Classification And Diagnosis

Question 1

Perfect diagnostic system would classify disorders based on:

Answer 1

Study of presenting symptoms (clusters)
Etiology (Cause)
Prognosis (future development)
Response to treatment

No overlap
Perfect cure

Question 2

Reliability
Validity

Answer 2

Inter-rater reliability: Agreement

Concurrent validity: Presence of symptoms not in DSM but typical in patients as a result of core symptoms

Predictive validity: Predictability of disorder later on in life (its progression)

Question 3

What changed with the DSM-III?

Answer 3

Became more atheoretical
Focus more on precise behavioural descriptions than theories

Polythetic
A patient can be diagnosed with a certain subset of symptoms without having to meet all criteria

Question 4

What are the issues in the diagnosis and classification of abnormal behaviour?

Answer 4

Medical model
Medical disorders are legit bcuz they have details in anatomical structure, mental disorders don’t

Stigmatization
Unfairly labels individuals - People seen as their disorder rather than their skills and interests
- May cause trouble w/ employment and prevent ppl from seeking help

Loss of information
Putting a label on someone can give us a false sense of confidence in understanding them, and make assumptions about them that aren’t valid

Question 5

Gender bias and cultural bias in DSM

Answer 5

DSM-I and DSM-II were strongly influenced by psychoanalytic theory, which has bias against females (makes females more likely to be diagnosed)

Certain syndromes are culture-bound (like taijin kyofusho, excessive fear that one will embarrass/offend others)
Normality of behavs may differ across cultures

Question 6

The development of classification systems such as the DSM was largely based upon…?

Answer 6

Quasi-experiments