"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition" ("DSM-5") promises a refined definition of mental disorder, which is tantamount to acknowledging that prior "DSM" definitions have failed to clarify what mental disorder is and why a person should be considered mentally disordered. Since the…

Objective: The Taxonomy of Care for Youth was developed to gather information about the care offered to children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems in various care settings. The aim was to determine similarities and differences in the content of care and thereby to classify the care offered to these children and youth within…

Crowdsourcing is a process in which a firm parcels out work to a "crowd" and offers payment for anyone within the crowd who completes the task determined by that firm. A growing number of behavioral scientists have begun using the Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to facilitate their research and practice, but there is apparently not one academic…

Purpose: We assessed citation impact scholarship of women in the top 25-ranked schools of social work in the United States. Method: We used a mixed methodology. Part 1 was a secondary data analysis of the top-25 "U.S. News and World Report" ranked schools from 2012 using the Hirsch h-index over a 10-year period. Qualitative interviews…

In this article, I address the issue of comorbidity and its prevalence in the prior "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" ("DSM") classification systems. The focus on the topography or form of presenting problems as the venue for determining mental disorders is scrutinized as the possible cause. Addressing the…

Objective: To use meta-analytic techniques to evaluating the effectiveness of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) at reducing future physical abuse among physically abusive families. Methods: A systematic search identified six eligible studies. Outcomes of interest were physical abuse recurrence, child abuse potential, and parenting stress.…

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the historical construction and empirical support of two child and adolescent behaviorally based mental health disorders: oppositional defiant and conduct disorders. Method: The study utilized a historiography methodology to review, from 1880 to 2012, these disorders' inclusion in…

Up until now, social workers have depended on the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" ("DSM") as the primary diagnostic classification for mental disorders. However, the "DSM-5" revision includes scientifically unfounded, inadequately tested, and potentially dangerous diagnoses that may lead them…

Objective: This article advances understanding of social work science by examining the content and methods of highly utilized or cited journal articles in social work. Methods: A data base of the 100 most frequently cited articles from 79 social work journals was coded and categorized into three primary domains: content, research versus…

With the upcoming release of the fifth edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-V) there has been a necessary critique of the DSM-IV including questions regarding how to best improve the next iteration of the DSM classification system. The aim of this article is to provide commentary on the probable…

This article examines problems in the clinical utility of the diagnosis of schizophrenia including reliance on questionable data, arbitrary criteria and categorization, inadequate precision for assessment and treatment evaluation, and omission of information on causal current and historical environmental factors. Some alternatives to the…

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and International Classification of Diseases classify mental health disorders on the basis of their putatively distinct symptom profiles. Although these nosologies are highly influential, they also have been derided as mere "field guides" because they focus solely on the…

The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM) is one of the most successful technologies in modern times. In spite of well-argued critiques, the DSM and the idea of "mental illness" on which it is based flourish, with ever more (mis)behaviors labeled as brain diseases. Problems in living and related distress…

Purpose: Statements about potentially effective components of interventions in child and youth care are hard to make because of a lack of a standardized instruments for classifying the most salient care characteristics. The aim of this study is to present an empirically developed taxonomy of care for youth (Tocfy) which is feasible for use in…

Purpose: Autistic disorder (AD), Asperger's syndrome (AS), and pervasive developmental disorder--not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) have been removed from the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--Fifth Edition" ("DSM-5"). It now contains the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. This study assessed…