Psychometric perspectives on diagnostic systems
- 6 August 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Clinical Psychology
- Vol. 64 (9), 1089-1108
- https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20503
Abstract
The author identifies four conceptualizations of the relation between symptoms and disorders as utilized in diagnostic systems such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994): A constructivist perspective, which holds that disorders are conveniently grouped sets of symptoms; a diagnostic perspective, which holds that disorders are latent classes underlying the symptoms; a dimensional perspective, which holds that symptoms measure latent continua; and a causal systems perspective, which holds that disorders are causal networks consisting of symptoms and direct causal relations between them. Advantages and disadvantages of these conceptualizations are discussed. The author concludes that the psychometric analysis of diagnostic systems is not settled, and that these systems require deeper psychometric analysis than they currently receive. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 64: 1089–1108, 2008.Keywords
This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- The integrated trait–state modelJournal of Research in Personality, 2007
- Family Based Association Analyses between the Serotonin Transporter Gene Polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and Neuroticism, Anxiety and DepressionBehavior Genetics, 2007
- Multilevel component analysisBritish Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 2006
- The attack of the psychometriciansPsychometrika, 2006
- Combined Linkage and Association Analyses of the 124-bp Allele of Marker D2S2944 with Anxiety, Depression, Neuroticism and Major DepressionBehavior Genetics, 2005
- Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific LiteraturePLoS Medicine, 2005
- Personality Architecture: Within-Person Structures and ProcessesAnnual Review of Psychology, 2005
- D2S2944 identifies a likely susceptibility locus for recurrent, early-onset, major depression in womenMolecular Psychiatry, 2002
- Methodology Review: Nonparametric IRT Approaches to the Analysis of Dichotomous Item ScoresApplied Psychological Measurement, 1998
- Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix.Psychological Bulletin, 1959