January

Understanding Cultural Sensativity:

The primary goal of diagnosis is to identify common clusters of symptoms, so that ideal care can be provided.  The ability to identify disorders and their biological, behavioral, and cognitive underpinnings improves our ability to approach the problems with our most effective treatments.  Additionally, it is imperative that both type 1 (diagnose presence of pathology when there is none) and type 2 (diagnose no pathology when pathology is present) errors in diagnosing are avoided.  Lastly, we know that ideal care comes when the appropriate expectation is placed on the person under care.  Robert Rosenthal discusses the Pygmalion Effect, in which the greater an expectation is placed upon a person to succeed, the better they perform.  This can be applied to diagnosis as well.  The greater expectation we place on someone to get well or stay well the more likely they will be to achieve that way of living.