Summary
Contents
Subject index
“This text addresses the basics of developmental psychopathology in a clear manner, with enough detail to facilitate a real understanding of the concepts and their relevance to clinical work with children.”
—Christie P. Karpiak, University of Scranton
This introductory undergraduate text on child and adolescent psychopathology adopts a developmental psychopathology approach to understanding child disorders. The author examines the emergence of disorders over time, pays special attention to risk and protective factors that influence developmental processes and trajectories, and examines child psychopathology in the context of normal development.
The author has four main goals: to show students why an understanding of child psychopathology and its treatment might be important to them as future psychologists, social workers, educators, and/or parents; to introduce students to the developmental psychopathology perspective and how it can help organize understanding of childhood disorders; to help students appreciate the interdependence of psychological research and clinical practice; and to engage students in higher-level thinking necessary to analyze information, critically evaluate ideas, and create solutions to real-world problems based on empirically validated findings.
Key Features
Links research with clinical practice via a focus on evidence-based therapies for childhood disorders, balancing solid empirical science and clinical insights and thus helping students filter clinically valuable findings from those lacking utility; Emphasizes the developmental perspective to better understand psychopathology, with use of normal development as a lens through which to view abnormal behavior or emotional problems; Provides case studies and real-life examples in each chapter, allowing the student to understand how the material relates to specific situations; Incorporates assessment methods into specific content modules rather than isolating assessment as a separate and discrete chapter; Utilizes smaller, more focused modules to allow for greater flexibility for instructors and students and to avoid the problem (seen in other texts) of lumping dissimilar problems into longer chapters; Offers end-of-chapter review questions that help students apply, analyze, and evaluate the information in the chapter, requiring them to critically think about the material; Includes suggested additional readings describing etiological models, empirical studies, or treatment approaches, as well as current research articles.; Accompanied by an Instructor's Resource CD-Rom (for qualified adopters of the text) with a computerized test bank; sample syllabi; chapter overview and outline; PowerPoint slides; discussion questions and classroom activities; chapter-specific video resources; and chapter-specific web resources; Features a student study site at http://www.sagepub.com/weisiacapstudy with interactive quizzes; e-flashcards; Internet exercises; 3–5 journal articles per chapter with discussion/critical thinking questions; list of recommended websites; links to video clips and film suggestions
Assessing and Diagnosing Children's Problems
Assessing and Diagnosing Children's Problems
Mental health practitioners spend most of their time engaging in three types of professional activities: assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Assessment refers to the process of gathering information about children and families in order to gain an accurate understanding of their psychosocial functioning. Diagnosis refers to the task of describing the client's functioning, usually by matching the client's functioning to descriptions of psychiatric conditions recognized by other practitioners. Treatment involves the use of psychosocial and/or medicinal therapies to alleviate distress or impairment and promote children's well-being. In this chapter, we will examine how clinicians assess and diagnose child and adolescent problems. In the next chapter, we will focus on psychotherapy for children, adolescents, and families.
Psychological Assessment
Purposes of ...
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