Schizophrenia: reliabity/validity of diagnosis

Question 1

Reliability of diagnosis

Answer 1

• classification system must look at specific symptoms and produce repeatable and similar results = diagnosis.
• different clinics should come to same diagnosis

(-) copeland - cultural differences in diagnosis, relates to how hearing voices in some cultures is ‘normal’ / religious

Question 2

Validity of diagnosis

Answer 2

Whether the classification system is actually measuring what it meant to e.g does the diagnosis represents real illness distinct from others

refers to similarity of sufferers, similarity of cause, how good predictions are and how this influences treatment

(-) classification of symptoms may overlap with symptoms of other disorders e.g depression

Question 3

Issues with reliability

Answer 3

diagnosis may be affected by cultural bias e.g COPELAND ET AL over half of the medical staff in US diagnosed patient from video compared to only 2% in britain

gender bias - men more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than women despite having the same symptoms

Question 4

Issues with validity

Answer 4

ROSENHAN - people with no mental health issues got themselves admitted into a psychiatric unit by saying they heard voices and yet acted normal once admitted yet behaviour was still classed as symptoms - shows that diagnosis may not be valid as once people are labelled with a disorder they are stigmatised and all their behaviour can be interpreted as symptoms