible sexual behavior [6]. Comprehensive sexuality education programs do not appear to negatively influence one’s age of initial sexual intercourse, the frequency with which one has sexual intercourse, or the number of sexual partners one has [3]. Rather, comprehensive sexuality education programs have been shown to help delay the onset of sexual intercourse, decrease the number of sexual partners one has, and increase the use of contraceptives [1]. Schools are advantageous settings for sex-education programs [1, 2, 4, 5]. First, schools provide a structured system that allows for sexually education programs to reach all youth [4]. Second, considering the risk factor of age, schools provide access to young students (e.g., late elementary school) who will benefit most from sexuality education [4]. Finally, being in school is related to fewer at-risk sexual behaviors and lower pregnancy rates; therefore, a sexuality education program within a school may be more effective than one outside of school [2]. SIECUS has published guidelines for content that is appropriate for sexuality education of school-aged children [6]. Despite the many advantages of providing sexuality education in schools, controversy exists [1, 5]. First, although the policy of more than 66% of public school districts includes sexuality education [1], some wonder if school is the appropriate site to teach sexuality [5]. Second, among those who agree sexuality should be taught in school, debate exists between proponents of abstinenceonly education and proponents of comprehensive sexuality education programs [1, 5]. For example, of the schools that have a policy to teach sexuality education, 86% require the promotion of abstinence. Specifically, 35% require instruction of abstinence only, while 51% allow for instruction of contraception as long as abstinence is taught as the preferred method. Furthermore, 50% of southern public school districts with a policy to teach sexuality education teach abstinence only, while only 20% of northeastern public school districts adhere to the same policy [1].
References 1.
2. 3.
Guttmacher Institute. (2010). Facts on American teens’ sexual and reproductive health. Retrieved February 14, 2010, from http://www. guttmacher.org Kirby, D. (2002). The impact of schools and school programs upon adolescent sexual behavior. The Journal of Sex Research, 39(1), 27–33. Kirby, D. K. (2007). Emerging answers 2007: Research findings on programs to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
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Siegel, D. M., Aten, M. J., & Enaharo, M. (2001). Long-term effects of a middle school- and high school-based human immunodeficiency virus sexual risk prevention intervention. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 155, 1117–1126. Office of the Surgeon General. (2001). The surgeon general’s call to action to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behavior. Retrieved February 14, 2010, from http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/ library/sexualhealth/call.htm Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS). (2008). Sexuality education Q & A. Retrieved February 14, 2010, from http://www.siecus.org
Sexual Abuse NATASHA ELKOVITCH, DAVID J. HANSEN University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
Synonyms Incest; Molestation; Sexual victimization; Shaken baby syndrome
Definition The term “child sexual abuse” is complex. It is surprisingly difficult to define as operational definitions of each word in the term have varied across clinical, legal, and research contexts. Child sexual abuse is most commonly defined as sexual activity with a child where consent is not or cannot be given. This includes all sexual contact with children in which force or threat of forced is used, regardless of the age difference between participants. This also includes all sexual contact between a child and an older person (typically 5 or more years older) regardless of whether force or coercion is used.
Description Sexual behaviors may involve contact or noncontact offenses. Noncontact offenses include genital exposure, voyeurism, showing a child pornographic material, or having a child undress or masturbate. Contact offenses include genital touching, oral sex, and digital, object or penile penetration (vaginal or anal). Perpetrators that are a family member, including distant relations, in-laws, and step-relations are typically referred to as “intrafamilial,” whereas perpetrators who are not related by marriage or blood are referred to as “extrafamilial.” The majority of child sexual abuse cases involve intrafamilial perpetrators and a substantial proportion of extrafamilial offenders are known to the victim. Approximately 5–15% of offenders are strangers to the child.
Although adult men commit the majority of sexual assaults, a significant minority of sexual assaults are committed by youth. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System has indicated that youth under the age of 18 are responsible for 40% of the sexual assaults involving children under the age of 6. The majority of adolescent-perpetrated child sexual abuse involves intrafamilial victims. It is important to note that all 50 states have laws that require certain professionals (e.g., physicians, nurses, social workers, day care workers, psychologists, and law enforcement personnel) to report suspected maltreatment. This requirement overrides professional confidentiality requirements and in most states, 24-hour reporting is available via a toll-free phone number.
Incidence and Prevalence Child sexual abuse is an alarmingly prevalent problem in the United States. According to reports from child protective service agencies, in 2006 there were approximately 80,000 substantiated cases of child sexual abuse at the rate of 1.1 per 1000 children [6]. It is widely acknowledged that these figures do not represent accurate estimates. Many incidents of child sexual abuse, perhaps the majority, are never reported to law enforcement. Based on a comparison with retrospective reports and surveys with nationally representative samples, some reviews of research suggest that national incidence figures may represent less than one third of all occurring cases of child sexual abuse in the United States. Child sexual abuse is pervasive across income levels and racial, cultural, and ethnic groups. The mean age of sexual abuse victims is approximately 9 years, ranging from infancy to age 17. Girls are significantly more likely to be sexually abused, although boys are more likely than are girls to be abused by an extrafamilial offender. Risk factors for child sexual abuse include physical or cognitive disability, and living with a parent whose ability to adequately nurture and supervise is compromised by substance abuse, violence, poverty, and single-parent status. From 1990 to 2005, the number of cases of sexual abuse substantiated by child protective service agencies declined 49%. This is likely due to a combination of factors, including policy or program changes in child protection agencies, increasing awareness about child sexual abuse, improved parenting practices, economic improvements, greater numbers of agents of social intervention, and more effective treatment for mental health problems [1].
Sexual Abuse
Consequences Child sexual abuse, like other forms of adversity or trauma, does not affect children in a predictable or consistent fashion. The impact of the abuse depends not only on the severity and chronicity but also on how the abuse interacts with the child’s individual, familial, and community characteristics. Further, research indicates that some youth exhibit little to no emotional or behavioral symptomatology after the abuse [2]. Nonetheless, research conducted over the last two decades indicates that child sexual abuse constitutes a major risk factor for a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems which can potentially be long-lasting. Short-term consequences include emotional distress and externalizing behaviors, including depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, suicidal ideation, posttraumatic stress, substance abuse, self-harm behavior, sexual behavior problems, and delinquency. Further, research indicates some children exhibit difficulties with interpersonal relationships and social competence and negative or distorted attributions. However, two domains stand out as significantly more prevalent in sexually abused samples as compared to appropriate comparison groups (e.g., non-abused clinical samples). These domains are sexualized behaviors (e.g., excessive masturbation, exhibitionism) and posttraumatic stress symptomatology (e.g., reexperiencing the abuse, avoiding reminders of the abuse, and hyperarousal). Similar to childhood consequences, long-term consequences of child sexual abuse also include emotional and behavioral disturbance, including chronic anxiety, depression, and anger, substance abuse problems, and negative or distorted attributions. Further, difficulty with interpersonal relationships and sexual problems (e.g., sexual dysfunction, sexual preoccupation) are more often reported by women sexually abused in childhood than their nonabused counterparts. Finally, women who have been sexually abused as a child are at a substantially higher risk of being physically and/or sexually abused in adulthood [3].
Treatment There is a growing empirical literature on efficacious treatments for sexually abused and traumatized children [4, 7]. Interventions include brief psychoeducation and crisis interventions, short-term abuse-focused treatments and longer, more comprehensive interventions. Brief psychoeducation and crisis interventions are often implemented at the time of disclosure and are designed to assess the child and his/her family’s needs and provide training in effective coping strategies. Brief interventions
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are appropriate for asymptomatic children and are intended to prevent future sexual abuse and buffer the associated risk of developing psychopathology. Abuse-specific cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) is the most extensively researched intervention for child victims of sexual abuse. Reviews of the treatment outcome literature indicate this treatment is an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress reactions [5]. Abuse-specific CBT utilizes principles that have been shown to be effective with a number of emotional and behavioral problems. Components of the treatment include: psychoeducation, anxiety management, exposure, and cognitive therapy. Children and parents are provided knowledge and skills related to processing the abuse, managing distressing thoughts, feelings and behaviors associated with the abuse, enhancing safety and preventing revictimization. The majority of the most rigorous studies have included non-offending caregivers in the treatment protocol [5]. Inclusion of caregivers is important to address parental reactions, distress, and supportive recovery of the sexually abused child. Furthermore, inclusion of caregivers is essential for more comprehensive intervention, which may address behavior problems (such as noncompliance and oppositionality) with behavior management techniques or sexual behavior problems with behavior management techniques and parental supervision, communication, self-control, and sexual behavior rules.
References 1. 2.
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Finkelhor, D., & Jones, L. (2006). Why have child maltreatment and child victimization declined? Journal of Social Issues, 26, 685–716. Kendall-Tackett, K., Williams, L. M., & Finkelhor, D. (1993). Impact of sexual abuse on children: A review and synthesis of recent empirical studies. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 164–180. Messman-Moore, T. L., & Long, P. J. (2003). The role of childhood sexual abuse sequelae in sexual revictimization: An empirical review and theoretical reformulation. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 537–571. Myers, J. E. B., Berliner, L., Briere, J., Hendrix, C. T., Jenny, C., & Reid, T. A. (Eds.). (2002). The APSAC handbook on child maltreatment (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Saywitz, K., Mannarino, A., Berliner, L., & Cohen, J. (2000). Treatment for sexually abused children and adolescents. American Psychologist, 55, 1040–1049. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. (2008). Child Maltreatment 2006: Reports from the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Available online at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm06/index. htm.Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Wolfe, V. V. (2006). Child sexual abuse. In E. J. Mash & R. A. Barkley (Eds.), Treatment of childhood disorders (3rd ed., pp. 647–727). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
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Sexual Assault ▶Self Identity: Sexual Abuse of Adolescents
Sexual Exploitation ▶Self Identity: Sexual Abuse of Adolescents
Sexual Identity KEVIN L. NADAL City University, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Bisexual identity; Gender identity; Heterosexual identity; Homosexual identity; Sexual orientation
Definition Sexual identity can be defined as the understanding of one’s values, beliefs, and roles as a sexual being; this is developed through the comprehensive process of exploring, assessing, and committing to one’s sexual orientation and gender identity [5–7].
Description Sexual identity is the process of developing a personal sense of self as a sexual being and encompasses one’s sexual orientation and gender identity. Sexual orientation is defined as an individual’s sense of personal and social identity based on one’s sexual attractions, behaviors expressing those sexual attractions, and membership in a community of others who share them [2]. Individuals may identify as homosexual (attraction to one’s same sex), heterosexual (attraction to one’s opposite sex), or bisexual (attraction to one’s same sex and opposite sex). Gender identity is defined as an individual’s personal sense of identification as male or female [7]. In accepting one’s sexual orientation and one’s gender, an individual is able to formulate a personal set of values, beliefs, and roles. Sexual identity processes may differ based on one’s sexual orientation and gender. For a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other non-heterosexual individual, sexual identity is developed through acknowledging one’s same-sex attractions and identifying oneself as non-heterosexual [3].
For a heterosexual individual, sexual identity is developed through acknowledging one’s opposite-sex attractions and identifying oneself as heterosexual [6]. A nonheterosexual individual (e.g., gay, lesbian, or bisexual) recognizes the societal ramifications of accepting a nonheterosexual identity, including the stigma, discrimination, and marginalization that may occur. Conversely, a heterosexual individual may recognize the acceptance and privilege that one may have as a heterosexual being. Sexual identity also includes the process of accepting one’s gender identity. Gender identity is the process in which an individual identifies as male or female, regardless of one’s biological sex at birth. Gender identity is influenced through biological and sociological factors (e.g., biological factors including one’s reproductive organs and hormones, sociological factors including one’s family influences and societal messages about gender roles). Gender identity differs from sexual orientation, in that sexual orientation refers to whom one is sexually attracted to, while gender identity refers to the gender that one identifies with. For example, an individual who was born as a biological male may identify as a woman but may be sexually attracted to women; this individual might be described as a transgender woman (gender) and lesbian (sexual orientation). There are several models of sexual identity development that describe processes for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals [5, 6]. One of the earliest and most widely recognized models in psychology is Cass’s [1] six-stage model of gay and lesbian identity development, which consists of six stages: (a) Identity confusion (questioning one’s initial experiences of same-sex attraction), (b) identity comparison (internalizing the stigma that accompanies same-sex attractions) (c) identity tolerance (assuming that experiences of same-sex attraction means that one is likely gay or lesbian), (d) identity acceptance (identifying samesex attraction as indicative that one is gay or lesbian), (e) identity pride (accepting oneself as gay or lesbian and identifying with other gay or lesbians), and (f) identity synthesis (integrating one’s sexual orientation into one’s sense of self). Sexual identity can be influenced by a number of factors, including one’s religion, culture, and family [4, 7]. Most major world religions teach negative messages about non-heterosexual orientations and/or refer to gay, lesbian, or bisexual orientations as “immoral” or a “choice.” Additionally, in most cultures and societies, lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals are stigmatized and marginalized; in some countries, homosexuality or bisexuality is illegal and prone to punishment. Finally, an individual’s family may also provide messages about sexual identity to its members, particularly to one’s children.
Sexual Molestation
These familial messages are heavily influenced by culture, religion, and the media. Through the development of sexual orientation and gender identity, along with messages from family, culture, and media, an individual is able to develop values, beliefs, and roles as a sexual being. Sexual identity values may include the importance of family, community, individuality, or freedom of expression in one’s life. Sexual identity beliefs may include one’s thoughts about equal rights, same-sex marriage, raising children, or practicing monogamy. Sexual identity roles may include how one behaves in romantic relationships, in family systems, in friendship networks, and in work settings. The cumulative development of these values, beliefs, and roles all contribute to one’s personal sense of self as a sexual being.
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sexual identity as an adult. When children receive positive messages about sexual identity from their families and other role models, they are likely to gain better selfdefinition and positive self-esteem during adolescence; conversely, if they receive negative messages about sexual identity, they are likely to suffer other mental health consequences, particularly if they identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual [4].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
Relevance to Childhood Development Sexual identity development may begin during early childhood, when an individual recognizes her/his first sexual attractions to others. This first awareness of sexual attraction is often described as beginning with the Oedipus complex for boys or the Electra complex for girls. The Oedipus complex is defined as a stage in life where a boy is fixated on his mother and competes with his father for maternal attention, while the Electra complex is defined as a stage in life where a girl is attracted her father and rivals with her mother for paternal attention. Sexual identity development continues when children interact with peers for the first time and they experience sexual attractions with individuals of their same sex or opposite sex or both. These early experiences with sexual attraction during childhood may have lasting impacts on one’s sexual identity during adulthood and may influence how one understands sexual orientation and to whom individuals are sexually and romantically attracted. Additionally, children begin to learn about sexual orientation, gender and gender roles from their families, schools, religious groups, and the media during early childhood. These messages may influence one’s ability to explore sexual orientation, gender roles, and gender expectations in positive and negative ways. For example, young boys may be encouraged to be leaders and authoritative while young girls may be encouraged to be more submissive or passive. Concurrently, young girls may be encouraged to be more emotionally expressive while young boys may be encouraged to repress emotions. Both groups may also learn that it is important to behave according to their gender norms and only be romantically attracted to the opposite sex. These messages about sexual orientation and gender from early childhood may have lasting impacts on one’s
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Cass, V. C. (1979). Homosexual identity formation: A theoretical model. Journal of Homosexuality, 4, 219–235. D‘Augelli, A. R. (2000). Sexual orientation. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology (pp. 225–247). New York: Plenum. Diamond, L. M., & Butterworth, M. (2008). Questioning gender and sexual identity: Dynamic links over time. Sex Roles, 59, 365–376. Tasker, F., & McCann, D. (1999). Affirming patterns of adolescent sexual identity: The challenge. Journal of Family Therapy, 21, 30–54. Worthington, R. L., Navarro, R. L., Savoy, H. B., & Hampton, D. (2008). Development, reliability, and validity of the Measure of Sexual Identity Exploration and Commitment (MoSIEC). Developmental Psychology, 44(1), 22–33. Worthington, R. L., Savoy, H. B., Dillon, F. R., & Vernaglia, E. R. (2002). Heterosexual identity development: A multidimensional model of individual and social identity. The Counseling Psychologist, 30, 496–531. Yarhouse, M. A. (2001). Sexual identity development: The influence of valuative frameworks on identity synthesis. Psychotherapy, 31(3), 331–341.
Sexual Intimacy ▶Sexual Relationships
Sexual Labels ▶Sexual Orientation
Sexual Maltreatment ▶Self Identity: Sexual Abuse of Adolescents
Sexual Molestation ▶Self Identity: Sexual Abuse of Adolescents
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Sexual Orientation LISA KILANOWSKI-PRESS Niagara University, Niagara, NY, USA
Synonyms Sexual identity; Sexual labels
Definition Sexual orientation is a construct involving sexual attraction that encompasses a variety of domains and includes behavioral, emotional, and social manifestations. Sexual orientation pertains to sexual attraction but may not result in the commission of sex acts or other sexual behavior. Despite instability in the reporting of sexual orientation or manifestations of sexual attraction over time, sexual orientation is considered to be an enduring trait that may manifest differently across the lifespan.
Description According to the American Psychological Association (2004), “sexual orientation is an enduring emotional, sexual, or affectional attraction toward others,” inherently different from biological sex, gender identity, and gender roles [1]. While many view sexual orientation as exclusively linked to sexual behavior, sexual orientation in its truest form pertains to persistent patterns of attraction across a variety of domains, regardless of whether or not the attraction results in any sexual act. Over the course of the past 50 years, heterosexuality, or attraction to members of the opposite sex, homosexuality, or same sex attraction, and bisexuality, attraction to members of both the same and opposite sex, have emerged as the most frequently researched manifestations of sexual orientation. However, though frequently conceptualized as a largely dichotomous concept, with individuals identifying exclusively as heterosexual or homosexual, and some oriented in between (bisexual), research indicates that sexual orientation is most accurately represented as a continuum of orientations [11–13]. According to Kinsey, who developed the Heterosexual–Homosexual Rating Scale [11], individuals may find that their sexual orientation is most accurately characterized by degrees of attraction ranging from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. Specifically, Kinsey posited that sexual orientation can be described as exclusively heterosexual, no homosexual; predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual; predominantly heterosexual, more than incidentally homosexual; equally heterosexual and
homosexual; predominantly homosexual, incidentally heterosexual; predominantly homosexual, more than incidentally heterosexual; and exclusively homosexual. Kinsey’s description of sexual orientation as existing along a continuum was furthered by Dr. Fritz Klein, who also subscribed to a multi-dimensional notion of sexual orientation and attraction. However, unlike Kinsey, Klein’s model, operationalized by the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, attends to the notion that sexuality is comprised of a variety of factors, including emotional, social, and lifestyle components, in addition to more traditional aspects of human sexuality, such as sexual attraction, sexual behavior, and sexual fantasies. Klein asserted that each of the aforementioned aspects of sexual orientation can change over time, conflicting with previously held notions of sexual orientation as stable and fixed, and are best evaluated by identifying past, present, and ideal descriptions of behavior. Like Kinsey’s model, Klein’s approach affords the option for those completing the grid to indicate a variety of interests, ranging from “other sex only” to “same sex only,” as well as orientations, ranging from “heterosexual only” to “homosexual only,” with a variety of response gradients in between exclusive orientations and identities. However, unlike Kinsey’s model, Klein’s model allows respondents the ability to differentiate between sexual behavior and lifestyle choices, thus allowing for identification of situations where respondents private sexual identity may not match their public (lifestyle) identity.
Prevalence of Nonheterosexuality Current reported rates of homosexuality in the United States range between 2 and 4% of the total population [6]. However, methodologically, much research regarding the prevalence of homosexuality is plagued by the tendency to examine sexuality as a discrete variable, encompassing only heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. As asserted by Diamond [7], as well as Savin-Williams and Reams [17], variations in sexual orientation are best examined by evaluating sexuality along a continuum, including same sex behavior, sexual attraction, romantic relationships, public lifestyle, emotional attraction, and fantasy. Furthermore, in accordance with Klein’s suggestion that past and future sexual orientation and behavior may deviate from present orientation, Savin-Williams and Reams also suggest that self-report of sexual orientation may not be fixed, reflecting degrees of self-awareness or active engagement in same or different sex behavior, and should be investigated across time. Holistically, research conducted over the past 10 years suggests that when the definition of sexual orientation is
Sexual Prejudice
broadened to include domains outside of sexual behavior, such as emotion and fantasy, rates of homosexuality or bisexuality increase significantly from established base rates in the population. It has also been found that significantly more women than men self-identify as nonheterosexual [17]. Likewise, research indicates that report of sexual orientation among nonheterosexual populations typically varies over time, while report of sexual orientation among the majority of heterosexuals tends to remain stable [17]. Consequently, research identifying instability in reports of sexual orientation among nonheterosexuals suggests that sexual orientation may be a construct that behaviorally manifests differently over time (2007).
Determinants of Sexual Orientation To date, no research definitively identifying the cause of sexual orientation differences has been published [2, 4]. Numerous hypotheses regarding the development of sexual orientation have been tested, yielding a variety of biologically based variables correlated with sexual orientation. Possible genetic determinants related to the x chromosome have been investigated [3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 15]; as well as hypotheses involving hormonal factors [10], and differences in brain anatomy, particularly in the hippocampus and hypothalamus [5, 16, 18]. Despite a long history of competing determinants of sexual orientation, sexual identity, and attraction is primarily believed to be biologically mediated. However, social and environmental factors may serve to influence the degree to which an individual fully espouses and expresses their sexual orientation.
References 1. American Psychological Association (2004). Sexual orientation and homosexuality. Retrieved online September 15, 2008, from http:// www.apahelpcenter.org/articles/article.php?id=31. 2. Bailey, J. M., Dunne, M. P., & Martin, N. G. (2000). Genetic and environmental influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(3), 524–536. 3. Bailey, J. M., & Pillard, R. C. (1995). Genetics of human sexual orientation. Annual Review of Sex Research, 6, 126–150. 4. Bocklandt, S., Horvath, S., Vilain, E., & Hamer, D. H. (2006). Extreme skewing of X chromosome inactivation in mothers of homosexual men. Human Genetics, 118, 691–694. 5. Byne, W., Tobet, S., Mattiace, L. A., Lasco, M. S., Kemether, E., Edgar, M. A., et al. (2001). he interstitial nuclei of the human anterior hypothalamus: an investigation of variation with sex, sexual orientation and HIV status. Hormones and Behavior, 40, 86–92. 6. Diamond, M. (1993). Homosexuality and bisexuality in different populations. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 22, 291–310. 7. Diamond, L. M. (2003). New paradigms for research on heterosexual and sexual-minority development. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 490–498.
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8. Hamer, D., & Copeland, P. (1994). The science of desire: The search for the gay gene and the biology of behavior. New York: Simon and Schuster. 9. Hamer, D. H., Hu, S., Magnuson, V. L., Hu, N., & Pattatucci, A. M. (1993). A linkage between DNA markers on the X chromosome and male sexual orientation. Science, 261, 320–326. 10. Henderson, B. A., and Berenbaum, S. A. (1997). Sex-typed play in opposite-sex twins. Development Psychobiology, 31, 115–123. 11. Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, C. E. (1948). Sexual behavior in the human male. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders. 12. Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E., & Gebhard, P. H. (1953). Sexual behavior in the human female. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders. 13. Klein, F. (1993). The bisexual option. New York: Harrington Park Press. 14. Mustanski, B. S., Dupree, M. G., Nievergelt, C. M., Bocklandt, S., Schork, N. J., & Hamer, D. H. (2005). A genomewide scan of male sexual orientation. Human Genetics, 116(4), 272–278. 15. Rice, G., Anderson, C., Risch, N., & Ebers, G. (1999). Male homosexuality: Absence of linkage to microsatellite markers at Xq28. Science, 284(5414), 665–667. 16. Savic, I., & Lindstrom, P. (2008). PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, 105(27), 9403–9408. 17. Savin-Williams, R., & Ream, G. L. (2007). Prevalence and stability of sexual orientation components during adolescence and young adulthood. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, 385–394. 18. Swaab, D. F., & Hofman, M. A. (1990). An enlarged suprachiasmatic nucleus in homosexual men. Brain Research, 537(1–2), 141–148.
Sexual Prejudice DAVID P. RIVERA Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms Heterosexism; Homonegativity; Homophobia; Sexual stigma
Definition Sexual prejudice encompasses all negative attitudes and assumptions directed toward an individual or group based on sexual orientation.
Description Sexual prejudice occurs when an individual harbors negative attitudes about an individual or group based on sexual orientation [2–4]. The target of sexual prejudice can be of any sexual orientation (homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual). However, as with other forms of prejudice, the groups that suffer most from sexual prejudice are those that have been ascribed marginal status by society.
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As such, those whose sexual orientation is labeled as homosexual (i.e., gay, lesbian) or bisexual are most likely to be targets of sexual prejudice. The manifestation of sexual prejudice occurs in various ways, such as heterosexuals possessing negative attitudes about homosexual behavior or expressing negative attitudes towards individuals or groups of people who are homosexual or bisexual. Sexual prejudice can be expressed through verbal statements, non-verbal facial expressions, or actions ranging from avoidance to violence, for example. Psychologist Gregory M. Herek, a scholar of sexual orientation-based prejudice and antigay violence, coined the term sexual prejudice [2]. The term was offered as a broader way of conceptualizing the negative attitudes and beliefs directed to individuals and groups based on sexual orientation. Further, use of the term sexual prejudice may serve as a more appropriate descriptor when identifying or studying antigay attitudes, which has previously been associated with the terms homophobia and heterosexism. More specifically, use of the term sexual prejudice may be more appropriate because its use does not define the origins of antigay attitudes or beliefs.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children can be the targets and aggressors of sexual prejudice. Issues and experiences of sexual prejudice can arise when children become aware of sexual orientation differences between themselves and others. As children begin to gain an awareness of their sexual orientation, they begin to display behaviors that can be considered gender normative, gender neutral, or gender variant. Gender normative behavior is typically displayed by children whose sexual orientation is consistent with a heterosexual orientation. However, gender neutral or gender variant behavior is likely to be displayed by children who identify with a homosexual or bisexual orientation. As children begin to engage in behaviors that are not consistent with a heterosexual orientation, the potential for being the target of sexual prejudice increases. Childhood is full of many developmental milestones. One of the milestones salient to identity development in children is that of first awareness of sexual orientation. The first awareness of one’s homosexual or bisexual orientation is believed to occur between ages 9 and 11 [6]. The behavior of children is influenced in part by their awareness of their sexual orientation. Sexual prejudice is likely to be directed towards children who begin to engage in behavior that is influenced by their homosexual or bisexual orientation. Other developmental milestones that contribute to the likelihood of becoming the target of sexual prejudice include first same-sex encounter, first
self-label of gay, lesbian or bisexual, and first disclosure of sexual orientation. These milestones are reached at various ages; however, research indicates that they can all occur during the childhood and adolescent years. Peer pressure is a psychological construct that contributes to the likelihood of a child becoming an aggressor of sexual prejudice [1]. As the child begins to notice the gender norms for his or her environment, they also begin to notice the children who are not behaving in what is considered a gender appropriate manner. Children can be greatly influenced by their peers to behave in many different ways. An environment that values and adheres to a rigid definition of gender appropriateness is likely to encourage children to adopt these same rigid values. As children begin to identify those children who are behaving in gender neutral or gender variant ways, they are likely to be influenced by their peers to think about and treat these children differently. In an environment where difference is not tolerated, the children have an increased potential for treating the children who behave in gender neutral or gender variant ways negatively. Children who are the targets of sexual prejudice are likely to experience an array of negative experiences, which can impact their level of psychological wellbeing [5]. Children who are exposed to environments where they are made to feel inferior, deviant, and unwelcome can develop a low sense of self-worth and low self-esteem. These children can also develop higher rates of depression and feelings of hopelessness. Additionally, children who have experienced sexual prejudice can also develop a heightened level of sensitivity and awareness for their surroundings, which can increase their potential for developing anxiety disorders. All of these threats to a child’s sense of wellbeing can lead to an increased susceptibility for suicidal ideation and suicidality. In order to prevent sexual prejudice amongst children, attention needs to be placed on environmental factors [5]. Policy makers, educators, healthcare providers, and parents can take steps towards creating an environment that is more knowledgeable and accepting of gay, lesbian, and bisexual children. Since many of the peer interactions that create the potential for sexual prejudice in childhood occur in a school setting, educators can be influential in leading efforts to make schools a safer and more welcoming environment for gay, lesbian, and bisexual children. Children can be educated about sexual orientation differences. Support groups and peer ally groups can be created in the school to improve the awareness around sexual orientation issues. Mental health professionals can be made available to children who need support in processing their experiences of sexual prejudice. Parents can take
Sexual Relationships
a leadership role by advocating that schools institute programs geared towards educating their children about sexual orientation issues. Preventing and dealing with sexual prejudice successfully requires the involvement of the entire community.
References 1.
2. 3.
4. 5.
6.
Franklin, K. (2000). Antigay behaviors among young adults: Prevalence, patterns, motivators in a noncriminal population. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15(4), 339–362. Herek, G. M. (2000). The psychology of sexual prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(1), 19–22. Herek, G. M. (2004). Beyond “homophobia”: Thinking about sexual stigma and prejudice in the twenty-first century. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 1(2), 6–24. Herek, G. M. (2007). Confronting sexual stigma and prejudice: Theory and practice. Journal of Social Issues, 63(4), 905–925. Safren, S. A., & Hemberg, R. G. (1999). Depression, hopelessness, suicidality, and related factors in sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67(6), 859–866. Savin-Williams, R. C., & Diamond, L. M. (2000). Sexual identity trajectories among sexual-minority youths: Gender comparisons. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 29(6), 607–627.
Sexual Relationships DOUGLAS K. SYMONS, ALICIA L. SZIELASKO Acadia University, Wolfville, ON, Canada
Synonyms Intimate relationships; Mate selection; Pair bonding; Sexual intimacy
Definition A sexual relationship is a relationship between two people that includes sexual intimacy. The main forms of intimacy are physical and emotional, but sexual relationships do not have to include both of these components.
Description There are different kinds of sexual relationships defined by the gender of the people involved: heterosexual relationships involve a male and a female, homosexual relationships involve two people of the same sex, and people identified as bisexual typically either engage in both kinds of relationships or have a sexual attraction to people of both sexes. Sexual activity between a child and either an older adolescent or adult, or exploitation of the child for sexual gratification, is child sexual abuse defined by
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criminal and civil law. Age of consent for adolescents to have a sexual relationship according to law varies from country to country from age 12 to 20, although the modal age is 14 or 15 according to some sources, and subject to a variety of qualifications related to issues like permissible age differences, marital status, and what kind of activity is allowed, that again vary by country.
Relevance for Childhood Development One third of 13 year-olds and two thirds of 18 year-olds self report having been in a romantic relationship in the past 18 months, and about half of North American high school students have experienced a sexual relationship that included intercourse. Sexual relationships are seen as a subset of romantic relationships as sex is a behavior that takes place within romantic relationships or is promised for the future, but sex can also take place outside of them [5, 7]. The evolutionary context of romantic relationships involves a combination of three behavioral systems that have been historically argued to be independent: attachment, caregiving, and sex [2, 6]. Sexual relationships have been studied for a variety of reasons in adolescence. One area of research involves risky sexual behavior [11]. Significant percentages of adolescents engage in risky sexual behavior, which includes having unprotected sex, sex while impaired, and involvement with multiple partners or at an early age. These kinds of behaviors are related to sexually transmitted diseases, involvement in unwanted sexual behavior, and teenage pregnancy. These negative outcomes have resulted in studies of motives for sexual behavior such as having sex to either gain social status or to maintain a relationship [10], as well as HIV and pregnancy prevention programs which target teenagers [8, 12]. These kinds of studies often identify populations of adolescents who tend to engage in risky sexual behavior, such as adolescents from low socioeconomic status, from single parent families, or from the inner cities. How adolescents feel invulnerable to normative risk factors (e.g., “it will not happen to me”) is also an issue. Another area of concern is when sexual relationships are coercive or exploitive, which compromises consent and appropriate motivational issues regarding the sexual relationship [3]. Another area of research examines how sexual and romantic relationships arise in adolescence. For example, relationship researchers have speculated that adolescent sexual relationships arise as an extension of peer relationships, and represent a further distancing of teens from their parents [1, 4]. Sexual and romantic partners can ultimately be a new secure base to turn to when distressed, whereas parents typically are used to meet those needs in
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infancy and childhood. Mate selection is another focus so that how sexual partners are selected can be understood, and it is felt that secure children make relatively healthier choices in their sexual relationships. A final area of interest is how teenagers can best be educated about sexual relationships, risk factors, and sexuality in general. There is a presumption that education can help teenagers make better decisions in their lives. Alternatives to education, such as the “Abstinence Only” teenage pregnancy prevention campaign in the United States in the 1990s, have not been effective as they do not include an educational component. There have even been ideologically driven objections to funding research on sexual relationships in adolescence out of concerns that such research would be counterproductive to efforts to discourage casual sex amongst teens [9]. Sexual relationships in adolescence ultimately are of interest to developmental psychologists, medical personnel with a focus on prevention and community-health, family-support workers, and educators [13].
References 1. Allen, J. P., & Land, D. (1999). Attachment in adolescence. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 355–377). New York: Guilford. 2. Belsky, J. (2007). Experience in childhood and the development of reproductive strategies. Acta Psychologica Scienica, 39, 454–468. 3. Brassard, A., Shaver, P. R., & Lussier, Y. (2007). Attachment, sexual experience, and sexual pressure in romantic relationships: A dyadic approach. Personal Relationships, 14, 475–493. 4. Brooks-Gunn, J., & Furstenberg, F. F. (1989). Adolescent sexual behaviour. American Psychologist, 44, 249–257. 5. Collins, W. A. (2003). More than myth: The developmental significance of romantic relationships during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13, 1–24. 6. Del Guidice, M. (2009). Sex, attachment, and the development of reproductive strategies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 1–67. 7. Mikulincer, M., & Goodman, G. S. (Eds.). (2006). Dynamics of romantic love: Attachment, caregiving, and sex. New York: Guildford Press. 8. Mullin, P. D., Ramirez, G., Strouse, D., Hedges, L. V., & Sogolow, E. (2002). Meta-analysis of the effects of behavioural HIV prevention interventions on the sexual risk behaviour of sexually experienced adolescents in controlled studies in the United States. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 30, 94–105. 9. Rose, S. (2005). Going too far? Sex, sin, and social policy. Social Forces, 84(2), 1207–1232. 10. Schachner, D. A., & Shaver, P. R. (2004). Attachment dimensions and sexual motives. Personal Relationships, 11, 179–195. 11. Tracy, J. L., Shaver, P. R., Albino, A. W., & Cooper, M. L. (2003). Attachment styles and adolescent sexuality. In P. Florsheim (Ed.), Adolescent romantic relations and sexual behaviour: Theory, research, and practical implications (pp. 137–159). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 12. Underhill, K., Montgomery, P., & Operario, D. (2007). Sexual abstinence only programs to prevent HIV infection in high income countries: Systemic review. British Journal of Medicine, 335, 248.
13. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001). The Surgeon General’s call to action to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behaviour. http://www.ejhs.org/volume4/callaction.htm
Sexual Stigma ▶Sexual Prejudice
Sexual Victimization ▶Self Identity: Sexual Abuse of Adolescents ▶Sexual Abuse
Sexuality Education ▶Sex-Education Programs
Shaken Baby Syndrome ADELINE LOW Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Synonyms Battered child syndrome; Child abuse; Child maltreatment; Non-accidental trauma; Sexual abuse; Whiplash Shaken Infant Syndrome
Definition Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a form of child abuse that occurs when an abuser violently shakes an infant or small child, creating a whiplash-type motion that causes acceleration-deceleration injuries.
Description SBS, or also simply known as SBS, is becoming one of the leading issues of child maltreatment. In the United States alone, over 250 out of 1000 maltreated children die each year due to SBS. This number may be higher than reported as many cases have gone unrecorded since it was hard to properly label child abuse fatalities. Since SBS is a difficult syndrome to define, it further increases the difficulties
Shaken Baby Syndrome
in determining the frequency of such cases. SBS, which causes head injuries by violently shaking an infant, is not a new type of child maltreatment. The first incomplete autopsy findings of such abuse was recorded in the year 1860, by Professor Ambrose Tardieu of the University of Paris. Although no shaking was specifically mentioned, he revealed that by investigating 32 cases of child abuse, some victims were “pulled all over the place” and had lesions at their arms and chest due to rough handling. However, it was only in the year 1946 that John Caffey coined the term Whiplash Shaken Infant Syndrome to describe 27 children with subdural hematoma, a type of brain injury, who had received whiplash shaking but had no history of trauma. There are about 14 common signs and symptoms of SBS. Below is the list of them: 1. Apnea, an interruption in the regular rhythm of respiration 2. Bradycardia, having a heart rate of less than 60 beats per minute 3. Bradypnea, an abnormal slowness in breathing 4. Bulging fontanelle, swelling on the infant head’s soft spot due to excess of fluid, blood and inflammation within the brain’s substance 5. Coma, a state of unresponsiveness 6. Cyanosis, the lack of oxygen in the blood which causes the infant’s lips and skin to turn into a bluish purple color 7. Eyes rolling back or staring 8. Hypothermia, abnormally low body temperature 9. Inconsolable irritability 10. Internal damage but with no external injuries 11. Lethargy, appearing sleepy, or hard to arouse 12. Seizures and status epilepticus 13. Tensing or drawing up limbs; and 14. Vomiting Clinical characteristics of an infant with SBS may include retinal hemorrhage, subdural and/or subarachnoid hemorrhages but with no external trauma. Nevertheless, a diagnosis of SBS should not be made just by these symptoms alone, but, the combination of clinical history, diagnostic images and the abovementioned signs and symptoms. The perpetrators of SBS can be anyone, but generally they are parents or caregivers of the child. Most often, shaking occurred not to injure the child but to control the child’s behavior. There are many characteristics of SBS perpetrators, but only three will be noted here. First, SBS perpetrators were often abused as children too. Since these people grew up in a negative environment, they may
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believe that corporal punishment is justified, and may not see the wrong in shaking a crying child to silence him or her. Second, caregivers with psychiatric disorders show an increased probability of being a perpetrator of SBS. The psychopathology impacts the relationship between the caregiver and the child, and the caregiver has a lower ability to deal with the stress of raising a child. Third, lack of social support and social isolation has been highlighted as one of the factors that increases the risk of infant shaking. This social isolation by the caregivers increases their frustration and limits their sources to proper caregiving and child development. Abusive behaviors are found to occur especially during periods of overwhelming stress.
Relevance to Childhood Development This syndrome is a serious form of child maltreatment because of the severe consequences it produces to the shaken infant. Vigorously shaken infants are subject to possible brain injuries. A child who experienced a minimal aftereffect of the shaking often develops attention issues and may be easily distracted. In addition, this child may develop emotional problems and attachment disorder. Normally, the conditions above happen to shaken children who were not discovered or even diagnosed. However, in severe cases, the shaken child might end up having balance problems, blindness, cerebral palsy, deafness/hearing problem, and even death. Balance problems are related to an injury to either the basal ganglia, cerebellum or the inner ear. Retinal hemorrhaging may develop as a result of SBS and this may lead to partial or total blindness while cerebral palsy impairs the child’s motor skills. Since a shaken child may suffer damages to the eighth cranial nerve, bones of the inner ears and the cochlea, the child is susceptible to hearing problems or even deafness. Death often occurs due to uncontrolled increase of intracranial pressure. This is a result of injuries to the cerebral edema or hemorrhage. Shaken children under 6 months of age are exposed to a higher risk of dying. Since SBS also leads to motor skills impairment, shaken children are also left with poor oral motor function. They are unable to chew or swallow, and might also experience gastroesophageal reflux, whereby food from their stomach is brought back into the esophagus. A SBS child might also have hydrocephalus, the enlargement of the brain due to excessive build up of fluid in and around the ventricles of the cranial space. Other complications due to traumatic brain injuries include hypersensitivity, learning disabilities, and mental retardation. Shaking could slow down the brain’s rate of growth, causing the child to have microcephaly, which is defined as possessing an abnormally smaller head than the normal population.
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Damage to the spinal cord can result in paralysis to the child while with severe brain injuries, the child might be left in a persistent vegetative state.
References 1. 2.
Lazoritz, S., & Palusci, V. J. (2001). Shaken baby syndrome: A multidisciplinary approach. New York: The Haworth Press, Inc. Peinkofer, J. R. (2002). Silenced angels: The medical, legal and social aspects of shaken baby syndrome. London: Auburn House.
Shakow, David KATHERINE E. KIKER University of Florida, Gainesvile, FL, USA
Contribution Shakow’s dissertation (1946), The Nature of Deterioration in Schizophrenia, is recognized as a classic study of the disease. Shakow developed one of the nation’s first clinical psychology internship programs [2]. Shakow also chaired the development of the ScientistPractitioner Model of graduate training for clinical psychology, which was set forth at the famous Boulder Conference of 1949. Finally, Shakow’s research at NIMH contributed to the areas of schizophrenia, perception, aging, childhood development, and personality [2].
References 1.
2.
Cautin, R. B. (2008). David Shakow and schizophrenia research at Worcester State Hospital: The roots of the scientist-practitioner model. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 44(3), 219–237. Reisman, J. M. (2000). Shakow, David. In Encyclopedia of Psychology (Vol. 7, pp. 265–266). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Life Dates 1901–1981
Educational Information Born in New York City, David Shakow attended Harvard University, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science. He began working toward his doctorate in psychology, but accepted a position at Worcester State Hospital in 1932 to support his family. In 1949, he accepted a position as professor in the psychiatry department at the University of Illinois Medical School. Two years later, he accepted a joint position to also serve as professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. In 1954, he left both of these positions to work at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). Shakow served as the first head of the Laboratory of Psychology in NIMH’s Intramural Research Program. In 1966 he retired from his position, but continued as a senior research psychologist [2].
Accomplishments At Worcester State Hospital, Shakow began his research into schizophrenia. His research helped to establish basic facts about schizophrenia and contributed to the research on the mental deterioration that accompanies the progress of schizophrenia. Additionally, Shakow helped emphasize the need to treat schizophrenics humanely [1]. During his work at NIMH, Shakow was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award and the Distinguished Professional Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association [2].
Shame TEMI BIDJERANO Furman University, Greenville, SC, USA
Definition A self-conscious emotion, evoked in situations of failing to achieve goals of personal importance and attributing the outcome to internal, uncontrollable causes such as lack of ability or intelligence.
Description Shame is characterized as a highly intense self-conscious emotion that usually occurs as a result of failure of personal importance, such as living up to expectations or attaining personal goals and standards. It is evoked in situations in which failure has been attributed to a stable global aspect of the self (i.e., personality characteristics, ability), exemplified by the statement “I’m a stupid person.” The intensity of shame is particularly strong when an individual fails an easy task. Shame is associated with feelings of helplessness, sadness, and depression; it involves a negative evaluation of the entire self and there is a great concern about the appearance of the self in the eyes of others [6, 10]. The experience of shame is accompanied by pronounced behavioral reactions such as lowering the head
Shame
and eyes, not maintaining eye contact, withdrawing from interaction, and diverting others’ attention from the painful event. Physiological reactions including blushing, having difficulty breathing, and increased perspiration and heart rate. Psychological reactions include feelings of inferiority, humiliation, awkwardness, lack of confidence, loss of status, and loss of control [3, 8]. Shame could have an adaptive function as long as the recognized discrepancies between actual behavior and the ideal self serve as a motivator for change and improvement. Recurring shame, however, can result in generalized shame or a disposition for shame and as such can have devastating and de-motivating effects. Excessive feelings of helplessness, worthlessness, and incompetence across a variety of situations have been labeled a “shame-prone” style.
Relevance to Childhood Development Shame is different from basic emotions such as sadness, as it involves a more elaborate cognitive process at the center of which is the self. Shame develops as the growing child acquires understanding of self-identity, social norms, and conventions [4, 6, 8]. Thus, shame is a higher-order, selfevaluative emotion, often considered a moral emotion as it reflects responsibility to self and others. The very first prerequisite condition for the genesis and development of shame is cognition. In order to be able to experience this emotion, children must be cognitively capable of mentally representing standards for behavior, of judging their own behavior or performance against these standards, and, in situations of failure, of reflecting upon the possible causes of their behavior which have prevented them from living up to their expectations [1, 6]. In addition to natural maturational processes in cognition, shame develops out of children’s socialization experiences in the nuclear family. More specifically, shame develops as a result of parents’ or significant others’ use of evaluative feedback. Evaluative feedback, regardless of its valence (positive or negative), can foster the development of shame in several ways. Initially, the feedback serves to draw the child’s attention to the social meaning associated with particular behavioral outcomes. Parents’ frequent evaluative feedback leads to the child’s internalization of parental values, norms, and standards for acceptable behavior. The perception of the social value of the outcome facilitates in turn the child’s self-evaluation against the internalized standards, which are deemed to be at the center of the emotion of shame [1, 5, 6]. Shame takes different forms at different ages. Mascolo and Fischer [7] have delineated the sequence in the development of shame. The 7–9 months old infant reacts
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with distress when he engages in action which results in a failure to achieve a particular outcome. Between 11 and 13 months, the child’s distress produced from failing a complex action is accompanied by an appraisal of other people’s reactions. Toward the end of the second year of life, the child begins to attribute the negative outcomes of goal oriented behavior to the self as a cause of it. In the third year of life, the self, as a cause of the outcome, is labeled bad or poor. Preschoolers begin to judge their inadequate performance in an important area in reference to other people’s performance in it. Also, they are capable of comparing their performance across different instances of the same situation and begin to generalize that they are lacking an important trait, which in turn is blamed for the failure. Between the ages of 6 and 8, children begin to judge their performance as poorer than that of other children and adults in several areas and become likely to infer that they do not possess the desirable trait to the same extent as other people do. Younger children are predominantly fearful of ridicule and embarrassment. Children younger than eight tend to explain their emotions of shame by the use of an external frame of reference, exemplified in statements such as “Mom would be ashamed of me if I did something wrong [3].” Elementary school children (10–12 years of age) become cognitively capable of analyzing the courses of ineffective actions and shame is more likely to be associated with generalized thoughts of incompetence. For example, a child can judge him/herself as lacking an athletic ability and being a poorer student comparative to other children, from which he/she concludes that in general he/she is less competent. Yet, in the adolescent years, shame could take on another manifestation: the adolescent could feel ashamed because of a characteristic or behavior of another person or group of people with identity related to theirs. It has been argued that excessive shame reactions might originate from punitive parental socialization practices such as power assertion and love withdrawal [2, 4, 9]; that is, children whose parents rely on discipline techniques such us punishment or threat of punishment are much more likely to manifest maladaptive shame when they encounter a situation of failure [2, 9]. Moderate positive relationships have been found between maternal negative evaluations of performance and a child’s expression of shame in situations of failure. In addition, it has been noted that the pattern of relationship between shame and feedback is consistent across genders. Thus, frequently communicated disappointment and criticism by parents may not only foster a child’s negative selfevaluations but they also predispose that child to recurrent shame experiences. Research has also established that
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girls tend to be more shame prone than boys and that mothers tend to offer more positive feedback to boys than to girls [2, 10].
References 1. Alessandri, S. M., & Lewis, M. (1993). Parental evaluation and its relation to shame and pride in young children. Sex Roles, 29, 335–343. 2. Alessandri, S. M., & Lewis, M. (1996). Differences in pride and shame in maltreated and non-maltreated preschoolers. Child Development, 67, 1957–1869. 3. Ferguson, T. J., & Stegge, H. (1995). Emotional states and traits in children: The case of guilt and shame. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. New York: The Guilford Press. 4. Griffin, S. (1995). A cognitive-developmental analysis of pride, shame, and embarrassment in middle childhood. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. New York: The Guilford Press. 5. Lewis, M. (1995). Embarrassment: The emotion of self-exposure and evaluation. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 198–218). New York: Guilford Press. 6. Lewis, M. (2000). Self-conscious emotions: Embarrassment, pride, shame and guilt. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland–Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (2nd ed., pp. 623–636). The Guilford Press: New York. 7. Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (1995). Developmental transformations in appraisals for pride, shame and guilt. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 64–113). New York: The Guilford Press. 8. Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (2007). The codevelopment of self and sociomoral emotions during the toddler years. In C. A. Brownell & C. B. Kopp (Eds.), Socioemotional development in the toddler years: Transitions and transformations (pp. 66–99). New York: The Guilford Press. 9. Stipek, D. (1995). The Development of pride and shame in toddlers. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 234–252). New York: Guilford Press. 10. Tangney, J. P., Burggraf, S. A., & Wagner, P. E. (1995). Shameproneness, guilt-proneness, and psychological symptoms. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 343–367). New York: Guilford Press.
Description Components of shaping include beginning with a response that resembles the target behavior, gradually changing the response requirement, and differentially reinforcing the successive approximations to, or changes towards, the final target behavior [1]. For example, shaping can be used to teach an infant to speak a new word. Using the word “ready” as the target behavior, running with the infant can be done contingent on their approximating the word “ready.” First, the requirement might be saying “rrr.” The next approximation might be “red” and the final “ready.” Once the infant has mastered one response, reinforcement is withheld until the infant engages in the next approximated response. When using shaping, one needs to be mindful of the size of the change in response requirement as too large a change can result in a breakdown of the response. Shaping is often used in teaching new behaviors, sometimes within the context of behavioral intervention programs.
References 1.
Sulzer-Azaroff, B., & Mayer, G. R. (1991). Behavior analysis for a lasting change. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.
Shared Attention ▶Joint Attention
Shared Focus ▶Joint Attention
Shifting Attention ▶Working Memory
Shaping JENNIFER M. ALEXANDER, MARIA G. VALDOVINOS Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
Definition Shaping is a procedure by which new responses are formed using differential reinforcement of successive approximations to a target behavior.
Short-Term Memory MEI Y. CHANG1, RAYMOND S. DEAN1, DENISE E. MARICLE2 1 Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA 2 Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, USA
Synonyms Immediate memory; Working memory
Short-Term Memory
Definition Short-term memory (STM) is conceived of as an auditory based, limited-capacity part of the human memory. It is generally agreed to be involved with the encoding to and recall from the long-term stored information. Unless information is rehearsed, information in the STM usually lasts seconds to 1–2 min, although some researchers suggest retention periods as high as 1 h–2 days. At the end of this period information either is transferred to long-term memory or is lost. Miller [18] in a study showed what has come to be known as “7 + or 2,” which related to the limited capacity of items that could be held in the normal STM (e.g., 5–9). In work by Dean and colleagues [5], the processing of the STM was shown to be associated with an auditory base while long-term memory had a longer duration and processed information conceptually. STM has been proposed as a stage that information must pass through to enter long-term memory storage, and it is into STM that long-term memories are retrieved. STM only requires material be stored and reproduced immediately without requiring that the material be transformed or manipulated in any way.
Description Through sensory input, individuals register and hold large amounts of information briefly in sensory memory (or sensory register). If the registered information is not further processed by STM, it will decay quickly. Thus, the sensory register is a filtering device while the STM is used for processing. Long-term memory represents, with rehearsal, a relatively permanent memory storage. STM is proposed as a stage that information must pass through to enter long-term memory storage, and it is into STM that long-term memories are retrieved. Because STM is a limited-capacity system, information within STM must be transferred to long-term memory as new information replaces it; otherwise it will decay. STM is sometimes referred to as and used interchangeably with working memory in CHC theory. For many the definition of STM does not include “the requirement for active manipulation of information,” embedded in the definition of working memory. Further, STM in the past was defined as retention of information over brief periods, and working memory was a limited-capacity memory system that provided temporal storage to manipulate information for complex cognitive tasks such as learning and reasoning. In other words, working memory is a cognitive process involving both retaining information and performing mental operations on that information prior to entry to long-term memory. Working memory contains information that can be acted on and processed, not merely the result of rehearsal. Additionally, working
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memory ensures that information will be available until it can be effectively encoded into long-term memory. Information placed in working memory may come from sensory memory, STM, or long-term memory [17]. Historically, Atkinson and Shiffrin [1] posited a threepart model of memory (sensory memory, STM and longterm memory) where the central feature was STM. According to their model short-term memories are fragile, contain only a small amount of information that is actively being used and are lost quickly (within 30 s or so) unless they are somehow repeated. A more current model involving STM is described by Gathercole and Alloway [8]. Theirs is a working memory model that involves three components: verbal short term memory, visuo-spatial short term memory and a central executive that serves an attentional and integrative role. In their model, verbal short term memory provides for the temporary storage or retention of sound patterns and language based materials that are mediated by the left hemisphere. The visuospatial short term memory component is mediated by the right hemisphere and involved in recalling shape, orientation and visual features of objects, and patterns of movement. Currently, research indicates that STM passively stores information, that it is domain specific (e.g., verbal or visual) and that it can operate independently of longterm memory and working memory [12].
Neuroanatomy of Memory/Retention of Information Studies of healthy people and patients with amnesia have revealed that memory does not consist of a single undivided whole but rather a variety of different structures, each mediated by different component processes which in turn are subserved by different neural mechanisms. Evidence from sources of functional imaging techniques and studies of patients with memory impairments and animals indicates that the medial temporal lobe (primarily the hippocampus and secondarily the amygdala) and the midline diencephalon (the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus) are essential brain structures for normal learning and retention. These structures permit the storage of information until consolidation is complete. Neuropsychological research indicates that left parietal-temporal lobe dysfunction disturbs short-term (and working) memory. Lesions in this area impair the ability to recall a string of digits. Left sided lesions result in verbal impairments, and right sided lesions result in STM impairments for spatial location [11].
Relevance to Childhood Development Memory complaints are among the most frequent patient complaints in clinical neuropsychology, and STM deficits
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are a common feature of many childhood disorders, including traumatic or acquired brain injury, congenital brain injury (anoxia), seizure disorders, attention disorders, autism, endocrine disorders, genetic disorders such as Prader Willi Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, XXY Syndrome, and numerous neurodevelopmental disorders such as metabolic disorders. Memory function takes precedence over acquiring new skills and directly impacts the retention of information and skills. Therefore, assessing the performance of the various aspects in the memory system is imperative in detecting and identifying possible memory disorders. Most standardized batteries of intellectual functioning in children and adults have incorporated tasks of STM. Children do not use rehearsal strategies until about age 8 or 9, so young children’s STM capacity is quite limited. Most children reach adult capacities about age 10–12. Additionally, at about age 8, children develop a strong preference for using verbal STM skills when possible, even to retain visual-spatial STM stimuli because verbal STM is more accurate and efficient. The three most widely used memory batteries for children are the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning-II (WRAML-II), the Test of Memory and Learning-II (TOMAL II), and the Children’s Memory Scale (CMS). Due to variations in etiology, age of onset, and resulting impairments of memory systems, the prognosis for improvement of memory deficits is not easily determined. There is some evidence that specific rehabilitation strategies result in improvement of memory performance. The primary focus of intervention has been on environmental compensation including mnemonic strategies, rehearsal and repetition strategies, and multimodal cueing, and the use of tools such as planners, calendars, or charts. There is considerable need for further research examining the efficacy of specific intervention strategies on various memory functions in children and adolescents.
5. Dean, R. S., Garabedian, A. A., & Yekovich, F. R. (1983). Effect of modality shifts on proactive interference in long-term memory. Contemporary Educational psychology, 8(1), 28–45. 6. Dean, R. S., Woodcock, R. W., Decker, S. L., & Schrank, F. A. (2003). A Cognitive Neuropsychology Assessment System. In F. A. Schrank & D. P. Flanagan (Eds.), WJ III clinical use and interpretation. London: Academic Press. 7. Dehn, M. J. (2008). Working memory and academic learning: Assessment and intervention. New York: Wiley. 8. Gathercole, S. E., & Alloway, T. P. (2008). Working memory and learning: A practical guide for teachers. Los Angeles: SAGE. 9. Gazzaniga, M. S., Ivry, R. B., & Mangun, G. R. (2002). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. 10. Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1993). Working memory and the mind: Readings from scientific American magazine (pp. 67–77). New York: W. H. Freeman. 11. Goodwin, D. M. (1989). A dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Springer. 12. Howes, M. B. (2007). Human memory: Structures and images. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 13. Kellogg, R. T. (2007). Fundamentals of cognitive psychology. Los Angeles: SAGE. 14. Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. 15. Loring, D. W. (1999). INS dictionary of neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press. 16. Matlin, M. W. (2005). Cognition (6th ed.). New York: Wiley. 17. Miller, D. C. (2007). Essentials of school neuropsychological assessment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 18. Miller, G. (1994). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 101, 343–352. 19. Moscovitch, M. (2004). Amnesia. In N. B. Smesler & O. B. Baltes (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of social and behavioral science (Vol. 1–26). Oxford: Pergamon/Elsevier Science. 20. Parkin, A. J. (2001). The structure and mechanism of memory. In B. Rapp (Ed.), The handbook of cognitive neuropsychology. Philadelphia: Psychology Press. 21. Pickering, S. J. (2006). Working memory and education. New York: Elsevier. 22. Strauss, E., Sherman, E. M. S., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological tests. New York: Oxford University Press. 23. Vanderploeg, R. D. (2000). Clinician’s guide to neuropsychological assessment. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
References 1. Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. W. Spence (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 2). New York: Academic Press. 2. Baddeley, A. (2000). Short term memory and working memory. In E. Tulving & F. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of memory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 3. Baddeley, A. (2002). The psychology of memory. In A. D. Barkley, M. D. Kopelman, & B. A. Wilson (Eds.), The handbook of memory disorders. Chichester, UK: Wiley. 4. Baron, I. S. (2000). Clinical implications and practical applications of child neuropsychological evaluations. In K. O. Yeates, M. D. Ris, & H. G. Taylor (Eds.), Pediatric neuropsychology: Research, theory and practice. New York: Guilford.
Shy Children PAMELA A. SARIGIANI Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA
Synonyms Bashfulness; Behavioral inhibition; Reticence; Social withdrawal; Timidity
Shy Children
Definition Shyness in children is a personality trait and a form of social withdrawal. Shy children exhibit wariness and anxiety when presented with novel social encounters and they show self-preoccupation when they perceive social evaluation [7, 18]. Shyness can vary in intensity from mild social awkwardness to extreme ▶social phobia [11]. Manifestations of shyness occur at the physiological, behavioral, and cognitive levels. The origins of shyness are multiply determined, and they result from a complex interplay between biology, genes, and environment [19].
Description The biological origins of shyness appear to be linked to dysregulation of the fear system [18]. Children who become distressed and subdued when presented with novel stimuli are thought to have a lower threshold for arousal in the forebrain area, especially in the central nucleus of the amygdala. The amygdala plays an important role in fear responses. Shy children show electroencephalogram (EEG) response patterns indicative of greater right frontal brain activity. Other biological features found in shy children are elevated morning basal cortisol levels, increased heart rate acceleration in response to mild stress, and exaggerated startle responses [7]. There is a strong conceptual overlap between shyness and behavioral inhibition, a broader term used to describe a biologically based temperament trait [7]. Behaviorally inhibited children exhibit caution and wariness in unfamiliar social and nonsocial situations, whereas uninhibited children are likely to be bold and sociable. Differences between these inhibited and uninhibited children are thought to reflect variation in excitability of the amygdala and its projections to the ventral striatum, hypothalamus, cingulate, central gray matter, and medulla [13]. It is estimated that approximately 10–15% of children may be described as behaviorally inhibited. Several other interesting biological factors are linked to shyness, such as blue eye color, blond hair, pale skin, and allergies (especially hay fever; [11]). In addition, prenatal factors also have an impact. It has been found that women who are exposed to short day length during pregnancy (especially during the midpoint of pregnancy) are more likely to have shy children. The hormone melatonin has been implicated in the link between day length during pregnancy and shyness. During the winter months when there are fewer daylight hours, the body produces higher levels of melatonin. This melatonin passes through the placenta to the developing fetal brain, where it may contribute to the development of the highly reactive temperament of shy children [9].
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Shyness also shows evidence of genetic links and is considered to be the personality trait with the strongest genetic component. Shy children are likely to have at least one shy parent, or they may have other shy family members. It is speculated that genes that code for serotonin transportation likely play an important role in regulation of some components of the fear system associated with shyness. Serotonin is a major neurotransmitter that has been linked to anxiety and withdrawal [20]. It has been suggested that some shy individuals have a genetic polymorphism that results in reduced efficiency of the transportation of serotonin. Interestingly, it has been found that children who exhibit higher levels of shyness or who have one or two copies of the short allele of the serotonin transporter promoter gene show some impairment in their ability to read some facial emotions. Specifically these children have a hard time deciphering neutral and angry faces [2]. While considerable research has focused on the links between shyness and activation of the fear response region of the brain (i.e., the amygdala), less research has considered the extent to which shy individuals may show greater brain activation in areas that govern more positive emotions. Recent research found that when shy, behaviorally inhibited adolescents played games that involved winning or losing money, they showed greater activity in the striatum, the brain region associated with reward, than did adolescents who were behaviorally non-inhibited [10]. The results of this research suggest that shy children may have a greater sensitivity to a variety of stimuli, not just frightening stimuli, but rewarding stimuli, as well. Behaviorally, among younger children shyness is manifested primarily as fear and nervousness in encounters with new people and new situations [5]. For older children, embarrassment and self-consciousness are manifestations of shyness. In free play situations with their peers, shy children tend to engage in onlooker behaviors or to remain unoccupied in both novel and familiar settings [16]. Shy children tend to withdraw from social interactions and they rarely initiate contact with potential playmates. Shy individuals tend to minimize conversation and avoid firm eye contact [14]. Self-defeating thoughts are a cognitive manifestation of shyness. These self-defeating thoughts are likely due to a fear of rejection [14]. It has been suggested that shy children may be caught in an approach-avoidance conflict. They have a desire to interact with others, but they are hesitant to do so because of a fear of adverse outcomes such as negative evaluation [14]. Shy individuals are likely to have negative biases in their self concept, such as feeling inadequate or unattractive [11].
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Not all shyness is evident during infancy, and so it is important to make the distinction between early and laterdeveloping shyness. Early emerging shyness, which typically appears during the first year of life, is described as fearful shyness. This type of shyness shows a strong genetic component, and is associated with the temperamental characteristics of wariness and emotionality. Children who show behavioral inhibition in novel social situations may be described as exhibiting fearful shyness. Beginning in middle childhood, self-conscious shyness may develop, and it is characterized by inhibition due to socialevaluative concerns [15]. It first appears around age 4 or 5, and it coincides with the child’s development of a cognitive sense of self. Self-conscious shyness increases in intensity around age 8 as children begin to engage in more social comparison with their peers. Self-conscious shyness reaches a peak between the ages of 14 and 17, as the adolescent deals with imaginary audience and identity issues. While the origins of shyness in some individuals are evident in manifestations of biologically-based behavioral inhibition in infancy, not all behaviorally inhibited infants and toddlers go on to develop shyness in childhood [14]. This suggests that biology and genetics alone are not the sole contributors to shyness. Indeed, most researchers agree that an interaction between biological and environmental factors contributes to the development of shyness [19]. Consequently, in addition to the biological factors already discussed, it is important to consider environmental factors that may contribute to shyness. Overprotective parenting has been linked to childhood shyness [6]. Overprotective parents tend to restrict and direct their children’s activities, and they discourage independence. As a result, an already temperamentally shy child may not develop important coping strategies, which may further reinforce their social wariness and shyness. Other factors within families that may contribute to shyness are frequent parental criticism, high parental control with little warmth, and chaotic family interactions [12]. Distant and rejecting parents tend to have shy and socially withdrawn children [19]. Peer relationships can also contribute to shyness. Shy and socially withdrawn behavior is increasingly perceived negatively by peers as children age. Shy and socially withdrawn children generally do not experience peer rejection in early childhood, but by mid-to-late childhood and early adolescence, many shy, socially withdrawn children experience peer rejection and may become the targets of peer victimization [17]. Peer rejection during childhood and adolescence and feelings of incompetence in comparison to peers can further exacerbate shyness.
Childhood shyness is associated with a number of negative outcomes. From middle childhood through adolescence, shyness is increasingly related to internalizing problems such as loneliness, depression, and social anxiety. Shy children may exhibit deficits in social competence and self-esteem, and they may experience peer rejection [5]. Additionally, early childhood shyness is a risk factor for later developing anxiety disorders [6], especially social phobia [16]. The negative trajectory worsens over time. That is, in middle and late childhood, social withdrawal increasingly is associated with peer rejection, loneliness, depressive symptoms, and negative self views [16]. Some research has examined long-term outcomes associated with childhood shyness through follow-up studies into the adulthood years. Long-term research on a 1920s birth cohort found that shy males married, established careers, and had children later than non-shy males. In contrast, shy women were more likely than their non-shy peers to follow a conventional pattern of marriage, childbearing, and homemaking [4]. Childhood shyness was not associated with pathological or extreme outcomes for either men or women. Similarly, a more recent long-term study found that childhood inhibition was associated with a delay in establishing a first stable career and romantic partnership, and finding a first fulltime job at age 23 for both men and women. With regard to emotional consequences of inhibition, it is notable that only the most extremely inhibited showed internalizing problems at age 23 [1]. The researchers concluded that inhibited children grow up into reserved, cautious adults with minimal evidence of internalizing problems. While it is important to acknowledge the challenges and risks associated with shyness, it is equally important to recognize that not all shy children experience negative outcomes [5]. Interestingly, language ability can serve as a protective factor for shy children. Verbal IQ, expressive vocabulary, and pragmatic language ability all facilitate social interactions for shy children, reducing their risk for negative outcomes [5]. Another factor that appears to make a difference in the outcomes for shy children is gender. Whereas shyness in girls is more likely to be rewarded and accepted by parents, being shy is especially problematic for boys in school. Shy boys in preschool have more behavior problems and are more likely to experience peer exclusion than are shy girls [5]. Throughout childhood and adolescence, shy boys continue to have more adjustment difficulties than girls do, such as more loneliness, poorer social skills, and lower self-esteem [5]. It has been suggested that cultural values play a role here, where there is greater social acceptance of shyness for girls than for boys in Western culture.
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Interestingly, the role of culture can also serve to be protective factor for the shy individual. Although shyness is generally viewed as an undesirable personality characteristic in the United States, that is not the case in all cultures. For example, in the People’s Republic of China, shy, reserved behavior is encouraged and accepted by mothers, teachers, and peers, and it is linked to social competence, peer acceptance, and academic success [16]. Just as family and peer factors can contribute to the risks of shyness, they, too, can serve as protective factors. Specifically, the maternal warmth, sensitivity, and supportiveness characteristic of an authoritative parenting style can help shy children develop social skills [6]. Additionally, having a high quality friendship is protective [5]. Such friendships may help provide social confidence to the child, serving as a buffer against negative emotional consequences of shyness [14]. Furthermore, children who have a closer relationship with their teacher are less likely to experience the negative outcomes associated with shyness, such as peer exclusion and rejection [5]. It is also important to recognize the positive characteristics associated with shyness. Focusing only on the problems associated with shyness can result in the view that shyness is necessarily detrimental. News stories about the use of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) or even oxytocin nasal sprays to treat shyness may communicate the message that shyness is pathological and medication is a quick fix and sure cure [20]. A more optimistic view acknowledges that some shyness attributes may be advantageous. For example, adults and children who are shy are often non-impulsive and good listeners [20]. Shy individuals are often high in empathy and sensitivity, which promotes compassion for others [11]. As noted earlier, shy children appear to exhibit increased activity in the reward system of the brain. It is quite possible, then, that shy children experience positive emotions and rewards more strongly, which may motivate the shy child to succeed. Several intervention approaches are available to help shy children. For example, peer pairing gives withdrawn children the opportunity to participate in activities with a non-withdrawn peer, so that the more sociable peer serves as a role model, provides positive reinforcement, and increases confidence [15]. Social skills training also has been used to intervene with shy children. In social skills training, children learn and practice skills that help facilitate social interactions. Social skills training has been found to have moderate effects in increasing social interactions for shy children [15]. Another way to help shy children is to provide them with opportunities for social interaction that are related to
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their skills and interests. Participating in these activities expands shy children’s social interactions, which in turn may enhance their communication skills and reduce social awkwardness. Activities such as group sports, acting, and dancing classes in a supportive environment can be helpful to shy children [12]. Research has found that shy children who participated in sports showed a significant decrease in social anxiety over the span of 1 year [8]. It is important to target activity participation to the child’s skills and interests to maximize the likelihood that the child will have experiences of success [14]. Ultimately, parents need to adapt their parenting behavior to fit the temperamental needs of their shy child. By being patient, gradually introducing the child to new experiences, and recognizing which social experiences are a good fit for the child parents can help their shy child to achieve positive developmental outcomes.
References 1. Asendorpf, J. B., Denissen, J. J. A., & van Aken, M. A. G. (2008). Inhibited and aggressive preschool children at 23 years of age: Personality and social transitions into adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 997–1011. 2. Battaglia, M., Ogliari, A., Zanoni, A., Citterio, A., Pozzoli, U., Giorda, R., et al. (2005). Influence of the serotonin transporter promoter gene and shyness on children’s cerebral responses to facial expression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 85–94. 3. Carducci, B., & Zimbardo, P. G. (1995). Are you shy? Psychology Today, 28, 34–40+. 4. Caspi, A., Elder, G. H., & Bem, D. J. (1988). Moving away from the world: Life course patterns of shy children. Developmental Psychology, 24(6), 824–831. 5. Coplan, R. J., & Arbeau, K. A. (2008). The stresses of a “brave new world”: Shyness and school adjustment in kindergarten. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 22(4), 377–389. 6. Coplan, R. J., Arbeau, K. A., & Armer, M. (2008). Don’t fret, be supportive! Maternal characteristics linking child shyness to psychosocial and school adjustment in kindergarten. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 359–371. 7. Coplan, R. J., & Armer, M. (2007). A “multitude” of solitude: A closer look at social withdrawal and nonsocial play in early childhood. Child Development Perspectives, 1, 26–32. 8. Findlay, L. C., & Coplan, R. J. (2008). Come out and play: Shyness in childhood and the benefits of organized sports participation. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 40(3), 153–161. 9. Gortmaker, S. L., Kagan, J., Caspi, A., & Silva, P. A. (1997). Daylength during pregnancy and shyness in children: Results from northern and southern hemispheres. Developmental Psychobiology, 31, 107–114. 10. Guyer, A. E., Nelson, E. E., Perez-Edgar, K., Hardin, M. G., RobersonNay, R., Monk, C. S., et al. (2006). Striatal functional alteration in adolescents characterized by early childhood behavioral inhibition. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 6399–6405. 11. Henderson, L., & Zimbardo, P. (1998). Shyness. In H. S. Friedman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of mental health, 3 (pp. 497–509). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 12. Henderson, L., Zimbardo, P., & Rodino, E. (2001). Painful shyness in children and adults [Brochure]. Psychologists in Independent
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Practice, Division of the American Psychological Association, www. division42.org and the Shyness Institute, www.shyness.com. Kagan, J. (1997). Temperament and the reactions to unfamiliarity. Child Development, 68, 139–143. Miller, S. R., & Coll, E. (2007). From social withdrawal to social confidence: Evidence for possible pathways. Current Psychology: Research & Reviews, 26(2), 86–101. Rubin, K. H., Burgess, K. B., & Coplan, R. J. (2002). Social withdrawal and shyness. In P. Smith & C. Hart (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (pp. 330–363). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Rubin, K. H., & Coplan, R. J. (2004). Paying attention to and not neglecting social withdrawal and social isolation. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50, 506–534. Rubin, K. H., Wojslawowicz, J. C., Rose-Krasnor, L., Booth-LaForce, C., & Burgess, K. B. (2006). The best friendships of shy/withdrawn children: Prevalence, stability and relationship quality. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(2), 143–157. Schmidt, L. A., & Fox, N. A. (2002). Individual differences in childhood shyness: Origins, malleability, and developmental course. In D. Cervone & W. Mischel (Eds.), Advances in personality science (pp. 83–105). New York: Guilford Press. Schmidt, L. A., Polak, C. P., & Spooner, A. L. (2005). Biological and environmental contributions to childhood shyness: A diathesis-stress model. In W. R. Crozier & L. E. Alden (Eds.), The essential handbook of social anxiety for clinicians (pp. 33–55). West Sussex, England: Wiley. Schmidt, L. A., & Tasker, S. L. (2000). Childhood shyness: Determinants, development, and “depathology. In W. R. Crozier (Ed.), Shyness: Development, consolidation, and change (pp. 30–46). New York: Routledge.
Sibling Competition ▶Sibling Rivalry
Sibling Jealousy ▶Sibling Rivalry
Sibling Rivalry SHITAL PRAMOD GAITONDE Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Cain complex; Jealousy complex; Sibling competition; Sibling jealousy
Definition Sibling rivalry is a type of competition among brothers and sisters, for the love, affection, and attention of one or both parents or for other recognition or gain.
Description Sibling rivalry often starts right after the birth of the second child, and usually continues throughout childhood and can be very frustrating and stressful to parents. It has been found that feelings of rivalry diminish in adulthood [7]. Sibling rivalry is manifested in the form of verbal or physical aggression, frustration, persistent demands for attention, or as a regressive phenomenon. Older siblings may feel lonely when the younger sibling is born and may indirectly suggest that they do not like the existence of their newborn brother or sister. Others may display frustration or demand attention when the newborn is picked up or provided more attention. Some others may hit, kick, and punch their younger sibling. Regressive behaviors such as bedwetting, thumb sucking, refusal to go to bed, insisting to be carried, and talking like babies occurs very commonly [6]. Conversely, younger siblings’ feelings of jealousy may manifest as a result of the older sibling starting school before them, parents allowing the older sibling to stay up late, and having to use the older sibling’s clothes and books [6].
Relevance to Childhood Development
Sibling Order ▶Birth Order
Sibling Relationships ▶Relationships
Theories Explaining Sibling Rivalry Different processes in sibling relationships have been identified that may explain the effect that siblings have on each other. Each child competes to define himself/herself as an individual, a process that has been described as sibling identification [1]. As they discover who they are, they try to find their own talents, activities, and interests. On the other hand, sibling deidentification has been proposed as a process whereby siblings try to distinguish themselves from their brothers and sisters and develop different
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qualities and interests in an effort to avoid direct competition for resources and establish their own role and identity within the family [10]. Psychologists who support the psychoanalytic viewpoint propose that deidentification is a defense against sibling rivalry, a Cain complex [9], just as identification is regarded as a defense against the Oedipus complex. Austrian physician Alfred Adler theorized that when a young child, initially the focus of attention, is replaced in the mother’s affections by a newly arrived infant, then “dethronement” occurs. Thus Adler conceived sibling rivalry as competition between brothers or sisters for parental approval.
Factors Leading to Sibling Rivalry Children’s developmental stages affect how well they can share parent attention and get along with their siblings. Toddlers may be at an age when they are learning to assert themselves and may not like to share their toys with anyone. They may react aggressively if their brother or sister picks up their toy. In middle childhood, children often become the “fairness police,” so they might not understand why siblings of other ages are treated differently. Teenagers, on the other hand, are developing a sense of individuality and independence, and might resent helping with household responsibilities, taking care of younger siblings, or even having to spend time together. All of these differences can influence the way children interact with one another. Additionally, the emergence of sibling rivalry may depend on the temperament of the child. Specifically, young children’s angry temperament can significantly predict how these young children express their jealousy feelings [11]. Furthermore, the age of the child may also determine how the child may cope with the feelings of sibling jealousy. Volling et al. [11] found that older children’s understanding of emotional affect significantly predicted their behavior towards their younger sibling. Thus sibling rivalry may be less common among children over the age of 8 years. They may be better at perspective taking and thus understand why their parents are providing more attention to their younger sibling. Sibling rivalry is more common in children between the ages of 2 and 4 years [3]. Additionally, the smaller the age difference between children, the more likely sibling rivalry will occur [5]. Research has found that differential treatment (i.e., less warmth and affection, more coercion by parents) of one sibling by parents leads a child to act in an aggressive, unaffectionate and avoidant manner towards their sibling [4]. This differential treatment may also be seen in families with children with special needs. Specifically, since the
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child with special needs may need more attention, the other sibling may feel isolated and may develop feelings of rivalry.
Clinical Significance of Sibling Rivalry Patterson [8] considers sibling relationships as a “training ground” for childhood aggression. Sibling rivalry, if handled properly, can help children learn social and cognitive skills important for child development [6]. Cole, ZahnWaxler, and Smith [2] suggested that those children who interact with a jealous sibling, who is more likely to instigate conflict, may be at a high risk for development of emotional regulation disorders.
Management of Sibling Rivalry Sibling rivalry may be minimized by preparing the child for the new baby. Involving the child in the preparations for the new baby may help him/her feel important. Providing verbal reassurance to the child that the parents will continue to love him/her after the baby arrives will address any insecurity that the child may experience. Verbal praise for caring for the baby will help the child feel like a team member in caring for the new-born child. Additionally, parents should emphasize the role of each individual within the family. Parents should avoid comparison with siblings about their intelligence, physical appearance, and achievements. Above all, parents themselves should model problem-solving skills during conflict resolution within the marital as well as family relationships [11].
References 1. Bank, S., & Kahn, M. (1976). Sisterhood-brotherhood is powerful: Sibling sub-systems and family therapy. Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development, 493–519. 2. Cole, P., Zahn-Waxler, C., & Smith, D. (1994). Expressive control during a disappointment: Variations related to preschoolers’ behavior problems. Developmental Psychology, 30, 835–846. 3. Dunn, J., & Kendrick, C. (1982). Siblings: Love, envy, and understanding. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 4. Hetherington, E. M., & Baltes, P. B. (1988). Child psychology and life-span development. In M. Hetherington, R. Lerner, & M. Perlmutter (Eds.), Child development in life-span perspective. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 5. Ilingsworth, R. S. (1987). The normal child (9th ed., pp. 330–333). Edinburgh, UK: Churchill Livingstone. 6. Leung, A., & Robson, L. (1991). Sibling rivalry. Clinical Pediatrics, 30, 314–317. 7. Milgram, J., & Ross, H. (1982). Effects of fame in adult sibling relationships. Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research and Practice, 38, 72–79. 8. Patterson, G. R. (1986). The contribution of siblings to training for fighting: A microsocial analysis. In D. Olweus, J. Blocke, & M. RadkeYarrow (Eds.), Development of antisocial and prosocial behaviors. New York: Academic Press.
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Sickle Beta-Plus Thalassemia
9. Schachter, F., Gilutz, G., Shore, E., & Adler, M. (1978). Sibling deidentification judged by mothers: Cross-validation and developmental studies. Child Development, 49, 543–546. 10. Sulloway, F. (1996). Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics, and creative lives (8th ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. 11. Volling, B., McElwain, N., & Miller, A. (2002). Emotion regulation in context: The jealousy complex between young siblings and its relations with child and family characteristics. Child Development, 73, 581–600.
Sickle Beta-Plus Thalassemia ▶Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle Beta-Zero Thalassemia ▶Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle Cell Anemia (SS) ▶Sickle Cell Disease
Normal hemoglobin is called HbA. Hemoglobin S are red blood cells that are sickle-shaped that must pass through the blood vessels and may block the passageways and damage the tissues.
Relevance to Childhood Development Children who have Sickle Cell disease need to make sure that the school understands the problems that they may have. Some children may have bruises on their bodies that have been mistaken for abuse. The most important consideration is for the child to be adequately hydrated and not over fatigued. Understanding the disease and watching for signs that may cause painful episodes is important. Children with Sickle Cell may experience severe pain in any part of the body due to sickling of the cells. There have been cases of people with this disease suffering heat exhaustion, dehydration, leg pain, joint pain, stomach pain, strokes, splenic infarction, stroke, and heart attacks. Diet is important and parents need to make sure the child is eating a well balanced diet. The child’s immune system may be reduced which may cause more childhood illnesses. Children may also have swelling of the hands and feet.
References 1.
2.
Sickle Cell Disease ANNE FIERRO VANDERLAAN Saybrook University, Meridian, ID, USA
3. 4.
Synonyms Sickle beta-plus thalassemia; Sickle beta-zero thalassemia; Sickle cell anemia (SS); Sickle-hemoglobin C disease (SC)
5.
Definition Sickle Cell Disease is a genetic blood disease involving the red blood cells that produce the hemoglobins that are sickle shaped and can cause problems throughout the body. The symptoms of the disease may cause death or serious damage to vital organs.
Description Hemoglobin carries oxygen from the lungs into the body and transports it to the organs, muscles, and tissues.
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Charache, S., Terrin, M. L., Moore, R. D., Dover, G. J., Barton, F. B., Eckert, S. V., et al. (1995). Effect of hydroxyurea on the frequency of painful crises in sickle cell anemia. Investigators of the multicenter study of Hydroxyurea in Sickle Cell Anemia. The New England Journal of Medicine, 332(20), 1317–1322. Davis, C. J., & Mostofi, F. K. (1995). Sesterhenn IA Renal medullary carcinoma: the seventh sickle cell nephropathy. The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 19, 1–11. Falk, R. J., & Jennette, J. C. (1994). Sickle cell nephropathy. Advances in nephrology, 23, 133–147. Konotey-Ahulu, F. I. D. (1973). Effect of environment on sickle cell disease in West Africa: Epidemiologic and clinical considerations. In H. Abramson, J. F. Bertles, & D. L. Wethers (Eds.), Sickle cell disease, diagnosis, management, education and research (p. 20). St. Louis: CV Mosby Co.; cited in Desai, D. V.; Hiren Dhanani (2004). Platt, A. F., & Sacerdote, A. (2006). Hope and destiny: a patient’s guide to sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait. Roscoe, Illinois: Hilton Publishing, Incorporated. Serjeant, G. R. (1992). The sickle cell trait. In G. R. Serjeant (Ed.), Sickle cell disease (2nd ed., pp. 415–425). New York City: Oxford University Press.
Sickle Cell Trait ▶Sickle Trait
Simian Crease
Sickle Trait ANNE FIERRO VANDERLAAN Saybrook University, Meridian, ID, USA
Synonyms Sickle cell trait
Definition Sickle cell trait or sickle trait is also known as hemoglobin genotype AS. Hemoglobin is the oxygen carrying protein in red blood cells. It carries oxygen from the lungs into the body and transports it to the organs, muscles, and tissues. Normal hemoglobin is called HbA. If one parent has a mutation of their hemoglobin gene and passes it on, the child will carry the defective gene, in this case, the HbS gene. In sickle trait, the individual has both HbA and HbS in about equal amounts in all red blood cells. These cells have the potential to change from round to sickle shaped red blood cells under certain conditions although they usually do not [1].
Sickle cell trait needs to be understood because of the potential problems that may exist in some individuals with this genetic disorder. Most persons with sickle trait have few, if any, problems from it and are often unaware of having any abnormality. However, some persons with sickle cell trait may experience severe pain in any part of the body due to sickling of the cells. There have been rare cases of people with this disease suffering heat exhaustion, dehydration, leg pain, strokes, and splenic infarction. Some women with the trait have increased urinary infections. Hyphema or bleeding in the anterior chamber of the eye between the iris and the cornea is another problem associated with sickle cell trait. Patients with sickle cell trait have a higher incidence of gross hematuria (blood in the urine) than patients with sickle cell disease. Gross hematuria occurs from bleeding directly beneath the renal pelvic epithelium or as a consequence of papillary necrosis. Renal medullary carcinoma is a rare type of cancer that principally affects patients with sickle cell trait. A possible lethal effect of sickle cell trait is unexpected exercise-related death. A person with the trait should use caution when exercising to the limit of endurance and should take care by warming up slowly when playing sports or engaging in rigorous activity and making sure not to become overheated [2].
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Relevance to Childhood Development Although sickle cell trait originated in Africa, it has been found throughout the world among people of Greek, Italian, Indian, Hispanic and occasionally Caucasian origin. The majority of those with sickle cell trait are of African or Hispanic descent. Those from Caucasian origins tend to have more problems associated with this genetic disorder. Most children in the US are being tested at birth for this condition [3]. When a child is found to have the trait, the parent needs to be aware that most of the time children who have the trait will not have any problems, but the child might feel more pain than children without the trait [4]. Also hydration is important when the child is involved in any kind of activity [2].
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
Description
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Davis, C. J., Mostofi, F. K., & Sesterhenn, I. A. (1995). Renal medullary carcinoma: The seventh sickle cell nephropathy. The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 19, 1–11. Falk, R. J., & Jennette, J. C. (1994). Sickle cell nephropathy. Advances in Nephrology, 23, 133–147. Platt, A. F., & Sacerdote, A. (2006). Hope and destiny: A patient’s guide to sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait. Roscoe, IL: Hilton Publishing, Incorporated. Serjeant, G. R. (1992). The sickle cell trait. In G. R. Serjeant (Ed.), Sickle cell disease (2nd ed., pp. 415–425). New York: Oxford University Press.
Sickle-Hemoglobin C Disease (SC) ▶Sickle Cell Disease
Sigma Score ▶Standard Scores
Signal ▶Gestures
Simian Crease ▶Single transverse palmer crease
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Simian Line ▶Single transverse palmer crease
Similar Scales Include: Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) ▶Beck Depression Inventory
Simplified Habit Reversal ▶Habit Reversal
Simultaneous Bilingualism COREY E. RAY-SUBRAMANIAN University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Single Palmer Crease ▶Single Transverse Palmer Crease
Single Parent Families JENNIFER J. LINDWALL1, BROOKE A. BAILER1, BRIAN P. DALY2 1 Temple University Health Sciences Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA 2 Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Synonyms Father only families; Lone/single parent/caregiver families; Mother only families
Definition Single parent families are comprised of a parent/caregiver and one or more dependent children without the presence and support of a spouse or adult partner who is sharing the responsibility of parenting.
Description Overview
Definition The development of fluency in two languages at the same time.
Description Simultaneous bilingualism is typically the result of prolonged exposure to two languages from birth. This may result, for example, from one parent or primary caregiver speaking to a child in one language and another parent or primary caregiver speaking to the child in another language. In contrast, sequential or consecutive bilingualism is the development of fluency in a second language after fluency in a first language has been reached. Research has shown that very young children who have developed simultaneous bilingualism are able to discriminate and switch between the two languages as appropriate to the social context. Researchers have also found that having two well developed languages is associated with increased metalinguistic awareness, communicative sensitivity, and divergent thinking skills [1].
References 1.
Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (3rd ed.). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
During the past several decades, the number of “traditional” two-parent families has decreased while the number of single parent families has increased. For example, while only about 11% of children lived in single parent families in 1970, census data from 2000 indicate that 28% of children lived in single parent families. More recently, however, these increases have leveled off with recent rates having declined from 29% in 1997 to a slightly lower rate of 27% in 2001. Reasons cited for single parent composition in families have varied during different decades. Specifically, death of a spouse was the most commonly cited reason for single parent families in the mid-twentieth century. In contrast, most of the rise in single parent families during the 1960s and 1970s was attributed to rising divorce rates, while increased rates during the 1980s and 1990s were due to out-of-wedlock births. The primary reason for single parent families in the early 2000s was that more and more single parents never married. Recent census data indicate that approximately one third of current births occur to unmarried women, while one fourth of children will live with a single parent. It is notable that although it has become more common for two non-married adult partners to be present in the household, the United States
Single Parent Families
Census Bureau still counts them as single parent families. Another exception that is counted as single parent families even though two married adults live in the house is military families in which one of the married partners is on extended deployment. Because the presence of single parent families in the past was often due to death of a spouse, resulting data revealed approximately the same number of single father and single mother families [6]. Today, however, this ratio is quite different with single-parent families headed by the mother with her biological children considered to be the most common type of arrangement. In fact, data from the 2002 Census reveal that 23% of all children lived with their single mother. Although a less common arrangement, the percentage of single parent households led by a father has increased from approximately 1% in 1970 to about 5% in 2002. In 2006, there were 12.9 million single parent families, 10.4 million of which were headed by a single mother and the remaining 2.5 million that were headed by a single father [16]. In contrast to single parent mothers, single parent fathers are more likely to be divorced than never married and more likely to be sharing a home with an adult to whom they are not married. Additional reasons for the creation of single parent families include other situations that result in the loss of a relationship (e.g., separation, abandonment by a parent) or personal choice (adoption, use of reproductive technology, or becoming or staying pregnant without a significant other) [4]. Adoption rates by single-parents also have demonstrated trend increases. For example, while only 0.5–4% of adoptive parents were single in 1970, the rate jumped to between 8 and 34% in the 1980s. This rate is likely impacted by a segment of women, often with established careers, who are choosing to have or adopt children as single mothers [12]. In the United States, there is a clear discrepancy among the percentage of single parent families within various racial/ethnic groups. For example, the proportion of single parent families by race/ethnicity is as follows: White, 22%; Black; 57%; and Hispanic, 33%. One of the biggest problems faced by single parent families is economic hardship. Since most single parent families are headed by a female, women are disproportionately represented among the poor. Two thirds of the poor population in the United States consists of families of single mothers and their children. Reports from 1999 show that close to half (42%) of youth living in single mother families were poor compared to 18% of children in single father families and 8% of children in two-parent families [13]. The economic impact also disproportionately affects families from different racial/ethnic backgrounds.
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The largest group of single mother families living below the poverty line in the United States is Hispanic (51%) followed by African–American single mother families (43%) and White single mother families (31%) [13].
Impact/Stressors on Parents Due to the fact that a single parent is responsible for all aspects of family functioning without the support of a spouse, he or she can feel overwhelmed and face a multitude of stressors [15]. In addition to being lowincome, survey data suggest that many single parent families have lower parental education, a higher degree of financial difficulty, lower participation in volunteer and religious activities, and more frequent arguments between parent and child [17]. Single parent families are considered at-risk for having poorer caregiving practices compared to mother–father families. This may partly be due to the lack of resources to adequately care for their children or the stress associated with being a single parent [3]. As children get older, mothers from single parent families appear to have greater difficulty coping with behavioral issues. For example, as children develop from childhood to young adulthood, mothers in general report fewer complaints about their children’s oppositional behavior. However, the decrease in these complaints happens more slowly in low socioeconomic and single parent mothers [7]. Finally, nonmother/father families also may experience higher levels of social stress and less supportive relationships with family members [1].
Impact on Youth The experience of living in a single parent family has been linked to a number of potential youth outcomes. For example, it has been suggested that family structure is associated with children’s mental health which is impacted by factors including socioeconomic status, family processes, and social stress. Research findings also reveal that young adults who grew up in single parent and stepfamilies reported more symptoms of depression than young adults in mother–father families [1]. Children’s physical health also has been demonstrated to be compromised in single parent families as compared to step-families and two-parent families. In one sample, 15.2% of children in single parent families had limiting health conditions compared to 13.6% in step-families and 8.9% in two-parent families. The same pattern also is found for behavioral well-being [17]. It has been suggested that children in various family structures receive differing amounts of time with their mothers. For example, results from a study of single
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mothers revealed that these mothers only spend approximately 83–90% of the time that married mothers spend with their children. This disparity is most likely due to the fact that single mothers have less time to spend with their children given that they bear all of the parenting responsibilities in the family. However, when employment, level of education, maternal age, and age of children are held constant, single mothers spend at least as much time with their children as their married mother counterparts [14]. The research investigating potential youth outcomes within single parent families related to the parent often having to work during “nonstandard” work hours is decidedly mixed. For example, it has been suggested that nonstandard working schedules may negatively impact parents’ ability to monitor their children and the closeness of the parent–child relationship. In contrast, findings from another study indicated that among single parents working nontraditional hours, the probability of parental monitoring after school is higher. On the other hand, the possibility of the parent being absent from important activities is higher as is the likelihood of the child feeling less close to his/her mother. Furthermore, in families where the single mothers are working a rotating shift there is a higher chance of adolescents participating in multiple forms of delinquent activities [11]. Due to the lack of a second parental figure, children in single parent families may have greater responsibilities in their families that include helping with the day-to-day functioning of the family. For instance, it has been suggested that children in single parent families are given the responsibility to be more involved in the decisionmaking processes of the family. This increased responsibility may take the form of having greater involvement in determining what purchases are made for themselves and for the family as a whole [8]. Much of the negative effects on children in single parent families are related to financial hardship. As a result, many families rely on child support payments as a supplemental form of income to help support the family. Unfortunately, many single parent families do not consistently receive child support payments in full. The discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments has been reported to predict child health outcomes, including school functioning, conduct issues, mental health problems, and participation in activities [5].
Coping and Strengths of Single Parent Families Low-income, single parent families have reported that support from immediate family members is the most important resiliency factor in helping them to face life challenges
[10]. Support from extended, “multigenerational” family members also has been reported as becoming more important with the rise in the number of single parent families [2]. Other important sources of support include friends, a style of positively approaching problems, and religious/spiritual support [10]. Despite the multitude of challenges faced by single parent families, it is important to recognize the strengths that help them to cope with stressors. For example, it has been reported that the number one strength of single parent families is having a sense of “cohesion or emotional closeness” that developed as a result of enduring family stressors. Other strengths reported include “pride/ optimism,” “togetherness,” “open communication,” and “teamwork” [15]. Furthermore, these strengths are more similar than different from those reported by two-parent families. Single parent families also have reported engaging in a number of on-going family rituals (connection, spiritual, love, recreational, celebration, and evolving) to help maintain family closeness and emphasize the family’s values [15]. These research findings challenge the negative perspective that is often directed towards these families [9].
References 1. Barrett, A. E., & Turner, R. J. (2005). Family structure and mental health: The mediating effects of socioeconomic status, family process, and social stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46, 156–169. 2. Bengston, V. L. (2001). Beyond the nuclear family: The increasing importance of multigenerational bonds. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 1–16. 3. Berger, L. M. (2004). Income, family structure, and child maltreatment risk. Children and Youth Services Review, 26, 725–748. 4. Brown, R. T., Wiener, L., Kupst, M. J., Brennan, T., Behrman, R., Compas, B. E., et al. (2008). Single parents of children with chronic illness: An understudied phenomenon. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 33, 408–421. 5. Cook, K., Davis, E., & Davies, B. (2008). Discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments: Predicting the health and health-related quality of life of children living in low-income, single-parent families. Child: Care, Health and Development, 34, 267–275. 6. Coontz, S. (2005). The evolution of matrimony: The changing social context of marriage. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 8, 30–33. 7. Ehrensaft, M. K., Cohen, P., Chen, H., & Berenson, K. (2007). Developmental transitions in youth behavioral opposition and maternal beliefs in social ecological context. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 16, 577–588. 8. Flurry, L. A. (2007). Children’s influence in family decision-making: Examining the impact of the changing American family. Journal of Business Research, 60, 322–330. 9. Ford-Gilboe, M. (2000). Dispelling myths and creating opportunity: A comparison of the strengths of single-parent and two-parent families. Advances in Nursing Science, 23, 41–58.
Single Subject Research Design 10. Greef, A., & Fillis, J. (2009). Resiliency in poor single-parent families. Families in Society, 90, 279–285. 11. Han, W., & Waldfogel, J. (2007). Parental work schedules, family process, and early adolescents’ risky behavior. Children and Youth Services Review, 29, 1249–1266. 12. Hertz, R. (2006). Single by chance, mothers by choice. New York: Oxford University Press. 13. JRank.Org. (2009). Marriage and family encyclopedia: Single-parent families. Retrieved August 10, 2008, from http://family.jrank.org/ pages/1581/Single-Parent-Families.html 14. Kendig, S. M., & Bianchi, S. M. (2008). Single, cohabitating, and married mothers’ time with children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 1228–1240. 15. Moriarty, P. H., & Wagner, L. D. (2004). Family rituals that provide meaning for single-parent families. Journal of Family Nursing, 10, 190–210. 16. United States Census Bureau News. (2007). Single-parent households showed little variation since 1994. Census Bureau Reports. Retrieved August 26, 2009, from: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/ releases/archives/families_households 17. Wen, M. (2008). Family structure and children’s health and behavior. Journal of Family Issues, 29, 1492–1519. Other References Davidson, T. (2006). Single-parent families. Gale encyclopedia of children’s health: Infancy through adolescence. Thomson Gale. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G23447200518.html Ellwood, D. T., & Jencks, C. (2002). The spread of single-parent families in the United States since 1960. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Working paper, John F. Kennedy School of Government. O’Hare, W. (2001). The rise – and fall? – of single-parent families. Population Reference Bureau. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http:// www.prb.org/Articles/2001/TheRiseandFallofSingleParentFamilies. aspx
Single Subject Research Design GINA COFFEE Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Synonyms Single-case research design; Single-participant experimental design; Time-series design
Definition Single subject research design refers to a unique type of research methodology that facilitates intervention evaluation through an individual case.
Description Single subject research design is a type of research methodology characterized by repeated assessment of a
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particular phenomenon (often a behavior) over time and is generally used to evaluate interventions [2]. Repeated measurement across time differentiates single subject research design from case studies and group designs, as it facilitates the examination of client change in response to an intervention. Although the use of single subject research design has generally been limited to research, it is also appropriate and useful in applied practice. Single subject research designs differ in structure and purpose and typically fall into one of three categories: within-series designs, between-series designs and combined-series designs [1-6]. Within-series designs are characterized by the evaluation of data points across time and within phases/conditions (e.g., treatment vs. notreatment conditions) [2]. Specific types of within-series designs include the simple phase-change design, the changing criterion design, parametric, and periodic interventions design. The simple phase-change design and the changing criterion design are the most common within-series designs. Parametric and periodic interventions designs are used less frequently. Between-series designs allow for the comparison of two or more conditions (i.e., baseline compared to intervention or two or more interventions) [2]. The alternating-interventions design and simultaneous-interventions design are between-series designs. As the name suggests, combinedseries designs facilitate evaluation both within and between series and include the multiple baseline design, the crossover design, and the constant-series control design. Although certain studies are amenable to the crossover and constant-series control designs, they are used less frequently that the multiple baseline design – the most common type of combined-series design. The multiple baseline design’s structure is a simple phasechange design in which the intervention phase is repeated across participants, settings, or behaviors. Ideally, the intervention phase is replicated across three or more different participants, settings, or behaviors, and interventions are implemented sequentially after changes are noted in the first implementation. For example, if disruptive behavior during unstructured periods of time at school is the behavior of concern, and the intervention is a positive behavior support plan individualized to the student’s particular needs, the plan could be implemented first during hallway transitions, and once improvements are observed, the plan could then be implemented during lunch, and so on. Data from single subject research designs have traditionally been analyzed through visual inspection, including the assessment of level, trend, and variability
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[1-6]. However, certain nonparametric statistical tests may also be appropriate for the analysis of data collected in single subject research designs. Across all types of single subject research designs, internal validity is established by replication, and threats to internal validity can be reduced by repeated assessment, continued assessment of client variability, design flexibility, and randomization.
References 1.
2.
3. 4.
5.
6.
Hayes, S. C., Barlow, D. H., & Nelson-Gray, R. O. (1999). The scientist practitioner: Research and accountability in the age of managed care (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Herrera, G. C., & Kratochwill, T. R. (2005). Single-case experimental design. In S. W. Lee (Ed.), Encyclopedia of School Psychology (pp. 501–504). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Kazdin, A. E. (1982). Single-case research designs: Methods for clinical and applied settings. New York, NY: Oxford Press University. Kratochwill, T. R., & Levin, J. R. (1992). Single-case research design and analysis: New directions for psychology and education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kratochwill, T. R., Mott, S. E., & Dodson, C. L. (1984). Case study and single case research in clinical and applied psychology. In A. S. Bellack & M. Hersen (Eds.), Research methods in clinical psychology (pp. 55–99). New York, NY: Pergamon Press. Shadish, W. R., Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (2002). Experimental and quasi- experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Single Word Utterance ▶Holophrases
Single-Case Research Design ▶Single Subject Research Design
Single-Participant Experimental Design ▶Single Subject Research Design
Sinistral ▶Left Handedness
Single Transverse Palmer Crease Synonyms Simian crease; Simian line; Single palmer crease
Skin Inflammation ▶Acne
Definition A single crease that extends across the palm of a human hand caused by a fusion of two palmer creases (flexion creases)
Description Palmer creases develop by the 12th week of gestation. A single transverse palmer crease appears in 1 out of 30 normal people. It is more commonly found in males, and can sometimes indicate a developmental problem, such as Down syndrome, Aarskog syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, gonadal dysgenesis, cri du chat syndrome, pseudohypoparathyroidism, Turner syndrome, Rubella syndrome, Cohen syndrome, and trisomy 13.
References 1.
Medline Plus. Encyclopedia: Simian crease. http://www.nlm.nih. gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003290.htm
Skinner, Burrhus Frederick STEUART T. WATSON, TONYA S. WATSON Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH, USA
Life Dates 1904–1990
Introduction Skinner is considered to be the most influential psychologist of the twentieth century. His work has had dramatic impact on the fields of applied behavior analysis, the experimental analysis of behavior, education, and the analysis of verbal behavior.
Skinner, Burrhus Frederick
Educational Information Skinner graduated from Hamilton College with a B.A. degree in literature in 1926 with the intention of becoming a writer. After abandoning this career path, he enrolled in Harvard and earned a Ph.D. in psychology in 1931. He remained at Harvard until 1936 when he moved to the University of Minnesota. His next stop was at Indiana University where he served as department chair from 1945–1948. He then returned to Harvard in 1948 where he remained until his retirement.
Accomplishments Quite simply, Skinner’s accomplishments are far too numerous to mention within the confines of a short biography. Some of his more noted accomplishments, however, will be considered. First and foremost, Skinner is known as the father of radical behaviorism, which is the theory that behavior is determined by its consequences. He began describing his work in a 1938 book titled The Behavior of Organisms. His philosophy of behaviorism was more clearly explained in his 1953 book, Science and Human Behavior. A number of books, approximately 18, followed his treatise on the behavioral philosophy of human behavior. One of his books, Walden II, published in 1945, described his ideal utopian society that was built on the basic principles of behaviorism. Beyond Freedom and Dignity, published in 1971, described how understanding the scientific principles that guide human behavior could lead to an improved society; one without punishment and coercion. Many of Skinner’s political and social views were expressed in these two novels which earned him a great deal of criticism and cynicism from his detractors. Skinner also published approximately 180 articles on topics ranging from the experimental analysis of behavior to the role of behavioral psychology in education [1]. Although a prolific author, Skinner invented a number of devices that helped to test his theories and that engendered both praise and criticism. Some of these devices included the cumulative recorder (for studying the effects of different schedules of reinforcement), the air crib (also called the “baby tender”), the operant conditioning chamber, the teaching machine, the pigeon guided missile system, and a thinking aid to help with writing [2]. He received a number of awards throughout this career, with some of the most notable being the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 1958, National Medal of Science in 1968, the Gold Medal Award from the American Psychological Association in 1971, the International Award from the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation for Mental
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Retardation in 1971, the Humanist of the Year Award in 1972 from the American Humanist Society, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Educational Research and Development from the American Educational Research Association in 1978, and the Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association in 1990 [3]. One of Skinner’s “accomplishments” was that he was roundly criticized by many who either did not understand his theories or who disagreed with him on philosophical grounds. Noam Chomsky, for instance, is a noted cognitivist who thought that Skinner’s description of verbal behavior was incomplete, unscientific, and had little merit for the world beyond Skinner’s laboratory. The ensuing debates between his detractors and supporters added much to the growth of behavioral psychology, and psychology in general, and still continue today [4].
Contributions Skinner’s contributions were profound in both psychology and education. His work gave rise to both the experimental and applied analysis of behavior as well as to the growth of psychology as a legitimate science. His behavioral principles influenced the treatment and care given to individuals with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. Skinner’s work directly influenced other psychologists who worked to improve education, most notably Fred S. Keller and Ogden Lindsley. Keller, along with Skinner, pioneered the Programmed System of Instruction which is used in various forms today. Lindsley based his Precision Teaching on Skinner’s behavioral principles. Today, some of the major journals in psychology owe their existence to Skinner (e.g., Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Analysis of Verbal Behavior, The Behavior Analyst, to name a few). In numerous surveys, the most eminent psychologists cited Skinner and his work as their most dominant influence. Skinner is one of few psychologists whose work and influence endure far past his death.
References 1. 2. 3.
4.
O’Donohue, W., & Ferguson, K. E. (2001). The psychology of B. F. Skinner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Vargas, J. S. (2004). A daughter’s retrospective of B. F. Skinner. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 7, 135–140. West, R. P., & Hammerlynck, L. A. (Eds.). (1992). Designs for excellence in education: The legacy of B. F. Skinner. Longmont, CO: Sopris West. Wyatt, W. J. (2001). B. F. Skinner: From A to Z. Hurricane, WV: Third Millenium Press.
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Skinner’s Behaviorism ▶Radical Behaviorism
Sleep KRISTIN T. AVIS University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Normal sleep; Sleep architecture; Sleep stages; Sleep structure
Definition Sleep is one of a child’s primary activities from infancy to adolescence. Sleep in infancy and childhood is often thought of as a passive, inert, or isolated state, but it is actually a very active, physiological state that is influenced by a multitude of factors.
Description Sleep is significantly influenced by a wide array of behavioral, developmental, health, environmental, social and emotional factors, and characteristics of and sleep practices of both the caregiver and child (see Fig. 1). Sleep is necessary for children to function at their optimal level, and lack of sleep can affect numerous aspects of their growth, health, behavior, and development, as well as overall quality of life.
Sleep environment
Family/Parents
(temperature, noise, light, sleep surface)
(SES, family stress, parental competence)
Sleep practices (schedules, feeding, napping, co-sleeping)
Remarkable changes occur in sleep patterns from infancy to adolescence. In early infancy (0–2 months), the typical sleep requirement is 16–20 h per 24 h period, typically separated a period of wakefulness that ranges from 1–3 h. Sleep periods are evenly distributed between day and night. From 2–12 months of age, the typical sleep requirement is 9–12 h at night, while napping 2–4 hours per day. During this time, as nighttime sleep begins to consolidate, the frequency of daytime naps decreases from four naps to as few as one as the child gets older, each lasting 30 min to 2 h. Night feedings also decrease during this time period, and by the age of 6 months, should no longer be necessary. Between ages 1 and 3 years, the typical sleep requirement is 12–13 h per 24 h period. By age 18 months, most children have progressed from two naps to one. Typically, the morning nap becomes shorter, while the afternoon nap extends in length, until the morning nap is no longer needed. Between ages 3 and 5 years, the typical sleep requirement is 11–12 h per 24 h period. Naps decrease from one to no nap. At age 3, 92% of children still nap. At age 4, 57% of children still nap. By age 5, 27% of children still nap. For school age children between ages 6 and 12, the typical sleep requirement is 10–11 h per 24 h period. Well-rested children should no longer be sleepy during the day. For adolescents between ages 12 and 18, the typical sleep requirement is 9 to 9½ h each night. Alarmingly, most teens report obtaining 7 to 7½ h per night.
Relevance to Childhood Development Sleep is necessary for children to function optimally. Multiple studies have shown that when children and adolescents do not obtain adequate sleep, whether from sleep restriction or due to presence of a sleep disorder, their physical, emotional, cognitive and social development are affected. Sleep is necessary for adequate cardiovascular, immune, and metabolic functioning and growth hormone production. Children who do not obtain adequate sleep are more likely to be emotionally dysregulated, impulsive, and inattentive, affecting their academic performance and social relationships.
Health Sleep
(Ex: illness, reflux)
References 1.
Sociocultural (values, parenting practices)
Social/Emotional (attachment, temperament, maternal mental health/stress)
Development (cognitive, motor, Ex separation anxiety)
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3.
Sleep. Fig. 1 (Adapted with permission from Jodi Mindell.)
Owens, J., & Mindell, J. (2005). Take charge of your child’s sleep: The all in one resource for solving sleep problems in kids and teens. New York: Marlowe & Company. Mindell, J., & Owens, J. (2003). A clinical guide to pediatric sleep: Diagnosis and management of sleep problems. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Sheldon, S., Ferber, R., & Kryger, M. (Eds.). (2005). Principles and practice of sleep medicine. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences.
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Childhood obstructive sleep apnea is characterized by repeated episodes of partial or complete upper airway obstruction that occur during sleep that are usually associated with disruption in gas exchange and/or sleep fragmentation.
sleep apnea. It has been shown that the site of upper airway obstruction in children with obstructive sleep apnea is at the level of the tonsils and adenoids. In normal children, it occurs at the level of the soft palate. Tonsils and adenoids increase in size from birth to 12 years of age with maximal growth appearing between the 2 and 7 years of age. However, multiple studies have not shown a strong correlation between increased adenotonsillar size and obstructive sleep apnea. Thus, pediatric obstructive sleep apnea may not be caused by adenotonsillar hypertrophy alone. Obesity can be a contributing factor in OSAS. Adipose tissue within the muscles and soft tissue surrounding the airway can narrow the pharynx. Thus, the likelihood of airway collapse is increased. Children with craniofacial abnormalities are at high risk for OSAS. Examples of conditions associated with craniofacial abnormalities include Down syndrome, achondroplasia, Pierre Robin syndrome, and Aperts’ syndrome.
Description
History and Physical Examination
Sleep Apnea DAVID J. LOZANO Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome; Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea; Sleep disordered breathing
Definition
Introduction Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is a spectrum that encompasses primary snoring at the mild end of severity to classic obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) at the more severe end. Upper airway resistance and obstructive sleep hypoventilation are part of this spectrum and are felt to be less severe than outright obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. OSAS is characterized by repeated episodes of upper airway resistance along with partial or complete airway obstruction during sleep. These episodes can be associated with ventilation and/or oxygenation disturbances. A degree of sleep fragmentation can be seen with these patients as well. Sleep disordered breathing can occur in a child of any age ranging from neonates to adolescents. OSAS occurs in approximately 1–3% of the pediatric population. More specifically, OSAS affects up to 3% of children between the ages of 2 and 8 years old.
Pathophysiology Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome occurs when the upper airway collapses or when the luminal cross section is reduced during inspiration. Collapsibility of the upper airway is a dynamic process that involves multiple factors such as sleep state, anatomy, respiratory drive, and neuromotor tone. The airway of the child is inherently smaller than that of an adult. As a result, size of the pharynx which includes the size of the adenoids and tonsils has long been implicated in pediatric obstructive
Nightly loud snoring is almost universal with pediatric OSAS. In many patients, the snoring is accompanied by pauses in breathing, choking/gasping for breath, and neck hyperextension. Other associated symptoms can include sweating, restless sleep, and dry mouth. It should be noted that snoring itself is not always an accurate predictor of polysomnographic OSAS. Daytime sleepiness can be a manifestation of pediatric OSAS. However, daytime sleepiness is much more prominent with adult OSA as compared to pediatric OSAS. Physical examination of a child with OSAS is usually normal. However, children may present with adenotonsillar hypertrophy and craniofacial abnormalities which should alert a clinician to the possibility of OSAS. Obesity and failure to thrive can be seen as well. In rare instances, cardiovascular consequences of cor pulmonale and congestive heart failure can be seen in children with OSAS.
Diagnosis Nocturnal polysomnography (sleep study) is felt to be the gold standard for diagnosis of OSAS. It is the diagnostic test that should be ordered in any child with suspected SDB. The nocturnal polysomnogram should be performed in a pediatric sleep laboratory. Adult oriented laboratories attempt to perform sleep studies in children with limited success. Other diagnostic studies have been looked at to evaluate OSAS which include symptom questionnaires and video/audio recordings. These individual studies have not shown adequate sensitivity or specificity in diagnosing pediatric OSAS.
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Treatment Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy is first line treatment for pediatric OSAS. It is felt to be curative in approximately 80–85% of children with this diagnosis. However, a percentage of children have symptoms that persist despite adenotonsillectomy especially in children with obesity, craniofacial abnormalities, and cerebral palsy. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) has been shown to be an effective therapy for OSAS in children who have either failed surgical intervention or are not good surgical candidates. Other treatment modalities include weight loss, oral appliances, supplemental oxygen, and tracheostomy.
References 1.
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3. 4. 5.
6.
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2002). Section on Pediatric Pulmonology, Subcommittee on Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Clinical Practice Guideline: Diagnosis and management of childhood obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Pediatrics, 109, 704–712. American Thoracic Society. (1996). Standards and indications for cardiopulmonary sleep studies in children. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 153, 866–878. Ferber, R., & Kryger, M. (1995). Principles and practice of sleep medicine in the child. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. Jenni, O., & Carskadon, M. (Eds.). 2007. Sleep in children and adolescents. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 2(3). Rosen, C. (2004). Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in children: Controversies in diagnosis and treatment. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 51, 153–167. Sheldon, S., Ferber, R., & Kryger, M. (Eds.). (2005). Principles and practice of pediatric sleep medicine. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Sleep Architecture KIM GUION1, KRISTIN T. AVIS2 1 Sleep Disorders Clinic, Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, AL, USA 2 University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Sleep; Sleep stages; Sleep structure
Definition Sleep architecture refers to the structure of sleep cycles throughout the night and the five stages of sleep including four stages of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and the fifth stage, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
Description Sleep architecture allows for the quantification of sleep characteristics in order to promote accurate diagnosis of
sleep disturbance or related medical or psychological diagnoses. Some relevant measures of sleep architecture include the following: Sleep onset latency – the time between initiating sleep behavior (lights out) to onset of first sleep stage REM latency – the time between sleep onset and occurrence of first REM period Total sleep time – total time (in minutes) sleeping from lights out to lights on Sleep efficiency – ratio of time asleep compared to time recording (lights out to lights on) Measurement of sleep architecture: Sleep architecture is mapped out by the cyclic series of stages achieved during sleep. Multiple sleep cycles are achieved during the night, each lasting approximately 1.5 h. The breakdown of stages within each sleep cycle varies from the initial sleep cycle to later cycles that occur in the early morning hours. Identification of sleep stages is made using nocturnal polysomnography (overnight sleep study), which utilizes EEG data and measurements of muscle tone, eye movements, leg movements, respiratory function and patterns, and heart rate. Sleep architecture is typically depicted in a visual chart called a hypnogram (Fig. 1). Non-REM sleep: Non-REM sleep is comprised of stages 1–4 of sleep and is characterized by relatively diminished brain activity and maintenance of voluntary motor movements [5, 8]. Stage 1: Stage 1 of sleep is considered “light sleep” and marks the transition from wakefulness to being asleep. Lasting a short period of 1–5 min, stage 1 sleep often involves muscle jerks or twitches and recall of visual images [5, 6, 8]. Stage 2: Stage 2 sleep is identified by the presence of high frequency, rapid bursts of EEG activity called sleep spindles and high amplitude low frequency waves called K-complexes. This stage is also considered initiation of “true” sleep and the initial occurrence of stage 2 lasts 5–25 min [5, 6, 8]. Stage 3/4: Stages 3 and 4 are often considered together and reflect deep sleep. They are identified as containing delta wave, or slow wave EEG activity. It is most difficult to wake people when they are in these stages of sleep. Initial occurrence period of stage 3/4 sleep is approximately 30–45 min and is typically followed by a brief arousal. Length of delta wave sleep decreases as the night progresses in healthy individuals [5, 6, 8]. REM sleep: REM is characterized by dipolar ▶saccadic eye movements, increased central nervous system activity, muscle paralysis (except for breathing and erectile function), and coincides with dreaming. REM typically occurs 70–90 min after sleep onset [6]. Length of REM sleep
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REM Wake NREM 1 Hypnogram NREM 2 NREM 3 REM
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Sleep Architecture. Fig. 1 Example of a normal hypnogram from a healthy child.
during each sleep cycle increases as the night progresses [6]. Initial REM periods average approximately 10 min, while REM sleep in the early morning hours may last up to 60 min [5, 6]. Disruptions in sleep architecture: Sleep architecture may be altered by a number of factors, resulting in diminished sleep quality or sleep efficiency and subsequent daytime sleepiness and problems with daytime functioning. Factors that result in disrupted or altered sleep architecture include medical health issues (e.g., seizure disorders, developmental disabilities, pulmonary disorders) [4], substance use (e.g., alcohol, cigarettes, illicit drug use), psychotropic medications, psychopathology (e.g., mood or anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorders), specific sleep disorders [4, 5], ▶jet-lag [4], temperature [4], or other environmental factors (e.g., household/neighborhood activity, bed-sharing) [1, 4, 5]. Periods of arousal are common throughout the night, and they are typically brief and do not disrupt overall sleep architecture. However, prolonged periods of arousal, or arousal that results in conscious wakefulness, interrupts
the sleep cycle and may decrease the total amount of REM or delta wave sleep achieved, which is critical for sleep quality [4, 5, 7]. Health and sleep architecture: Increasingly, evidence for the importance of sleep (length and quality) on our health is being found. Sleep appears to impact various facets of physical health beyond daytime sleepiness and cognitive impairment. Specifically, insufficient sleep may result in dysregulation of immune function, cardiovascular disease, and endocrine functioning [3]. For example, shortened sleep time and fragmented sleep are associated with obesity, weight gain, and difficulties with weight loss. In turn, health problems may alter sleep architecture. Evidence for this with regard to respiratory disorders is widely known [4, 5, 7].
Relevance to Childhood Development Developmental changes: Neonates and infants do not demonstrate the five stages of matured sleep structure. Instead, they demonstrate two clear sleep states referred to as “quiet” and “active” sleep, the latter reflecting cortical
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activity similar to REM. Active sleep in infants comprises approximately 50% of sleep time, and this ratio decreases over the course of childhood such that by adolescence it comprises approximately 25% of sleep time. Slow wave, or delta wave sleep, predominates infancy, peaks in early childhood then declines over the course of development. In fact, minimal stage 3/4 sleep is observed in the geriatric population, which contributes to their complaints of “light” or disrupted sleep. The initial occurrence of delta waves and sleep spindles, marking different nonREM sleep stages, appear in the first year of life, and complete sleep staging is usually present by age 5 [5].
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
6.
7. 8.
Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center. http://my.clevelandclinic. org/sleep_disorders_center/ Hirshkowitz, M. (2004). Sleep architecture and insomnia: Alterations in the structure of sleep can lead to sleep disruption. Journal of Family Practice online. Retrieved March, 2009, from http:// findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0689/is_9_53/ai_n6207456 Imeri, L., & Opp, M. (2009). How (and why) the immune system makes us sleep. National Review of Neuroscience, 10(3), 199–210. Kryger, M., Roth, T., & Dement, W. (Eds.). (2005). Principles and practice of sleep medicine (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences. Mindell, J., & Owens, J. (2003). A clinical guide to pediatric sleep: Diagnosis and management of sleep problems. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). (2007). Brain basics: Understanding sleep. NIH Publication No.06-3440-c. Retrieved March, 2009, from http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/ brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm Sheldon, S., Ferber, R., & Kryger, M. (Eds.). (2005). Principles and practice of sleep medicine. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences. Sonne, L. (Eds.). (2007). Sleep 101. Retrieved March, 2009, from http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101
Sleep Disordered Breathing ▶Sleep Apnea
Sleep Disorders KRISTIN T. AVIS, AARON DAVIS University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Synonyms Nocturnal disorders; Sleep disturbances; Sleep problems
Definition Sleep disorders are common and result in insufficient amount of sleep and/or sleep of poor quality, which significantly affects daytime functioning and quality of life in children.
Description The most commonly reported sleep disorders in children are described in detail in the following sections. Obtaining a detailed and accurate history followed by a comprehensive physical exam, including screening for developmental delays and cognitive dysfunction, appears to be a cornerstone for diagnosing pediatric sleep complaints. It is important to involve family members in the clinical interview to understand the potential etiology of sleep disturbances because children and adolescents often do not recognize nocturnal events that can disturb sleep. Developmental history with focus on sleep and wake patterns as well as potential medical illnesses that affect sleep during infancy and childhood can provide clues to the duration and degree of sleep disturbances in the child. Obtaining pertinent family history of sleep disorders is equally important given that certain conditions such as narcolepsy with cataplexy, chronic primary insomnia, restless legs syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and advanced-sleep phase syndrome have been shown to be influenced by genetic factors [11].
Insomnia Insomnia in children is defined as repeated difficulty with sleep initiation, duration, consolidation, or quality that occurs despite age-appropriate time and opportunity for sleep resulting in daytime functional impairment for the child and/or family. Behavioral insomnia of childhood (BIC) typically presents as bedtime refusal or resistance, delayed sleep onset, and/or prolonged night time waking that require parental intervention. BIC is classified into three categories: sleep-onset association type, limit setting type, and combined type. In the sleep-onset association type, children have difficulty initiating sleep independently and associate falling asleep with certain circumstances, such as place (couch or parent’s bed), a person’s presence (parent), or an activity (feeding from a bottle, being rocked, watching television). These circumstances are required for the child to re-initiate sleep in the middle of the night. In limit-setting type, the child delays bedtime with multiple requests or refusal, while the parent has difficulty setting limits, allowing bedtime to delay. If a child requires certain circumstances to initiate sleep and there are difficulties with parental limit-setting, the diagnosis is combined type.
Sleep Disorders
Etiology of pediatric insomnia is usually multifactorial. Assessment should include screening for presence of concurrent medical, psychiatric and developmental disorders and associated impairments in home and school settings. It is also vital to assess for presence of underlying primary sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome as possible etiologies behind a presenting symptom such as insomnia. It is also important to determine whether the difficulties with sleep onset and/or maintenance are due to inappropriate/inconsistent sleep schedules or napping schedules. For example, parents may have expectations of napping that may be outside of a child’s developmental need or implement inconsistent or inappropriate naps (e.g., naps closer to bedtime), which lead to difficulty regulating the child’s sleep-wake schedule. Eliminating the nap at an inappropriate age can also result in an increase in the child’s behavioral difficulties at bedtime rather than helping with earlier sleep onset and/ or sleep maintenance. The same issues relate to teenagers, who often have variable sleep schedules, inappropriate napping, later bedtimes, and early school start times. Subjective sleep complaints are common in children with ADHD, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorders. This is proposed as a bidirectional relationship as unstable emotional states can lead to persistent sleep problems and chronic sleep deprivation can result in disrupted behaviors and mood. Behavioral interventions are the mainstay of treatment of pediatric insomnia. Behavioral interventions that aim to help children initiate and maintain sleep independently, resulting in increased total sleep time and improved sleep quality, produce both reliable and lasting improvements in bedtime problems and night wakings in infants and young children. Extinction and parent education/prevention have received strongest support after empirical review. Gradual extinction, bedtime fading, positive routines, and scheduled awakenings are also strongly supported as efficacious treatments for young children. For older children and adolescents, behavioral strategies that aim to reduce arousal at bedtime are often recommended. Sleep hygiene education is particularly important. In addition, progressive muscle relaxation, stimulus control and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques such as thought stopping, increasing positive thinking, and journaling “worries” at bedtime are often recommended.
Parasomnias Parasomnias include dysfunctions related to sleep, sleep stages, and partial arousals from sleep. The most common parasomnias include night terrors, confusional arousals, and sleepwalking and talking. There is no known etiology
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for parasomnias, but it is believed that they are related to maturation. Evaluation for parasomnias includes the usual time when the episode occurs, description of the behaviors and movements, the ability of the child to remember the episode, the presence of symptoms during wakefulness, and the presence of stereotypical movements during the episode. Parasomnias typically occur in the first third of the night, during which the child is inconsolable or nonresponsive for a short duration of 5–15 min with amnesia for the event the following morning. Parasomnias often increase during periods of sleep deprivation, thus it is also important to evaluate adequate sleep hygiene. The parents should avoid awakening the child since this may increase agitation and prolong the episode. Typical treatment includes reassuring and educating the child and family of the parasomnias, implementation of sleep hygiene measures, extending the sleep time, and implementation of safety measures. Depending on the frequency and severity of the episodes, medication may be given in order to prevent high risk of injury, violent behavior, or significant disruption to the family. Shortacting benzodiazepines such as Klonopin or Serax are the most common medications prescribed. They are used for 3–6 months until the episodes have disappeared. Scheduled awakenings have also been used in order to avoid prescribing medication to the child. This is a behavior modification that involves interrupting the sleep staging by waking the child about a half hour before they are most likely to experience a primary partial arousal parasomnia. This has been shown to be effective in eliminating night terrors, but may be difficult to encourage the parents to implement on a regular basis. Night terrors are partial arousal parasomnias which are characterized by sudden arousal from slow-wave sleep accompanied by intense fear. These are usually disturbing to parents or other family members, but the child is completely unaware of his or her behavior. Around 3% of children experience night terrors, and the typical age of onset is usually between 4 and 12 years. There is a strong genetic component present in night terrors, and 80–90% of children who experience them have a first-degree relative with the same symptoms. Sleep terrors are usually characterized by a sudden onset. The child looks extremely agitated, frightened, and confused during the episode. Crying, screaming, and extreme physiological arousal are also common. The child is also usually clumsy or flailing, often pushing the parents away or behaving strangely. Diagnostic criteria include complaints of a sudden episode of intense terror during sleep occurring within the first third of the night, partial or total amnesia, onset during stage 3 or 4 of sleep, and the absence of other medical or
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sleep disorders that could explain the episode. Confusional arousals are much less extreme, with the child typically sitting up in bed appearing confused or agitated, but not typically leaving the bed. Sleepwalking is a common partial arousal parasomnia which occurs as a result of becoming caught between sleeping and wakefulness in a partial arousal state. The child’s eyes may be open, and he or she may appear confused, dazed, or agitated. The child may also mumble incoherently. Sleepwalkers are also clumsy and often perform strange actions such as urinating in a closet. Occurrence can be either rare or nightly. Between 15% and 40% of children occasionally sleepwalk while 3–4% experience weekly or nightly episodes. Average age of onset is between 4 and 6 years. Diagnostic criteria include exhibition of ambulation occurring in sleep, onset typically in prepubertal children, difficulty in arousal during the episode and amnesia following the episode, occurrence in the first third of the sleep episode, onset during stage 3 or 4 sleep, and the absence of any medical or other sleep disorders that could account for the symptom. Safety measures may include using gates, locks on doors or windows, and alarm systems or bells to alert parents. The parents should not try to wake the child, but instead the child should be guided back to his or her bed. Benzodiazepines are also prescribed in severe cases. Scheduled awakenings have also been found to be effective in eliminating sleepwalking behavior and maintaining treatment gains. Sleep talking, also known as “somniloquy” is a common occurrence during childhood. It includes coherent speech, incoherent mumbling, and utterances during the sleep period. Typically the child does not remember talking during his or her sleep. It usually is of no concern to parents, but occasionally significant outbursts and loud talking can disrupt parents’ sleep. Sleep talking may be related to other parasomnias but alone is not associated with pathological states.
Circadian Rhythm Disorders Circadian rhythm disorders are characterized by normal sleep quantity and quality but at the wrong time of day. The circadian rhythm is the body’s “timekeeper,” and it greatly affects the time of sleep onset and awakening. During adolescence, the circadian rhythm may be delayed or advanced from the desired hour of sleep or it may be out of phase with normal clock time. This occurs as a result of a combination of genetics and social norms associated with adolescence. Parents of children with circadian rhythm disorders often have the same symptoms or
propensity as their child. Also, adolescents begin staying up later in order to chat online, surf the internet, talk on the phone, or hang out with friends. This causes the child to be exposed to light during the wrong time of day, which is right before or during the desired time of sleep. The light from televisions or computer screens is a common way adolescents are exposed to light. Daytime sleepiness is a frequent result of circadian rhythm disorders. Children commonly suffer from symptoms similar to those of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression or behavioral dysregulation, and often sleep during their classes. The distinguishing feature of circadian rhythm disorders is that sleep is normal and daytime sleepiness subsides when the child is able to sleep and wake at his or her own schedule. All people have a circadian rhythm of around 24 h. This is caused to be consistent with clock time by time cues called “zeitgebers.” The main example of this is light, but activity schedules, exercise and other environmental factors are included. If an individual fails to follow certain environmental zeitgebers then they can develop either delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) or advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS). Some people’s sleep phase moves progressively earlier or later and causes them to go in and out of synchrony with the environmental time of sleep. This is called non-24-h sleep-wake disorder. Circadian rhythm disorders occur in at least 10% of children. DSPS is the most prevalent, with a prevalence of 5–10% in adolescents. ASPS and non-24-h circadian rhythm are seen less frequently and occur in adolescents.
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome DSPS involves a significant, persistent, and intractable shift in the sleep-wake schedules which interferes with the environmental demands of the child. The child can present with both academic and behavioral problems. Both getting the child to go to bed and waking the child in the morning are often problems. Children are lest resilient of sleep deprivation, and the delay may cause pathologic symptoms. Children with DSPS may present with problems such as bedtime struggles or difficulty awakening at the desired time, complaints of insomnia at night or excessive sleepiness in the morning, inability to wake up at the desired time, falling asleep at school. The diagnostic criteria include delayed sleep pattern by at least 1 h, an inability to fall asleep at the desired clock time and an inability to awaken spontaneously at the desired time, a presence of 1 month, normal quality and quantity of sleep when allowed to follow own schedule, later sleep on weekends and holidays with less daytime sleepiness, with no other sleep or psychiatric disorder present to cause it.
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People with DSPS are referred to as “night owls” and report functioning more efficiently in the evening and at night. This may become a lifestyle for children with DSPS if their identities are found in late night activities such as chat rooms or phone calls. Children with DSPS frequently take naps during class, complain about daytime sleepiness, have poorer academic achievement and a greater number of injuries, and are more emotionally upset than other children. They are also more likely to experience academic, emotional, and behavioral problems during the morning hours, and they typically do their best work at night. Thus, circadian rhythm disorders are frequently mistaken as other sleep disorders such as insomnia (due to the difficulty falling asleep) or excessive daytime sleepiness (due to the difficulty awakening in the morning and/ or resulting insufficient sleep from the necessary early rise time for school). Treatment options for DSPS include appropriate sleep hygiene, bright-light therapy, melatonin, advancing bedtime, and chronotherapy. The beginning treatment phase is usually the most difficult and requires strict adherence to the treatment protocol. The child should also have the same bedtime and wake-up time every day. Television and computers should be avoided for the last hour before bedtime, and the child’s bed should only be used for sleeping. Caffeine, if consumed, should be limited to before or during lunch. Bright-light therapy includes controlling light and dark exposures throughout the day. With this treatment, the child uses bright-light exposure during the day and avoids light exposure after sunset. Exposure to the light of dawn is important to training the circadian rhythm, and controlling the time of light and dark exposure helps produce a phase advance. There is limited evidence found on light therapy, but it appears to be a rational and effective treatment for DSPS, but family compliance may be a problem. Melatonin has been shown to be effective in altering the sleep phase. It is taken 1 h before bedtime and helps advance the timing of sleep. 1 mg is the beginning dosage given and is slowly increased to 3 mg if found to be ineffective. Bedtime and melatonin administration is then advanced by 15 min each day until the desired time of sleep onset is achieved. Chronotherapy is also used as treatment for DSPS. With this therapy, the bedtime is systematically delayed by 3 h each night until the desired bedtime is reached.
Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome ASPS is a disorder where the major sleep episode is advanced beyond the desired clock time. Symptoms of this include evening sleepiness resulting in the inability to remain asleep until the desired time of sleep and early
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awakening lasting for at least 3 months. Sleep onset times are as early as 5:00 pm but no later than 8:00 pm, and wake-up times range from 1:00–5:00 am. ASPS is more likely to occur in children who have a family member with similar symptoms. Treatment for ASPS includes brightlight therapy and chronotherapy. Bright-light therapy would expose the child to light during the early evening hours producing a phase delay. Chronotherapy would systematically delay the bedtime each night until the desired bedtime is achieved.
Non-24-h Sleep-Wake Disorder This disorder occurs when the circadian pacemaker changes with respect to the 24-h day. Prolonged exposure to light can cause the circadian pacemaker to maintain a schedule longer than a normal 24-h day. This causes the child’s sleep schedule to have no pattern, but sleep logs usually reveal a successive delay in sleep onset and wake times. This may lead to insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness when the endogenous rhythm is out of phase with normal clock time, but when they are in phase, the symptoms are not present. Melatonin is the major treatment for this disorder. It is also important that the child is active during the wake time and in dark and quiet conditions during time for sleep.
Sleep-Related Movement Disorders The most common sleep-related movement disorders include rhythmic movement disorder (RMD), periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), and restless legs syndrome (RLS). In RMD, the child exhibits repetitive movements at sleep onset and following a nocturnal arousal in order to initiate sleep. Most often, the child presents with repetitive head rolling, head banging, or body rocking. RMD is very common in young children and often resolves by age of 4–5 in typically developing children. RMD is generally benign, and treatment involves parental reassurance and safety (tightening bolts on bed or crib, padding headboard to avoid bruising). In rare cases that are either severe or persist into older childhood or adolescence, treatment with benzodiazepines for a brief term may be useful. PLMD is a movement disorder characterized by periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS) that result in fragmented sleep of poor quality and impairment in daytime functioning due to the sleep disturbance. PLMS are brief movements (jerks) that can last up to 5 s occurring at 20–40 s intervals, typically in the lower extremities. PLMD is diagnosed by overnight polysomnography documenting the presence of PLMS. The most common cause of PLMD
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is low ferritin, for which supplemental iron may be helpful. Dopaminergic agonists may be helpful in some cases. RLS is a clinical diagnosis made using adult criteria at this time. Adult criteria include an urge to move the legs, urge to move begins or worsens when sitting or lying down, urge to move is partially or totally relieved by movement, and urge to move is worse in the evening or night than during the day or only occurs in the evening or night. Clinically, children often describe RLS using ageappropriate symptoms such as “spiders crawling,” “tickles in my legs,” or “creepy crawly feeling.” Prevalence of RLS in children is unknown, but there is felt to be a strong family history component. RLS and PLMD are often comorbid. RLS is a clinical diagnosis, but often is associated and comorbid with PLMD documented on an overnight sleep study. However, diagnosis of PLMD is not as highly correlated with comorbid RLS. As in PLMD, the most common cause of RLS is low ferritin, for which iron supplements can be helpful. Dopaminergic agonists may also be helpful in some cases. There is a proposed relationship between ADHD and RLS, implicating a possible dopamine pathway as the common pathophysiologic link. Symptoms of ADHD have been found to improve with treatment for RLS and/or PLMD with a dopaminergic agonist. In summary, pediatric sleep disorders are a common occurrence resulting in insufficient and/or fragmented sleep of very poor quality. The presence of untreated sleep disorders is associated with significant daytime impairments in social, academic, emotional, and neurobehavioral functioning. Pediatric sleep problems can present as the primary sleep disorder, or as a secondary consequence of underlying medical or psychiatric disorder. Children should be routinely assessed for sleep disorders, as the presence of these disorders can significantly impair their quality of life.
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Frank, N. C., Spirito, A., Stark, L., & Owens-Stively, J. (1997). The use of scheduled awakenings to eliminate childhood sleepwalking. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 22(3), 345–353. Hermon, J. H. (2005). Circadian rhythm disorders: diagnosis and treatment. In S. H. Sheldon, R. Ferber, & M. H. Kryger (Eds.), Principles and practice of pediatric sleep medicine (pp. 101–111). Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders. Mindell, J. A., & Owens, J. A. (2003). A clinical guide to pediatric sleep: diagnosis and management of sleep problems. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Sack, R. L., Auckley, D., Auger, R., Carskadon, M. A., Wright, K. P., Vitiello, M. V., et al. (2007). Circadian rhythm sleep disorders: part II, advanced sleep phase disorder, delayed sleep phase disorder, freerunning disorder, and irregular sleep-wake rhythm. Sleep, 30(11), 1484–1501.
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Sheldon, S. H. (2005). The Parasomnias. In S. H. Sheldon, R. Ferber, & M. H. Kryger (Eds.), Principles and practice of pediatric sleep medicine (pp. 305–315). Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders. The International Classification of Sleep Disorders; Revised: Diagnostic and Coding Manual (1997). Westchester: American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Sleep Disturbances ▶Sleep Disorders
Sleep Problems ▶Sleep Disorders
Sleep Stages ▶Sleep ▶Sleep Architecture
Sleep Structure ▶Sleep ▶Sleep Architecture
Sleep Terror Disorder ▶Night Terrors
Sleeper Effect of Divorce PAMELA A. SARIGIANI, TIFFANY SPIERLING Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA
Synonyms Adult children of divorce; Intergenerational transmission of divorce; Long-term effects of divorce; Sleeper influence
Sleeper Effect of Divorce
Definition The sleeper effect of divorce refers to the phenomenon whereby individuals who previously showed positive recovery following childhood parental divorce later exhibit adjustment difficulties in young adulthood stemming from the earlier experience of parental divorce [1, 2]. Studies show that some children and adolescents who appear to recover and cope well after parental divorce have long-term effects in young adulthood that were not expected based on previous adjustment. Longitudinal research suggests that as children of divorce enter adulthood, they may be more likely than the general population to experience concerns about not being loved, have difficulties in relationship formation and maintenance, and have fears regarding betrayal and abandonment in romantic relationships [2]. Furthermore, in comparison to their young adult counterparts from non-divorced families, adult children from divorced families have been found to be at risk for earlier sexual activity, low self-esteem, reduced life satisfaction, and poorer psychological wellbeing [2–6]. Additional long-term outcomes identified in adults from divorced families include lower educational attainment, less close ties to parents (especially fathers), more marital discord, and greater likelihood of experiencing their own divorce [7]. However, a great deal of controversy exists regarding the validity and the extent of the sleeper effect of divorce and its delayed manifestations [8].
Description The existence of a sleeper effect of divorce was first identified by Judith Wallerstein in her longitudinal study of parental divorce [1, 9]. Wallerstein’s study began in 1971, and followed 131 children from 60 divorced families over a span of 25 years [2]. At the 10-year follow-up, Wallerstein observed an unexpected finding which she termed the sleeper effect. Especially evident among the young women in her sample, this delayed effect of parental divorce at young adulthood was noteworthy, as it coincided with a time in life when important decisions are being made regarding love and commitment [9]. This sleeper effect pattern was evident in 66% of the young adult women in her study between the ages of 19–23. Presumably, these young women were overwhelmed with fears and anxieties about commitment and betrayal in their own relationships as they reflected upon the lack of success of their parents’ marriages. Among the 19–23 year old young men in her sample, 40% were described as having limited educational attainment, a perception of having little control over their lives, and not having clearly identified goals.
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Wallerstein’s research on the long-term effects of divorce has received considerable attention over the years from scholars, the general public, and the media, and her work also has influenced clinical practice and social policy [8]. While Wallerstein’s study is noteworthy for directing attention to adult outcomes of parental divorce, her research also has drawn criticism for its methodological limitations. Although her use of case-studies based on indepth clinical interviews provides vivid and rich personal accounts of parental divorce, limitations of her research include its homogeneous sample (White, middle- to upper-middle class families from California), the absence of a comparison group from non-divorced families, and the non-random sampling procedure (e.g., divorce counseling was offered as a participation incentive [8, 10, 11]). Furthermore, a significant proportion of the parents in the sample were noted to have personal histories of psychopathology [12]. At the 25-year follow-up, Wallerstein added to the original sample a comparison group of peers from the same community who were from non-divorced families [2, 13]. The addition of the comparison group addressed one methodological flaw of Wallerstein’s research. Nevertheless, criticism of the conclusions drawn from her research remained. It has been argued that Wallerstein’s depiction of long-term outcomes of parental divorce provides an unduly gloomy, negative and pessimistic view of parental divorce that paints a portrait of pathology [11, 14]. Hetherington and Kelly [15] emphasized that the negative long-term outcomes of parental divorce are exaggerated. Their findings from the Virginia Longitudinal Study of Divorce and Remarriage revealed that 25% of adult children from divorced families had serious psychological, emotional, or social problems in comparison to 10% of adults with continuously married parents. In other words, 75% of those who experienced childhood divorce showed positive adaptation in adulthood. When children from divorced families do not endure additional adversity, the overwhelming majority are able to cope and emerge as competent, responsible, well-adjusted adults [16]. Lansford [17] similarly summarized in her review of the literature that most individuals who experience parental divorce in childhood do not exhibit long-term negative consequences. Amato asserted that while the body of research supports the conclusion that parental divorce elevates the risk for multiple adverse outcomes for children throughout the life course, the effects are not as dramatic or pervasive as Wallerstein suggested. Rather, he concluded that the research evidence supports a moderate version of Wallerstein’s perspective [8].
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In the decades that have followed the initial identification of the sleeper effect, the research literature on the long-term effects of parental divorce has expanded considerably. Furthermore, through the use of carefully crafted, sophisticated methodologies, this body of research has provided a much more complex and nuanced perspective on the impact of parental divorce across the life course [11, 17]. Examination of research on the longterm effects of parental divorce follows, with a focus on three outcomes frequently identified in the literature: intimate relationships, psychological well-being, and parent–child relationships.
Parental Divorce and Intimate Relationships Research indicates that differences in adjustment between adults from divorced and non-divorced families are often found in the realm of intimate relationships [18]. Indeed, the domain of development most frequently identified as being influenced by the sleeper effect is that of intimate relationships in adulthood. As Wallerstein [19] described: "
The central finding of our study is that, at adulthood, the experience of having been through parental divorce as a child impacts detrimentally on the capacity to love and be loved within a lasting, committed relationship. At young adulthood, when love, sexual intimacy, commitment and marriage take center stage, children of divorce are haunted by the ghosts of their parents’ divorce and terrified that the same fate awaits them. These fears, which crescendo at young adulthood, impede their developmental progress into full adulthood. Many eventually overcome their fears, but the struggle to do so is painful and can consume a decade or more of their lives. (p. 410)
Wallerstein [13] reported that at the 25-year followup, when participants were between the ages of 28–43, 60% of the women and 40% of the men had established enduring, gratifying, and sexually satisfying relationships. She noted that some of the men appeared to avoid intimate relationships, as 42% had never married or cohabited for more than six months, whereas this was true for only 6% of men in the comparison group. In contrast, all of the women from both the divorced and non-divorced groups had been involved in brief or enduring intimate relationships. Research which has examined intimate relationship attitudes and behaviors has provided further insight into the romantic relationship adjustment of individuals from divorced families. Adult children of divorce have been shown to display more anxious and avoidant attachments in their intimate relationships when compared to adults from intact families [20, 21]. Furthermore, adult
children from divorced families report more insecurity within intimate relationships and a substantially higher incidence of trust related issues [21]. A qualitative investigation of young adults from divorced families revealed that many participants were cautious about marriage, feared they would make the same relationship mistakes as their parents, and worried about having feelings of rejection if they were to experience betrayal by their partners. These relationship fears were especially apparent among those who described distant and unsupportive parental relationships following divorce [22]. In contrast, paternal involvement has been found to ease some of these fears, as high paternal involvement predicted high levels of intimacy, commitment, and trust in intimate relationships for young adults from both divorced and non-divorced families [21]. Existing evidence indicates that individuals from divorced families are more likely to experience earlier transitions into intimate relationship behaviors and experiences. For example, individuals from divorced families initiate sexual activity at an earlier age than do those from non-divorced families [6], and they also are more likely to report having had more sexual partners [18]. A pattern of earlier intimate relationship involvement is also evident in the incidence of cohabitation. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Ryan, Franzetta, Schelar, and Manlove [23] examined the impact of family structure history on the relationship formation behaviors of youth who were making the transition to adulthood in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They found that the more time youth spent living outside of a married, two biological-parent household, the greater the likelihood that they would form an early cohabiting union. Earlier age at marriage also is more likely among young adults from divorced families [24]. Interestingly, living in a stepfamily during childhood has been found to increase the likelihood of earlier marriage among young adults [23]. These earlier relationship transitions create risks for young adults from divorced families, as early age at marriage is one of the strongest predictors of divorce [25]. In regard to the intergenerational transmission of divorce, research reveals that adult children of divorce are twice as likely to divorce at some point during their marriage in comparison to those from intact homes [26]. In comparison to individuals from intact families, adult children of divorce are more likely to divorce when experiencing relationship problems than they are to work on issues within the relationship [26]. This may be due to the belief that commitments can be easily terminated when the relationship is no longer satisfying, which is evident
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from the pro-divorce attitudes and high rates of cohabitation and divorce among adult children of divorce [3, 25]. In comparison to men, women who experience childhood divorce are more likely to have marriages that end in divorce [3]. Other research posits that later relationship difficulties for adults who experienced divorce during childhood may not be directly attributable to parental divorce per se, but to the amount of conflict within the home before, during, and after the divorce. As Amato [25] described, this may be due to a lack of positive relationship modeling by parents in unhealthy, affectionless, or high conflict marriages, which may contribute to maladaptive interpersonal communication issues for adult children from divorced families. Amato found that in comparison to adults whose parents had remained continuously married, adults whose parents had divorced were more likely to have interpersonal styles characterized by problematic communication, anger, and jealousy. These interpersonal difficulties, in turn, were found to elevate the risk for divorce. Hetherington [18] used data from the long-term Virginia Longitudinal Study of Divorce and Remarriage to examine the impact of both parental divorce and marital conflict (without divorce) in the family of origin on marital instability in young adult offspring. She concluded that while both marital conflict and parental divorce contributed to offspring marital instability, the effects were greater for parental divorce. Furthermore, the greatest marital instability was observed among couples where both partners came from divorced families, and the difference in marital stability in that group as compared to couples where both partners came from low conflict non-divorced families was striking. However, it is essential to recognize that intimate relationship difficulties among adults from divorced families are not inevitable. In particular, Hetherington [18] found that having a supportive, well-adjusted partner was a protective factor, eliminating the difference in marital instability between participants from divorced and non-divorced families.
Parental Divorce and Psychological Well-Being A range of adult psychological adjustment outcomes have been identified as being impacted by the earlier experience of parental divorce, with effects evident on measures of specific mental health indicators such as depression and anxiety, as well as for more global assessments of psychological well-being [3]. The focus of the review here will not be on articulating the effects of parental divorce on specific indicators of psychological adjustment.
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Rather, the emphasis will be on detailing the impact of divorce on psychological well-being more generally as evident in long-term longitudinal studies that have spanned decades. These longitudinal studies have helped to disentangle the complexity of effects of parental divorce on psychological well-being in adulthood. Utilizing data from the Marital Instability Over the Life Course (MIOLC) study, Amato [8] was able to examine the psychological well-being of adults from divorced and non-divorced families, and to consider the impact of parent factors by drawing from data collected from the parents in an earlier wave of the study. Amato found that parental divorce lowered the psychological well-being of 10% of his sample [8]. In other words, 90% of adult children who experienced childhood divorce showed levels of well-being comparable to adult children from non-divorced families. Amato noted that his results suggested that divorce does not appear to reduce the percentage of children who reach adulthood with positive psychological well-being. Rather, parental divorce appears to shift some children from average psychological wellbeing to low psychological well-being. Interestingly, a couple of different factors appeared to moderate the effects of parental divorce on psychological well-being in Amato’s study. First, when parents reported low levels of marital discord, adult children of divorced parents had poorer psychological well-being than did their counterparts with continuously married parents. However, when parents reported high levels of marital discord, adult children of divorced parents had better psychological being than did those with continuously married parents [8]. These findings are consistent with the position that when children are exposed to chronic parental discord, they may be better off if their parents divorce. In contrast, when parents exhibit low levels of marital discord, the parental divorce may create more of a jolt for children, who may view it as an unexpected event. The second factor that moderated effects of divorce on psychological well-being was the number of family transitions that offspring experienced (i.e., parental divorces and remarriages), where more transitions were linked to lower psychological well-being. These results suggest that the accumulation of family transitions contributes to the negative effects of parental divorce. Chase-Lansdale, Cherlin, and Kiernan [27] used longitudinal data gathered in Great Britain from the National Child Development Study to examine the long-term effects of parental divorce on the mental health of young adults (age 23). They found moderate, negative consequences of parental divorce for both men and women. Specifically, they found that the likelihood of scoring above the clinical
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cutoff on the Malaise Inventory was 8% for young adults who had not experienced parental divorce and 11% for those who had experienced parental divorce. These authors concluded that while divorce raised the risk of serious emotional disorders, the large majority of individuals from divorced families did not exhibit these risks. Nevertheless, the effects on the subgroup seriously affected by divorce should not be discounted, as the proportional increase in those who may seek clinical intervention is noteworthy. Again drawing from the National Child Development Study, Cherlin, Chase-Lansdale, and McRae [5] examined the effects of parental divorce on mental health at age 33. The authors noted that prior to parental divorce, more internalizing and externalizing symptoms were evident among individuals whose parents eventually divorced in comparison to those from non-divorced families. However, the results also indicated that parental divorce itself contributed to higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems in adulthood. Furthermore, what is particularly noteworthy in these findings is that the gap in emotional problems between those from divorced and non-divorced families widened in adulthood. These results are consistent with the notion of a sleeper effect, whereby adjustment problems surface in adulthood. The authors suggested that parental divorce may set into motion a chain of events such as early childbearing or limited education that contribute to continued divergence in the life course for those from divorced and nondivorced families. In summary, the results of the available body of research provide evidence for the potential for parental divorce to have long-term negative consequences on offspring psychological well-being. However, when combined with the findings of Hetherington and Kelly [15] described earlier (i.e., that 75% of adults from divorced families exhibit positive adjustment), the clear message from the research summarized here is that the majority of adult children from divorced families experience positive psychological well-being. Nevertheless, due to the small, but real elevated risk for psychological difficulties for adults from divorced families in comparison to those from non-divorced families, the impact of the divorce experience on lives of those experiencing adjustment difficulties should not be minimized.
Parental Divorce and Parent–Child Relations As noted by Ahrons [10], parent–child relationships persist throughout the life course, and consequently, parental divorce can potentially alter parent–child relationships at any developmental transition. The available evidence
indicates that parental divorce creates the greatest longterm risks for the father–child relationship. Relationships between adult children and their divorced mothers are closer than those between adult children and their divorced fathers. Furthermore, adult daughters are closer to their divorced mothers than are adult sons, and sons report somewhat more closeness to their divorced fathers than do daughters [16]. In his examination of multiple long-term outcomes of parental divorce, Amato [8] concluded that the strongest impact is on father–child relationships, where parental divorce results in poorer quality father–child relationships for approximately onethird of adult children. Again using data from the MIOLC study, Amato [7] examined the effects of marital discord and divorce on adult children’s parent–child relationships for individuals in both divorced and non-divorced families. Compared to children with continuously married low discord parents, children who experienced parental divorce reported less closeness to both their mothers and their fathers. It should be noted that children with continuously married, high discord parents also had weaker ties with fathers (but not with mothers). Additionally, the negative effects of parental divorce on father–child relationships were stronger for daughters than for sons. Children with divorced parents also had significantly poorer father–child relationships than did those children with continuously married high discord parents. Scott, Booth, King, and Johnson [28] examined patterns of change in father–child closeness following divorce in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, tracking youth from adolescence to young adulthood. They found that 57% of participants experienced a decline in father–child closeness over this time period. However, 25% of the participants maintained close father–child relationships, and 14% reported increased closeness with their fathers over this time period. Those participants who maintained a close father–child relationship had a stronger mother–child relationship and a greater sense of well-being prior to the divorce. Interestingly, those who experienced an increase in father closeness were less likely to have pursued education beyond high school, and were more likely to have experienced their own family transitions such as cohabitation and parenthood. Drawing from data collected from the longitudinal Binuclear Family Study, Ahrons [10] examined family ties among adult children who were interviewed 20 years after their parents’ divorce. The majority of these adult children reported that their parents currently got along with each other fairly well. Furthermore, when parents were more cooperative with each other, their adult
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children reported better relationships with their parents, as well as with their grandparents, stepparents, and siblings. The desire for their parents to get along with each other was clearly evident among these adult children – they wanted parents to be cordial with each other in order that both parents could share in important events in the adult child’s life, such as graduations, weddings, and the birthdays of grandchildren. Ahrons concluded that when parents are able to minimize their conflicts and co-parent effectively, their adult children are able to maintain their relationships with both parents. The living arrangements that are established following parental divorce are important to take into consideration in efforts to understand the relationship dynamics between adult children and their fathers in divorced families. Although historically there has been an increase in shared custody arrangements in the United States, much of the available research conducted over the years has centered on families where mothers had custody and fathers were the non-residential parents [24]. Contact with non-residential fathers has been found to decrease over time [24], which can pose risks to the maintenance of strong father–child relationships. Fabricius [29] considered the issue of living arrangements in his study of college students from divorced families. He found that these students endorsed living arrangements that would give them equal time with each parent, and the majority of the participants also believed that equal time with each parents was best for children. Furthermore, those individuals who reported having living arrangements that gave them equal time with both of their parents or a lot of time with their fathers had high quality relationships with both their mothers and fathers. Additional findings point to the significance of both post-divorce living arrangements and parent–child conflict for father–child relationships. Specifically, the more time college students reported living with their fathers after divorce, the better their relationships were with their fathers, independent of parental conflict. In contrast, the more parental conflict they experienced, the worse their father–child relationships were, independent of time spent with father [30]. Hearing adult children’s perspectives on living arrangements in these two studies sheds additional light on the importance of maintaining father– child relationships post-divorce, as revealed in the viewpoints of the children themselves. In summary, the research reviewed here portrays a complex picture of the impact of parental divorce on parent–child relationships in adulthood. Clearly, the literature to date shows that the father–child relationship is most adversely affected by parental divorce. However,
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when parents are able to put aside their conflicts and coparent effectively, positive benefits accrue for parent–child relationships. The significance of positive parent–child relationships is further underscored when the literature previously described on intimate relationships and psychological well-being is considered. It is apparent that these outcomes are all interrelated (e.g., high quality parent–child relationships are linked to positive intimate relationship adjustment). These findings also highlight the life-long significance of the parent–child bond. Whereas most of the available literature has focused on the effects of parental divorce on parent–child relationships in young adulthood, recent research suggests that the consequences can extend later into the life course, when adult children from divorced families deal with issues such as caring for an aging parent. For example, Lin [31] found that although adult children with divorced parents were just as likely as adult children of widowed parents to provide care and financial assistance to mothers, those from divorced families were less likely to provide care for their fathers.
Conclusions Examination of the available literature published during the last two decades on the long-term effects divorce provides some support for the existence of a sleeper effect of parental divorce, with consequences apparent for outcomes including intimate relationships, psychological well-being, and parent–child relationships. However, the strongest message that should be taken away from this analysis of the research is that the overwhelming majority of adults from divorced families show positive adaption in their adult years. Furthermore, it is important to note the limitations of this literature, as long-term longitudinal examination of outcomes of parental divorce requires decades of research. Consequently, it is important to be mindful of cohort effects, as the experience of parental divorce in the 1970s and 1980s is likely very different than today, due to changes in divorce laws and policies, the decreased stigma associated with parental divorce, and changes in family structure more generally [10]. Even so, findings from the most recent longitudinal study cited in this review (i.e., the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health) are generally consistent with findings from earlier studies. Nevertheless, acknowledging the potential significance of young adulthood for individuals from divorced families is important. As Amato [7] noted, early adulthood is a critical stage in the life course. It is a time when young people make important life decisions about education, marriage, and parenthood that can have enduring effects
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on their lives. Amato further suggested that many young people are able seek guidance and support from parents as they contemplate these major life transitions. Unfortunately, youth from troubled divorced families might be at a disadvantage due to the possibility that they have weaker ties with their parents. Wallerstein and Lewis [13] contend that parental divorce is a “life-transforming experience” (p. 367). Without a doubt, the effects of parental divorce continue to echo across the life course. Nevertheless, it would be misguided to overemphasize the consequences of the dissolution of their parents’ marriage for the life course outcomes of adult offspring. Viewing parental divorce from a problem-focused “▶Child of Divorce” paradigm can create fear, restrict possibilities and become a selffulfilling prophecy for children and parents from divorced families [32]. Furthermore, Kelly and Emery [11] make the important distinction between painful memories of divorce and pathology. As young adults recall their parents’ divorce, they may describe painful memories, and this is to be expected given the stressors associated with parental divorce. However, painful memories do not preclude positive adjustment – we need to recognize that lingering painful childhood recollections and adaptive functioning in adulthood can coexist. Most importantly, those who intervene with divorced families should work towards fostering protective factors known to promote resilience in both children and adults from divorced families [24]. When children from divorced families have involved parents and positive parent–child relationships, when they receive good parenting including positive coparenting, and when they experience low parent conflict, their long-term developmental outcomes are likely to be characterized by positive adjustment.
References 1. Wallerstein, J. S., & Blakeslee, S. (1989). Second chances: Men, women and children a decade after divorce. New York: Ticknor & Fields. 2. Wallerstein, J. S., Lewis, J. M., & Blakeslee, S. (2000). The unexpected legacy of divorce: A 25 year landmark study. New York: Hyperion. 3. Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and adult well-being: A meta- analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 797–809. 4. Amato, P. R., & Sobolewski, J. M. (2001). The effects of divorce and marital discord on adult children’s psychological well-being. American Sociological Review, 66, 900–921. 5. Cherlin, A. J., Chase-Lansdale, P. L., & McRae, C. (1998). Effects of divorce on mental health throughout the life course. American Sociological Review, 63, 239–249. 6. D’Onofrio, B. M., Turkheimer, E., Emery, R. E., Slutske, W. S., Heath, A. C., Madden, P. A., et al. (2006). A genetically informed study of the processes underlying the association between parental marital instability and offspring adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 42, 486–499.
7. Amato, P. R. (2006). Marital discord, divorce, and children’s wellbeing: Results from a 20-year longitudinal study of two generations. In A. Clarke-Stewart & J. Dunn (Eds.), Families count: Effects on child and adolescent development (pp. 179–202). New York: Cambridge University Press. 8. Amato, P. R. (2003). Reconciling divergent perspectives: Judith Wallerstein, quantitative family research, and children of divorce. Family Relations, 52, 332–339. 9. Wallerstein, J. S. (1987/1988). Children after divorce: Wounds that don’t heal. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 24, 107–113. 10. Ahrons, C. R. (2007). Family ties after divorce: Long-term implications for children. Family Process, 46, 53–65. 11. Kelly, J. B., & Emery, R. E. (2003). Children’s adjustment following divorce: Risk and resilience perspectives. Family Relations, 52, 353–362. 12. Wallerstein, J. S., & Kelly, J. B. (1980). Surviving the breakup. New York: Basic Books. 13. Wallerstein, J. S., & Lewis, J. M. (2004). The unexpected legacy of divorce: Report of a 25-year study. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 21, 353–370. 14. Gordon, R. M. (2004). The doom and gloom of divorce research: Comment on Wallerstein and Lewis. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 22, 450–451. 15. Hetherington, E. M., & Kelly, J. (2002). For better or worse: Divorce reconsidered. New York: Norton. 16. Hetherington, E. M. (2003). Social support and the adjustment of children in divorced and remarried families. Childhood, 10, 217–236. 17. Lansford, J. E. (2009). Parental divorce and children’s adjustment. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 140–152. 18. Hetherington, E. M. (2003). Intimate pathways: Changing patterns of close personal relationships across time. Family Relations, 52, 318–331. 19. Wallerstein, J. S. (2005). Growing up in the divorced family. Clinical Social Work Journal, 33, 401–418. 20. Crowell, J. A., Treboux, D., & Brockmeyer, S. (2009). Parental divorce and adult children’s attachment representations and marital status. Attachment and Human Development, 11, 87–101. 21. Van Schaick, K., & Stolberg, A. L. (2001). The impact of paternal involvement and parental divorce on young adults’ intimate relationships. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 36, 99–121. 22. Mahl, D. C. (2001). The influence of parental divorce on the romantic beliefs of young adults. In C. Everett (Ed.), Divorce and the next generation: Perspectives for young adults in the new millennium (pp. 89–119). Binghamton, NY: Haworth Clinical Press. 23. Ryan, S., Franzetta, K., Schelar, E., & Manlove, J. (2009). Family structure history: Links to relationship formation behaviors in young adulthood. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 71, 935–953. 24. Kelly, J. B. (2003). Changing perspectives on children’s adjustment following divorce: A view from the United States. Childhood, 10, 237–254. 25. Amato, P. R. (1996). Explaining the intergenerational transmission of divorce. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 628–640. 26. Amato, P. R., & DeBoer, D. D. (2001). The transmission of marital instability across generations: Relationship skills or commitment to marriage? Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 1038–1051. 27. Chase-Lansdale, P. L., Cherlin, A. J., & Kiernan, K. E. (1995). The long-term effects of parental divorce on the mental health of young adults: A developmental perspective. Child Development, 66, 1614–1634. 28. Scott, M. E., Booth, A., King, V., & Johnson, D. R. (2007). Postdivorce father-adolescent closeness. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 1194–1209.
Smoking 29. Fabricius, W. V. (2003). Listening to children of divorce: New findings that diverge from Wallerstein, Lewis, and Blakeslee. Family Relations, 52, 385–396. 30. Fabricius, W. V., & Luecken, L. J. (2007). Postdivorce living arrangements, parent conflict, and long-term physical health correlates for children of divorce. Journal of Family Psychology, 21, 195–206. 31. Lin, I.-F. (2008). Consequences of parental divorce for adult children’s support of their frail parents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 113–128. 32. Bernstein, A. C. (2007). Re-visioning, restructuring and reconciliation: Clinical practice with complex postdivorce families. Family Process, 46, 67–78.
Sleeper Influence ▶Sleeper Effect of Divorce
Sleeping Pills ▶Anxiolytics/Hypnotics
Sleeping Pills (e.g., Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata) ▶Depressants
Smacking ▶Spanking
Smoking STEPHEN N. CAMPBELL1, GYASI BRAMOS HANTMAN2 1 Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA 2 Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL, USA
Definition Tobacco smoking is the inhaling and exhalation of the fumes of burning tobacco which contains nicotine.
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Description Cigarette smoking is one of the most popular and persistent habits of our society. According to the American Cancer Society, each day more than 3,500 people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette, and approximately one-third will become regular daily smokers and will eventually die from a smoking-related disease. Children of smokers are much more likely to become smokers themselves as a result of observing their parents smoking and viewing their behavior as the social norm. Given that cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths, the decision made to smoke during the teen years has long-term consequences. Many teens begin smoking with the expectation that they will soon quit the habit but the addictive nature of nicotine leads most to continue the habit for decades. Addiction to nicotine is a common consequence of tobacco use. Nicotine addiction in teenagers is as severe as that in adults. Physiological and psychological symptoms include; hunger, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, irritability and craving for cigarettes. They also have similar difficulty in quitting tobacco as adults. Ninety percent of those who will become regular smokers start smoking before age 19 years. Knowledge of the long-term health consequences of smoking has not been a strong deterrent for use among teens, as they start smoking with recognition of the health risks but believe that they will be able to quit smoking before the health consequences become serious. There are a number of environmental factors linked to teen smoking, including parents, siblings and peers who smoke; exposure to tobacco advertising; and the portrayal of tobacco use in the media. Teens also experiment with smoking for a variety of psychosocial reasons: they want to change their self-image, look tough or grown-up, or because most of their friends smoke. Peer acceptance is a major factor for youthful smoking. Further, unlike many other drugs, nicotine enhances rather than impairs the capacity of normal people to function, and they experience primarily the pleasurable effects of smoking.
Relevance to Childhood Development Smoking is a major health hazard to infants, children, adolescents, and their families. The U.S. Surgeon General warns that cigarette smoking is as addictive as cocaine and heroin. Research suggests that children who thought addiction happened immediately were committed to never smoke at all. Thus, the fear of addiction could be a protective factor in prevention efforts. Treatment programs for smoking have not been very successful. Three out of four smokers either wish to or have tried to stop smoking, and continue simply because they find it difficult to quit.
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Supportive counseling and group interventions have been shown to be an effective part of a comprehensive nicotine treatment programs for teens. However, protective factors such as close communication with parents, high self-esteem, assertiveness, school success, social competence, and a strong sense of right and wrong, can prevent teens from smoking.
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2001). Tobacco’s toll: Implications for the pediatrician. Pediatrics, 107(4), 794–798. National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph 17, Research on Smoking Behavior Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1977. Pampel, F. C., & Aguilar, J. (2008). Changes in youth smoking, 1976–2002: A time-series analysis. Youth Society, 39, 453–479. US Department of Health and Human Services. (1988). The health consequences of smoking-nicotine addiction: A report of the surgeon general. Rockville, MD: CDC Office on Smoking, and Health. Wang, C., Henley, N., & Donovan, R. J. (2004). Exploring children’s conceptions of smoking addiction. Health Education Research, 19, 626–634.
Snicker ▶Laughter
Social Adjustment ▶Global Assessment of Functioning Scales
Social Aggression ▶Relational Aggression
Social Anxiety MARIA V. PEREZ, RACHEL L. GROVER Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
Synonyms Behavioral inhibition; Excessive shyness; Social phobia
Definition Social ▶anxiety refers to an experience of anxiety (e.g., emotional discomfort, fear, apprehension or worry) regarding social situations, and the potential for evaluation in these situations.
Description Social anxiety generally consists of three constructs: fear of negative evaluation, general social avoidance and distress, and social avoidance and distress in new situations [13]. Children with social anxiety are often mislabeled as shy (reticent in social situations). In fact, there is much overlap between social anxiety and shyness; children with either may experience similar somatic responses in social situations (e.g., heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, blushing) and similar negative cognitions (fear of negative evaluation, or of being embarrassed or humiliated). Yet, shyness that is excessive to the point of functional impairment becomes social phobia, or social anxiety disorder. It should be noted that the majority of those with social anxiety disorder have reported childhood shyness, but that shyness is not a necessary condition for the disorder [5]. The DSM-IV criteria that a child or adolescent must meet in order to be diagnosed with social anxiety disorder are the following: (1) a chronic, excessive fear of social or performance situations that the child fears will be embarrassing (anxiety must occur in peer settings); (2) the fear of social situations almost always triggers an anxious response; (3) the feared social situations are avoided or endured with great distress; (4) the fear or avoidance must cause significant impairment in functioning; (5) the fear or avoidance is not better explained by medication, medical condition, or other mental disorder; and (6) the symptoms must be present for at least 6 months [2]. Social anxiety disorder is one of the most prevalent childhood psychological disorders. Children may be affected with social anxiety disorder as young as 6 years of age, and the average age of onset is between 11 and 12 years of age. The course of social anxiety, if not treated, can be chronic and persist into adulthood. In addition to somatic complaints, children and adolescents may also present symptoms of irritability, crying, freezing in social situations, and inflexible temperamental styles. Children and adolescents with social anxiety disorder often exhibit comorbid disorders, the most common of which are attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, and substance use disorders [6]. There are several theories, but no definitive explanation for how social anxiety develops in children and adolescents. From a biological view, genetics plays a role; 16%
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of relatives of those with social anxiety disorder also have the disorder compared with 5% of relatives with no psychiatric disorders [9]. Children that have the early appearing behavioral characteristic of ▶behavioral inhibition are more likely to develop social anxiety disorder than those that do not. Behavioral inhibition has been linked to higher epinephrine activity and higher heart rates in novel social situations [12]. Some evidence suggests that behavioral inhibition is a genetic trait that runs in families; parents of children with social anxiety disorder have been shown to be more likely to have behavioral inhibition than the parents of children without the disorder [15]. Furthermore, studies have shown that those with high social anxiety levels have increased activity in the amygdala when presented with novel faces or faces with neutral expressions [7]. Several environmental factors may also contribute to the development of social anxiety. Along with peer rejection and victimization experiences, other life experiences that have been linked to the development of social anxiety are traumatic conditioning after experiencing panic in a social-evaluative situation [4], and maladaptive familial environments, particularly with high levels of parental criticism and overcontrol [18]. With regards to parenting behaviors, an anxious-resistant attachment is a risk factor for social anxiety disorder, while maternal warmth and secure attachment are associated with children who form healthy peer relationships [3]. Parental anxiety, rejection, and overprotection are all associated with social anxiety disorder in children and adolescents. Children may learn their parent’s anxious behaviors through observational learning. Furthermore, overprotective parents may limit their children’s ability to engage in social situations, thus setting up a pattern of social isolation and avoidance [5]. In most cases a combination of factors is likely present, including a biological vulnerability to anxiety and other environmental and psychological stresses that contribute to the development of social anxiety disorder [5]. For example, one theory is that social anxiety may be due to a biological predisposition for behavioral inhibition, which leads to a failure to establish peer relationships that help one to develop appropriate social skills. Lack of social skills and/or friendships cause further anxiety, insecurity, and withdrawal from social situations [17]. Concerning treatment for social anxiety, many children go without ever receiving help because they do not “act out,” and thus teachers and parents may not recognize their level of discomfort. Similarly, social anxiety in adolescence is often overlooked as normal teen social insecurity. One of the most common and effective treatments for
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social anxiety is ▶cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT targets three components of anxiety: physiological, cognitive, and behavioral. The physiological component is addressed through relaxation techniques. The cognitive component may include teaching children how to use constructive rather than negative self-statements. The behavioral component involves systematic desensitization to feared stimuli through imaginal as well as in vivo exposure. Some CBT treatments for social anxiety add a social skills training segment into the program. Another treatment option that has proven to be effective for social anxiety disorder is the use of psychotropic medications, including ▶selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and tricyclic anti-depressants. The SSRIs are generally the preferred drug for treating anxiety in youth [10]. The choice to use one modality (medication or therapy) over the other, or to use combined treatment, often relies on clinical judgment about individual patients. For severe cases of social anxiety in youth, a combined treatment of medication and therapy is generally used in order to increase the probability of a positive outcome [10].
Relevance to Childhood Development Social anxiety can hinder a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive (academic) development. Children with social anxiety have difficulty participating in typical classroom and school activities. They may struggle with speaking in front of the class, eating in the cafeteria, or using the public restroom. In many cases, children with social anxiety will refuse to go to school. They will often avoid social situations like talking on the phone or in person with peers, joining sports teams or clubs, and having friends to their house to play. In fact, children with high levels of social anxiety generally report fewer friendships, and perceive themselves as having a lack of social support and intimate, close relationships [13]. Socially anxious children are also less well-liked, teased more frequently, and suffer more often from peer rejection and relational victimization than non-anxious children [11]. The relationship between peer neglect/rejection and social anxiety is bidirectional; peer neglect/rejection also contributes to increases in youths’ social anxiety levels [11]. Studies indicate that the effects of social anxiety are cumulative and increasingly detrimental. In one study, social isolation at age 7 predicted low levels of social competence and selfworth, and high levels of loneliness, and peer-group insecurity at age 14 [16]. With the demonstrated close links between sameand other-sex relationships, it seems likely that social anxiety would also disrupt the development of othersex friendships and subsequent romantic relationships.
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Indeed, anxiety is associated with fewer date initiation behaviors and interactions with the other sex that in turn may delay entry into romantic relationships [8]. In an analysis of retrospective reports, individuals with a history of social anxiety reported acute feelings of selfconsciousness during social situations in junior high school and had fewer dating partners than a comparison group between the ages of 12 and 21 [1]. Further reflecting developmental continuity, those teens that rarely date in adolescence tend to exhibit decreased social skills, social withdrawal, and romantic dysfunction later in adulthood [14].
References 1. Albano, A. M., Marten, P. A., Holt, C. S., Heimberg, R. G., & Barlow, D. H. (1995). Cognitive-behavioral group treatment for social phobia in adolescents: A preliminary study. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 183, 649–656. 2. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 3. Attili, G. (1989). Social competence versus emotional security: The link between home relationship and behavior problems at school. In B. H. Schneider, G. Attilli, & J. Nadel (Eds.), Social competence in developmental perspective (pp. 293–311). London: Kluwer Academic. 4. Barlow, D. H. (1988). Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic. New York: The Guilford Press. 5. Beidel, D. C., & Turner, S. M. (2007). Shy children, phobic adults: Nature and treatment of social anxiety disorders (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 6. Beidel, D. C., Turner, S. M., & Morris, T. L. (1999). Psychopathology of childhood social phobia. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 17–27. 7. Birbaumer, N., Grodd, W., Diedrich, O., Klose, U., Erb, M., Lotz, M., et al. (1998). fMRI reveals amygdala activation to human faces in social phobics. Neuroreport, 9, 1223–1226. 8. Connolly, J., & Goldberg, A. (1999). Romantic relationships in adolescence: The role of friends and peers in their emergence and development. In W. Furman, B. B. Brown, & C. Feiring (Eds.), The development of romantic relationships in adolescence (pp. 266–290). New York: Cambridge University Press. 9. Fryer, A. J., Mannuza, S., Chapman, T. F., Liebowitz, M. R., & Klein, D. F. (1993). A direct interview family study of social phobia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 286–293. 10. Ginsburg, G. S., & Grover, R. L. (2005). Assessment and treatment of social phobia in children and adolescents. Pediatric Annals, 34, 119–127. 11. Inderbitzen, H. M., Walters, K. S., & Bukowski, A. L. (1997). The role of social anxiety in adolescent peer relations: Differences among sociometric status groups and rejected subgroups. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26, 338–348. 12. Kagan, J., Reznik, J. S., & Snidman, N. (1987). The physiology and psychology of behavioral inhibition in children. Child Development, 58, 1459–1473. 13. La Greca, A. M., & Lopez, N. (1998). Social anxiety among adolescents: Linkages with peer relationships and friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 83–94.
14. Nangle, D. W., & Hansen, D. J. (1998). Adolescent heterosocial competence revisited: The implications of an extended conceptualization for the prevention of high-risk sexual interactions. Education and Treatment of Children, 21, 431–446. 15. Rosenbaum, J. F., Biederman, J., Hirshfeld, D. R., Bolduc, E. A., & Chaloff, J. (1991). Behavioral inhibition in childhood: A possible precursor to panic disorder or social phobia. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 52, 5–9. 16. Rubin, K. H., Chen, X., McDougall, P., Bowker, A., & McKinnon, J. (1995). The waterloo longitudinal project: Predicting internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 751–764. 17. Rubin, K. H., LeMare, L. J., & Lollis, S. (1990). Social withdrawal in childhood: Developmental pathways to peer rejection. In S. R. Asher & J. D. Coie (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 217–248). New York: Cambridge University. 18. Whaley, S. E., Pinto, A., & Sigman, M. (1999). Characterizing interactions between anxious mothers and their children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 826–836.
Social Anxiety Disorder ▶Social Phobia
Social Cognition CYNTHIA A. ERDLEY, AMY J. KAYE, LAUREN J. HOLLEB University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Synonyms Social thinking
Definition Social cognition refers to the ways in which individuals think about and process information relevant to their social interactions. This information includes the thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors of themselves and other people.
Description Children’s Theory of Mind From very early in life, children have a theory of mind, which is an understanding that people have mental states, including desires, beliefs, and intentions. These mental states are not always accessible to others but serve to guide individuals behavior. As early as 2 months of
Social Cognition
age, infants make distinctions between animate and inanimate objects, and by 6 months of age, babies know that humans behave differently toward people than toward inanimate objects. By 9 months of age, babies can discriminate between a person’s positive versus negative intent (for example, offering a toy versus withholding a toy). Between nine and 12 months of age, babies begin to participate in joint attention activities in which they direct a partner’s attention to objects or events. Such actions indicate that by the end of the first year, babies perceive that a social partner can understand and share their own perspectives. By 18 months of age, children can reason about other people’s desires, and their behavior toward others tends to be influenced by their perceptions of these desires [13]. There are great advances in children’s theory of mind between the ages of 2 and 5 years. Young children know that others cannot observe their thoughts, and that as a result they have access to information that others do not. By about 4 years of age, children understand that people are likely to act on the basis of false beliefs. Children may use their knowledge about false beliefs to their own advantage by deliberately deceiving their partner. They may give false clues about where an object is hidden or blame someone else for a transgression that they committed that was not witnessed by others [13].
Person Perception With the development of theory of mind, children are gaining insights regarding other people’s desires and beliefs. However, children continue to have much to learn about the personalities and behavioral tendencies of themselves and their social partners. Children younger than about 7 or 8 years of age tend to describe themselves and others in terms of concrete, observable features. Nevertheless, even though young children may not spontaneously use personality traits, they do show some psychological self-awareness. For example, children ages 3-1/2 to 5 years old do characterize themselves along psychological dimensions, such as aggressiveness and sociability, when asked to respond to forced choice options regarding their personality traits. Furthermore, their characterizations are stable over time [4]. In addition, even if preschoolers do not yet use personality traits when describing others, they do show an understanding of the ways in which their closest companions typically behave. By 5 years of age, children make trait-like inferences, for example assuming that someone who has been aggressive in past peer interactions will continue to be aggressive. Moreover, 4 and 5 year olds can use trait labels to predict others’ trait-relevant behavior [9].
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Between the ages of 7 and 16 years, children increase their use of personality traits when describing others, though they continue to include concrete attributes in their descriptions. Person perception becomes even more complex during adolescence, as individuals are increasingly aware that their own and others’ behavior can be impacted by situational factors that may lead them to act “out of character” [13].
Social Perspective Taking An important aspect of social cognition is being able to understand the social partner’s point of view, including the partner’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, motives, and intentions. According to Selman [11], children develop social perspective taking skills across five stages. In the first stage, Egocentric or Undifferentiated Perspective Taking (approximately ages 3–6 years), children are generally egocentric and thus are not aware of any perspective other than their own. In the second stage, Social-Informational Role Taking (approximately 6–8 years), children begin to recognize that others can have different perspectives from their own but believe that this occurs only because these individuals have access to different information. In the third stage, Self-Reflective Role Taking (approximately 8–10 years), children recognize that their own and others’ points of view may conflict even if they have received the same information. At this point, the child can consider the other person’s point of view and can recognize that the partner also has an understanding of the child’s point of view. However, the child has difficulty considering his own perspective and the perspective of the partner simultaneously. In the fourth stage, Mutual Role Taking (approximately 10–12 years), the child can consider his own perspective and that of the partner simultaneously and realizes that the partner can do the same. The child can also assume the perspective of a disinterested third party and anticipate how each person will react to one another. Finally, in the fifth stage, Societal Role Taking (age 12 and older), individuals expect others to consider and adopt perspectives that most people in their social group would assume. Children proceed through these stages of social perspective taking in a fixed order, though the rate at which they do so may vary based on cognitive skills and social experiences.
Adolescent Egocentrism As adolescents become capable of formal operational thinking, in which they are able to reason about abstract concepts and hypothetical events, they often overextend this ability when thinking about themselves and their social world. This leads to adolescent egocentrism, where
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the adolescent’s thoughts may reflect a great deal of selfabsorption. Adolescent egocentrism seems to contribute to two distinct types of thinking [5]. The imaginary audience is the belief, brought on by the heightened selfconsciousness of adolescence, that everyone is watching and evaluating the adolescent’s behavior. The adolescent has a sense of constantly being “on stage,” and seems to think that others are as preoccupied with his or her appearance and behavior as he or she is. The second belief is the personal fable, in which the adolescent focuses on the uniqueness of oneself and one’s thinking and tends to think that no one can possibly understand his or her experiences or emotions. The personal fable contributes to beliefs that one is invincible, and thus appears to play a role in adolescents’ greater tendency to participate in risky behaviors given their propensity to believe that negative consequences could not possibly occur for them.
Models of Social-Cognitive Processing In addition to studying general types of changes in social cognition across development, researchers have focused on individual differences in children’s social cognition as they respond to specific types of social situations. Quite often social situations are ambiguous in nature, and individuals vary in their interpretations and motivations during social interactions. Indeed, individual differences in social-cognitive processing help to explain why children confronted with the same social situation, such as having milk spilled on them by a peer, may choose to act in very different ways (e.g., retaliating vs. cleaning up the mess). A variety of models have been proposed to describe specific social-cognitive processes that underlie children’s behavioral choices, and several of the more prominent models are described below. One of the most influential models of social-cognitive processing was proposed by Crick and Dodge [3]. According to this model, as individuals interact with others they bring to the situation their own social knowledge, schemas (e.g., scripts for how to deal with conflict), and a database of memories of past social experiences (e.g., memories of frequently being victimized by peers). They then receive as input a set of social cues (e.g., a peer tripping them), and their behavioral response is a function of how they process those cues. The model proposes that there are six steps of processing that occur: (1) encoding of external and internal cues, (2) interpretation of those cues, (3) selection of goals, (4) response access, (5) response decision, and (6) behavioral enactment. To illustrate, a child who is tripped by a peer and has a history of being victimized by peers may attribute the action to hostile intent rather than to accidental circumstances.
That child then selects a goal, perhaps retaliation or avoidance. The goal that is given priority is likely to influence the types of social responses generated (e.g., aggressive vs. passive behaviors). As children make a decision about how to respond, several social-cognitive constructs are likely to come into play. Children’s self-efficacy perceptions are important, given that children are most likely to select behaviors they think they would be able to produce successfully. Outcome expectations also play a significant role, as children tend to choose behaviors they feel will result in a positive outcome. In addition, children should view the response as being appropriate according to their own moral rules or values (e.g., beliefs about the legitimacy of aggressive behavior). Thus, children who believe that they are good at being aggressive, that aggressive behavior will bring positive results, and that aggression is legitimate are quite apt to decide that aggressive behavior is an appropriate response. Notably, the Crick and Dodge model is circular in nature, such that each step of processing may influence the others through a series of feedback loops. For example, whereas a child who attributes a protagonist’s action to hostile intent may be more apt to select a retaliation goal, it is also possible that a child who generally gives high priority to retaliation goals (Step 3) may be especially primed to attribute any harm caused by the protagonist to hostile intent (Step 2). Notably, though each of the social-cognitive variables may predict behavior, behavior is best predicted by multiple variables. Another important social-cognitive theory is Weiner’s attribution theory [14]. This theory emphasizes that during social interactions, individuals are concerned with determining the perceived causes of behavior and events. Three underlying dimensions of causes are proposed. The first is locus, in which the individual must decide whether a cause is internal (e.g., lack of social ability) or external (e.g., bad mood of the interaction partner). The second dimension is stability, which identifies a cause as constant or changing over time. The third dimension is controllability, or whether a cause is subject to volitional influence. The attributions a person makes can have a strong impact on factors such as behavioral choices, expectancy of success, and emotion. For example, an individual who is not invited to participate in a special activity with peers may attribute this incident to external, stable, and uncontrollable factors. In turn, the individual may decide to withdraw socially, expect future rejection, and feel hopeless. Selman’s Interpersonal Negotiation Strategies (INS) model [12] asserts that four information processing issues are central as individuals engage in social problem solving. First, the individual must define the specific problem and
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evaluate it in terms of the social relationship (i.e., whether the problem is a mutual one, or whether the focus is on one person). The second process focuses on the action to be taken (i.e., the strategy or strategies suggested to deal with the dilemma). The third process involves considering the consequences of the solution proposed, including consequences to the protagonist, the significant other, and the relationship between the two people. In the fourth process, the individual considers the effect of the solution on the emotions of those involved. According to this model, the individual’s use of strategies may vary depending on the context (e.g., status difference between interaction partners, type of relationship). Finally, Bandura’s [1] self-efficacy theory proposes that individuals’ level of confidence in their ability to successfully perform a certain behavior will impact whether they choose to enact that behavior, how much effort they will exert, and how long they will attempt the behavior in the face of challenge. Bandura asserts that expectations of personal efficacy come from four primary sources of information, including performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. Bandura distinguishes self-efficacy perceptions from outcome expectations, which are defined as an individual’s estimate that a given behavior will result in a particular outcome. Indeed, although a person may believe that a specific behavior may lead to a certain consequence, that person may not think he or she could be successful at enacting that behavior. For example, the individual may believe that using negotiation strategies would result in the peaceful resolution of a conflict, but she may think that she is not a very effective negotiator. In contrast, a person may believe that she could effectively perform a behavior but may expect that action would not result in a desirable outcome. Ultimately, both self-efficacy perceptions and outcome expectations impact individuals’ behavioral choices. Each of these theoretical models highlights specific types of social-cognitive variables that may operate as individuals decide how to respond to social situations. The models differ in the specific variables they emphasize, but across these models various social-cognitive processes are viewed as playing significant roles in predicting individuals’ social behavior. These variables include attributions of hostile intent, attributions for social success or failure, social goals, strategy knowledge, self-efficacy perceptions, outcome expectations, and beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression.
Relevance to Childhood Development A great deal of research has shown that children’s socialcognitive processes are related to their psychosocial
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adjustment. Among young children, those who show more sophisticated knowledge about theory of mind display more advanced social skills and are more highly accepted by peers compared to age mates. Gains in person perception abilities across childhood into adolescence can contribute to greater understanding and intimacy in social relationships. In addition, children with more advanced social perspective taking skills are more likely to experience empathy for others and are more apt to engage in prosocial behavior [13]. Although advances in most social-cognitive processes are associated with positive outcomes, it should be noted that adolescents’ strong endorsement of personal fable beliefs is correlated with a greater likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors, including dangerous driving and unprotected sexual interactions. Children’s social adjustment is also related to individual differences in their social-cognitive processes as they respond to specific types of social situations. Specifically, children who are aggressive and/or highly disliked by their peers tend to show a variety of social-cognitive deficits or distortions. For example, rejected-aggressive children are apt to display a tendency to make attributions of hostile intent and, in turn, to endorse aggressive responses to provocations [10]. Such behavior often leads to further rejection by peers (and reinforces children’s interpretations that others have hostile intentions) and leaves children vulnerable to a variety of negative outcomes, including loneliness, depression, delinquency, and school dropout [8]. Other social-cognitive processes are similarly associated with maladaptive behavior and peer rejection. Aggressive children are more apt to endorse retaliation goals and tend to generate primarily aggressive responses. They tend to have high confidence in their ability to carry out aggressive behaviors and low self-efficacy regarding their ability to enact prosocial responses. Moreover, aggressive children expect positive outcomes for their use of aggression, including gaining material rewards, status, and power, and tend to have little regard for the suffering of their victim. Aggressive children also believe that their choice of aggressive behavior is morally legitimate [6]. Behaviorally withdrawn children similarly appear to have a specific social-cognitive profile that underlies their behavior. Like aggressive children, they may also show a hostile attributional bias, but they are more apt to endorse socially avoidant goals and strategies and think they are better at carrying out these behaviors than at being aggressive or prosocial [7]. Socially withdrawn behavior is often associated with being overlooked, or neglected, by peers during the childhood years. However, as children approach adolescence, withdrawn behavior is increasingly associated with overt rejection, and such rejection can
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leave the child vulnerable to a variety of negative outcomes, including loneliness, depression, and social anxiety. Research has shown that the most socially adjusted children are those who make attributions to accidental circumstances, endorse relationship-oriented goals, and select prosocial strategies [7]. Children who are better accepted by their peers tend to have high self-efficacy for their ability to act in prosocial ways and expect positive outcomes that will enhance relationships. Those children with more adaptive social-cognitive functioning tend to engage in more prosocial behavior. This behavior, in turn, contributes to greater acceptance by the peer group and a higher likelihood of being involved in friendships. These positive social experiences are associated with adaptive psychosocial adjustment. Traditionally, social skills intervention programs have focused on teaching children specific social behaviors, such as sharing and initiating social interactions. Increasingly, however, intervention programs are beginning to target social-cognitive processes as well. For example, some interventions have focused on teaching children to make nonhostile attributions when the intent of the actor is ambiguous, to give higher priority to prosocial goals, and to generate more prosocial strategies [2]. By addressing the social-cognitive processes that underlie children’s behavioral choices, children may be prompted to engage in more prosocial behavior that in turn will increase their acceptance in the peer group and decrease their risk for poor psychosocial adjustment.
References 1. Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215. 2. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2004). The effects of the fast track program on serious problem outcomes at the end of elementary school. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 650–661. 3. Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101. 4. Eder, R. A. (1990). Uncovering young children’s psychological selves: Individual and developmental differences. Child Development, 61, 849–863. 5. Elkind, D. (1967). Egocentrism in adolescence. Child Development, 38, 1025–1033. 6. Erdley, C. A. (1996). Motivational approaches to aggression within the context of peer relationships. In J. Juvonen & K. R. Wentzel (Eds.), Social motivation: Understanding children’s school adjustment (pp. 98–125). New York: Cambridge University Press. 7. Erdley, C. A., & Asher, S. R. (1996). Children’s social goals and selfefficacy perceptions as influences on their responses to ambiguous provocation. Child Development, 67, 1329–1344. 8. Kupersmidt, J., Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1990). The role of poor peer relationships in the development of disorder. In S. R. Asher &
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J. D. Coie (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 274–305). New York: Cambridge University Press. Liu, D., Gelman, S. A., & Wellman, H. M. (2007). Components of young children’s trait understanding: Behavior-to-trait inferences and trait-to-behavior predictions. Child Development, 78, 1543–1558. Orobio de Castro, B., Veerman, J., Koops, W., Vosch, J., & Monshouwer, H. (2002). Hostile attribution of intent and aggressive behavior: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 73, 916–934. Selman, R. L. (1980). The growth of interpersonal understanding. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Selman, R. L., Beardslee, W., Schultz, L. H., Krupa, M., & Podorefsky, D. (1986). Assessing adolescent interpersonal negotiation strategies: Toward the integration of structural and functional models. Developmental Psychology, 22, 450–459. Shaffer, D. R. (2009). Social and personality development (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. Psychological Review, 92, 548–573.
Social Cognitive Learning Theory AMANDA BOZACK University of New Haven, West Haven, CT, USA
Synonyms Social learning theory
Definition Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory conceptualizes cognitive, vicarious, self-regulatory, and self-reflective processes as they relate to human motivation and behavior.
Description Social cognitive theory was founded on the social learning theory proposed by N. E. Miller and J. Dollard in 1941 [8]. Early social learning theorists were heavily influenced by behaviorism and drive reduction principles. In 1963 Albert Bandura and Richard Walters extended social learning theory by stressing that observational learning is a natural occurrence. They also stressed that reinforcement controls performance, not learning, and that learning can happen vicariously. Bandura’s work also developed the importance of self-beliefs in learning behaviors. With the 1986 publication of his book Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory [2], Bandura made a clear distinction between his theory, which emphasizes the important role of cognition in human behavior, and other social learning theories [7].
Social Cognitive Learning Theory
Social cognitive theory is grounded in the belief that humans are unique in our ability to symbolize experiences, to develop forethought about consequences for our actions, to learn vicariously through the actions of others, to be able to change our behaviors through selfregulation, and to self-reflect. Bandura is most widely known for his contributions of reciprocal determinism [2] and self-efficacy [1].
Reciprocal Determinism One unique contribution to the social-cognitive framework is the concept of reciprocal determinism (also called triadic reciprocality). Other theorists have speculated about the role personal factors (cognition, affect, and biological events) and environmental factors (both social and physical) play in the human behavior. However, Bandura’s theory proposes complete interactionism among personal factors, behavior, and environmental factors, whereby people are both products and producers of their environments and social systems. In this model, not all sources of influence are equally strong. Additionally, the effects are not always seen immediately, but may develop over time (Fig. 1).
Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy beliefs are judgments people make about their ability to do something. Self-efficacy beliefs are not global – they are task-specific and may change depending on contextual factors. According to Bandura, “people’s level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what is objectively true” ([5], p. 2). Self-efficacy beliefs are established through four sources of information and they are most easily shaped during the development of self-beliefs. It is much harder to change a person’s self-efficacy beliefs once they have become firmly established. Mastery experiences provide the most authentic evidence of whether or not a person can perform a task. If a task has been successfully performed in the past, it
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increases the likelihood that a person may be able to do it again in the future. How a person remembers experiences is also important. If a person selectively remembers the one mistake made in an event that was successful overall, it can negatively affect the person’s efficacy for that task. Alternately, remembering the accomplishments made in a task that was not successful can improve a person’s efficacy for the task. Mastery experiences and their interpretation are particularly important when developing self-efficacy for a task. However, once selfefficacy beliefs have become firmly established mastery experiences become less important. Vicarious experiences allow a person to learn a novel behavior without performing it. Vicarious learning is less powerful than mastery experiences in creating selfefficacy beliefs, but it is useful when a person has little prior experience and when a person is unsure of their ability. In some cases, vicarious learning serves to protect people from harmful behaviors. For example, the consequences of a motorcycle accident in which the driver was not wearing a helmet or protective clothing is likely to affect the future safety behaviors of other motorcyclists who witnessed the event. In other cases, it allows us to learn situational social norms. For instance, weather to raise one’s hand in the classroom to get permission to use the restroom or if it is acceptable to discreetly leave without overt permission. Vicarious learning also allows a person to assess their task capabilities in relation to the attainment of others. Self-efficacy for a task is most strongly influenced when the models are people relatively similar to one’s self. For example, watching someone else learn how to swim may increase a person’s belief that they too, can learn how to swim – particularly if there are other commonalities such as age and gender. This experience would likely have a stronger impact on one’s efficacy beliefs about learning to swim than watching Olympian Michael Phelps win a gold medal. Vicarious learning is also often referred to as modeling or observational learning.
BEHAVIOR Motor responses Verbal responses Social interactions
PERSON Cognitive abilities Physical characteristics Beliefs and attitudes
Social Cognitive Learning Theory. Fig. 1 Reciprocal Determinism.
ENVIRONMENT Physical surroundings Family and friends Other social influences
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Social persuasion also contributes to the development of self-efficacy beliefs. This happens when other people provide verbal judgments about one’s ability. When others cultivate positive beliefs combined with realistic assessments of success, the social persuasion can encourage positive self-efficacy beliefs. However, negative appraisals can serve to weaken self-efficacy beliefs as well. Physiological and affective states, including anxiety, stress, and moods also provide information about efficacy beliefs because they provide cues about anticipated success or failure. Low self-perceptions may trigger more stress or anxiety about a performance, which can lead to a negative outcome. Negative affective states also divide a person’s focus. By focusing on feelings such as an upset stomach or tension, focus is directed inward and taken away from task performance. Alternately, if a person feels confident in their ability to perform a task, they are likely to have lower stress and anxiety and be able to focus completely on the task without diverting attention to inner feelings. It is the combination of the information and interpretation (e.g., symbolization, self-reflection) of that information that contribute to judgments of self-efficacy.
Relevance to Childhood Development Social cognitive theory continues to be a useful lens through which to explore child development and provides an alternate explanation to Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development. Social cognitive theory uses reciprocal determinism as a way to explore cognitive and linguistic aspects of development. It also contributes to the fields of cognitive-behavioral therapy and healthcare [4, 6]. Bandura’s famous bobo doll experiment in the early 1960s demonstrated the powerful effect of behavior modeling on children. The experiment demonstrated that children who witnessed aggressive behaviors by adults (particularly when the aggression was demonstrated by the same gendered adult) were more likely to demonstrate those behaviors than children who did not witness aggressive behaviors. Currently, Bandura’s work is often used as a foundation for research on violence in the media. He asserts, however, that the social impact of observational learning is largely a function of a person’s exposure to other information about reality. The more a person’s image of reality depends on the media’s symbolic environment, the greater the social impact [3, 9].
References 1. 2.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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4. 5. 6. 7.
8. 9.
Bandura, A. (1989). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development. Vol. 6. Six theories of child development (pp. 1– 60). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Bandura, A. (1995). Self-efficacy in changing societies. New York: Freeman. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Bandura, A. (1998). Health promotion from the perspective of social cognitive theory. Psychology and Health, 13, 623–649. Kihlstrom, J. F., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (1990). An evolutionary milestone in the psychology of personality. Psychological Inquiry, 1(1), 86–100. Miller, N. E., & Dollard, J. (1941). Social learning and imitation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Pajares, F. (2002). Overview of social cognitive theory and self-efficacy. Retrieved on August 14, 2008, from http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/eff.html
Social Communication ▶Pragmatics
Social Competence ▶Conformity Among Adolescents
Social Construction of Memory ALANDRA WELLER-CLARKE Benedictine University, Lisle, IL, USA
Definition Theoretical perspective in which memory is created by collaborating with and observing others.
Description Social construction of memory has its roots in social cognitive theory that includes a blend of ideas from behaviorism and cognitive psychology. Albert Bandura [4–6, 8–10] is the main architect of the theory as it pertains to learning, and he explains that when students learn, they cognitively represent or transform their experiences. Five major assumptions of social cognitive learning include learning by observing, learning as an internal process that may or may not be reflected in behavior, goal directed behavior, self-regulated behavior, and indirect effects of reinforcement and punishment [15]. According to social
Social Constructivism
cognitive theorists (e.g., [3, 4]), both reinforcement and punishment influence learning, behavior and memory in several ways. First, children form expectations about the likely consequences of future responses based on how they remember previous responses as reinforced or punished. Secondly, children’s expectations are influenced by their observations of the consequences that follow other peoples’ behaviors, in other words, by vicarious experiences. These expectations or memories regarding probable future consequences affect how children cognitively process new information and store it into memory. These memories alter children’s expectations and also influence their decisions about how to behave. Some examples of social cognitive learning that create memories in children include observational learning and/ or modeling. Observational learning involves acquiring skills, strategies, and beliefs by observing others. It involves imitation but is not limited to it. What is retained or remembered typically is not an exact copy of what is modeled, but rather a general strategy that the observer often applies. The capacity to learn behavior patterns by observation and modeling eliminates trial-and-error learning. Models can be live or symbolic, and teach children all sorts of behaviors. Considerable research has been conducted concerning the impact of modeling in three areas: academic skills, aggression, and morality. Academic skills are learned by children more effectively when others demonstrate how to do something and how to think about something. In other words, a teacher might use cognitive modeling to show the thinking processes involved in a long division problem, thus making the information more meaningful and easier to retrieve from memory later on. Numerous studies indicate that children become more aggressive when they observe aggressive or violent models [2, 12, 13]. Whether children learn aggression from live or symbolic models they see in person, or in films, on television, or in video games [1], their imitations take the remembered forms as the aggression they have seen and processed [7, 14]. Many aspects of moral thinking and behavior are influenced by observation and modeling. Children watch, retain to memory, and mimic examples of moral judgment, sympathy, sharing, and generosity [11]. Children who watch generous models are more likely to donate their time or possessions than children who observe selfish models. Even in cases where an experiment is repeated months afterward, children repeat the behavior from the initial session because it has been committed to memory.
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References 1. Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D., et al. (2003). The influences of media violence on youth. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4, 81–110. 2. Bandura, A. (1965). Influence of models’ reinforcement contingencies on the acquisition of imitative responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1, 589–595. 3. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 4. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Upper saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 5. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. 6. Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastoorelli, C. (2001). Self-efficacy beliefs as shapers of children’s aspirations and career trajectories. Child Development, 72, 187–206. 7. Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Imitation of filmmediated aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66, 3–11. 8. Bandura, A. (2004). Toward a psychology of human agency. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Society, Chicago. 9. Bandura, A. (2005). The primacy of self-efficacy in health promotion. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 54, 245–254. 10. Bandura, A. (2006). Going global with social cognitive theory: From prospect to pay dirt. In S. I. Donaldson, D. E. Berger, & K. Pezdek (Eds.), The Rise of Applied Psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 11. Friedrich, L. K., & Stein, A. H. (1973). Aggressive and prosocial television programs and the natural behaviors of preschool children. Society for Research in Child Development Monographs, 38, 1–64. 12. Goldstein, N. E., Arnold, D. H., Rosenberg, J. L., Stowe, R. M., & Ortiz, C. (2001). Contagion of aggression in day care classrooms as a function of peer and teacher responses. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 708–719. 13. Guerra, N. G., Huesmann, L. R., & Spindler, A. (2003). Community violence exposure, social cognition, and aggression among urban elementary school children. Child Development, 74, 1561–1576. 14. Mischel, W., & Grusec, J. E. (1966). Determinants of the rehearsal and transmission of neutral and aversive behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 197–205. 15. Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Educational psychology: Developing learners (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Social Constructionist ▶Family Therapist
Social Constructivism ▶Constructivist Psychotherapy
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Social Decision Making ▶Social Problem Solving
Social Discourse ▶Pragmatics
Social Language ▶Pragmatics
Social Learning ▶Learning
Social Learning Theory Social Environment ▶Classroom Climate
TONYA R. HAMMER University of Houston Clear Lake, Houston, TX, USA
Synonyms
Social Group ▶Peer Group
Social Identity ▶Identity
Social Influence ▶Conformity Among Adolescents
Social Information Processing ▶Social Problem Solving
Social Intelligence ▶Emotional Intelligence
Imitation; Modeling; Media influence; Observational learning; Social cognitive learning theory
Definition Social learning theory states that norms, attitudes, expectations, and beliefs arise from an interaction with the cultural or social environment around an individual.
Description Albert Bandura, the leading theorist in social learning theory, proposed that people learn from their observations of individuals or models. Bandura believed that behavioral theories presuming that environment determines one’s behavior were too simplistic in nature. In response he presented the idea of reciprocal determinism, meaning the environment and one’s behavior cause each other. As the theory developed the term prosocial behavior was coined. Prosocial behavior has been defined by theorists as “helping behavior that benefits others” [3]. The premise behind social learning theory, unlike operant or classical conditioning, is that the behavior does not have to be performed or reinforced directly for others to benefit from the positive reinforcement. Children learn behavior by observing others or ▶models, and if the models receive positive reinforcement for their actions, the observers seek to imitate the behavior in order to obtain the positive rewards as well. However, the behavior modeled does not have to be positive for the observer to imitate it. Positive and negative behavior can be socially learned. In order for the behavior to be repeated several conditions are necessary. First, the
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observer must pay attention to the behavior of the model. Secondly, the observer must recall or remember the behavior. Subsequently, the observer must reproduce the behavior accurately and finally the observer must be motivated to learn and carry out the behavior.
Current Research While in the past Bandura’s theory has primarily been applied to parents, teachers, peers and other authority figures as models, one of the greatest sources for observational learning is the media. For example, studies have found that the concept of social learning is at play in the smoking behaviors of adolescents. According to a study by [2], a correlation between smoking in the movies and adolescent smoking behaviors exists. Additionally, images in the media are modeling certain behaviors that are proving to be detrimental to teenage girls and in some instances boys. Numerous studies have been conducted on the influence of the media on body image. [7], found that “exposure to idealized images (in the media) led to increased body shame and appearance anxiety” (p. 89). In sum, current literature clearly indicates that the media significantly influences society in various facets of life ranging from smoking to body image.
References 1. 2.
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4. 5. 6.
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Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Distefan, J. M., Pierce, J. P., & Gilpin, E. A. (2004). Do favorite movie stars influence adolescent smoking initiation? American Journal of Public Health, 94(7), 1239–1244. Eisenberg, N., Guthrie, I. K., Murphy, B. C., Shepard, S. A., Cumberland, A., & Carlo, G. (1999). Consistency and development of prosocial dispositions: A longitudinal study. Child Development, 70, 1360–1372. Feldman, R. (2008). Development across the lifespan. Upper Saddle Hills, NJ: Prentice Hall. Kilbourne, J. (1999). Can’t buy my love: How advertising changes the way we think and feel. New York: Simon & Schuster. Maltby, J., Giles, D. C., Barber, L., & McCutcheon, L. (2005). Intensepersonal celebrity worship and body image: Evidence of a link among female adolescents. British Journal of Health Psychology, 10, 17–32. Munro, F., & Huon, G. (2005). Media-portrayed idealized images, body shame and appearance anxiety. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 38(1), 85–90. Smith, S. M., McIntosh, W. D., & Bazzini, D. G. (1999). Are the beautiful good in Hollywood? An investigation of the beauty-and-goodness stereotype on film. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21(1), 69–80.
Social Perspective Coordination ▶Perspective-Taking
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Social Phobia FAUZIA MAHR1, SAFIA MAHR2, R. D. FRIEDBERG3 1 Penn State College Of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA 2 Universite´ Paris X Nanterre, Nanterre, France 3 Penn State Milton Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA
Synonyms Social anxiety; Social anxiety disorder
Definition According to DSM IV [3] social anxiety disorder is “a marked and persistent fear of one or more social performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny by others.” It is a disorder with a very broad range of implications as most of our daily activities revolve around social encounters. It is especially debilitating because seemingly routine tasks become an ordeal for the individuals suffering from the disorder.
Description Social phobia is a common disorder with vast implications; its effects range from interpersonal problems to inability to meet developmental milestones. The socially anxious youth struggle with the inherent anxiety as well as the social implications of their anxious behavior. Ford [6] in a personal account of social phobia described her experience in the following way "
In first period chemistry, I was up to my ears in dreaddread of having to say ‘here’ when my name was called, of getting back yesterday’s assignment, of looking as if I didn’t fit in. I glanced around the room to compare my notebook, pencils, clothes, jewelry, hairstyle, backpack, and pile of textbooks with everyone else’s. The corners of my notebook lacked the lazy scribbles from a friend.
Imagine a young person going through the day this way with a pervasive sense that all eyes are on her. Socially phobic youngsters believe they are on display and any mistake or flaw is readily apparent. Further, they predict that others will ridicule, embarrass, and humiliate them due to this flaw. It is like stage fright gone terribly awry. Indeed, this is a distressing experience. Social phobia is a prevalent and debilitating condition. Beidel and Turner [5] report prevalence rates of approximately 8% for children and 4% for adolescents. Additionally, they cited data indicating that between 15 and 18% of
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children referred to an anxiety disorder clinic were diagnosed with social phobia. Social phobia transcends normal shyness and is marked by young people’s profound dread of social/performance situations where unfamiliar people are present and may negatively evaluate them. Finally, social phobia compromises children’s emotional well-being, completion of developmental tasks, and academic achievement.
Signs and Symptoms The DSM-IV [3] defines the essential feature of social phobia as “marked and persistent fear of social and performance situations in which embarrassment may occur.” Social phobia may be specific or generalized in which case fears are related to most social situations. Thus the symptom profile is vast and encompasses a large variety of presentation styles. For the purpose of clarification, the symptoms are divided into the following categories: Physiological/biological: Socially anxious youth experience somatic arousal while engaging in or anticipating social encounters. The salient features are physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, flushing or chills, trembling, sweating, blushing, fainting, shaking and headaches; mediated by the beta-adrenergic system [9]. Behavioral: Behavioral symptoms include hallmark avoidance behaviors such as shying away from typical childhood activities (parties, dating, sports, school, clubs, etc.). Avoidance behaviors may be overt, dramatic or subtle. Generally unstructured social and/or evaluative situations and encounters precipitate avoidance behaviors [1]. These may include refusal or avoidance of eating or drinking in public, initiating or maintaining conversation, and avoiding using public restrooms. Moreover, worry about taking tests, giving oral reports in the classroom, participating in gym as well as working in groups is typical behavior for these children and adolescents [6]. Socially anxious youth are reluctant to seek help from their peers or teachers [1]. Other likely behavioral manifestations include stuttering, poor eye contact, mumbling, nail biting, and a tremulous voice. Socially anxious youth frequently avoid answering the telephone or doorbell [1]. Moreover, many children and adolescents preoccupy themselves with hobbies reflecting isolative interests which are different from those of their peers. Finally, children with severe social fears act stubbornly, oppositional, non-compliant, and occasionally they become outright defiant [9]. Cognitive: Cognitive content reflects the way youngsters mentally package their experiences. Fears of negative evaluation mark socially anxious youth’s cognitive content.
They predict others will harshly judge them (“They will think I am a dork”) and dread potential embarrassment / humiliation (“They’ll see me blush and mock me”). Cognitive content may include thoughts of escape from the social situation (“The best way to cope with my anxiety is avoid it”), lower perception of social competence (“I’m not one of the cool kids. I don’t fit in.”), and self criticism (“I’m a misfit”). Developmental factors must be considered when evaluating a child or adolescent [9]. The capacity to express cognitive content of the disorder may be correlated with psychological maturity and mediated by chronological age. Older and emotionally sophisticated children may be better able to put their thoughts into words and describe their cognitions. Emotional: Emotional symptoms generally include sadness, excessive worries, irritability, social distress, poor self esteem, feelings of inadequacy in interpersonal relationships and high degree of loneliness [5].
Interpersonal Typical interpersonal symptoms include restricted peer interactions, fewer friends, social withdrawal, reluctance to participate in family gatherings and social isolation. Finally, the play activities of these individuals are sometimes unusual which further socially isolate them. This lack of common interests may be because of limited opportunities for social interactions due to their social anxiety and avoidance [5].
Treatment Pharmacological Treatment Currently, ▶selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the mainstay of pharmacological management for youth. Currently available SSRIs include Fluvoxamine (Luvox), Fluoxetine (Prozac), Paroxetine (Paxil), Citalopram (Celexa), Sertaline (Zoloft), and Escitalopram (Lexapro).
Behavioral Treatment Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children (SET-C) is a comprehensive behavioral treatment modality which has been specifically designed to reduce social anxiety and enhance children’s interpersonal social skills. SET-C focuses on helping children reduce their avoidant and inhibitory behaviors in socially evaluative and interpersonal contexts. SET-C consists of social skills training (SST), Exposure and programmed practice with peers to provide real life coping experience [5].
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Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of psychotherapy which hypothesizes that individuals’ problematic emotions and dysfunctional behavior is shaped by misinterpretations of themselves, other people and their experiences. The most widely used CBT protocol for childhood anxiety is Phillip Kendall’s Coping Cat Program [8]. This protocol is administered for children ages 7–16 years. The approach can be utilized for both individual and group treatments. Albano et al. [2] adapted group cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescents ages 13–17, which involves 16 group sessions incorporating psycho-education, skills training and behavioral exposure.
Conclusion Social phobia is a common and complex disorder which comes at considerable costs to young people. Proper identification and treatment is crucial. Fortunately, there are multiple promising therapeutic options. Hopefully, future research will facilitate advances in the detection and treatment of social phobia.
References 1. Albano, A. M., Chorpita, B. F., & Barlow, D. H. (2003). Childhood anxiety disorders. In E. J. Mash & R. A. Barkley (Eds.), Childhood psychopathology (pp. 279–330). New York: Guilford. 2. Albano, A. M., Marten, P. M., Holt, C. S., Heimberg, R. G., & Barlow, D. H. (1995). Cognitive behavior group treatment for social phobia in adolescents. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 183, 647–656. 3. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 4. Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: The basics and beyond. New York: Guilford. 5. Beidel, D. C., & Turner, S. M. (2007). Shy children, phobic adults: Nature and treatment of social anxiety disorders (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 6. Ford, E., Liebowtiz, M. R., & Andrews, L. W. (2007). What you must think of me: A firsthand account of one teenagers experience with social anxiety. New York: Oxford University Press. 7. Friedberg, R. D., McClure, J. M., & Garcia, J. H. (in press). Techniques for cognitive therapy with children: A modular approach. New York: Guilford. 8. Kendall, P. C., Kane, M. T., Howard, B. L., & Siqueland, L. (1992). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxious children: Treatment manual (The Coping Cat). Philadelphia: Temple University. 9. Rao, P. A., Beidel, D. C., Turner, S. M., Ammerman, R. T., Crosby, L. E., & Sallee, F. R. (2007). Social anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescence: Descriptive psychopathology. Behavior Research and Therapy, 45, 1181–1191. 10. Velosa, J. F., & Riddle, M. A. (2000). Pharmacologic treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Psychopharmacology, 9, 119–133.
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Social Practices ▶Cultural Bias
Social Problem Solving MOLLY ADRIAN1, AARON LYON1, ROSALIND OTI2, JENNIFER TININENKO3 1 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 2 Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA, USA 3 Evidence Based Treatment Center of Seattle, Seattle, WA, USA
Synonyms Interpersonal cognitive problem solving; Interpersonal problem solving; Social decision making; Social information processing
Definition Social problem solving is the process by which individuals identify and enact solutions to social life situations in an effort to alter the problematic nature of the situation, their relation to the situation, or both [7].
Description In D’Zurilla and Goldfried’s [6] seminal article, the authors conceptualized social problem solving as an individuals’ processing and action upon entering interpersonal situations in which no immediately effective response is available. One primary component of social problem solving is the cognitive-behavioral process of generating potential solutions to the social dilemma. The steps in this process were posited to be similar across individuals despite the wide variability of observed behaviors. The revised model [7] is comprised of two interrelated domains: problem orientation and problem solving style. Problem orientation describes each individual’s meta-cognitive schema, which tends to be a stable approach to understanding problems. Problem orientation has been defined in two primary ways, positive and negative. Individuals with a positive problem orientation believe that problems are challenges to be solved rather than threats. This positive orientation has been associated with more rational and adaptive problem solving efforts and adjustment. In contrast, a negative orientation is
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characterized by beliefs that social problems represent major threats to well-being, that one lacks self-efficacy to solve problems, and that one will experience emotional distress when confronted with problems. This negative orientation has been associated with dysfunctional social problem solving styles and problems in adaptation (i.e., anxiety, depression, and conduct problems). The cognitive and behavioral skills that comprise individuals’ general responses to stressful or novel problems characterize their problem solving style. The three styles outlined by D’Zurilla and colleagues [6, 7] include rational, impulsive/careless, and avoidant styles. Classification into a problem solving style is based on the utilization of the four major problem solving skills: problem definition and formulation, generation of alternative solutions, decision making, and solution implementation and verification. Rational problem solving is characterized by a planful and systematic use of these skills to solve problems. In contrast, impulsive/careless and avoidant styles are considered dysfunctional because individuals classified into these categories do not systematically process each step of the model. Instead, the impulsive/careless problem solving style attempts to utilize problem solving strategies, but does so in an incomplete and inadequate manner. The avoidant problem solving style is characterized by passivity, procrastination, and avoidance. The model presented by D’Zurilla and Goldfried was primarily developed with attention to adult problem solving processes to explain variations in social behavior. Their model was applied and expanded by Spivack and Shure [14] to explore developmental factors that influence problem solving. The authors examined social problem solving (called interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills) that would distinguish maladjusted children from their well-adjusted peers. Spivack and colleagues [13, 14] posited several prerequisite cognitive skills that were necessary for effective problem solving; specifically, the abilities to consider step-by-step plans, think causally, develop alternative solutions, anticipate consequences, and understand the motives of others. In a series of studies, Shure and Spivack [13, 14] identified the relationship between interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills and normative age-related changes. Moreover, the authors illustrated that deficiencies in these skills were related to problematic social skills, impulsiveness, and withdrawn behavior in preschool to elementary school aged children [13]. Crick and Dodge [3] provided a comprehensive review and model of the social cognitive processes leading to maladjustment in childhood. Again, these authors proposed that when faced with a social problem, children engage in a number of steps before implementing
a response and that differences in these processes may account for the differences observed in children’s social behavior. Similar to the D’Zurilla and Goldfried model, Crick and Dodge [3] suggested the essential steps in social problem solving included encoding the problem, interpreting cues in the social situation, clarifying goals, generating possible responses, selecting a response, and enacting the behavior. In an important distinction from the D’Zurilla and Goldfried model, the authors suggested that differences in processing styles may be most predictive of differences in social behavior and could be illuminated at each step in the problem solving process. The Crick and Dodge reformulation included an explicit emphasis on the importance of the interaction between individuals’ internal processes, developmental changes (i.e., increased in experiential knowledge; improved attention, memory, and organization; and increased speed of processing information) and environmental factors on problem solving efforts (e.g., emotion processes; access of social scripts, schemas, and knowledge in memory). In a model similar to Crick and Dodge’s [3] reformulation, Rubin and Krasnor [11] focused on the development of automaticity to account for the stability and change in the development of social behavioral patterns. Specifically, the authors suggested that children learn standard scripts for common and routine social situations. The scripts are stored and cued by internal or external stimuli and are easily and unconsciously accessed in familiar social situations. However, when in novel situations, situations that violate expectations, and situations that have been unsuccessful in the past, children are required to deviate from script-driven behavior. Rubin and Krasnor classified such situations as “social problems.” Once a social problem is encountered, children must select the social goal, examine the task environment (the social status, familiarity, type of relationship, age of others); generate, retrieve strategies, and select strategies (automatic or deliberate), implement a strategy, and examine the outcome. The four models presented for social problem solving have several common elements. The seminal social problem solving model [6] and the revised models all share core steps in the problem solving process, including recognizing the problem, generating alternatives, deciding on an action, and implementing the action.
Relevance to Childhood Development Development of Social Problem Solving Abilities The attention to developmental factors highlighted by Spivack and Shure [14], Crick and Dodge [3] and Rubin
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and Krasnor [11] represent significant steps toward understanding social problem solving processes in youth. The majority of research has emphasized the importance of social influences on the development of effective social problem solving skills. The following sections describe influences including attachment relationships, parenting practices, and peer influences, and cultural context on these skills.
more likely to make attributional errors regarding peers’ intentions in social situations and are more likely to infer hostile or negative intent. When generating behavioral response options, children who experience social rejection are also more likely to identify avoidant or aggressive strategies to solve social problems. In contrast, sociallyaccepted children tend to generate behaviors that are competent and effective rather than incompetent or aggressive.
Socialization
Community and Cultural Context
Attachment and Parenting Classic attachment theory emphasizes the importance of children’s relationships with their primary caregivers and the manner in which those relationships affect future relationships [1]. In the attachment framework, early relationships provide children with internal working models, which serve as guides for subsequent social interactions. Applied to the study of social problem solving, secure attachments have been frequently emphasized as essential to the transmission of social information and the development of effective and appropriate levels of independence and social competency [12]. Within the context of their attachments to caregivers, children are believed to engage in social learning processes (e.g., observation of models) through which they internalize strategies for managing ambiguous social situations. It has been suggested that secure attachments are more likely to foster adaptive social problem solving, whereas insecure attachments may be associated with maladaptive strategies [12]. Although few data are available to elucidate the relationship between child attachments and social problem solving, a significant body of research exists to support a more general connection between parent–child relationship patterns and children’s social competence, with maternal nurturance and authoritative parenting correlated with prosocial problem solving skills [9]. Significant parental stressors, such as parental psychopathology (e.g., depression), may also negatively impact child adjustment by interfering with effective parenting behavior [5].
Beliefs about the appropriateness of different problem solving strategies are also rooted in community norms and cultural values related to assertiveness and individualism. Relative to more individualistic cultures, adolescents living in cultures that endorse collectivistic values may be more likely to use the tactic of withdrawing to deal with social conflicts. In addition, experiences such as exposure to community violence have been associated with beliefs about the appropriateness of aggressive problem solving strategies. Nevertheless, the extent to which aggressive responses are actually detrimental to youth functioning may be moderated in part by the cultural acceptability of aggression versus disengagement as a problem solving strategy [2].
Relationship Between Social Problem Solving and Psychopathology There is a substantial literature investigating the interrelationship between social information processing, effective social problem solving, and adjustment across development. Specifically, both internalizing and externalizing type childhood disorders have been found to have elements of ineffective social problem solving skills. Disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and depression have been found to be associated with unique pathways in the development of social problem solving deficits. In the following sections, the primary disorders will be discussed as well as potential treatments targeting these deficits.
Externalizing Disorders Peer Influences Beyond the home environment, various aspects of children’s broader social ecologies appear to be linked to social problem solving abilities. Socially accepted, rejected, and neglected children differ in their social problem solving abilities at each step of the social problem solving process. Research has documented that children who experience relational problems have difficulties interpreting the actions of their peers, when compared to socially-accepted children [3]. Indeed, socially-rejected children appear
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Research investigating the social problem solving abilities of children with externalizing disorders and maladaptive behaviors found in non-clinical samples, including aggression, delinquency, and substance abuse support the notion that these problems are associated with a variety of deficits in implementing each step of the social problem solving process. Specifically, aggressive children, when compared to non-aggressive children, demonstrate deficits in encoding social cues, and a “hostile attribution bias” in which they tend to attribute hostile intent in ambiguous
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situations [8]. Moreover, aggressive children tend to generate fewer and lower quality solutions to social problems and evaluate aggressive solutions as more effective. As the reviewed literature illustrates, aggressive behavior is associated with a variety of deficits in each of the social problem solving steps; however, research suggests that the relationship between social problem solving and aggression may be dependent on whether the aggression is reactive or proactive. Research that has examined subtypes of aggression has found that reactive-aggression is associated with deficits in the earlier steps of social problem solving, including deficits in encoding of cues and increased rate of hostile attributions, whereas children with proactive aggression were not found to have such deficits [4].
Internalizing Disorders Research on child depression has suggested that depressed children exhibit less effective social problem solving than their non-depressed peers across most steps in the social problem solving process. Studies indicate that depressed children may experience difficulties with correctly encoding relevant information about the problem, exhibit a negative problem orientation, generate fewer solutions and problem responses that are less assertive and irrelevant to the problem, and evaluate ineffective solutions (e.g., withdrawal) more positively than do their nondepressed peers [10]. Social problem solving abilities have been investigated to a lesser extent in anxious children. However, the literature suggests that early fearful and isolative behaviors are significantly associated with less flexible problem solving style and greater use of adult resources rather than using independent strategies [12].
Intervention Social problem solving has been a primary focus of childhood intervention since D’Zurilla and Goldfried [6] proposed their initial model. The basic problem solving framework has been applied to teach problem solving skills as a means of clinical intervention as well as prevention of future deficits. Although each of the social problem solving interventions is uniquely designed to address the needs of specific groups across distinct developmental stages, a common element among the interventions is explicit teaching of the problem solving steps. Many of the programs use developmentally appropriate teaching strategies that include skill modeling by an adult leader, opportunities for children to role play the newly learned skills, opportunities to practice the skills in vivo, and feedback when skills are implemented.
Prevention Programs The majority of prevention programs are implemented in the school setting with small groups of children. To enhance efficacy of treatment, parents are typically involved in the programs. The Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving Program, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), Social Relations Program, and The Coping Power Program prevention treatments are empirically supported and have been shown to result in significant improvements in children’s social problem solving abilities following the intervention.
Clinical Interventions Unlike prevention programs, clinical interventions provide treatment for targeted clinical groups. These interventions have included multimodal approaches, which incorporate problem solving skills training (PSST) as a component of a broader intervention, as well as other more “pure” social problem solving therapies that primarily target deficits in social problem solving skills. PSST and Incredible Years Classroom Social Skills and ProblemSolving Curriculum are two empirically supported intervention programs that rely on social problem solving techniques as a core component. A variety of other interventions have also incorporated components of social problem solving into their treatment approach.
References 1. Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Vol 1: Attachment (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books. 2. Chen, X., & French, D. C. (2008). Children’s social competence in cultural context. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 591–616. 3. Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101. 4. Dodge, K. A., & Coie, J. D. (1987). Social-information-processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children’s peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1146–1158. 5. Downey, G., & Coyne, J. C. (1990). Children of depressed parents: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 50–76. 6. D’Zurilla, T. J., & Goldfried, M. R. (1971). Problem solving and behavior modification. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 78, 107–126. 7. D’Zurilla, T. J., & Nezu, A. M. (1999). Problem solving therapy: A social competence approach to clinical intervention (2nd ed.). New York: Springer. 8. Lochman, J. E., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). Social-cognitive processes of severely violent, moderately aggressive, and nonaggressive boys. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 366–374. 9. Pettit, G. S., Dodge, K. A., & Brown, M. M. (1988). Early family experience, social problem solving patterns, and children’s social competence. Child Development, 59, 107–120. 10. Quiggle, N. L., Garber, J., Panak, W. F., & Dodge, K. A. (1992). Social information processing in aggressive and depressed children. Child Development, 63, 1305–1320.
Social Referencing 11. Rubin, K. H., & Krasnor, L. R. (1986). Social-cognitive and social behavioral perspectives on problem solving. In M. Perlmutter (Ed.), Cognitive perspectives on children’s social and behavioral development. The Minnesota symposia on child psychology (Vol. 18, pp. 1–68). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 12. Rubin, K. H., & Rose-Krasnor, L. (1992). Interpersonal problemsolving and social competence in children. In V. B. van Hasselt & M. Hersen (Eds.), Handbook of social development: A lifespace perspective. New York: Plenum. 13. Shure, M. B., & Spivack, G. (1980). Interpersonal problem solving as a mediator of behavioral adjustment in preschool and kindergarten children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1, 29–43. 14. Spivack, G., & Shure, M. B. (1974). Social adjustment of young children. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Social Referencing MATTHEW J. HERTENSTEIN DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, USA
Synonyms Joint attention
Definition Social referencing refers to the process wherein infants use the affective displays of an adult to regulate their behaviors toward environmental objects, persons, and situations. Social referencing represents one of the major mechanisms by which infants come to understand the world around them.
Description In the last quarter of the first year, infants become capable of integrating interpersonal communication with objects and situations in the environment. Infants in this period are capable of viewing their parents as teachers and sources of knowledge about the environment; thus, there is true two-person communication about third events, including people and objects in the environment, which yields meaning about the world to the infant [2]. With newly acquired knowledge about environmental events, infants are capable of regulating their behaviors toward people and objects in accordance with the appraisals given them by caregivers. Social referencing is perhaps the emotional cornerstone of this developmental period because it both broadens and deepens the infant’s emotional life [3, 11]. Social referencing refers to the process wherein infants use the affective displays of an adult to regulate their behaviors
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toward environmental objects, persons, and situations [1]. In one of the most common paradigms used to study social referencing, an ambiguous and novel object is introduced to infants between the ages of 9 and 18 months. Upon the introduction of the object, an adult emotes, via facial and vocal modalities, either a positive or a negative signal to the infant. Of interest is (a) how the child’s emotional displays are regulated and (b) how the child’s instrumental behaviors, such as reaching, are regulated as a function of the adult’s emotional displays. If, for example, a mother displays disgust in relation to a novel object, an infant tends to avoid the object and express negative emotions, but in the context of a happy display from the mother, the infant tends to readily approach the object [2]. Social referencing represents one of the major mechanisms by which infants come to understand the world around them [2]. The most powerful regulatory effects of social referencing were demonstrated using a visual cliff paradigm [8]. In this experiment, the investigators placed the infant on the shallow side of a visual cliff, and the mother stood at the deep side (30 cm) in front of the infant. The mother coaxed the child to the edge of the cliff and when the infant looked up at her, she posed 1 of 5 facial displays (happy, interest, fear, anger, and sad). When 12-monthold infants approached the edge of the cliff and saw their mothers pose a “fear face,” none of the 17 infants crossed, and when they saw an “angry face” only 2 infants crossed. In contrast, 14 of the 19 infants in the happy face condition and 11 of the 15 infants in the interest condition crossed the cliff after referencing their mothers. Finally, infants showed mixed responses to their mothers’ sad facial displays (6 of the 18 infants in the sad face condition crossed the cliff, the other 12 infants did not). The findings concerning the regulatory effects of a variety of emotions on infant behavior in social referencing paradigms have been extraordinarily consistent [2, 7]. Four general conclusions emerge from the literature. First, the emotional expressions of others appropriately elicit approach and withdrawal behavior in a variety of settings. Second, vocal expressions alone, and together with the face, regulate infants’ behaviors more powerfully than facial expressions alone [6, 7, 10]. Third, negative emotional displays elicit withdrawal from objects more readily than displays of joy elicit approach [3, 6, 9]. Finally, infants regulate their behavior in accordance with emotional displays from either the mother or another adult [4, 5]. In sum, social referencing represents one of the most significant milestones of emotional development in infancy. Many questions remain unanswered, however. For example, how does social referencing develop
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over time? What individual differences exist in social referencing? What cognitive and perceptual skills enter into the development of social referencing? Future research holds the key to these questions.
References 1. Campos, J. J., & Stenberg, C. (1981). Perception, appraisal, and emotion: The onset of social referencing. In M. E. Lamb & L. R. Sherrod (Eds.), Infant social cognition: Empirical and theoretical considerations. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 2. Feinman, S., Roberts, D., Hsieh, K.-F., Sawyer, D., & Swanson, D. (1992). A critical review of social referencing in infancy. In S. Feinman (Ed.), Social referencing and the social construction of reality in infancy (pp. 15–54). New York: Plenum Press. 3. Hertenstein, M. J., & Campos, J. J. (2001). Emotion regulation via maternal touch. Infancy, 2, 549–566. 4. Hertenstein, M. J., & Campos, J. J. (2004). The retention effects of an adult’s emotional displays on infant behavior. Child Development, 75, 595–613. 5. Klinnert, M., Emde, R. N., Butterfield, P., & Campos, J. J. (1986). Social referencing: The infant’s use of emotional signals from a friendly adult with mother present. Developmental Psychology, 22, 427–432. 6. Mumme, D. L., & Fernald, A. (1996). Infants’ responses to facial and vocal emotional signals in a social referencing paradigm. Child Development, 67, 3219–3237. 7. Saarni, C., Mumme, D. L., & Campos, J. J. (1998). Emotional development: Action, communication, and understanding. In W. Damon (Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 237–309). New York: Wiley. 8. Sorce, J. F., Emde, R. N., Campos, J. J., & Klinnert, M. D. (1985). Maternal emotional signaling: Its effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 21, 195–200. 9. Svejda, M., & Campos, J. (1982). The mother’s voice as a regulator of infant’s behavior. In Paper presented at the international conference on infant studies, Austin, TX. 10. Vaish, A., & Striano, T. (2004). Is visual reference necessary? Contributions of facial versus vocal cues in 12-month-olds’ social referencing behavior. Developmental Science, 7, 261–269. 11. Witherington, D. C., Campos, J. J., & Hertenstein, M. J. (2001). Principles of emotion and its development in infancy. In G. Bremner & A. Fogel (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of infant development (pp. 427–464). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Definition An ethical theory in which it is believed that those in need of assistance should be helped, even if the costs outweigh the benefits. The theory also conveys the belief that every individual has the responsibility of acting when a need for help arises, because it is in the best interest of society.
Description The social responsibility norm is an expectation that if help is needed, it is the responsibility of anyone who sees that need to provide help regardless of potential risks to the person helping. Thus, helping others is seen as a social responsibility, and if properly carried out will ultimately be in the best interest of the society as a whole.
Relevance to Childhood Development Social responsibility is an idea that is taught to children at a very early age. Whether it is through a religious affiliation, a school, or a club, community service is very much encouraged. Volunteering within the context of community service may instill work ethic and promote a sense of appreciation. Social responsibility taught at a young age could potentially prepare children for greater academic and career opportunities as adults, as universities and employers tend to seek appreciative individuals who are willing to work hard and contribute to the larger community.
References 1.
Myers, D. G. (2007). Psychology (8th ed.). Holland, Michigan: Worth Publishers.
Social Skills ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Social Responsibility
Synonyms Interpersonal skills; Pragmatics
KRISTY M. KELSO Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA
Synonyms Citizenship; Public duty; Societal obligation
Definition A set of verbal and nonverbal behaviors, cognitive and language abilities, and attention that facilitates situation specific, appropriate and reciprocal interaction and communication with others.
Social System
Description Social skills are culturally specific behaviors, learned over time, that are influenced by group membership, environmental factors, social status, and individual characteristics, as well as reinforcement or lack of reinforcement from others. The interactive and reciprocal nature of social skills suggests a developmental learning process to obtain social skills. Social skill difficulties can be skill based (lack of learning of appropriate skills) or performance based (inability to apply previously learned skills appropriately).
References 1.
Trower, P., Bryant, B., & Argyle, M. (1978). Social skills and mental health. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Social Skills Training TABITHA BOND Scott Center for Autism Treatment, Melbourne, FL, USA
Synonyms Natural environment training
Definition Social skills training is comprised of techniques and methods utilized to assist individuals with various social interaction deficits.
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The level of training and types of techniques utilized in social skills programs vary depending on the deficits of the individual and training of the professional. Common similarities between programs involve specializations in social interactions, communication, eye contact, conversation skills, verbal and nonverbal social cues, and conflict resolution skills [3]. These programs are taught within individual or group treatment sessions. Individual social sessions focus on strengthening environmental social skills or skills required to participate in an academic program. Examples include listening, eye contact, and following group instruction. Group social sessions strengthen social interaction skills or skills that generate and maintain conversations and communication. Within these two treatment categories, several methods are utilized to focus on individual skill deficits. School programs, play dates, peer modeling, peer tutoring, sibling training, video feedback, social stories, social songs and social scripts are a few of the many components of social skills treatment [2]. Research studies have indicated social skills training programs to have a positive influence on social interactions and communication in individuals with social deficits [4]. Further studies have indicated that individuals with untreated social deficits may develop depression and a lack of responsiveness to peers. Within adulthood, deficits maintaining intimacy and relationships with individuals develop resulting in loss of friendships, limited employment opportunities, and eventual isolation.
References 1.
Description Social skills training is an area of behavior modification therapy, utilized by educators and therapists, to strengthen socialization and play skills required to succeed in a social environment. This type of treatment, also known as natural environment training, provides a setting similar to those found in scholastic programs allowing for a higher probability of generalizing skills [1]. Many individuals benefit from social skills training; however, these programs are particularly designed for individuals with attention deficit disorders, autism spectrum disorders, psychiatric conditions and learning disabilities. Within these disabilities, training focuses on deficits in generating and maintaining social relationships with peers [3]. Other deficits include a low level of social interactions, few initiations in conversations or compliments, lack of orientation towards peers, and minimal eye contact [1].
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Autism Center for Education. (2007). Helping families understand ABA fundamentals. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://www. aceautism.com/aba.html Koegel, R. L., Werner, G. A., Vismara, L. A., & Koegel, L. K. (2005). The effectiveness of contextually supported play date interactions between children with autism and typically developing peers. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 30, 93–102. Leaf, R., & McEachin, J. (1999). A work in progress: Behavior management strategies and a curriculum for intensive behavioral treatment of autism. New York, NY: DRL Books, Inc. Rao, P. A., Beidel, D. C., & Murray, M. J. (2008). Social skills interventions for children with asperger’s syndrome or high-functioning autism: A review and recommendations. Journal of Autism Developmental Disorders, 38, 353–361.
Social System ▶Family Therapist
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There are other areas worthy of social validity assessment. For example, the consumers of intervention may be asked to what extent the selected objectives are consistent with community standards (norm referenced criteria). Or, experts in a particular area of child development may be requested to comment about the purpose and components of an intervention plan (expert validation). Finally, professionals have been advised to correlate the results of social validity assessment with direct measurement of observable behaviors.
Social Thinking ▶Social Cognition
Social Validity JAMES K. LUISELLI1, DEREK D. REED2 1 The May Institute, Inc., Randolph, MA, USA 2 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
Relevance to Childhood Development
Social validity refers to the acceptability of and satisfaction with intervention procedures, usually assessed by soliciting opinions from the people who receive and implement them.
Parents, teachers and therapists are frequently given advice about child development. The effectiveness of recommended child rearing practices notwithstanding, it is desirable to know whether the methods suggested by professionals are judged positively by consumers. Procedures with poor acceptability will likely not be adopted. Other procedures may be implemented successfully but judged poorly because they are too difficult to apply consistently. Accordingly, validating the social acceptability of procedures should be an emphasis in the child development literature.
Description
References
Intervention procedures for child behavior are socially valid when people judge them as being acceptable. Typically, social validity assessment is conducted by questioning the recipients of intervention and the individuals responsible for procedural implementation. For example, a child who receives a school-based intervention might be asked about the appropriateness of the procedures that were used by the classroom teacher (e.g., did they make the student “stand out” among other students?). In turn, the teacher might be queried about the complexity of the intervention procedures, time required for implementation, and satisfaction with the outcome. The information gathered from social validity assessment enables professionals to select intervention procedures that will be well received and in consequence, will be applied accurately. Social validity assessment can be conducted through interviews, surveys, and rating scales. Questions usually are posed with a positive valence such as, “The classroom plan I used with John helped him complete more academic assignments.” Respondents reply to such questions by endorsing one of several numerically anchored options: (1) I strongly disagree, (2) I disagree, (3) I have not opinion, (4) I agree, (5) I strongly agree. An average score is derived as a global measure of acceptability and satisfaction.
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Synonyms Acceptability; assessment
Intervention
satisfaction;
Subjective
Definition
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Kennedy, C. H. (2002). The maintenance of behavior change as an indicator of social validity. Behavior Modification, 26, 594–604. Schwartz, I. S., & Baer, D. M. (1991). Social validity assessments: Is current practice state of the art? Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 24, 189–203. Wolf, M. M. (1978). Social validity: The case for subjective measurement or how applied behavior analysis is finding its heart. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 11, 203–214.
Social Withdrawal ▶Shy Children
Socialization ▶Cultural Transmission
Societal Obligation ▶Social Responsibility
Society for Research in Child Development
Society for Research in Child Development AGNIESZKA K. SERWIK University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Definition The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is an international organization for researchers and practitioners working in the domain of child development. SRCD, as a not-for-profit entity, seeks to support communication and cooperation among professionals across different disciplines to serve the promulgation of research on development and its utilization to address child welfare issues [5]. The organization sponsors a biennial research conference during odd numbered years and publishes several highly regarded journals and a newsletter, including Child Development, Child Development Perspectives, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, and Social Policy Report.
Description SRCD was founded in 1933, with Robert S. Woodworth as chairman [3]. It evolved from and later replaced the Committee on Child Development (CCD), which had been founded in 1924 as an offshoot of the National Research Council [4]. Numerous societal factors converged to influence the formation of an organization devoted entirely to research with children. First, the social sciences were now recognized within academics [4] and several notable figures in the field, such as Sigmund Freud, John Watson, Jean Piaget, and Arnold Gesell were proposing theories and completing research that had important implications for child development [2]. Second, during the early 1900s following World War I, public and government attention had shifted to exploring the childhood contributions for why many youth had been disqualified from enlisting in the armed forces due to physical or mental concerns [1]. Finally, during this early period private funding sources and public focus turned to preventative measures to reduce social problems and a new mission to enhance the health and well-being of children [4]. Until the formation of the CCD, the topic of child development was not considered to be a legitimate scientific pursuit across many different disciplines. Thus, the formation of an organization devoted exclusively to research and early recruitment that focused on increasing male membership was one way to prioritize and elevate the study of children into the sphere of science, rather than
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laypeople’s interest [1]. After the formation of CCD, interest in child development grew, as did the membership and productivity of the committee [5]. Despite this successful beginning, the onset of the Great Depression reduced the availability of funding, new child-focused organizations began to compete for recognition, and disagreement occurred within and outside the committee regarding scope and purpose [4]. The founding of SRCD represented a recommitment by CCD members to child development topics, in addition to a new agreement by members that research and application are inseparable [3]. Since its inception, SRCD has grown and changed in membership, productivity, and scope, becoming a premiere multidisciplinary association for the study of children. From an initial group of 125 people [3], the organization now claims a national and international membership of approximately 5,500 professionals who pay its annual dues [5]. Although still committed to the interdisciplinary investigation and application of developmental issues, the composition of SRCD membership has changed drastically. From initial demographics at inception indicating only 25% of members identified as psychologists, current members are overwhelmingly represented from the field of psychology [2]. Within the realm of publication, SRCD at its founding had acquired journals in danger of discontinuation and frequently needed to implore members to submit articles for publication [3]. As of 2002, given the influx of publications, Child Development no longer had to ask for articles and instead demonstrated a 75% rejection rate [2]. In addition to furthering these initial goals, SRCD has also expanded its interests to include a focus on diversity in both membership and research population, taken a major role in national policy development on children’s issues, and remains a leader in formulating and imposing ethical guidelines for research on a child population [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development SRCD remains a central source for the sharing of research results for all fields within the scope of child development and the cooperation of the professionals involved. In addition to encouraging research through funding, publications, and conferences, SRCD is concerned with transmitting the newest in research results to inform the public and benefit children around the world.
References 1.
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Cameron, C. E., & Hagen, J. W. (2005). Women in child development: Themes from the SRCD oral history project. History of Psychology, 8(3), 289–316. Parke, R. D. (2004). The society for research in child development at 70: Progress and promise. Child Development, 75(1), 1–24.
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Rheingold, H. L. (1985). VII. The first twenty-five years of the society for research in child development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(4/5), 126–140. Smuts, A. B. (1985). VII. The national research council committee on child development and the founding of the society for research in child development, 1925–1993. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(4/5), 108–125. Society for Research in Child Development. (n.d.). SRCD history. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.srcd.org/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=71&Itemid=495
Socio-Dramatic Play ▶Dramatic Play
Sociometric Techniques ALANA M. BURNS, CYNTHIA A. ERDLEY University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Definition Sociometric techniques are methods that qualitatively measure aspects of social relationships, such as social acceptance (i.e., how much an individual is liked by peers) and social status (i.e., child’s social standing in comparison to peers).
Description Sociometric techniques have been used since the 1930s, when Moreno proposed that two dimensions of interpersonal relationships (attraction and repulsion) and the perceptions of individuals involved in relationships combined in various ways to determine nine dimensions of interpersonal relationships (e.g., attracted, attractive, rejected, isolated) [10]. Over subsequent decades, statistical techniques became more complex, and there was increasingly recognition of the importance of distinguishing between the low status categories of rejection and neglect. An important advance in sociometric measurement occurred in 1979, when Peery proposed a classification system that included both social preference (i.e., liking) and social impact (i.e., visibility) dimensions [14]. This classification system became a model for the current classification systems employed in the study of children’s peer relationships [5]. Currently, the two most common sociometric techniques used within peer relations research are the peer nomination technique and the peer ratings technique.
Peer Nominations The peer nomination sociometric technique is one method used to determine a child’s social status. Commonly, peer nominations are obtained in school classroom settings where children are asked to select from a class roster the three classmates they like the most (positive nominations) and the three classmates they like the least (negative nominations). Although the use of limited nominations has been typical, some researchers allow children to make unlimited peer nominations. For younger children, peer nominations are often obtained by asking children to select from a set of class photographs the classmates they like most and like least [4]. Sociometric categories of social status are determined by the relative number of positive nominations and negative nominations children receive from their peers. Children are classified into one of five sociometric categories of social status: popular (many positive, few negative nominations), rejected (many negative, few positive nominations), neglected (few positive and few negative nominations), controversial (many positive and many negative nominations) and average [7]. Research has shown that sociometric classification systems developed for use with the peer nominations technique have good reliability and validity in classifying children’s social status [7, 11, 15]. Another use of peer nomination techniques has been to measure perceived popularity, or the child’s level of social visibility within the peer group. Students are typically asked to identify the most popular people in their class; thus, this technique is employed as an index of social reputation, whereas sociometric popularity is an index of likeability. Children who are perceived as popular are not necessarily well liked by the peer group as they are more apt to engage in antisocial behavior than children who are sociometrically popular [6]. Peer nomination techniques have also been used to identify children’s friendships. Typically, children are asked to nominate their three best friends. If two children nominate one another, then they are considered friends. In some cases, children are also asked to indicate a very best friend, and if that friendship is reciprocated, then the particular dyad is considered to be very close friends [3].
Peer Ratings The peer rating sociometric technique is used to determine a child’s level of social acceptance. Children are asked to rate an aspect of peer interaction (e.g., how much they like to play with a specific classmate), typically on a 5-point Likert-type scale (e.g., 1=not at all; 5=a lot). For younger children, a 3-point Likert-type scale with
Sociometric Techniques
visual aids (e.g., faces ranging from frowns to smiles) is often used, along with photographs of the classmates to be rated [4]. The mean peer rating received is used to determine a child’s level of acceptance in the peer group (i.e., low, average, high). To eliminate the possibility of children being inaccurately classified, most rating scales include a “don’t know” option for children to choose if they do not know a classmate. In contrast to peer nomination techniques, peer rating techniques do not allow distinctions to be made among the low status groups (i.e., rejected, neglected, controversial). Nevertheless, peer ratings have high levels of reliability and validity [2]. In fact, peer ratings yield more reliable data than nominations given that each child is rated by all participants [13], whereas peer nominations provide information only on participants who are nominated by their peers. In addition, rating scales are better able than nomination techniques to detect even subtle changes in the level of a child’s acceptance by the peer group.
Ethical Issues Related to the Use of Sociometric Techniques Not surprisingly, some school personnel and parents have raised concerns about the appropriateness of having children report how much they like their peers. Examination of the impact of having children complete sociometric measures has revealed that participation in these tasks does not appear to have negative effects on children [8]. After completing sociometric measures, children do not tend to change their social interaction patterns. Indeed, children tend not to play with peers they dislike either before or after responding to sociometric measures. Furthermore, children’s feelings of loneliness do not increase, even among the low-accepted groups, and children generally report that they enjoy completing these measures and sharing their feelings. Of course, it is important to emphasize to children that researchers will keep their responses confidential, and children are strongly encouraged not to discuss their responses with peers. Interestingly, however, girls have been found to be more likely than boys to discuss their responses, though they are much more apt to seek out someone to whom they gave a positive, versus a negative, evaluation. The likelihood of children discussing their responses can be decreased if sociometric measures are administered before other structured activities, such as a math lesson, and not before unstructured time, such as recess. Despite findings that participation in sociometric tasks does not adversely impact children, researchers have investigated alternative techniques that do not involve the use of negative nominations, which seem to be the most controversial.
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Specifically, data from positive nominations and rating scales have been combined, with low ratings being used as a substitute for negative nominations. This system accurately identifies rejected status children when circumstances do not allow for the use of negative nominations [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development Sociometric techniques have been important tools for identifying how successful children are within their peer group. A valuable contribution of sociometric measures is that they have enabled researchers to develop profiles of the types of behaviors that are associated with children being liked, disliked, or overlooked by the peer group. For example, prosocial behaviors are correlated with popularity, aggressive and disruptive behaviors are predictive of rejection, and social withdrawal is associated with peer neglect [12]. The use of sociometric techniques has also revealed that the relation of specific behaviors to status sometimes varies as a function of the child’s gender, developmental level, or social context. For example, withdrawn behavior is increasingly associated with peer rejection as children get older, and this is especially true for boys. Research using sociometric techniques has indicated that particularly those children who are rejected by peers are at risk for a variety of negative outcomes, including loneliness, depression, delinquency, and academic difficulties [9]. Given the risks associated with rejected status, researchers have focused on trying to improve the acceptance of rejected children as a means to reduce their vulnerability to maladaptive outcomes. Information about how specific behaviors are related to peer status has been important for informing the design of social skills intervention programs. Such programs tend to be based on the premise that rejected children are often deficient in critical social skills, and within these programs children receive coaching on and practice those skills that have been found to be associated with peer acceptance. Sociometric techniques have been used effectively to identify children who are having difficulties in the peer group and who may benefit from social skills intervention programs. Moreover, these measures are important for assessing the impact of such interventions. It should be noted that peer ratings seem to be more sensitive to detecting changes in peer status following interventions than are nomination techniques. Although post-intervention, a child may still not be nominated among peers’ top three choices as a most liked student, a rating scale can reveal whether there have been even subtle improvements in the peer group’s liking of that student. Overall, sociometric techniques are useful tools for understanding
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children’s social relationships, identifying children who may be at risk for later maladjustment, and assessing the effectiveness of social skill interventions.
References 1. Asher, S. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1986). Identifying children who are rejected by their peers. Developmental Psychology, 22, 444–449. 2. Asher, S. R., & Hymel, S. (1981). Children’s social competence in peer relations: Sociometric and behavioral assessment. In J. D. Wine & M. D. Smye (Eds.), Social competence (pp. 125–157). New York: Guilford Press. 3. Bukowski, W. M., & Hoza, B. (1989). Popularity and friendship: Issues in theory, measurement, and outcome. In T. J. Berndt & G. W. Ladd (Eds.), Peer relationships in child development (pp. 15–45). Oxford, UK: Wiley. 4. Cassidy, J., & Asher, S. R. (1992). Loneliness and peer relations in young children. Child Development, 63, 350–365. 5. Cillessen, A., & Bukowski, W. (2000). Conceptualizing and measuring peer acceptance and rejection. In Recent advances in the measurement of acceptance and rejection in the peer system (pp. 3–10). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 6. Cillessen, A. H. N., & Mayeux, L. (2004). From censure to reinforcement: Developmental changes in the association between aggression and social status. Child Development, 75, 147–163. 7. Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A., & Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions and types of status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 557–570. 8. Iverson, A. M., Barton, E. A., & Iverson, G. L. (1997). Analysis of risk to children participating in a sociometric task. Developmental Psychology, 33, 104–112. 9. Kupersmidt, J., Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1990). The role of poor peer relationships in the development of disorder. In S. R. Asher & J. D. Coie (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 274–305). New York: Cambridge University Press. 10. Moreno, J. L. (1934). Who shall survive? A new approach to the problem of human interrelations. Washington, DC: Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co. 11. Newcomb, A. F., & Bukowski, W. M. (1983). Social impact and social preference as determinants of children’s peer group status. Developmental Psychology, 19, 856–867. 12. Newcomb, A. F., Bukowski, W. M., & Pattee, L. (1993). Children’s peer relations: A meta-analytic review of popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average sociometric status. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 99–128. 13. Oden, S., & Asher, S. R. (1977). Coaching children in social skills for friendship making. Child Development, 48, 495–506. 14. Peery, J. (1979). Popular, amiable, isolated, rejected: A reconceptualization of sociometric status in preschool children. Child Development, 50, 1231–1234. 15. Terry, R., & Coie, J. D. (1991). A comparison of methods for defining sociometric status among children. Developmental Psychology, 27, 867–880.
Sociomoral Perspective-Taking ▶Perspective-Taking
Sociopathy RANIA D. HADJICOSTA, XENIA ANASTASSIOUHADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Synonyms Antisocial personality disorder; Dissocial personality disorder; Psychopathy
Definition Sociopathy is a term used to describe certain personality characteristics including lack or impaired conscientiousness, lack of future orientation, lack of interest in goal-directed activities [15], egocentricity, callousness, impulsivity, exaggerated sexuality, excessive boasting, risk taking, inability to resist temptation, antagonistic and deprecating attitude toward the opposite sex, and lack of interest in interpersonal bonding.
Description The concept of psychopathy was introduced in the literature by Cleckley around the 1940s [20]. Sociopathy was once considered as a distinct cluster of personality disorders, namely the Sociopathic Personality Disturbances (SPD). SPD was recorded in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-I; 1952) as a cluster of personality disorders encompassing two distinct personality disturbances, antisocial and dyssocial personality reaction and reflected specific types of social deviance [1]. In the second edition of the DSM (DSM-II; 1968), the category of SPD along with the dyssocial reaction component were discarded, though the antisocial reaction component remained, reflecting a distinct personality disturbance. The antisocial component was retained throughout the following editions of the DSM, i.e., DSM-III (1980), DSM-III-R (1987), DSM-IV (1994), and DSM-IV-TR (2000); however, since the 1980s it has been considered as a distinct personality disorder, namely Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), which fell under the umbrella of Cluster B personality disorders [17]. The concept of Dissocial Personality Disorder (DPD) is currently used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe personality disturbances characterized by disregard for social obligations, and callousness. Moreover, within DPD there is gross disparity between behavior and social norms, and the behavior does not
Sociopathy
seem to be modifiable by adverse experience or punishment. Individuals diagnosed with DPD show low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, and are characterized by the tendency to blame others and the use of rationalizations to explain behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society (http://www.who.int/classifications/apps/ icd/icd10online/?gf60.htm+f60.2). Since the abandonment of the SPD concept in 1968 and the introduction of APD, little work has been done engaging the concept of sociopathy. Nonetheless, contemporary research and practice uses the terms sociopathy, psychopathy, DPD, and APD interchangeably. However, Lykken [15] argues that even though the most recent editions of the DSM treat the APD as a single entity, experience in the field denotes that APD is a heterogeneous category, constituted by subcategories among which are sociopathies, the major subcategory of antisocial personalities, and psychopathies, which constitutes an officially undocumented subcategory of APD. Lykken [15] postulates that Sociopathy refers to individuals with normal temperament and in whom antisocial tendencies stem from the individuals’ failure to acquire the basic attributes of socialization due to failure of the primary socializing agents, the parents, and especially due to weak parental bonding and control and averse parental example. Furthermore, sociopaths are believed to be involved in more criminal acts compared to psychopaths. On the other hand, antisocial tendencies in psychopathy are believed to stem from biological and temperamental differences, as well as qualitative differences in brain function, which make it difficult to socialize these individuals while they are growing up [9]. Finally, Lykken [15] conceptualizes sociopathy and psychopathy as conditions lying on the opposite ends of the same dimension, with maximized inadequate parenting being located at the sociopathic end and maximized difficult temperament being located at the psychopathic end. Additionally, even thought psychopathy in general is believed to include features such as remorselessness, callousness, deceitfulness, egocentricity, failure to form close emotional bonds, low anxiety proneness, superficial charm, and externalization of blame, many theorists have argued that psychopaths can differ from one another substantially, both on a behavioral and on a categorical level [20]. Such conceptualizations led to the proposal of two different types of psychopathy, primary and secondary. These two subtypes are distinguished from one another based on anxiety proneness. Primary psychopathy refers to individuals who do not seem to experience anxiety or guilt due to low conscience; while secondary psychopathy
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refers to individuals with antisocial behavior who experience high levels of anxiety and neuroticism [20]. Nevertheless, neither sociopathy nor psychopathy have ever been clearly defined and are not even included in the contemporary official psychiatric nomenclature [15]. Thus, even though focus in research has been proportionally placed upon psychopathy, the majority of research has been mainly concerned with APD. APD is a chronic condition characterized by a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights, wishes, or feelings of other people, which begins in childhood or the early teenage years and proceeds into adulthood [2]. This pattern of ignorance for the rights of others might be indicated by three or more of the following features: failure to conform to social norms, regarding lawful behavior, which is indicated in recurrent acts which can lead to arrest; deceitfulness and manipulative behavior, as evidenced in repeated lying, the use of aliases, conning, or malingering with an aim for personal profit or pleasure; impulsivity or failure to plan ahead, decisions taken on the spur of the moment without considerations about the consequences of one’s behavior; irritability and aggressiveness, as evidenced by repeated physical fights or assaults, including spousal and child abuse; recklessness regarding one’s own and others’ safety, as indicated for example in speeding, driving while intoxicated, and substance abuse; irresponsibility, as evidenced in the person’s inability to keep consistent work behavior, leading to recurrent job abandonments and prolonged unemployment periods, or the person’s inability to meet financial obligations; and lack of remorse, as evidenced in behaviors of indifference or the use of rationalization for hurting or mistreating others. Moreover, for the diagnosis of APD to be applied the person must be at least 18 years old and there must be a history of Conduct Disorder (CD) before the age of 15 [2]. APD affects approximately 3% of males and 1% of females in community samples, whereas in clinical settings prevalence estimates range from 3 to 30%, with higher estimates being reported among substance abuse and prison settings [2]. Additionally, APD is closely associated with features traditionally attributed to psychopathy such as lack of empathy, callousness, cynical behavior, inflated or arrogant self-appraisal, superficial charm, and sexual exploitation [2]. Individuals with APD may also have a history of multiple sexual partners, and are more likely to be irresponsible parents, may fail to be self-supportive, and also have high probabilities of becoming impoverished and homeless, spend many years in penal institutions, or die prematurely by violent means, including suicide, accidents, and homicides [2]. Other associated
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symptoms or disorders with APD include dysphoria, inability to tolerate boredom, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, substance-related disorders, somatization disorder, and pathological gambling or other disorders related to impulse control, as well as features of other personality disorders, especially borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders [2]. Finally, even though the condition is chronic, it is possible to become less evident as the person grows older, and especially around the age of 40 [2]. Overall, scientific research indicates that APD constitutes the developmental representation of CD in adult life, however, recent evidence also suggests that sociopathy can be acquired as a result of brain trauma or injury particularly in the right frontal region, including the orbitofrontal cortex (e.g., 8). Nonetheless, individuals with “acquired sociopathy” seem to be differentiated from individuals with developmental APD in that the former exhibit significant impairment in attributing mental states, such as fear, anger, and embarrassment, to others [6].
Relevance to Childhood Development APD and associated disorders, including sociopathy and psychopathy, seem to be the consequences of CD, a behavioral disorder evident in childhood or early adolescence. CD is among the most common reasons that children and adolescents are referred to mental health professionals, affecting approximately 4–14% depending on age group, gender, and setting [8]. According to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-IV-TR [2?A3B2 tlsb=.012w?>] CD is characterized by a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior by which the basic rights of others are violated or age-appropriate societal norms or rules are disobeyed. This must be manifested by the occurrence of at least three features from four categories of behavior for the past 12 months, and at least one criterion present for the past 6 months. The four categories of behavior include (a) aggression to people and animals, as manifested in bullying, threatening, or intimidating others, initiating physical fights, using a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others, being physically cruel to people, being physically cruel to animals, stealing while confronting a victim (e.g., mugging, purse snatching, or armed robbery), or forcing someone into sexual activity; (b) destruction of property, as manifested in deliberately engaging in fire setting with the intention to cause serious damage, or deliberately destroying others’ property; (c) deceitfulness of theft, evidenced in actions of breaking into someone else’s house, building, or car, often lying in order to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations, or stealing items of nontrivial value without confronting
a victim, such as shoplifting; and (d) serious violation of rules, as indicated by staying out at night despite parental prohibitions before the age of 13, running away from home overnight at least twice, or school truancy before the age of 13. These behaviors must cause clinically significant impairment in social and occupational functioning, and usually be present in a variety of settings, including home, school or the community [2]. Children with CD may be subcategorized on the basis of age of onset of the disorder. CD may have its onset in childhood, if at least one of the above criteria is present before the age of 10, or in adolescence, if none of the criteria are present before the age of 10. Children with childhood-onset CD are also characterized by more aggressive and impulsive behavior, and more cognitive and neurophysiological disturbances [11]. Additionally, childhood-onset CD combined with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as well as child abuse or neglect, unstable or erratic parenting, and inconsistent parental discipline exacerbate the probability of developing APD in adulthood [2]. Conversely, children with adolescent-onset CD exhibit a severe and impairing pattern of antisocial behavior, which is particularly related to the process of individuation and independence and includes behaviors such as rejection of status hierarchies and religious rules [11]. In addition to the childhood versus adolescent onset classification, Frick et al. [10] classified CD subgroups in terms of the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., lack of guilt, lack of empathy), an approach which is analogous to adult conceptualizations of psychopathy. The logic behind this classification system derives from studies revealing distinct correlates for the subsets of CD children who also show high levels of CU traits (CD-high-CU) compared to those who do not (CD-lowCU). CD-high-CU children, who are primarily characterized by proactive forms of aggression [16], have shown substantial evidence of deficits in emotion processing such as decreased orienting to affective stimuli [14], low fearful inhibition [12], reduced affective perspective-taking (not underlined by deficits in affective perspective-taking) [3], and reduced vicarious affective responsiveness [4] underlined by underactivity in the sympathetic autonomic nervous system [18]. All these findings may be suggestive of affective-specific deficits in CD-high-CU children. In CD-low-CU children, on the other hand, reactive rather than proactive patterns of aggression have been reported and their lack of impulse control has been related to a diverse set of interacting causal factors such as social information processing deficits, dysfunctional family background and verbal intelligence deficits [10].
Sociopathy
Regarding the developmental course of CD, it is noteworthy that not all children with CD will develop APD in adulthood. Even though CD in childhood and adolescence is a strong predictor of antisocial behavior in adulthood, with studies indicating that children with high instances of antisocial behaviors have a 43% chance of meeting criteria for APD in adulthood and estimates being higher in institutionalized populations, not all youth with CD engage in antisocial acts in adulthood. Having a parent with APD seems to be a strong predictor of persistence of conduct difficulties from childhood into adolescence, and then into adulthood [21]. However, further research on the persistence of CD into adulthood indicated that persistence can be predicted mainly by genetic influences [7], as well as cognitive functioning and biological and social factors, and specific personality traits such as CU traits.
Etiology Research has identified five clusters of environmental risk factors that can potentially lead to the development of CD in childhood and APD in adulthood. The clusters encompass (a) child, (b) family, (c) school, (d) peer, and (e) neighborhood factors [22]. Child factors include birth complications, difficult child temperament, impulsivity, substance use, aggression, early-onset disruptive behavior, and low intelligence. Family factors include parental antisocial and delinquent behavior, parental substance abuse, poor childrearing practices, such as poor supervision [2, 22], physical punishment or inconsiderate discipline [2], poor communication [22], parental rejection and neglect [2], parental physical or sexual abuse, maternal depression, maternal smoking during pregnancy [2, 22], maternal malnutrition [5], single parenthood [22], large family size [2, 22], low socioeconomic status, unemployment, and poor education and familial history of APD, Substance Dependence or Abuse, and ADHD [2]. School factors include poor academic performance, low educational aspiration, and low school motivation [22]. Peer factors include peer rejection and being associated with deviant and delinquent peers [2, 22]. Finally, neighborhood factors include living in a disadvantaged, poor, or disorganized neighborhood and having easy access to weapons [2, 22]. Additionally, it is well documented that CD and APD are highly influenced by several neurophysiological and genetic factors. Neurophysiological models suggest the involvement of the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) proposed by Gray, in that the BIS, which is related to fear and anxiety and inhibits action in novel situations or in situations where punishment is involved, in children with CD
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appears to be underactive, whereas the BAS, which is related to reward-seeking and pleasurable behaviors, is overactive [22]. Moreover, other neurophysiological models refer to defects in the fight/flight (F/F) system, which is involved in defensive reactions in situations of frustration, punishment and pain, in that children with CD seem to have a reduced threshold for F/F [22]. Neurophysiological models also suggest that individuals with CD and APD demonstrate specific brain anomalies, especially in the prefrontal cortex, as well as neurotransmitter and hormonal defects, and particularly diminished noradrenalin, serotonin, and cortisol levels combined with excessive levels of testosterone [8]. From the genetic perspective, twin and adoption studies have revealed that there is high heritability among specific components of antisocial behavior, such as difficult temperament, sensitivity to alcohol, irritability, impulsivity, sensation seeking [5, 22], as well as risk-taking and CU traits [5]. In addition, specific genes related to aspects of antisocial behavior have been identified. These are predominantly specific 5-HT serotonergic genes, such as the HTR1B, the HTR2A, the HTR1DA, and the TDO2, and it is indicated that low levels of serotonin increase impulsivity and inhibit sensible behavior, thus increasing the likelihood for risky and antisocial behavior, such as drug abuse and gambling, and they are also associated with aggressive and violent behavior [5]. Moreover, the DRD2 dopamine receptor gene has been positively linked to impulsive, compulsive and addictive behavior [5]. Generally, twin and adoption studies have indicated that CD is significantly heritable, with estimates ranging from 27 to 78%. However, growing evidence suggests that both genetic and environmental influences, and particularly their interactions, are of utmost importance in our effort to explain individual differences in antisocial behavior, including differences in criminal behavior [5].
Management The nature of antisocial behavior disorders, including sociopathy, psychopathy, APD, and CD, makes them particularly problematic for society [21] and understanding their origins is a crucial task for social scientists. To date, researchers have produced substantial evidence that the pathway to these disorders begins in childhood, with conduct problems, attention difficulties, high rates of aggressive behavior, and a persistent pattern of deviant and often illegal activity [7] that cause significant intra and interpersonal dysfunction across the lifespan. Thus reliable empirical identification of the variants of antisocial behavior shall improve our understanding of related disorders and enhance management and treatment efforts [20].
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With respect to treatment, empirically supported interventions for children include psychoeducation, antisocial and pro-social behavior monitoring, behavioral parent training, family-based communication and problem-solving training, home-school liaison meetings and remedial tuition, child-based social problem solving skills training, parent counseling for managing personal and marital difficulties, treatment foster home placement when the family is extremely disorganized [8], contingency management, cognitive-behavioral intervention targeting social cognition deficits [13], communitybased programs [22], and finally stimulant medication [13]. Research on effective interventions for adult populations indicated that psychodrama and personal construct therapy are potentially effective. A meta-analytic study, conducted by Salekin [19], indicated that psychoanalytic therapy has a success rate of 59%, cognitivebehavioral therapies have a success rate of 62%, whereas combined therapies have a success rate as high as 86%, suggesting that augmenting cognitive-behavioral with other psychotherapeutic techniques may be optimal for individuals with antisocial personality problems. Moreover, effectiveness, in this study, was also dependent on durations, with interventions lasting for more than 6 months being more effective than those which lasted for less than 6 months, and with intervention lasting for a year or longer having a success rates as high as 91% [19].
References 1. American Psychiatric Association (1952). Diagnostic and statistical manual: Mental disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 2. American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th ed., Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. 3. Anastasiou-Hadjicharalambous, X., & Warden, D. (2007). Cognitive and affective perspective-taking in conduct-disordered children high and low on callous-unemotional traits. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 2(16), doi:10.1186/1753-2000-2-16. BioMed Central. 4. Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous, X., & Warden, D. (2008). Physiologically-indexed and self-perceived affective empathy in conductdisordered children high and low on callous-unemotional traits. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 39, 503–517. 5. Baker, L. A., Bezdjian, S., & Raine, A. (2006). Behavioural genetics: the science of antisocial behavior. Law and Contemporary Problems, 69, 7–46. 6. Blair, R. J. R., & Cipolotti, L. (2000). Impaired social response reversal: a case of “acquired sociopathy”. Brain, 123, 1122–1141. 7. Burt, S. A., McGue, M., Carter, L. A., & Iacono, W. G. (2007). The different origins of stability and change in antisocial personality disorder symptoms. Psychological Medicine, 37, 27–38. 8. Carr, A. (2006). The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology: A contextual Approach (2nd ed.). USA: Routledge.
9. Christian, R. E., Frick, P. J., Hill, N. L., Tyler, L., & Frazer, D. R. (1997). Psychopathy and conduct problems in children: II. Implications for subtyping children with conduct problems. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 10. Frick, P. J., Barry, C. T., & Bodin, S. D. (2000). Applying the concept of psychopathy to children: Implications for the assessment of antisocial youth. In C. B. Gacono (Ed.), The clinical and forensic assessment of psychopathy (pp. 3–24). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 11. Frick, P. J., Cornell, A. H., Bodin, S. D., Dane, H. E., Barry, C. T., & Loney, B. R. (2003). Callous-unemotional traits and developmental pathways to severe conduct problems. Developmental Psychology, 39, 246–260. 12. Frick, P. J., Lilienfeld, S. O., Ellis, M. L., Loney, B. R., & Silverthorn, P. (1999). The association between anxiety and psychopathy dimensions in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 27, 381–390. 13. Frick, P. J., & Munoz, L. (2006). Oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. In C. A. Essau (Ed.), Child and adolescent psychopathology: Theoretical and clinical implications (pp. 26–51). New York, NY: Routledge. 14. Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Fazekas, H., & Loney, B. R. (2006). Psychopathy, aggression, and the processing of emotional stimuli in non-referred girls and boys. Behavioral Sciences and The Law, 24, 21–37. 15. Lykken, D. T. (1995). The antisocial personalities. Hilldale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 16. Mun˜oz, L. C., Frick, P. J., Kimonis, E. R., & Aucoin, K. J. (2008). Types of aggression, responsiveness to provocation, and callousunemotional traits in detained adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 15–28. 17. Oldham, J. (2005). Personality disorders. Focus, 3, 372–382. 18. Raine, A., Venable, P. H., & Williams, M. (1990). Relationships between central and autonomic measures of arousal at age 15 and criminality at age 24. Archives of General Psychiatry, 1990(47), 1003–1007. 19. Salekin, R. T. (2002). Psychopathy and therapeutic pessimism: Clinical lore or clinical reality? Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 79–112. 20. Skeem, J. L., Poythress, N., Edens, J. F., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Cale, E. M. (2003). Psychopathic personality or personalities? Exploring potential variants of psychopathy and their implication for risk assessment. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 8, 513–546. 21. Taylor, J., & Iacono, W. G. (2007). Personality trait differences in boys and girls with clinical and sub-clinical diagnoses of conduct disorder versus antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Adolescence, 30, 537–547. 22. Wicks-Nelson, R., & Israel, A. C. (2006). Behavior disorders of childhood (6th ed.). NJ: Pearson Education Ltd.
Soft Cry ▶Cooing
Soiling ▶Encopresis
Somatoform
Solitary Constructive Play ▶Constructive Play
Solution-Oriented Consultation ▶Behavioral Consultation
Somatic Sensory Cortex CHAD A. NOGGLE SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Synonyms Postcentral gyrus; Primary somatosensory cortex
Definition The somatic sensory cortex, also referred to as the primary somatosensory cortex, is localized to the postcentral gyrus of the parietal lobes, just posterior of the central sulcus, and is vested with the job of processing information being transmitted from the periphery.
The somatic sensory cortex is more commonly referred to as the primary somatosensory cortex. Neuroanatomically, the primary somatosensory cortex is localized to the postcentral gyrus of the anterior portion of the parietal lobes. The essential function of the primary somatosensory cortex is processing peripheral sensation of the contralateral side [2]. Specifically, stimulation of sensory receptors, whether it be in the skin, joints, muscles and/ or viscera on the right side of the body, will be processed by the primary somatosensory cortex in the left hemisphere. Vice versa, sensation on the left side of the body will be processed by the primary somatosensory cortex in the right hemisphere [1]. Beyond this basic contralateral organization, the somatosensory cortex and linked sensory pathways are topographically organized. This is to suggest that adjacent areas on the receptive surface are mapped to adjacent fibers in white matter pathways and to adjacent regions of the cortex [2]. Specifically, the adjacent representation of the foot to the leg, the tongue to the face, and/or the hand to the face peripherally is also found on the somatosensory cortex. Somatotopic
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representations of this arrangement commonly referred to as the sensory homunculus can be found throughout the literature. Essentially, beginning at the most superior point of the postcentral gyrus, that point at which it curves down into the longitudinal fissure, sensation from the genitals is processed. Next, by working inferiorly (i.e., up out of the longitudinal fissure and then down the side of the postcentral gyrus), comes the sensation processing points for the toes, feet, then legs, thighs, torso, neck, head, shoulders, arms, hands and fingers, face, teeth, tongue, pharynx and then abdomen [3, 4]. The site at which sensation from the tongue is processed sits on the cuff that is the sylvian fissure, which separates the parietal and temporal lobes. In addition to the primary cortex there are secondary and tertiary somatosensory areas [5]. These regions lie posterior and/or inferior to the primary somatosensory cortex and serve as association points in which various incoming information may be integrated. In addition to it working in concert with secondary and tertiary zones, the primary somatosensory cortex is directly linked with motor areas of the brain in order to provide a reciprocal line of communication between one another such that feedback from the somatosensory system may be integrated into motoric processes thereby refining those actions [6].
References 1.
Description
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2. 3. 4.
5. 6.
Beaumont, J. G. (2008). Introduction to neuropsychology (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Somatization ▶Psychosomatic
Somatoform ▶Psychosomatic
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Somatopsychic ▶Psychosomatic
Somatosensory Area CHAD A. NOGGLE1, ANDREA R. MOREAU2 1 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA 2 Indiana Neuroscience Institute/St. Vincent’s Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Synonyms Somatosensory system
Definition The somatosensory area refers to the neuroanatomical region at which the various aspects of the somatosensory system converge.
Description The somatosensory area may be perceived as a general term for the primary regions of the brain that act as a convergence point of the entire somatosensory system. While some may use somatosensory area interchangeably with primary somatosensory cortex, the latter is likely one aspect of the former. From a holistic perspective, the somatosensory area encompasses the postcentral gyrus, which houses the primary somatosensory cortex, as well as adjacent areas of the parietal lobes [4]. These regions receive neuronal input from specific nuclei of the thalamus that correspond with the handling of sensation along the lines of touch, pain, temperature and limb position [4]. This includes the ventral posterior lateral nucleus as well as the ventral posteromedial nucleus [2]. Somatosensory information is transmitted to these nuclei from the spinal cord and specific cranial nerves which then transmit this information on to the somatosensory area. Given their role in this process, both the ventral posterior lateral nucleus as well as the ventral posteromedial nucleus represent relay nuclei in which they receive inputs from various pathways and then project that information onto other areas of the cortex, in this case the somatosensory area [2]. By the time somatosensory information reaches the thalamic nuclei it has already passed through the pyramidal decussation within the medulla. This leads to the contralateral organization of the somatosensory areas. Specifically, somatosensory stimulation on right side of
the body will be processed by the somatosensory areas in the left hemisphere whereas sensation on the left side of the body will be processed by the somatosensory areas in the right hemisphere [1]. Initial processes of the somatosensory area take place in the primary somatosensory cortex. The precise locality at which information is processed corresponds with the local area from which the stimulation originates. The somatosensory cortex and linked sensory pathways are topographically organized such that adjacent structures of the body correspond with adjacent structures on the primary somatosensory cortex [2]. Following this arrangement, somatosensory information originating at the genitals is processed at the most superior point of the postcentral gyrus; that point at which it curves down into the longitudinal fissure. Next, by working inferiorly (i.e., up out of the longitudinal fissure and then down the side of the postcentral gyrus), comes the sensation points for the toes, feet, then legs, thighs, torso, neck, head, shoulders, arms, hands and fingers, face, teeth, tongue, pharynx and then abdomen [3, 4]. Once this information is initially processed by the primary somatosensory cortex it is then transmitted on to the secondary and tertiary somatosensory areas as well as the motor areas of the frontal lobes [5]. It is at the point of the secondary and tertiary areas that somatosensory information is integrated with other sensory input and/or associated with various cognitive actions/processes. In terms of somatosensory areas transmitting information to the motor areas, this is done continuously, as refinement and coordination of the latter is largely dependent upon reciprocal feedback from the former [6].
References 1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6.
Beaumont, J. G. (2008). Introduction to neuropsychology (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Somatosensory System ▶Somatosensory Area
Sotos Syndrome
Soporifics ▶Anxiolytics/Hypnotics
Sorrow ▶Bereavement
Sorrowful ▶Grieving
Sotos Syndrome ERIC E. PIERSON Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Cerebral giganticism; Nonverbal learning disability (NLD)
Definition Sotos syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by early rapid bone growth that has an unknown rate of prevalence that is typically diagnosed in early childhood. A high percentage of children and adolescents with Sotos syndrome exhibit global cognitive difficulties and borderline levels of cognitive functioning.
Description Sotos syndrome is a rare genetic disorder with an unknown rate of prevalence. Estimates for its rate of prevalence within pediatric neurology referrals suggest that it occurs in 17% of persons referred with macrocephaly [5]. The syndrome was initially described in the early 1960s and was also known as cerebral giganticism. The initial descriptions focused on two main characteristics, early rapid bone growth and global cognitive impairments. In addition, it was observed that children with Sotos syndrome appeared to have similar facial features. Many, but not all, cases of Sotos syndrome can be linked to the NSD1 gene mutation.
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While current literature appears to indicate that cognitive functioning for children with Sotos syndrome may not fall in the range of mental retardation, recent investigations do suggest that individuals with Sotos syndrome, on average, perform in the borderline range on standardized measures of cognitive functioning [1]. Borderline cognitive functioning falls in the range of 71–85 inclusive. Evidence that individuals with Sotos Syndrome have lower than average cognitive abilities is consistent with early descriptions of the presentation of the syndrome [2]. The view that all or most individuals with Sotos Syndrome have lower cognitive functioning has been challenged by several authors over the past 20 years, with Sarimski [4] and Rutter and Cole [3] being examples. Because of the low prevalence rate of the disorder, much of the literature surrounding it is comprised of case studies and meta-analyses. As a result, there have been case study reports of psychosis and other psychiatric disorders that may be isolated incidents within a small pool of cases. Studies with larger samples do provide some evidence that children with Sotos syndrome may be more likely to exhibit symptoms of anxiety than other children with mild to moderate cognitive impairments [4]. Physically, individuals with Sotos syndrome may present with hand and skull growth that is above the 90th percentile prior to age 3. These individuals may have distinctive angular facial features as well. As individuals with Sotos syndrome enter older childhood and adolescence, height, hand, and skull growth slows causing the individual to have a less atypical appearance. Individuals with Sotos syndrome may retain the angular facial features that were present in early childhood. Individuals with Sotos syndrome are often referred to neuropsychologists and related specialists because of concerns related to developmental delays, behavioral problems, and possible psychiatric concerns. Individuals with Sotos syndrome may exhibit difficulties in general cognitive ability, executive functioning, and specific fears. Individuals with limited cognitive abilities may have greater difficulty in using adaptive strategies for managing stressful events associated with specific phobias. As a result, those working with individuals with Sotos syndrome may have to develop strategies that allow for individuals to escape particularly stressful or anxiety invoking situations. Interventions for individuals with Sotos syndrome need to focus on the following domains: academic, emotional, and when warranted, adaptive functioning. As a result of the variation in cognitive functioning in individuals with Sotos syndrome, evaluations of cognitive functioning, possible anxiety symptoms and its triggers, adaptive functioning, and academic skills are necessary.
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References 1.
2.
3.
4.
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de Boer, L., Ro¨der, I., & Wit, J. M. (2006). Psychosocial, cognitive, and motor functioning in patients with suspected Sotos syndrome: A comparison between patients with and without NSD1 gene alterations. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 48(7), 582–588. Livingood, A. B., & Borengasser, M. A. (1981). Cerebral gigantism in infancy: Implications for psychological and social development. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 12(1), 46–53. Rutter, S.C., & Cole, T.R.P (1991). Psychological characteristics of Sotos syndrome. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 33, 898–902. Sarimski, K. (2003). Behavioural and emotional characteristics in children with Sotos syndrome and learning disabilities. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 45(3), 172–178. Srour, M., Mazer, B. M., & Shevell, M. I. (2006). Diagnosing Sotos syndrome in the setting of global developmental delay and macrocephaly. Journal of Child Neurology, 21(4), 287–290.
Spanking TONYA S. WATSON, STEUART T. WATSON Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH, USA
Synonyms Corporal (physical) punishment; Paddling; Smacking; Whipping
Definition Spanking is a form of corporal punishment that usually refers to striking the buttocks with one’s hand or other object (e.g., a wooden paddle, a switch, or ruler).
Description Spanking as a form of discipline has likely been around for thousands of years. Currently, spanking by parents is illegal in 24 countries. In the United States, spanking by parents is permitted as long as excessive force is not used and it is not abusive in nature. Although some states prohibit spanking in schools, many states still allow corporal punishment by educators. It is estimated that as many as 1.5 million spankings occur each year in schools. Most professional organizations and international health organizations discourage spanking as a form of discipline and recommend less physical means of changing behavior.
Relevance for Childhood Development Many American parents spank their children. They do so, primarily, because their children behave aggressively or fail to comply with their directions or commands. It is estimated that about 63% of parents spank their 1–2 year olds and 85% of adolescents have been spanked because of their
behavior. Although infrequent, mild, controlled spankings are unlikely to have any lasting negative effects, children who are exposed to repeated, harsh spankings may experience many negative side effects. Some of these include increased aggression, decreased quality of the parent–child relationship, anger/ hostility toward the spanker, and an increased risk of abusing their own children or their spouse. Perhaps more troubling is that mothers who spank their children are three times more likely to engage in abusive behaviors including beating, kicking, hitting, burning, or shaking a child less than 2 years old. The likelihood of abuse increases as the frequency of spanking increases. There is no question that spanking is effective for producing short-term compliance in children. That is, immediately following a spanking, children are much more likely to be compliant. However, spanking does not teach a new behavior (that is, what the child should be doing instead of the inappropriate behavior) nor does it produce long-term benefits. Also, spanking is not an intervention that one could use, or should even want to use, on more than an infrequent basis. There are other child behavior management techniques that are equally or more effective (e.g., time-out, response cost, overcorrection) that do not involve a physical punishment component. If parents insist upon spanking as a disciplinary technique, they should be encouraged to use the controlled spanking procedure that involves an open hand on the buttocks, leaving no marks or bruises, as a back-up technique for nonphysical disciplinary measures, and used in conjunction with reasoning and within a loving family atmosphere.
References 1.
2.
3.
Baumrind, D., Cowan, P. A., & Larzalere, R. E. (2002). Ordinary physical punishment: Is it harmful? Comment on Gershoff. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 539–544. Gershoff, E. T. (2002). Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analysis and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 128(580–584), 586. Kazdin, A. E. (2008). Spare the rod: Why you shouldn’t hit your kids. Retrieved on September 26, 2008, from http://www.slate.com/id/ 2200450
Spasm ▶Tics
Spatial Ability ▶Spatial Intelligence
Speaking
Spatial Intelligence JASON LEVI Psychologist, Winston Salem, NC, USA
Synonyms Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences; Spatial ability; Spatial reasoning; Visual-spatial reasoning
Definition Spatial Intelligence is the capacity to envision, reason with, and recall nonverbal, symbolic information.
Description Spatial intelligence involves the use of reasoning and memory skills with nonverbal, symbolic information. It has also been long thought of as an important component of general intelligence. Howard Gardner’s popular theory of multiple intelligences defines it as the ability to perceive the visual-spatial world [3]. Others have further broken down spatial intelligence as comprising subcategories which typically include spatial perception, mental rotation, spatial visualization, and object location [2, 4]. As Linn and Peterson described in their meta-analysis, spatial perception involves examining spatial relationships in relation to their own orientation, such as having to place a rod vertically while looking through a tilted or rotated frame [4]. Mental rotation involves mentally rotating two and three dimensional objects, such as determining whether an object is identical to a rotated reference object. Spatial visualization involves the use of both spatial perception and mental rotation to solve more complicated mental manipulations where more than one solution may be possible, such as paper folding and block design tasks. Object location requires recall of object positions documented. As of yet, however, a well agreed upon categorization of spatial abilities does not exist [2], but most researchers do tend to agree that there is more than just one type of spatial ability [1]. There has also been debate over the existence and emergence of sex differences found on measures of spatial intelligence. The pendulum has, over the years, swung back and forth on whether observed sex differences are due to environmental factors, such as test development and stereotypes [1, 6], or to biological factors, such as neurophysiology and evolution [2]. Research has generally documented differences favoring males, with the most robust evidence on mental rotation tasks [4], while differences favoring females have been typically found on object
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location tasks. Men have also been found to rate their spatial abilities higher than women [5].
Relevance to Childhood Development Researchers have also studied spatial intelligence in children. Over the years, researchers have debated about the emergence of the male advantage, with some contending for adolescence and others arguing for an earlier emergence [4]. Regardless, spatial abilities develop when children are given opportunities to manipulate and explore objects. It is reasonable to suggest that differential spatial abilities could be due to differential opportunities to explore the environment. Teachers are taught principles in differential teaching strategies that recognize that no student is alike in that some may have more developed skills (e.g., spatial intelligence) than others. Therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that children found to have less developed spatial skills should be given more opportunities to develop these skills.
References 1.
2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
Caplin, P. J., & Caplin, J. B. (1997). Do sex related cognitive differences exist, and why do people seek them out? In P. J. Caplan, M. Crawford, J. S. Hyde, & J. T. Richardson (Eds.), Sex differences in human cognition (pp. 52–80). Oxford University Press: New York. Crawford, M., & Chaffin, R. (1997). The meanings of difference: Cognition in social and cultural context. In P. J. Caplan, M. Crawford, J. S. Hyde, & J. T. Richardson (Eds.), Sex differences in human cognition (pp. 81–130). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Gardner, H. (1985). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Linn, M. C., & Petersen, C. A. (1985). Emergences and characteristics of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 56, 1479–1498. Lunneborg, P. W. (1982). Sex differences in self-assessed, everyday spatial abilities. Perception and Motor Skills, 55, 200–202. Stumpf, H., & Klieme, E. (1989). Sex related differences in spatial ability: More evidence for convergence. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 69, 915–921.
Spatial Reasoning ▶Spatial Intelligence
Speaking ▶Verbal Skills
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Special Education
Special Education CHRISTOPHER M. OLIVA City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA
Synonyms Exceptional education; Individualized education; Individuals with disabilities education act (IDEA); Special services
Definition All children are entitled to an education. Children with disabilities, however, require special or extra adaptations and services to enable them to benefit from their educational program. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA), special education means specifically designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability. Special education services are the direct instructional activities or special learning experiences designed primarily for students identified as having exceptionalities in one or more aspects of their development, or as being underachievers in relation to their overall abilities. Categories of disability include: mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, serious emotional disturbances, speech or language impairments, vision loss, hearing loss, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, deafness-blindness, multiple disabilities, autism, and traumatic brain injury. Programs for the gifted and talented are also included in some special education programs.
Description The provision of special education services has a long and somewhat litigious history. Gaining power from the equal rights obtained in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), special education enacted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94–142) in 1975. PL 94–142 was the first Federal law to hold states responsible for educating school-age children with disabilities just as they had for children not labeled with a disability. Today, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA, also referred to as IDEA), which updated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997, describes six principles that engender the framework of educational practices that are used to enable children with disabilities to learn. Without the procedural framework set out by law, the needs of many children with disabilities would likely not be met. These principles are: zero exclusion,
nondiscriminatory evaluation, appropriate education, least restrictive environment (LRE), parent and student participation, and procedural due process.
Zero Exclusion This principle requires a free appropriate public education to all children, regardless of type or level of disability. No child may be excluded from an education provided at the local educational agency’s (LEA) expense. Zero exclusion acknowledges that all children are able to learn and benefit from an education, and therefore the public school system must educate them by meeting their unique needs and help prepare them for a meaningful and integrated life in the community.
Nondiscriminatory Evaluation The nondiscriminatory evaluation (NDE) process is an essential starting point for planning an educational program for a child with a disability. The intent of NDE is twofold: to assess if a child has a disability, and then to identify the types of special education and related services the child should receive. NDE requires that the assessments, tests, and other measures of academic and developmental functioning must be objective and free from cultural and/or ethnic bias. IDEA also requires that assessment instruments be used for the purpose for which they were validated (e.g., an IQ test is not appropriate for curriculum planning), that a multidisciplinary assessment team considers information from multiple sources, and that assessments must be administered in the child’s primary or native language. The criteria for receiving special education and related services are twofold. First, the child must have a disability that is included in IDEA. Secondly, the child’s disability must sufficiently interfere with learning so there is a need for special education and related services. These two factors make a child eligible for classification. Some children with disabilities who do not meet special education eligibility criteria can be supported through another federal program, Section 504 or the Americans with Disabilities Act, which provides for reasonable accommodation to enable them to access their education.
Appropriate Education IDEA 2004 provides for a free and appropriate public education for each child classified as in need of special education and related services. It is free because it is provided at no cost to the parents and it is considered appropriate because it meets the individual needs of the child. Once a child aged 3–21 is classified as in need of special education and related services, a team of
Special Education
professionals appropriate to that child’s specific learning needs convenes to develop a written individualized educational program (IEP). For children birth to 2 years old, the plan is called an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). Each individualized program is developed by professionals and the child’s parents. The overall purpose of the plan is to design and deliver an IEP from which the child will benefit in accordance with IDEA. Minimally, the child’s IEP team must consist of a special education teacher, a general education teacher (if the child is participating or may be participating in the general education program), and a representative of the LEA who is knowledgeable about both the special needs of children with disabilities and about the general curriculum of the district. Additionally, the IEP team must include a professional who is qualified to interpret the results of the NDE. The IEP document provides for consistency in service delivery for the school district and a communication vehicle between parents and school personnel. The IEP must include: (a) present levels of educational performance; (b) measurable annual goals, including short-term objectives; (c) the special educational and related services and supplementary aids and services that will be provided to the student, and the program modifications or supports for school personnel that will be provided so that the student can make progress toward their annual goals, participate in the general curriculum and non-academic activities of the school, and be educated and participate with other students who do not have disabilities; (d) the extent, if any, to which the student will not participate with students who do not have a disabilities in general education and other non-academic activities; (e) any individual modifications in the administration of state-or district-wide assessments of student achievement so that the student can participate in those assessments, or if the IEP team determines that the student not participate why that decision was made and how the student will be assessed; (f) the projected date of beginning the services and program modifications and the anticipated frequency, location, an duration of each; (g) transition planning beginning at age 14; and (h) how the student’s progress toward their annual goals will be measured and how the student’s parents will be informed of progress toward annual goals, and the extent to which the student progress is sufficient to achieve the annual goals by the end of the school year. According to IDEA, related services include, but are not limited to areas such as: transportation, speechlanguage pathology and audiology services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, social work services, counseling services, rehabilitation
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counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services (for the purpose of diagnosis and evaluation for special education).
Least Restrictive Environment IDEA 2004 provides that children with special needs be educated to the maximum extent appropriate with children who do not have disabilities and that the removal of children with disabilities from the regular education environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes, with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. This component of IDEA is called the least restrictive environment (LRE). A continuum of placements is available, including: (a) general education classroom, (b) general education classroom with a special education teacher as a consultant to the general education teacher, (c) general education placement with resource room for specialized instruction, (d) special education class placement with some general education classes, (e) full-time special education class within a general education school, (f) separate special education school placement, and (g) home or hospital-school setting. The further away from a general education environment, the more restrictive the placement. The LRE appropriate for each child is determined by the IEP team which includes the child’s parents. However, it is important to note that IDEA has a presumption in favor of inclusion. Thus, an LEA is supposed to provide for all the necessary adaptations, supplementary aids and supports, for the child in the LRE before a determination is made that a change in placement to a more restrictive setting is needed. IDEA also provides for infants and toddlers (birth – 2) to receive services in natural environments; that is settings where children without disabilities are educated. These natural environments could include the infant or toddler’s home, full-or part-time placement in public or private general pre-schools, or in special needs private schools.
Parent and Student Participation The intent of IDEA is to have parents involved in all aspects of their child’s education, especially regarding evaluation, IEP development and IEP team meetings. Parent participation is critical in the development of an appropriate education. Essentially, any time a decision is made that affects the free and appropriate education of their child, a parent must be notified and have the right to participate in decision-making. They have the right to see their child’s evaluations and records, and school district general records about special education. Parent participation is also facilitated at the state level; for example,
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Special Education Needs
parents are entitled to participate in statewide special education planning processes, must make up a majority of the membership of the statewide council on special education, and have the right to see the state’s special education plan and receive public notice of hearings on the plan. Further, students themselves have a right to be members of their IEP team and are encouraged to do so, regardless of the level of their disabilities. Preparing students for meaningful participation on their IEP team can make students ready for constructive participation as adults in their community.
Procedural Due Process IDEA provides a system of accountability and safeguards that must be followed to insure that a student with special needs receives a free and appropriate education; this system is called procedural due process. Parents have the right to be informed about possible changes in their child’s free and appropriate public education including IEP, placement, and to consent or withhold consent from actions the school district wishes to take regarding their child. Parents must receive written notice of their due process rights at the initial referral of their child for evaluation, and upon notification of meetings regarding their child. Importantly, parents must also receive written notice of their right to file a complaint about the LEA’s violation of their child’s rights. All notices must be in a communication medium the parents understand. IDEA entitles parents to mediation services to resolve issues with the LEA and they have the right to a due process hearing before an impartial person. The losing party has the right to appeal to higher authorities.
References 1.
2. 3.
4.
Hardman, M. L., Drew, C. J., & Winston, E. M. (2006). Human exceptionality: School, community, and family (8th ed.). Old Tappan, New Jersey: Allyn & Bacon. National Dissemination Center for children with disabilities, www. nichcy.org. Turnbull, A., & Turnbull, R. (2006). Fostering family-professional partnerships. In M. E. Snell & F. Brown (Eds.), Instruction of students with severe disabilities (6th ed., pp. 28–61). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Turnbull, A., Wehmeyer, M. L., & Turnbull, R. (2006). Exceptional lives: Special education in today’s schools (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Special Education Needs ▶Special Needs
Special Needs JACQUELINE P. PARSONS St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA
Synonyms Disability; Special education needs
Definition The term “special needs” is an umbrella term referring to a variety of developmental disabilities. Special needs can include learning disabilities, visual impairment, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, ADHD, physical limitations, asthma, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Autism. Although the term includes gifted academic ability, people often limit the discussion to what the individual cannot do. In general, the term “special needs” is applied when a person needs services not usually provided to all citizens. For example, most school children are not provided physical therapy in the school. Therefore a child who does receive PT at school may be considered a special needs child.
Description Government Programs Most societies create mechanisms to help persons with special needs. There is a wide variation based on culture, economics, and type of government. These factors also determine the mix between government and nongovernment programs. In the US, there are numerous government organizations (GOs) which provide money and services to persons with special needs. Financial support is provided for persons with special needs by the social security administration (SSA). The SSA determines whether a person fits their definition of “disabled,” and if so, provides financial assistance. Health care is often provided by Medicare, which uses the same definition of “disabled.” It is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a branch of the federal government. Another program which uses disability as a criterion is Medicaid. Medicaid is centrally overseen by the CMS, but administered and partially funded by the states. Medicaid coverage is primarily driven by income level. Because many disabled individuals have low incomes, they may qualify for Medicaid. Many states also have vocational and job facilitation programs, although there is a wide variation from state to state.
Speech and Language Disorders
The two largest health care entities in the US fall under the Veterans Administration (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD). The VA provides healthcare as well as income to many disabled veterans. The VA uses different criteria for evaluating special needs, assessing percentages for various conditions. They also grant care only for conditions which arose during military service. The DoD provides healthcare to active duty military, their families, and military retirees. Obviously the disabled veteran population and the military retiree population overlap. Special needs situations can arise in any segment of the military population. Military families can have special needs spouses and children, and the military has the Extended Care Health Option, a program which pays for special health care needs, as well as providing integrated services like case management. Services for persons with special needs may also be provided by local government entities. Many US cities have special transportation services adult and child day care services, and meal programs.
Non-Governmental Programs Persons with special needs can benefit from the efforts of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which operate at many levels. International organizations such as the Gates Foundation, Lions Clubs, Rotary International, and numerous church groups can provide micro-level services to individuals and communities, or they may provide macro-level functions, such as funding medical research. There is a complex web of relationships between NGOs, other NGOs, and GOs, as they transfer money in the form of grants, and exchange information. In many cases NGOs are regulated by GOs through statute. NGOs may also function at the national level. A good example of this is the March of Dimes, which focuses on the health of babies in the United States. Like the international NGOs, the March of Dimes performs research, provides services, educates, and advocates. State and local-level NGOs also perform important functions. They may offer financial assistance, volunteer services such as babysitting, and educational and outreach services. It can be difficult for a special needs family to negotiate the complex web of services and financial aid offered by this myriad of organizations. Regardless of whether the helping organization is governmental or non-governmental, or at what level it functions, a key component is informing and educating special needs families so they can best avail themselves of the services available.
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References 1.
2.
3. 4. 5.
Bright, J. A., & Hayward, P. (1997). Dealing with chronic stress: Coping strategies, self esteem and service use in mothers of handicapped children. Journal of Mental Health, 6, 67–74. Comstock, D. (2005). Diversity and development: Critical contexts that shape our lives and relationships. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole. Dale, N. (1996). Working with families of children with special needs: Partnership and practice. London: Routledge. Fletcher-Janzen, E., & Reynolds, C. R. (2003). Childhood disorders. Hoboken: Wiley. Fletcher-Janzen, E., & Reynolds, C. R. (2003). The special education almanac. Hoboken: Wiley.
Special Services ▶Special Education
Specific Developmental Disorder of Motor Dysfunction ▶Developmental Coordination Disorder
Specific Exploration ▶Active Exploration
Specific Folkways ▶Cultural Difference
Speech ▶Verbal Skills
Speech and Language Disorders ▶Communication Disorders
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Speech Sound Disorders
Speech Sound Disorders ▶Phonological Disorders
Speech Therapy LINDA R. SEALEY Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Articulation voice, or fluency therapy; Speech–language therapy
Definition Speech therapy is the treatment of an individual for a disorder in one of three speech domains: articulation, voice, or fluency. Treatment is typically provided by a speech–language pathologist (SLP), often known as a speech therapist. Speech–language pathologists hold a master’s degree and have advanced education in human communication, state license or certification, and are nationally certified by the American Speech-LanguageHearing Association (ASHA).
Description Speech therapy is the treatment of an individual for remediation of a diagnosed speech disorder. After an in-depth diagnostic assessment has determined the presence of a speech disorder or delay, treatment is prescribed on an individual basis. Speech, a verbal means of communicating, includes articulation and phonology (the production and meaning basis of speech sounds), voice (the use and quality of the vocal folds, nasal resonance, and respiratory support) and fluency (the flow and rhythm of speech). A speech disorder may include a delay in development or disorder in any of these three areas to the point that a listener cannot understand, is distracted from what is said, or speech is painful or embarrassing to the speaker. Speech disorders are most commonly associated with articulation or phonological disorders. Articulation disorders are associated with a deficit in motor production aspects of speech. Phonological disorders are concerned with a deficit in producing appropriate speech sounds in context to demonstrate understanding and use of the phonological rules of a language. Voice disorders are associated with abnormal voicing during speech characterized by harsh, breathy, strained vocal quality, or lack of voice,
nasality/resonance, or volume or pitch disturbances. These disturbances are often the result of misuse, abuse, overuse, or pathology of the vocal folds but may also be psychogenic in nature. Fluency disorders are typified by a disruption in the flow and rhythm of speech characterized by excessive production of repetitions, blocks, or prolongations and disturbances in the speed or rate of speech. Speech therapy is prescribed or sought for the remediation of these deficits in articulation, voice, and/or fluency [1]. Speech therapy is usually provided by a certified speech–language pathologist, and is typically guided by treatment goals determined during the diagnostic assessment and in conference with invested parties, such as the family, teachers, physicians, and client. Therapy is provided either in individual sessions, in which the client works one-on-one with the speech–language pathologist to address treatment goals, or in groups, wherein a number of clients attend joint treatment sessions to address treatment goals. To address treatment goals, a treatment approach or program is employed. Treatment approaches are built on theoretical paradigms and developmental, physiological, or normative data. The selection of a treatment program or treatment principles should be based on empirical evidence of effective treatment in clients with similar deficits and characteristics. Speech therapy generally includes the step-wise remediation of specific deficit skill-sets using behavioral treatment techniques. Therapy techniques may make use of mirrors, recordings, video feedback, self-evaluation, diaries, games, toys, pictures, tongue blades, and other materials or biofeedback [2]. Speech therapy is often needed in populations that present with hearing impairments, developmental delays, cleft palate or lip, oral muscle insufficiency, autism, traumatic brain injury, and respiration and motor planning deficits. Speech therapy may also be warranted in otherwise typically developing children who present with a delay or disorder in the development of speech, voice, and/or fluency skills. Young children who have difficulty being understood may experience frustration and withdraw from communicating. Early assessment and intervention by a speech–language pathologist will help to alleviate frustrations for both the speaker and the listener. In general, the earlier one begins therapy after the diagnosis or insult that propagated the disorder, the better the prognosis of correcting and mitigating effects of the deficit [3]. Language therapy differs from speech therapy although deficits in both language and speech may coexist and be treated simultaneously, concurrently, cyclically, or blended together in a therapy session [4].
Spelling Disabilities
References 1. 2.
3.
4.
Bauman-Waengler, J. (2004). Articulatory and phonological impairments: A clinical focus. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Gordon-Brannan, M. E., & Weiss, C. E. (2007). Clinical management of articulatory and phonological disorders. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Pena-Brooks, A., & Hegde, M. N. (2007). Assessment and treatment of articulation and phonological disorders in children. Austin, TX: PRO-ED, Inc. Reilly, S., Douglas, J., & Oates, J. (Eds.). (2004). Evidence based practice in speech pathology. London: Whurr Publishers Ltd.
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(e.g., j, v, s), syllables (e.g., pos, com, mem) and meaningful parts such as prefixes, roots, suffixes, and grammatical endings (e.g., pect, able, trans) of words in both spoken language and written language. Individuals with spelling disability have trouble remembering letters in words because they have trouble noticing, remembering, and recalling the features of language that those letters represent. Spelling disability is also identified as orthographic memory problem because of an individual’s difficulty with memory for letters in written language [10].
Phases of Spelling Development
Speech–Language Therapy ▶Speech Therapy
Speed ▶Dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine, Dextrostat)
Speed Naming ▶Rapid Automized Naming
Spelling Disabilities ALPANA BHATTACHARYA The City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA
Synonyms Agraphia; Anorthography; Dysgraphia; Learning disability; Logagraphia
Definition A neurologically-based impairment that affects an individual’s knowledge of and memory for spoken and written language structure.
Concept of Spelling Disability Individuals with spelling disability generally have difficulty analyzing and remembering sounds of the letters
Since children’s knowledge of the English spelling system follows a progressive pathway, spanning from novice to expert applications of letters, syllables, and meaningful parts of words [1], Ehri [4] classifies children’s knowledge of the English spelling system into three distinct stages, semiphonetic, phonetic, and morphemic. Semiphonetic spellers generally rely on knowledge of letter names to generate spellings of words. Semiphonetic spellings therefore reflect an emphasis on boundary letter sounds (consonants) and an oversight of the medial sounds (vowels) because of reliance on sounds in letter names (e.g., WTR to spell water). Phonetic stage spellers, unlike the semiphonetic stage spellers, tend to represent vowels and increased number of consonants in their spellings of English words. Advancement in their ability to connect letter names to their constituent sounds causes phonetic spellers to overemphasize letter sounds in spellings of individual words (e.g., BALAOSIS to spell blouses). Morphemic stage spellers move away from an exclusive reliance on letter-sound relations to use of word-based spelling patterns such as prefixes (e.g., in - inadequate), suffixes (e.g., able - acceptable), base words (e.g., sign – signal), consonant doubling (e.g., flop – flopped), and derivational relationships (e.g., critic – criticize). The last three stages of Henderson’s [8] spelling development model, within-word pattern, syllable juncture, and derivational constancy, are subsumed within the morphemic stage of Ehri’s [4] spelling development model. Henderson’s subdivisions of children’s morphemic skills highlight transition of spelling development from an alphabetic base to a word-based and meaning-bearing subunit level. At the within-word pattern stage, spellers acquire knowledge of complex groups of letters, including vowel-consonant-silent e patterns (e.g., rake, time) and vowel digraphs (e.g., train, bought). Spellers acquire understanding of complex word-based patterns that support spelling of single-syllable words. Syllable juncture spellers, comparatively, learn use of consonant doubling (e.g., hop – hopping), prefixes (e.g., im – immature), and
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suffixes (e.g., ance – maintenance) to spell multisyllabic words. The derivational constancy stage involves spelling of base and root words (e.g., bene – beneficial, benevolent, benediction). From the preceding description of the phases of spelling development, it can be concluded that accurate spelling of words can take place when children learn to form consolidated connections between letter units (i.e., syllables) in written words and their sounds in pronunciations. Although good spellers can form complete connections between letter-sound units in words, which then facilitate accurate spelling of words, individuals with spelling disability often fail to establish full connections between letters-and-sounds in words which then constrain their ability to spell words accurately.
Research on Spelling Proficiencies In recent years, researchers have compared spelling performances of individuals with and without spelling disability to determine similarities and differences in their ability to represent letter-sound relationships in spellings of different types of words. Manis et al. [9], for example, compared the phonological, orthographic, and spelling skills of children with and without dyslexia. Spelling processes were measured with a pseudoword spelling task (e.g., /vam/, /wifest/, and /flith/) and an irregular word spelling task (e.g., people, enough, and business). Orthographic processing was measured with two tasks, orthographic verification and homonym verification. The orthographic verification task required that on seeing spellings like, woman, surprise, and library (i.e., accurate spellings) or streat, throte, and cumpleat (i.e., inaccurate spellings) on a computer screen, children press “yes” or “no” to indicate whether the spellings were correct or wrong. The homonym verification task required that children identify a homonym as correct (e.g., “Monday is the first day of the week.” – week) or incorrect (e.g., “The bear was hungry.” – bare) after listening to a sentence read aloud by the experimenter and viewing display of a homonym. Phonological processing was measured with two tasks, phoneme deletion and pseudoword pronunciation. The phoneme deletion task asked children to repeat a pseudoword (e.g., blif) pronounced by the experimenter and to then pronounce the same pseudoword without one of the phonemes (e.g., blif without the /f/ - bli). The pseudoword pronunciation task asked children to pronounce pseudowords (e.g., yaid, skoce, metion). Data analyses indicated that the age-matched and readinglevel matched children scored significantly higher than children with dyslexia on phonological, orthographic, and spelling tasks.
In an additional study focused on spelling development, Swanson and Ramalgia [13] compared the spelling performances of seventh, eighth, and ninth grade children with learning disabilities and reading-level-matched and spelling-level-matched younger elementary grade children without learning disabilities. Children were administered three graded word lists, one matched to their spelling level and two lower than their spelling level. Each graded list included 10 phonetic (i.e., regular word patterns) and 10 nonphonetic (i.e., irregular word patterns) words. Spellings of regular and irregular words were analyzed by classifying misspellings into three categories: semiphonetic errors – omission of medial and vowel sounds (e.g., lidl for little); phonetic errors – vowel substitutions (e.g., fullist for fullest), omission of silent letter (e.g., new for knew), and substitution of consonant grapheme for a phoneme (e.g., wher for wear); and morphemic errors – consonant doubling (e.g., wadding for wading), addition of an inaccurate marker letter (e.g., ris for rice), two vowel letters for long vowels (e.g., tier for tire). Analysis of regular and irregular word misspellings indicated that children with and without learning disabilities, who had lower scores on a standardized spelling test used to select and classify study participants, produced higher number of semiphonetic errors with an over reliance on boundary letters and slighting of the medial letters. Comparatively, children with and without learning disabilities, who had higher spelling score on the standardized test, produced misspellings that were phonetic in nature and exhibited overgeneralization of letter-sound relationships. Morphemic errors produced by children with and without learning disabilities were comparable.
Instruction for Spelling Development Individuals with spelling disability generally do not use appropriate strategies to spell words and are not efficient at spelling words accurately without instruction [6]. Therefore, explicit spelling instruction is essential for developing poor spellers’ ability to spell words accurately [3] and spelling instruction should emphasize knowledge of the language structure, specifically knowledge of soundletter combinations and spelling patterns [7]. Furthermore, individualized instruction is recommended because successful learning of spelling patterns requires that teaching be adjusted to the cognitive abilities of the learner [2]. Consequently, teachers are advised to be mindful of the number of words selected for instruction of individuals with spelling disability. Careful selection of words is vital because individuals with spelling disability, compared to individuals without spelling disability, generally require more time to learn spellings of fewer words [12]. Morris,
Sperm
Blanton, Blanton, and Perney [11] also suggest lowering of the difficulty level of spelling words to facilitate learning of an appropriate number of words matched with disabled spellers’ knowledge of and memory for spelling patterns in words. In sum, improved spelling performance requires that individuals with spelling disability receive (a) sufficient time to learn word spellings, (b) feedback for correcting misspellings, and (c) spelling practice with minimum teacher supervision [5].
References 1. Bear, D. R., & Templeton, S. (1998). Explorations in developmental spelling: Foundations for learning and teaching phonics, spellings, and vocabulary. Reading Teacher, 52, 222–242. 2. Brooks, P. L., & Weeks, S. A. J. (1998). A comparison of the responses of dyslexic, slow learning and control children to different strategies for teaching spellings. Dyslexia, 4, 212–222. 3. Darch, C., Kim, S., Johnson, S., & James, H. (2000). The strategic spelling skills of students with learning disabilities: The results of two studies. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 27, 15–26. 4. Ehri, L. C. (1986). Sources of difficulty in learning to spell and read. Advances in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 7, 121–195. 5. Gettinger, M. (1993). Effects of error correction on third graders’ spelling. Journal of Educational Research, 87, 39–45. 6. Graham, S. (2000). Should the natural learning approach replace spelling instruction? Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 235–247. 7. Graham, S., Harris, K. R., & Chorzempa, B. F. (2002). Contribution of spelling instruction to the spelling, writing, and reading of poor spellers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 669–686. 8. Henderson, E. H. (1990). Teaching spelling. Boston: Houston Mifflin. 9. Manis, F. R., Custodio, R., & Szeszulski, P. A. (1993). Development of phonological and orthographic skill: A 2-year longitudinal study of dyslexic children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 56, 64–86. 10. Moats, L. C. (1995). Spelling: Development, Disability, and Instruction. Baltimore, MD: York Press. 11. Morris, D., Blanton, L., Blanton, W. E., & Perney, J. (1995). Spelling instruction and achievement in six classrooms. Elementary School Journal, 96, 145–162. 12. Scott, C. M. (2000). Principles and methods of spelling instruction: Applications for poor spellers. Topics in Language Disorders, 20, 66–82. 13. Swanson, H. L., & Ramalgia, J. M. (1992). The relationship between phonological codes on memory and spelling tasks for students with and without learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 25, 396–407.
Sperm MERRY SLEIGH Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, USA
Synonyms Male gamete; Male germ cell; Spermatozoa; Sperm cells
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Definition Male reproductive cells
Description Human sperm are invisible to the naked eye and consist of three parts. The head of the sperm is called the acrosome and contains 23 chromosomes, the father’s genetic contribution to the offspring. The chromosomes contained inside the sperm will determine whether the offspring is male or female. The head also holds enzymes that will help the sperm penetrate the outer layer of the egg. The short midsection of the sperm, or body, contains mitochondria to fuel the sperm’s journey to the egg. The longest part of the sperm is the mobile tail, or flagellum, which propels the sperm forward. Sperm production begins when testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) activate the male testes during puberty. Spermatogenesis, or the creation of sperm, works best when the temperature of the testes is lower than that of the body. For this reason, the testes hang away from the body in the thin skin of the scrotum. Sperm maturation takes 72–74 days. Sperm will grow in the testes for several weeks, then move from the rear of each testicle to the epididymis, where growth continues for another 2–21 days. Mature sperm move through a small tube called the vas deferens into the seminal vesicle, where they are temporarily paralyzed by carbon dioxide. The seminal vesicle and prostate secrete fluids that will join with the sperm to become seminal fluid (or semen). At ejaculation, sperm and seminal fluid move through the vans deferens and to the urethra, a tube inside the penis, from which they are released. A typical ejaculation includes an average of 100–300 million sperm, with about 75% being motile and even fewer being healthy enough to fertilize an egg. Sperm die quickly outside of the body, and only survive from 3 to 5 days in optimal conditions, which can be a challenge. Lubricants, saliva, and urine kill sperm. In the vagina, high acidity levels are detrimental to sperm, slowing their movement or killing them. During ovulation, a woman secretes cervical fluid that lowers the acidity of the vagina, assisting sperm in their journey. Similarly, the alkaline seminal fluid protects sperm against the acidic vagina and provides fructose to help fuel the sperm’s journey. Sperm must travel through the cervix and into the uterus, which is less acidic but contains white blood cells that can destroy the sperm. From the uterus, sperm enter one of the two fallopian tubes located on either side of the uterus. Chemical signals provide some information to sperm about where the egg is located, although many
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sperm enter the wrong tube. Cilia within the fallopian tube move the egg toward the uterus, creating a current against which sperm must swim and a trap that sperm must avoid. In addition to these environmental hazards, if sperm from two different males are inside the reproductive tract simultaneously, the sperm will engage in a competition for fertilization. Ultimately, only a few hundred sperm reach the egg. During this journey, sperm move an average of two to three mm per minute; however, there is individual variability. In addition, some sperm pause temporarily at the cervix or outside of a fallopian tube. Having sperm arrive at different times increases the chance that a sperm will be present during the short 24 h lifespan of an egg. Sperm containing a Y-chromosome, coding for a male offspring, are lighter and tend to travel faster; however, they also live for a shorter period of time. Sperm containing an X-chromosome, coding for a female offspring, are slower but hardier. To enter the egg, sperm must cross the tough outer membrane of the egg called the zona pellucida. Enzymes in the acrosome break down this wall over a period of around 20 min. The sperm must then penetrate the inner part of the egg, gaining access to the egg’s genetic material. The sperm’s tail detaches and the head dismantles to allow fertilization, and the resulting cell is a zygote. Sperm quality varies widely over the course of the day. Abnormal sperm are the most common cause of male infertility. Several factors can affect the quality, mobility, and number of sperm. For example, hormonal imbalance, environmental toxins, poor nutrition, illness, stress, and high testicular temperature have all been linked to spermatogenesis failure. Research has revealed that substances such as nicotine, cocaine, marijuana, steroids, and excessive amounts of alcohol reduce a man’s sperm count and quality. Legal and illegal medications also can impact male fertility. These findings suggest that both mothers and fathers play a critical role in conception.
References 1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
Bainbridge, D. (2000). Making babies: The science of pregnancy. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Douglas, A. (2002). The mother of all pregnancy books. New York: Hungry Minds, Inc. Shackleford, T. K., & Goetz, A. T. (2007). Adaptation to sperm competition in humans. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(1), 47–50. Stoppard, M. (2000). Conception, pregnancy and birth (revised edition). New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc. Tsiaras, A., & Werth, B. (2002). From conception to birth: A life unfolds. New York: Doubleday. Williams, C. D. (2001). The fastest way to get pregnant naturally. New York: Hyperion.
Sperm Cells ▶Sperm
Spermatozoa ▶Sperm
Spew ▶Purging
Spinal Cord EDALMARYS SANTOS1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition The spinal cord is one of the two major divisions of the Central Nervous System (CNS), in addition to the brain, which connects rostrally to the inferior portion of the medulla and extends down the back serving as a primary highway in which signals are sent in between the CNS and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).
Description The spinal cord, in combination with the brain, constitutes the two primary structural divisions of the CNS which play different roles in carrying out functions. Structurally, the spinal cord has thirty segments divided amongst four divisions (Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, and Sacral divisions) and one additional Coccygeal segment. Each segment has a spinal nerve on both the right and left that are essential in the transmission of impulses to and from the CNS from and to the PNS (nerves outside of the CNS), musculature, and other body regions and structures [1]. In this way, the spinal cord may be viewed as the express communication highway providing a link between the body experiencing and receiving sensations and the
Spinal Cord Injury
brain which perceives and interprets this information. This illustrates a bottom-up transmission however a topdown transmission occurs via the spinal cord as well. Specifically, neurological impulses regarding functions, such as movement, originate in the brain and are transmitted down through the spinal cord to the peripheral structures which will serve to carry out the movement. Given its role in both the reception of sensation and the transmission of motoric output, damage to the spinal cord may cause deficits within either domain [2]. For example, damage to the spinal cord can lead to complete or partial loss of sensation and/or movement in those systems and areas outside of the CNS. Furthermore, the nature of the impairment corresponds with the location and degree of insult. For example, complete damage of the spinal cord at the Cervical level (i.e., highest level) can lead to quadriplegia (i.e., loss of all movement and sensation below the neck) whereas partial damage may simply cause weakness in movement or a decrease in sensation perception. Furthermore, complete damage at a lower level may merely cause paraplegia (i.e., loss of all movement and sensation below the waist) whereas partial damage may again simply cause weakness in movement or sensation from the waist down.
References 1. 2.
Blumenfeld, H. (2002). Neuroanatomy through clinical cases. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Elias, L. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2006). Neuropsychology: Clinical and experimental foundations. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.
Spinal Cord Contusion ▶Spinal Cord Injury
Spinal Cord Injury BRIAN P. DALY1, HEATHER F. RUSSELL2 1 Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA 2 Shriners Hospitals for Children, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Synonyms Cord injuries; Post-traumatic myelopathy; Spinal cord contusion; Spinal cord laceration; Spinal cord transection; Spinal cord trauma; Spinal injuries
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Definition A spinal cord injury (SCI) may stem from traumatic damage to the spinal cord which results in a bruise (contusion), a partial tear, or a complete tear (transection) in the spinal cord. Non-traumatic SCI may be caused by an infarction (stroke), arthritis, cancer, blood vessel problems or bleeding, inflammation (transverse myelitis), infections (meningitis), disease, or degeneration of the disks and vertebrae in the neck (cervical spondylosis). The damage may cause a loss of sensation (feeling) and motor (muscular) control and may result in paralysis.
Description Spinal cord injuries affect the whole body; however, impairments in sensation and/or motor ability typically occur below the site of the injury. For this reason, some persons have altered functioning in their legs and lower body only (paraplegic), while others have altered functioning involving all four limbs (tetraplegic). As such, SCI is classified according to the child’s degree of loss of motor and/or sensory function. Pairs of nerves are connected to the spinal cord in the space between two adjacent vertebrae. The nerves are named for the vertebrae where they exit the spinal cord. There are five sets of these nerves and they are defined as follows: (1) C1-8 nerves exit the spinal cord in the cervical region or in the neck; (2) T1-12 nerves exit the spinal cord in the thoracic region, or the chest; (3) L1-5 nerves exit the spinal cord in the lumbar region or the lower back; (4) S1-5 nerves exit the spinal cord in the sacral region or near the pelvis; and, (5) the coccygeal nerves exit the spinal cord near the coccyx, or tailbone [1]. Injury to the spinal cord may damage any one or more of these nerves. When nerves are damaged, functions such as urination, sexual function, sweating, blood pressure, etc., may be affected. Symptoms of spinal cord injuries may include muscle weakness, loss of voluntary muscle movement, breathing problems, loss of feeling, and loss of bowel and bladder function. Diagnosis of SCI is made with a comprehensive physical examination, a study of symptoms, and diagnostic testing. Diagnostic tests may include X-rays, computed tomography scans (CT scans), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the spinal area. Initial treatment for spinal cord injuries is immobilization. Steroid injections may be given to reduce inflammation and swelling. Currently, no treatments are available to make a spinal cord grow back to its preinjury condition. However, some patients with SCI do recover at least a portion of their ability to move and/or feel below the level of injury. Rehabilitation focuses on
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fostering independence and reintegration into the community by helping individuals with spinal cord injuries avoid complications and optimize those bodily functions they do control to aid in mobility and movement. Accurate predictions of prognosis for SCI, particularly in the acute phase, are very difficult. Current evidence suggests that recovery, if it occurs, typically transpires on a timeline that starts between a week and 6 months after injury. Impairment remaining after 12–24 months is likely to be permanent. However, there are case reports of small improvements occurring for up to two years or longer. In the United States, approximately 10,000 individuals sustain a SCI each year. Approximately 3–5% of those injuries occur among children younger than 15 years of age and 20% are younger than 20 years. Motor vehicle accidents are the main cause of injury in pediatrics with medical/surgical complications, violence, falls, and sporting accidents also contributing [2].
Relevance to Childhood Development The psychological challenges children face are different from those seen in adults with similar injuries. Children respond to their injury according to their developmental stage at the time, and this response continues to change as the child grows. A major factor to consider in any child’s mental health is the influence of the family members on the child’s psychosocial adjustment process and vice-versa. In order to provide adequate emotional support, it is essential to pay attention to the unique and different challenges faced by each individual family member in addition to the ones the family faces as a whole. The parents or caregivers of a child with SCI are often traumatized. They can experience feelings of anger, sadness, and guilt. They must learn a great deal of medical information about how to care for their child, while simultaneously providing emotional support. It is often the case that the caregivers have a difficult time parenting their child in the same way as before the injury. Specifically, parents frequently respond to the new situation by being overprotective and setting fewer limits or providing less discipline. During the initial hospital stay and on an ongoing basis, the parent/caregiver must constantly ensure that the appropriate and necessary modifications are made at home, at school, and at any other location to where the child travels. In addition, the caregiver will likely face financial challenges secondary to possible employment changes and extensive medical, equipment, and therapy bills. Finally, after the initial learning and adjustment process has been conquered, the parents/caregivers need
to support their child in creating future life goals and a plan to meet those goals. Even though it is common for parents/caregivers to have difficulty letting go of their child as she or he grows up and develops, that transition can be even more challenging when the child has a chronic physical disability. Children with SCI experience unique challenges that can change depending on their age. When the child is injured at birth or in early childhood, he or she relies largely on the parents or caregivers for total support. At school age, the child is developing their sense of identity and can feel anxious or sad as a result of their physical limitations and having a perceived lack of control over their environment. The child is also learning how to socialize with peers. During adolescence, body image, sexuality, driving, and peer relationships become central issues. Emotions run high during this developmental stage in general and the teen with SCI is no exception. It is the job of adolescents to learn to separate from their parents/ caregivers and to take on increased responsibility for their own medical care. The transition to adulthood (including medical, social, emotional, financial, educational, vocational, and leisure aspects) is a process through which the young adult must navigate with support from her/his parents/ caregivers and medical team. The whole family of a child with SCI will likely go through some changes. It is important to take into consideration the way the family was functioning before the injury occurred, as this will affect their functioning moving forward. There may be a shift in the family dynamics, including marital, sibling, and parental relationships, as a result of the child’s SCI. The increased amount of time it takes to care for a child with SCI takes away from leisure time. This decrease in “play time” occurs for the child, the siblings, and the parents/caregivers. The overall goal in pediatric SCI is to return the child and the family as quickly and fully as possible back to their lives in their own communities with the appropriate support services in place. The child should be reintegrated back into school, social activities, sports, and chores or jobs as soon as medically possible. It is also important to monitor the child as they grow to ensure that they’re keeping up with peers over time.
References 1. 2.
Free health encyclopedia. Retrieved March 2, 2009 from http://www. faqs.org/health/Sick-V4/Spinal-Cord-Injury.html Betz, R. R., & Mulcahey, M. J. (1996). Introduction. In R. R. Betz & M. J. Mulcahey (Eds.), The child with a spinal cord injury. Rosemont, IL: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
SSQ
Spinal Cord Laceration ▶Spinal Cord Injury
Spinal Cord Transection ▶Spinal Cord Injury
Spinal Cord Trauma ▶Spinal Cord Injury
Spinal Injuries ▶Spinal Cord Injury
References 2. 3.
Split Brain 4.
5.
Synonyms
Sperry, R. W. (1961). Cerebral organization and behavior. Science, 133, 1749–1757. Sperry, R. W. (1980). Mind-brain interaction: Mentalism, yes; dualism, no. Neuroscience, 5, 195–206. Sperry, R. W., Vogel, P. J., & Bogen, J. E. (1970). Syndrome of hemisphere deconnection. In P. Bailey & R. E. Foil (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd Pan-American congress of neurology (pp. 195–200). Puerto Rico. Turk, D. J., Handy, T. C., & Gazzaniga, M. S. (2005). Can perceptual expertise account for the own-race bias in face recognition? A splitbrain study. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 22(7), 877–883. Zillmer, E. A., Spiers, M. V., & Culbertson, W. C. (2008). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth Press.
Hemispheric differences; Laterality
Definition “Split Brain” is a term used to describe an early method of severing the corpus callosum and separating the two hemispheres of the brain. This was done to reduce the spread of seizures. Following this procedure differences were found between the left and right side of the brain; most of this research is attributed to Sperry [1].
Description Split brain is a relatively rare situation which is usually the result of all other options being exhausted in attempting to
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control epilepsy and epileptic seizures. It involves the severing of a dense group of nerve fibers which connect the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Agenesis of the corpus callosum is often congenital and is secondary to a malformation that following surgical severing seems to provide clearer left-right differences. The result of having a split brain is typically the inability to name an object that is presented within the left visual field due to the information from the left visual field being only sent to the right side of the brain where speech is typically not localized. There is some debate within the research over the idea of competing hemispheres or “two minds” which result from a split brain. Some patients have been seen after surgery to appear as though they have separate goals. For example, the left hand may reach for one object of clothing while the right reaches for a completely different article of clothing. Typically, these issues resolve themselves within a short period of time after surgery and patients report having a cohesive consciousness afterwards. Conclusions about the functioning of normal brains based upon those with epilepsy have been difficult to substantiate.
1.
MATTHEW J. HOLCOMB, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
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Spoken Language ▶Verbal Skills
SSQ ▶Barkley School Situations Questionnaire
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Stability ▶Reliability
Stage 5 Sleep ▶Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
Standard Celeration Charting ABIGAIL B. CALKIN Private Practice, Gustavus, AK, USA
Synonyms Celeration; Educational aims; Fluency; Frequency; Precision learning; Precision teaching; SCC; Timings
Definition
Stage Sequence of Ego Epigenesis ▶Erikson’s Stages of the Life Cycle
Stages 5 and 6 of Moral Judgment Development ▶Postconventional Morality
Stages of Identity Development ▶Erikson’s Stages of the Life Cycle
Stages of Psychosocial Development ▶Erikson’s Stages of the Life Cycle
Stammer ▶Stuttering
Standard ▶Norms
The Standard Celeration Chart (initially called the Standard Behavior Chart) is used to observe and improve human learning and interaction. The chart shows the frequency of performance and its celeration, i.e., growth of learning across time. Frequency, whose formula is F=Count/Time, tells what happened during a specific time. Celeration, whose formula is C=Count/Time/ Time, or Frequency/Time, tells what happens across the longer period of time – weeks, months, years, or decades. All Standard Celeration Charts retain and present the original data in the form of frequency and celeration. The most common use is in special and regular education where the 1-min timing has resulted in researchdeveloped frequency and celeration aims for academic behaviors. Data-based frequency aims are also emerging for inner behaviors.
Description Pavlov used frequency, a standard unit in the measurement of scientific phenomena, to measure physiological responses in dogs. Skinner used frequency, free operant behavior, and the cumulative recorder to measure the behavior of rats and pigeons. Lindsley, with his background in engineering and experimental psychology, brought to psychology and education the most powerful and scientific use of measurement applied to human behavior. He became the first person to measure human behavior continuously. In 1953, he took lessons learned in Skinner’s operant laboratories into his home and continuously recorded the toy-playing behavior of his infant daughter, Cathy. He also began to measure the behavior of schizophrenics at Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham, Massachusetts, and coined and first published the term “Behavior Therapy,” in the 1954 Boston telephone directory: Studies in Behavior Therapy. In 1965, he developed the standard behavior chart, now described as a family of Standard Celeration Charts – standard measurement charts for human behavior in daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly time periods. By 2000, the vast
Standard Celeration Charting
majority of the million-plus charts came from education. The chart is not a teaching method; rather it is a system for monitoring the effectiveness of any method of teaching, learning, or changing human behavior. Since 1967, educators and others have used the standard celeration chart to observe and improve human behavior. The people behaving have ranged from fetuses to students to those in their 80s.
Frequency and Celeration Because of the design of standard celeration charts – the standard is the 34 degree angle of the doubling line from corner to opposite corner – all accelerations and decelerations are standard no matter which chart. Using this graphic makes two critical elements apparent. First, behavior grows by multiplying, not by adding. Second, the chart makes one look at not only the frequency of a person’s performance, but also at the growth of learning across time, i.e., the celeration. Frequency is performance: It tells what happened during one time period, but by itself it tells little about learning. The formula is F=C/T, or frequency equals count divided by time, e.g., a count of 77 behaviors in 1 min has a frequency of 77; a count of 192 in 10 min has a frequency of 19.2. To see whether performance accelerates or decelerates, we need to measure it across time. Since 1971, we have called this change in learning celeration, a word derived from the root word of acceleration and deceleration. Its formula is C=C/T/time, e.g., the growth of frequency across a week on a daily chart, or across a month on a weekly chart. Both frequency and celeration are standard measures of human behavior. Different from most graphs, the standard celeration chart retains and presents the original data. Because of the SCC’s design, the charter plots only frequency so the chart always displays performance within the time period.
Standard Celeration Charts The Daily Standard Celeration Chart measures any human behavior that occurs on a daily basis. It goes from 0.00069, or one time per 24-h day, up to 1,000 per min. It has one behavior per day at the bottom, one behavior per minute in the middle, and 1,000 behaviors per minute at the top. Any line drawn parallel to the corner to corner line means learning has changed by 2, an acceleration or improvement. From the top left to the bottom right the change is a 2, a deceleration, an improvement when errors, inappropriate behaviors, or negative inners are counted. Each Daily Chart has 140 days across it. Three categories of daily behavior often monitored include: (1) academic learning – e.g., see say (read) words, see write quadratic equations, see say (memorize)
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musical notation or the Periodic Table, think say American government facts, see say parts of a microscope or skeleton; (2) other outer behaviors such as interrupts, greets people, sets goals, makes choices; or all-day charts of fetal movement; and (3) inner behaviors such as has thoughts of a former wife, feels jealous, pleasant and unpleasant feelings about oneself. The daily chart in Fig. 1 shows Greg learning science facts by see say – he sees the object and says its name or he sees the front of the flashcard and says the information on the back. In four of the five phases, the corrects go up (by 1.8, or an 80%, increase per week) and the errors go down, most dramatically in the first phase by a 10 per week. In the third phase, Science Facts #1 (Flash Cards) No Study, the corrects and errors both increased. Seeing from the collection of charts that learning was not occurring well for about fifteen of her 19 students, the teacher made the decision to add 5 min of study time. The students’ correct responses continued to accelerate and their errors stopped increasing and began to decelerate. Given that the chart is standard, the teacher could quickly see if each student learned and could tell whether she had made the correct teacher decision. Such is the analysis of learning behavior that the standard celeration chart offers. Because the chart uses a standard scale to display change numerically, when looked at, each of these charts shows immediately whether the line went up, down, or stayed the same. The steepness of the line occurs not because of a differently graphed scale on the left or across the bottom but because the behavior changed.
The Uses of Standard Celeration Charting In 1967, Lindsley formed the Behavior Bank to collect, analyze, summarize, and display facts about human behavior [1]. Banked projects include academic, personal management, and inner behaviors. Handbook of Precise Behavior Facts contains summaries of 11,947 standard celeration chart projects on people’s learning. The banked information contains each pinpoint, the body part involved, the supervisors and contributors of the projects, the instructional technique, and the reward or punishment for each project as well as visual displays of the data summary for any pinpoint which had at least five charts banked; the highest, middle, and lowest frequency; and the most rapid (steepest), middle and the slowest (flattest) celeration. By 1973, the Behavior Bank contained 16,376 projects. Considering these data were sufficient to draw precise and inductively discovered conclusions about human behavior, Lindsley stated there were eight Laws of Human Behavior. The bank closed in 1974.
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Standard Celeration Charting DAILY BEHAVIOR CHART (DCM-9EN) 6 CYCLE-140 DAYS (20 W KS) BEHAVIOR RESEARCH CO BOX 3351-KANSAS CITY KANS 66103
E 2 S MO DA
Science equipment
500
2 DAY 8
Microscope & skeleton
No Study
50
80 ANO YR J 0 M
2 AY D 20
2 DAY 16
2 DAY 12
Science Facts #1 (Flash Cards)
100
79 ECO YR D 3 M
Science Facts #2 (Flash Cards)
5 Minutes of study
10 5
Miller, Joy E. and Calkin, Abigail B. Using Precision Teaching in a Secondary science class, Journal of Precision Teaching, Volume 1, Number 2, July, 1980.
1000
3 DAY 4
Y
0M W F
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79 YR CT O O 8 M
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Y
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A. CALKIN
A. CALKIN
J. MILLER
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MANAGER
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Chart 1. Greg’s Learning Pictures SUCCESSIVE CALENDAR DAYS
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CAPITAL CITY HIGH SCHOOL TOPEKA, KANSAS DEPOSITOR
110
5 8
TIMER
COUNTER
CHARTER
Standard Celeration Charting. Fig. 1. Daily behavior chart.
The 1-min timing is commonly used to implement change in precision teaching and in precision inner behavior. The first use of this important behavior change technique began in Ann Starlin’s classroom in Eugene, Oregon in April 1968 to assist her students in their learning of geometric figure names; it is now widely used when helping students improve such academic areas as reading, math, social studies, and science skills, as well as improve the inner behaviors of pleasant thoughts and feelings. As early as 1970, Clay Starlin and Haughton had developed frequency aims for academic behaviors. Since then and as a result of hundreds of thousands more charts, academic and inner behavior frequency aims have been revised upwards and celeration aims also established. In addition to helping students learn in regular and special education classrooms, learning centers, and universities, standard celeration charts have been used in many different fields – nursing, social work, psychology, inner behavior, business, analyses of historical and
governmental events, administration, and geriatrics to name some. As well as in the United States, the standard celeration chart, also known as precision teaching for its dominant use in education, is also used in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, South Africa, and Canada.
Relevance to Childhood Development Standard celeration charting is used in the measurement and monitoring of the behaviors of fetuses, infants, preschoolers, and kindergarteners.
References 1.
Koenig, C. (1972). Charting the future course of behavior. Kansas City, KS: Precision Media.
Recommended Readings Binder, C. V. (1996). Behavioral fluency: Evolution of a new paradigm. The Behavior Analyst, 19, 163–197.
Standard Scores Calkin, A. B. (1983). Counting fetal movement. Journal of Precision Teaching, 2(3), 35–40. Calkin, A. B. (1992). The inner eye: Improving self-esteem. Journal of Precision Teaching, 10(1), 42–52. Calkin, A. B. (2002). Estimated number of standard celeration charts as of 2000. Journal of Precision Teaching and Celeration, 18(1), 33–34. Calkin, A. B. (2002). Precision teaching: The standard celeration charts. The Behavior Analyst Today, 6, 207–215. Available: http://www. behavior-analyst-online.org (2003). European Journal of Behavior Analysis [Special issue on precision teaching], 4. Graf, S., & Lindsley, O. (2002). Standard celeration charting. Poland, OH: Graf Implements. Johnson, K. R., & Layng, T. V. J. (1992). Breaking the structuralist barrier: Literacy and numeracy with fluency. American Psychologist, 47, 1475–1490. Lindsley, O. R. (1992). Skinner on measurement. Kansas City, KS: Precision Media. Lindsley, O. R., Koenig, C. H., Nichol, J. B., Kanter, D. B., & Young, N. A. (1971). Handbook of precise behavior facts. Kansas City, KS: Precision Media. Miller, J. E., & Calkin, A. B. (1980). Using precision teaching in a secondary classroom. Journal of Precision Teaching, 1(2), 10–17. Pavlov, I. I. (1960). Conditioned reflexes (G. V. Anrep, Trans.). New York: Dover Publications. (Original work published 1927) Pennypacker, H. S., Gutierrez, A., & Lindsley, O. R. (2003). Handbook of the standard celeration chart. Concord, MA: Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. Potts, L., Eshleman, J. W., & Cooper, J. O. (1993). Ogden R. Lindsley and the historical development of precision teaching. The Behavior Analyst, 16(2), 177–189. Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts. Sokolove, H. (1973). Inner behavior: The private eye becomes public information. Kansas City, KS: Precision Media. Starlin, A. (1971). Charting group and individual instruction. Teaching Exceptional Children, 3, 135–136. Starlin, C. (1971). Peers and precision. Teaching Exceptional Children, 3, 129–132, 137–138.
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Definition A score that is derived from an individual’s raw score within a distribution of scores. The standard score describes the difference of the raw score from a sample mean, expressed in standard deviations. Standard scores preserve the absolute differences between scores. The standard score (Z) is computed with the following formula: Z ¼ X M=SD where X = the raw score, M = the mean, and SD = the standard deviation.
Description The use of standard scores allows the set of raw scores to be “normalized” or statistically adjusted to fit the normal distribution or “bell shaped curve,” allowing a more precise and meaningful comparison of scores across individuals in a sample. Standard scores in conjunction with standard deviations above and below the mean are often used to illustrate individual strengths and weaknesses on a measure, showing where an individual falls on the normal distribution [1]. They may also be used with some measures as a criterion score for classification purposes or as a descriptor of traits or symptoms on assessment measures.
Commonly used Standard Scores Z score: Mean of 0, standard deviation of 1. Simplest and most common standard score, used to convert raw scores to other types of standard scores. For example, to covert a Z score to a T score (below), the following formula is used: T ¼ zðSDÞ þ M
Suggested Resources Articles on precision teaching, and the use of the standard celeration chart with reading, inner behavior, children with autism, college students, and brain trauma rehabilitation. Available: http://www.ejoba.org
Standard Scores ROBERT WALRATH Rivier College, Nashua, NH, USA
Synonyms Derived score; Deviation IQ; GRE/SAT Score; Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE); Normal Score; Norm-referenced scores; Sigma Score; Stanines; Sten Score; T Scores; Z Score
where SD is the standard deviation of the new standard score and M is the mean of the new standard score, in this case SD = 10 and M = 50. T Score: Mean of 50, standard deviation of 10. Commonly used to express scores from psychological tests and behavior rating scales such as the MMPI-2 and the BASC-2. Deviation IQ: Mean of 100, standard deviation of 15. Sometimes called the “Wechsler score,” commonly used to report scores from most intelligence tests. Stanine: Mean of 5, standard deviation of 2. Short for “standard nines,” a range of scores from 1 to 9 that allows a gross classification of below average-average-above average scores across the normal distribution. Sten: Mean of 5.5, standard deviation of 2. Short for “standardized ten,” a range of scores from 1 to 10. Used in reporting of scores from the 16PF personality questionnaire, for example.
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Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE): Mean of 50, standard deviation of 21.06. Based on percentile rank, the NCE creates equal interval percentile scores from 1 to 100. SAT/GRE Score: Mean of 500, standard deviation of 100 [2].
a hierarchical structure in which overall intellectual ability (the Full Scale IQ score) is comprised of two Domains (Verbal and Nonverbal IQ) and five Factor Indexes (Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative Reasoning, Visual Spatial Reasoning, and Working Memory).
References
Description
1.
The Binet–Simon Scale was developed over a century ago by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon [1]. First published in 1905 and revised in 1908 and 1911, the Binet–Simon Scale was part of an effort to differentiate the intellectual abilities of Parisian school children and to classify levels of mental retardation. Lewis Terman and his colleagues at Stanford University translated the Binet–Simon Scale into English, adapted it for use in the United States, and published the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale in 1916 [2]. Based on an age-scale format, the test performance of this standardization group was analyzed to determine which items were passed by the majority of test takers of a particular age. From these administrations, tables of “mental age scores” were derived, which allowed the performance of subsequent test takers to be compared with the standardization group. The 1916 edition was noteworthy for the use of the intelligence quotient, which represented the ratio of mental age to chronological age. A mental age score that was higher than the examinee’s actual “chronological age” denoted above average performance; conversely, performance below the chronological age denoted below average performance. However, the distribution of scores was not constant across different ages; thus, scores by individuals at different ages were not directly comparable [3]. Revisions of the Stanford-Binet in 1937 and 1960 represented efforts to improve the standardization of the instrument and improve the representativeness of the sample on which the test was normed. The 1937 edition expanded the standardization group, created alternate versions of the test (Forms L and M) to facilitate readministration, and included more nonverbal items at younger ages. The 1972 revision combined the best items from the two versions of the 1937 edition and was dubbed the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, Form L-M. The standardization sample for this revision was the first to include African Americans and Latin Americans, as well as European Americans. Form L-M replaced the age-scale format that was introduced in the 1916 edition with a point-scale format, in which performance is based on scores that are converted into standard scores. Unlike ratio/mental age-based intelligence quotients, the mean and standard deviation of standard scores remain constant; thus, scores at different ages are comparable. These
2.
Issac, S., & Michael, W. B. (1997). Handbook in research and evaluation for education and the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). San Diego, CA: EDITS. Neukrug, E. S., & Fawcett, R. C. (2006). Essentials of testing and assessment: A practical guide for counselors, social workers, and psychologists. New York, NY: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Standardized Testing ▶Norm-Referenced Testing
Stanford Binet ▶Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales STEPHEN M. WILSON Argosy University
Synonyms Stanford Binet; SB5; Stanford-Binet intelligence scales, Fifth Edition
Definition The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales is an individually administered measure of cognitive abilities. It was first developed in France in 1905 as the Binet–Simon scale, but adapted for use in the United States at Stanford University in 1916 where it obtained its current name. The instrument has undergone several revisions over the past century, and the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales – Fifth Edition (SB5) is the most recent revision, which was published in 2003. Like previous editions, the SB5 is one of the most widely used psychometric instruments, and is often included in clinical, neuropsychological, and psychoeducational evaluations. The SB5 can be administered to individuals as young as 2 and over 85 years of age. The SB5 has
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales
early editions provided only one score, a measure of overall ability, and have been criticized for overemphasizing verbal abilities and rote memory while giving little consideration to other types of abilities that are hypothesized to underlie general intellectual ability (e.g., nonverbal abilities, visual perception, and spatial skills) [3]. The Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (SB:IV), which was published in 1986 [4], was based on a four-factor hierarchical model. At the first level was a general intellectual factor (“g”), which was reported as the Test Composite Score. The four cognitive factors were Verbal Reasoning abilities, Abstract/Visual Reasoning abilities, Quantitative Reasoning, and Short Term Memory, which were reported as Standard Age Scores. The SB:IV was standardized on a group of over 5000 individuals (much larger than previous editions) that were similar to 1980 U.S. Census data in regard to gender, race, ethnicity, geographic region, community size, and socioeconomic status. The SB5 was revised over a period of 7 years and published in 2003 [5]. The SB5 was normed on a sample of 4,800 subjects stratified to match variables from 2001 U.S. Census data vis-a`-vis age, sex, ethnicity, geographic region, and education level. Data were also reported regarding community size and type of school attended. In addition, subjects from special groups were included in the sample: individuals with documented Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Mental Retardation, speech impairment, and hearing impairment. The standardization sample of the SB5 was segmented into groups ranging from 2 years to above 80 (a segment that included individuals as old as 96 years). The inclusion of these age groups drastically increased the age groups to which the SB5 can be administered. The SB5 can be administered to individuals as young as 2 and over 85 years of age, whereas the 4th ed. was appropriate only for ages 2–23 years. A strength of the SB5 is that an individual’s cognitive development could be monitored continuously via the same scale over a long period of years due to the wide age span of the test. However, due to a phenomenon known as the Flynn Effect [6, 7], which describes the trend for intellectual abilities in the general population to increase over time, it is necessary for tests to be revised periodically. Consequently, it is unlikely that any one individual would be monitored for more than approximately a 20-year span of time with the same version of any test. In addition to increasing the age range from previous editions, the SB5 increased the range of possible IQ scores. The SB5 is also theoretically linked to the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement to facilitate the diagnosis of learning disabilities.
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The SB5 Technical Manual [8] indicates that the test developers took extensive measures to assure that the instrument is culturally fair. Test items underwent “logical analysis” and were eliminated or altered if considered offensive or likely represent a construct differentially across demographic groups. Items also underwent empirical analysis of differential item functioning, item response theory, and construct-related studies of item fairness; items with poor demographic fairness were eliminated. The SB5 has a hierarchical structure. At the first level is an overall measure of cognitive ability, the Full Scale IQ. At the second level are two domains (Verbal and Nonverbal) and five Factors (Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative Reasoning, Visual-Spatial Reasoning, and Working Memory). A third level consists of ten subtests, each simultaneously representing a domain and a factor (e.g., Verbal Fluid Reasoning). A fourth level consists of five or six testlets per subtest. Testlets are defined as sets of three to six items clustered into functional levels or levels of difficulty. The fifth level of the hierarchy consists of individual testlet items [9]. The ten subtests yield the Full Scale IQ score. Five of the subtests comprise the Verbal Domain and yield the Verbal IQ score, and five of the subtests comprise the Nonverbal Domain, yielding the Nonverbal IQ score. The Verbal subtests are presented with oral or printed directions and responses are largely verbal. In contrast, Nonverbal tasks have lower language demands, although they are not entirely nonverbal. They are presented with pictures, manipulatives, and brief oral directions, and responses involve gestures, manipulation and brief oral responses. Each Verbal subtest corresponds with a Nonverbal subtest and these pairs of Verbal and Nonverbal subtests comprise the five Factor Indexes. In addition, the SB5 provides an optional Abbreviated IQ score, which is based on scores from two subtests: Nonverbal Fluid Reasoning and Verbal Knowledge. The SB5 is partially based on the Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) theory of intelligence [10]. Briefly, CHC theory describes intelligence as composed of ten broad abilities: crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence, quantitative knowledge, reading and writing, short-term memory, visual processing, auditory processing, long-term storage and retrieval, processing speed, decision speed/reaction time. The SB5 measures five of the factors described by CHC theory but prominently includes Verbal and Nonverbal Domains even though this dichotomy is not a part of the theory. It has been noted that it is not clear when test interpretations should be based on the two domains or the five factors [11].
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In contrast with earlier editions of the Stanford Binet, IQ and Factor Index scores on the SB5 are reported as standard scores that have a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15, which is a metric that is consistent with most other widely used ability tests. Subtest scores of the SB5 are reported as scaled scores, which have a mean of 10 and standard deviation of 3. The SB5 utilizes a routing procedure in which the examinee’s performance on a routing subtest determines starting level for other subtests within the same domain (i.e., Nonverbal or Verbal). The purpose of the routing procedure is to reduce testing time and examinee fatigue. The estimated time to administer all ten subtests is 45–75 min; however, shorter versions are sometimes appropriate. The SB5 generates an Abbreviated IQ score based on the examinee’s scores on the two routing subtests. This abbreviated assessment is estimated to take 15–20 min. The Examiner’s Manual also indicates that the examiner may chose to administer only the five subtests within a given domain in order to obtain a Nonverbal IQ score or a Verbal IQ score. For example, the Examiner’s Manual specifies that the Nonverbal IQ score may be the most appropriate metric for examinees with communication disorders, hearing impairment, autism, or limited English language backgrounds. Conversely, the Verbal IQ score might be the most appropriate measure for examinees with orthopedic impairments or motor skills deficits [9]. Statistical reliability of the SB5 has been measured via multiple methods. Reliability of a test score refers to consistency across sets of items, time, and other conditions. The technical manual presents reliability coefficients for IQ scores and Factor Index scores, all of which were .90 or above (out of a maximum possible value of 1.0), which indicates a very high level of reliability. Test–retest reliability was assessed by retesting a group of subjects after a number of days (between 1 and 39 days). Stability coefficients were 0.89 and above for the IQ scores, and 0.81 and above for the Factor Indexes. Interscorer agreement refers to the correlation of item scores for the same examinee when rated by independent examiners. The median coefficient of interrater reliability was 0.90 [8]. Validity refers to the extent to which an instrument measures the trait that it purports to measure. Convergent validity measures the correlation between different instruments designed to measure the same traits. Studies of convergent validity indicated that the SB5 is highly correlated (median correlation r = 0.83) with the two editions of the Stanford Binet that preceded it, as well as the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence – Revised, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – 3rd ed., the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – 3rd ed.,
the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – end ed., and the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Achievement [8].
Relevance to Childhood Development According to the Technical Manual, “the SB5 was designed to measure developmental growth and life-span change” [8], (p. 103). The SB5 is appropriate for assessing the cognitive abilities of children at a variety of ages and developmental levels. Because it has been normed on children as young as 24 months, it is particularly useful for the early identification of developmental issues and other special needs. Indeed, the norming process for the SB5 included the following clinical and exceptional groups: intellectual giftedness, mental retardation, developmental delay, autism, learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, severe emotional disturbances, speech/language disorders, and orthopedic or motor delays. The Technical Manual presents tables of scores for each group in an attempt to discern common profiles that, along with other corroborating sources of information, might aid in the identification of individuals with special needs. It was noted, for example, that children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder obtained significantly lower scores on the Working Memory Factor Index than other factor index scores. Beyond simply identifying special needs, the test authors have provided recommendations for linking cognitive test results to strategies for teachers and parents for improving areas of weakness. These guidelines are clustered into five areas corresponding with the five Factor Indexes, and lead to recommendations for students who score one standard deviation below national norms on a factor index, or display a significant weakness within their own profile [12].
References 1. Alphonso, V. C., Flanagan, D. P., & Radwan, S. (2005). The impact of Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory on test development and interpretation of cognitive and academic abilities. In D. P. Flanagan & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (pp. 185–202). New York: Guilford. 2. Flynn, J. R. (1987). Massive gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 171–191. 3. Flynn, J. R. (2007). What is intelligence? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 4. Kite, E. S. (1916). Translation of A. Binet & T. Simon, The development of intelligence in children. Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins. 5. Kush, J. C. (2004) (Review of the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, 5th Edition). In: The sixteenth mental measurements yearbook. Retrieved November 15, 2008, from EBSCOHost Mental Measurements Yearbook database. 6. Reid, D. K., Hresko, W. P., & Swanson, H. L. (1996). Cognitive approaches to learning disabilities. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed. 7. Roid, G. H. (2003a). Stanford Binet intelligence scales (5th ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.
Stepfamilies 8. Roid, G. H. (2003b). Stanford Binet intelligence scales, technical manual (5th ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. 9. Roid, G. H. (2003c). Stanford Binet intelligence scales, examiner’s manual (5th ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. 10. Roid, G. H. (2006). Stanford Binet intelligence scales, 5th ed., SB5 Technical Note #01-2006. Linking SB5 assessment to instruction and intervention for children, ages 2 to 16: Updated and expanded. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from www.riversidepublishing.com 11. Sattler, J. M. (2008). Assessment of children: Cognitive foundations (5th ed.). San Diego: Jerome M. Satler Publishers, Inc. 12. Terman, L. M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 13. Thorndike, R. L., Hagen, E. P., & Sattler, J. M. (1986). Guide for administering and scoring the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale (4th ed.). Chicago: Riverside.
Recommended Readings Alphonso, V. C., Flanagan, D. P., & Radwan, S. (2005). The impact of Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory on test development and interpretation of cognitive and academic abilities. In D. P. Flanagan & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (pp. 185–202). New York: Guilford. Flynn, J. R. (2007). What is intelligence? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kush, J. C. (2004) (Review of the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, 5th Edition). In: The sixteenth mental measurements yearbook. Retrieved November 15, 2008, from EBSCOHost Mental Measurements Yearbook database. Roid, G. H. (2003a). Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, Technical Manual (5th ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. Roid, G. H. (2003b). Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, Examiner’s Manual (5th ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. Sattler, J. M. (2008). Assessment of children: Cognitive foundations (5th ed.). San Diego: Jerome M. Satler Publishers, Inc.
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Startle Response ▶Moro Reflex
Starving ▶Anorexia Nervosa
Status Scores ▶Norm-Referenced Scores
Sten Score ▶Standard Scores
Stepfamilies Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition
MICHELLE COX Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA
Synonyms ▶Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales
Blended families; households
Remarried
families;
Stepparent
Definition
Stanines ▶Norm-Referenced Scores ▶Standard Scores
Startle Reflex ▶Moro Reflex
Families of two adults in a formal or informal marriage where at least one of the adults has children from a previous relationship.
Description Stepfamilies are described as families with at least one child living with a biological parent who has remarried or cohabits with a new partner. The other biological parent lives outside of the household and the child may or may not have contact with that parent through full or partial custody. The stepparent is one who has a
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relationship, whether marital or not, with the child’s biological parent and resides with the child on a full or part time basis. The stepfamily can also consist of stepsiblings, in which the stepparent has children from a previous relationship who reside within the stepfamily on a part time or full time basis. There may also be children created within the stepfamily between the stepparent and biological parent; which is considered a blended family.
Relevance to Childhood Development Due to the increase of stepfamilies, it is important for stepchildren and stepparents to build positive and healthy relationships; however, if the relationship between the biological parent and stepparent is not intact, stepchildren may be reluctant to begin the process. Studies have suggested that the relationship between couples must be a priority to maintain the health of the family. After a child experiences a divorce with biological parents, the idea that another marriage may not be successful can create a sense of insecurity. Children who are entering a new stepfamily structure can develop feelings of separation.
References 1.
2.
3.
Dashiff, C. J., & Weaver, M. (2008). Development and testing of a scale to measure separation anxiety of parents of adolescents. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 16(1), 61–80. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from ProQuest Medical. Kheshgi-Genovese, Z., & Genovese, T. A. (1997). Developing the spousal relationship within stepfamilies. Families in Society, 78(3), 255–264. Retrieved July 17, 2008, from ProQuest Psychology Journals database. Step Family Magazine. Step Family Definition. Retrieved on July 10, 2008, from http://www.stepfamilymagazine.com/wordpress/2008/ 06/28/stepfamily-definition/
Stepparent Households ▶Stepfamilies
Stereotype Threat JANET WARD SCHOFIELD, KIRA ALEXANDER University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Definition Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming as a personal characteristic an existing stereotype about
a social category (gender, racial, or ethnic group, etc.) to which one belongs. Concern about possible confirmation of the stereotype commonly leads to performance decrements in domains related to that stereotype.
Description Much of the early research on stereotype threat explored the idea that African-American students’ intellectual performance might be undermined by stereotype threat, specifically by their concern that their performance might validate existing negative stereotypes about African Americans’ intellectual abilities. For example, in the classic study that launched work on this topic, Steele and Aronson [4] demonstrated experimentally that AfricanAmerican students who believed they were taking a test measuring their verbal reasoning ability performed less well than African-American students taking the same test who were led to believe that the test measured something else not related to racial stereotypes. However, stereotype threat appears to negatively impact the performance of individuals in many social categories when they believe their behavior might fulfill negative stereotypes about the social categories to which they belong. So, for example, Latinos in the U.S., who are also often stereotyped as less academically able than Whites, experience stereotype threat effects similar to those evidenced by African Americans. In addition, women, who are often stereotyped as poor in math compared to men, demonstrate stereotype threat effects when taking tests they believe measure their ability in math. Parallel negative effects have also been found on the performance of elderly individuals doing tasks they believe measure their memory and on the performance of low SES individuals undertaking activities they believe measure their verbal ability. Importantly, individuals belonging to groups that are not negatively stereotyped in specific domains do not generally show performance decrements related to whether or not the activity is described as measuring their abilities in those domains, supporting the contention that concern about the possibility that one’s behavior will confirm a stereotype is the cause of the documented performance decrements. So, for example, men do not show performance decrements when an activity is said to test their math ability compared to when it is not. However, men have been shown to do more poorly on an emotion-processing task after being told that men are less good than women at such tasks than when they did not receive such potentially threatening information. Stereotype threat not only appears to depress test scores in the short term. It can also lead to numerous other negative outcomes likely to undermine performance in the stereotype-relevant domain in the long run, including
Stereotypy
the avoidance of challenging work in that domain, the rejection of critical feedback, and long-term lack of interest and engagement in the stereotype-relevant domain [1, 2]. Although the issue of how stereotype threat undermines performance is far from settled, research suggests a number of possibilities. Specifically, stereotype threat may create anxiety, which undermines performance. It can also lower individuals’ expectations about their likely future performance and interfere with memory by leading individuals to devote some of their mental resources to processing and suppressing thoughts about being negatively stereotyped. Numerous factors appear to influence whether stereotype threat is experienced [5]. For example, the likelihood of stereotype threat effects increases with increased task difficulty, increased levels of concern about performance in the domain in question, and increased identification with the stereotyped group. Also, individuals who themselves tend to believe stereotypes about their social category and those who expect to encounter prejudice and are more bothered by it than others are more affected by stereotype threat than are others, although personal belief in the validity of a stereotype is not necessary for stereotype threat effects to occur. There is some evidence that other personality predispositions, such as a high internal locus of control and a low tendency to self-monitor, are also related to increased stereotype threat effects. Relatively little is dependably known about strategies that reduce or eliminate stereotype threat effects. However, some research suggests that individuals who are induced to believe that the stereotyped capability is malleable rather than being genetically determined are less prone to stereotype threat effects than are others. Also, educating individuals about the existence of stereotype threat and its potential to cause anxiety may be helpful. Importantly, both laboratory and school-based research suggests that leading individuals vulnerable to stereotype threat to selfaffirm, i.e., to write about their most valued personal characteristic or about their values, can reduce stereotype threat effects, sometimes to a substantial extent [3]. Other strategies to reduce stereotype threat effects currently being proposed and investigated include emphasizing high standards and one’s belief in the individual’s potential, activating category memberships that are not linked to negative stereotypes, describing activities in non-threatening ways, and finding ways to make negatively stereotyped social categories less salient than they might otherwise be.
Relevance to Childhood Development To the extent that negative stereotypes exist about the capabilities of children belonging to different social
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categories, stereotype threat can undermine children’s development by reducing their performance and decreasing their interest in negatively stereotyped domains. Concern about this possibility is given weight by the fact that many children become aware of group stereotypes at a quite young age, certainly during if not before their school years. Furthermore, studies document stereotype threat effects in children as well as in older individuals. Stereotype threat can reasonably be considered one factor contributing to the substantial achievement gap between minority group students and their non-minority group peers, although it is clearly not the only one.
References 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Alexander, K., & Schofield, J. W. (2006). Stereotype threat: How students’ responses to perceived negative stereotypes undermine their achievement. In J. W. Schofield (Ed.), Migration background, minority-group membership and academic achievement: Research evidence from social, educational, and developmental psychology. Berlin: Social Science Research Center (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fu¨r Sozialforschung, www.aki.wz-berlin.de). Aronson, J., & Steele, C. M. (2005). Stereotypes and the fragility of academic competence, motivation, and self-concept. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 436–460). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. (2006). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307–1310. Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797–811. Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Aronson, J. (2002). Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 379–440.
Stereotypic Behavior ▶Autistic Behaviors
Stereotypic Play ▶Restrictive Play
Stereotypy ▶Autistic Behaviors
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Stillbirths
Stillbirths AMY E. ZIMMERMAN, RAYMOND S. DEAN Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Fetal death; Intrauterine fetal death; Sudden Antenatal Death Syndrome (SADS)
Definition A stillbirth is the death of a fetus prior to delivery or during its travel through the birth canal that occurs at 20 or more completed weeks of gestation. If gestational age is unknown, then the death of a fetus weighing 350 or more grams is considered a stillbirth [4].
Description Stillbirths can be classified into three categories: early preterm, late preterm, and term. Early preterm is typically used for a fetal death occurring between 20 and 27 completed weeks of gestation. Late preterm refers to a fetal death occurring during 28–36 weeks of gestation. Term refers to a fetal at 37 weeks or more [4]. Miscarriage and stillbirth are not synonymous. A miscarriage is the death of the fetus before 20 weeks of gestation, whereas a stillbirth occurs at 20 or more weeks of gestation. Male fetuses are more likely to be stillborn than female fetuses [6]. In the United States, approximately 26,000 stillbirths occurred in 2002 [5]. The stillbirth rate declined 52% between 1970 (14 per 1,000 births) and 1998 (6.7 per 1000 births) [1]. Although the cause of 25–60% of all fetal deaths cannot be determined, some causes of stillbirth have been identified, and include infection, lethal fetal anomalies, and fetal malnutrition [3]. Infection can lead to stillbirth through different mechanisms, such as placental damage, severe maternal illness, and development of a congenital anomaly in the fetus. The number of stillbirths caused by infection in developed countries, like the United States, ranges from 10 to 25%, but in developing countries, infection is a major contributing factor in stillbirths [4]. Another cause of stillbirth is the fetus being small for its gestational age or not growing at an appropriate rate. Abruption, in which the placenta prematurely separates from the uterine wall, has also been identified as a cause of stillbirth. Intrapartum asphyxia, impaired respiratory gas exchanged during labor, is another cause of stillbirth. The incidence of intrapartum asphyxia has decreased by 95% since the introduction of intrapartum monitoring [2, 3].
Researchers have identified several risk factors for stillbirth. Some of these risk factors are maternal obesity, low educational attainment, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, infection, thrombophilia, systemic lupus erthematousus (SLE), and multiple gestations. Infertility is a risk factor due to the use of advanced reproductive technologies, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and ovarian stimulation [3]. The age of the mother is also a risk factor for stillbirth. Females who are under 20 or over 35 years old are more likely to have a stillbirth [1]. Another risk factor is race. Socioeconomic factors associated with race in relation to stillbirth include inadequate prenatal care as well as obstetric care early in the pregnancy [3]. However, African-American women are twice as likely to experience a stillbirth as their Caucasian counterparts even when evaluating only women who received adequate prenatal care [7]. There is also an interaction between race and maternal age. When over 35 years of age, an African American woman’s risk of having a stillbirth is four to five times higher than the national average [5]. Stillbirth continues to be an important public health concern. Developing cost-effective prevention strategies is difficult due to limited information. Accurate reporting of stillbirths, including a proper investigation of the cause, can contribute to the development of both prevention and medical management strategies.
References 1.
2.
3. 4. 5.
6. 7.
Ananth, C. V., Lui, S., Kinzler, W. L., & Kramer, M. S. (2005). Stillbirths in the United States, 1981–2000: An age, period, and cohort analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 95(12), 2213–2217. Dilenge, M., Majnemer, A., & Shevell, M. I. (2001). Development outcome of asphyxiated term neonates. Journal of Child Neurology, 16(11), 781–792. Fretts, R. C. (2005). Etiology and prevention of stillbirth. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 193(6), 1923–1935. Goldberg, R. L., & Thompson, C. (2003). The infectious origins of stillbirth. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 189(2), 861–873. Martin, J. A., Hamilton, B. E., Sutton, P. D., Ventura, S. J., Menacker, F., & Munson, M. L. (2003). Births: Final data for 2002. National Vital Statistics Reports, 52(10), 1–113. Papalia, D. E., Gross, D., & Feldman, R. D. (2003). Child development: A topical approach. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Vintzileos, A. M., Ananth, C. V., Smulian, J. C., Scorza, W. E., & Knuppel, R. A. (2002). Prenatal care and black-white fetal death disparity in the United States: Heterogeneity by high-risk conditions. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 99(3), 483–489.
Stilnoct ▶Ambien (Zolpidem)
Stimulant Medications
Stilnox ▶Ambien (Zolpidem)
Stimulant Medications RAMZI M. HASSON, ANDY V. PHAM, JOHN S. CARLSON Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Synonyms Adderall; ADHD medication; Amphetamine salts; Concerta; Dexadrine; Dexamphetamine; Methylphenidate; Ritalin
Definition Stimulant medications are psychoactive drugs that act on the central nervous system by inhibiting the reuptake of specific neurotransmitters including dopamine and norepinephrine, and consequently may elicit alertness, arousal, and in some cases euphoric feelings. Moreover, these medications may help attenuate symptoms of mild depression and narcolepsy, but are largely used to treat symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Popular stimulants in clinical use are largely prepared from methylphenidate, dextromethylphenidate, dextroamphetamine, or mixed amphetamine salts [3].
Description Historical Context and the Modern Use of Stimulant Medications The history of stimulant medication developed from the ancient use of stimulants, for largely recreational uses, by many cultures in different parts of the world. Stimulant use has been documented in multiple cultures across different continents. For instance, for the past 800 years people in East Africa and Lower Arabian Peninsula have chewed a stimulant leaf called Khat. Also, the early use of tea in ancient Chinese culture, the early tobacco use by Native Americans and how such stimulants are widely popular today around the world illustrates the pervasiveness of these stimulants. Additionally, the modern day proliferation of associated stimulants include Coca leaves and white powder Cocaine that began to be used in the early parts of the twentieth century for recreational as well as medicinal purposes [1].
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Such historical recreational uses lead to the first synthesized stimulant, namely amphetamine in 1920. Amphetamine was produced for its effect as a moodelevating drug and about the same time cocaine was medically prescribed for its stimulating effects [4]. The clinical use of stimulants for behavioral disturbances in children and adolescents first began in 1937 at the Emma Pendleton Bradley Home for Children in Rhode Island when Charles Bradley serendipitously discovered the positive effects of amphetamine on children’s hyperactivity [6]. Another important development was the approval of methylphenidate for treatment of lethargy, mild depression, and narcolepsy by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1955. In the 1960s, methylphenidate acquired the trade name Ritalin, thus setting precedence of the popularity of stimulant medications [4]. In 1962, Bernard Weiss and Victor Laties extensively studied the effects of amphetamine (including methamphetamine). Before their detailed study there was “love/ hate” affair with stimulant medications. The findings of Weiss and Laties portrayed amphetamines as “wonder drugs” that could greatly improve human cognitive abilities, as well as physical performance, but skepticism and worry about possible side effects still endured [4]. In the 1970s, there was increase in uproar about the possible negative consequences of giving Ritalin and other methylphenidate-based drugs to children. By the 1980s, with a new mental illness named to describe inattention in a small number of children as attention deficit disorder (ADD), the relationship between ADD and Ritalin and related drugs seemed clear cut and appropriate [4]. What suspicion there was in the 1970s was dissipated in the eighties and use and prescription among young children rose dramatically up until the late 1990s. Between 1987 and 1996, the use of stimulants among those younger than 18 increased up to sevenfold [10]. During the 1990s, the number of children and adults diagnosed with ADD rose from about 900,000 to almost 5 million. This figure was arrived at by the amount of medication prescribed for ADD. The sharp rise in ADD diagnosis is directly tied to another statistic: a 700% increase in the amount of Ritalin produced in the United States during the same time period. Furthermore, 77–87% of stimulant prescription from 1991–1997 was methylphenidate but a substantial increase of 7–14 fold in amphetamine prescription between 1996–1999 as observed by Medicaid and in health maintenance organizations [10, 11]. Although stimulant medications were used for several mental illnesses, today’s use is largely for ADHD.
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Stimulant Medications
There is a plethora of stimulant medication options available. Ritalin was the icon of this class of medication, but today there are many more popular brands that are more flexible than previous stimulant medication amalgamations.
Brand name
Generic name
Frequency Duration of action
comorbid issues such as learning disabilities or depression. Moreover, stimulant medications should only play a part in overall psychoeducational treatment plans that may include classroom accommodations, working memory training, parent education, and coaching [3]. Although there is generally a low rate of serious side effects, possible side effects include appetite suppression, sleep disruption, irritability, disruption in liver function, elevated heart pressure, elevated heart rate, moodiness, sad demeanor, abdominal pain, lethargy, weight loss, and headaches.
Dexedrine
D-Amphetamine
2 or 3 times per day
5h
Relevance to Childhood Development
Adderall
Mixed amphetamine 2 or 3 times per day
5h
Dexedrine Spansules
Dextroamphetamine Once in a.m.
6–9 h
Adderall XR (extended release)
Extended release Once in mixed amphetamine a.m.
9h
Ritalin
Methylphenidate
3 times per day
2–4 h
Focalin
Dexmethylphendiate 2 times per day
2–5 h
Commonly used stimulant medications for ADHD
Ritalin SR Slow release (slow release) amphetamine
1 or 2 times per day
5h
Metadate CD Methylphenidate
Once in a.m.
8h
Concerta
Once in a.m.
12 h
Methylphenidate
As has been discussed thus far, stimulant medications are largely used to treat ADHD symptoms. It also has been noted that stimulant medications have a controversial history, and currently there is debate about the administration of these drugs to children. Between 3 and 7% of school aged children are diagnosed as ADHD, and 77% of the initial referrals in schools for ADHD examination come from teachers who may play a significant role in the assessment. Other controversial issues center on whether ADHD is over- or under-diagnosed, and whether there is over- or under-prescription of stimulant medications.
References
Benefits and Side effects of Stimulant Medications In general, many studies show a significant improvement in ADHD core symptoms such as impulsiveness, aggressiveness and hyperactivity, with the use of stimulant medication. Placebo responses in children with ADHD are generally low ranging from 2–39% [3]. Furthermore, stimulant medications have been found to improve the quality of social interactions between children with ADHD and their parents, teachers, and peers [3]. The majority of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals recommend the use of stimulant medication intervention only after a great deal of consideration has been given to possible side effects and identifying
1. Angrist, B. (1983). Psychoses induced by central nervous system stimulants and related drugs. In I. Creese (Ed.), Stimulants. New York: Raven Press. 2. Attention deficit hyperactivity treatment. (2008). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 9, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Attention-deficit_hyperactivity_disorder_treatments 3. Connor, F. D. (2005). Psychostimulants in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In D. Gozal & L. D. Molfese (Eds.), Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press. 4. Diller, H. L. (1998). Running on Ritalin: A physician reflects on children, society, and performance in a pill. New York: Bantam Books. 5. Dudley, W. (2005). At issue: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press. 6. Gittelman, R. (1983). Experimental and clinical studies of stimulant use in hyperactive children and children with other behavioral disorders. In I. Creese (Ed.), Stimulants. New York: Raven Press. 7. Greenhill, L. (2001). Clinical effects of stimulant medication in ADHD. In M. Solanto, A. Arnsten, & F. Castellanos (Eds.), Stimulant drugs and ADHD. New York: Oxford University Press. 8. Meyer, M. (2003). ADHD is over diagnosed. In W. Dudley (Ed.), At issue: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press. 9. Watkins, C. (2008). ADHD medication. Retrieved September 15, 2008, from http://www.ncpamd.com/Watkins.htm 10. Zito, J. M., Safer, D. J., DosReis, S., Gardner, J. F., Magder, L., Soeken, K., et al. (2003). Psychotropic practice patterns for youth:
Stockings of Cambridge A 10 year perspective. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 157, 17–25. 11. Zito, J. M., Safer, D. J., dosReis, S., Magder, L. S., Gardner, J. F., & Zarin, D. A. (1999). Psychotherapeutic medication patterns for youths with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 153, 1257–1263.
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common among adolescents and college students. Individuals who are prescribed stimulant medication for ADHD are selling their medication for recreational use. The medication is also being used to increase studying efficiency.
References
Stimulants
1.
Hall, K., Irwin, M., Bowman, K., Frankenberger, W., & Jewett, D. (2005). Illicit Use of Prescribed Stimulant Medication Among College Students. Journal of American College Health, 53(4), 167–174.
Synonyms Analeptics; Psychostimulants; Uppers
Definition A class of psychoactive drugs that increases mood, feelings of well-being, alertness, and energy
Description Stimulants are typically prescribed for treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and short-term obesity. Stimulants have many shortterm and long-term effects. The short-term effects are caused by an increase in the amount of norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain by inhibiting reuptake, which increases blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose, breathing, and constricts blood vessels. The effects can be increased alertness, energy, attention, and euphoria. There are also harmful effects such as cardiovascular problems or seizures. Also, there are harmful long-term effects of continued stimulant use, such as addiction. Stimulant drugs are often abused and when taken in high dosages stimulants can cause paranoia, hostility, high body temperature, and an irregular heartbeat. Types of Stimulants: ● ● ● ● ● ●
Caffeine Nicotine Amphetamines Cocaine MDMA (Ecstasy) Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (NRIs) and Norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs) ● Modafinil ● Ampakines ● Yohimbine
Relevance to Childhood Development Stimulants may stunt children’s growth. Also, abuse of prescribed stimulant medication has become increasingly
Stimulus ▶Motivation
Stimulus Control ▶Antecedent Management of Behavior ▶Discrimination Learning
Stimulus Discrimination ▶Discrimination Learning
S Stimulus Preference Assessment ▶Preference Assessments
Stockings of Cambridge ▶Tower Tasks
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Stories ▶Personal Narratives
Strange Situation CYNTHIA FIELD William Alanson White Institute, New York, NY, USA
Synonyms
Storm and Stress Theory JACKIE KIBLER University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
Definition Describes the period of adolescence as a time of difficulty and strife [2].
Description G. Stanley Hall, father of the Child Study Movement, in his text titled Adolescence [4] discussed the “Storm and Stress theory” of adolescence. He defined this time as one characterized by behavioral difficulties and emotional storminess [4]. Albert Bandura challenged this claim of storm and stress with his 1964 study on the adolescent experience [1]. His research indicated that the majority of youth did not experience adolescence as a turbulent time [1]. Those who did indicate a stressful adolescent experience also indicated a stressful childhood experience, suggesting that the period of adolescence did not bring about the turbulence [1]. Contemporary research also challenges Hall’s theory indicating that fewer than 10% of adolescents report experiencing extreme turmoil [3].
References 1. 2. 3.
4.
Bandura, A. (1964). The stormy decade: Fact or fiction? Psychology in the Schools, 1(3), 224–231. Berk, L. E. (2008). Infants, children, and adolescents (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Graber, J. A., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Peterson, A. C. (1996). Transitions through adolescence: Interpersonal domains and context. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion, and education. New York, NY: Appleton.
Stoutness ▶Obesity
Ainsworth’s procedure; Ambivalent attachment
Definition The Strange situation is a standardized observational procedure involving short separations and reunions between an infant and his caregiver. Each successive phase of the procedure is designed to be increasingly stressful to the infant to induce attachment behaviors. The infant’s behavior at departures and reunions are coded to assess the toddler’s attachment style.
Description The Strange situation was developed by Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues to assess the attachment between a mother and her infant. The procedure provides empirical support for attachment theory that she and her colleague John Bowlby developed (See Chapter Attachment Theory herein.). The structure of the observational technique is based upon Bowlby’s concept of the protective function of attachments. When an infant is distressed, he turns to his attachment figure for comfort and to ensure his wellbeing. In addition, the structured technique is premised on Ainsworth’s notion that infants use their mothers as a secure base from which they play and explore their environment. The physical arrangement of the laboratory facility is designed to resemble the sort of situations that a mother and her child encounter in their home, but with added stress so as to activate attachment behaviors. Ainsworth and her colleagues developed a highly specified protocol for the Strange Situation. The procedure involves a sequence of eight episodes in which 12–18 month old infants are observed as they experience stress induced by separations from their mothers. The infant’s responses to his mother at reunion is observed and used to classify the child into one of four attachment styles. More specifically, in the first brief episode, the mother and infant are lead into the room by a stranger who asks the adult to sit quietly and place her child on the floor near some toys. In the next episode, the stranger leaves the room while the mother quietly reads a book. The mother has been told not to initiate any engagement with the child, but can respond appropriately if the infant initiates contact. Each successive episode is increasingly stressful to
Strange Situation
the infant as he is separated from his primary attachment figure and is made anxious by the presence of a stranger. Episode Persons present
Duration
Action
1
Mother, infant, observer
30 s
Observer introduces mother and infant to room and gives instructions. Observer leaves.
2
Mother 3 min and infant
Mother sits in chair and reads while baby explores. Mother responds to infant but does not initiate.
3
Stranger, 3 min mother and infant
Stranger enters, silent (1 min.), talks to mother (1 min.), and approaches infant (1 min.).
4
Stranger 3 min or and infant less
First separation. Mother leaves room. Stranger comforts infant if needed, otherwise sits in chair.
5
Mother 3 min or and infant more
Stranger leaves. First reunion. Mother returns, greets and/or comforts infant, sits in chair and reads.
6
Infant alone
3 min or less
Second separation. Mother departs, leaving infant alone.
7
Stranger 3 min or and infant less
Continued separation from mother. Stranger enters, comforts infant if needed, otherwise sits in chair
8
Mother 3 min and infant
Second reunion. Mother returns. Stranger leaves.
The procedure is video recorded and scored by highly trained observers. These observers tabulate four 7-point scales that assess proximity seeking, contact maintaining, avoidance of proximity and contact, and resistance to contact and comforting. Although all of the infant’s behaviors are closely noted, the observers pay special attention to the nature of the infant’s reunion with his mother following separations. Ainsworth and her colleagues grouped infants whose behaviors were alike in as many respects as possible. This analysis yielded three main groups of infants, designated as secure, avoidant and ambivalent, and subtypes of each of
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these styles. Subsequently, other researchers identified a fourth general pattern. Ainsworth hypothesized that differences in attachment were related to variations in the sensitivity and appropriateness of the mother’s responses to her infant. The names assigned to the different styles refer to the infant’s perception of his mother’s response to him if he is in need of comfort or protection, and the manner in which he uses his caregiver to meet those needs. Ainsworth identified a secure baby as one who protested when his mother left the room, greeted her pleasantly upon her return, and was able to resume play. When situated in the room with the mother close by, the infant would use her as a secure base from which he would explore the toys and other objects in the room. In contrast, an infant with an avoidant attachment style rarely cried when the mother departed from the laboratory room, and remained aloof on her return. He generally did not show his need for connection, although physiological studies showed that he has a physically measurable stress reaction. Thus, he does not express his attachment need to avoid risking rejection. Finally, an ambivalent (or resistant) infant is anxious before the mother leaves the room, and may become highly upset when she departs. When the mother returns, the infant engages with her in an ambivalent fashion: he seeks contact while resisting her by squirming away or kicking his mother. He has difficulty using his mother to obtain comfort and subsequently return to exploration. Later research revealed the disorganized attachment pattern. An infant who reflects this attachment style displays inconsistent or contradictory behaviors. For instance, the infant may happily approach the mother but turn away or shriek when she tries to pick him up. At other times the infant may evince extreme distress yet remain frozen and not seek contact with his mother. Those who displayed a disorganized attachment were found to have been abused or subjected to distressing experiences early on.
Relevance to Childhood Development The strange situation is a powerful research tool that has been used in thousands of empirical studies to explore the influence of infant-caregiver attachment on child development. Longitudinal studies on attachment have shown its importance in personality growth and adjustment.
References 1.
2.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, N.J: Erlbaum. Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecuredisorganized attachment pattern: Procedures, findings and
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Stranger Anxiety
implications for the classification of behavior. In T. B. Brazelton & M. Yogman (Eds.), Affective development in infancy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Salter, M. (1940). An evaluation of adjustment based on the concept of security. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Stranger Anxiety MARIA-EVA TSOLA, XENIA ANASTASSIOU-HADJICHARALAMBOUS University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
unexpected is incongruous and incompatible with infants’ expectations, it produces anxiety and fear which is then manifested in avoidant behaviors. The emergence of stranger anxiety is thus viewed as a milestone of cognitive development: a behavioral demonstration of the infant’s acquisition of the ability to represent persons mentally and to make a distinction among various persons in its environment, an important skill achieved in Piaget’s fourth stage of sensorimotor development.
References 1. 2.
Synonyms Fear of strangers; Stranger fear; Stranger wariness
Definition An infant’s anxiety response to someone other than the caregiver.
Description Stranger anxiety is discomfort at the approach of an unfamiliar person. Infants differ considerably in both the way in which they demonstrate signs of discomfort and in the intensity of distress they experience once confronted with people that are unfamiliar. The manner in which an infant responds to a stranger has been found to be influenced by a variety of factors, namely, the infant’s temperament and the security of the mother–infant relationship, aspects of the stranger such as gender and behavior toward the infant, and aspects of the situation, including the proximity and availability of an attachment figure or the infant’s current mood [1–3]. Thus, infants may cry, cling and hide their faces, or merely become unresponsive and guarded [1]. Because researchers diverge in their views regarding behaviors that constitute evidence of stranger anxiety, the relevant literature does not denote a precise time period in which the phenomenon occurs. The majority of researchers agree, however, that by the time they are one year old most infants respond with some level of stranger anxiety [1, 4, 5]. The behavioral reactions characteristic of stranger anxiety have been viewed by attachment theorists as indicators of the infant’s developing ability to discriminate between the attachment figure and other adults [6]. According to this explanation, labeled “the incongruity hypothesis” by Hebb in 1966 [2, 3], fear may result from discrepancies between the stranger’s demeanor and that of the familiar caregiver. Because the emergence of the
3. 4.
5. 6.
Berger, K. S. (1998). The developing person through the life span (4th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Fox, N. A., & Stifter, C. A. (2005). Emotional development. In B. Hopkins, R. G. Barr, G. F. Michael, & P. Rochat (Eds.), The Cambridge encyclopedia of child development (pp. 237–238). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lefrancois, G. R. (1995). Of children: An introduction to child development (5th ed.). CA: Wadsworth. McIntyre, A. (2002). Stranger anxiety. In N. J. Salkind (Ed.), Child development: The Macmillan psychology series (pp. 388). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale group Thomson Learning. Seifert, K. L., & Hoffnung, R. J. (1994). Child and adolescent development (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Thompson, R. A., & Limber, S. P. (1990). Social anxiety in infancy: Stranger and separation reactions. In H. Leitenberg (Ed.), Handbook of social and evaluation anxiety (pp. 6876–6877). New York, NY: Springer.
Stranger Fear ▶Stranger Anxiety
Stranger Wariness ▶Stranger Anxiety
Strangulation ▶Asphyxia
Strategic Thinking ▶Self-Evaluation in Academic Settings
Street Terms: Gas, Gear, Juice, Roids
Strategist ▶Family Therapist
Strattera (Atomoxetine) AMBER R. WHITED, ANDREW S. DAVIS Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms
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a reduced dosage, typically being prescribed a 50% dosage for moderate liver damage and a 25% dosage for severe liver damage [3, 4]. Although Strattera has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of ADHD, it may also be prescribed for treatment of depression. As with many antidepressants, Strattera carries a warning that use with children and adolescents may increase the risk of suicidal ideation. Patients should be monitored closely, particularly early in initial treatment with Strattera [3]. A meta-analysis conducted by Bangs et al. [1] noted suicide-related events were more common among patients given atomoxetine than individuals given a placebo, although the events occurred rarely. Suicide-related events usually involved increases in suicidal ideation, rather than attempted suicides.
Atomoxetine
Definition
References 1.
Strattera is a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) commonly prescribed for treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). 2.
Description Strattera is manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company. It is administered as a capsule, which is taken whole. The medication is intended to reduce inattentiveness, motor hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Although effects may be observed as early as the first dose, signs of improvement may take 6–8 weeks to appear. Furthermore, improvement in symptoms may be more pronounced in female patients, as well as with patients who exhibit more severe symptoms prior to treatment or who exhibit predominantly inattentive type rather than hyperactive-impulsive type. Possible side effects for children and adolescents include digestive difficulties (i.e., upset stomach, reduce appetite, nausea), dizziness, drowsiness or fatigue, and mood swings. Digestive difficulties and drowsiness are reported most frequently. Adverse side effects are seen more commonly in young patients and patients who exhibit a high level of hyperactivity or impulsivity prior to treatment, while diagnosis of predominantly inattentive type has been linked with reduced frequency of reports of adverse side effects [2–4]. Strattera should not be taken by individuals who are sensitive to atomoxetine, who are taking a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), or who have narrow angle glaucoma. Use in conjunction with Albuterol may increase heart rate and blood pressure. Due to the potential for increases in heart rate and blood pressure, caution is recommended in use of Strattera for patients with heart problems. Individuals with liver impairment may require
3.
4.
Bangs, M. E., Tauscher-Wisniewski, S., Polzer, J., Zhang, S., Acharya, N., Desaiah, D., et al. (2008). A meta-analysis of suiciderelated behavior events in patients treated with atomoxetine. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47, 209–218. Cheng, J. Y. W., Chen, R. Y. L., Ko, J. S. N., & Ng, E. M. L. (2007). Efficacy and safety of atomoxetine for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents. Psychopharmacology, 194, 197–209. Stahl, S. M. (2006). Essential psychopharmacology: The prescriber’s guide (Revised and updated edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Strattera (2007). In Physicians’ desk reference (62nd ed., pp. 1850–1855). Montvale, NJ: Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
Streaming (Great Britain) ▶Ability Grouping
Street Smarts ▶Practical Intelligence
Street Terms: Gas, Gear, Juice, Roids ▶Anabolic Steroids
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Stress KRISTY M. KELSO Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, USA
Synonyms Anxiety; Coping; Pressure; Tension
Definition A condition in which an individual feels mental tension due to overwhelming circumstances – this mental tension can develop into depression once the individual feels hopeless or can be manifest as physical problems.
Description The stress response occurs when the amount of stress exceeds what is typically tolerable, and tolerance levels tend to vary for each individual. No matter how the arousal is elicited (whether it be from a traumatic event, an exhilarating event, or anything in between) the stress response process remains the same. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for any stress-related processes, and is able to release hormones through two different neurological pathways. Both pathways are utilized, however they serve different functions and are activated by different hormones. The Fast-Acting Pathway is activated when the hormone epinephrine is released, thereby preparing the body for the “fight or flight” response. During this process, epinephrine has two primary functions: preparing the body for an abrupt surge of activity and stimulating cell metabolism allowing the body to be ready for action. This survival mechanism only occurs when the mind perceives a critical or dangerous situation. The Slow-Acting Pathway involves the hormone cortisol, a steroid released from the adrenal cortex. Cortisol results in the shutting down of any systems in the body that are not essential at the time of the stressful event. This allows the remaining energy in the body to be redirected in order to deal with the stressful event. It is suggested that consistent exposure to or concentrated amounts of these stress hormones during prolonged stress and intense traumatic events may cause hippocampal damage. Such damage may increase one’s vulnerability to stress-related disorders (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Panic Disorders, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Acute Stress Disorder).
Relevance to Childhood Development Although stress involves a significant biological component, it has an equally profound impact psychologically. Psychological beliefs are formed through the process of conditioning, whether it is through previous personal experiences or by observing the experiences of others. Thus, the events that happen during the developmental stages of children can have large implications on their lives as adults. Regardless of whether or not an event is negative or positive, it will ultimately influence an individual’s beliefs, emotions, and reactions to all similar events in the future. Developmentally, all children will experience stress. Large amounts of stress not only pose the risk of damage to the hippocampus, but the risk of abnormal social development as well. Depending upon the frequency and intensity of the stressor, the previously acquired coping skills, and the level of social support established, a range of outcomes can be possible for a child. The more positive coping skills a child possesses and the larger their social support system, the better they will be able to effectively manage the stressful situation. Children with fewer coping skills and/or smaller social support systems could be at greater risk for PostTraumatic Stress Disorder, Panic Disorders, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Acute Stress Disorder. Theoretically, personality disorders could also be attributed to maladaptive coping strategies that may have been developed in response to growing up in stressful environments (examples would be the notoriously criminalistic behavior of Antisocial Personality Disorder or the manipulative behavior of Borderline Personality Disorder). Ideally, levels of stress for children should be kept to a minimum as a more nourishing environment has been shown to correlate with better social skills and better overall mental health. The mental wellbeing and social skills of children are important throughout the developmental stages, however the benefits also extend to adulthood in regards to future career opportunities and personal relationships.
References 1. 2.
Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. (2008). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (6th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Myers, D. G. (2007). Psychology (8th ed.). Hope College, Holland, Michigan: Worth Publishers.
Stress Management ▶Self-Care
Stroop Tasks
Stress Reduction ▶Self-Care
Stress-Diathesis Model ▶Diathesis-Stress Model
Stressful Life Events ▶Life Events
Stress-Vulnerability Model
References 1.
2.
IOANA BOIE University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
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The striatum’s activity is disrupted in Parkinson’s disease, which has symptoms such as resting tremors, a slow shuffling gait, and difficulty initiating voluntary movement. Huntington’s disease also affects the caudate nucleus, and is characterized by puppetlike jerking and grimacing choreic movements. With the help of neuroimaging techniques, other changes in the structures and chemistry of the striatum have been noticed in adults who used methamphetamines, specifically an enlargement of the striatum, while the effects of in utero exposure to methamphetamines have shown a decrease in the striatal structures. Other studies have shown association between abnormalities in circuits involving the amygdala and striatum and bipolar disorder, as well as effects on mood regulation. Furthermore, other studies are investigating the links between the striatum and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
▶Diathesis-Stress Model
Striatum
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Linda, C., Alicata, D., Ernst, T., & Volkow, N. (2007). Structural and metabolic brain changes in the striatum associated with methamphetamine abuse. Addiction, 102, 16–32. doi:10.1111/j.1360– 0443.2006.01782.x. Parker, J. M., & Parker, P. M. (2004). Substance abuse: a medical dictionary, bibliography, and annotated research guide to internet references. San Diego: Icon Group International. Raz, A. (2004). Brain imaging data of ADHD. Psychiatric Times, 21(8), 42–50. Serene, J., Ashtari, M., Szeszko, P., & Kumra, S. (2007). Neuroimaging studies of children with serious emotional disturbances: a selective review. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 52(3), 135–145. Zillmer, E. A., Spiers, M. V., & Culbertson. (2008). Principles of neuropsychology (3rd ed.). Belmont: Thomson.
Synonyms Neostriatum or striate nucleus
Definition The striatum is a collection of subcortical anatomical brain structures named after their striped or striated appearance.
Stroke ▶Cerebral Infarction
Description The striatum includes the caudate and putamen, two of the three nuclei that make up the basal ganglia (the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus). The striatum collects projected input from the sensory cortex and other cortical regions. These three nuclei work together to send their output to the motor areas of the cortex, through the globus pallidus and then the thalamus. The striatum is considered a motor region that has a role in planning and the initiation of voluntary movements, and it controls the proper timing, ordering and movement sequences.
Stroop Tasks AUDREY MCKINLAY University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Synonyms Color word task
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Structural Equation Modeling
Definition
Scoring
The Stroop Test is designed to measure an individual’s ability to inhibit automatic verbal responses.
In each condition individuals are required to name the colors or read the words as quickly as possible. A number of scores can be generated: (a) time taken to complete a condition, (b) number of uncorrected errors, (c) number of corrected errors. Normative data are available for most age groups [3].
Description The Stroop Test refers to the phenomenon that if you try to name the color of the ink in which a word is written, the word itself can “interfere” with the process. The Stroop effect was first described by J.R. Stroop in 1935 [4] and is most obvious when the word, and color of the ink that the word is written in, don’t match (i.e., they are incongruent). For example, the correct response for the three words below would be red, brown, and blue. Blue Green Brown However, in this situation it usually takes longer to name the color of the ink because of the need to inhibit the more automatic response of reading the word. On the other hand if the word does match its color (i.e., is congruent), it usually takes a shorter time to respond.
Administration In the Stoop Test individuals are required to respond to three separate conditions. In the first condition, the participant is presented with a page that has rows of colored patches that they are required to name. In the second condition they are presented with rows of words that they are required to read. The third condition is the traditional “stroop effect” where the participant is presented with a page of words printed in incongruent ink colors. Participants are asked to name the color of the ink that the letters are printed in rather than reading the word. For example, the correct response for the first line of the text in the box below would be, red, brown, blue, and green [3]. Blue
Green
Brown
Red
Green
Brown
Red
Blue
Brown
ed
Blue
Green
Red
Blue
Green
Brown
Some test designers add a fourth condition. In the fourth condition participants are presented with a page with rows of words again printed in incongruent ink colors but in this condition some of the words are in boxes. The participant is required to name the color of the ink for the words that are not in boxes and read the word if the word is inside a box.
Relevance to Childhood Development The Stoop Test has become a well used measure of inhibitory control. Inhibitory control is an important aspect of development. As a general rule, children have a less developed ability to inhibit automatic responses. For example, a very young child may verbalize an inappropriate response (e.g., “look mommy that lady is fat”) whereas a normal adult would be able to inhibit verbalizing “inappropriate” observations because of their more developed inhibitory control skills. For most children inhibitory control develops automatically as they mature. However, for some children this ability does not develop at the normal rate such as for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [1]. In this situation the Stroop Test is a valuable tool in assessing the level of inhibitory control problems that these children are experiencing. Because very young children are still developing their reading ability Stroop tasks have been developed that do not require this skill, such as color-object interference tasks where line drawings of well known objects (e.g., ducks, frogs) are used rather than words [2].
References 1. 2.
3. 4.
Barkley, R. (1997). Behavioral inhibition disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychology Bulletin, 121, 65–94. Prevor, M. B., & Diamond, A. (2005). Color-object interference in young children: A stroop effect in children 3 1/2–6 1/2. Cognitive Development, 20(2), 256–278. Spreen, O., & Strauss, E. (1998). A compendium of neuropsychological tests (3rd ed.). Victoria: Oxford University Press. Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 622–643.
Structural Equation Modeling KRISTEN M. GRABILL University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Synonyms Analysis of covariance structures; Confirmatory factory analysis; Covariance structure analysis; Covariance structure modeling; Path analysis
Structural Equation Modeling
Definition Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a flexible and powerful set of statistical techniques which incorporates path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.
Description SEM represents an advantage over traditional general linear modeling in that it has flexible assumptions, the ability to test a complete model rather than individual coefficients, the ability to have more than one outcome variable, ease of modeling mediation, and ease of handling missing data. SEM techniques include confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) and path analysis [1]. CFA is a process by which researchers use observed variables to measure unobserved, latent constructs. Factor loadings are calculated as a measure of the strength of the relationship between an observed variable and its latent factor. Path analysis in SEM tests relationships between observed variables or latent constructs in the form of paths or correlations. Path coefficients are calculated as a measure of the strength of association between a predictor and outcome variable. Models that contain both latent (unobserved) constructs and observed variables embedded in a path model require researchers to first test a measurement model using CFA, followed by testing a structural model using path analysis. However, SEM is an extremely flexible approach to statistical modeling, and although estimation of measurement and structural models are one frequent application of SEM, it is often used in other ways. For example, CFA may be used alone to validate the psychometric properties of a measure. Structural or path models may be used alone in cases when research does not involve latent constructs. SEM may also be applied to longitudinal data through
Observed exogenous
Observed
Interpretation of Path Diagrams in SEM (see Fig. 1) An observed variable, represented graphically with a box, is one that has been directly measured by researchers. A latent variable, represented graphically by an oval, is one that is not directly measured, but is estimated by the model from observed variables. An exogenous variable is one that is not predicted by another variable in the model, but typically is a predictor of one or more other variables. An endogenous variable is one that is predicted by other variables in the model and may or may not also predict other variables. Each straight line with a single arrow represents a path, or hypothesized direct effect of one variable on another. Each curved line with two arrowheads represents a correlation between two variables.
Relevance to Childhood Development SEM is a statistical application that is being used throughout research fields, including areas of child development and psychopathology. Recent applications include investigation of child social adjustment, impact of parental
Observed exogenous
Observed exogenous
Latent endogenous
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use of latent growth curve modeling and analysis of time series data. In general, models using SEM are not evaluated using significance levels, as with traditional GLM statistics. They are evaluated through assessment of various fit indices that are generated by the software program used to test the model. The software program may also calculate modification indices, which identify changes to the model meant to improve fit. However, modification indices are typically used sparingly, as SEM is a theory-driven statistical approach. LISREL, AMOS, Mplus, and EQS are popular software packages for SEM.
Latent exogenous
Observed
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Structural Equation Modeling. Fig. 1 Example path diagram used in structural equation modeling.
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alcohol use on child outcomes, the relationship of parenting techniques to childhood aggression, development of parent–child relationships during adolescence, evaluation of family-based intervention for school success, and numerous others. Given the flexibility and utility of SEM, it will likely continue to increase in frequency as a statistical tool among child development researchers.
References 1.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press: New York.
programs tend to have accelerated academic skill and English language growth throughout the second half of elementary school as compared to students in Structured English immersion or early-exit bilingual education programs [2].
References 1.
2.
Freeman, Y. S., Freeman, D. E., & Mercuri, S. P. (2005). Dual language essentials for teachers and administrators. Portsmouth, NH: Heinmann. Ramirez, J. D., Yuen, S., & Ramey, D. R. (1991). Final report: Longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early-exit and late-exit transitional bilingual education programs for languageminority children. San Mateo, CA: Aguirre International.
Structural Imaging ▶Brain Imaging
Struggle with Self Identity ▶Identity Crisis
Structuralist ▶Family Therapist
Structured English Immersion COREY E. RAY-SUBRAMANIAN University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) ▶Cooperative Learning
Student-Centered Instruction Holistic Learning
Definition An instructional approach designed for students with limited English proficiency todevelop proficiency in English and benefit from academic content instruction in English.
Description Structured English immersion has as its goal sufficient English language acquisition for students to succeed in mainstream English-only classrooms. Instruction in these programs is in English and teachers use strategies such as visuals, graphic organizers, and gestures to help make the English content comprehensible [1]. Longitudinal research has demonstrated that students in Structured English immersion programs have similar academic skill and English language growth rates in the first few years of elementary school as compared to students in early-exit and late-exit ▶transitional bilingual education programs; however students in late-exit transitional bilingual education
▶Whole Language Approach
Study Skills CARRIE R. BALL Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
Synonyms Study strategies; Study tactics
Definition Study Skills comprise an integrated repertoire of tactics and strategies, which facilitates acquisition, organization, retention, and application of new information.
Study Skills
Description Study skills encompass a broad range of tactics and strategies that ultimately allow students to effectively learn, organize, and recall new information. Although children are often expected to develop study skills naturally, research indicates that many students exhibit study skill deficits and require explicit instruction to acquire and appropriately use study skills [5]. Additionally, the degree to which students are able to study effectively is a strong predictor of academic achievement [1]. An important distinction must be drawn between study tactics and study strategies, both of which are often used interchangeably with study skills. Study tactics, or the specific techniques involved in studying, form the building blocks for effective study skill development. Study tactics generally fall into one of three “clusters,” each of which is characterized by its approach to learning new information [2]. Repetition-based tactics emphasize frequent rehearsal of material to encourage learning. Use of flashcards or spelling lists are common examples of repetition-based tactics, which are well-suited for the acquisition of rote facts or lists that require minimal information processing. Procedural tactics focus on developing steps or routines that enhance information processing. Note-taking, outlining, and SQ3R are some of the most common examples of procedural tactics, which are often beneficial for students in middle- to lateelementary school. Procedural skills allow children to practice a reliable method of acquiring and reviewing new information. Finally, cognitive tactics are often introduced during late elementary or middle school. Cognitive approaches, such as graphic organizers, question generation, and summarization, facilitate critical thinking and personal connections to new material. In contrast to study tactics, study strategies refer to skills that are necessary to effectively select, integrate, and apply one or more study tactics in a way that facilitates learning. The development of study strategies typically occurs during middle school or later and is a key factor in meeting the increasing demands of secondary education. Study strategies are commonly referred to as ▶metacognitive skills, and can include behaviors such as assessing the demands of a task, selecting and applying appropriate tactics, self-monitoring for comprehension and recall of information, and effectively managing the environment to facilitate learning. Students who struggle academically in high school almost always exhibit deficits with regard to effective study strategies [6]. Study skills, then, refers to an age-appropriate combination of both study tactics and study strategies. An appropriate balance between tactics and strategies varies
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depending upon the developmental level of the child. During early elementary school, for example, study skills may be considered appropriate if children can independently apply one or two study tactics. By late elementary and early middle school, students are typically expected to demonstrate competent use of multiple study tactics, in addition to a developing ability to select and apply a tactic appropriate for a particular task (i.e., apply a study strategy). Students in high school who demonstrate adequate study skills exhibit an extensive toolbox of study tactics, in addition to strategies that allow them to manage multiple courses and assignments, determine and use one or more tactics appropriate for each studying task, and selfmonitor their study habits to ensure adequate comprehension and retention of material.
Relevance to Childhood Development Study skills have a major impact on children’s academic development. Children who struggle academically across a number of subject areas often exhibit significant study skills deficits. In young children, academic difficulty that results from inadequate study skills may be manifested through inattention, challenging behaviors, or low task completion across classroom settings. In middle and high schools, students with study skills deficits often have difficulty with low homework completion, poor test performance, and inappropriate organization and time management skills. Several resources are available for comprehensive assessment and intervention for children who demonstrate such deficits [3, 4]. It may also prove beneficial for parents and teachers to recognize two keys points regarding study skills. First, study skills develop along a continuum, from very basic rehearsal tactics to a complex array of techniques and strategies that are applied flexibly and intentionally to tasks. Helping children become competent at using age-appropriate tactics and strategies can contribute to long-range academic success. Second, study skills can be explicitly taught within an educational context. Incorporating study skills instruction into regular classroom activities allows students to receive modeling, feedback, and guided practice in the use of a variety of specific study tactics. This exposure and experience is likely to help students feel more independent in selecting and using study tactics independently.
References 1.
2.
DiPerna, J. C. (2006). Academic enablers and student achievement: Implications for assessment and intervention services in the schools. Psychology in the Schools, 43, 7–17. Gettinger, M., & Ball, C. (2006). Study skills. In G. G. Bear & K. M. Minke (Eds.), Children’s needs III: Development, prevention,
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4.
5.
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Study Strategies
and intervention (pp. 459–472). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Harvey, V. S., & Chickie-Wolfe, L. A. (2007a). Best practices in teaching study skills. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 1121–1136). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Harvey, V. S., & Chickie-Wolfe, L. A. (2007b). Fostering independent learning: Practical strategies to promote student success. New York: Guilford. Scanlon, D. J., Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (1996). Can a strategy be taught and learned in secondary inclusive classrooms?. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 7, 142–146. Wood, E., Woloshyn, V. E., & Willoughby, T. (Eds.). (1995). Cognitive strategy instruction for middle and high school. Cambridge, MA: Brookline.
Study Strategies ▶Study Skills
Study Tactics ▶Study Skills
Stuttering CHANDRABANU SHRIVATS, KIMBERLY BOOKER Texas Woman’s University, TX, USA
Synonyms Falter; Stammer
Definition To stutter is to speak with an involuntary disruption or blocking of speech (as by spasmodic repetition or prolongation of vocal sounds).
Description Stuttering is a speech disorder in which the normal flow of speech is disrupted by frequent repetitions or prolongations of speech sounds, syllables or words, or by individual’s inability to start a word. The speech disruptions may be accompanied by rapid eye-blinks, tremors of the lips and/or jaw, or other struggle behaviors of the face or upper
body. Certain situations, such as speaking before a group of people or talking on the telephone, tend to make stuttering more severe. Other speaking situations, such as singing or speaking alone, often improves fluency. Diagnosis is usually based on the history of the disorder, including when it was first noticed and under what circumstances, as well as a complete evaluation of speech and language abilities. Stuttering may also be referred to as Stammering, especially in England and by the broader term of “dysfluent speech”. Stuttering is different from two additional speech fluency disorders, cluttering, characterized by rapid, irregular speech and spasmodic dysphonia, a voice disorder. It is estimated that over three million Americans stutter. The precise mechanisms causing stuttering are not known.
Relevance to Childhood Development Stuttering affects individuals of all ages but occurs most frequently in children who are developing language, typically between the ages of 2 and 6 years. Boys are three times more likely to stutter than girls. Most children, however, outgrow their stuttering, and it is estimated that less than 1% of adults stutter. Complications of stuttering in children may include social problems caused by fear of ridicule, which may make a child avoid speaking entirely. The most common form of stuttering is thought to be developmental, that is, occurring in children who are in the process of developing speech and language. This relaxed type of stuttering is felt to occur when a child’s speech and language abilities are unable to meet his or her verbal demands; that is, stuttering happens when the child searches for the correct word. Another form of stuttering is neurogenic, where the brain is unable to coordinate adequately the different components of the speech mechanisms. Neurogenic stuttering may also occur following a stroke or any other type of brain injury. Other forms of stuttering are classified as psychogenic, or originating in the mind or as a product of mental activity of the brain such as thought or reasoning. Psychogenic stuttering occasionally occurs in individuals who have some type of mental illness or have experienced severe mental stress or anguish. There are a variety of treatments available for stuttering. Any of the methods may improve stuttering to some degree, but there is, at present, no absolute cure for stuttering. Developmental stuttering is often treated by educating parents about restructuring the child’s speaking environment to reduce episodes of stuttering. Parents are urged to provide a relaxed home atmosphere with lots of opportunities to speak, and refrain from criticizing or reacting negatively to the child’s dysfluencies.
Suffocation
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References
Description
1.
The substantia nigra is involved in the function of basal ganglia through the dopaminergic nigro-striatal system, which connects the globus pallidus and the thalamus. This connection is believed to influence motor behavior. There are two different parts of the substantia nigra, the substantia nigra pars compacta and the substantia nigra pars reticulata. Substantia nigra pars compacta is the upper, more dorsal part, in which the dopaminergic cells are distributed similar to a band stretching from the medial to the lateral area. Substantia nigra pars reticulata is located ventrally or below the pars compacta, and it consists of the dendrites of the dopaminergic neurons. The degeneration of the substantia nigra and the deterioration of the dopaminergic pathways are the causes of Parkinson’s disease, and the substantia nigra also is believed to play a role in learning.
2.
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Conture, E. G. (2001). Stuttering: Its nature, diagnosis, and treatment. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Kent, R. (2000). Research on speech motor control and its disorders: A review and prospective. Journal of Communication Disorders, 33, 391–428. Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia. (2008). Stuttering. Retrieved July 02, 2008, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001427.htm National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2002). Stuttering. (NIH Pub. No. 97-4232). Retrieved July 02, 2008, from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/stutter.asp
Subcortical Aphasia ▶Childhood Aphasia
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References
Subjective Assessment
1. 2.
▶Social Validity
3. 4.
Freed, W. J. (2000). Neural transplantation: an introduction. Cambridge: MIT Press. Schmidt, W. J., & Reith, M. E. (2005). Dopamine and glutamate in psychiatric disorders. Totowa: Humana. Smith, C. U. (2002). Elements of molecular neurobiology. Hoboken: Wiley. Zillmer, E., Spiers, M., & Culbertson, W. (2008). Principles of neuropsychology (3rd ed.). Belmont: Thomson.
Substance Abuse ▶Chemical Dependency
Suckling ▶Breastfeeding
Substance Dependence ▶Chemical Dependency
Substantia Nigra IOANA BOIE University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
Definition The substantia nigra is defined as a collection of neurons and nuclei that are part of the dopaminergic system, which are located in the midbrain or mesencephalon. The name of the structure is based on the dark color of the cells due to their high concentration of neuromelanin.
Sudden Antenatal Death Syndrome (SADS) ▶Stillbirths
Suffix ▶Morpheme
Suffocation ▶Asphyxia
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Suicidal Cognitions ▶Suicide Ideation
Suicidal Thoughts ▶Suicide Ideation
Suicide DAVID N. MILLER University at Albany, SUNY Division of School Psychology, Albany, NY, USA
Synonyms Self-annihilation; Self-destruction
Definition Suicide refers to a fatal, self-inflicted act with the inferred or explicit intent to die.
Description Suicide is the final and most serious form of suicidal behavior on a continuum that also includes suicide ideation and suicide attempts. Suicide continues to be a significant national problem; although it is the 11th leading cause of death among Americans overall, suicide is the third-leading cause of death among children and adolescents, trailing only accidents and homicide. The probability of suicide increases in both males and females as children grow older, with adolescents ages 15–19 being at higher risk than youth ages 10–14. Suicide does occur in children under the age of 10, although it is very rare. In terms of race and ethnicity, in the U.S. Caucasian youth are at highest risk for suicide, followed by African American and Latino youth. Proportionally, however, the highest rates of youth suicide are among Native American youth. Possible reasons for this include a proportionally higher use of alcohol and firearms and a frequent lack of social integration in this group. Gender exerts a greater influence on youth suicide than does race and ethnicity. Although females report more suicide ideation than males
and attempt suicide two to three times the rate of males, males complete suicide at a rate of five times that of females. Reasons for the higher youth suicide rate of males include the higher rates of significant risk factors among males as well as their being less likely than females to engage in a number of protective behaviors, such as seeking help. In terms of geography, youth suicide rates have consistently been highest in the Western states and Alaska and lowest in the Northeastern states. It has been frequently suggested that geographical differences in youth suicide rates may largely be attributed to differences in population density across various regions. Consistent with this hypothesis is the finding that suicide rates are typically higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The majority of youth suicides occur in the afternoon or evening, and most often in the home, where the primary means for suicide (e.g., firearms) are typically available. The use of firearms is the most frequently used method of suicide completion among males ages 10–19. Although historically firearms were the most frequently used method of suicide completion among females in this age group as well, more recently females have been more likely to use hanging/suffocation rather than firearms. Although a number of studies have examined temporal variations in suicide completion, none to date have been specific to youth suicide. Among adults, research indicates that suicides occur most often between March and September, with the fewest recorded suicides occurring in December. Suicides appear to occur most often on Mondays and least often on weekends. Although numerous risk factors for youth suicide have been identified, the most reliable and robust risk factor is the presence of psychopathology, particularly depression and related mood disorders. In addition to psychopathology, the other prominent risk factor for suicide is previous suicidal behavior, particularly previous suicide attempts. As opposed to risk factors, which are variables that may predispose an individual to suicidal behavior, warning signs are more dynamic and proximal factors that suggest the increased probability of a suicidal crisis. Some prominent warning signs for suicide may include hopelessness, increasing alcohol or drug use, acting recklessly or engaging in risky activities, feeling trapped, experiencing anxiety and/or agitation, withdrawing from family and friends, being unable to sleep or sleeping excessively, giving away prized possessions, and/or perceiving no reason for living or no sense of purpose in life. There are many myths associated with youth suicide, including the erroneous beliefs that it is caused primarily by family and social stress rather than mental health problems, that individuals who threaten suicide are only doing
Sumner, Francis Cecil
so to gain attention, and that once an individual decides to commit suicide there is little or nothing that can be done to prevent it. Perhaps the most significant and dangerous myth, however, is that asking questions or talking about suicide with children and adolescents will increase the probability of youth suicidal behavior. There is no evidence to support this belief, and research suggests that at risk youth who are able to openly discuss suicide with a trusted adult can lead to beneficial outcomes for them as well as their peers who may also be at risk. The direct questioning of youth suspected of being at risk for suicide is also an essential component of effective suicide risk assessment and prevention.
References 1.
2.
Berman, A. L., Jobes, D. A., & Silverman, M. M. (2006). Adolescent suicide: Assessment and intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Miller, D. N., & Eckert, T. L. (2009). Youth suicidal behavior: An introduction and overview. School Psychology Review, 38(2), 153–167.
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Description Suicide ideation may take a variety of forms, ranging from general thoughts about suicide, to wishes of being dead or never being born, to more serious thoughts of suicide involving specific plans to kill oneself, such as how, where, and when this might be accomplished. Suicide ideation is rare in children but highly prevalent among adolescents, with research suggesting that approximately 1 out of 6 high school students will seriously contemplate suicide in a given year. There are significant gender differences in regard to suicide ideation. Specifically, adolescent females report engaging in serious suicide ideation more often than males, although males have a much higher suicide completion rate. Suicide ideation occurs at the beginning of the suicidal behavior continuum that also includes suicide attempts and suicide completion. The behaviors along this continuum vary and are not mutually exclusive, nor do all suicidal youth advance sequentially through them. Although suicide ideation typically is a necessary precursor to more serious forms of suicidal behavior (i.e., suicide attempts; completed suicide), most children and adolescents who engage in suicide ideation neither attempt nor complete suicide.
Suicide Contagion ▶Copycat Suicides
References 1.
2.
Mazza, J. J. (2006). Youth suicidal behavior: A crisis in need of attention. In F. A. Villarruel & T. Luster (Eds.), Adolescent mental health (pp. 156–177). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Miller, D. N., & Eckert, T. L. (in press). Youth suicidal behavior: An introduction and overview. School Psychology Review.
Suicide Epidemic ▶Copycat Suicides
Sumner, Francis Cecil Suicide Ideation
SCOTT GRAVES Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA
DAVID N. MILLER University at Albany, SUNY Division of School Psychology, Albany, NY, USA
Life Dates
Synonyms
Introduction
Suicidal cognitions; Suicidal thoughts
Francis C. Sumner was the first African American awarded the Ph.D. in psychology from a U.S. institution in 1920. Graduating from Clark University under the tutelage of G. Stanely Hall, Sumner’s dissertation was titled: Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler.
Definition Suicide ideation involves thoughts/cognitions about killing oneself as well as specific thoughts related to suicide.
1895–1954
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Superego
Educational Information Sumner received his elementary education through several school systems in Virginia, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia. Due to a lack of secondary education opportunities he did not graduate from high school. Even without a high school diploma, he performed well enough to enroll at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania during the 1911 school year at age 15. In 1915 he graduated magna cum laude with special honors in English, Modern Languages, Greek, Latin, and Philosophy. The prominent child psychologist G. Stanley Hall was the president of Clark University and he allowed Sumner to be admitted in 1915. In 1916 he was awarded a second B.A. in English from Clark University in Worcester Massachusetts. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 1920 Sumner accepted a position as chair of the philosophy and psychology departments at West Virginia Collegiate Institute now known as West Virginia State University.
Accomplishments Dr. Sumner established the first psychology department at Howard University in Washington D.C. He believed that in order to develop a strong program to train Black psychologists, psychology departments needed to be autonomous units. With the help of then Howard University’s president, Mordecai Johnson, a separate department of psychology was permanently established and he was appointed full professor and head of the department in 1930.
Contributions Because of his diligence while confronting the social and educational barriers of his time, Dr. Sumner is known as the pioneer for African American psychologists. Under Sumner’s tutelage many of his students went on to become prominent psychologists. One such student was Kenneth Bancroft Clark whose psychological research on prejudice, discrimination and segregation in the developing child was used in the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. In addition, Sumner was an official abstractor for both the Journal of Social Psychology and the Psychological Bulletin, where he translated more than three thousand articles from German, French, and Spanish.
References 1. 2.
Guthrie, R. V. (1998). Even the rat was white (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row. Sawyer, T. F. (2000). Francis Cecil Sumner: His views and influence on African American higher education. History of Psychology, 3, 122–141.
Superego DAVID BRANDWEIN Kean University, Union, NJ, USA
Synonyms Uber-Ich (German)
Definition According to Freud’s structural model of the mind, as expressed in The Ego and the Id (1923), the superego is the part of the mind that is comprised of internalized moral standards and ideals learned both from parents and society–our sense of right and wrong. Freud believed the superego was the last component of the mind to develop, and begins to emerge at latency when the child “identifies” with the same-sex parent, thereby resolving the Oedipal Complex.
Description and Relevance to Childhood Development The germination for the idea of the superego first appeared in Freud’s writings, via his concept of the “egoideal” as elaborated in On Narcissism: An Introduction [2]. In this original conception of the ego ideal, the child projects an ideal image of himself or herself but is forced to abandon this image due to parental criticism. While this paper does not name the superego specifically, it does discuss a mechanism whereby the ego is watched and measured against the ego ideal. Seven years later, Freud [3] discusses how the ego-ideal can be shaped by others whom the person admires, while not necessarily specifying the role parental and authority figures play in superego development. Building on his earlier ideas, Freud operationally defined the superego in The Ego and the Id (1923). The superego is composed of two parts: the conscience and the ego ideal. In a general sense, the conscience is a punitive, negative agent, and the ego ideal functions as an agent of reward. The conscience is made up of prohibitions, and includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse. Just as the parent has punished the child for his/her transgressions, so does the conscience punish the person with guilt, “accidentally” cutting one’s finger, or intentionally self-destructive behavior [10].
Supportive Care
Hall [6], among others, points out that an overdeveloped conscience can lead to the superego to adapt prohibitions even more severe than parental or societal prohibitions, leading to a “straight-jacket existence” (p. 46) or the development of thought patterns based on morals and ideals rather than reality. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. These behaviors include those approved of by parental and other authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value, and accomplishment. Just as the child has been rewarded for certain behavior by her parents (or parental figures), the child is rewarded by the ego ideal with increased self-esteem and pride. Freud [4] thought that the ego ideal was tied into childhood narcissism, which in adulthood can transform into the perfection of the ego ideal. The superego acts in opposition to the id and the ego, and does not discriminate between what is real and what is imagined. It rewards, punishes, and makes demands, and its goal is to eliminate the pleasure principle and the reality principle. The superego does not only keep watch over behavior, it oversees cognition, namely those of the ego, as thinking is just as bad as doing. Freud, in his later writings, described the superego as representing the “cultural past” [5, p. 206] and felt that the superego helped maintain social order by restraining sexual and aggressive behavior that, if unrestrained, could de-stabilize society. Other psychoanalytic theorists have examined Freud’s conception and definition of superego. Klein [8] (Melanie Klein (1882–1960)), though agreeing with Freud’s conception of the superego, disagreed with its formation at latency. She instead proposed that the superego is formed early in life by the first object-introject, namely the mother’s breast. Similarly, she also disagreed with Freud’s idea that boys developed a stronger superego than girls because they have a penis and girls do not. She posited that girls are better adjusted psychosocially than boys, because boys have to separate from their mother, while girls are extensions of their mother and thus do not need to separate. Erikson [1] acknowledges the need for superego development for socially acceptable behavior, but views its development as a loss because it often blunts imagination and initiative. Lacan [9] proposes that superego “has nothing to do with moral conscience as far as its most obligatory demands are concerned” (p. 310). He felt that superego is not the ethical agency of the mind, but in fact, is the anti-ethical agency. He felt that the betrayal of desire is what leads to guilt, and that the ego ideal compels us to give up on our desires and live according to the demands of the social order.
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Psychoanalytic theorists, most prominently the object-relations psychologist Otto Kernberg, have traced character pathology to issues with superego development. In his book, Object Relations Theory and Clinical Psychoanalysis [7], he theorized that since older children and most adults show some form of ego and superego conflicts, most people show some degree of “splitting” of their psyches that stems from infancy. Kernberg and many others have argued that when the developmental history of splitting is examined, it is found to begin shortly after birth and eventually develops into adult forms of “ego” versus “superego.” An excessive form of splitting is traced to Borderline Personality Disorder, while Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Anti-Social Personality Disorder have etiology in deterioration and/or destruction of the superego.
References 1. Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. 2. Freud, S. (1914). On narcissism: An introduction. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 69–102) (J. Strachey, Ed. & Trans., 1953/1974, 24 vols.). London: Hogarth Press. 3. Freud, S. (1921). Group psychology and the analysis of the ego. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 18, pp. 67–143) (J. Strachey, Ed. & Trans., 1953–1974, 24 vols.). London: Hogarth Press. 4. Freud, S. (1923/1961). The ego and the id. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19) (J. Strachey, Ed. & Trans., 1953–1974, 24 vols.). London: Hogarth Press. 5. Freud, S. (1940/1964). An outline of psychoanalysis. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (J. Strachey, Ed. & Trans., 1953–1974, 24 vols.). London: Hogarth Press. 6. Hall, C. S. (1954). A primer of Freudian psychology. New York: Would. 7. Kernberg, O. (1976). Object relations theory and clinical psychoanalysis. New York: Jason Aronson. 8. Klein, M. (1945). The Oedipus complex in the light of early anxieties. In The writings of Melanie Klein (Vol. 1, pp. 370–419). London: Hogarth Press (Reprinted from International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 26, 11–33). 9. Lacan, J. (1960). The ethics of psychoanalysis 1959–1960. The seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII. London: Routledge. 10. Miller, P. H. (1993). Theories of developmental psychology (3rd ed.). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Supportive Care ▶Palliative Care
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Suppression ▶Inhibition
Survival of the Fittest ▶Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
Susceptibility to Interference ▶Distractibility
Sustained Attention ▶Attention Span
Swallowing Reflex CHERYL L. GIDDENS Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Synonyms Involuntary swallow; Pharyngeal response mechanism; Pharyngeal swallow response; Swallowing response
Definition Automatic physiological mechanism that results in breath hold secondary to vocal fold adduction, laryngeal and hyoid anterior and superior movement, velopharyngeal closure, and epiglottal posterior movement to cover the trachea during bolus movement through the hypopharynx and the upper esophageal sphincter.
Description The swallowing reflex is one phase of the swallow which is under reflexive or involuntary control. This stage of the swallow begins after food which has been masticated has been gathered together in the mouth and formed into a bolus which is passed from the posterior tongue through the faucial arches. As the bolus begins its descent from the
posterior tongue through the hypopharynx to the upper esophageal sphincter, the swallow becomes reflexive. Breathing stops at this time as the epiglottis covers the airway entrance, the vocal folds adduct or close to further protect the upper airway, the larynx moves upward and forward, the velopharyngeal port closes to prevent nasal regurgitation, and the upper esophageal sphincter opens [4]. This process occurs in less than 2 sec [3] and is essential to protection of the airway during feeding, drinking, and when managing saliva. When impaired, a condition referred to as dysphagia, food, drink, and/or saliva can penetrate the upper airway to the level of the vocal folds, or become aspirated below the vocal folds. Aspiration pneumonia is a potentially deadly condition manifested by a sudden spike in core body temperature and acute onset of upper respiratory infection. Both normal and pathological conditions can affect the swallowing reflex. Normal aging results in psychomotor slowing, muscle atrophy, and reduced peristaltic muscle action. Slowing and degradation of the swallowing reflex is no exception. An aging swallow reflex commonly results in increased incidence of laryngeal penetration during the swallow in normally aging individuals [1]. In addition to the observable peripheral effects of aging upon the swallow reflex, central nervous system changes have been identified. Older individuals have been found to activate more cortical sites during swallow than do their younger counterparts, possibly indicating a change in the neurophysiology of the swallowing reflex over time [2]. A primitive swallowing reflex has been observed in those with neurological immaturity and/or neuropathology. This reflexive response is normally observed in infants only. The primitive swallowing reflex can be elicited by a puff of air to the maxillary-mandibular and maxillaryophthalmic regions of the face and there is speculation that the primitive reflex could be exploited to improve swallow safety in those with neuropathology and/or immature nervous systems [5]. Other static and progressive neuropathologies which commonly affect swallow include cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson disease, cerebral palsy, and traumatic brain injury. Anatomical defects can result in an impaired swallow reflex as well. Supraglottal laryngectomy may result in the surgical removal of the epiglottis, the ventricular vocal folds, and/or other tissue above the level of the true vocal folds. Partial laryngectomy may result in the loss of a portion or an entire true vocal fold. The loss of these airway protective mechanisms puts an individual at risk for aspiration. In addition, irradiation of the pharynx for
Swyer Syndrome
treatment of tumors commonly results in an impaired swallow reflex and dysphagia due to reduced peristaltic movement of irradiated muscles. Dysphagia is most commonly diagnosed and treated by a speech-language pathologist. The swallowing reflex is commonly screened informally by a speech pathologist. When the reflex appears delayed, weak, or otherwise disordered, the speech pathologist will often recommend that a modified barium swallow study (MBSS) be performed in fluoroscopy in conjunction with a radiologist. The speech pathologist and the radiologist can determine which consistencies of food and drink are best to maintain a safe swallow, as well as any postural or behavioral modifications necessary to improve swallow safety. In addition, the speech pathologist may target elicitation of the swallowing reflex through various sensory methods in an attempt to reduce or eradicate dysphagia. Persons who cannot or do not respond to postural, behavioral, and/or food consistency modifications and who remain at risk for aspiration may demonstrate the need for alternative feeding methods including temporary placement of a nasogastric feeding tube, or placement of a more permanent gastronomy tube.
References 1.
2.
3. 4.
5.
Daggett, A., Logemann, J., Rademaker, A., & Pauloski, B. (2006). Laryngeal penetration during deglutition in normal subjects of various ages. Dysphagia, 21(4), 270–274. Humbert, I. A., Fitzgerald, M. E., McLaren, D. G., Johnson, S., Porcaro, E., Kosmatka, K., et al. (2009). Neurophysiology of swallowing: effects of age and bolus type. NeuroImage, 44(3), 982–991. Logemann, J. A. (2007). Swallowing disorders. Best Practice and Research Clinical Gastroenterology, 21(4), 563–573. Mendell, D. A., & Logemann, J. A. (2007). Temporal sequence of swallow events during the oropharyngeal swallow. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50(5), 1256–1271. Orenstein, S. R., Bergman, I., Proujansky, R., Kocoshis, S. A., & Giarrusso, V. S. (1992). Novel primitive swallowing reflex: facial receptor distribution and stimulus characteristics. Dysphagia, 7(3), 150–154.
Swallowing Response ▶Swallowing Reflex
Switch-Hitter ▶Bisexual
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Swyer Syndrome Synonyms XY gonadal dysgenesis
Definition A type of hypogonadism in which there is a uterus and fallopian tubes, but no functional gonads present to induce puberty in an individual with XY chromosomes (male chromosomes) but an external female appearance. These individuals instead have clumps of tissue called streak gonads, which may become cancerous later in life and need to be removed.
Description Sywer syndrome is a fairly rare syndrome, occurring in approximately 1 in 30,000 people. It is most commonly caused by a SRY mutation that prevents the production of the sex-determining region on the Y protein (usually male) or produces a nonfunctioning protein. Since, the male determining protein is faulty individuals with Sywer syndrome will by default develop female sex organs. This syndrome is typically not genetically linked but can be passed on by a father who has a mosaic SRY mutation (in some cells but not others) or in rare cases has the SRY mutation but is not affected by it. In cases where the SRY mutation is inherited, the syndrome is said to be a Y-linked inheritance syndrome. The syndrome can also be caused by a NR5A1 mutation; similar to a SRY mutation, a NR5A1 mutation can be spontaneous or inherited. Another mutation that can cause Swyer syndrome is the DHH gene mutation, which is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern (both parents are carriers). A mutation in the NR0B1 gene can also cause Swyer syndrome and is usually a X-linked inheritance. Individuals with Swyer syndrome are usually raised as females and typically identify with the female gender. Hormone replacement therapy is a viable option, and can be started during adolescences to induce menstruation cycles and develop secondary sex organs. Also, hormone replacement therapy helps to prevent reduced bone density, which can be an issue for individuals with Sywer syndrome. However, due to lack of gonads these individuals cannot produce eggs, but may become pregnant through a donated egg or in vitro fertilization.
References 1.
Genetics Home Reference: Swyer syndrome. http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/ condition=swyer-syndrome
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imagine behaviors of adults observed in the past and to reconstruct the behaviors by make-believe. Having available dress-up clothing, paper, crayons, empty boxes and containers help in this development. Various cultures have items representing different foods, dress, and tools that caregivers can include when caring for children [2].
Syllable Structure ▶Morphology
References
Syllogism
1.
▶Deductive Reasoning
2.
Nicolopoulou, A. (1993). Play, cognitive development, and the social world: Piaget, Vygotsky, and beyond. Human Development, 36, 1–23. Rhodes, R. L., Ochoa, S. H., & Ortiz, S. O. (2005). Assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students: A practical guide. New York: Guilford.
Symbolic Play ▶Dramatic Play ▶Pretend Play
Sympathetic Activation ▶Anxiety
Symbolic Thought
Sympathy
ANNE FIERRO VANDERLAAN Saybrook University, Meridian, ID, USA
▶Empathy
Synonyms Internal symbols; symbolically
Pretending
actions;
Thinking
Definition For young children to engage in making up or imagination by acting as if things are real when they are not real. Symbolic thinking is a cognitive stage of development in young preschool age children.
Description Symbolic thought is common for children to engage in through the process of pretend or make believe. Young children express symbolic thoughts by reenacting actions of parents or care givers by using various objects that represent what they pretend them to be. An example is children playing in the dirt to make food. The children imagine themselves to be other people or animals also using drawing, writing, singing and talking [1].
Relevance to Childhood Development Caregivers and parents can help in their children’s development by understanding mirroring plays an important role in the development of symbolic thought. Language develops by symbolic functions. The child is able to
Symptoms Checklists ▶Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale: Second Edition
Synaptic Pruning EDALMARYS SANTOS1, CHAD A. NOGGLE2 1 Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA 2 SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Definition Synaptic pruning refers to the process by which extra neurons and synaptic connections are eliminated in order to increase the efficiency of neuronal transmissions.
Description Beginning in the earliest embryonic stage and lasting until approximately 2 years of age, new neurons and synapses
Syntax
are formed at an amazing rate, at times reaching 40,000 new synapses formed per second [2]. By the end of this process individuals are left with far more neurons and synapses than are functionally needed and/or preferred. Synaptic pruning is the process by which these extra synapses are eliminated thereby increasing the efficiency of the neural network. The entire process continues up until approximately 10 years of age by which time nearly 50% of the synapses present at 2 years of age have been eliminated [2]. The pattern and timeline pruning follows varies based on brain region. Again the process is intended to increase the efficiency of the neurological system. In this way, synaptic pruning is not random [3]. Rather, synaptic connections that have been frequently used and thus strengthened through sensory and cognitive input as well as motor and cognitive outputs are spared [3]. Those connections that have been weakly reinforced and are no longer functional or those that are redundant with connections of adequate strength are “pruned” away [1]. The idea that pruning continues up to 10 years of age ties in with the concept of brain plasticity in early age. Specifically, early in life with pruning not yet complete young children still have extra synaptic connections in place. If an insult occurs to the brain, impeding the functionality of conditioned (i.e., strengthened) synaptic connections, extra and/or redundant connections which have yet to be pruned may then be utilized in place of the damaged pathways thus preserving the function itself.
References 1.
2. 3.
Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R. B., & Mangum, G. R. (2009). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology (5th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Zillmer, E. A., & Spiers, M. V. (2001). Principles of neuropsychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
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Definition The rules and structures that govern the construction of phrases or sentences.
Description Brown [1] suggested that researchers have long been investigating the order in which children develop and understand the various components of grammar and syntax. It is generally believed that children are able to acquire language proficiency across environments and understand the language structures through the notion that mastery of syntax is based on innate and biological structures that exist among individuals. In this biological framework, any differences among individuals are highly correlated with differences in their genetic predisposition to language differences [7]. According to this genetic explanation, languages activate children’s capacity to establish the parameters of languages within appropriate syntactical structures [6]. In that regard, for children with specific language disabilities, they often exhibit high syntax errors in conversation which often lead to communication difficulties [4] resulting in major social and interpersonal problems [2]. Research has also suggested that children with specific language disabilities have phonological and lexical impediment. For example, these children have difficulties with reiterating nonsense syllables and listing words which might be attributed to inadequate phonological representation, storage, and short-term memory in phonology. Research also found that lexical representations become complex in children’s later years [3]. As children’s receptive and expressive language ability mature, their phonological and syntactical representations are refined and enhanced [5]. It is thought that effective access and retrieval of languages often depend on successful encoding and decoding of phonological information [8].
References 1.
Syntax
2.
TONY WU Walden University, Diamond Bar, CA, USA
3.
Synonyms
4.
Grammar; Lexical configuration; Morphology; Sentence structure
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Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Durkin, K., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2007). Language, social behavior, and the quality of friendships in adolescents with and without a history of specific language impairment. Child Development, 78, 1441–1457. Garlock, V. M., Walley, A. C., & Metsala, J. L. (2001). Age-ofacquisition, word frequency, and neighborhood density effects on spoken world recognition by children and adults. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 468–492. German, D. J. (1987). Spontaneous language profiles of children with word-finding problems. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 8, 217–230.
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6. 7. 8.
Systematic Eclecticism
Jusczyk, P. (1993). From general to language-specific capacities: The WRAPSA model of how speech perception develops. Journal of Phonetics, 21, 3–28. Lidz, J., & Gleitman, L. (2004). Yes, we still need universal grammar: Reply. Cognition, 94, 85–93. Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York: William Morrow. Rubin, H., & Liberman, I. Y. (1983). Exploring the oral and written language errors made by language disabled children. Annals of Dyslexia, 33, 111–120.
Systematic Eclecticism ▶Multimodal Therapy
Systemic Bias that Is Associated with a Partiality to a Sub-group or Particular Group Values ▶Cultu
