... different types of disorders. One key element of psychological assessment is therefore that the data must be collected. It is, however, usually more complicated than simply matching the behaviour with that stated in the DSM-IV as diagnosis cannot be dependant on a matter of opinion. Additionally, sometimes even the patient themselves are unable to identify the exact nature of their problem (according to the psychodynamic paradigm), and therefore this needs to be assessed and objectively recognised as being congruent with the DSM-IV. There are several ways to do this, each producing different sorts of data that can be analysed or collated in different ways. They all aim to highlight aspects of a person's behaviour or personality in order to infer a mental disturbance of some kind, or allow for this to occur. One type of data is qualitative, deeply detailed data that is mainly obtained in this area through clinical interviews. ...

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