individual and developmental differences

• individual differences in clinical

  1. culture leads to individual differences in MH disorder e.g: non-bio explanation of SZ
  2. culture leads to different diagnoses of MH disorders
• culture leading to individual differences in MH disorder/different diagnoses

  • usefulness of DSM across cultures can be questioned as it was developed in USA but widely used in other countries
  • different cultures have different attitudes to MH disorders and this affects how they are diagnosed e.g: evard suggests hearing voices can be mental disorder but also due to individual difference and interpreted as a special experiences valued in some cultures
• strength - evidence for culture

  • research evidence
  • luhrmann - found hearing voices was seen as a negative experience in america but in india and ghana, voices were seen as positive so MH disorders are different in different cultures
  • if a patient is from a different culture to their clinician, may affect clinicians diagnosis so challenging validity of diagnosis
• culture leading to individual differences in MH disorder/different diagnoses (2)

  • some cultures have mental disorders that are specific to that culture such as amok in malaysia
  • amok - syndrome usually occurring in males which causes sudden outbursts of indiscriminate murderous frenzy which may be provoked by an insult or jealousy
• culture leading to individual differences in MH disorder/different diagnoses (3)

  • individual differences in cultural background, experience and training of clinicians can affect their interpretation of symptoms due to misinterpretation or not recognising symptoms
  • may be issues of translation if patient & psychiatrist speak a different language which cause issues when diagnosing a mental disorder
• strength - evidence of culture

  • research evidence
  • garland (1970) found psychiatrists in NY were more likely to diagnose patients as having SZ than affective disorders e.g: depression compared to psychiatrists in london - found this was due to differences in clinicians
  • likely to affect the reliability of diagnosis as it implies different clinicians will give different diagnoses
• weakness - counter to culture

  • research evidence
  • lin (1966) found when looking at symptoms of SZ, there were more similarities across different cultures than differences
  • suggests cultural difference would not lead to a difference in diagnosis
• developmental psychology


  • issues around genes and mental health such as genetic or biochemical explanation for SZ affect development
• genes and mental health

  • according to hiker (2018) heritability of SZ is 79% so within the population, it is likely that 79% have inherited SZ through genes
  • deletion of COMT gene - COMT enzyme is not created so dopamine not broken down so NT not regulated causing symptoms of SZ e.g: hallucinations or delusions
  • abnormality to DISC-1 gene - GABA is not created so glutamate and other NT not regulated causes symptoms of SZ
• gene and mental health

  • epigenetics - epigenetic changes affect cell division and mediates dialogue between genes & environment and chemical tags with turn genes on and off
  • environmentally induced epigenetic change may be why identical twins grow to have different lives but not permanent
• strength - evidence for genes

  • research evidence
  • mil (2006) scanned genome of MZ twins where 1 twin had SZ and other did not, finding that diagnosed twins had up to 20% greater methylation of 2 genes linked with SZ - methylation is the basis by which genes are switched on
  • therefore, might be a combination of genes & environment which influence whether individual develops a MH disorder