4 - The Conceptual Foundations of Descriptive Psychopathology

Summary

As in many sciences, description is an important component of theory, research, and practical applications in clinical psychology. Despite this, considerable disagreement exists regarding how to describe the diverse manifestations of psychopathology that clinicians and researchers have observed. The disagreements are such that translating research across descriptive psychopathology models can be difficult or impossible, impeding scientific progress. As this chapter reviews, at least four major descriptive psychopathology approaches exist – clinical theory, descriptive psychiatry, quantitative models, and biological models – each of which has unique goals, units of observation, theoretical concepts, and research traditions. Through reviewing these dominant approaches, it is illustrated how diverging language, concepts, and methods can impede communication between scientists and practitioners working within different descriptive approaches. Beyond this, specific emerging descriptive psychopathology models (i.e., HiTOP, RDoC, and transdiagnostic processes) are reviewed, which have primarily developed as a response to descriptive psychiatry’s limitations (e.g., DSM) and may advance clinical psychology. Despite the promise of these emerging descriptive models, each is still primarily rooted in one traditional descriptive approach and retains that approach’s limitations. Thus, the chapter concludes by discussing the need to integrate descriptive psychopathology approaches and the challenges associated with this task.