Individual Differences in Mental Health Disorders and Diagnoses

Psychopathology – Issues and Debates in the Mental Health Discipline

In this course, Dr Cody Porter (University of the West of England) explores the relationship between culture and mental health. In the first lecture, we think about individual differences in mental health disorders and diagnoses, including some criticisms of the use of social norms as an assessment of mental illness. In the second lecture, we think about cultural impacts on mental health diagnoses, including how this can affect an individual seeking help with a mental health disorder. In the third lecture, we think about cultural biases in mental health diagnoses, looking into some cross-cultural differences in schizophrenia diagnoses. Next, we think about culture-bound syndromes, including the increased awareness of this in the DSM-5. In the fifth lecture, we think about biases in IQ testing, starting with Yerkes’ testing during the first world war. In the sixth lecture, we think about the factors which can employ mental health diagnoses and treatments as a form of social control. In the seventh and final lecture, we think about some key issues and debates in the mental health discipline, including overdiagnosis and overmedication.

Individual Differences in Mental Health Disorders and Diagnoses

In this lecture, we think about individual differences in mental health disorders and diagnoses, focusing in particular on: (i) how a diagnosis can be considered reliable; (ii) the DSM-5 and ICD-10 as diagnostic manuals which assist in the reliability of a diagnosis; (iii) the four D’s used to assess whether a behaviour is abnormal being deviance, distress, dysfunction and danger; (iv) understanding deviance to mean behaviours which are viewed as unacceptable; (v) understanding dysfunction to mean behaviours which significantly interfere with everyday life; (vi) understanding distress to mean when negative feelings occur inappropriately or persistently; (vii) understanding danger to mean when behaviour(s) put either the individual or someone else at risk; (viii) understanding social norms as a means by which to recognise when a behaviour is abnormal; (ix) a critique of using social norms as an assessment of normality being that they differ across cultures and time periods; (x) some critiques of focusing on individual differences when considering abnormality, including that observers may lose sight of what is in common between people; (xi) Bradshaw’s case study of ‘Carol’, which examined the effectiveness of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) at treating schizophrenia in a young woman; (xii) a positivist view, which would use scientific evidence proposals to provide explanations for individual differences in mental health conditions; (xiii) an anti-positivist view, which states that people are all the same and that differences are derived from society treating them differently.