Psychodiagnostics

AN OVERVIEW
 Psychodiagnostics: Meaning

 Understanding of a person’s psychological profile in its

totality OR
 Comprehension of the total personality of an
individual in all its aspects
 Similar to “characterology” a term coined by J.
Bahnsen (1867)
 In this wider sense psychodiagnogsis is often
refereed as characterological diagnosis
 Involve wide range of techniques and methods
ranging from graphology through projective
techniques and psychometric tests to interview and
observation.
 Contd…

 In this sense psychodiagnosis does involve diagnosis

of psychiatric disorders but is not limited to that
only.
 It may be done for planning and evaluating
psychotherapy, educational and vocational guidance,
and for understanding other personal problems
requiring guidance and counseling.
 In clinical psychology, however, the term
psychodiagnosis is more related with diagnosis and
understanding of mental disorders for planning and
implementation of suitable psychological
interventions.
Psychodiagnosis as applied to clinical setting

Psychodiagnosis

Chareterological symptomatic
 Psychodiagnosis as applied to clinical setting

 characterological diagnosis It involves understanding the

person as complete as possible and aims at describing the
person’s personality structure and dynamics, his assets and
weaknesses, the psychosocial demands on him and his/her
coping resources. Such assessment involves understanding
of the personality development. Understanding how and by
what factors the given psychopathological symptoms and
syndrome emerged.
 In a narrow sense it refers to the symptomatic or
categorical diagnosis. A process of categorizing the person
in terms of any existing psychiatric classification system.
 Diagnosis as a classificatory process

• Some definitions
• According to Atkinson, Berne, and Woodworth (1987)
diagnosis is the process of –
– Determination of the nature of the abnormality or disease
– The classification of an individual on the basis of a disease or
abnormality
• According to Berzonsky (1994) “ psychodiagnosis refers to –
– The process of classifying information relevant to an individuals
emotional and behavioural state, and
– The name assigned to the state, taken generally from a commonly
accepted classification system
• Thus, diagnosis can be referred to as a process of classification
and labeling of abnormality or psychological disorder.
 A shift towards characterological diagnosis

 There are two specific reasons:-

 Researches demonstrate that mental health and illness is influenced by
a host of factors and therefore it is necessary to understand the
behaviour, emotions, thinking, personality, social situations and
stressful life events that are associated with a given psychopathology.
 With symptomatic diagnostis all patients with a given diagnosis will be
considered similar and homogeneous. However, the fact is that within a
given diagnostic category patients differ a lot in terms of symptomatic
manifestation and associated condition. Thus, the uniqueness of the
individual is lost with classificatory diagnostic process and fro planning
the specific treatment the uniqueness of the individual must be
considered.
Clinical data: The core of diagnostic process

 What is Data?
 What is clinical data?
 The sign and symptoms are the most basic components
of the clinical data.
 The distinction between FORM and CONTENT of
symptom
 Form: the description of the structure of
psychological experience in phenomenological terms
(e.g. a delusion, depressed mood, phobia, etc.)
 Content: the psychosocial environmental context
within which the patient describes this abnormal form:
 The form is dependent upon the nature of the mental illness
 Content is dependent upon the life situation, culture, and
society within which the patient exists.
 The distinction is important for diagnosis and treatment
 determining the psychopathological form is necessary for
accurate diagnosis
 Content of symptoms reveal the patient's current significant
concerns and is helpful in constructing a well-directed
treatment regime.
 Thus, while collecting data, one should focus on both the
content and the form of the symptom
 REMEMBER: The patient or their attendant generally report
the major concerns and distress and not the symptoms. It is
the clinician’s task to note the form and content of the
symptom.
 Clinical data: Another distinction
 Objective data: In clinical setting objective data refers to an
account of an event or behaviour that is based on agreement
between two or more persons or sources.
 Subjective data: an account of an event or behaviour that
comes from only one person (generally the patient or their
relatives)
 Objective information is likely to be safer to act upon than
subjective, so efforts should always be put into raising as much
as possible of the information about a patient into the
objective category.
 Nevertheless, many of the most important symptoms in
psychiatry can only be subjective, since they refer to the inner
experience of the one person who can describe them.
Core clinical database
Process of Psychodiagnostic assessment

Sundberg and Tylor’s (1962) model

PROCESSING OUTPUT
PREPARATION INPUT
Analyzing, Communication of
Planning Collecting
synthesizing and report
assessment assessment data
interpreting data

Sundberg (1977) model

Client, Firm or agency
Request for assessment
Feedback (report) to agency

Reject
Decision Choice of Reevaluation Choice of ways Communic
about assessment during data to organize ation of
admission strategies collection information assessme
for service nt report
ACCEPT
Diagnosis: An overview