Developmental psychopathology

Developmental psychopathology is the study of the development of psychological disorders, such as psychopathy, autism, schizophrenia and depression, with a lifecourse perspective. A main idea is that psychopathology can be best understood as normal development gone awry.

Developmental psychopathology is a sub-field of developmental psychology and child psychiatry characterized by the following (non-comprehensive) list of assumptions:

Dante Cicchetti is acknowledged to have played a pivotal role in defining and shaping the field of developmental psychopathology. While at Harvard University, Cicchetti began publishing important papers on the development of conditions such as depression and borderline personality disorder, in addition to his own work on child maltreatment and mental retardation. Then, in 1984, Cicchetti edited both a book and a special issue of Child Development on developmental psychopathology that served to acquaint the developmental community with this emerging discipline. In that special issue he himself wrote a seminal, defining paper titled, "The emergence of developmental psychopathology."

These efforts were critical in launching what was to become one of the most vital fields in all of developmental science. Subsequently, the emergence of the field was crystallized in 1989 with the publication of the first of the 9 distinguished volumes of the Rochester Symposia on Developmental Psychopathology, as well as with the inaugural issue of the journal Development and Psychopathology.

One form of developmental pathology is conduct disorder. Conduct disorder grows progressively worse over time and behavior considered annoying as a child is considered pathological as the child gets older. The Oregon Social Learning Center has done considerable research on the development of conduct disorder.

...
Wikipedia