The purpose of psychodiagnostics is. Subject, object, tasks of psychodiagnostics
3. Subject, object, history and tasks of psychodiagnostics
Psychodiagnostics is a field of psychological science that develops the theory, principles and tools for assessing and measuring individual psychological characteristics of a person" (L.D. Burlachuk).
Goals of psychodiagnostics:
1. Recording and describing in an orderly form the psychological differences between people and groups of people united by certain characteristics. Science studies the peculiarities of the influence of psychological laws on individual differences.
2. Construction of psychodiagnostic techniques. Not only development, but also clarification of requirements: this is defining the boundaries of conclusions, improving the interpretation of the results of diagnostic techniques, etc.
Object of psychodiagnostics- this is a specific person who is the carrier (owner) of various individual mental properties.
Despite the fact that psychodiagnostics has existed for quite a long time, item it is defined ambiguously. So A.A. Bodalev and V.V. Stolin is distinguished as an item:
Methodological, theoretical and specific methodological principles for constructing psychodiagnostic tools and formulating psychodiagnostic conclusions;
Methods and specific techniques for psychodiagnostics of the most universal objects of psychodiagnostic research;
Differential psychometrics as a methodology for detecting differences;
Regulatory requirements for methods, their developers and users.
K.M. Gurevich and G.A. Berulava talk about the subject, as well as the theoretical and operational principles of designing methods, the rules and practice of their application, procedures for conducting diagnostic tests, rules for processing and interpreting the results obtained.
Some researchers consider psychodiagnostics as making a diagnosis, defining it as the final result of a psychologist’s activity, aimed at describing and clarifying the essence of individual psychological characteristics of a person. The goal is to assess the current state of a person, forecast further development and develop recommendations. The most important element of diagnosis is the need to clarify in each individual case why these manifestations are found in the behavior of the subject, what their causes and consequences are. According to L.S. Vygotsky, there are three levels of diagnosis:
Symptomatic - certain features of the person being studied are established, without indicating their causes and place in the structure of the personality.
Etiological - the causes of the detected phenomenon are determined.
Typological - the place and meaning of the data obtained in the holistic dynamic picture of the personality is determined.
G. Witzlak considers the mental as diagnostically relevant in systems of relationships:
Intra-individual (relationships of mental properties of a person);
Interindividual variations (establishing differences between an individual and other people);
Subject-object and subject-subject (a person’s relationship to the environment and the requirements of society).
This approach determines the complexity of psychodiagnostic research.
Thus, the interpretation of the subject defines psychodiagnostics as a theoretical discipline that includes the content of mental phenomena and the practice of studying them: identifying relevant diagnostic variables and designing methods for measuring them.
The history of the emergence of psychodiagnostics as a science.
The term psychodiagnostics appeared in 1921 and belongs to the Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach (1874-1922).
Psychological diagnostics emerged from psychology and began to take shape at the turn of the 20th century under the influence of practical requirements. Its emergence was prepared by several trends in the development of psychology.
Its first source was experimental psychology, since the experimental method underlies psychodiagnostic techniques, the development of which is one of the tasks of psychodiagnostics. Psychodiagnostics grew out of experimental psychology. And its emergence in the 50-70s of the 19th century is associated with the increased influence of natural science on the field of mental phenomena, with the process of “physiologization” of psychology, which consisted in transferring the study of mental facts into the mainstream of experiment and the exact methods of the natural sciences. The first experimental methods were provided to psychology by other sciences, mainly physiology.
The beginning of the emergence of experimental psychology is conventionally considered to be 1879, since it was in this year that W. Wundt founded the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Germany. W. Wundt (1832-1920), outlining the prospects for building psychology as an integral science, envisioned the development of two non-overlapping directions in it:
1) natural science, based on experiment;
2) cultural-historical, in which the main role is to be played by psychological methods of studying culture (“psychology of peoples”).
According to his theory, natural scientific experimental methods could be applied only to the elementary, lowest level of the psyche. It is not the soul itself that is subject to experimental research, but only its external manifestations. Therefore, his laboratory mainly studied sensations (visual, auditory, color, tactile) and the motor acts and reactions they caused, as well as the sense of time, volume and distribution of attention. Following the model of W. Wundt’s laboratory, similar experimental laboratories and offices began to be created not only in Germany, but also in other countries, such as France, Holland, England, Sweden, and America.
Developing experimental psychology has come close to studying more complex mental processes, such as speech associations. The English anthropologist F. Galton published the results of his association experiments in 1879. Having compiled a list of 75 words, he opened them one by one and started the stopwatch. As soon as the subject responded to the stimulus word with a verbal association, the stopwatch stopped. This was the first time chronometry was used to study mental activity.
Immediately after the publication of F. Galton, W. Wundt used the associative technique in his laboratory, although he considered higher functions not subject to experiment.
The individual differences in reaction time obtained in the experiments were explained by the nature of the associations, and not by the individual characteristics of the subjects.
The author who created the first actual psychological experimental method was G. Ebbinghaus (1850-1909), who studied the laws of memory using sets of meaningless syllables (artificial sensorimotor elements of speech that do not have a specific meaning). He believed that the results he obtained did not depend on the subject’s consciousness or introspection and, therefore, more fully satisfied the requirement of objectivity. With this method, G. Ebbinghaus opened the way for the experimental study of skills.
American psychologist J. Cattell (1860-1944) studied attention span and reading skills. Using a tachistoscope (a device that allows the subject to present visual stimuli for short periods of time), he determined the time required to perceive and name various objects - shapes, letters, words, and so on. The volume of attention in his experiments was about five objects. Conducting experiments with reading letters and words on a rotating drum, J. Cattell recorded the phenomenon of anticipation (“running forward” of perception).
Thus, at the turn of the 20th century, an objective experimental method was established in psychology, which began to determine the nature of psychological science as a whole. With the introduction of experiment into psychology and the emergence of new criteria for the scientific nature of its ideas, the prerequisites were created for the emergence of knowledge about individual differences between people.
Differential psychology has become another source of psychodiagnostics. Without ideas about individual psychological characteristics that differential psychology studies, the emergence of psychodiagnostics as a science about methods for measuring them would be impossible.
But the emergence of psychodiagnostics was not the result of a simple logical development of experimental psychological and differential psychological study of man. It developed under the influence of the demands of practice, first medical and pedagogical, and then industrial. One of the main reasons that led to the emergence of psychodiagnostics should be considered the need put forward by medical practice for the diagnosis and treatment of mentally retarded and mentally ill people. Works of French doctors J.E.D. Esquirol and E. Seguin, who dealt with the problems of mental retardation in children, made a certain contribution to the development of methods that helped determine mental retardation.
In the practice of psychodiagnostics, tasks are determined by the organization of the study and are associated with the distribution of responsibility for its result:
1. Research in the client’s situation assumes that the data obtained will be used by the applicant. Its options:
The result is used by the client himself, for example, for self-development and behavior correction. The diagnostician is responsible for the correctness of the data, the ethical aspects of the diagnosis, and the client is responsible for the ways of using them;
The result is used by the diagnostic psychologist himself to make a diagnosis and determine ways of psychological influence. Responsibility for the technology for obtaining and using data lies with the psychologist, and the person seeking help has other goals and, therefore, is responsible for their implementation.
2. Research in an examination situation is associated with an assessment, and its presence is known to both the diagnostician and the subject. In this case, the examination is complicated by the fact that there is a problem of trust in the relationship between the diagnostician and the test subject, and attention must be paid to this. An important aspect of the situation is the increased responsibility of the diagnostician associated with the organization of the examination and the use of its results.
There are two possible situations:
The diagnostic results are used by the administration of the institution to make a judgment about the suitability or non-compliance of the position for the person being examined;
The result is used by a specialist who is at the same status level as the diagnostician. In this case, the goal is a comprehensive impact.
Tasks:
1. Record and describe in an orderly manner the psychological differences between people and groups of people united according to certain characteristics. Psychodiagnostics studies , how psychological laws influence individual differences.
2. Construction of psychodiagnostic techniques. Not only the development, but also the clarification of the requirements that the methods must satisfy, this is the definition of the boundaries of conclusions, and the improvement of interpretations of the results of diagnostic methods.
Psychodiagnostics also includes the field of psychological practice, the work of a psychologist to identify various qualities, mental and psychophysiological characteristics, and personality traits.
Psychodiagnostics as a psychological discipline serves as a connecting link between general psychological research and practice.
The theoretical foundations of psychodiagnostics are based on the relevant areas of psychological science (general, differential, age, medical). Methodological means of psychodiagnostics include specific techniques for studying individual psychological characteristics, methods of processing and interpreting the results obtained.
The competence of psychodiagnostics includes:
Design and testing of methods;
Development of rules for conducting the survey;
Methods for processing and interpreting results, discussing the possibilities and limitations of certain methods.
Psychodiagnostics assumes that the results obtained with its help will be correlated with what - or a reference point , or compare with each other.
Thus, we can say that the competence of psychodiagnostics includes the design and testing of methods, the development of principles and requirements that they must satisfy, the development of rules for conducting examinations, methods for processing and interpreting results, the selection and theoretical justification of criteria for comparing results, the development of techniques that facilitate rapid and correct decision-making regarding diagnosis.
General psychodiagnostics is to a certain extent abstracted from specific diagnostic tasks that arise in various particular areas of psychodiagnostics. However, a psychodiagnostic psychologist must imagine these tasks, since they significantly determine the limitations in the use of methods.
Psychological diagnostics (“recognition”) is defined as a psychological discipline that develops methods for identifying and studying individual psychological and individual psycho-physiological characteristics of a person.
Psychodiagnostics is the science of methods for measuring, classifying and ranking the psychological and psychophysiological characteristics of people, as well as the use of these methods for practical purposes.
Its purpose is to collect information about the characteristics of the human psyche.
1. Record and describe in an orderly manner the psychological differences between people and groups of people united according to some characteristics. Explores how psychological laws influence individual differences.
2. Construction of psychodiagnostic techniques. Not only the development, but also the clarification of the requirements that the methods must satisfy, this is the definition of the boundaries of conclusions, the improvement of the interpretation of the results of diagnostic methods.
The goal is to assess the current state of a person, forecast further development and develop recommendations. Yakimanskaya I.S. Methodology and diagnostics in psychological research.
(The objectives of psychodiagnostics are:
1. measurement of certain qualities, mental processes: cognitive, emotional, volitional;
2. determination of the characteristics of mental states, which are understood as holistic, temporary and dynamic characteristics of mental activity (uplift, confidence, melancholy, sadness, doubt, depression, despondency);
3. determination of the characteristics of the mental properties of the individual: social orientation, character, temperament, abilities;
4. identification of psychological patterns in the formulation of personality and professionally important qualities;
5. study of a team, class, group;
6. study of the psychology of personality and work of specialists, the psychological foundations of his pedagogical skills and creativity;
7. psychological analysis of interaction and communication between teachers and children;
8. analysis of adaptation to the educational process;
9. determination of the state of development of a particular quality;
10. establishing changes that occurred under the influence of educational influences;
11. determining the prospects for the development of a particular quality;
12. dividing the people being examined into groups and categories for further differentiated work;
13. establishing a person’s professional suitability to perform their official duties;
14. determining the compliance of a particular quality with the norm in order to carry out corrective work;
16. study of the dynamics of cognitive, intellectual, personal and interpersonal development of the individual.
17. determination of the child’s giftedness, his inclinations, individual abilities and inclinations in order to take timely measures for their development;
18. obtaining reliable information for educators, teachers and parents.)
Stages of psychodiagnostics.
The psychodiagnostic examination procedure involves the implementation of three stages:
a) collecting data in accordance with the objectives of the study;
b) processing and interpretation of the received data;
c) making a diagnosis or prognosis.
If we detail these main stages of the psychodiagnostic examination procedure, we get a step-by-step description of it:
2. Collecting anamnesis - information about developmental features at the time of the examination. It is possible to collect information about the subject from parents, teachers, work colleagues and management. Observations of the subject in various situations.
3. Drawing up a program for a psychodiagnostic examination, which should contain a goal, a list of diagnostic methods, equipment, a description of the conditions and mode of examination.
4. Establishing psychological contact with the subject.
5. Implementation of a psychological examination program with recording of the results in the protocol.
6. Processing of survey results.
7. Primary interpretation of results separately for each technique.
8. Holistic interpretation of results, which takes into account information from anamnesis and observations.
9. Drawing up a psychological diagnosis, which, in addition to describing the individual data of a person’s psyche, must contain an analysis of the psychological mechanisms of the emergence and manifestation of his problems and recommendations regarding the form and content of the help that a person needs.
The effectiveness of a psychodiagnostic examination can be increased by implementing the following principles:
Voluntary participation in a psychodiagnostic examination and interest in it;
Ensuring physical and psychological comfort during psychodiagnostics;
Empathetic attitude of the psychologist towards the client;
Comprehensiveness and complexity of diagnostics;
Taking into account the individual typological characteristics of the subject: the dynamics of fatigue, pace of activity, interests, contact, temperamental properties, etc.;
Support of positive motivation throughout the psychodiagnostic examination.
Stages of the psychodiagnostic process (Burlachuk, 2008):
Preparatory period: familiarization with a certain set of objective and subjective indicators (conversation, medical history, opinions of other specialists, etc.) about the subject, during which the research task is formed. Preparation for testing should eliminate the occurrence of unforeseen circumstances and ensure uniformity of procedure. The most important responsibility of the test developer is to provide a complete and clear description of all stages of the testing procedure. Particular attention is paid to a thorough preliminary study of the subject, the need to take into account his past and present. This creates the basic background of the study, outlines the elements of a working picture of the personality necessary for diagnosis and prognosis.
Data collection stage. through the analysis of documentation (for example, medical history, conclusions of other specialists), a conversation in which the past and present of the subject is clarified, as well as with the help of psychodiagnostic techniques, a complex of objective and subjective data about the subject is familiarized, a diagnostic task is formulated. The authors of all known diagnostic methods pay special attention to a thorough preliminary study of the subject, the need to take into account his past and present. This creates the basic background of the study, outlines the elements of a working picture of the personality necessary for diagnosis and prognosis.
Since a psychodiagnostic examination always forms a system of “experimenter-subject” interaction, much attention in the literature is paid to analyzing the influence of various variables included in this system. Typically, situational variables, survey goal and task variables, and researcher and subject variables are distinguished. The significance of these variables is quite large, and their influence must be taken into account when planning and conducting research, processing and using the results obtained. Standardization requirements must be observed. Considerable attention should be paid to establishing rapport with the subject. The term "rapport" refers to the test taker's attempts to arouse test takers' interest in the test, gain their cooperation, and encourage their responses to be consistent with the goals of the test. A psychologist, when starting to work with a test, must be sure that he has ensured, as far as possible, that the subject is completely focused on the tasks presented and that every effort is made to solve them sincerely and honestly.
Next, a selection of appropriate methods is made based on taking into account their validity, reliability, and breadth of coverage of the individual, and a survey is conducted. When choosing methods, one should also be guided by what can be described as the breadth of their coverage of personal characteristics. The accuracy of the diagnostic decision and prognosis depends on this. L. Cronbach and G. Gleser recommend a stepwise strategy, in which initially insufficiently standardized techniques are used to obtain the most general ideas about personality (for example, projective techniques). They “can only be harmful if the hypotheses and assumptions about the subject based on such techniques are considered as final conclusions.” Diagnosis and prognosis are carried out on the basis of testing hypotheses using techniques that allow obtaining more local data.
After formulating the diagnostic problem, selecting the appropriate methods and conducting the study, the results obtained should be presented in a form that is determined by the characteristics of the methods used. “Raw” assessments are converted into standard values, IQ is calculated, “personality profiles” are built, etc.
Processing and interpretation stage. At this stage, the obtained data is processed and interpreted based on a harmonious combination of two approaches: clinical and statistical. Clinical, close to common sense judgments and more focused on the experience and intuition of the diagnostician. Statistical involves taking into account objective quantitative indicators and their statistical processing. The role of subjective judgment is reduced to a minimum. The issue of the effectiveness of clinical and statistical prediction has been repeatedly discussed by psychologists and is still a subject of debate.
Decision making stage.
N. Sandberg and L. Tyler identify three levels of diagnostic conclusions
1) the diagnostic conclusion is made directly from the data available about the subject. The psychologist is not interested in why an individual subject was unable to complete the test tasks. Individual diagnosis and prognosis are not provided.
2) the creation of a kind of mediator between the results of individual studies and the diagnosis (descriptive generalization and hypothetical construct). At this level, the researcher has the opportunity to plan further stages of diagnostic work and select specific methods of influence.
3) there must be a transition from descriptive generalization, hypothetical constructs to personality theory. A working model of the case being studied is created, in which the specific features of a given individual are presented in their entirety and formulated in terms that allow the most accurate and reasonable disclosure of the psychological essence of the phenomenon and its structure.
Stages of psychodiagnostic examination (Posokhova, 2005)
1) Preparatory:
Setting the purpose of the study
Formulation of a psychodiagnostic hypothesis (hypotheses)
Setting specific tasks
Determining the object and method of organizing research
Formulating a preliminary definition of the phenomenon being studied
Creation of a psychodiagnostic complex that includes valid and reliable methods
Choosing a psychodiagnostic space
Choosing a psychodiagnostic time
Conducting a pilot study (if necessary)
Adjustment (if necessary) of the psychodiagnostic complex
2) Basic or diagnostic
Direct psychodiagnostic examination
Primary generalization of psychological information
3) Final or interpretive
Description and interpretation of the obtained material
Comparison of the results with the hypothesis put forward at the beginning of the survey
Drawing up a conclusion based on the results of the survey
Each result obtained must be interpreted.
Ticket 1.Item . Psychological diagnosis.
Subject of psychodiagnostics
.
Psychodiagnostics (PD) was formed relatively recently.
1921 – the term “PD” was first used in Rorschach’s book of the same name.
PD
– the practical function of a specialist in establishing a psychological diagnosis.
As this science developed, the concept changed:
Psychodiagnostics
is a field of psychological science and at the same time the most important form of psychological practice, which is associated with the development and use of various methods for recognizing and studying individual psychological characteristics of a person.
Jan Ter-Laak
.
Believes that PD should not be considered as a separate area of knowledge, because PD does not have its own, inherent only to it, areas of research. It exists only in interaction with other subject areas of science.
PD does not have its own, unique to it, research methods.
PD defines the main approaches to the design of methods and interpretation of data, based on the subject of measurement.
Laws and theoretical and methodological principles are determined by PD and apply to all areas of other psychology.
Subject of psychodiagnostics
– methods for measuring individual psychological characteristics of a person (individual characteristics of a person).
In English literature...
PD– the process of helping people solve their problems.
4 components this process:
1. Collection of information.
2. Interpretation of information.
3. Generalization of information.
4. Attempt to solve the problem.
In German literature...
PD is a scientific discipline that uses measurement procedures to evaluate the characteristics of individuals, groups, organizations, situations, and even objects.
A. Anastasi
.
PD tasks– is to measure differences between individuals or between the responses of one individual under different conditions.
In the domestic PD...
PD(PD subject) according to Gurevich:
The goal of modern PD is to record and describe psychological differences both between people and between groups of people united by certain characteristics.
modern PD is defined as a scientific discipline that develops methods for studying the individual psychological characteristics of a person.
^
Subject of psychodiagnostics
– individual psychological characteristics of a person and methods of measuring them (research).
PD acts as a bridge between science(about individual psychological differences) and practice(by making a psychological diagnosis).
PD is a technological discipline.
Performs a role in psychology similar to that performed by technical metrology in the physical and technical sciences, or honey. technology in medicine sciences
Shmelev
proposes to consider PD in the form of an image of the human body:
HEAD: scientific theories in the field of differential psychology.
TORSO: formed by a repertoire of specific techniques.
LEGS: the technology of constructing tests (psychometrics) is what PD “stands on.”
HANDS: applied models and methods of practical psychology, which indicate a scheme for using psychodiagnostic techniques to solve specific practical problems.
^
When talking about the development of physical activity, we must talk about the competent development of this body.
Psychological diagnosis
.
PD– is the science and practice of making a psychological diagnosis the subject of psychodiagnostics is a psychological diagnosis.
The concept of "Diagnosis":
The term “diagnosis” is formed from 2 parts: “dia” and “gnosis” = discriminative cognition.
Diagnostics- this is the recognition of the state of a certain object or system by quickly recording its essential parameters and its subsequent assignment to a certain diagnostic category in order to predict its behavior or make a decision about the possible impact on this behavior in the desired direction.
^ Purpose of PD– assistance to this item in its functioning.
Diagnosis– this is a comprehensive examination of an object in order to assess its general condition (such a diagnosis is most often called a “comprehensive preventive diagnosis”).
^
Partial diagnosis
– aimed at identifying any problem for the purpose of subsequent correction.
Diagnostics is a scientific and practical activity.
^
Making a diagnosis
– practical action based on the use of certain scientific knowledge.
Diagnostician does not strive to describe and establish general patterns (this is the task of researchers). Its task is to provide specific assistance in establishing the existing problem or to ensure the reliable functioning and rational use of the measured (studied) object.
^ Diagnosis– this is always subsuming a specific case under a certain phenomenon of a general nature.
PD= “recognition of the soul.”
Psychological diagnostics- this is to determine the presence and degree of expression of certain psychological signs in a person.
In PD there are special objects – people.
(Historically...psychological diagnosis has been viewed asdeviation
from the developmental norm (≈ medical approach)).
!!
Unlike a medical diagnosis, a psychological diagnosis involves not only measurements of pathology, but also at normal(in most cases).
Medical diagnosis– identification and classification of existing manifestations of diseases.
^ In psychological diagnosis there is no clear connection between the symptom and the disease. We must find out the causes and consequences of this behavior.
Psychological diagnosis is never limited to statement of the current condition. It is also necessary to give forecast And recommendations.
The forecast is given in 2 options :
2. If the recommendations are not followed.
PD = beginning of activity (psychologist).
^
Psychological diagnosis
– this is the final result of a psychologist’s activity, aimed at describing and identifying the essence of a person’s individual psychological characteristics in order to assess their current state, forecast further development and develop recommendations (which are usually determined by the purpose of the study).
According to Vygotsky...
Levels of diagnosis:
Symptomatic diagnosis– limited only to symptoms, cannot be considered scientific.
Etiological– the presence of certain features and reasons.
Typological– determination of the place and meaning of the data obtained, a typological portrait of the individual is drawn up.
Ticket 2.
Tasks and basic concepts of psychodiagnostics.
PD tasks.
Objectives of psychodiagnostics – This means PD as a scientific discipline.
Psychodiagnostic tasks– this means: specific practical problems that a psychologist solves in his work.
Tasks of psychodiagnostics.
Yu.M. Zabrodin proposes to nominate 2 large groups of tasks:
1. Research
2. Scientific and practical
Research
are divided into:
1. Methodological tasks
– associated with the definition of the philosophical foundations of PD, fundamental principles, with the definition of the subject, categorical base.
2. Theoretical problems
– are associated with the development of various kinds of theories and the construction of models (ex: theories of measurement of mental phenomena, theories of various psychological models, etc.)
The theoretical foundations of PD are determined.
3. Experimental tasks
– aimed at empirical research into new patterns and mechanisms of mental regulation of behavior, mechanisms of mental development.
They involve the development of new methods and their testing, new methods and techniques of PD.
Scientific and practical
– determine the requirements and patterns of measuring structures. Associated with the measurement process. More substantive tasks.
Subgroups:
1. Information
or measurement tasks
– are associated with the definition of the subject of measurement, i.e. By solving these problems, we answer the question “What to measure?” and the content of the attribute is revealed.
2. Technological
or instructional tasks
– are associated with identifying an algorithm for examining a sign: by what means, in what sequence.
3. Interpretive
or forecast-oriented tasks
– are associated with determining the procedure for making a psychological diagnosis (how we will interpret the results obtained).
4. Corrective
or tasks of psychological influence
– determine the features and uniqueness of working with a person in the presence of a certain diagnosis.
Psychodiagnostic tasks.
Merlin .
1. Diagnostics of abilities is necessary to determine the degree of compliance of the level of personal development with the requirements of the training program.
2.Diagnostics by Prof. suitability– its decision involves choosing a profession by correlating its requirements with the individual characteristics of a person.
3. Personality assessment– solving a problem allows you to get a complete understanding of a person’s personality, which is necessary for solving more in-depth problems.
4. Behavior correction tasks– diagnostic tasks will be aimed at identifying the causes of human behavior disorders.
5. ^
Study of general patterns and conditions of personality development
– are decided during experimental research.
When determining PD, it is used as a basis. Psychological essence of the task. Based on the task:
Prof. orientation;
Accompanying Prof. careers;
Personal choice;
Prof. selection and distribution;
Prof. adaptation and rehabilitation;
Development management-related conditions.
Bodalev and Stolin
propose to differentiate tasks according to the nature of the use of psychodiagnostic data and the degree of responsibility of the psychodiagnostician.
Tasks in which psychodiagnostic data is transferred to related specialists to make a non-psychological diagnosis and make an administrative decision. In this case, the psychologist is not responsible for the consequences of using this data.
The use of psychodiagnostic data by the psychodiagnostician himself to formulate a conclusion on the specific characteristics of the subject with the subsequent transfer of this conclusion to specialists of another profile, who either have any influence on the subject or make any decision. The degree of responsibility of a psychologist is maximum.
Psychodiagnostic data is transferred to another psychologist, who either continues the psychodiagnostic examination using other methods, or carries out the necessary correction or consultation. Responsibility is mutual.
Psychodiagnostic data is used for transmission to the person being examined (client) for the purpose of his self-development and self-education. It is assumed that the psychologist has a share of responsibility for formulating a diagnosis of a non-damaging nature.
Basic concepts of psychodiagnostics .
Diagnostic signs- what we directly observe, certain behavioral features.
^
Diagnostic category
– what is hidden from observation (latent variables). Psychological characteristics of a person that we must measure, psychological and mental phenomena (ex: characteristics of perception, thinking).
^
Diagnostic output
– transition from observable features to the level of hidden categories.
Difficulty: There are no unambiguous connections between diagnostic features and diagnostic category. The more signs we get, the greater the likelihood of an adequate diagnosis. I get information about the signs using tests.
Test- a simultaneous, standardized test aimed at identifying in subjects various symptoms or signs that are associated with the category being measured.
^
Psychodiagnostic examination
– the use of a ready-made, developed test in order to obtain information about the mental properties of the person being examined.
^
Differential diagnostic study
– a set of theoretical and experimental works aimed at formulating the concept of the mental property being measured, identifying diagnostic features that can be used to obtain information about a given property, and creating and testing a method for recording the identified features.
Ticket 3.
Criteria for objectivity in psychodiagnostics.
1. Magic diagnostics
denies the existence of a connection between a phenomenon and its essence. This connection is unknowable, maybe. accessible only to the exclusive mind that belongs to certain people.
2. Salt diagnostics
– entertaining.
3. Parascientific/ pseudo-scientific diagnostics
– easily establish connections between magical categories and their characteristics. It is not necessary to prove the existence of a connection (example: heromancy).
^
Neither parascientific nor magical diagnostics are characterized by objectivity.
4. Scientific diagnostics
– objective, because:
– any professional test developer, when constructing a test, follows a special scientifically developed, technological algorithm.
– other specialists know this algorithm and any of them can check the validity of the author’s key to the method.
^
The objectivity of scientific diagnostics is determined by the reproducibility of the test development algorithm and the verification of its keys.
The essence of the technological algorithm:
1. Creation of a theoretical construct, determination of the content of the diagnostic category (what the diagnosis will be aimed at demonstrating).
2. Determination of diagnostic signs that will judge a particular feature.
The point is that each statement must be checked statistically to see how well it corresponds to the diagnostic category.
Special mathematical methods are used, but expert judgment may be used first.
The test is carried out on a fairly representative, large sample.
The criteria for the objectivity of the test are laid down in the process of its preparation.
Ticket 4.
Test and clinical psychodiagnostics.
The most famous debates in psychodiagnostics revolved around two types of predictions - clinical and statistical. Associated with them are disagreements about the preferability of a nomothetic or ideographic description, testing followed by interpretation, or an in-depth study of a single case in the process of didactic interaction.
Features of test and clinical diagnostics.
Test diagnostics allows you to express the characteristics of the psyche in quantitative form.
Clinical examination
- a non-standardized method of interview, which is conducted by a psychologist to establish the uniqueness of a person and his social environment.
Differences:
I. in form:
1) Tests consist of questions or statements, points are awarded for each answer and the result is expressed quantitatively.
2) Clinical examination
originates in psychiatry, the conversation does not have strictly asked questions. Every question is not assessed, but information is assessed qualitatively and analyzed.
^
II. in approaching a person:
1) Test supporters believe that the main and most significant characteristics of a person with sufficient reliability may be determined using tests, i.e. they represent a person as a set of certain mental qualities.
2) Clinical
psychologists believe that personality is a kind of gestalt that any person entering into a dialogue encounters. It cannot be reduced to a set of any mental qualities; it is something whole, unique.
^
III. differences as a result:
1) Test – building a profile or personality characteristics. Diagnosis: integration carried out according to some algorithm, including data correlation rules.
2) Clinical examination
– the result is a description, which is an analogue of a literary work, and this description may be made in the spirit of different schools. Diagnosis: integration of data based on the clinician's experience and intuition.
^
IV. in standardization:
1) Tests standardized. Subject to strict rules.
2) Clinical examination
is free in nature. Its course is determined by what the psychologist and the client consider important. There are no clear rules and instructions.
^
V. in interpretation:
1) Test As a result, a quantitative indicator is obtained - an indicator of the degree of expression of quality. We compare the results obtained with the norm or criterion.
2) Clinical examination
– focused on the interpretation of specific life situations; there are no criteria that would regulate the interpretation process.
^
VI. in objectivism:
1) Test – the method of calculating the results ensures the objectivity of the result.
2) Clinical examination
– there is no talk of objectivity, but psychologists believe that a psychologist’s judgments about a person are objective.
^
VII. for processing the results:
1) Tests - using standardized procedures, carried out using methods of mathematical statistics.
2) Clinical study
integrated depending on the conceptual positions and practical experience of the clinical researcher.
Test diagnostics:
5. Less labor-intensive work.
Clinical examination:
Disadvantages of test and clinical diagnostics.
Test diagnostics :
1. Labor-intensive, complex work at the test development stage.
2. There are no test methods for all occasions.
3. Ideas about individual difference are criticized.
4. The external ease of test diagnostics creates the danger of “blind” errors (i.e. the blind faith of low-skilled performers that the test should work correctly automatically, while in fact various incidents are possible: a person did not understand the instructions, errors in processing, etc. .p.).
5. Lack of a trusting environment, which can lead to socially desirable answers instead of true ones.
Clinical diagnosis
:
1. Insufficient objectivity, since the results obtained depend on the theoretical orientation of the psychologist and his practical experience. (But it is generally accepted that a psychologist’s judgments about a person are objective).
2. Requires a high level of professional training and rich practical experience.
3. Requires a lot of time to work individually with the client.
Each approach has a number of advantages and a number of disadvantages. Thus, it is impossible to give absolute preference to one of them; we can only talk about the preferential use of one or another approach in a certain situation.
^
The use of clinical and test methods is more effective in their combination and interaction.
Ticket 5.
Nomothetic and ideographic approach in psychodiagnostics.
The separation of these approaches is based on Windelband's monograph “History and Science” (1904), where he distinguished between natural science And humanitarian orientations in psychology.
Ideographic approach
– in-depth study of a single case in the process of diotic interaction (psychologist – client). Aimed at describing and explaining a complex whole.
The description must be complete, specific, and each person must be presented as a unique phenomenon.
Nomothetic approach
– involves testing followed by interpretation, aimed at discovering a general law that is valid for any particular case.
Its basic structures and processes are characterized through experimental, i.e. reproducible procedures.
According to Windelband, any object can be studied in the first or second way.
Both methods are criticized...
Flaws:
Ideographic approach:
1. Lack of objectivity, because the results obtained depend on the theoretical orientation of the psychologist and his practical experience.
2. Using this method it is impossible to discover general laws.
3. They use a lot of specific terms that are not always clear, verbosity.
Nomothetic approach:
1. Based on general laws, it is impossible to get a complete picture of a person’s personality, because she is unique; does not allow predicting human behavior due to its uniqueness.
2. Ideas about individual differences are criticized (descriptions from the position of the nomothetic method are based on data (about the mean, standard deviation, correlation between variables in the sample) that are not directly related to a specific person (although many statements say the opposite)).
It is impossible to unequivocally declare the advantage of any one research method.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Benefits = benefits of test and clinical diagnosis).
Advantages of test and clinical diagnostics:
Test diagnostics (= nomothetic method):
1. More effective when you need to obtain information about a large group of people in a short time and make a strictly alternative decision (either “YES” or “NO”).
2. The tests are well protected from methodological errors that may arise due to the low qualifications of the psychologist, because Everything is spelled out in the test, they are standardized.
3. Test diagnostics places less stringent requirements on the professional competence of a psychologist.
4. The method of calculating the results ensures the objectivity of the result.
5. Less labor-intensive work.
Clinical examination (= ideographic method):
1. It is more effective when the idea is about a little-researched area, it allows you to put forward new hypotheses.
2. Effective when it is necessary to gain a deeper and more accurate understanding of a person’s unique life situation. Gives more information.
3. It is more effective if, after the examination, the psychologist himself carries out further correctional or developmental work.
4. It is more effective when working with a child, because a child is constantly changing, moving from one stage of development to the next, and it is never possible to say exactly what stage he is currently at, despite all the developed age periodizations. (Test methods are not very effective in this case.)
5. Clinical examination requires a high level of professional training, extensive practical experience and more time.
Ticket 6.
Psychodiagnostics in the school psychological service system.
^
The role of psychodiagnostics in the school psychological service system.
The object of the school psychological service is student with all its problems.
^ The psychologist's task – find optimal conditions for the development of each student.
M.b. implemented in individual approach to the student. It allows you to identify individual ways to develop a student’s capabilities, strengthen his own activity, and reveal the uniqueness of his personality.
A psychologist is called upon to solve various problems. They are determined by the age of the child.
^ Problems that a psychologist is called upon to solve:
1. Diagnostic– studying the child’s readiness for school (a condition for preventing the child’s adaptation to school).
«+» : by studying the level of readiness, we determine an individual approach.
«–»
: differentiation of children by level of readiness assignment to different classes biased attitude of students towards teachers, and vice versa.
2. This problem can be solved in a preschool educational institution. Diagnosis of a child’s adaptation to school.
Several stages of adaptation:
At 1 week.
At the end of 1 month.
End of the first quarter.
End of the first half of the year.
3. When problems arise with studies. The task of a psychologist is to identify the causes of academic failure.
Academic problems often lead to legal problems. Failure to perform academically forces one to look for those areas of activity in which the student will be approved and achieve success.
Diagnosis of cognitive characteristics (attention, memory).
The reason for a student’s failure is poor relationships with the teacher and classmates.
4. ^ High School.
The problem of adaptation to multi-subject learning conditions.
Diagnostics of relationships with different teachers.
5. Solving the student’s personal problems (adolescence – the need for independence). Relationships with peers, the problem of relationships with adults (teachers, parents).
6. High school.
The problem associated with specialized education is the problem of self-determination.
Diagnosis of individual characteristics of children in order to choose a future profession.
7. Psychodiagnostic tasks are associated not only with diagnosing the child’s mental properties and solving personal problems.
Also added are tasks that are related to determining the effectiveness of the educational process.
The task of a psychologist is to track the developmental effect of teaching and educational technologies.
^
Diagnostic tasks:
1. Monitoring the dynamics of a student’s mental development, correcting development, establishing the correct direction of development for more advanced students.
2. Comparative analysis of the developmental effect of various systems of education and training in order to develop recommendations for improving their developmental functions.
Ticket 7.
3 principles, which are also used by a modern diagnostician:
1. Holistic approach to the study of man - appearance, personal characteristics, prof. stsoavlyayuschie, etc.
2. Creating extreme situations .
3. Testing had social focus
and was never intended to be of an entertaining nature.
Juan Huart
– the first person to develop a test (of intelligence).
Considered: understanding, memory, imagination.
Prerequisites for the development of psychodiagnostics as a science:
1. The need of medical practice for the diagnosis of mentally ill and mentally retarded children.
50-70 years 19th century - experimental psychology emerges (W. Wundt - founded the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Germany (1878). He studied sensations and the motor acts caused by them).
2.
There is a need for measurement in psychological science.
30s 19th century - the concept of psychometry was introduced.
Weber-Fechner Laboratory.
Directions of PD:
1. Individual testing.
Ferenst Galton - founder of individual testing.
One of the founders of eugenics (improvement of the human race);
Sought to create a method of measuring abilities to improve people (human selection).
!! It should be especially noted that Galton turned out to be an innovator in the field of statistical sciences.
In psychology - the method of correlation.
The essence of this method was that a change in one parameter leads to a change in another.
James McKean Cattell
- follower of Galton.
1890 – introduces the concept of “mental test”.
He suggests that the value of the tests will increase if the conditions under which they are conducted are the same.
Tests need to be standardized. This is necessary to compare the results obtained by different people.
Cattell suggested 50 tests.
He measured mainly elementary mental functions.
By the end of the 19th century, these tests were widely used in education, but discrepancies were soon noticed between the test results and teacher ratings → there was a need to standardize the tests.
Alfred Binet
- one of the founders of experimental psychology.
1894 - when studying intelligence, one must study mental processes.
Universal education appeared and there was a need to separate children according to their mental abilities.
The goal of his method is to weed out mentally retarded children from school.
A. Binet and A. Simon
– conducted a series of experiments on children’s attention, memory, and thinking.
1905 - the first scale aimed at diagnosing mental retardation (of 30 tasks).
A special place is verbal material (main components of intelligence):
Judgment
Binet-Simon tests (1908) – features:
Grouping by age;
Binet introduced the concept of “mental age” (which was combined with chronological age);
- “The absolute measure of intelligence” is the difference between mental age and chronological age.
V.L. Stern
(1912) - proposed another measure of intelligence: not the difference, but the ratio of mental age to chronological age ×100.
Intelligence = HC/HV×100
1911 – age level from 3 years to adult level.
Children were divided into:
Regular (UV = XV);
Advanced (UV > XV);
Retarded (UV< ХВ)
The 1908 scale was more popular.
Lewis Madison Terman
– supplemented the tasks, changed some of them, subjected them to statistical testing, and introduced the IQ coefficient as an assessment of the results.
→ ^
Sharply shifted emphasis:
Standford-Binet tests - study normal children and grade them according to their level of intelligence development.
Merit Theremin
It was also the fact that he developed a series of detailed instructions for carrying out, i.e. STANDARDIZATION.
Emphasized that deviations from standard procedures may lead to errors.
^
2. Group testing.
Arthur Sinton Otis – one of Theremin’s graduate students.
Otis's merit is the adaptation of the Binet test for group testing - it did not require a lot of time and money.
^ Created 2 series of tests:
Alpha series – intended for literate (arithmetic operations, synonyms, antonyms, etc.) who have a good knowledge of the English language.
Beta series – for illiterate or foreigners (in the form of pictures).
1918 - the final version of the test was already available and about a million people passed the test.
Benefits of group testing:
Speed;
Massive and cheap.
In a fairly short time, a large number of people can be examined.
They were clearly standardized (even those who are not very knowledgeable in psychology (unlike individual tests) could test them).
^
3. Testing special abilities.
Composite test of general mechanical ability.
Music Learning Aptitude Test (Seashore).
Many techniques for use in education (but had low differential validity).
Extension of methods of mathematical statistics.
Factor analysis made it possible to more accurately determine and classify special abilities.
1904
G. – Ch. Spearman
– identified 2 factors: G – the same for all types of activities, S – characteristic only in special types.
1938– Rowena progressive matrices
– to measure general intelligence. Based on Spearman's general factor theory.
1939– D. Wexler
– Wechsler-Bellview intelligence scale – to assess different aspects of intelligence:
Verbal;
Non-verbal/practical;
General indicator of intelligence.
He rejected the concept of mental age as unproductive.
IQ value is the average of any group (specific individuals were compared with the general population).
E.L. Thorndike, Louis Leon Thurstone - intelligence consists of independent abilities or factors.
^ 1938 – Thurstone
– test of primary mental abilities. The scale measures 7 independent factors that characterize intelligence multifactor theory of intelligence.
In parallel with the creation of these theories, psychometrics are being improved.
^
4. Personal psychodiagnostics.
Stylistic and motivational personality traits.
Special methods are used:
Questionnaires;
Projective techniques.
Founder – Woodwards
.
1917– created first personality questionnaire(to identify abnormal behavior).
R. Cattell
(Raymond Cattell) – 16-factor personality questionnaire ( 16
PF).
Factor questionnaires → factor analysis – a means of reducing the dimensionality of personality descriptions.
The main thing is to identify the basic personality traits (16 pieces).
Projective techniques
.
It is based on the concept of the unconscious (as the hidden engine of personality).
The mind hides the unconscious.
Projective techniques → solving special problems that allow the unconscious to manifest itself in the individual at will.
1921 –G. Rohrscharch
– test – 10 tables with symmetrical spots (you need to find associations).
1935 –Murray and Morgan
– create a TAT (thematic apperception test) – what a person sees, how he explains it (fig. with certain images).
1945 –S. Rosenzweig
– assessment of reactions to frustration.
1960s– emphasis on the analysis of situations in which activities are carried out, or on the individuality of a person (what determines behavior).
3 main trends in the development of PD:
1. On the subject of research:
Intelligence research → measuring personality as a whole
2. According to the examination form:
Individual tests → group testing
3. Expansion of methods of mathematical statistics:
Correlation analysis → factor analysis → cluster analysis → ...etc.
+ to ticket 7.
From the history of the development of psychodiagnostic methods.
History of the clinical method.
Initially, psychological examinations were associated with diagnostics deviations in intellectual and personal development for the purpose of correcting maladaptive forms of behavior in children and adolescents, as well as psychoprophylaxis, psychotherapy and social rehabilitation of patients with psychosomatic and borderline disorders.
we can say that psychodiagnostic methods originate mainly from such an area of psychology as clinical psychology.
Clinical Psychology
- a term that has become widespread in Western psychology, in one of its meanings close to the term “medical psychology” (B. D. Karvarsky). It takes its origins from the works of psychiatrists at the end of the 19th century. (E. Kraepelin, E. Kretschmer, I. Breuer, 3. Freud, J. Charcot, 77. Janet, etc.), who sought to understand the nature of mental pathology from a natural science perspective, describe its phenomenology and specific differences from the norm.
But historically, ideas about the subjects and methods of clinical psychology have undergone significant changes.
The clinical method evolved by combining the best traditions of classical psychiatry (careful, sympathetic observation; intuitive understanding of the patient as a person) with innovative tendencies towards experimentation, the discovery of the unique possibilities of hypnosis as a method of penetrating the unconscious.
Since the 60s thanks to the “antipsychiatric trend” they penetrate into clinical psychology humanistic ideas, the very concept of “clinic” is changing, becoming synonymous with the “clinic of life”, including a variety of interpersonal problems, conflicts, and existential crises.
Clinical method
combines nomothetic and idiographic knowledge about a person.
As a result of observation, study or psychotherapeutic analysis of the so-called case, a holistic understanding of the unique and stable patterns of a person’s experience and awareness of the most significant aspects of his subjective life history is formed.
Clinical approach
(in the broad sense of the word) allows you to solve problems of diagnostics and psychological assistance to adults and children in the field of upbringing and education, deal with labor and social rehabilitation of the elderly and disabled, and create special programs for working with victims of violence and post-traumatic stress.
History of the test method.
The concept " test“was introduced by the American psychologist James Cattell at the end of the 19th century, but the test method became widespread only in the first half of the 20th century. thanks to the works of the Frenchman A. Binet, the American L. M. Theremin, the Russian G. I. Rossolimo and others.
^
The first widely used test
became Binet–Simon scale(created in 1905 to diagnose the level of mental development of children and identify those who are unable to learn in public schools).
Currently, psychologists have developed several thousand tests and test batteries.
!!
Over time, the test becomes outdated, because the culture of society changes, the level of education of the population changes, and so-called test sophistication arises, which requires a revision of the content of test tasks.
The use of tests is always a stage in solving a research or practical problem, a joint activity between a psychodiagnostician and a client. Compliance with psychological testing techniques is important.
Ticket 8.
Development of domestic psychodiagnostics.
3 main stages of formation:
(related to the political and ideological system)
First period = end of 19th century – 1936
Second period = late 60s – 90s
Third period = late 90s – present time.
First period.
Late 19th century:
– introduction of an experimental method (connected with Wundt’s laboratory – internship).
– research into the physiology of GNI (Sechenov, Pavlov)
First of all, the brain was studied the study of the material basis of mental phenomena.
Bekhterev
– mental processes = neuropsyche.
1885– opening of the first experimental laboratory (at the Clinic of Nervous and Mental Diseases of Kazan University).
^
Central problem
– the problem of the psyche’s dependence on the brain and on the outside world :
– objective signs were studied (ex: changes in pulse and breathing as a reflection of fear, etc.);
– study of the speed of mental processes.
Early 20th century– first psychodiagnostic work (study of individual psychological characteristics of a person).
1909 –G.I. Rossalima
– scale for measuring the level of development of general abilities = psychological profiles.
^ Main goal: difference between normal children and UO (criterion).
Definition of 11 mental processes (10 questions):
3 groups(11 processes):
1. Attention and will.
2. Accuracy and strength of perception.
3. Associative activities.
- proposed a graphical form of representation/image of mental processes = psychological profile.
!!
Independence of the age of the subject.
Blonsky
: “...unlike Western testing, Rossalima aimed at a holistic assessment of personality.”
Lazursky
– a new direction in differential psychology – scientific characterology.
Main goal: building a person from his inclinations.
AGAINST laboratory experiments; FOR a natural experiment (thanks to this, it is possible to study not individual mental processes and their functions, but mental functions and personality as a whole).
Rybakov F.E.
– test to determine the level of spatial imagination – “Rybakov’s Figure”.
Popular techniques are created based on his ideas.
They were not taken seriously at home, but were widely used abroad.
20–30s– development at a high rate in many areas (pedagogy, medicine, psychology).
1928 –A.T. Boltunov
- measuring scale of the mind.
It is based on the Binet-Simon scale.
BUT! Lots of differences.
The main difference is the ability to conduct group research.
M.Yu. Syrkin
– study of the correlation between indicators of giftedness tests and signs of social status.
He was the first to prove that there is a linear form of connection between test scores and the social characteristics of subjects.
L.S. Vygotsky
– the idea of “psychological diagnosis” (introduced this concept).
“Diagnostics of development and pedagogical clinic of difficult childhood” (1936).
Developed a number of diagnostic methods and theoretical issues. Expanded the concept of “psychological diagnosis”.
Diagnosis– the ability not only to give characteristics, but also to predict (trace the logic of the development process).
Diagnostics is used in almost all areas of human life:
Labor psychology
Psychotechnics
Pedology, etc.
Many tests were used.
BUT!.. little attention to what tests are used and who applies them → a lot of dissatisfaction with the test results ( ideological reaction).
1936- “Resolution on pedological perversions in the system of People’s Commissariat of Education.”
The tests were harshly criticized.
Criticism of tests and pedology.
Pedology was declared a bourgeois, harmful science (it was excluded).
PD has gone from mass use back to laboratories.
Second period.
Late 60s– the works of the psychodiagnostic school appear again.
B.G. Ananyev
– comprehensive study of a person (use of various tests, questionnaires, etc.).
^IIhalf of the 70s– return to the use of foreign techniques; the use of foreign tests is commonplace (BUT!.. amateurish approach).
Translations of foreign tests.
Analysis in the form of a simple description.
1974– formation of an adequate attitude towards tests thanks to the symposium in Tallinn. → worldwide expansion and deepening of research is necessary.
Dec. 1979– international conference “in developed countries”.
1981– release of the collective monograph “Psychological diagnostics: problems and research” / ed. Gurevich K.N. → general issues of design, testing and application of diagnostic techniques.
A. Anastasi
“Psychological testing” – translated into Russian in ???? G.
Third period.
Adapted versions of Western techniques have appeared. Published in the open press on clinical diagnostics.
There is a lot of work on psychometrics.
Domestic diagnostics are being developed and put into practice.
New faculties and departments of psychology are opening (they have begun to study PD).
The number of specialists in the field of psychology is increasing → reliable study methods are needed → an incentive for the development of PD.
The system of educational psychological services is being developed.
Ticket 9.
The problem of the influence of the social environment and culture on the results of a psychodiagnostic examination.
Simon (1958)
– the assessments that subjects receive during diagnosis do not reflect their true capabilities, but the social conditions in which they were born and raised.
Often diagnostic tasks contain words and meanings that are not understandable to a person who has not undergone special training the person cannot complete the task low performance.
The problem of the influence of the environment on the results of a psychological examination arises most acutely in foreign studies, because the content of any test is the material presented in the culture of the developer’s environment (therefore, the content of the tasks may be incomprehensible to people who are not familiar with this culture).
To solve this problem, use adaptation procedure
test.
The adaptation procedure is similar to the test development procedure. Includes several stages :
I . Adaptation of test content.
1) Translation of methodology materials. Familiarity with the theoretical positions of the author (if there are no disagreements with the author, you can work further).
Difficulties: the psychometric study of the original behind each questionnaire makes it considered inviolable.
Two types of translation (according to Campbell):
Ticket No. 1
The subject of psychodiagnostics is various MENTAL PROPERTIES of a person.
PSYCHODYAGNOSTICS is a field of psychological science and at the same time the most important form of psychological practice, which is associated with the development and use of various methods for recognizing individual psychological characteristics of a person.
The term DIAGNOSTICS is currently actively used not only in psychology and pedagogy, but also in medicine, technology, and other areas of science and social practice. According to modern general scientific understanding, the term diagnostics means recognition of the state of a certain object or system by quickly recording its essential parameters, and subsequent assignment to a certain diagnostic category in order to predict its behavior and make a decision about the possibilities of influencing this behavior in the desired direction. Accordingly, we talk about psychodiagnostics when we are talking about a special kind of objects of diagnostic knowledge - about specific people endowed with the psyche.
1. Subject of psychodiagnostics
Psychological diagnostics studies methods of recognizing and measuring the individual psychological characteristics of a person (their personality traits and characteristics of intelligence). Recognition and measurement are carried out using psychodiagnostic methods.
As a theoretical discipline, general psychodiagnostics considers:
Patterns of making valid and reliable diagnostic judgments;
Rules of “diagnostic inferences”, with the help of which the transition is made from signs or indicators of a certain mental state, structure, process to a statement of the presence and severity of these psychological “variables”.
Psychodiagnostics is closely related to the relevant subject areas of psychological science: general psychology, medical, developmental, social, etc. The phenomena, properties and features studied by the listed sciences are measured using psychodiagnostic methods. The results of psychodiagnostic measurements can show not only the presence of a particular property, the degree of its expression, the level of development, they can also act as a way to verify the truth of theoretical and psychological constructs of various psychological directions.
Psychodiagnostics is aimed at identifying interindividual or intergroup differences.
You can turn to authoritative psychodiagnosticians who clearly highlight the subject of this scientific discipline. So, for example, A. Anastasi defines this subject through the tasks facing psychodiagnostics, noting that they consist in “measuring differences between individuals or between the reactions of one individual in different conditions.”
A similar understanding of the subject is given by K.M. Gurevich, who writes: “The purpose of modern psychological diagnostics in its most common forms (tests, projective techniques, psychophysiological techniques, questionnaires) is to record and describe in an orderly form psychological differences between people , and between groups of people united according to some (not always related to psychology) characteristics."
Modern psychological diagnostics is defined as a scientific discipline that develops methods for identifying and studying individual psychological characteristics of a person.
Thus, we can say that the competence of psychodiagnostics includes the design and testing of methods, the development of principles and requirements that they must satisfy, the development of rules for conducting examinations, methods for processing and interpreting results, the selection and theoretical justification of criteria for comparing results, the development of techniques that facilitate rapid and correct decision-making regarding diagnosis.
The data is used by the allied health professional to make a non-psychological diagnosis or formulate an administrative decision. This situation is typical for the use of psychodiagnostic data in medicine. The psychologist makes a judgment about the specific characteristics of thinking, memory, and personality of the patient, and the doctor makes a medical diagnosis. The psychologist is not responsible for the diagnosis or for what kind of treatment the doctor will provide to the patient. The same scheme applies to the use of psychodiagnostic data in psychodiagnostics at the request of the court, a comprehensive psychological and psychiatric examination, psychodiagnostics of the professional competence of an employee or professional suitability at the request of the administration.
The data is used by the psychodiagnostician himself to make a psychological diagnosis, although intervention in the situation of the subject is carried out by a specialist of a different profile. This is, for example, the situation of psychodiagnostics in relation to the search for the causes of school failure: the diagnosis is psychological (or psychological-pedagogical) in nature, and the work to implement it is carried out by teachers, parents, and other educators.
Diagnostic data is used by the person being examined for the purposes of self-development, behavior correction, etc. In this situation, the psychologist is responsible for the correctness of the data, for the ethical, deontological aspects of the “diagnosis” and only partially for how this diagnosis will be used by the client.
the object of psychodiagnostics is a specific person who is the carrier (owner) of various individual MENTAL PROPERTIES. Mental properties form the SUBJECT of psychodiagnostics. The importance of distinguishing between SUBJECT and OBJECT is manifested primarily when discussing issues related to ensuring such PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE TEST as RELIABILITY and VALIDITY. Sometimes a test can have high reliability - this is precisely stability relative to the object: when retesting, almost all subjects can remain in the same places on the rank (ordinal) DIAGNOSTIC SCALE that they occupied after the first test. But this does not mean that the test is aimed at measuring a mental property that is desirable for us, that is, this does not yet mean high validity.
Psychodiagnostics, its tasks, capabilities and areas of application
Its purpose is to collect information about the characteristics of the human psyche.
1. Record and describe in an orderly manner the psychological differences between people and groups of people united according to some characteristics. Explores how psychological laws influence individual differences.
2. Construction of psychodiagnostic techniques. Not only the development, but also the clarification of the requirements that the methods must satisfy, this is the definition of the boundaries of conclusions, the improvement of the interpretation of the results of diagnostic methods.
1. In the client’s situation (a person has no reason to consciously distort facts about himself, but he can do it unconsciously (embellish himself).
2. In a situation of examination (a person turns to a psychodiagnostician for help, he himself makes contact. The person knows that he is being examined, and therefore sometimes consciously adjusts his behavior and his answers in order to look better).
The competence of psychodiagnostics includes:
Design and testing of methods;
Development of rules for conducting the survey;
Methods for processing and interpreting results, discussing the possibilities and limitations of certain methods.
Areas of practical use of the results of psychodiagnostic work:
1. In order to optimize the processes of education and upbringing (Tasks at school: failure, educational and personal problems. Psychological readiness of children for learning at school; monitoring the development of children under the influence of schooling; identifying the causes of failure and difficulties in educational activities; selections in special classes and special schools; evaluation of programs and methods of teaching in schools; evaluation of the work of different educational institutions; solving the personal problems of schoolchildren; social and psychological diagnostics (relationships between teachers and students); , parents, etc.); identification of the dominant causes of academic failure and disorders in the personal sphere, differentiation of education, implementation of an individual approach, etc.).
2. Psychodiagnostics is an important component of the activities of a specialist in vocational selection, vocational training and career guidance, which is carried out in special vocational consultation points, in employment service institutions, in enterprises and in special educational institutions.
1. Clarifying the diagnoses of clinic patients (if the doctor has difficulty making a diagnosis).
2. Assess the effect of treatment.
3. Study of patients for the purpose of conducting various examinations (military, judicial). Observation and conversation - methods of clinical consultation:
A. Psychological consultations where people can turn with their personal problems (family, individual, children's, etc.).
b. In conducting a forensic psychological examination (examination of victims, suspects or witnesses, the formation of a psychological conclusion about certain qualities of the Personality, level of intellectual development, etc.).
V. The task of psychodiagnostics depends on the scope of its application
Objectives of psychodiagnostics
Modern psychology influences the practical activities of people in several different ways. One of these ways is direct psychological assistance to various categories of the population. A psychologist who has received special training is able to provide advisory psychological assistance to parents in raising children, spouses in a situation of family crisis, children whose normal personality development is disrupted, boys and girls in choosing a profession, managers in the formation of style and communication techniques, and many others.
Whatever form psychological assistance is provided: in the form of psychological counseling or in the form of non-medical psychotherapy, it has a common characteristic - the individualization of its focus. This individualization is based on a deep penetration into the personality of the person asking for help, into his feelings, experiences, attitudes, picture of the world, and the structure of relationships with others. For such penetration, psychological instinct and intuition alone are often not enough; special psychodiagnostic methods are required.
Psychodiagnostic problems can be solved in various ways. One of these methods is long-term observation of the subject, carried out during the provision of assistance to him. Another way is to observe the subject in real life conditions, for example, observing the behavior of a child in kindergarten
PSYCHODYAGNOSTICS
ABOUT THE CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION 5
SECTION 1. SUBJECT, OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF APPLICATION
PSYCHODYAGNOSTICS 6
Subject and tasks of psychodiagnostics 6
Conditions for the development of psychodiagnostics 8
Scope of psychological testing 9
Professional and ethical principles in psychodiagnostics. 10
Classification of psychodiagnostic methods 14
SECTION 2. TECHNICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHODIAGNOSTICS 19
Norms of test indicators and standardization 19
Reliability 23
Validity 28
SECTION 3. TYPES OF DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES 32
Strictly formalized methods 33
Less formalized techniques 39
SECTION 4. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM OF ASSESSING PERSONAL FUNCTIONAL STATES 45
Diagnostic signs and categories 45
Types of human functional states 46
Specifics of psychological diagnostics in studies of functional states 56
Methods for testing functional states 60
PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN PSYCHODYAGNOSTICS 76
LITERATURE
Introduction
Psychodiagnostics is a field of psychological science and at the same time the most important form of psychological practice, which is associated with the development and use of various methods for recognizing individual psychological characteristics of a person.
Although the concept of “psychodiagnostics” first appeared only after the publication of G. Rorschach
in 1921, this special discipline began to emerge as an independent branch of science already at the beginning of the 20th century. The practical use of psychodiagnostic methods goes back almost eighty years. The wide popularity of tests is due to the fact that practical psychologists saw a tool that allows them to penetrate into the characteristics of the human psyche, measure the level of their abilities and predict behavior. Problems of psychodiagnostics are among the most important problems of applying psychological knowledge in various areas of human practice for the purpose of comprehensive development of the individual. Psychodiagnostics occupies an intermediate position among other psychological disciplines. It represents, as it were, a connecting link between general and applied psychology, and in relation to psychodiagnostic methods it acts as a common basis that unites all areas of their practical application.
Psychodiagnostics is used in the following areas of psychology: occupational psychology, engineering, social, educational, medical, legal, military and sports psychology. When creating and applying psychodiagnostic methods, these disciplines find in psychodiagnostics a common theoretical and methodological basis for assessing personality in the system of social, economic and other relations. These practical areas of psychology, for their part, enrich the system of basic psychological knowledge by applying and repeatedly testing them in practice. Psychodiagnostics is used in specific areas of people’s life: in healthcare, in sports, in school and university education, in production, in family consultations, etc.
Modern psychodiagnostics is increasingly used in such areas of social practice as personnel placement, professional selection, career guidance, forecasting social behavior, optimization of training and education, advisory and psychotherapeutic assistance, forensic psychological and psychiatric examination, etc.
The purpose of this textbook is to give students of psychological faculties knowledge in the field of psychological diagnostics. To introduce methods of development, adaptation and modernization of psychodiagnostic techniques. To familiarize students with the basic methods and techniques for diagnosing physiological characteristics of a person, personality traits, intelligence, general and specific abilities.
Section 1. Subject, tasks and scope of psychodiagnostics
1.1. Subject and tasks of psychodiagnostics
Psychodiagnostics – a field of psychological science and the most important form of psychological practice, which is associated with the development and use of various methods for recognizing individual psychological characteristics of a person.
The term “ diagnostics ” is actively used not only in psychology and pedagogy, but also in medicine, technology, and other areas of science and social practice. It is derived from the Greek roots: “dia” and “gnosis” and is literally interpreted as “ discriminative cognition" Currently, the term “diagnostics” means recognition of the state of a certain object or system, by quickly recording its essential parameters and subsequent assignment to a certain diagnostic category in order to predict its behavior and make a decision about the possibilities of influencing this behavior in the desired direction. ABOUT psychodiagnostics we speak when we are talking about objects of diagnostic knowledge - about specific people endowed with the psyche.
In psychology, there are more than 15 thousand psychodiagnostic methods that are used in practice. However, even if all these methods are applied to an individual, it is unlikely that the result will be satisfactory information that allows a comprehensive assessment of his personality. This is explained primarily by the unsatisfactory theoretical justification of psychodiagnostics, as well as the insufficient level of development of personality theory.
Subject of psychodiagnostics are often limited to the use of various kinds of diagnostic methods on a person in order to identify his mental uniqueness and its subsequent measurement using various kinds of statistical methods. At the same time, it is overlooked that both the nature of the information received and its interpretation largely depend on the personality theory underlying psychodiagnostics.
Subject of diagnosis- mental – found in a variety of forms. However, they become diagnostically relevant only when included in the following system of relations:
· intra-individual communications(diagnostic data should reflect the relationship between the mental properties of the individual);
· interindividual property variations(diagnostic data should serve as the basis for establishing differences between this individual and other individuals);
· relationship “object - subject” (diagnostic data about a person are valuable only if they provide information about a person’s attitude
to the requirements of the environment, as well as the ways in which an individual fulfills social requirements).
The goal of psychodiagnostics in its most general form is to establish the individual degree of expression of mental properties and their intra-individual relationships that determine the uniqueness of the individual.
In psychodiagnostics there are signs And categories .
Signs differ in that they can be directly observed and recorded.
Categories hidden from direct observation. Therefore, in social sciences they are usually called “ latent variables" For quantitative categories, the name “diagnostic factors” is also often used. Diagnostic output
– this is a transition from observable features to the level of hidden categories. The difficulty of psychological diagnostics is that there are no strict one-to-one relationships between features and categories. For example, the same external act of a child (tearing out a piece of paper from a diary) can be due to completely different psychological reasons (an increased level of the hidden factor “propensity to deceive” or an increased level of another hidden factor “fear of punishment”). For an unambiguous conclusion, one symptom (one action) is not enough. It is necessary to analyze a complex of symptoms, or a series of actions in different situations.
Test in psychodiagnostics they call a series of the same type of standardized short tests to which the test subject, the carrier of the supposed hidden factor, is subjected. Different test items reveal different symptoms in an individual associated with the latent factor being tested. The sum of the results of these short tests indicates the level of the factor being measured.
Behind the external simplicity of scientific tests lies a lot of research work on their development and testing. Distinction between practical examinations and scientific differential diagnostic research is one of the most important in modern testological culture. Survey – This is the use of a ready-made, already developed test. Its result is information about the mental properties of a particular person examined (subject). Differential diagnostic study – is a complex of theoretical and experimental works aimed at
to formulate the concept of a measurable mental property (a hidden factor influencing the effectiveness and nature of activity), to identify diagnostic signs (or “empirical indicators”) on which information can be obtained
about a given property.
Psychological diagnosis has a detailed and complex character. This, for example, may include the statement of the following characteristics in one and the same person: a high level of development of “creativity” (inventiveness
and flexibility of thinking), average level of “verbal intelligence” (verbal thinking), reduced level of ability to concentrate, traits of “social extraversion” (increased sociability, sociability), “internal locus of control” (increased responsibility and inclusion of self-esteem in activities), “permeability of the boundaries of the Self” (vulnerability, vulnerability) against the background of the leading motivation to achieve social success, etc.
Some traits and characteristics of an individual may, in some situations, seem to conflict with each other and push them to different modes of behavior. The collision of heterogeneous internal attitudes (dispositional traits) in a child is one of the causes of internal crises in personality development.
One of the most important tasks of in-depth personal psychodiagnostics is to identify which mental properties are in conflict. This helps to unravel the tangle of internal conflict.
The structuring of a psychological diagnosis is understood as bringing various parameters of a person’s mental state into a specific system: they are grouped by level of significance, by relatedness of origin, and by possible lines of causal mutual influence. Relationships between various parameters
in a structured diagnosis, specialists display it in the form of diagnosticograms. One
One of the simplest variants of a “diagnosticogram” is a psychodiagnostic profile.
Statistical norm– this is the average range of values on the scale of the property being measured (the area adjacent to the center line on the profile). The norm here is considered to be the proximity of the property value to the level that characterizes
statistically average individual. A significant deviation from the norm in this case (outside the average range) is called accentuation , and this personality trait is called “accentuated”. The more pronounced this deviation is, the stronger the accentuation is considered, up to the appearance of “pathocharacterological” signs.
Sociocultural norm- this is the level of property that is explicitly or implicitly considered necessary in society. It is acceptable to make one typo error per page of text, but it is unacceptable to make 10 errors. If the average school graduate makes more than 1 mistake, this does not mean that the statistical norm should “pull” down the sociocultural norm. It is obvious that all training must be oriented
to standards, not to statistical norms.
1.2. Conditions for the formation of psychodiagnostics
Concept “ psychodiagnostics” appeared for the first time after the publication of G. Rorschach in
1921 However, this special discipline began to emerge as an independent branch of science already at the beginning of the 20th century. Identifying individual characteristics of a person using psychodiagnostics became possible after a number of necessary prerequisites emerged in psychology. We can talk about the four most important sources of development of psychodiagnostics: experimental psychology, differential psychology, applied psychology and testology.
Experimental psychology. The emergence of experimental psychology is associated with the name of G. Fechner (I860), who first substantiated the psychophysical method of research. Based on the simplest experiments of Fechner, W. Wundt laid the foundations of experimental psychology, and at the beginning of the 20th century it became the leading direction of empirical psychological research. Initially, experimental psychology was engaged in the study of the most elementary mental properties and processes that arise under the influence of certain stimuli, with the aim of revealing some general patterns, which it tried to present, if possible, in the form of mathematical models. To describe the relationship between the intensity of sensation and the intensity of the stimulus, G. Fechner used a logarithmic function, which allowed him to formulate the first quantitative law in psychology. Thus, the basic methodological principle was found, which was adopted by psychodiagnostics. At first, experimental psychology stimulated the development of psychodiagnostics, mainly due to the presence of a huge arsenal of methods equipped with a variety of equipment.
A stimulating influence on the emergence of psychodiagnostics was exerted by studies of individual differences regarding reaction time, which were carried out in Wundt’s laboratory.
Differential psychology. Differential psychology studies individual differences. The emergence of differential psychology was prepared already in 1896 by the report of A. Binet and V. Henri on the topic “Individual Psychology,” in which, in contrast to the prevailing opinion and, accordingly, contrary to the opinion of W. Wundt, experimental research of higher mental functions, such as like memory, thinking, representation, etc.
Differential psychology has attracted the attention of many psychologists to the study of individual differences between people. We are not talking about the study of individuals as such, but about differences in mental properties, as well as individual forms of their manifestation. Comparative studies of different populations were carried out, during which gender, age, etc. differences between individuals and social
groups and established correlations between them. Without the previous achievements of differential psychology, psychodiagnostics, the purpose of which is to study and characterize a specific personality, would not have been able to develop into an independent discipline.
Psychodiagnostics and differential psychology do not oppose, but complement each other, forming a single whole. They are two branches of psychological science that have a common specific area of research: the study of the degree of expression and interaction of mental properties of a person in the course of reflecting reality and regulating behavior, which they study in different (differential or individual) aspects.
Applied psychology. Another source of development of psychodiagnostics was applied psychology, which is associated with the name of V. Stern. In applied psychology
V. Stern distinguished between psychological assessment (psychodiagnostics) and psychological influence (psychotechnics). Distinguishing between psychodiagnostics And psychotechnics as components of applied psychology,
he emphasized, on the one hand, the specificity of diagnostic problems in the field of psychology, and on the other, he formulated the principle of the unity of diagnosis and personality development.
Testology. Testology had the strongest influence on psychodiagnostics, since it developed methods for objectively identifying mental properties that have partially retained their significance to the present day. The famous American psychologist J. M. Cattell (1890) is unanimously considered the founder of test diagnostics. His article “Mental Tests and Measurements” had a decisive influence on the development of accurate diagnostic methods. Cattell, who coined the term “ test”, set himself the task of studying the holistic personality. For this purpose, he conducted 10 simple experiments (measuring the strength of the left and right hands using a dynamometer, the speed of reaction to a sound stimulus, the speed of memorizing 10 named colors, etc.). These and many other studies carried out by his students turned out to be unfruitful, since they were based on a very primitive idea of the human psyche. Separate individual personality traits were identified and studied in isolation from each other, which, naturally, did not provide sufficient grounds for conclusions about the individual uniqueness of the personality or any of its essential aspects.
Cattell began a tradition of studying the intelligence of applicants to educational institutions (1896), which is still preserved in American universities. The development of test diagnostics was associated with such research methods, the development of which was a direct response of psychology to the requirements of practice. Since the same names are found in testology and differential psychology, it is often concluded that “psychodiagnostics is a combination of these two directions.” The connection between these two directions in scientific and historical terms really does take place, and this may explain, in particular, the still dominant understanding of the essence of tests. The test measures mental properties not directly, but through behavior, on the basis of which mental properties are then judged.
1.3. Scope of psychological testing
Psychodiagnostics occupies an intermediate position among other psychological disciplines. It represents, as it were, a connecting link between general and applied psychology, and in relation to psychodiagnostic methods it acts as a common basis that unites all areas of their practical application.
Practical areas of application of psychology: work psychology, engineering, social, pedagogical, medical, legal, military and sports psychology - when creating and applying psychodiagnostic methods, they find in psychodiagnostics a general theoretical and methodological basis for assessing personality in the system of social, economic and other relations. These practical areas of psychology, for their part, enrich the system of basic psychological knowledge by applying and repeatedly testing them in practice.
Psychological testing is used in education to test intelligence, special abilities, achievements, personality traits, behavior, etc.
Testing is carried out in the field of professional activity as an auxiliary means for making decisions about hiring and placement of personnel.
In clinical psychology and psychological counseling, testing and assessment of mental state is used when an individual is unable to cope
with your difficulties or problems.
Neurophysiology conducts neuropsychological studies of the interaction of brain pathologies with human behavior. The influence of age on the behavioral effects resulting from brain damage has been established.
1.4. Professional and ethical principles in psychodiagnostics.
Just like a medical examination, any psychodiagnostic examination can significantly affect a person’s fate. Therefore, in all countries,
where psychodiagnostic practice is widely and intensively developed, it is regulated both by a general professional code of ethics and by specially developed professional ethical standards in the field of testing and psychodiagnostics. Any member of a psychological society must strictly adhere to the code and standards. Otherwise, he may be expelled from the psychological society and deprived of the right (LICENSE) to practice psychology. Recreated in
In 1994, the Russian Psychological Society prepared, together with industry ministries and departments (primarily the Ministries of Education and Health of the Russian Federation), serious bills regulating access
to psychodiagnostic information and the procedure for using psychological tests in the country.
Departmental organizational standards and rules for conducting psychodiagnostics are reflected, in particular, in the “Regulations on the service of practical psychology of education in the Russian Federation” (Bulletin of Education, 1995, No. 7). This section will highlight only the basic principles that are primarily of ethical significance.
It is the psychologist who bears full responsibility for possible moral and indirect material damage, including damage to somatic and neuropsychic health, which may be caused to the subject if the examination is carried out incorrectly.
Related information.
