Convergence: Connecting Levels of Analysis in Psychological Science
In the past, our field harbored distinct, and often competing, schools of thought that tackled different problems and produced findings that often appeared to diverge. Today, investigators attack shared problems at complementary levels of analysis and produce results that converge. Studies of people in a social world; mental systems of cognition and emotion; and biological mechanisms of the genome and the nervous system interconnect and yield an integrated psychological science. The APS 23rd Annual Convention displays, and celebrates, these advances in our field.

Clinical Science Forum

Perspectives on Diagnostic Systems

Thursday, May 26, 2011, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
International Ballroom East

Chair: Howard N. Garb
San Antonio Military Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base

The theoretical underpinnings of diagnostic systems will be examined. Conceptual views of such systems are related to theories on the relation between symptoms and constructs. Disorders can be viewed as causal systems, the constructions of clinical scientists, or as latent variables measured through clusters of symptoms. These competing views will be discussed.

There is no cost to attend this event, but registration is required.

Denny Borsboom
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Theoretical underpinnings of diagnostic systems are examined in terms of relations between symptoms and disorders. Two well-known views conceptualize disorders as a) constructions of clinical scientists or b) latent variables measured through clusters of symptoms. Borsboom will defend a third conceptualization, in which disorders refer to causal systems involving symptoms.

Denny Borsboom in the news: The National (Nov 5, 2010).

Lee Anna Clark (Discussant)
University of Notre Dame

Thomas A. Widiger (Discussant)
University of Kentucky