1. First of all, there is no biological test for any of the known mental disorders right now.
2. In the field of clinical psychology we have a number of different ways, kind of heuristics that we use to label things as abnormal or unhealth...y or troubling. And three of these characteristics are what we often call the three Ds: distress, dysfunction, and deviance. So, behaviors that cause the individual or others significant distress often get labeled as abnormal or unhealthy. Depression is a prime example, as we'll see when we talk about the characteristics of it. It's a miserable state of being; you're unhappy, you're sad, you may even feel so badly you want to kill yourself. And that very, very high level of distress is part of the reason why it's labeled as a mental disorder. Other mental disorders don't cause the individual distress, but they may cause other people distress. So, one example of this is something called "antisocial personality disorder," where the individual has no regard for the rights of other people, has no hesitation to steal or — steal from or hurt other people, has no empathy or sympathy for other people's feelings and so can inflict a lot of harm on other people and has absolutely no distress over this whatsoever. But this behavior causes other people distress, and that's one of the reasons why that's labeled an abnormal behavior or a mental health problem. The second general criterion is "dysfunction." If a set of behaviors prevents the person from functioning in daily life, then it might be labeled as abnormal or might end up being labeled as a mental health problem. Again, depression is a good example. People who are depressed often become completely non-functional. They can't get up and go to class; they can't go to work; they can't interact with their friends; they withdraw and become totally isolated socially. So, they might lose their job; they might flunk out of school. And this complete decline in functioning is one of the major reasons that we consider depression one of the most debilitating disorders. And then finally, "deviance," the behaviors or feelings are highly unusual. This is probably the most controversial of the three because it weighs, it is so heavily influenced by the social norms. What's deviant in one culture is not deviant in another culture. But if a set of behaviors is completely unacceptable to a culture, highly unusual, they're more likely to end up getting labeled as abnormal.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AzjiDCx5kF0cJ%3Aoyc.yale.edu%2Ftranscript%2F325%2Fpsyc-110+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
2. In the field of clinical psychology we have a number of different ways, kind of heuristics that we use to label things as abnormal or unhealth...y or troubling. And three of these characteristics are what we often call the three Ds: distress, dysfunction, and deviance. So, behaviors that cause the individual or others significant distress often get labeled as abnormal or unhealthy. Depression is a prime example, as we'll see when we talk about the characteristics of it. It's a miserable state of being; you're unhappy, you're sad, you may even feel so badly you want to kill yourself. And that very, very high level of distress is part of the reason why it's labeled as a mental disorder. Other mental disorders don't cause the individual distress, but they may cause other people distress. So, one example of this is something called "antisocial personality disorder," where the individual has no regard for the rights of other people, has no hesitation to steal or — steal from or hurt other people, has no empathy or sympathy for other people's feelings and so can inflict a lot of harm on other people and has absolutely no distress over this whatsoever. But this behavior causes other people distress, and that's one of the reasons why that's labeled an abnormal behavior or a mental health problem. The second general criterion is "dysfunction." If a set of behaviors prevents the person from functioning in daily life, then it might be labeled as abnormal or might end up being labeled as a mental health problem. Again, depression is a good example. People who are depressed often become completely non-functional. They can't get up and go to class; they can't go to work; they can't interact with their friends; they withdraw and become totally isolated socially. So, they might lose their job; they might flunk out of school. And this complete decline in functioning is one of the major reasons that we consider depression one of the most debilitating disorders. And then finally, "deviance," the behaviors or feelings are highly unusual. This is probably the most controversial of the three because it weighs, it is so heavily influenced by the social norms. What's deviant in one culture is not deviant in another culture. But if a set of behaviors is completely unacceptable to a culture, highly unusual, they're more likely to end up getting labeled as abnormal.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AzjiDCx5kF0cJ%3Aoyc.yale.edu%2Ftranscript%2F325%2Fpsyc-110+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
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