PSYCH 131 Lecture 3: Lecture 3_ Conceptual Issues
Document Summary
Vulnerability: vulnerability is reserved for a risk factor that occurs really early. Probably more related to biology than experience. Ie. difficult temperament in infancy may be vulnerability but having parents divorce when in 3rd grade may be a risk factor for aggression or depression. Spurious: related to disorder only thru association with other risk, looks like a risk factor, but isn"t really. Fixed: can"t alter them easily (ie. genes) Casual: the gold standard, alterations in risk factor yields alteration in outcome. Need experiments but can"t randomly assign children to most of the putative risk. Ideally should work with causal risk factors factors we would want to know about (ie. maltreatment, etc) Most risk factor research is correlational - when two variables go together but doesn"t necessarily mean the 1st variable caused the 2nd (ie. the stork and babies) Cumulative risk factor - rutter child psychologist, if had 0-1 risk factors the odds.
