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A model of psychopathology in which the emergence of psychological disorders results from an interaction between an individual’s inherent vulnerability for developing the disorder and the individual’s experience of stressful events.
Introduction
The diathesis-stress model of psychopathology is a framework for understanding the development of psychological disorders. According to the general model, each individual possesses some degree of inherent vulnerability (i.e., diathesis) for developing a given disorder. Onset of a disorder can then be triggered by environmental stress; however, the amount or intensity of stress required to trigger a disorder depends on the extent to which the individual is inherently vulnerable. For example, the greater an individual’s vulnerability to a disorder, the smaller the amount of stress needed to trigger the development of the disorder. This interaction between diathesis and stress can help to explain why...
References
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Broerman, R. (2018). Diathesis-Stress Model. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_891-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_891-1
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