Evaluation of issues of reliability

• Evaluation point for cultural bias by Copeland (1971)


  He found when British and American psychiatrists were given a description of a patient and asked for a diagnosis, 69% of Americans were diagnosed with SZ but only 2% of the British. This suggests diagnosis has very low inter-observer reliability between cultures.
• evaluation point for culture bias having validity issues by Harrison et al (1997)

  Harrison reported that African-caribbean groups were 8 times more likely to be diagnosed with SZ than white groups in the Uk. this suggests psychiatrists may be misinterpreting cultural differences in behaviour as 'bizarre' and therefore schizophrenia symptoms when they are simply differences. Such ethnocentric bias would reduce the validity of diagnosis.
• Evaluation point on how invalid diagnosis relates to the social stigma of being incorrectly labelled.


  Such inaccurate diagnosis can have a long-lasting negative impact on the lives of those diagnosed. but, classification systems do allow professionals to share a common language which helps in communicating ideas and allows greater opportunities for research which can lead to a better understanding of SZ