What is a mental disorder? Evaluating the lay concept of Mental Ill Health in the United States

Abstract

Purpose: How “mental disorder” should be defined has been the focus of extensive theoretical and philosophical debate, but how the concept is understood by laypeople has received much less attention. The study aimed to examine the content (distinctive features and inclusiveness) of these concepts, their degree of correspondence to the DSM-5 definition, and whether alternative concept labels (“mental disorder”, “mental illness”, “mental health problem”, “psychological issue”) have similar or different meanings. Methods: We investigated concepts of mental disorder in a nationally representative sample of 600 U.S. residents. Subsets of participants made judgments about vignettes describing peop..