Rola doświadczenia klinicznego w diagnozie zdrowia psychicznego

Abstract

There are data showing clinical experience as disadvantageous for the quality of mental health assessment. On the other hand, according to American Psychological Association standards of evidence-based practice in psychology, clinical experience is one of the fundamental factors in professional psychological practice. The paper presents this controversy in the context of relevant psychological knowledge and empirical data. The conclusions are as follows: (1) the valuable input that clinical experience may bring to mental health assessment is intuitive thinking; (2) habitual cognitive errors and mindlessness, which are the possible side effects of long-lasting diagnostic practice, can be reduced by means of careful self-monitoring of the assessment process. A practical self-monitoring procedure is suggested.