Psychology 1000 Chapter 15: psych 1000 chapter 15

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Nick Skinner

Document Summary

Defining a disorder can be rather difficult because of the point of view. Mental disorder: any behavior or emotional state that causes an individual great suffering, is self- destructive, seriously impairs the persons ability to work or get along with others or endangers others or the community. We classify disorders by dsm which is known as the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. The dsm aims to be descriptive by providing clear diagnostic categories so that clinicians and researchers can agree on which disorders they are talking about and then can study and treat these disorders. In addition clinicians are encouraged to evaluate each client according to five axes or dimensions: 1. the primary clinical problem, such as depression. 2. ingrained aspects of the clients personality that are likely to affect the persons ability to be treated, such as negative emotionality (neuroticism), a disposition to be pessimistic and bitter. Medical conditions or medications that might contribute to the symptoms.