eCite Digital Repository
A new conception and subsequent taxonomy of clinical psychological problems
Citation
Bakker, G, A new conception and subsequent taxonomy of clinical psychological problems, BMC Psychology, 7 Article 46. ISSN 2050-7283 (2019) [Refereed Article]
![]() | PDF 1Mb |
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2019 The Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
DOI: doi:10.1186/s40359-019-0318-8
Abstract
Background: A taxonomy of the objects of study, theory, assessment, and intervention is critical to the development of all clinical sciences. Clinical psychology has been conceptually and administratively dominated by the taxonomy of an adjacent discipline – psychiatry’s Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM). Many have called for a ‘paradigm shift’ away from a medical nosology of diseases toward clinical psychology’s own taxonomy of clinical psychological problems (CPPs), without being able to specify what is to be listed and classified.
Main text: An examination of DSM’s problems for clinical psychology, especially its lack of clinical utility, and a search for the essence of CPPs in what clinical psychologists actually do, leads to the proposal that: The critical psychological-level phenomenon underlying CPPs is the occurrence of ‘problem-maintaining circles’ (PMCs) of causally related cognitions, emotions, behaviours, and/or stimuli. This concept provides an empirically-derived, theory-based, treatment-relevant, categorical, essentialist, parsimonious, and nonstigmatizing definition of CPPs. It distinguishes psychological problems in which PMCs have not (yet?) formed, and which may respond to ‘counseling’, clinical psychological problems in which active PMCs require clinical intervention, and psychopathological problems which are unlikely to be ‘cured’ by PMC-breaking alone.
Conclusion: A subsequent classification and coding system of PMCs is proposed, and expected benefits to research, communication, and the quality of case formulation in clinical psychology are described, reliant upon a development effort of some meaningful fraction of that which has been devoted to the DSM.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Keywords: | case formulation, clinical psychological problems, functional analysis, mental disorders, symptom networks, problem-maintaining circles, taxonomy, transdiagnostic |
Research Division: | Psychology |
Research Group: | Clinical and health psychology |
Research Field: | Health psychology |
Objective Division: | Health |
Objective Group: | Other health |
Objective Field: | Other health not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Bakker, G (Mr Gary Bakker) |
ID Code: | 134058 |
Year Published: | 2019 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 9 |
Deposited By: | Medicine |
Deposited On: | 2019-07-24 |
Last Modified: | 2020-12-18 |
Downloads: | 14 View Download Statistics |
Repository Staff Only: item control page