title: Judgments of impairment and distress associated with symptoms of internalizing and externalizing disorders.
abstract: The pattern of dysfunction (i.e. impairment vs. distress) judged to be associated with disorders empirically identified by Krueger, Caspi, Moffitt and Silva (1998) as internalizing (e.g. major depressive episode; agoraphobia) was compared to the pattern characterizing disorders classified as externalizing (e.g. antisocial personality disorder; alcohol dependence). In Study 1, lay raters (N=270) judged the social impairment, occupational impairment, and personal distress associated with symptoms of seven internalizing and four externalizing disorders. As predicted, symptoms composing internalizing disorders were perceived as involving a greater degree of distress, and a lesser degree of impairment, relative to symptoms composing externalizing disorders. In Study 2, conducted with a small sample of clinician judges (N=21), symptoms composing internalizing disorders were again judged as involving a greater degree of distress (but, in this case, not a lesser degree of impairment) relative to symptoms composing externalizing disorders. This research provides a novel means of validating the distinction between internalizing and externalizing groups of disorders.
authors: Department of Psychology, Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. howella@macewan.ca
authors: Andrew J
authors: AJ
authors: Howell
authors: David C
authors: DC
authors: Watson
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*