THE CLINICAL APPROACH - INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Flashcards
How can culture effect the diagnosis of mental health disorders?
Different cultures have different attitudes to mental disorders and this can affect how mental disorders are diagnosed
Some cultures have mental disorders that are specific to that culture known as Culture Bound Syndrome
Western cultures tend to see the mind and body as separate aspects of a person, but this is to true for other cultures
There may also be issues with translation if the patient and psychiatrist speak a different language which can cause issues when diagnosing a mental disorder
How can different attitudes in different cultures affect how mental disorders are diagnosed?
The different attitudes can affect the processes of reporting symptoms and receiving a diagnosis, as well as the prognosis (affects how much information the patient discloses and therefore the diagnosis)
Particular disorders may have particular meanings to a culture (eg some cultures believe in witchcraft)
Culture can also affect whether some disorders are diagnosed more frequently in women or men, or ethnic groups
What mental disorder is specific to a culture?
DHAT: found in men from Indian subcontinents, and has symptoms of severe anxiety, and an obsessive concern about the discharge of semen (could just be a culturally unique way of expressing depressive symptoms
How can different cultural attitudes about the mind and body lead to different mental health diagnoses?
Some cultures may reject individualistic and overly medicalised forms of diagnosing, and are in favour of a more collectivist approach (eg emphasise the unity, as opposed to the separate of the mind and body)
Eg China has their own diagnostic system, based on the ICR but including other categories, such as neurasthenia (weakness of the nerves)
What are the key names for the evaluation of the effect of culture on mental health disorders being diagnosed?
Luhrmann et al, Lin, Andrade et al
What did Luhrmann find?
found that hearing voices was seen as a negative experience in America but a positive one in India, therefore this may change the way people react to others saying they can hear voices
What did Lin find?
when looking at the symptoms of schizophrenia, there were more similarities across different cultures than differences, suggesting cultural differences would not lead to different diagnoses
What did Andrade et al find?
high social deprivation was associated with substance use disorders in São Paulo, showing that economic background can affect individual mental disorders (may be higher addiction rates in some cultures)
How do different mental health disorders have different developmental processes?
Some develop in infancy and early life - eg personality disorders, autism, neurodevelopmental disorders
Some may develop in adolescence such as depression, or early adulthood like schizophrenia
How can drug use be linked to developing a mental health disorder?
heavy marijuana use has been linked to increased risk of developing schizophrenia, especially if already vulnerable through other factors (1% general prevalence, 2% occasional THC use, 6% heavy use)
What risk factors are linked to schizophrenia?
drug use, prenatal exposure to infection or lack of nutrition
Schizophrenia tends to develop in late adolescence and early adulthood, so it is important that developmental psychologists establish what biological, psychological, social and emotional changes occur during this period that could account for its onset
What did Maier and Lachman find?
that symptoms of depression were more prevalent in those who had lost a parent in childhood by divorce or death, supporting the link between depression and childhood loss
What did Venable et al find?
headaches were associated with both depression and anger, supporting the link between depression and anger, which can be due to social issues
What did Radziszewska et al find?
parenting styles can increase or decrease the likelihood of developing depression
What is the evaluation of development on mental health disorders, and what are the related key names?
Women are 2-3x more likely to suffer from depression, which can be attributed to biological factors (eg genes and hormones)
Learned helplessness and how individuals have been positively and negatively reinforced may affect how and whether MHDs develop (operant conditioning)
Cognitive factors, such as self-schemas that develop in early childhood, together with negative cognitive styles lead to depression
Maier and Lachman, Venable et al, Radziskewska et l
