Categorising mental disorders

Question 1

How do we categorise mental disorders?

Answer 1

DSM and ICD are diagnostic tools that classify abnormality.
Patient must fulfil a set criteria to remove subjectivity.

Question 2

Why do we categorise mental disorders?

Answer 2

Helps identify, diagnose and treat through clinical interviews, psychometric tests, observations and biological tests.

Question 3

What is the DSM?

Answer 3

• Diagnoses purely mental illness.
• Predominantly used in the USA.
• Disorders are defined by symptoms.
• Updated regularly reflecting social attitudes.

Question 4

What is the ICD?

Answer 4

• Published by the world health organisation.
• Diagnoses mental and behavioural disorders.
• Uses codes to classify.
• Used worldwide.
• Regularly updates to reflect changes in society.

Question 5

Advantages of categorising mental disorders

Answer 5

+ Improves reliability, all use the same guidelines to diagnose, less subjectivity.
+ Have practical applications: can obtain an official diagnoses so that help and support can be given.
+ Both DSM and ICD are regularly updates, improves temporal validity.

Question 6

Disadvantages of categorising mental disorders

Answer 6

• Ethnocentric, DSM is based on the USA model of abnormality.
• Unethical to categorise a person, could lead to discrimination e.g jobs.
• Most criteria rely on self report, subject to social desirability.
• Interpreting behaviour is still subjective even the though the overall categorisation is standardised.