Discuss ethical and cultural consideration in diagnosis (culture variation,

stigmatization) -

 Abnormal psychology is a very broad topic in psychology, therefore the

topic itself is split into 3 subsections, Anxiety disorders which is the form
of irrational fear, Affective disorders which are the dysfunctional moods
and eating disorders which are patterns of eating patterns which lead to
excessive of insufficient amount of food
 We are currently aware that there are some mental disorders, which are
culturally universal such as schizophrenia, depression and manic
depression.
 (Culture causes misdiagnosis) Stevens (1987) had stated that the large
amounts of differences in schizophrenia was due to the reason that
misdiagnosis was occurring in developing countries, therefore the term
differential diagnosis was coined by (Cochrane and Shashidharen(1995))
to explain the existence of cultural biasness in the diagnosis of mental
disorders

Culture Bound Syndrome

 A culture bound syndrome does not easily fit into the categories and
classification of supposedly universal disorders, this form of a disorder
happens exclusively to a certain cultural population or geographic area
 Koro – this is a disorder in which when at times of high anxiety the penis
or nipples will recede into the body and could possibly cause death
 Amok - this is when somebody breaks out into a sudden wild behaviour,
similar to that of ‘berserker’
o Knecht (1999) reported that this syndrome has been well known
for many centuries in malay
o Wesermeyer (1973) analyzed existing data of 18 men in Laos who
had been diagnosed with amok and found that certain case studies
in Britain could also be potentially classified as amok, showing that
this may not only be culturally bound
 Therefore it is important to understand potential culture bound
syndromes when it comes to diagnosis, a few potential ways of reducing
culture bias is to..
o Take into account language differences, for therapists to become
more culturally educated and to have patients identify themselves
with different cultural groups

Supression Facilitation Model –

 Weisz et al (1987) according to this model, forms of behaviour that are

discouraged within a culture will be suppressed and therefore are
observed more rarely, and vice versa, those that are more rewarded will
be observed more often
o Weisz et al applied the model to Thailand and the USA, studying
400 children, and found that more of the thai children showed a
more controlled behaviour patterns
Misdiagnosis

 Stevens (1987) earlier stated that the main difference the different
diagnosis of schizophrenia was because of misdiagnosis in developing
countries, when 36% of Nigerian and 27% of indian patients recovered in
under a month from schizo suggested they did not really have the
disorder in the first place

Gender variations

 Gender variations is an important consideration when it comes to

diagnosis, for example those diagnosed with eating disorders are mainly
women (90%) however this may cause therapists to be reluctant in
diagnosing a man with eating disorders.
 Robins et al (1984) performed a meta analysis of gender variances in 3
american cities and found that men had a higher alcohole abuse rate,
more anti social behaviour however women are more likely to get major
depression and specific phobias
 Ford and Widiger (research evidence)
o Presented therapists of written case studies and were then asked
to be identified as Male or Female
o Anti social behaviour was correct 40% of the time when patient
was Male, but 20 when patient was female
 This showed a strong gender bias and that therapists had
resorted to simple gender stereotyping
 Bias in the definition of abnormality
o Broverman et al (1981) suggested that if the definition of
abnormality was defined based on the gender stereotypes of men,
then the symptoms shown in a woman may be unfairly diagnosed

Social Class Bias

 Bruce, Takeuchi and Leaf (1981) found evidence that people above or
below a socio economic line may have prejudice against them, those that
had no mental illnesses at first assessment were assessed again 6 months
later and it was found that those blow the line were 2x more likely to be
diagnosed with a mental disorder, it is further looked at in schizophrenia.