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Psychology vocabulary · Assessment and Diagnosis

Screen

Meaning in psychology, with examples

/skriːn/verbCommon term

In psychology, screen means: To check a group of people, usually with a short questionnaire or interview, to identify those who may have a problem and need a fuller assessment.

In Turkish: taramak, tarama yapmak

How it is used

You screen people for a condition (screen for depression) using a screening tool or questionnaire such as the PHQ-9. Researchers also screen potential participants against inclusion criteria. A positive screen is not a diagnosis.

Example sentences

  1. The clinic screens all new mothers for postnatal depression.

  2. We screened 300 volunteers and invited 80 of them to the main study.

Common collocations

  • screen for depression
  • screening tool
  • screening questionnaire
  • screen positive
  • assessmentThe process of gathering information about a person through interviews, observation and tests in order to understand their difficulties and plan help.
  • diagnosisThe process of identifying which mental or physical condition explains a person's difficulties, or the name of the condition that is identified.
  • psychometricRelating to the measurement of psychological qualities such as intelligence, personality and symptoms, and to the methods used to check how good those measures are.
  • symptomA change in thinking, feeling, behaviour or the body that a person experiences and reports, and that may point to a health problem.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Assessment and Diagnosis

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