Explaining and Classifying Disorders
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Distress/dɪˈstres/ | The person experiences significant suffering. |
| Dysfunction/dɪsˈfʌŋkʃn/ | The behaviour interferes with everyday functioning. |
| Deviation from the social norm/ˌdiːvɪˈeɪʃn frʌmðə ˈsəʊʃl nɔːm/ | The behaviour departs from what a society expects. |
| eclectic approach/ɪˈklektɪk əˈprəʊtʃ/ | Using ideas or methods from more than one psychological approach according to the problem and context. |
| biopsychosocial model/baɪˈɒsaɪkəʊsəʊʃl ˈmɒdl/ | An account of behaviour and health that considers interacting biological, psychological and social influences. |
| diathesis-stress model/ˈdaɪəθəsɪs stres ˈmɒdl/ | The account that vulnerability and stressful experiences interact in the development of psychological difficulties. |
What makes a behaviour a disorder?
- Unusual is not the same as disordered, and distressing is not the same as either.
- The CED gives three factors used to identify a psychological disorder.
- Applying all three, rather than one, is what makes a judgement defensible.
The three factors
- Dysfunction 功能失调 — the behaviour interferes with everyday functioning.
- Distress 消极压力 — the person experiences significant suffering.
- Deviation from the social norm 偏离社会规范 — the behaviour departs from what a society expects.
Distress, dysfunction and cultural context inform assessment; risk assessment is a separate issue
Which perspective explains it this way?
Match each proposed cause to the perspective that offers it.
Select all the factors the CED uses to identify a psychological disorder.
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All three are applied together; no single one is sufficient on its own.
Deviating from a social norm is by itself enough to identify a disorder.
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Norms differ and change; the CED gives three factors so that no single one decides.
What diagnosis does
- Classifying a disorder has both positive and negative consequences, depending on the case.
- It gives access to treatment and a shared vocabulary; it can also carry stigma.
- Diagnosis requires specialised training and evidence-based diagnostic tools.
Deviation from a social norm alone never establishes a disorder. Norms differ between societies and change over time, so a behaviour that is merely unusual is not thereby disordered — the CED gives three factors precisely so that no single one decides.
An eclectic approach to diagnosis means the psychologist...
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Most psychologists combine perspectives rather than committing to one.
Seven perspectives, one behaviour
- Behavioural blames maladaptive learned associations; psychodynamic unconscious conflict; humanistic a lack of support and acceptance.
- Cognitive blames maladaptive thoughts; evolutionary, behaviours once adaptive; sociocultural, social and cultural conditions; biological, physiology or genetics.
- Most psychologists use an eclectic approach 折衷取向 — more than one perspective at once.
The model proposing a genetic vulnerability triggered by a stressor is the ____-stress model.
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The diathesis-stress model needs both the vulnerability and the trigger.
Match each model to its assumption.
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All three refuse to explain a disorder by a single cause.
Two interaction models
- The biopsychosocial model 生物心理社会模型 assumes any problem may involve biological, psychological and social factors together.
- The diathesis-stress model 素质-压力模型 assumes a genetic vulnerability (diathesis) that a stressor then triggers.
- Both refuse a single-cause explanation, which is why the CED presents them last.
Someone works eighty hours a week. That deviates from the norm, but if there is no distress and no dysfunction, the CED's three factors do not identify a disorder. Change one factor — sleep collapses and relationships fail — and the judgement changes.
A disorder is identified by dysfunction, distress and deviation from the social norm together. Diagnosis has both positive and negative consequences and requires training. Seven perspectives each explain causes differently, most psychologists are eclectic, and the biopsychosocial and diathesis-stress models combine causes.
Write from sleep of 3 hours
- A person sleeps 3 hours, cannot work, and is deeply distressed.
- Apply the three identification factors. Do not use the 80-hour example.
A person sleeps 3 hours a night, cannot work, and is deeply distressed. How do the three identification factors apply?
The three factors together, not any one unusual habit, identify the concern in this lesson.
How does this case differ from working eighty hours with no harm?
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Distress and dysfunction are added to an unusual pattern. The eighty-hour case lacked them.