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A Biobehavioral Perspective on Developmental Psychopathology

Excessive Aggression and Serotonergic Dysfunction in Monkeys

  • Chapter
Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

It can be persuasively argued that few topics of scientific inquiry pose more formidable challenges—theoretical, empirical, or applied—than the development of behavioral abnormalities, especially in organisms whose nervous systems remain relatively plastic throughout ontogeny. Researchers and clinical workers in this area are frequently faced with decisions as to whether the phenomenon under investigation or treatment truly represents a pathology or is merely unusual or extreme in the statistical sense—or perhaps simply reflects a phase of development that eventually will be outgrown. In addition, those who study psychopathological disorders in children and adolescents must routinely deal with behavioral and biological systems that often express themselves in diverse (and sometimes seemingly independent) fashions not only at different ages but also at different levels of analysis. For this population, obvious changes in behavior are not always reflected by systematic changes in physiology—or vice versa. Moreover, profound complications accompany rigorous study of any developing systems or individuals, relative to those that are already stable or mature, be they normal or anomalous. As stated by Sackett, Sameroff, Cairns, and Suomi (1981):

The study of development poses a major paradox for students of behavior. The problem arises from the fact that change is an essential property of development. Virtually all features of the organism undergo modification during its life span. On the other hand, continuity over time seems essential for individual uniqueness, organization, and the maintenance of integrated patterns of behavior. The paradox is simply this: How can continuity and persistence be achieved in an organismic system that necessarily undergoes maturational, interactional, and social-cultural change? (p. 23)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA

    Stephen J. Suomi

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  1. Stephen J. Suomi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Arnold J. Sameroff

  2. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Michael Lewis

  3. Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Suzanne M. Miller

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Suomi, S.J. (2000). A Biobehavioral Perspective on Developmental Psychopathology. In: Sameroff, A.J., Lewis, M., Miller, S.M. (eds) Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4163-9_13

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