Depression sample 10 marker answer

Diagnosis criteria

One of the evaluative points that can be discussed when talking about mood disorders is cultural bias.
This means that due to the narrow size of research the findings may not be applicable to different
cultures. The becks depression inventory for example was made in the west where mental health is not
considered a taboo. If the same measure was used elsewhere, where mental health is not placed of such
importance, the results would differ. The BDI was tested by western researchers on western
participants, therefore their experiences and responses cannot be generalized to everyone else such as
people from eastern countries which thus limits the validity of the test. Thus, the measure used to
assess these mood disorders does not consider such differences.

Another evaluative point is the use of psychometric tests. When measuring or diagnosing mood
disorders such as depression, psychologists use psychometric tests like becks depression inventory that
is a 21-item scale which each item having 4 statements which the participant can choose from that best
represent how they are feeling lately. As psychometric tests collect quantitative data, they can be used
to make statistical comparisons. For example, scores on the bdi can be used to assess the severity of the
disorder. With 10 being the cut off point for mild depression, 19-29 being moderate depression and
anything over 30 being severe depression. However, the bdi just like any other psychometric test, is a
self-report and is filled by participants themselves. The participants may not want anyone to know how
they're truly feeling and thus may not open due to fear of judgment thus due to demand characteristics
they will give socially desirable response which may hinder the validity of the questionnaire leading to a
misdiagnosis.

The last evaluative point can be the individual vs situational explanations. The individual side of the
debate argues that individuals are born with unique characteristics that explain their behavior. For
example, some people might have a solemn personality and they may therefore may not be as
expressive or extroverted which may give off the impression of them having a mood disorder when the
low moods may just be part of their personality. The situational side of the debate argues that there are
external factors which influence our behavior. For example, a person may be having a bad day at work
or school which may explain their bad mood. This therefore removes burden from the individual as it
can be inferred that if the individual is removed from that stressful situation their low moods would go
back to being normal