Culture and Psychological Disorders Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the intersection of culture and psychological disorders, including diagnostic definitions, classification systems, and specific cultural syndromes.

Mental Disorder

A clinically significant behavioral and psychological syndrome or pattern associated with present distress, disability, or a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom.

Cultural Relativism

The view that culture and psychopathology are intertwined, meaning disorders can be understood only within the cultural framework in which they occur.

Psychopathology

Psychological disorders that encompass behavioral, cognitive, and emotional aspects of functioning.

Absolutist View

The perspective that cross-cultural similarities exist in the psychological mechanisms and subjective experiences of psychological disorders.

Central Symptoms

A set of symptoms that can be observed in practically all world populations, such as dysphoria and loss of energy in depression.

Peripheral Symptoms

A set of symptoms that are culture-specific, such as guilt or shame in certain cultural expressions of depression.

Culture-based Idioms of Distress

The ways individuals explain and express their symptoms according to culture-based display rules.

DSM V Cultural Revisions

Revisions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to include cultural concepts of distress (CCD) and the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI).

CCMD

The Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders, which is a local diagnostic system.

Axis I

In the Multiaxial System, this covers clinical disorders and conditions that need clinical attention.

Axis II

In the Multiaxial System, this covers personality disorders and mental retardation.

Cultural Syndromes of Distress

Patterns of symptoms that tend to cluster together for individuals in specific cultural groups, communities, or contexts.

Cultural Explanations of Distress

What communities and cultural groups believe is the cause of the distress, symptoms, or illness.

Child Behavior Checklist

A tool used in diverse cultures to assess behavioral, emotional, and social problems of children and adolescents.

Overpathologizing

Considering behavior as pathological when it is actually a normal variation for that individual's culture.

Underpathologizing

Indiscriminately seeing behavior as cultural when it actually reflects an abnormal psychological response.

MMPI

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, used to assess clinical states like paranoia (level of trust) and hypochondriasis (concern for health).

Schizophrenia

A disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and disorganized or catatonic behavior.

Expressed-emotion construct

The idea that family and social interactions influence the course of schizophrenia.

ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a neurological disorder found in all cultures featuring inattentiveness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.

Tolerance Threshold

A measure of tolerance or intolerance toward specific personality traits in a cultural environment; low thresholds indicate societal intolerance.

Amok

A syndrome known in Malaysia involving a sudden rage in which a person goes berserk, often precipitated by an insult.

Latah

A syndrome occurring in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Japan involving hypersensitivity to sudden fright, mimicking others, and trancelike behavior.

Zar

The belief in possession by a spirit causing shouting, laughing, or head banging, known in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Koro

A syndrome identified in South and East Asia where men feel intense anxiety that their penis is shrinking into their body.

Ataques de Nervios

A syndrome observed in Latin populations involving convulsions, loss of consciousness, heart palpitations, and a sense of heat rising to the head.

Jinn

In Islamic tradition, evil supernatural creatures or spirits believed to have the power to possess humans out of jealousy or revenge.