Gender acts as a context for interpreting diagnostic criteria

This study used a unique methodology to determine the aspects of case vignettes that elicited an effect of case gender on diagnosis. A total of 99 psychiatrists and psychologists were shown cases representing a man or a woman that contained varying numbers of histrionic and antisocial criteria. The cases were presented by computer a few sentences at a time. Clinicians were asked to offer a diagnosis for the case after each group of sentences was presented. Results indicated that case gender tended to affect clinicians' diagnostic decisions when criteria related to that diagnosis were shown, suggesting that case gender was acting as a context in which diagnostic criteria were interpreted.