Individual differences in mental disorders

Different attitudes towards mental disorders

Cultural differences towards disorders like SZ

• Some cultures see symptom as ‘normal behaviour’, some other abnormal

• Can affect how symptoms are reported and diagnosed

Cultural differences towards disorders supporting

Luhrmann et al

• found hearing voices seen as negative in America but positivity in Ghana - spiritual sign

Cultural differences towards disorders refuting

DSM

• classification tools like DSM a take into account cultural differences

• DSM 5 alerts clinicians that in some cultures visual and auditory hallucinations are a normal part of religious experience

Cross cultural validity

2+ cultures able to find similar conclusions when diagnosing and describing conditions

• suggests condition and symptoms and diagnostic tool are universal

supporting cross cultural validity

Lee

• conducted study using DSM to diagnose ADHD in q663 Korean children

• Results showed consistency with western cultures

Refuting cross cultural validity

Cooper et al

• Low inter rater reliability when watching videotaped clinical interviews

• American psychiatrist diagnosed SZ twice as often

• British psychiatrists diagnosed patients more with depression

• Shows individual cultural differences can affect diagnosis

Cultural differences: hospitalisation

Cultural differences with rates of hospitalisation and therefore different rates of the disorder

Cultural differences: hospitalisation strength

Pinto

• More African American males institutionalised for mental illness

• Explainable due to social background as AA males more likely to be lower social class and therefore greater risk of SZ

Cultural differences: hospitalisation weakness

Biological predisposition

• disorders influenced by biological predisposition which isn’t culture specific so no ID in mental health disorder

DSM and ICD tackling individual differences

Westernised, but in the past have attempted to be non-biased

DSM 5 AND ICD tackling individual differences strength

DSM:

• section 3 outlines issue of culture and has guidelines

ICD:

• development of ICD 11, WHO did an international survey

• ICD 10 is a product of clinicians all over the world