Chapter 12 Normailty, Mental Health & Illness Flashcards
6 approaches to describe mental health and behaviour
Socio-cultural approach Functional approach Historical approach Situational approach Medical approach Statistical approach
Socio-cultural approach
Thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are appropriate or acceptable within a particular society or culture.
•Eg laughing at a funeral
functional approach
Thoughts, feelings and behaviours are viewed as normal if the person is able to cope by living independently (and function) within society
•Eg. able to clothe & feed yourself, find a job
Historical approach
What is considered normal or abnormal depends on particular cultures/society’s era or time when the judgement is made
•Eg severely smacking a child in the 1950’s (normal) Vs. severely smacking a child in 2012 (abnormal & possibly illegal)
Situational approach
Within a society or culture, thoughts, feeling and behaviour may be considered normal in one situation and abnormal in another
•Eg coming to school weaning Pj’s Vs wearing Pj’s to bed
Medical approach
Abnormal thoughts, feelings or behaviour viewed as having an underlying biological cause and can usually be diagnosed and treated
•Eg schizophrenia – delusional thoughts
Statistical approach
Any behaviour , thought or characteristic in a large group is distributed in that particular way – called the ‘statistical average’ eg normal to laugh when tickled
•Any behaviour , thought or characteristic shared by a small minority of people – called ‘statistical extremity’ eg hating to get tickled.
Normality
patterns of thoughts, feelings or behaviour that conform to a usual, typical or expected standard.
- depends on many variables
Abnormality
a pattern of thoughts, feelings or behaviour that is deviant (differ from social norms), distressing (to the individual or those around them) or dysfunctional (interfere with ability to live and complete everyday activities)
Mental health
the capacity of an individual to interact with others and the environment in ways that promote a subjects wellbeing, optimal development and effective use of cognitive, emotional and social development and abilities through out the life (this is a sliding scale were all elements interact rather than have or do not have)
Mental health problem
when the difficulties experienced by a person are mild, temporary and able to be treated within a relatively short period of time
Mental illness
describes a psychological dysfunction that usually involves impairment in the ability to cope with everyday life, distress and thoughts/feelings/behaviour’s may be inappropriate within their culture.
•Mental illness can sometimes be referred to as a psychological dysfunction or mental disorder experienced by an individual and usually involving :
Emotional distress
Impairment in the ability to cope with everyday life
Thoughts, feelings and/or behaviour that are not typical of the person or appropriate within their society and/or culture
Classification and the types
Classification – organising items into groups based on their shared characteristics
categorical and dimensional
What are the classifications differences
Categorical approach-used to classify the symptoms
Dimensional approach-used to determine the severity of these symptoms
Categorical approaches
Organises and describes mental conditions and disorders in terms of different categories and sub-categories, each with symptoms and characteristics that are typical of specific mental conditions and disorders.
Categorical approaches are based on a number of underlying key principles and assumptions
Symptoms are considered characteristics of disorders to looking at these enables diagnosis
Inclusion criteria
symptoms that must be present for diagnosis
Types of Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria – symptoms that must not be present
Polythetic criteria – only some symptoms not all need to be present for diagnosis – eg. 3 0f the following 8
What are the five key assumptions of the Categorical Approach
- Assumes that mental disorders can be diagnosed from specific symptoms reported by the patient or observed by the professional
- Thoughts feelings and behaviours can be categorised – certain categorisation relates to specific disorders
- There are distinct sub categories within each disorder
- All or nothing – they either have it or they don’t. You cant kind of have schizophrenia
- The system must be valid and reliable
What is the DSM-IV-TR
(the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders, edition 4)
It is a categorical system for diagnosing and classifying mental disorders based on recognisable symptoms that are precisely described for each disorder.
It describes 365 disorders
Groups disorders into one of 16 categories
What are the five axis in the multiaxial model of the DSM-IV-TR
1- Clinical disorders:
Symptoms that cause distress or significantly impair social or occupational functioning
2- Personality disorders and Mental retardation:
Chronic and enduring problems that generally persist throughout life and impair interpersonal or occupational functioning
3- General medical condition:
Physical disorders that may be relevant to understanding or treating a psychological disorder
4- Psychosocial and environmental disorders:
that may affect the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis (prediction of the course of a disease) of psychological disorders
5- Global assessment of functioning:
The individual’s overall level of functioning in social, occupational and leisure
What is an example of each axis
1- Anxiety, Depression 2- Multiple Personality Disorder 3- Breast Cancer that causes stress 4- Financial issues causing stress 5- Rating scale from 100-1 stating levels of harm/problems/symptoms
What do each of the Axis relate to?
Axes I, II and III relate to the persons CURRENT and present condition
Axes IV and V relate to the persons functioning and situation within everyday life.
What is the ICD-10
(The International Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems) A categorical approach for diagnosing and classifying diseases and mental disorders based on recognised symptoms
- The original text covered all medical practice
- Chapter V (5) covered mental disorders
- Less detailed than the DSM –IV
- There are diagnostic guidelines.
- The ICD is used in the same way as the DSM- provides detailed description AND diagnostic guidelines for the disorder BUT it is less detailed and does not provide info about the typical course, prognosis and prevalence of each disorder (like the DSM does)
Limitations of Categorical approach
-Historically low inter-reliability
(Much better now with DSM-IV-R 70% agreement between mental health professionals)
-Lots of overlap between symptoms can make diagnosis difficult, can lead to misdiagnosis
-Stigma and labelling
