Culture and individual differences on diagnosis

These flashcards cover key concepts related to the impact of culture on mental health diagnosis, including evidence supporting both sides of the argument.

How can culture lead to individual differences in diagnosis?

Clinicians may interpret symptoms with an ethnocentric bias, influenced by their own cultural background and societal norms, leading to different diagnoses for the same symptoms.

What did Gurland et al. (1970) find regarding culture and diagnosis?

They found that New York hospitals diagnosed patients with a 9:1 ratio of schizophrenia to affective disorders, while London hospitals had a 1:1 ratio, due to clinician bias and not differences in patient symptoms.

How did Luhrmann et al. (2015) demonstrate cultural differences in symptom experience?

They studied schizophrenia patients and found that 70% of Americans heard threatening voices, while 50% of Ghanaians reported hearing positive voices, showing culture shapes symptom interpretation.

What is an argument against the idea that culture leads to major individual differences in diagnosis?

Global classification systems like DSM-5 and ICD-10 are standardized and continually improved, leading to high reliability and consistent diagnoses across cultures.

What evidence shows high cross-cultural diagnostic reliability?

DSM-5 field trials showed high Kappa values (0.7–0.8) for major disorders, and a multi-country study found 75–80% diagnostic consistency for schizophrenia using ICD-10.

How do the DSM-5 and ICD-10 address cultural issues?

DSM-5 includes a Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) that reduced diagnostic discrepancies by 30% for immigrant populations, while ICD-10 is available in 43 languages to standardize terminology.

What is the overall conclusion regarding culture's role in mental health diagnosis?

Culture influences symptom presentation and clinician interpretation, but standardized systems like DSM-5 and ICD-10 effectively minimize these differences and promote diagnostic consistency worldwide.