PSYC 100 Study Guide - Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder, Brief Psychotic Disorder, Autism Spectrum

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Ingrid Johnsrude

Document Summary

When we gather info to make a diagnosis, we need to look at how it relates to the symptoms. The individuals symptoms must cause distress or impair her ability to function in her daily life. The distress/impairment must be judged by a clinician to be clinically significant. Clinically significant if: sufficiently significant, marked, or substantial in intensity or duration that the patient would benefit from professional treatment. Individuals cant receive a diagnosis of a mental disorder if their behavior is voluntary. People with mental disorders don"t choose to behave as they do. A mental disorder is a behavioural or psychological pattern that"s associated with great amounts of distress or disability- relative to their daily or regular social lives. Normal is based on perception and knowledge, so one would need to understand the context in which an individual grew up to appreciate whether his behavior is disordered or not.