Читать книгу Introduction to Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology - Robert Weis - Страница 77

As children grow, they face certain developmental tasks or challenges that depend largely on their age and developmental level. Erik Erikson (1963) outlined some of the most important social and emotional tasks facing individuals as they progress from infancy through old age. For example, the primary developmental task facing infants is to establish a sense of trust in a loving and responsive caregiver. Infants must expect their caregivers to be sensitive and responsive to their physical, social, and emotional needs and to see themselves as worthy of receiving this care and attention from others. A primary developmental task of adolescence is to establish a sense of identity. Adolescents must develop a coherent sense of self that links childhood experiences with their goals for adulthood. People usually accomplish this task by trying out different social roles during their teenage years (Table 2.1).

Developmental psychopathologists use the term developmental pathway to describe the course or trajectory of children’s development (Masten & Kalstabakken, 2019). Developmental tasks present forks in this pathway. The child can either successfully master the developmental task or have problems with its successful resolution. Mastery of developmental tasks leads to competence, placing children on course for optimal development. However, failure to master early developmental tasks can interfere with the development of later skills and abilities.

Table 2.1

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For example, infants who establish a sense of basic trust in caregivers may have greater ability to make and keep friends in later childhood. However, failure to establish a sense of trust in caregivers during infancy may interfere with children’s abilities to develop close peer relationships later in childhood (Handley, Russotti, Rogosch, & Cicchetti, 2020). Similarly, young children who learn to regulate their behavior and emotions may be able to pay attention in school and cope with minor setbacks and disputes with their classmates. However, young children who continue to tantrum or act aggressively when they do not get their way may be ostracized by their peers (Beauchaine & Cicchetti, 2020). Consider Carter, a boy heading down a problematic developmental pathway.

We can also think of development as analogous to a building. Our genetic endowment might form the foundation of the building, providing us with our physical attributes, raw neurobiological potentials, and behavioral predispositions. The ground floor might consist of early environmental experiences, such as our prenatal surroundings or the conditions of our gestation and delivery. Subsequent floors might consist of postnatal experiences, such as our nutrition and health care, the relationships we develop with our parents and other caregivers, the quality of our education, and the friends we make in school. The integrity of the upper levels of our “building” is partially determined by the strength of the lower levels. For example, problems with the foundation will place additional challenges on the formation of higher levels. However, especially well-developed higher levels can partially compensate for difficulties in the foundation.

The building does not exist in a vacuum, however. The context in which the structure is created is also important. Just as temperature, wind, and rain can affect the construction of a building, so, too, can the child’s social–cultural climate affect his development. Social and cultural conditions can promote the child’s psychological integrity: high-quality schools, safe neighborhoods, and communities that protect and value children and families. Other social and cultural factors, such as exposure to poverty and crime, can compromise child development.