Psychopathology, conceptualization

Nevertheless, parallel to this, there has also been a growing and renewed interest in understanding the role played by culture in mental disorders in order to allow cultural aspects to be included in the conceptualization of psychopathologies, in the light of the results obtained by a large number of research studies (for a review, see Lopez Guarnaccia, 2005). 

Although empirical studies usually present and explain these two forms of adaptation using the same theoretical assumptions, there are reasons to believe that they are conceptually different. This distinction is made on the grounds that psychological adaptation can be analyzed better within a psychopathological approach whereas sociocultural adaptation would be better dealt with by the social skills theories (Ward, 1996). 

Nevertheless, it is clear to us that the field of psychopathology is undergoing a transformation. There have been dramatic advances in quantitative methods that allow researchers to evaluate the basic premise behind our nosological system. Thus far the implicit assumption of the DSM was that psychiatric disorders are well represented by categorical diagnoses. This assumption is not necessarily true and may be valid only for certain mental disorders. We believe that all DSM entities must be tested using taxometrics (with CCK or non-CCK procedures). If all diagnoses are tested, we are likely to find that many of them are best conceptualized as continua. 

Much of our discussion is based on the idea that a variety of forms of psychopathology are taxonic. The critical question is, How common are these taxa . The empirical base is currently too limited to answer this question, although it is reassuring that Table 6.1 includes nine taxonic versus four nontaxonic constructs. Instead, let us evaluate this question conceptually. First, notice that the notion of continuity easily translates into the idea of monotonous relations, such as linear, quadratic, exponential, and asymptotic effects. If a construct is dimensional, it should relate to other dimen-... 

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