School Psychology Students Research Articles

How different are students of school psychology and clinical psychology?

Based on many years of training students in both school and clinical psychology, the authors have formulated some impressions of differences and similarities found in these trainees. While generalizations remain tentative and call for research, the students in each of these disciplines seem to present different patterns in cognitive styles, perceptions of clients, conceptions of professional role, and personality characteristics. In personality, the students in these fields often display differences in need for structure, need for external support, social maturity, and desire for autonomous professional functioning. Differences seem to be related to variations in previous work and educational experiences, and to differences in age, sex and marital status. Implications for quality of service offered and training needs are outlined.

Sex roles and the psychiatric referral process

Three studies were undertaken to explore the relationship between sex-role standards and the psychiatric referral process. Based on observations from previous literature it was hypothesized that children who exhibited behavioral characteristics inappropriate to their sex would be more likely to be referred to psychiatric facilities than would children who exhibited behavioral characteristics appropriate to their sex. The first study examined the records of an outpatient child-guidance clinic. In accord with the hypothesis, it was found that more boys than girls were referred for being emotional or passive and more girls than boys were referred for being defiant and verbally aggressive. In the two subsequent studies, samples of parents and graduate students in clinical and school psychology read hypothetical case studies in which identical behavior problems were attributed either to a boy (Bob) or to a girl (Barbara). The data from the two samples indicated that the child exhibiting the behavior inappropriate to his/her sex was seen as more severely disturbed, as more in need of treatment, and as having a less successful future than the child exhibiting sex-role appropriate behaviors.

The effectiveness of a simulation technique as an integral part of a school psychology training program

A modified Solomon design was employed to study the effects of a school psychology simulation package on the enacted and written response of a group of school psychology preservice students. Fifty-two school psychology students from five training programs enrolled in the last quarter of school psychology training prior to internship were divided into two groups. The experimental group (N=20) received the simulation experience, whereas the control group (N=32) did not. Results generally indicated the superiority of the experimental group and suggested that simulation as an integral part of a school psychology training program is an effective method of instruction. Pretesting in combination with the simulation training improved posttest performance more than simulation training alone.

On the relevancy of training in school psychology

A limited survey of practicing school psychologists was conducted to assess training experiences, job roles, and their relationships. While it was possible to estimate importance of job responsibilities for the group as a whole, there seemed to be great individual diversity yielding no single school psychologist role. Overall there appeared to be little relationship between satisfaction with training and job responsibility in any given area. Results suggest a need for greater emphasis on remedial and behavior change techniques in school psychology training programs. Opportunities for specialization and common core experiences should be provided for students in school psychology.

Expectation and Attractiveness of Group Membership as Functions of Task Difficulty and Magnitude of Reward

Expectation and attractiveness of group membership were measured under conditions of concurrent but independent variation of task difficulty and associated reward magnitude. The experiment was initially performed on a sample of 108 high school psychology students and was replicated on a separate sample of 99 Ss from the same population. In both experiments, the results indicated that task difficulty affected neither dependent variable, but that both expectation and attractiveness increased with greater magnitude of reward. With task difficulty held constant, goal attractiveness varied directly with magnitude of reward, and, by implication, with goal expectation. A post hoc analysis suggested that the effects of magnitude of reward upon attractiveness of group membership were mediated via expectation of attaining this goal.