Description
This introductory undergraduate text on child and adolescent psychopathology adopts a developmental psychopathology approach to understanding child disorders. This perspective 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.
