Stigmatizing effects of psychological diagnosis in children

Despite the known advantages of the classification of psychological disorders, using formal diagnostic could reduce a story of life and way of behaving to a mere diagnostic label, becoming a tautological explanation that ignores the true explanation of the problem and adds iatrogenic functions and stigmatizing. The present study assesses the influence of diagnostic labels in the performance of psychologists who evaluate the intelligence of a group of children. The Goodenough Test is used for instrumental reasons. The different drawings of a human figure, made by children with standardized psychological development, were labeled as if having been drawn by children with mental retardation, giftedness and normal development. The results show that evaluators, unaware of the falsity of the diagnoses, score the drawings differentially depending on the diagnostic label used. That is, the results evidence the negative influence of a diagnostic label about expectations and treatment to the person diagnosed.