Reliability and Validity in Schizophrenia Diagnosis Flashcards
What is the book called that doctors use to diagnose mental disorders?
DSM-5
To be diagnosed with schizophrenia, what do patients need to display?
DAt least 2 of the main symptoms for at least 6 months.
What does it mean if a study is internally valid?
The study measures what it claims to be measuring.
What symptoms should a person display to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to the DSM?
At least two main symptoms for at least\6 months.
Azriel faked some symptoms of a common disorder, described these symptoms to the doctor and received a diagnosis. He then saw a different doctor, who gave a different diagnosis.
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Explain why Azriel’s diagnosis was neither reliable nor valid.
Reliability of diagnosis requires diagnoses to be consistent between doctors, or between patients with the same symptoms. As Azriel’s two doctors were not consistent, his diagnosis is not reliable. Azriel does not have a disorder at all, so his diagnosis was not valid either. Validity means that the disorder is correctly diagnosed, which in Azriel’s case it was not.
Inter-rater reliability is when multiple people..?
Make the same measurement, to see how similar their measurements are.
Which of the following statements are true about the reliability of a diagnosis of schizophrenia?
Researchers use inter-rater reliability to assess the reliability of a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
CIn 2005, researchers found that they were 81% similar.
DA diagnosis of schizophrenia is becoming more reliable over time.
If the volunteers were told to pretend they were hearing voices, which symptom of schizophrenia would this be?
Hallucinations.
The doctors in Rosenhan’s study gave the volunteers a diagnosis of schizophrenia when they were actually mentally healthy. What do these diagnoses lack?
validity
Which of the following statements are true about Rosenhan’s method?
DRosenhan conducted an observation study.
ERosenhan tested how long it took doctors to declare that the volunteers were healthy.
BRosenhan got 8 volunteers, who pretended to have schizophrenia, admitted into hospital.
Which of the following statements are true about Rosenhan’s results?
BIt took the doctors between 7 and 52 days to realise the diagnoses were wrong, and that the volunteers were healthy.
DThe study showed that the diagnosis of schizophrenia can lack validity.
What is cultural bias?
Researchers misrepresent the differences between cultures
The unwritten rules for how all members of a social group are expected to behave are called
social norms
What type of cultural bias it is when someone assumes that other cultures behave the same as their own?
Ethnocentric bias.
Which of the following are consequences of cultural bias in diagnosing disorders?
ADoctors might be more likely to diagnose someone from another culture with a mental disorder.
ETwo doctors with different cultural backgrounds might give the same patient a different diagnosis.
Cultural bias means that doctors might be
Cultural bias means that doctors might be more likely to diagnose someone from another culture with a mental disorder. Also, the same patient might get a different diagnosis, depending on the cultural background of their doctor. This reduces the reliability of the diagnosis.
If a doctor incorrectly diagnoses a patient with schizophrenia, what would this diagnosis lack?
validity
When doctors diagnose schizophrenia, they rely on the
When doctors diagnose schizophrenia, they rely on the social norms of their own culture to decide whether a patient’s behaviours match symptoms of schizophrenia. This means they are more likely to diagnose schizophrenia in patients who are from a different culture to the doctor’s own. So, cultural bias reduces or decreases the validity and reliability of a diagnosis.
In Cochrane’s study, why were Afro-Caribbean people living in Britain being overdiagnosed with schizophrenia due to cultural bias?
Doctors in Britain were judging the patients using the social norms from their own culture.
Which of the following statements about Cochrane’s study are correct?
The overall rate of schizophrenia was similar in the Caribbean and in Britain.
Cochrane conducted a review comparing the number of people diagnosed with schizophrenia in the Caribbean and in Britain.
Cochrane concluded that this was because of cultural bias by British doctors.
Afro-Caribbean people were 7 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia in Britain than in the Caribbean.
Dr Craig has over-exaggerated the differences between men and women’s behaviours, therefore he has shown…
Alpha bias, gender bias.
If the doctors ignore real differences between men and women, then they are displaying…
gender bias
Patients with the same symptoms might get different diagnosis depending on their gender, reducing the
Patients with the same symptoms might get different diagnosis depending on their gender, reducing the reliability of the diagnosis.
What method was used in Loring and Powell’s study?
AThey gave male and female doctors identical descriptions of a patient’s symptoms.
CThey varied the patient’s gender.
When the patient was described as female
When the patient was described as female, 20 % of doctors diagnosed the patient with schizophrenia.
When the patient was described as male, 56% of doctors diagnosed the patient with schizophrenia.
This indicates there may be alpha bias in the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
