Chapter 01
Introduction to Psychodiagnostics
Psychodiagnostics
Psychodiagnostics is the discipline that deals with psychological assessment and diagnosis,
personology and psychopathology characteristics on the basis of normative concepts, through the
use of an integrated repertoire of questionnaires, personality inventories, batteries and test
techniques (psychometric and projective), clinical interviews, neuropsychological examinations
and observational evaluations; the type of techniques and tools used vary from time to time, based
on the context and purpose of the assessment, age and type of possible difficulties of the assessed
subjects.
The psychodiagnostics evaluation allows a global assessment of the functioning of a person and
can also be requested in the forensic field to ascertain the psychic conditions within legal, civil
and criminal procedures.
Testing, Assessment and Clinical Practice
Psychological testing-also called psychological assessment- is the foundation of how
psychologists understand a person and their behavior better.
It is a process of problem solving for many professionals - -to try and determine the core
components of a person's psychological or mental health problems, personality, IQ, or some other
component.
Assessment Testing
Tests and assessments are two separate but related components of a psychological
evaluation
The terms testing and assessment are often used interchangeably; however, testing
is only one type of assessment tool
Psychologists use both types of tools to help them arrive at a diagnosis and a
treatment plan
Assessment covers a broader range of procedures than testing
Together, testing and assessment allows a psychologist to see the full picture of a
person's strengths and limitations
Assessment Testing
Psychological assessment is the Psychological testing as the process of
gathering and integration of psychology- measuring psychology-related variables
related data for the purpose of making a by means of devices or procedures
psychological evaluation that is designed to obtain a sample of behavior
accomplished through the use of tools
such as tests, interviews, case studies,
behavioral observation, and specially
designed apparatuses measurement
procedures
Each assessment involves various Involves one uniform procedure,
procedures and dimensions frequently unidimensional
The assessment process combines and A test provides only part of a picture
evaluates all the information gathered about a person
about an individual
A test is a "product" that measures a
Assessment is seen as a procedure particular behavior or set of objectives
instead of a product
Assessment is typically individualized Testing may be individual or group in
nature
Provides qualitative and quantitative data Provide only quantitative data
Assessment is a less formal aspect Testing is more formal Structured and
inflexible
Structured and flexible Structured and inflexible
More complex Simpler
Longer, lasting from few hours to a few Shorter, lasting from a few minutes to a
days or more few hours
Information collected about the client's Information collected is based on test
behavior is more accurate and is detailed only; so, little is known of client's
behavior
The assessor is key to the process of The tester is not key to the process;
selecting tests and/or other tools of practically speaking, one tester may be
evaluation as well as in drawing substituted for another tester without
conclusions from the entire evaluation appreciably affecting the evaluation
Assessment typically requires an Testing typically requires technician-
educated selection of tools of evaluation, like skills in terms of administering and
skill in evaluation, and thoughtful scoring a test as well as in interpreting a
organization and integration of data test result
Assessment entails a logical problem- Testing yields a test score or series of test
solving approach that brings to bear scores
many sources of data designed to shed
light on a referral question
The most widely used clinical tests can be divided into three types:
1. Individual tests of general mental ability
• The Wechsler Intelligence Scales and the Stanford-Binet represent the most popular tests
of general mental ability
2. Personality tests
• Three most popular personality tests are
i. the MMPI - most closely associated with the diagnosis of psychopathology
ii. the TAT-most closely associated with the assessment of motives and drives
iii. the Rorschach - may be used for a variety of imposes, ranging from the assessment of
specific personality traits to the diagnosis of perceptual disorders, depending on the
scoring system used.
3. Neurological tests
• Widely used tests in the diagnosis of neurological disorders are
i. the Bender-Gestalt used in the assessment of perceptual disorders and organic
dysfunctions, although it may be used for a wide range of diagnostic purposes
ii. the Luria Nebraska Battery provides a wide-ranging assessment of perceptual, motor,
and intellectual functions that might be affected by damage to specific portions of the
brain
Variables Domains of Psychological Assessment
Psychodiagnostics assessment methods have been developed for a wide spectrum of trait and state
variables affecting human behavior.
Performance Variables Personality Variables
Measures of maximum behavior a person Measures of typical style of behavior
can maintain
e.g. intelligence test e.g. test of extraversion introversion, trait
anxiety
Trait measures of performance may in fact correlate with trait measures of
personality (for example, speed of learning with level of trait anxiety)
Performance Variables
• Performance variables include
• Sensory processes
✓ tactile sensitivity, visual acuity, color vision proficiency, auditory intensity threshold
• Perceptual aptitudes
✓ tactile texture differentiation, visual closure, visual or auditory
✓ pattern recognition, memory for faces, visuo spatial tasks, etc.
✓ Attention and concentration tonic and phasic alertness; span of attention, distractibility,
✓ double performance tasks, vigilance performance over time
• Psychomotor aptitudes
✓ including a wide variety of speed of reaction task designs
• Learning and memory
✓ short term vs long term memory, memory span, intentional vs
✓ incidental memory, visual/auditory/kinesthetic memory Cognitive performance and
intelligence next to general intelligence a wide range of primary mental abilities like verbal
comprehension, word fluency, numerical
✓ ability, reasoning abilities
Different aspects of creativity
Language proficiency
o developmental linguistic performance, aphasia test systems
Social competence
Personality Variables
✓ The assessment of primary factors of personality especially of the so called Big Five and
numerous more specific personality measurement scales
✓ Special clinical schedules and symptom checklists to assess anxiety, symptoms of depression,
schizotypic tendency, personality disorders, etc.
✓ Motivation structures and interests
✓ Styles of daily living
✓ Pastime and life goals
✓ Assessment of incisive life events
✓ Assessment of stress tolerance and stress coping
A wide range of still more specific assessment variables, like
✓ Measures for the assessment of specific motives or specific styles of coping with illness or
stressful life events.
Data Sources for Psychological Assessme
Actuarial and Biographical Data
Behavioral Trace
✓ Behavior trace variables provides valuable information in clinical contexts and at the
process stage of developing assessment hypotheses.
✓ Behavioral trace refers to
✓ Physical traces of human behavior like handwriting specimen
✓ Products of art and expression (drawings, compositions, poems or other kinds of literary
products)
✓ Left-overs after play in a children's playground
✓ Style (tidy or untidy, organized or 'chaotic') of self-devised living environment at home,
but also attributes of a person's appearance (e.g., bitten finger nails) and attire
Behavioral Observation
✓ In some sense, behavior observation will form part of each and every assessment.
✓ The word observation is used in a more restricted sense, though, referring to direct
recording/ monitoring, describing, and operational classification of human behavior, over
and above what may be already incorporated in the scoring rationale of a questionnaire, an
interview schedule, or an objective test. Examples of behavior observation could be:
✓ Studying the behavior of an autistic child in a playground setting Monitoring the behavior
of a catatonic patient on a 24-hour basis
✓ Observing a trainee's performance in a newly designed work place Self-monitoring of
mood swings by a psychotherapy patient in between therapy sessions
✓ In a way, it is regrettable that the development of self-administering questionnaire and
objective tests.
Behavior Ratings
✓ In behavior rating assessments a person is asked to evaluate her/his own behavior or the
behavior of another person with respect to given characteristics, judgmental scales, or
items.
✓ The method can be applied to concurrent behavior under direct observation or, and more
typically, to the rater's explicit or anecdotal memory of the ratee's behavior at previous
occasions, in (pastor imagined) concrete situations, or in a general sense.
✓ Behavior rating methods may tell more about the mental representations that raters hold
(developed, believe in) regarding the assessed person's behavior than about that behavior
itself.
Expressive Behavior
✓ Expressive behavior refers to variations in the way in which a person may look,move, talk,
express her/his current state of emotion, feelings or motives.
✓ Making a grim-looking face, trembling, getting a red face, sweating on the
forehead,walking in a hesitant way, speaking loudly or with an anxiously soft voice, would
be examples of variations in expression behavior.
✓ Thereby expression refers to stylistic attributes in a person's behavior which will induce an
observer to draw explicitly or implicitly inferences about that person's state of mind,
emotional tension, feeling state, or the like.
Projective Technique
✓ Projective techniques would induce a person to express her/his perception of the
ambiguous stimulus material, thus willingly or even unwillingly 'uncovering' her/his
personal individuality, including motives and emotions that the person may not even be
aware of.
✓ The word projective is used because these techniques derive from the psychodynamic
belief that people impose, or project, their own psychological needs, drives, and motives,
much of which lie in the unconscious, onto their interpretations of ambiguous stimuli.
✓ Indirect methods of assessment, such as projective tests, may offer clues to unconscious
processes, More behaviorally oriented critics contend, however, that the results of
projective tests are based more on clinicians' subjective interpretations of test responses
than on empirical evidence. Hence, they are weak in reliability and validity.
✓ Many projective tests have been developed, including tests based on how people fill in
missing words to complete sentence fragments or how they draw human figures and other
objects. The two most prominent projective techniques are the Rorschach Inkblot Test and
the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
Interview
Most psychodiagnostics assessments will include an interview at least as an ancillary component
and be it only for establishing personal contact and an atmosphere of trust.
Interview technique is widely used by the psychologist for increasing psychologist's
understanding of the patient.
There are several types of interview procedures; each is chosen according to the type of
information sought and the interviewer's goals.
A structured interview is a type of interview in which the psychologist Lasks a particular set of
predetermined questions A semi-structured interview is a type of interview in which the
psychologist asks only a few predetermined questions while the rest of the questions are not
planned in advance
An unstructured interview is a type of interview in which the psychologist asks questions which
are not prepared in advance. It is opposite to structured interview Today most assessment
interviews are semi structured or fully structured.
Semistructured interview.
Questionnaires
✓ A questionnaire is a series of questions used to gather information.
✓ Questionnaires are usually standardized, meaning they will present the same exact
questions in the same exact order for multiple patients.
✓ Basically, questionnaires are devised as structured interviews in written format to collect
the information like attitude or opinion schedules.
✓ Questionnaires follows a multiple-choice response format rather than presenting open
ended questions.
✓ In a typical questionnaire, each item (question or statement) will be followed by two or
three response alternatives such as 'Yes, Do not know, No' or 'True, Cannot Say, Untrue'.
✓ Likert scale responses are also used to assess whether or not a respondent agrees with the
statement, as well as the extent to which they agree or disagree.
✓ These questions typically offer 5 or 7 responses, with sentiments ranging from items such
as "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."
✓ Questionnaire data is assessment data about mental representations (perception, memory,
evaluation) of behavior variations in a person's self. perception and self-cognition.
✓ They tell us a lot about the awareness persons develop of their own behavior which may,
but need not, turn out veridical in objective behavioral terms.
Objective Test
✓ Objective tests are structured-that is, they typically use questionnaires, self- report
inventories, or rating scales in which questions or items
✓ They are carefully chosen so as to sample, in a representative manner, the universe of items,
questions or problems indicative of the trait or state to be assessed, for example, an aptitude
or personality trait or a mood state like alertness.
✓ They therefore involve a far more controlled format than projective devices and thus are
more amenable to objectively based quantification. One virtue of such quantification is its
precision, which in turn enhances the reliability of test outcomes.
✓ The adjective objective' refers to administration, scoring, and response objectivity in test
development.
✓ Objective tests can be an individual test, which is to administer individually to the person
assessed.
✓ Psychomotor and other performance tests are typical examples of tests still given
individually. group tests, are devised so that one examiner can administer item to a number
of persons (typically 20 to 30) at the same time in the same setting
Psycho Physiological Data
Since the early days, many clinicians and researchers have been interested in assessing changes
in the body that are associated with psychological or emotional experiences, especially changes
in a person's cardiovascular system, muscles, skin, and brain.
To measure these changes, they use psychophysiological assessment procedures, which provide
a wealth of information about the bodily responses of an individual to a given situation.
The measurements may be taken either directly from the brain or peripherally from other parts of
the body. In this, experimenters have used measures such as heart rate, tension in the muscles,
blood flow in various parts of the body, and electrical activity in the brain (so-called brain waves)
to study physiological changes when people are afraid, depressed, asleep, imagining, solving
problems, and so on.
One of the earliest techniques to assess the living brain was the electroencephalogram (EEG),
which measures-electrical activity in the brain, an indication of the individual's level of arousal.
Another imaging technique used to assess brain structure is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
which uses radiowaves rather than X-rays to construct a picture of the living brain based on the
water content of various tissues.
In a variant of the traditional MRI, which produces static images, functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) makes it possible to construct a picture of activity in the brain while the
individual is processing information.
Practical Applications
✓ Assessment of Intelligence and Other Aptitude Functions
✓ Psychological Assessment in Critical Context
• In clinical psychodiagnostics one faces questions of testing for personality variables, for
behavior disorders and/or specific symptomatologies.
• The MMPI was a classical prototype clinical personality test. In addition, the large item
stock of the MMPI (more than 550 items) has been utilized as a base from which a great
number of special questionnaire scales were developed, perhaps best known among them
the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS). More recent personality questionnaires used in
clinical psychodiagnostics would include, for example, the 16 Personality Factors
Questionnaire (16 PF).
• Besides these broad-band multi-scale questionnaires numerous assessment instruments of
narrower focus have been developed. Examples are the Beck Depression Inventory,
assessment instruments for studying phobic or obsessive symptoms or, more recently,
interview and diagnostic inference schedules implementing the DSM and ICD approaches
of descriptive disease classification.
✓ Assessment for Selection/Placement in Vocational Guidance Testing and Job
• In vocational guidance testing, integrated multi-dimensional systems like one inaugurated
by Paul Host in the 1950s for the US State of Washington have since become a model of
approach in many countries.
• Compared to these broad band assessment systems, job selection/placement testing in
industrial and organizational psychology typically is narrower in scope, though more
demanding in specific functions and job-related qualifications.
• Before implementing such an assessment system, a careful analysis of the job structure,
the nature of professional demands and of contextual situational factors.
