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Do clinicians conceptualize DSM-IV disorders hierarchically?
Elizabeth Flanagan1, Jared Keeley, Roger Blashfield
1Yale University, USA. elizabeth.flanagan@yale.edu
Journal of Clinical Psychology
|May 3, 2012
Summary
Clinicians consistently organize mental disorders hierarchically, aligning with diagnostic systems. This hierarchical thinking about psychopathology is robust across various methods and expertise levels.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Modern diagnostic systems for psychopathology are structured hierarchically.
- Understanding clinicians' cognitive processes is crucial for diagnostic consistency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether clinicians' mental models of psychopathology are hierarchical.
- To examine the consistency of hierarchical thinking in clinicians.
Main Methods:
- Seventy-six clinicians participated in two studies.
- Participants sorted 67 diagnostic categories using varied instructions, focusing on grouping similarities or creating nested categories.
Main Results:
- Clinicians' sorting of mental disorders demonstrated a clear hierarchical structure.
- This hierarchical organization was consistent irrespective of the sorting methodology, professional background, or expertise level.
Conclusions:
- Clinicians' cognitive approach to mental disorders is inherently hierarchical.
- This finding supports the alignment between clinical cognition and existing hierarchical diagnostic frameworks, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
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