Development and Psychopathology, 12 (2000), 265–296 Copyright 2000 Cambridge University Press Printed in the United States of America Developmental psychopathology: Concepts and challenges a b MICHAEL RUTTER AND L. ALAN SROUFE aUniversity of London; and bUniversity of Minnesota Abstract The defining features of developmental psychopathology concepts include attention to the understanding of causal processes, appreciation of the role of developmental mechanisms, and consideration of continuities and discontinuities between normality and psychopathology. Accomplishments with respect to these issues are reviewed in relation to attachment disorders, antisocial behavior, autism, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and intellectual development. Major research challenges remain in relation to measurement issues, comorbidity, gender differences, cognitive processing, nature–nurture interplay, heterotypic continuity, continuities between normal variations and disorders, developmental programming, and therapeutic mechanisms in effective treatments. Origins of a Developmental of the processes underlying both continuity Psychopathology Perspective and change in patterns. The focus was on the how of developmental processes, rather than Karl Popper (1972), the distinguished philos- on the charting of age-related progressions. opher of science, made the astute point that Many, perhaps most, causal processes were definitions need to be read from right to left, viewed in terms of chain reactions operating and not left to right. In other words, it makes over time. Development was seen as an ac- no sense to ask what a word means. Rather, tive, dynamic process that involved individu- we have to ask what is the concept or idea to als processing (cognitively and affectively) which we wish to attach the descriptive term. and adding meaning to their experiences, the Sixteen years ago we succinctly referred to biology of the individual influencing how in- developmental psychopathology as the study dividuals respond to their experiences but, in of the origins and course of individual pat- turn, the biology being shaped by those expe- terns of behavioral maladaption (Sroufe & riences. Because development was likely to Rutter, 1984). We went on to emphasize that be affected by experiences that often occurred the main aim was to provide an understanding for the first time only in adult life (such as marriage, rearing children, and establishing a We are greatly indebted to Dante Cicchetti for his invalu- work career), development was viewed as ex- able suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper, as well tending into adult life—a life-span approach. as for his leadership of the field over many years. In addi- The end product of development was, there- tion, however, this account of developmental psychopath- fore, conceptualized, not as the attainment of ology has been possible only as the result of the creative research of many pioneers from both developmental and biological maturity or the highest level of clinical fields; we wish to express our deep appreciation competence or the stabilization of personality for their contributions, which have done so much to set traits but rather as the establishment of a co- an exciting and fruitful research agenda. herence of functioning as a thinking, feeling Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Prof. Sir Michael Rutter, Social, Genetic & Developmental human being. In this essay, we look back on Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, De the origins of the domain of developmental Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK. psychopathology, consider its current stand- 265 266 M. Rutter and L. A. Sroufe ing, review some of its accomplishments, and developmental operation of the complex mix look forward to the very considerable chal- of influences that give rise to resilience in the lenges that remain. face of adversity (Masten & Curtis, 2000; Rutter, in press-a; Sroufe, 1997), and to real- ize that individuals cannot be subdivided cate- Positive influences on origins gorically into the vulnerable and invulnerable. Many ideas, and many people, played critical There were many individuals who suffer in roles in the emergence of developmental psy- some ways but not in others (Luthar, Cic- chopathology as a key perspective on both de- chetti, & Becker, in press). Furthermore, velopmental processes and the causes and some of the adverse outcomes take the form course of psychopathology. We make no at- of serious patterns of social malfunction that tempt to cover these in exhaustive fashion but, do not fit readily into any of the existing rather, provide a few disparate examples to psychiatric diagnostic categories (Richters & indicate the diversity of the roots of the per- Cicchetti, 1993; Rutter, in press-c). If risk spective. In so doing, we have sought to pro- processes are to be understood adequately, in- vide a balanced overview of perspectives, vestigations need to include detailed longitu- rather than expound our own positions, al- dinal studies of risk populations, as well as though doubtless our own views will have large-scale epidemiological studies. Hether- colored our scientific vision to some extent. ington’s (1989; Hetherington & Clingempeel, We begin with risk research because it is 1992; Hetherington & Stanley–Hagan, 1997) paradigmatic of developmental psychopathol- studies of divorce and stepparenthood well il- ogy (Sroufe & Rutter, 1984). At first, particu- lustrate this trend. larly in the United States, both the origins and Of all the specific features of development, the outcomes of risk were viewed in diagno- the study of emergence of selective attach- sis-specific terms (Garmezy, 1974). Thus, ments, our second example, was possibly the longitudinal studies were set up to examine most crucial in moving thinking in a develop- the emergence of schizophrenia in the off- mental psychopathology direction. Early stud- spring of mothers with a schizophrenic disor- ies had made clear both the importance of se- der. It soon became clear, however, that many lective attachments and the phases of early of the children who did not develop schizo- development that were involved in their estab- phrenia did show other forms of psychopath- lishment (Bowlby, 1969). Ainsworth, Blehar, ology, and that the risks for such psychopath- Waters, and Wall’s (1978) recognition that ology also derived from other forms of mental not only were universals of development in- illness in parents (Rutter, 1989a). Epidemio- volved but also patterns of attachment rela- logical studies provided a further extension in tionships differed in the degree of security their demonstration that many of the risks provided and that these individual differences were found in families exhibiting discord, dis- mattered for later development moved devel- ruption and disharmony but where the parents opmental thinking into an individual differ- had no diagnosable mental illness (Rutter & ences perspective. It was, however, an indi- Quinton, 1984). Studies of all manner of vidual differences perspective that involved a risks, both mild and severe, were consistent in key shift from trait views. The individual dif- their demonstration of the extreme heteroge- ference initially lay in a dyadic relationship, neity of outcome and in their indication that and only later did this become transformed it was the number of serious risks, rather than into something more akin to an individual the nature of any one, that was critical (Sam- characteristic (Sroufe, 1989). Also, the indi- eroff, 2000). Given the same risk experience, viduality, as carried forward in time, was some children succumb with disorder whereas thought to derive from a particular way of others seem to escape largely undamaged. At- thinking about relationships, or cognitive set, tention, increasingly, came to be drawn to the termed an internal working model (Brether- need to consider both risk and protective ton, 1995; Bretherton & Waters, 1985). The mechanisms (Rutter, 1990), to understand the functions of behavior were crucial. Thus, the Developmental psychopathology: Concepts and challenges 267 approach behavior of attachment in the tod- no sense to assume one or the other. Instead, dler age period was viewed as (and empiri- the research advantage lay in examining what cally found to be) a precursor of later inde- was involved in the continuities and disconti- pendence (rather than dependence), if the nuities between normal and abnormal behav- attachment relationships were secure (Sroufe, ior (Rutter, 1986a). 1983; Sroufe, Fox, & Pancake, 1983). A prob- A further stimulus came from the growth abilistic “pathways” model of development of findings and theories in the domain of life- was a key feature (Rutter, 1989b; Sroufe, span development (Baltes, Staudinger, & Lin- Egeland, & Carlson, 1999). denberger, 1999; Hetherington, Lerner, & A third area of research that was influential Perlmutter, 1988; Rutter & Rutter, 1993). The concerned the study of cognitive processing importance of this field of inquiry derived of experiences. Findings in the fields of both from the important changes in functioning antisocial behavior (Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, that take place in adult life; the powerful im- 1990; Dodge, Pettit, Bates, & Valente, 1995) pact of key experiences in adult life; the find- and depression (Garber, Quiggle, Panak, & ing that people varied in the life trajectories Dodge, 1991; Teasdale & Barnard, 1993) they took, and that it was misleading to see showed the