Chapter 3
Assessment and Classification of Abnormal Behavior
To find the nature of mental disorder, the clinician must gather facts through observation, interview,
psychological tests
, reports of patients and their families. The evaluation of the information leads to
psychodiagnosis, an attempt to describe to assess a person’s psychological disorder.
I.
Definition of Terms
Diagnosis
– To label an illness.
Etiology
– Causes of an illness which may be biological, psychological or sociological.
Symptom
– A sign of an illness or disorder.
Syndrome
– A group of symptoms.
Treatment
– Biological, psychological and sociological techniques and methods to control
and alleviate mental illness.
Prognosis
– Prediction of the future course of a particular illness or disorder described in
terms of favorable, unfavorable, or guarded.
II.
Assessment of Abnormal Behavior
Assessment
– The process of gathering information and drawing conclusions about an
individual, generally leading to diagnosis. Four
principle means of assessment are available
to clinicians, which are observation, interview, psychological tests, and neurological tests
.
1.
Observation
Observation is performed in natural settings, called naturalistic observation
or under the
conditions of laboratory called controlled observation
. Objectivity should be practiced in
conducting observation.
2.
Interview
Interview provides a good chance to watch verbal and non-verbal behaviors, the content
of speech and other face-to-face factors. Structured
and non-structured
interviews can be
conducted. Standardized
interviews are formal and structured.
This
preview
has intentionally blurred sections.
Sign up to view the full version.

This is the end of the preview.
Sign up
to
access the rest of the document.
- Fall '09
- CyrusAzimi
- Psychiatry, Abnormal Psychology, Personality Psychology, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, psychological tests
-
Click to edit the document details