what is clinical psychology? Flashcards
what is it?
concerned with abnormal behaviour and seeks to define what makes that behaviour abnormal and then aims to diagnose and explain the mental illness.
how did clinical psychologists go about diagnosing someone?
they refer to the universal diagnostic tools, the ICD-10 and the DSM-V, usually patients will go through interviews with a clinician and their symptoms will be discussed and then a diagnosis can be made.
how do clinicians decided what caused the disorder?
there is a lot of disagreement amongst psychologists regarding what the think caused this disorder as there is often more than one plausible answer.
how is a treatment established for a certain disorder?
once a diagnosis is made and a cause found for the disorder, the clinician can then offer a suitable treatment - for example if a cause of schizophrenia is increased dopamine, then the patient may be given anti-psychotics to re balance neurotransmitters.
what are the four D’s?
dysfunction
danger
distress
deviance
what is dysfunction?
a persons behaviour not being successful in everyday life when carrying out tasks. - for example if the behaviour is significantly interfering with a persons life then that could be considered as “dysfunction”.
what is distress?
the extent to which the behaviour is causing upset to the individual, or feeling excessive distress over something that someone else may consider to be minor.
what is deviance?
the extent to which behaviour is “rare” within society. unusual displays of behaviour.
what is danger?
whether the persons behaviour is causing danger towards themselves or anyone else.
what did Davies suggest? (2009)
that a fifth D should be included -
“duration” as understanding how long symptoms or a behaviour lasts will be useful when giving a diagnosis.
