| categorical classification | The sorting of patients into qualitatively distinct categories, as in the DSM.
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| comorbidity | A condition in which a patient meets the criteria for more than one DSM-IV Axis I disorder.
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| descriptive validity | The degree to which an assessment device provides significant information about the current behavior of the people being assessed.
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| diagnosis | The classification and labeling of a patient's problem within one of a set of recognized categories of abnormal behavior.
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| dimensional classification | The assignment of patients to scores on quantitative dimensions, such as personality, course, and functioning.
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| DSM-IV-TR | The most recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the handbook that classifies the symptoms and types of mental disorders.
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| electroencephalogram (EEG) | A brain test in which electrodes, attached to the head with tape, pick up electrical activity within the brain and measure it in oscillating patterns known as brain waves.
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| electromyogram (EMG) | A polygraph recording of the changes in the electrical activity of muscles.
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| galvanic skin response (GSR) | A polygraphic recording of the changes in the electrical resistance of the skin, an indication of sweat gland activity. There is an intimate relationship between emotion and physiological functioning; when a person's anxiety level rises, so may the activity of the sweat glands.
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| intelligence quotient (IQ) | The subject's final score on an adult version of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence scale, a test that measures a child's ability to perform a range of intellectual tasks. IQ tests play an important part in the diagnosis of mental retardation and brain damage.
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| intelligence tests | Psychological assessment techniques effective in predicting success in school but questionable as a valid measure of intelligence.
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| interjudge reliability | A criterion for judging the reliability of a psychological test: The test should yield the same results when scored or interpreted by different judges.
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| internal consistency | A criterion for judging the reliability of a psychological test: Different parts of the test should yield the same result.
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| interview | An assessment method consisting of a face-to-face conversation between subject and examiner.
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| mental status exam (MSE) | The mental status exam is a set of mental tests used to detect dementia (severe mental deterioration) and other organic brain disorders. The diagnostician evaluates the patient on appearance, speech, mood, perception, thought content, and cognitive processes (e.g., memory).
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| mini mental status exam (MMS) | A shorter version of the mental status exam.
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| Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) | The most widely used self-report personality inventory, the purpose of which is to simplify differential diagnosis by comparing self-descriptive statements endorsed by new patients to statements endorsed by groups of people already diagnosed with a particular condition.
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| person variables | A person's stable traits. Adherents of the psychometric approach hold that personality issues mainly from person variables.
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| polygraph | A recording device equipped with sensors, which, when attached to the body, can pick up subtle physiological changes in the form of electrical impulses. The changes are recorded on a moving roll of paper.
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| predictive validity | The degree to which a test's findings are consistent with the subject's future performance.
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| projective personality tests | Assessment techniques used to draw out, indirectly, individuals' true conflicts and motives by presenting them with ambiguous stimuli and allowing them to project their private selves into their responses.
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| psychological assessment | The collection, organization, and interpretation of information about a person and his or her situation.
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| psychological test | An assessment technique in which the subject is presented with a series of stimuli to which he or she is asked to respond.
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| psychometric approach | A method of psychological testing that aims at locating and measuring stable underlying traits.
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| reliability | (1) In the scientific method, the degree to which a description remains stable over time and under different testing conditions. (2) The degree to which a measurement device yields consistent results under varying conditions.
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| response sets | Test-taking attitudes that lead subjects to distort their responses, often unconsciously.
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| Rorschach Psychodiagnostic Inkblot Test | The most well-known projective personality test, in which subjects are asked to interpret 10 cards, each showing a symmetrical inkblot design.
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| self-report personality inventories | Psychological tests which, unlike projective tests such as the Rorschach and TAT, ask the subjects direct questions about themselves.
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| situational variables | The environmental stimuli that precede and follow any given action by a person.
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| test-retest reliability | A criterion for judging the reliability of a psychological test: The test should yield the same results when administered to the same person at different times.
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| Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) | A frequently used projective personality test in which the subject is presented with a series of pictures showing one, two, or three people doing something. The scenes are ambiguous enough to allow for a variety of interpretations, yet they nudge the subject in the direction of certain kinds of associations, unlike the Rorschach test. For example, a picture of a man in a business suit might tap a subject's feelings about his or her father.
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| traits | Stable underlying characteristics that presumably exist in differing degrees in everyone.
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| validity | The degree to which a description or test measures what it is supposed to measure.
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