RELATIONS BETWEEN DSM-IV AND EMPIRICALLY BASED ASSESSMENT

Similarities and differences between the DSM-IV and empirically based approaches to behavioral/emotional problems are presented. Similaritie s include: explicit specification of criterial problems; descriptive s imilarities between some DSM diagnostic categories and empirically bas ed syndromes; and statistically significant agreement between some DSM diagnoses and empirically based syndrome scores. Differences include: use of a nosological versus psychometric model; judgment of problems as present-absent versus quantitative scoring of problems; choice of c ategories and criteria by committees versus derivation of syndromes fr om quantitative data; identical cutpoints for both genders, different ages, and different sources of data versus cutpoints based on norms fo r gender, age, and type of informant; data obtained by diagnostician's decision versus use of standardized forms; nonspecific comparisons of multi-source data versus explicit comparisons between cross-informant scores and correlations; endproducts are present-absent diagnoses ver sus norm-referenced profiles showing item and syndrome scores. A case example illustrates applications of the two approaches to school based assessment.