Developmental psychopathology: A nine-cell map of the territory

Abstract

As a clinical-developmental psychology student trained in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I was puzzled about the lack of integration between developmental and abnormal psychology. Although there were frequent professions of faith that principles of normal development and psychopathology must be intimately interconnected (Erikson, 1950), there were few detailed discussions, and even fewer empirical studies, examining the links between ideas about how some children grow up to be well-functioning adults, while others experience temporary or permanent setbacks along the way.Later, during my clinical training, i t puzzled me that there were few explicit references in the psychotherapy literature to concepts and studies of normal development, and that in articles on developmental theory and research I rarely found references to psychopathology and treatment. This lack of integration continued until the recent spurt of

Co‐parenting and parenting behaviour: The role of parent mental health for mothers and fathers in the postnatal period

“…Co-parenting lies at the centre of a complex network of family, individual, social and contextual relationships. Feinberg (2003) proposed an ecological model of co-parenting (see Figure 1 below) that draws on earlier frameworks developed by family researchers such as Belsky (1984) and Cowan (1988). Feinberg's model focused more specifically on co-parenting as a central component of parenting and child development.…”

Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Exploring Conceptual Foundations

“…Drawing on the work of the philosopher David Pepper, Goldhaber (2000) argues that alternative conceptualizations of human development (genetic, psychodynamic) emerge from different explanatory mechanisms or "root metaphors" that make them fundamentally incompatible and, in some respects, virtually incomparable. A more pluralistic perspective (Cowan, 1988) suggests that alternative conceptualizations are essential to explain different domains of functioning or subgroups of persons. In this case, the key task would be to match particular theories with appropriate subdomains or subgroups of persons.…”

Play in the context of the family.

“…Even the Singer and Wynne (1965) "family Rorshach" studies used projective techniques as a problem-solving task to investigate cognitive, transactional, and attentional processes, rather than as a play technique or tool for studying family play. However, as Cowan (1988) has noted, an interpenetration of two research epistemologies is beginning in which developmentalists are willing to consider a family systems perspective, and family theorists have "discovered" the importance of a developmental orientation.…”