Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Abstract Developmental psychopathology is an integrative scientific discipline focused on individual biological and psychological adaptation and maladaptation in the context of developmental change. Developmental psychopathology owes the emergence and coalescence of its framework to many historically based disciplines including, but not limited to neuroscience, ethology, sociology, psychiatry, pediatrics, and clinical, developmental, experimental and physiological psychology. A developmental analysis presupposes change and novelty, highlights the important role of timing in the organization of behavior, underscores multiple determinants, and cautions against expecting invariant relations between causes and outcomes. From a developmental psychopathology framework, mental disorders are conceived as being dynamic and should be studied from an interdisciplinary perspective and a multiple levels of analysis approach. The continuation and elaboration of multiple levels of analysis longitudinal studies within and across disciplines interested in typical and atypical development not only will enhance the science of developmental psychopathology, but also will increase the benefits derived for individuals with high-risk conditions or mental disorders, families, and society as a whole.