Discuss the importance of understanding a patient's culture when making a diagnostic decision

Answer:

The personality disorders may be more closely tied to cultural expectations than any other kind of mental disorder. In DSM-5, personality disorders are defined in terms of behavior that "deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture." In setting this guideline, the authors of DSM-5 recognized that judgments regarding appropriate behavior vary considerably from one society to the next. Some cultures encourage restrained or subtle displays of emotion, whereas others promote visible, public displays of anger, grief, and other emotional responses. Behavior that seems highly dramatic or extraverted in the former cultures might create a very different impression in the latter cultures. Cultures also differ in the extent to which they value individualism as opposed to collectivism. Someone who seems exceedingly self-centered and egotistical in a collectivist society, such as Japan, might appear to be normal in an individualistic society like the United States.