title: Do clinicians conceptualize DSM-IV disorders hierarchically?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  All classification systems of psychopathology use hierarchical categories. The purpose of the two studies in this article was to test whether clinicians think hierarchically about mental disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy six clinicians were asked to sort 67 diagnostic categories into groups using different instruction sets, either to make progressively larger and smaller groups of diagnoses (Study 1) or to place similar groups next to each other (Study 1 and Study 2).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinicians' sortings of mental disorders had a hierarchical structure regardless of the methodology, profession, expertise, and instructional set used.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given that all modern diagnostic systems have been hierarchical, it is important to know that clinicians' thinking is also hierarchical.
authors.affiliation: Yale University, USA. elizabeth.flanagan@yale.edu
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Flanagan
authors.forename: Jared
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keeley
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blashfield
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011570:Psychiatry; D011586:Psychology, Clinical; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D000078329:Workforce