Monday January 26 2015 Abnormal Psychology Chapter 4 Diagnosis A description of behavior as tting the criteria for a particular type of disorder This helps bc it allows the clinician to compare client s problems to those similarly experienced by others Classi cation system is used to subdivide or organize a set of objects Categorical approach to classi cation Quality not quantity Dimensional approach to classi cation Advantage of this is that it allows scientists to record subtle distinctions To classify intellectual abiity we determine how much intelligence a person has on a particular set of tasks Such a classi cation system This is an ex of dimensional Currently mental disorders are classi ed on the basis of their descriptive features Explanations for MD are Psychological Biological Social Inclusion criteria 1 Classifying abnormal behavior Match their clients problems with the form of intervention that is most effective Must be used in the search for new knowledge Two diagnostic systems currently used Diagnostic Statistical Manual DSM 5 is the most recent version Monday January 26 2015 Symptoms that must be present Exclusion criteria Diagnosis can be ruled out if certain conditions prevail International Classi cation of Diseases ICD 10 DSM5 includes a glossary of cultural concepts of distress Culture bound syndromes are disorders considered unique to particular societies Problems with DSM5 vague boundaries between normal and abnormal behavior disorders are de ned in terms of snapshots of symptoms at particular points in time Purposes of clinical assessment Conducting an interview administering tests to evaluate nature of a persons problem and formulate a treatment plan The need to describe the nature of a persons principal problem Used for making predictions planning treatments and evaluating treatments Personality Inventories MMPI2 Straightforward questions Most widely used psychological test Person receives a numerical score on each of 10 clinical scales and four validity scales Limitations depends on ability to read pro le types not stable over time Projective Personaltiy Test Person is presented with a series of ambiguous stimuli Rorschach Test Series of 10 inkblots no correct answers 2 Monday January 26 2015 Thematic Apperception Test Series of drawings Advantages of Personality Tests with others Limitations of P T Provide info on persons unique view of the world How unconscious cognitive and emotional events may affect a persons relationship Lack of standardization administration and scoring Little info on which to base comparison to normal adults or children Time consuming A classi cation system that focuses on how much of a given characteristic as individual exhibits is called dimensional One of the keys that should lead a mental health professional to suspect that Michael suffered from OCD was that his symptoms fall into a recognized pattern Development of scienti c classi cation systems proceeds over several years from description to later stages involving theory 3
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