Diagnosis and Assessment Flashcards
Reliability
consistency of measurement
good example: a wooden ruler that produces the same measurements each time it’s used.
bad example: flexible ruler whose length changes.
Inter-rater reliability
refers to the degree to which two independent observers agree on what they have observed
example: two umpires may or may not agree as to whether the ball is fair or foul.
Tets-retest reliability
measures the extent to which people being observed twice or taking the same test twice, perhaps several weeks or months apart, receive similar scores
Alternate-form reliability
the extent to which scores on the two forms of the test are consistent.
Internal-consistency reliability
assesses whether the items on a test are related to one another.
example: one would expect the items on an anxiety questionnaire to correlate with one another if they truly tap anxiety
Validity
generally related to whether a measure measures what it is supposed to measure.
What is the relationship between reliability and validity?
Unreliable measures will not have good validity. Because they do not yield consistent results, they will not relate very strongly to other measures.
Reliability, however, does not guarantee validity.
Criterion validity
assesses whether test scores are correlated with scores on other tests designed to assess the same dimension
example: scores on a new test designed to assess social anxiety ought to correlate with scores on other tests designed to measure social anxiety
Content validity
refers to whether a measure adequately samples the domain of interest.
example: a test to assess social anxiety ought to include items that cover feelings of anxiety in different social situations.
Construct validity
It is relevant when we want to interpret a test as a measure of some characteristic or construct that is not observed directly or overtly.
Diagnosis
The determination that the set of symptoms or problems of a patient indicates a particular disorder.
DSM 5
The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The DSM provides the major diagnostic guidelines for mental health syndromes in the United States. Published by the American Psychiatric Association.
How does the DSM 5 organize diagnoses?
By identifying symptoms.
we have no laboratory tests, neurobiological markers, or genetic indicators to use in making diagnoses
How has the DSM 5 addressed cultural sensitivity?
- Culture-related issues are discussed in the text for almost all disorders.
- A cultural formulation interview is provided to help understand how culture may be shaping the clinical presentation.
- An appendix describes cultural concepts of distress, culturally specific ways of expressing distress, and cultural explanations of symptoms
Criticisms of the DSM 5
- By expanding coverage, the authors have made too many problems into psychological disorders without good justification.
- It includes too many minute distinctions based on small differences in symptoms.
comorbidity
refers to the presence of a second diagnosis.
Among people who met criteria for at least one DSM-IV psychological diagnosis, 45% met criteria for at least one more psychological diagnosis
Advantages of lumping symptoms together
- Accounts for high comorbidity, as some symptoms appear in more than one diagnostic category
- Many risk factors relate to more than one disorder
- Many treatments are helpful for multiple disorders.
What are broad types of characteristics that a valid diagnosis should help predict?
etiology, course, social functioning, treatment
2 Approaches to Diagnostic Systems
- HiTOP model (short for Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology)
- Research Domain Criteria, or RDoC
HiTOP model
Focuses on how symptoms and syndromes co-occur.
with this model, syndromes that frequently co-occur are assembled into subfactors, and subfactors are assembled into higher-order dimensions
Research Domain Criteria, or RDoC
Focus on risk variables relevant for many conditions;
such as problems in responses to negative stimuli or contexts, problems in responses to positive stimuli or contexts, cognitive problems, social problems, and lack of ability to regulate emotion or behavior.
categorical classification
An approach to assessment in which a person is or is not a member of a discrete grouping
dimensional diagnostic classification
A diagnostic system that describes the degree of an entity that is present (e.g., a 1-to-10 scale of anxiety, where 1 represents minimal and 10, extremely severe).
pros and cons of categorical classification
Although the cutoffs are likely somewhat arbitrary, they can provide helpful guidance.
This fosters a false impression that psychological disorders have actual, hard boundaries.
