Challenges in identifying mental disorders essay guide
A 2-3 page reflective essay on why determining abnormal behavior is so difficult, organized around social norms, the multiplicity of indicators, stigma, and the need for objectivity.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 12, 2026
Why does the continuum make identification hard?
The prompt supplies both the guiding question and the four issues to develop, which means the essay's structure is effectively given and the work is in the reasoning. The continuum framing in the opening is the key the prompt hands you: mental disorders sit on a continuum with normal behavior, and everyone fears something without having a phobia, so the difficulty is not identifying strange behavior but locating a threshold on a dimension that has no natural break. Say that explicitly and early, because it is the through-line connecting the four named issues into a single essay rather than four sections that happen to share a title page. That framing also explains why the essay is assigned as reflective rather than expository: the question has no settled answer to report, only a tension to think through honestly and in your own voice.
The social-norms issue is where most of the analytical payoff sits. Definitions of abnormality that rely on statistical rarity fail immediately, since genius and exceptional altruism are rare without being disordered; definitions relying on norm violation import whatever a culture happens to endorse, which is why the same behavior can be pathological in one setting and unremarkable in another, and why the history of diagnosis contains categories later recognized as social judgments rather than illnesses. The multiplicity of indicators compounds this, because distress, dysfunction, danger, and deviance frequently disagree — a person can be highly distressed while functioning well, or functioning poorly without distress — so no single criterion decides, and clinicians weigh several that may point different ways. Any essay that picks one indicator and treats it as decisive has quietly assumed away the very difficulty the prompt asks you to examine, which is usually visible to a grader within a paragraph.
Stigma belongs in the essay as a consequence that feeds back into identification rather than as a moral aside: because a diagnostic label carries social cost, people conceal symptoms and delay help-seeking, which distorts the very presentation the clinician assesses, and the label itself changes how subsequent behavior is interpreted by others. That leads naturally to objectivity, and the honest treatment acknowledges both why it is necessary — standardized criteria, structured interviews, and normed instruments exist precisely to constrain clinician bias — and why it is never complete, since the criteria themselves were written by people inside a culture and revised across editions. A reflective essay is allowed to end without resolving that tension; what it must do is state it clearly. Keep to 2-3 pages, apply APA citation standards, and follow the required file-naming convention, which is an easy graded point to lose.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Use the continuum framing as the essay's through-line rather than treating the four issues separately.
- 02Show why statistical rarity and norm violation both fail as definitions of abnormality.
- 03Explain how distress, dysfunction, danger, and deviance can disagree in the same case.
- 04Treat stigma as a factor that distorts presentation and interpretation, not as a moral aside.
- 05Argue objectivity as necessary and incomplete, and meet the format and file-naming requirements.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument. ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. 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We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A 2-3 page reflective essay answering why determining abnormality is difficult.
- 02Development of all four named issues: social norms, multiplicity of indicators, stigma, and objectivity.
- 03APA citation of textbook and library sources, in a file named per the stated convention.
How do the four issues connect into one essay?
The threshold problem
Open with the continuum: fear and phobia differ in degree, not kind, so identification means justifying a cut point on a dimension with no natural break.
Social norms and their failures
Show why rarity and norm violation both fail, and why the same behavior reads differently across contexts and eras.
Indicators that disagree
Work distress, dysfunction, danger, and deviance against one another, showing a case where they point in different directions.
Stigma and the limits of objectivity
Trace how labeling costs distort help-seeking and interpretation, then argue why standardized criteria are necessary yet culturally situated.
Where are the classification sources?
Recommended databases
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- NCBI Bookshelf
- MedlinePlus
Search sequence
- 1.Read the textbook chapter on defining abnormality and note the competing criteria.
- 2.Review the philosophical treatment of what makes a condition a disorder.
- 3.Check the classification material for how criteria have shifted across DSM editions.
- 4.Draft the essay as one continuum argument developing the four named issues in turn.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Mental Disorder (Illness)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · 2023
The rigorous treatment of what makes a condition a disorder — harm, dysfunction, and value-ladenness — behind the social-norms and objectivity sections.
- 02
Mental Disorders
MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine · 2024
The clinical framing of diagnosis and its indicators, grounding the multiplicity-of-indicators discussion.
- 03
DSM-5 Child Mental Disorder Classification
NCBI Bookshelf · 2016
Documentation of how diagnostic criteria change across editions — direct evidence for the objectivity argument's limits.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Writing four disconnected sections instead of one argument built on the continuum.
- Defining abnormality by statistical rarity without noting that rare excellence is not disorder.
- Presenting the indicators as a checklist rather than as criteria that can conflict.
- Treating stigma only as unfairness, missing how it distorts help-seeking and interpretation.
- Claiming objectivity is fully achievable through standardized criteria.
- Losing easy marks on the file-naming convention or the page range.
Submission checklist
- Continuum framing stated and carried through.
- Social-norms critique covers both rarity and norm-violation definitions.
- Indicators shown in conflict with a concrete example.
- Stigma linked to presentation and to labeling effects.
- Objectivity argued as necessary and bounded.
- 2-3 pages, APA citations, correct file name.
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Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
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Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.