Individual differences in mental health dissorders

Culture and diagnosis

• The culture we live in can lead to individual differences in diagnosis

• E.g. UK (depression) and USA (schizophrenia)

• Individual differences can arise from clinicians bias, this can have an impact on whether the treatment given in different cultural areas is in fact valid.

Race and Diagnosis

• Race can lead to individual differences

• E.g. Cochraine found people are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia in African American

• This could highlight individual differences in development of disorder because of genetics

Culture bound syndromes

• Different cultures have different attitudes to mental disorders- affects how mental disorders diagnosed

• Some cultures have disorders specific to that culture (culture bound syndrome) i.e.- penis panic- some males thought penises would retract into their bodies mainly in Africa & Asia - witchcraft.

Language

• Issues wit translation in patient & psychiatrist speak different language - can cause issues when diagnosing a mental disorder

• Andrade et. al. (2012) found that high social deprivation associated with substance use disorders in Sao Paulo , showing that economic background can affect individual disorders

Hearing voices

• Lurhmann et. al. (2015) found hearing voices was seen as a negative experience in USA but positive in India, this may change the way people react to others saying they can hear voices and affect diagnosis- affecting validity

More similarities

• Lin (1996) found when looking at the symptoms of schizophrenia, there were more similarities across cultures than differences - suggesting cultural differences would not lead to differences in diagnosis.

• Lee (2006) used the DSM 4 in Korea to see if the DSM 4 was valid in non-western cultures – diagnoses for ADHD was found to be valid - culture does not affect diagnoses