Introduction to Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Assignment | Custom Assignment Help

Your boss has asked you to participate in a discussion on the nature versus nurture debate with a group of incoming professionals in your field. For your discussion, you will need to be prepared, so you must write a report to present to your boss prior to the discussion. Be sure to address all of the following points: What is meant by nature versus nurture, and why is it relevant to the counseling profession? What arguments exist on each side of the debate? Give examples from your own experience as well as the experiences of others to support your explanations. Conclude the report with your stance on the topic. Do you agree or disagree with one side or the other or a combination of both? When commenting to other students, determine whether you agree or disagree with the aspects of their stance and explain your reasoning

The definition of psychopathology has evolved over the centuries. It takes on different meanings depending on the culture and age experiencing it. It can differ enormously from age to age and culture to culture. For example, in particular Native American Indian cultures, the rite of passage in a vision quest gives direction to a child moving into adulthood. This may include physiologic deprivations that can cause hallucinations. Western culture sees this differently. If you have a friend who is nutritionally deprived and starts to hallucinate, this may render a medical and psychological diagnosis treated with medications. One culture sees the experience as spiritual and directing while the other may perceive it as a possible first psychotic break potentially leading to an adult diagnosis of schizophrenia. In the same vent, Joan of Arc reported auditory and visual communications with God, becoming one of the greatest leaders of France’s armies at a pivotal time in their history. In today’s culture, antipsychotic medications and hospitalization on a psychiatric ward would be her potential fate. These are extreme examples used only to illustrate what each culture defines as a mental illness. Many of the greatest artists, composers, and poets throughout the ages appeared to suffer from some sort of mental disorder if measured by the standards set in modern Western culture.

Some mental illnesses seem to be prominent in particular decades in the same culture. The general sickness of a society often mirrors the detrimental effects it has on its women and children. Increasing teenage depression, anxiety, and suicide exists in modern culture. Are the children experiencing mental illness, or are they reacting to problems within the culture itself? The diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in preschool children is also on the rise, even though the diagnostic criteria suggest diagnosis focus on elementary school-aged children. This calls into question the validity of the diagnosis versus the misuse of the diagnosis.

The specifiers used in defining mental illness are the degree of impairment related to societal and occupational functioning (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). These dysfunctions directly correlate to the cultural behavioral norms. For example, children with ADHD experience a high rate of difficulty in the school setting. Meeting the criteria for ADHD, the clinician then specifies mild to severe symptomology depending on the problems the child experiences in social or occupational (school/home) functioning. The contemporary school setting you are familiar with today did not exist a century ago. Is the rise in ADHD because of inherent mental illness in the children of today’s Western society, or is the societal organization causing the maladaption of the children to the school setting? Time will tell.

Reference

American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2000). DSM-IV-TR, diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-text revision (4th ed.). Arlington, VA: Author.

Surveying the landscape of the human world tells us that positive social integration can differ greatly from culture to culture. At the same time, there appear to be some ties that bind us all together into one family, no matter how different we may appear on the surface. Human behavior is guided not only by the innate moral compass that nature supplies us but also by the context of the culture within, which we grow and develop. This transitions us into adulthood. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs reflects some of our cross-cultural similarities. For example, we all need food and shelter. We all experience a range of emotions from love to hate, anger to elation, sorrow to joy, and all the variances within them. We all have a basic need to give and receive love in healthy relationships. How we work out these aspects of our lives is part of what makes us unique.

Sociologists and psychologists often use the terms nature and nurture to discuss how we adjust to our perspective cultures. The nature part of each of us is who we are at the time of our conception or birth, depending on your vantage point. In some cultures, the question of who we are precludes conception. There is an ancient koan or riddle posing the following question: Who were you before you were born? This suggests we may experience some form of predevelopment phase prior to conception.

For the purpose of this discussion (regardless of one’s thinking on this issue), nature includes physiological makeup and characteristics, personality, and emotional tendencies that equip us as we enter into the societal world of humanity. On the nature side of the issue, there are professionals who believe we come into this world hardwired. They posit there is little we can accomplish in molding children to the prevailing cultural image. On the other hand, the term nurture loosely defined is the cultural context we encounter as we mature into adulthood. The home environment, religion, economics, education, and culture are some of the ways we learn to abide by the rules of the society in which we are born. Briefly, this view proposes that nurturing is the prime influencing factor that shapes us from infancy to childhood, through adolescence, and into acculturated adults. This stance conjectures that a person comes into the world completely malleable. These professionals believe that nurturing is primarily responsible for the outcome of the newborn person as he or she journeys to maturity. Nature proponents use the following phrases: He was born that way. She cannot help it. That is just the way she is. Nurture advocates are more apt to blame the environment. They express it by stating comments such as, What do you expect? His parents never disciplined him. She learned it from her mother. Integrating these opposing views is essential if we are to fully understand how humans grow and develop from infancy to adults. This integrated position recognizes that humans come into the world with particular attributes, and the environment may influence their development to some degree, but it is not the whole picture. More than likely, a combination of these two forces ultimately influences the development of the person from birth to adult.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Children and Adolescents in Western Culture

There is an abundance of writings on the care and discipline of children in Western cultures as far back as the 17th century. According to Richard Aaron and James Axtell, the writings of John Locke “…considered the character and behavior of an individual to be more essential than any particulars of knowledge…children were individuals with their own particular needs abilities and patterns of development…” (as cited in Kesson, 1983, p. 19).

Early in the 20th century, the first formal diagnosis and treatment of adolescent psychopathology occurred in Freud’s psychoanalysis of female patients called hysterics. Hysterics were abundant in that culture and time, just as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is today in our culture. Going deeper, we might pose the following question: What were Freud’s hysterics reacting to? According to Geissmann (1998), Melanie Klein and Anna Freud furthered psychoanalysis to include the treatment of children, each forming their own perspective schools.

Hunt (2007) states, “Jean Piaget (1896-1980) …was the greatest child psychologist of the twentieth century… his early contributions revolutionized child psychology in France and Switzerland, and thirty years later…in America” (pp. 405–406). Piaget was able to break down child development into stages.

The four major stages in Piaget’s theory are

• sensorimotor (birth to 18–24 months)
• preoperational (18–24 months to 7 years)
• concrete operations (7–12 years)
• formal operations (12 years and up)

In the current Western cultures of the 21st century, there is an unprecedented rise in the diagnosis and treatment of child and adolescent disorders, especially in the United States. One diagnosis in particular is ADHD. This group or set includes all of ADHD variations as well as conduct problems. Just as we question Freud’s hysteric female patients, we should also question why there are so many children diagnosed with ADHD. Is this a cultural reaction or a true mental dysfunction? On the other hand, it is simply another vantage point to traverse the world. However, we pathologize it because we do not fully understand its inherent value.

Many disorders, primarily diagnosed in adults, have also become increasingly prevalent in children and adolescents (such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders). There is currently no absolute agreement among professionals in the field of psychology on how to adequately diagnose and treat these disorders in children. The diagnosis and treatment of mental illness/disorder as defined is incomplete at best. What we know today is the culmination of the human experience and knowledge thus far in history, and as we grow in our understandings of what appears to be key concepts in our modern world, this needs challenging by future generations. It is the way of knowledge and understanding to gain wisdom through study, research, and experience that we must humbly approach each other and the topic of psychopathology.

References

Geissmann, C. P. (1998). A history of child psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.

Hunt, M. (2007). The story of psychology. New York: Random House.

Kesson, W. (1983). Handbook of child psychology vol. 1: History, theory, and methods (4th ed.). New York: Wiley.