Psychology in Russia: State of Art (Jan 2012)
Comparative Analysis of Russian and Foreign Systems for The Neuropsychological Diagnosis of Children From the Standpoint of the Psychometric Approach and its Limitations When Used in Clinical Practice
Abstract
Modern approaches to the psychological diagnostics of children are based onneed analysis and the systematization of existing trends in domestic and foreignchildren’s neuropsychological diagnoses. This article highlights the strengths andweaknesses of each approach, as well as identifying possible areas of integration.One of the most acute problems is the development of experimental psychologicalmethods to determine the quantitative and expressed characteristics of themental development of children by flexibly combining qualitative and quantitativeapproaches, with a view to putting into practice foreign neuroscience principlesand standards of evidence. An analysis of contemporary publications onneuropsychological diagnosis reveals the need to consider the standardization ofneuropsychological research in the context of current approaches, requirements,and psychodiagnostic criteria. In the domestic neuropsychological literature, theseissues are need attention: standardized procedures for presenting stimuli are not,as a rule, described; basic psychometric assessment of the results of the tests islacking; no investigation of their clinical and psychometric validity is carried out.An analysis was made of the nature of the psychometric approach in foreign childneuropsychology, which relies on mathematical procedures of processing qualitative(ordinal) data converted into quantitative indicators. We examined separatelythe mathematical software for clinical trials (based on the principles of «evidencebasedmedicine»), which relies on the «abnormal» nature of the distribution ofclinical phenomena.
