Behavioral and Social Sciences, Development, and Psychopathology
Behavioral science, development, and psychopathology
Master the learning paradigms. Classical conditioning pairs a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (Pavlov); operant conditioning shapes behavior through reinforcement and punishment (Skinner); social learning theory emphasizes modeling and vicarious reinforcement (Bandura). Attachment theory (Bowlby, Ainsworth) distinguishes secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized patterns; attachment is not the same as temperament, which is biologically based reactivity. Developmental stage theories are commonly tested: Piaget (cognitive stages), Erikson (psychosocial tasks), Kohlberg (moral reasoning), and Mahler (separation-individuation). Defense mechanisms range from mature (humor, sublimation) to immature (projection, splitting, denial); questions often ask which defense is being described, not which is healthiest. Cultural formulation, stigma, health disparities, and epidemiology (incidence versus prevalence) belong here too. Psychopathology teaching should connect symptoms to biopsychosocial formulation rather than to a single cause. Traps: mixing up Piaget and Erikson; calling a defense a coping style; equating attachment type with parenting quality; ignoring culture-bound presentations; confusing incidence with prevalence. Worked example: a 7-year-old refuses school after a parent is hospitalized. Piaget places the child in concrete operations; attachment theory may explain clinging, while separation anxiety disorder requires duration and impairment. Do not label normal developmental distress as disorder. Rule of thumb: first ask what developmental task is at stake, then ask whether the behavior is expected, impairing, and persistent.