Defining and Diagnosing Mental Disorders Flashcards
People confuse mental disorder with…
-insanity
Define: insanity
- whether a person is aware of the consequences of their actions, and can control their behavior
- it is a legal term only
Define: mental disorder
behavior or emotional state that…
- causes individual great suffering
- is self-destructive
- impairs the persons ability to get along with others
- endangers others or the community
The standard reference manual used to diagnose mental disorders is…
-the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM)
The primary aim of the DSM is…
- descriptive
- providing clear diagnostic categories
Descriptions in DSM include…
- symptoms
- age of onset
- predisposing factors
- course of disorder
- prevalence of disorder
- sex ration of those affected
- cultural issues for diagnosis
What are some inherent problems in the effort to classify and label mental disorders?
- danger of overdiagnosis
- power of diagnostic labels
- confusion of serious mental disorders with normal problems
- the illusion of objectivity
When the manual is used correctly, it…
- improves reliability of diagnosis
- helps distinguish between disorders that share certain symptoms
- helps in selecting the most appropriate treatment
Symptoms or mental disorders that are specific to particular cultural contexts and practices are called…
-culture-bound syndromes
Define: projective tests
-psychological tests used to infer a person’s motive, conflicts, and unconscious dynamics on the basis of interpretations of ambiguous stimuli
Why do projective tests have low reliability?
-because clinicians differ in their interpretations of the same person’s score
Projective tests have low validity because…
-they do not measure what they are designed to measure
The most popular projective test is…
-the rorschach inkblot test
Define: objective tests (inventories)
- standardized objective questionnaires requiring written responses
- typically include scales on which people are asked to rate themselves
The leading objective test for major depression is…
-beck depression inventory
