Developmental psychopathology. Current research, issues, and directions

Developmental psychopathology refers to the study of clinical dysfunction in the context of maturational and developmental processes. Although the field encompasses the entire life span, the present focus is on childhood. Special characteristics make the study of childhood dysfunction somewhat unique, including the emergence, evolution, and attenuation of seemingly problematic behaviors over the course of development; the manner in which children are referred for clinical evaluation; and complexities in identifying the appropriate foci for clinical intervention. Notwithstanding these obstacles, recent work has advanced considerably in diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of childhood disorders. The present article highlights recent advances in these areas and promising extensions in current research. Many advances have relied heavily on the extension of paradigms developed in research with adults. Additional research is needed that draws on and integrates conceptual and empirical work from developmental psychology.     

The changing face of visual persistence

In three experiments, the effect of target luminance on estimates of visual persistence was determined on a popular successive-field task. Even though the experiments differed from each other only in terms of minor changes in stimulus conditions, very different effects were obtained across the three experiments. The different findings were attributed to the often overlooked roles of masking and target degradation on tasks of persistence. Implications for the numerous contradictory findings in the persistence literature are discussed, and the current popularity of the successive-field task is questioned.     

Recency effect in recall of a word list when an immediate memory task is performed after each word presentation

Subjects studied 12-word lists for free recall. During presentation of the lists, each word was followed by a supraspan sequence of digits, which the subjects tried to reproduce. This task, unlike those used in previous research with this continual distractor procedure, presumably taxed immediate memory capacity to the full. Nevertheless, the word recall data showed a pronounced recency effect. Moreover, the magnitude of the recency effect was found to be just as great with this task as with a more typical task in which the demands on immediate memory are likely to be fewer. These findings reinforce the emerging view that the recency effect need not be the product of immediate memory.     

The "second skin": perceptions of disturbed and nondisturbed early adolescents on clothing, self-concept, and body image

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there were differences between regular education and emotionally disturbed early adolescents with respect to self-concept, body image, and selected uses of clothing. A questionnaire was administered to 74 regular education students from three middle schools. An additional 27 students labeled emotionally disturbed were surveyed from one of the schools. The questionnaire contained existing measures of self-concept and body cathexis and a revised clothing scale developed by the authors. Analysis of the data using t tests revealed significant differences between the groups with regard to self-concept and body image. In both cases, regular education students perceived themselves more positively than did those labeled emotionally disturbed. Factor analysis of the clothing-use measure gave rise to five distinct factors, one of which revealed a significant difference between the groups when analyzed by t tests. This factor, "dependence," examined the emotional effects of the use of clothing on individuals, such as the ability to influence mood. The emotionally disturbed students were less likely to use clothing to influence mood than were the regular education students. The results of this investigation lend further credence to the importance of self-concept in the education curriculum, and imply that the usual aspects of the curriculum that deal with self-concept may be served better by helping the individual become more realistic and self-accepting. The use of clothing as a tool to enhance self-concept merits further investigation.     

Interserial and intraserial interference processes in morning recall of mental sleep experience

This study investigated ways in which predictions from interference theory might explain partial or total failure in the morning recall of mental sleep experience (MSE) episodes reported after provoked night awakening. Interference could take place either between the contents of one MSE episode (intraserial interference) or between the contents of different MSE episodes (interserial interference) and would be more likely to affect morning recall where similar (i.e., interrelated) contents in MSEs are involved. If interference were mainly intraserial, in the morning there would be no change in the difficulty of retrieving interrelated contents, whereas, if it were mainly interserial, there would be increased difficulty in the retrieval of such contents. All the possible pairs of reports obtained by awakening 8 subjects four times in REM sleep during each of four experimental nights spaced at weekly intervals were scored for interrelated contents, using Clark's (1970) system of analysis of paired units, which operates by matching linguistic features. Results showed that interrelations in morning report pairs are as frequent as in night report pairs, maintaining the same linguistic characteristics and with little transfer of contents from one MSE to another. Overall these findings are compatible with the hypothesis that interference is primarily intraserial rather than interserial. It is consequently suggested that morning recall failure may be due to temporary blocking of retrieval.     

Occult participation: its impact on adolescent development

This study investigated the relationship between occult participation, substance abuse, and level of self-esteem in adolescents. Data were collected from 50 adolescents who ranged in age from 12 to 19 years and who spoke English as their primary language. The combined group of adolescents consisted of 25 clinical and 25 nonclinical youth. Participants completed a three-part questionnaire package which included Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Adolescent Magic Questionnaire, and the Drug and Alcohol Assessment Scale. Results indicated that adolescent substance abuse and occult participation were significantly related. High and low occult participation groups were determined, and significant differences were found between the high versus low occult groups when compared on the primary variables of self-esteem and substance abuse. Significant differences were also noted when comparing the high versus low occult groups with various psychosocial developmental variables. Included is a discussion of the impact of occult participation on the psychosocial elements of adolescent self-esteem, self-concept, tolerance for deviance, and religious involvement.     

School administrators, parents, and sex education: a resolvable paradox?

The emergence of AIDS as an untreatable, lethal disease, responding to educational prevention strategies in high-risk populations, has brought the issues of sex education in the public schools to the forefront. However, administrators, teachers, and parents perceive different barriers to sex education implementation. This study, undertaken in a northeastern, multigenerational, ethnic city, characterized by adolescent pregnancy rates a third higher than the state overall, polled 42 junior and senior high school administrators regarding educational priorities, perceived barriers to expansion of sex education, and preferred methods of introducing sex education. Administrators perceive parents as a major barrier to the introduction of more formalized sex education in their schools. Paradoxically, these same administrators felt that parents were generally uncomfortable in talking to their children about human sexuality. Recommendations are offered from existing models of health education for resolution of administrators' conflicting views on parental roles.