Diagnostic, Taxonomic, and Assessment Issues

Diagnostic concepts are widely used by mental health professionals, despite disagreement about the role of diagnosis in helping troubled children. Taxonomic concepts are less familiar to mental health professionals, however, and may seem quite remote from their everyday activities. In this chapter, we outline the relations between different concepts of diagnosis, their relations to taxonomy, and the role of assessment in both enterprises. Thereafter, we consider practical applications of assessment procedures to questions of diagnosis and taxonomy.