CONTENT DEFINITIONS, DIAGNOSIS OF ABNORMALITY. EXPLANATIONS AND TREATMENTS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DEPRESSION (INCLUDING EVALUATION)

STATISTICAL DEFINITION OF ABNORMALITY Majority of People have an IQ between 70 and 130 What about this 2.5%? Below 70 is classed as mental retardation

Assume human characteristics are spread in a normal way across the general population. The minority [at either extreme of the graph] are seen as abnormal [in the minority].

Unwritten [behaviour] rules of society. If people don’t conform we may feel anxious/threatened. Can you think of some examples?

What is normal/abnormal changes over time [Zeitgeist]

OVER TO YOU.. Fails to acknowledge between desirable and non desirable behaviour i.e. high IQ Used as a form of punishment in some countries in the past. For example political dissidents Lacks ecological validityTime bound i.e. Some disorders are common within the general population such as anxiety disorders Allows us to take several behaviours into account Culturally biasedObjective Gender biasedSomeone may have an IQ score of 71 which is within the ‘normal’ range

DSM The Diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association which lists all mental disorders recognised by clinicians. DSM is used by clinicians, researchers, drug regulation agencies and pharmaceutical companies.

DSM There have been several versions and the current version is DSM-5 published May 2013, it’s first publication was in Another classification system is the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and related health problems (ICD) produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO ).

DSM DSM is based on 5 Axis. Axis 1 looks at all disorders (apart from personality disorders/retardation) Axis 2 looks at personality disorders and mental retardation Axis 3 General medical disorders which may be show similar symptoms to a mental illness (underactive thyroid-depression) Axis 4 Psychosocial problems: family problems, employment issues

DSM Axis 5 Global Assessment Functioning Scale (GAF) ranges from to assess how well a person is coping with everyday life. A score of 40 for example indicates serious problems with a range of different issues

RELIABILITY Research is reliable if more than one psychologist gives the same diagnosis to the same individual. I.e. diagnosis should be consistent. Problems with reliability 1: Clinicians don’t generally agree 100% on diagnosis. Beck found 54% agreement between psychiatrists therefore… 2: Information may vary when patients are discussing symptoms and patients may emphasise certain symptoms..

RELIABILITY 3: Different cultures differ in their diagnosis. Copper used video taped interviews and asked clinicians in New York and London to give a diagnosis. New York clinicians were twice as likely to diagnose Sz and London clinicians depression. The implication of this research is…

VALIDITY How well does a diagnosis reflect an actual disorder and identify a suitable treatment. For example if people have the same diagnosis but different symptoms then the diagnosis has low validity. Predictive validity- effective treatment means the diagnosis is valid.

VALIDITY Problems with validity Other factors are important in deciding treatments such as in sz