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AN OVERVIEW
Psychodiagnostics: Meaning
Psychodiagnosis
Chareterological symptomatic
Psychodiagnosis as applied to clinical setting
• 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
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
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