Diagnosing anxiety and depression
Differences in theoretical perspectives
Theoretical orientations represent a set of foundational assumptions about the phenomena under consideration and thus influence how the phenomena is studied. In this way. the theoretical perspective adopted by a mental health diagnostician determines how a mental illness is conceptualized and thus, subsequently treated. The following descriptions outline how the Biological, Freudian, Behavioral, Cognitive, Humanistic, and Sociocultural theoretical orientations would characterize anxiety and depression.
Biological — Theorists adhering to the biological model will assess abnormality in terms of a malfunctioning of the brain and its related processes. The etiology of abnormal behavior from this perspective will be attributed to dysfunction or imbalances in the anatomical structures or chemical reactions within the brain and related neurological structures. Symptoms of anxiety and depression would be explained by this model as possibly resulting from malfunction of specific areas in the brain, such as those that are related to mood and emotion (i.e., the hippocampus), or by an imbalance in the neurotransmitters related to anxiety (GABA) or depression (serotonin, norepinephrine).
Freudian — Freudian psychologists would describe the same anxious and depressed behavior as a…
