The dimensional approach to classifying mental disorders focuses on the extent or degree to which a person exhibits certain characteristics rather than categorizing them into diagnostic types. It involves profiling individuals along multiple dimensions like anxiety, mood variation, and personality traits and comparing their scores to population norms. This provides richer data about a case by capturing severity on a continuum rather than just presence or absence of symptoms. Grading and tracking dimensions over time can help monitor treatment effectiveness.

1. Dimensional Approach
– to classification of mental disorder
• Categorically classifying
mental disorders focuses on
the KIND of problem a
person is experiencing.
• A dimensional approach
focuses on the EXTENT in
which a person has a
disorder. Many disorders
(especially personality
disorders) are simply normal
traits gone too far.

2. Dimensional Approach
• Doesn’t place people into
diagnostic categories.
• Places people in dimensions
(sometimes seen as
dimensions of personality)
• Diagnosis, then, becomes not a
process of deciding the
presence or absence of a
symptom or disorder, but
rather, the degree to which
particular characteristic is
present.

3. Dimensional approach
• Instead of making judgments
of "present or not?", the
dimensional approach asks
the question "how much?"
• Ranks disorder on a
continuum based on testing
following participants
completing inventories
(standardised testing)
• A dimension viewed as a
cluster of related
psychological/behavioural
characteristics that occur
together

4. Dimensional approach
• Thus statistics (profiles) can
be generated for the
population and
• values are compared with
the statistically ‘normal’
expected values for each
characteristic – e.g.
• neuroticism, psychoticism,
introversion-extroversion
• novelty seeking, harm
avoidance, reward
dependence
• positive emotionality,
negative emotionality,
constraint

5. Grading & Transitional
• Patient is profiled by grading
the severity of symptoms
from a number of dimensions
in comparison to the
population e.g. anxiety,
variations in mood, etc.
• Symptoms can be monitored
over time (Transitional) – to
determine the effectiveness
of treatment.

6. Strengths
• generates richer data i.e. we get
more detail of a case by case
approach for individual patient’s
• A dimensional approach would
be better able to capture the
complexities of a person’s life
that a categorical approach
would miss.
• Classifies disorder on its severity
(not just presence)
• Stigma’s from labeling are less
likely to occur – i.e. ‘she is highly
anxious’ (not she has ‘borderline
personality disorder’

7. Weaknesses
• Complexity & lack of uniformity in mental health
profession.
• Particularly given the number of dimensions that
need to be rated.