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Do Clinicians Conceptualize DSM‐IV Disorders Hierarchically?
Author(s) -
Flanagan Elizabeth,
Keeley Jared,
Blashfield Roger
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.21840
Subject(s) - psychology , psychopathology , medical diagnosis , set (abstract data type) , sort , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , psychiatry , medicine , information retrieval , computer science , pathology , programming language
Objective All classification systems of psychopathology use hierarchical categories. The purpose of the two studies in this article was to test whether clinicians think hierarchically about mental disorders. Method Seventy six clinicians were asked to sort 67 diagnostic categories into groups using different instruction sets, either to make progressively larger and smaller groups of diagnoses (Study 1) or to place similar groups next to each other (Study 1 and Study 2). Results Clinicians’ sortings of mental disorders had a hierarchical structure regardless of the methodology, profession, expertise, and instructional set used. Conclusions Given that all modern diagnostic systems have been hierarchical, it is important to know that clinicians' thinking is also hierarchical.