Students of the Dutch bachelor’s programme, see Psychodiagnostiek
Entry requirements
There are no formal admission requirements, but students are expected to be familiar with the theories covered in the first year (relating to personality, clinical, social and cognitive development psychology). Students are also expected to be familiar with terms from the field of psychometrics, such as test construction, standardisation (stanines, deciles, T-scores, etc.), reliability and validity.
Description
This course offers an introduction to psychodiagnostics relating to children and adults. Students acquire knowledge and skills in the field of psychodiagnostics in accordance with the guidelines of the Basic Registration Psychodiagnostics, a quality label of the Dutch Association of Psychologists (NIP). The lectures and work group sessions focus on diagnostic research into intelligence and personality, neuropsychology, psychopathologyand learning disorders. In the work group sessions, assignments are used to help students acquire practical knowledge of diagnostics for hypothesis testing, selecting research tools, and interpreting and reporting on the results. These workgroup sessions give insight into the child / clinical psychologist profession (see learning objectives 1-4). The theoretical knowledge acquired in the lectures and assigned reading material is put into practice in the work group sessions, where the primary focus is on the diagnostic process, forming and testing hypotheses, the intake procedure and reporting. Both the lectures and the workgroup sessions will cover the ‘ethics of psychological assessment’ (e.g., confidentiality of clients’ information, learning objective 5).
Course objectives
At the end of the course, the student will be able to…
1. Reproduce the content and procedures of the psychodiagnostic process for various diagnostic hypotheses.
2. Formulate and test diagnostic hypotheses.
3. To some extent administer assessment tools (observation, interview) and instruments (tests, questionnaires).
4. Interpret and report on diagnostic tests according to BAPD guidelines.
5. Explain how a psychologist should deal with ethical issues within diagnostics.
6. Reproduce how to act in case someone discusses suicidal thoughts with them
Timetable
For the timetable of this course please refer to MyTimetable
Registration
Education
Students must register themselves for all course components (lectures, tutorials and practicals) they wish to follow. You can register up to 5 days prior to the start of the course.
Exams
You must register for each exam in My Studymap at least 10 days before the exam date. Don’t forget! For more information, see the enrolment procedure.
**You cannot take an exam without a valid registration in My Studymap.***
Carefully read all information about the procedures and deadlines for registering for courses and exams.
Students who take this course as part of a LDE minor or a premaster programme, exchange students and external guest students will be informed by the education administration about the current registration procedure.
Mode of instruction
Lectures and knowledge clips (taking 2 hours per week, during 7 weeks) and 6 2-hour work group sessions.
Attendance at the workgroup sessions is mandatory. See Brightspace for more information.
The main objective of the lectures and clips is to introduce students to the content and progress of the diagnostic process in relation to different psychodiagnostic topics/questions (course objective 1). Lectures will be in English.
Of the 6 work group sessions, 3 focus on youth diagnostics, and the other 3 on adult diagnostics. The main objective of the 6 work group sessions is to help students learn to recognise, select and interpret diagnostic tools, to formulate a diagnostic research question, and to learn to write a psychological report (course objectives 2-4). In the work group sessions, students are invited to actively practise these practical diagnostic skills using video fragments and diagnostic material. In addition, students are expected to write a diagnostic report on the skills practised in the work group sessions. These reports are submitted online and provided with feedback from the workgroup tutor. Workgroups are in English.
Assessment method
The grade for the course is made up of 2 partial grades (one grade for the exam, one grade for the workgroup sessions). The assessment method is in English for the exam as well as the workgroup assignments.
Exam grade: based on a mutiple-choice exam (counts for 60% of the total grade, examination of course objectives 1, 2 and 5). Exam material is based on the reading list (see below), the (web)lecture content, and the workgroup content (e.g., tests covered, examples of psychological cases). More detailed information on the exam content is provided in the course syllabus for students (available via the Brightspace course module).
Workgroup grade: This grade is made up of active participation in the workgroup, a suicide prevention e-learning, and written assignments. The workgroup grade counts for 40% of the total grade (examination of course objectives 2-4). If an insufficient score is obtained on the written assignment, a resit can be taken. A resit of the assignment will be evaluated with a maximum grade of 6.0. Resits are identical to the original one (i.e., second submission). Students can rely on feedback provided to the original assignment.
The Institute of Psychology uses fixed rules for grade calculation. It also follows the policy of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to systematically check student papers for plagiarism with the help of software. All students are required to take and pass the Scientific Integrity Test with a score of 100% in order to learn about the practice of integrity in scientific writing. Students are given access to the quiz via a module on Brightspace. Disciplinary measures will be taken when fraud is detected. Students are expected to be familiar with and understand the implications of these two policies.
Reading list
Psychological Testing & Assessment (2016). Pearson Customized Edition. ISBN: 9781784482855
Additional readings will be made available via Brightspace.
Contact information
Course coordinators:
Kelly Ziemer and Kim de Jong psychodiagnostiek@fsw.leidenuniv.nl