ABNORMAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY BY MASH STUDY GUIDE
MOCK TEST Questions with Correct Answers (Grade A+)
Question 1: Name several risk factors that compound risk for disability resulting from psychological
problems in racial/ethnic minority children.
Answer: Their access to mental health resources. Ethnic minorities often have lower socioeconomic status.
Cultural differences, misunderstanding behavior. Exclusion from society's benefits (marginalization) --
alienation, rejection of the norms of the larger society.
Question 2: Why is understanding the developmental appropriateness of a given behavior at the child's
current age important to determine whether it constitutes a psychological disorder?
Answer: Behavior of children looks different from adults and also from children of different ages.
Question 3: How can we prevent mental illness in children who are particularly vulnerable?
Answer:
Question 4: What role does parenting play in development of childhood disorders?
Answer: Enviornement. Stressors. Consistent parenting.
Question 5: How should mental illness be diagnosed in the absence of "objective" tests?
Answer:
Question 6: How does the pharmaceutical industry influence mental health care (for better or for
worse)?
Answer: ADHD. Drug treatments most common treatment. However, best treatment is med + therapy.
Many disorders are best treated with psychotherapy.
Question 7: What are the primary tenants of developmental psychopathology?
Answer: -abnormal development is multiple determined
Question 8: How do children exert influence on their environments? What role does the child play in
the development or maintenance of psychological problems?
Answer: Nature vs nurture. -transaction: dynamic interaction of child and environment
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, Question 9: How do disruptions in early development (e.g., language development) affect a child's
ability to achieve other developmental milestones? What does this "developmental cascade" imply
regarding the importance of early intervention?
Answer: Child's previous interactions and experiences may spread across other systems and alter his course
of development, like a chain reaction. -adaptational failure: failure to master developmental milestones.
organization of development: early patterns of adaptation, such as eye contact and speech sounds, evolve w/
structure over time and transform into higher order functions such as speech and language. Actibe, dynamic
process
Question 10: When is brain plasticity greatest across the lifespan? What does this imply for the
likelihood of resilience at different developmental stages?
Answer: -(motor, sensory) mature first during first 3 years of life. Includes limbic system, strongly affected
by early childhood experiences. -major restructuring 9-11 puberty, adolescence prunes some more.
Question 11: What psychological functions are largely regulated by the frontal brain lobes? Why are
the frontal lobes implicated in so many psychological problems?
Answer: Thinking, reasoning, memory. Make sense of social relationships and customs
Question 12: What kind of behaviors would could arise from problems with emotional dysregulation?
What problems could arise from emotional overregulation?
Answer: -Regulation problems: weak or absent control structures (trouble concentrating). -dysregulation:
existing control structures maladaptive (anxious). OCD. Strong dysregulation, behavior response. -over
regulation: anxiety. -overreactive: conduct disorder, odd. Emotional impulsive -overregulated: not express
emotion at all. Don't talk about emotions.
Question 13: How might a child's emotion regulation interact with parent behavior to produce risk for
psychopathology? What about shared genetic risk for emotional dysregulation or orverregulation?
Answer: If a person uses physical discipline, they're usually emotional so children learn that when
emotional you should be physical. children look to the emotional cues of their caregivers to provide
information
Question 14: How would you explain the behavior of a child who frequently engages in physical fights
at school from a behavioral perspective?
Answer:
Question 15: Why does attachment in early childhood exert such notable influence on psychological
functioning later in life? Is attachment amenable to change? What might one do to offset risk of early
attachment difficulties?
Answer: 6-12 months. Secure, consistent base. Helps infant regulate emotions. Become self-reliant when
attachment figure provides secure base for exploration.
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MOCK TEST Questions with Correct Answers (Grade A+)
Question 1: Name several risk factors that compound risk for disability resulting from psychological
problems in racial/ethnic minority children.
Answer: Their access to mental health resources. Ethnic minorities often have lower socioeconomic status.
Cultural differences, misunderstanding behavior. Exclusion from society's benefits (marginalization) --
alienation, rejection of the norms of the larger society.
Question 2: Why is understanding the developmental appropriateness of a given behavior at the child's
current age important to determine whether it constitutes a psychological disorder?
Answer: Behavior of children looks different from adults and also from children of different ages.
Question 3: How can we prevent mental illness in children who are particularly vulnerable?
Answer:
Question 4: What role does parenting play in development of childhood disorders?
Answer: Enviornement. Stressors. Consistent parenting.
Question 5: How should mental illness be diagnosed in the absence of "objective" tests?
Answer:
Question 6: How does the pharmaceutical industry influence mental health care (for better or for
worse)?
Answer: ADHD. Drug treatments most common treatment. However, best treatment is med + therapy.
Many disorders are best treated with psychotherapy.
Question 7: What are the primary tenants of developmental psychopathology?
Answer: -abnormal development is multiple determined
Question 8: How do children exert influence on their environments? What role does the child play in
the development or maintenance of psychological problems?
Answer: Nature vs nurture. -transaction: dynamic interaction of child and environment
Page 1
, Question 9: How do disruptions in early development (e.g., language development) affect a child's
ability to achieve other developmental milestones? What does this "developmental cascade" imply
regarding the importance of early intervention?
Answer: Child's previous interactions and experiences may spread across other systems and alter his course
of development, like a chain reaction. -adaptational failure: failure to master developmental milestones.
organization of development: early patterns of adaptation, such as eye contact and speech sounds, evolve w/
structure over time and transform into higher order functions such as speech and language. Actibe, dynamic
process
Question 10: When is brain plasticity greatest across the lifespan? What does this imply for the
likelihood of resilience at different developmental stages?
Answer: -(motor, sensory) mature first during first 3 years of life. Includes limbic system, strongly affected
by early childhood experiences. -major restructuring 9-11 puberty, adolescence prunes some more.
Question 11: What psychological functions are largely regulated by the frontal brain lobes? Why are
the frontal lobes implicated in so many psychological problems?
Answer: Thinking, reasoning, memory. Make sense of social relationships and customs
Question 12: What kind of behaviors would could arise from problems with emotional dysregulation?
What problems could arise from emotional overregulation?
Answer: -Regulation problems: weak or absent control structures (trouble concentrating). -dysregulation:
existing control structures maladaptive (anxious). OCD. Strong dysregulation, behavior response. -over
regulation: anxiety. -overreactive: conduct disorder, odd. Emotional impulsive -overregulated: not express
emotion at all. Don't talk about emotions.
Question 13: How might a child's emotion regulation interact with parent behavior to produce risk for
psychopathology? What about shared genetic risk for emotional dysregulation or orverregulation?
Answer: If a person uses physical discipline, they're usually emotional so children learn that when
emotional you should be physical. children look to the emotional cues of their caregivers to provide
information
Question 14: How would you explain the behavior of a child who frequently engages in physical fights
at school from a behavioral perspective?
Answer:
Question 15: Why does attachment in early childhood exert such notable influence on psychological
functioning later in life? Is attachment amenable to change? What might one do to offset risk of early
attachment difficulties?
Answer: 6-12 months. Secure, consistent base. Helps infant regulate emotions. Become self-reliant when
attachment figure provides secure base for exploration.
Page 2
