Reference no: EM133624707
Assignment:
For Jamal, learning about abnormal psychology has been fascinating. Despite what he's read on the internet, Jamal now realizes that abnormal behavior isn't simply weird, nor does it necessarily indicate that a person has a mental illness. Given his own lived experiences with depression, Jamal now acknowledges the fact that he, too, has suffered from varying degrees of mental illness throughout his life. In fact, for many years, Jamal has felt as though he should seek mental health support to learn how to better manage his depression. Several of Jamal's family members and friends have been diagnosed and treated by mental health professionals for various psychological issues in the past, which has inspired a question: How does someone know that the time has come to seek the therapeutic support of a mental health professional?
Jamal's research led him to discover the Four D's, a diagnostic paradigm that practitioners often use to conceptualize psychological disorders, which consists of the following factors: distress, dysfunction, danger, and deviance. In his review of the literature, Jamal noted that the linkages between these constructs aren't always linear or mutual (e.g., a psychological problem may be considered dysfunctional, but not necessarily distressful; a psychological problem may be considered distressful, but not necessarily deviant). As Jamal considered the importance of diagnostic accuracy in the treatment of psychological disorders, he thought about his own mental health and wondered, "My depression may cause feelings of despair, but to what extent does it actually impair my ability to function?"
- Distress: Describe the extent to which the selected behavior causes distress as characterized by mental or emotional imbalance.
- Dysfunction: Describe the extent to which the selected behavior causes dysfunction by interfering with adaptive daily functioning.
- Danger: Describe the extent to which the selected behavior presents as a danger to self or others.
- Deviance: Describe the extent to which the selected behavior deviates from normality.
Sources should be cited according to APA style.