Psychological diagnosis
Psychological diagnosis is a process in which the psychologist, based on appropriate diagnostic tools (psychological interview, observation, selected questionnaires and tests), tries to identify the psychological mechanisms of the examined person’s functioning, explain the emerging problems and predict the possibilities and way of changing them. The subject of a psychological diagnosis may be the overall mental functioning of a person or its selected component (e.g. analysis of intellectual processes, memory, concentration of attention, the ability to create concepts or the ability to communicate, problem solving, coping with stress, solving interpersonal problems, as well as the analysis of dominant needs, or determination of the value system)
Very often, the subject of psychological diagnosis are mental disorders, in this case the diagnosis consists in determining the type of symptoms present in a given disorder, explaining its psychological causes and effects, and searching for psychological factors helpful in therapy.
