Читать книгу Introduction to Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology - Robert Weis - Страница 80

Of course, not all childhood disorders persist into adulthood. Why do some conditions show continuity, whereas others do not? Developmental psychopathologists are very interested in individual differences in these divergent developmental outcomes. Predicting individual differences in development is extremely difficult because, as we have seen, many factors interact over time to affect children’s outcomes. The interactions between factors, over time, produce two phenomena: equifinality and multifinality (Hinshaw & Beauchaine, 2015).

Equifinality occurs when children with different developmental histories show similar developmental outcomes (Figure 2.1). Imagine that you are a psychologist who conducts evaluations for a juvenile court. As part of your duties, you assess adolescent boys who have been arrested and convicted of illegal activities in order to make recommendations to the court regarding treatment. All of the boys that you assess have similar developmental outcomes—that is, they all show conduct problems. However, after you interview many of the boys, you discover that their developmental histories are quite different. Some boys were physically abused in early childhood. Other boys had problems with ADHD and risk-taking behavior. Still other boys had long histories of aggressive and destructive behavior. Your discovery illustrates the principle of equifinality in child development: There are many different paths to the same developmental outcome.

Figure 2.1 ■ Equifinality and Multifinality

Note: Equifinality occurs when children with different histories show the same outcome; multifinality occurs when children with the same history show different outcomes.

The principle of multifinality refers to the tendency of children with similar early experiences to show different outcomes. Imagine that you are a clinical social worker who evaluates children who have been physically abused. During the course of your career, you have assessed a number of children who have been abused by their caregivers. You notice that some of these children show long-term emotional and behavioral problems, whereas others seem to show few long-term effects. Your observation reflects the principle of multifinality: Children with similar early experiences can show different developmental outcomes.

The principle of equifinality makes it hard to determine the cause of a child’s disorder. Because of equifinality, we usually cannot infer the causes of children’s problems based on their current symptoms. For example, many people incorrectly believe that all adolescents who sexually abuse younger children were, themselves, sexually abused in the past. In actuality, adolescents engage in sexual abuse for many reasons, not only because they were victimized themselves (Fox & DeLisi, 2019).

The principle of multifinality limits our ability to predict a child’s developmental outcome. For example, many people erroneously believe that if a child has been sexually abused, she is likely to exhibit a host of emotional and behavioral problems later in life, ranging from sexual dysfunctions and aggression to depression and anxiety. In fact, the developmental outcomes of boys and girls who have been sexually abused vary considerably. Some children show significant maladjustment while others show few long-term effects. Their diversity of outcomes illustrates the difficulty in making predictions regarding development (Hinshaw & Beauchaine, 2015).

Review

 Developmental pathways reflect the manner in which children face developmental tasks over time. Competence in early developmental tasks (e.g., trust in infancy) can promote competence in later tasks (e.g., friendships in adolescence).

 Some disorders, like autism, show homotypic continuity; they remain relatively stable over time. Most disorders, such as anxiety and mood disorders, show heterotypic continuity; the overt signs and symptoms of the disorder change over time, but the underlying problem remains relatively constant.

 Equifinality occurs when children with different histories show the same outcome. Multifinality occurs when children with the same history show different outcomes.