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Lastly, developmental psychopathology involves reciprocal transactional models of influence. What does that mean? For a long time, researchers believed in a linear model of development, such as early brain injury causing child development of cognitive, social, or emotional problems. However, this belief ignores children with brain injuries that develop normally and children with developmental problems without evidence of a brain injury.

Additionally, the “nature or nurture” debate assumed that developmental outcomes were a product of either nature (genetics, biology) or nurture (parenting, environment) alone. Later on, theorists began to adopt a more transactional model of development (Sameroff & Chandler, 1975). It is now accepted that concepts of nature and nurture are not as easily separated as once thought.

On the nature side, the field of epigenetics has demonstrated that even when individuals have the same genetic “code,” the environment can influence the expression of genes or which genes “turn on.” On the nurture side, research has shown that children’s inherent individual personality, temperament, or other traits can influence how their parent responds to them. Thus, in the transactional model, a child’s outcomes are a product of the continuous, dynamic, reciprocal interactions of the child and experiences provided by their family and social context (Sameroff & Mackenzie, 2003). The remaining chapters in this book will give concrete examples of gene–environment interactions that have been discovered.

Compare a linear model with a transactional model for understanding developmental problems. Figure 2.5 shows that birth complications predict poor language and social skills in childhood. In a transactional model, a normally non‐anxious mother may have increased anxiety after experiencing adverse birth complications, and then interact with her infant in an apprehensive and inconsistent manner. Due to these parenting practices, the infant may exhibit difficulties with self‐regulation and temperament, which decreases the mother’s engagement with her child. This lack of social or verbal interaction with her infant may contribute to the child’s slower development (Sameroff & Mackenzie, 2003).

Think about your family. Do you and your siblings have the same personality? Do your parents interact with each of you in exactly the same way? Even though we might share similar genes and environments with our siblings, many complex interactions explain why we have different personalities, behaviors, and interactions with our parents and friends.

FIGURE 2.5 Contrasting Linear and Transactional Models for Explaining Developmental Problems