Acculturation and changing concepts of mental disorder: Brazilians in the USA.

Forty-three Brazilian citizens living in the USA judged whether a sample of conditions were mental disorders and rated them on proposed features of the concept of mental disorder. Judgments and ratings were correlated with measures of American acculturation and identification with Brazilian culture, and with years of American residence. Consistent with prediction, greater acculturation was associated with a concept of distúrbio mental that was broader in reach and more intrapsychic in focus. However, greater acculturation was also associated with a stronger tendency to understand disorder as a violation of social expectations and to pathologize behavior in excess or 'acting out.' American acculturation yielded no convergence of distúrbio mental with the concept of disorder embodied in DSM-IV.