On-site Inaugural lecture Prof. dr. Petra P.M. Hurks
Appointed professor Psychodiagnostics
"A chair in Psychodiagnostics"
In my inaugural lecture, I will focus on a fascinating and important field in psychology, called psychodiagnostics. Psychologists are often asked to help answer questions such as: Is cognitive-behavioral therapy indicated for this person? Or what are my career perspectives? As a psychologist, it is unrealistic to strive for error-free or perfect answers, decisions, or advice (Bröder, 2002). Errors in judgments may be caused by factors, such as a lack of relevant information about the person, overconfidence in one’s expertise, and confirmation and hindsight biases. These errors are likely to affect the individual but also the society on a micro- and macro-level, due to e.g., misdiagnoses and misclassifications, the assignment of less optimal treatment regimes, or a suboptimal matching between a person and a job or a study program.
Psychodiagnostics is believed to have the potential to improve the quality of psychologists’ decisions and/or advice. Psychodiagnostics is an evidence-based method that aims to generate reliable and valid psychological statements about a person, for the main purpose of decision-making and/or for giving advice. It is taught standard in educational psychology programs worldwide. Psychodiagnostics is not only applicable to the study of diseases or abnormal behavior. It has applications in most, if not all fields within psychology. In my lecture, I will talk about psychodiagnostics, the value of psychological tests often administered as part of the psychodiagnostics examination, and my plans.
