Evaluate the validity of diagnosing disorders Flashcards
What does validity refer to?
Validity refers to whether a study or test measures or examines what it claims to measure or examine.
How can a list of symptoms in the DSM’s effect validity?
It can be argued that when disorders are operationalised such as with a list of symptoms then the measuring devise (such as DSM) is losing validity because it does not truly describe the patient’s experience of the illness.
What have psychologists disagreed on and how does this effect validity?
many psychologists argue that a number of disorders such as sexual desire disorder (having a low sex drive) and some childhood conduct disorders (such as ODD) are not disorders at all therefore reducing the validity of the DSM.
What study demonstrated that DSM III was not valid?
Rosenhan (1973) by demonstrating that psychiatrists could not distinguish between those who did have mental disorders and those who did not. For example in the secondary study about 10% of the patients were thought to be a pseudopatients by a psychiatrist which was wrong.
What study demonstrated lack of validity in diagnosis.
Some mental disorders are hard to diagnose. Kupfer (1994) found that manic depression is difficult to diagnose and is often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia or depression showing a lack of validity in diagnosis.
How may the DSM have high validity?
It now includes culture bound syndromes which means recognises that some disorders are more likely to occur in specific cultures such as genital retraction syndrome among some Africans.
What study demonstrated high validity in the DSM IV?
Research by Lee (2006) used a questionnaire with primary school teachers to see if questionnaire data matched the DSM-IV-TR criteria for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). They found that there was validity, as the teachers’ questionnaire responses about children’s behaviour matched the DSM criteria.
